Chapter Summaries

Lorry used the Shadow Ring to slip into Duke Negan’s study during the chaos caused by Qilingus’s death and stole three political documents. He escaped with a first acting principle for a Marauder, while Susie told Audrey about the frightening man she had encountered in the garden.

• Lorry realized the golden retriever in the garden might be Susie, Audrey’s pet, and escaped the guards using the Shadow Ring.
• Lorry reached Duke Negan’s study and waited while the two Beyonder guards investigated a disturbance at the banquet hall.
• Susie found Audrey and warned her that a dangerous power had frightened her in the garden.
• Lorry searched Duke Negan’s desk, found documents on election property restrictions, government personnel reform, and workers’ wages, and took them.
• Lorry escaped through a window after Qilingus’s death drew attention elsewhere, and he worked out his first acting principle for a Marauder.

Lorry reflected on how timing and outside help had enabled him to steal from Duke Negan’s residence and substantially digest his Marauder potion. After leaving the residence, he went to Sanson Bar to seek the formula, money, and antidote Saul had promised.

• Lorry concluded that the difficulty of a theft might determine how much his Marauder potion was digested, but decided to test the idea later.
• Baron Percival hoped Lorry had stolen three documents and planned to kill him after obtaining them.
• Baron Percival left the ball with Baron Ruth after Vice Admiral Hurricane’s assassination attempt disrupted the event.
• Lorry collected his wages, left the ducal residence, and continued by carriage to Sanson Bar.
• Lorry paid a homeless man to take a note to Saul in an alley and promised him more money when he returned.

Saul tracked Lorry to an East Borough rendezvous, intending to seize the goods and kill him, while using Sunfire to counter Lorry’s Shadow Ring. Lorry refused Saul’s fake antidote and hinted that Saul had become prey to another hunter.

• Saul waited near the Sanson Bar for the documents, then received Lorry’s demand for the antidote and an address in the East Borough.
• Saul dismissed the armed men he had gathered and followed the scent on Lorry’s note, tracking him through the streets.
• Saul caught sight of Lorry and confronted him, asking why he had not used the Shadow Ring.
• Saul threw Lorry a porcelain bottle that contained no antidote, but Lorry dodged it rather than risk trusting Saul.
• Lorry said the outcome was uncertain and asked whether Baron Percival had taught Saul that hunters could become prey to other hunters.

Lorry and a hidden Arbiter trapped Saul and uncovered Baron Percival’s plans to poison Duke Negan. Saul was taken into custody, while Lorry learned he would have to go with the Arbiter and wait to discover why he could not simply leave.

• Saul used Sunfire, revealing the man in the black trench coat wearing the Shadow Ring beside Lorry.
• The Arbiter stopped Saul from fleeing or attacking, while Lorry explained that he had lured Saul away from his home turf and told Duke Negan about Baron Percival’s plans.
• The Arbiter confirmed Saul had served Baron Percival and prevented him from committing suicide, leaving Saul to surrender.
• Lorry recovered his Serrated Dagger, and the Arbiter said they would wait for the police to take Saul to MI9.
• The Arbiter told Lorry he would come along and hinted that he could not simply leave as dark figures approached.

Lorry helped MI9 capture Saul and was brought to its headquarters, where he waited for Duke Negan. After Baron Percival prepared to face MI9 investigators and Duke Negan offered Lorry a reward, Lorry refused a job at the duke’s residence, leaving the man in the black trench coat ready to discuss how MI9 would handle him.

• The man in the black trench coat identified himself as MI9 and took Saul to the agency’s headquarters, bringing Lorry along.
• The man ordered officers’ memories dealt with and had Saul’s capture reported to Duke Negan, then told Lorry to wait with him.
• Baron Percival learned that Duke Negan’s butler and MI9 investigators had arrived, gave his old butler authorization to manage a vineyard, and inspected his family’s old armor and weapons.
• Duke Negan told Lorry that Baron Percival had instigated the theft, confessed in a suicide note, and that Lorry would be cured of his poisoning and receive the Mystical Item recovered from Saul.
• Lorry declined Duke Negan’s offer to work at his residence, and the man in the black trench coat began questioning how MI9 should handle an unaffiliated Marauder.

Lorry agreed to become an unofficial MI9 informant under Vera and received a rescue badge and Duke Negan’s reward, Sunfire. Vera began dealing with the poison in Lorry’s body, and Lorry later woke in an unfamiliar room on an unfamiliar street.

• Vera offered Lorry a place as an MI9 informant and explained that he could earn rewards, including Marauder pathway formulas seized from the Percival Family.
• Lorry accepted, and Vera named himself Lorry’s direct superior and laid out the rules for his confidential informant role.
• Vera gave Lorry a single-use badge to summon help and Duke Negan’s pendant, Sunfire.
• Vera used a gold pocket watch to make Lorry drowsy while preparing to deal with the poison in his body.
• Lorry woke in an unfamiliar room, looked outside, and found himself on an unfamiliar street.

After discovering that MI9 had hypnotically obscured parts of his memory, Lorry rested, checked his belongings, and returned to Iris Street, where Miles took him to a writers' salon hosted by Altair. The chapter ended as Lorry and Miles encountered a young woman arriving at the salon.

• Lorry realized that a hidden Spectator Pathway Beyonder had likely used hypnosis to conceal memories of his MI9 visit and detoxification.
• Lorry slept through most of the day, inspected Sunfire's instructions, and learned that the pendant had to remain in contact with gold.
• Miles met Lorry outside his home and hurried him to an industry gathering in Empress Borough.
• Miles told Lorry that the salon's host, Altair, had written the popular novel The Earl's Revenge.
• At a T-junction near the villa, Lorry and Miles stopped for an approaching carriage, and a young woman in a pale yellow dress stepped out.

Lorry attended Altair’s literary salon with Miles and encountered bestselling author Fors, while Fors noticed Lorry and learned that he wrote Young Roselle. The chapter left Fors interested in the connection between Lorry’s work and Audrey’s collecting of Emperor Roselle’s notes.

• Fors arrived at the salon, and Miles excitedly told Lorry that she was the author of Stormy Mountain Villa.
• Miles mistook Lorry’s surprise at seeing Fors for romantic interest and warned him about her standards for choosing a partner.
• Miles explained the salon’s self-service setup, then left Lorry to introduce himself to other writers and publishers.
• Fors praised Altair’s wine and asked about Lorry, whom Altair identified as the author of Young Roselle.
• Fors remembered that Audrey had been collecting Emperor Roselle’s notes and formed an idea.

At a literary salon, Lorry met Fors, negotiated to sell pages of Roselle’s Notes to her friend, and secured a trial publication for Young Roselle. On the carriage ride home, Miles warned him to stay away from the successful writer Alyosha.

• Fors approached Lorry and praised Young Roselle before asking to sit with him.
• Fors asked Lorry to sell five pages of Roselle’s Notes to her friend, and he named a price of fifty pounds; he gave her his address so she could respond within three days.
• Miles introduced Lorry to other writers, and a deputy editor-in-chief agreed to publish a thousand copies of Young Roselle as a trial run.
• On the ride home, Lorry noticed Miles seemed troubled and recalled that he had avoided Alyosha throughout the salon.
• Miles warned Lorry to stay away from Alyosha or he would come to grief.

After Miles told Lorry that Alyosha had plagiarized his and Lab’s detective novels, Lorry resolved to clear Miles’s name. The next day, Lorry received a letter saying Inspector Gana’s precinct chief had died during a gang operation.

• Miles told Lorry that Alyosha had stolen the plots of his and Lab’s manuscripts, then won the resulting lawsuits because they lacked evidence.
• Miles warned Lorry to keep his manuscripts away from Alyosha, and Lorry said he believed Miles.
• Lorry decided to find a way to clear Miles’s name rather than simply compensate him.
• Lorry selected a burial plot for the old man from Koyar Village, then checked his mailbox for Gana’s message.
• Lorry read that Inspector Gana’s precinct chief had died while leading an operation against a gang.

After Inspector Gana reported the deaths of the Nies Police Precinct chief and a gang member connected to the Koyar Village case, Lorry suspected a cover-up and told Vera. Vera agreed to investigate but barred Lorry from the case files, while Lorry received payment for a trade involving Emperor Roselle’s notes.

• Inspector Gana wrote that the Nies Police Precinct chief had died during a police raid on Sanson Bar, leaving him unable to continue investigating the Koyar Village case.
• Lorry suspected someone was silencing people and contacted Vera to request Baron Percival’s case files.
• Vera said Baron Percival’s spirit had confirmed that he acted alone, but Lorry pointed out the precinct chief’s suspicious death and explained the chief’s connection to the Koyar Village case.
• Vera agreed to verify the report and review related case files, but refused to let Lorry access MI9’s internal files.
• Lorry asked Vera for help recruiting informants skilled in interrogation, and Vera said he could apply for assistance a day in advance.
• Lorry found an envelope containing Pounds and a message confirming that his friend had agreed to trade for Emperor Roselle’s notes.

Lorry tracked down the plagiarist Alyosha and infiltrated his home to steal the hidden fortune as compensation for Mr. Miles. He left the story determined to make Alyosha admit his wrongdoing voluntarily.

• Lorry noted Alyosha's address and decided to mail Roselle's Diary to Fors the next day.
• Lorry watched Alyosha's crowded book signing, then followed him to learn where he lived.
• Lorry disguised himself as a gas repair worker and inspected Alyosha's house to learn its layout.
• Lorry waited until Alyosha and his maid were asleep, then entered the study using the shadow ring.
• Lorry found the secret compartment beneath Alyosha's desk drawer and resolved to make him confess his plagiarism.

Lorry stole about 150 pounds from Alyosha’s study and followed him to the police precinct. There, a chief inspector compelled Alyosha to admit he had plagiarized Miles and another man, and Alyosha was held for further questioning.

• Lorry took banknotes, a bearer check, and a necklace from Alyosha’s hidden compartment, then staged a break-in and followed Alyosha and his maid to the police precinct.
• A chief inspector separated Alyosha from his maid and questioned him under a powerful compulsion.
• Alyosha admitted he had lied about the stolen amount, which was worth no more than 150 pounds.
• Alyosha revealed that he had stolen Miles’s and another man’s ideas after getting them drunk and publishing their work as his own.
• The chief inspector said the police would summon Miles and hold Alyosha overnight while they investigated his plagiarism.

A police sergeant uncovered Alyosha’s plagiarism while investigating the burglary and sent officers to bring in Miles, who had been falsely accused. Meanwhile, Lorry reflected on how the difficulty of a theft affected his Marauder potion digestion.

• The young sergeant dismissed the gas worker lead as likely involving one of his own people and ordered officers to bring in Alyosha and Miles.
• Miles finished a horror novel after following Raven’s advice to seek inspiration in a cemetery, then mistook a leaflet outside his window for a ghost.
• Police told Miles that Alyosha had inadvertently admitted to plagiarizing manuscripts from Miles and another writer, and Miles eagerly agreed to accompany them.
• In an alley near the police precinct, Lorry found that the easy theft from Alyosha’s home had barely advanced his potion digestion.
• Lorry concluded that the Marauder potion depended on the difficulty and process of a theft more than its value.