Recaps

Jenna’s brother Julian was fired and suffered a breakdown, prompting Lumian and Franca to investigate, but Charlotte Calvino ambushed Lumian while disguised as Jenna. Meanwhile, Hugues Artois discussed exploiting the grieving residents as the Mother Tree of Desire’s followers unleashed a gigantic tree across the Market District.

• Jenna told Lumian and Franca that Julian had been fired after missing work for his mother’s funeral and had broken down in distress.
• Franca went to arrange psychiatric help for Julian, while Lumian decided to confront the factory owner and Julian’s master.
• The false Jenna stabbed Lumian with a wooden dagger, revealed herself as Charlotte Calvino, and said they needed some of his blood.
• At a condolence banquet, Hugues Artois and Rhone discussed using the grieving residents to gain followers, while Cassandra mocked their manipulation.
• A gigantic brown-green tree burst from the ground near the Golden Rooster Inn and spread its branches across several blocks.

Lumian was transported to the Shadow Tree, where Charlotte revealed that the tree had nurtured Trier’s depravity for over a thousand years and needed a sacrifice to reach a crucial stage of growth. Hugues Artois separately explained how the crisis could advance his political plans, while Charlotte identified the Angel-level power sealed inside Lumian as the intended offering.

• After Lumian’s fireball missed Charlotte, branches and vines enveloped the Golden Rooster Inn and transported him to the Shadow Tree, where he could not find Franca.
• Lumian saw people in the affected streets surrendering to violent and excessive desires while everyone outside the area remained unaware that those who entered did not return.
• Hugues Artois told Cassandra and his other subordinates that the Bliss Society planned to extend the underground tree into the Astral World, and he outlined how the crisis could help him bring the Eighth Bureau into the Market District.
• Lumian encountered Charlotte moving through scenes from different eras, and she called him the first heathen to enter the divine tree and become one with it.
• Charlotte explained that the Shadow Tree had been cultivating Trier’s indulgence for over a thousand years and needed Lumian as a weighty sacrifice because of the Angel-level corruption sealed inside him.
• Charlotte said High Priest Suzanne had discovered the sealed power when Lumian first summoned her, and that her later desire to kill him was not only because of Charlie.

Lumian realized that Suzanne Mathis had recognized the danger sealed within him and fought Charlotte Calvino inside the Shadow Tree’s strange domain. The chapter left Suzanne confronting Lumian, while Franca prepared to use Tarot cards after finding him missing.

• Lumian understood that Suzanne Mathis had reason to investigate the angel-level power sealed within him, and that Charlie’s arrival at his door might not have been mere luck.
• Lumian attacked the Shadow Tree with fire ravens and used a delayed fireball to break free of Charlotte Calvino’s seductive influence before she could draw him into a wet flower.
• Lumian burned Charlotte’s arms, but a falling branch forced him to dodge, and he saw Suzanne Mathis emerge among the illusory branches as pale flowers bloomed across the tree.
• Jenna watched Hugues Artois mingle at a banquet and restrained herself from confronting him because she lacked evidence and he had powerful protection.
• Franca used Mysticism Smelling Salts to overcome a sudden surge of desire, found Lumian missing, and took out the Two of Cups and Judgement cards.

Franca summoned Madam Judgement, who attacked Lady Moon but failed to stop her. Trapped by the Shadow Tree and realizing its power came from centuries of accumulated desires, Lumian faced its roots and flowers and invoked Termiboros, accusing his enemies of planning to sacrifice him.

• Franca used the Judgement card to summon Madam Judgement, who arrived in the wilderness surrounding the Shadow Tree.
• Madam Judgement deprived Lady Moon of her ability to reproduce and tried to banish her, but Lady Moon swallowed the hurricane attack.
• Lumian attacked the Shadow Tree with fire, briefly breaking through one layer of bark before realizing its many layers embodied centuries of human desires.
• Lumian recognized that Suzanne Mathis and Charlotte Calvino had manipulated his emotions, then suspected the Shadow Tree's flowers were releasing a knockout drug.
• The Shadow Tree's roots formed a towering barrier around Lumian as its branches and flowers advanced, and he taunted his enemies for wanting to sacrifice Termiboros.

Lumian tried to convince Suzanne Mathis that an actual angel, Termiboros, was sealed inside him, but she revealed the Bliss Society planned to sacrifice him with the seal intact. Termiboros finally gave Lumian a way to act, and Lumian drove Fallen Mercury into the Shadow Tree, piercing its first layer of bark.

• Lumian heard Termiboros explain that he would wait for the ritual to create a chance to break free rather than help Lumian.
• Lumian told Suzanne Mathis that a real angel was sealed inside him and warned her to stop the ritual, but Suzanne said the Bliss Society would sacrifice him, the seal, and Termiboros together.
• Lumian challenged Termiboros to act rather than be delivered to the Mother Tree of Desire, and Termiboros told him to stab the Shadow Tree's trunk with Fallen Mercury.
• Lumian resisted Suzanne's attempts to stir his desires by enduring the Mysticism Smelling Salts and charged the Shadow Tree.
• Lumian struck Fallen Mercury's hilt with an explosive gauntlet, driving the blade through the first layer of bark and shallowly into the Shadow Tree.

Lumian exchanged a fate with Fallen Mercury as the Montsouris Ghosts arrived and began corroding the Shadow Tree, creating an opening in its alternate space. Suzanne Mathis called for aid, and a mysterious woman in an orange dress appeared outside and tried to tear open a rift.

• Lumian used the Shadow Tree’s accumulated fates to exchange the fate of a root burned by invisible flames for the fate of encountering the Montsouris Ghosts, cracking Fallen Mercury in the process.
• Termiboros told Lumian the Montsouris Ghosts were about to arrive and could create an opportunity for him to escape, though they could not destroy the Shadow Tree.
• The Montsouris Ghosts appeared, resisted Suzanne Mathis’s and Charlotte Calvino’s attacks, and spread across the Shadow Tree’s base as corrosive black liquid.
• The alternate space began shaking and developing rifts, and Suzanne Mathis chanted an incantation to summon aid from the Mother Tree of Desire.
• A mysterious woman in a long orange dress stepped through an illusory door and tried to tear open a rift beside the Shadow Tree.

Lumian escaped the Shadow Tree’s inner space with Franca, but Termiboros blamed his misfortunes on his fate and urged him to surrender to the angel. Lumian rejected the warning, pushed Franca out of the wilderness, and ran back to rescue the people Suzanne Mathis was attacking.

• A starlight gate opened, allowing Lumian to escape the Shadow Tree’s inner space and reunite with Franca.
• The ritual’s collapse restored the wilderness’s inhabitants to their senses, but Suzanne Mathis sent the Shadow Tree’s branches and vines after them to drain their vitality.
• Termiboros told Lumian that he was an unlucky one whose fate had harmed people close to him, and warned that Gabriel, Charlie, Jenna, and Franca would die if he resisted.
• As Gabriel, Pavar Nissen, the eloping couple, and others were seized by vines, Lumian resisted Termiboros’s pressure and continued toward the wilderness’s edge with Franca.
• Lumian pushed Franca out of the wilderness, then turned back toward Suzanne Mathis with his Flame Cloak burning his skin and flesh.

Lumian and Franca fought the Shadow Tree while Saint Viève appeared in its damaged alternate space. At the banquet, Jenna stabbed Hugues Artois through the eye, then closed her eyes as crimson sparks surrounded her.

• Lumian charged toward Suzanne Mathis, but the Shadow Tree sank underground and shook the wilderness, briefly disrupting his advance.
• Jenna realized Hugues Artois seemed pleased by the anomaly and suspected he was behind the Market District’s disasters and her brother Julian’s breakdown.
• Charlotte Calvino tried to ambush Lumian as a shadow, but Franca fired at her and called out to him.
• Saint Viève appeared at the Starlight Gate as the Shadow Tree’s alternate space lay damaged.
• Jenna approached Hugues Artois during his banquet and stabbed him through the eye with a silver fork, then stopped resisting as crimson sparks appeared around her.

Jenna assassinated Hugues Artois during a public appearance, while Imre arrested her and kept the other conspirators from retaliating. In the wilderness, Lumian, Franca, and Anthony killed Charlotte and advanced toward Suzanne Mathis's Shadow Tree as she withdrew her attacks.

• Jenna drove a silver fork into Hugues Artois's eye and brain, killing him as Seventh Bureau agents shot her.
• Imre subdued Jenna, ordered the agents to check on Hugues Artois and maintain order, and prevented the others from attacking her.
• As the Shadow Tree sank and the streets returned to their original arrangement in the wilderness, Lumian turned to confront Charlotte while burning himself to stay lucid.
• Anthony Reid used Intimidation to panic Charlotte, and Lumian's fire ravens and Franca's gunshot killed her.
• Suzanne Mathis attacked Lumian, Franca, and Anthony with branches and vines, then withdrew them to the Shadow Tree as the three advanced.

Lumian outmaneuvered Suzanne Mathis and used Fallen Mercury to transfer the fate of the Shadow Tree’s roots being burned by the Invisible Fire of the Underground onto her. Suzanne turned to ashes, leaving the Shadow Tree damaged and the outcome of the ritual unresolved.

• Suzanne Mathis used her influence to overwhelm Franca and Anthony Reid with fear, leaving Lumian without their help.
• Suzanne Mathis stirred Lumian’s desire to survive, but the pain from his crimson flames kept him lucid enough to recognize that he had to kill her to escape.
• Lumian feigned an attack on Suzanne Mathis, then used an exploding Giant Fireball to propel himself into the Shadow Tree and stab it with Fallen Mercury.
• Fallen Mercury shattered and transferred its stored fate to Suzanne Mathis, causing purplish flames to consume her until she turned to ashes.
• A trunk of the Shadow Tree caught fire, broke, and fell.

Lumian survived the Shadow Tree’s destruction and escaped with Franca as the wilderness began to collapse. Before leaving, he spotted a transparent lizard-like creature resembling the sprite from his dream and the monster from Aurora’s mouth.

• Lumian watched Suzanne Mathis and the Shadow Tree burn, freeing the people trapped in its branches as they fled the wilderness.
• Lady Moon resurrected the Shadow Tree’s accumulated desires to disrupt the battle, then escaped into the Otherworld and entered the Sacred Heart Monastery while a golden-haired dog and a woman watched.
• Angoulême ordered the banquet guests taken for questioning and told Cassandra, Rhone, and the others that Hugues Artois’s death had ended their immunity; Jenna distracted a guard, escaped through a window, and fled.
• Lumian drank half a Healing Potion from Franca, recovered enough to stand, and prepared to leave as the wilderness collapsed.
• Lumian reached for a burned piece of the Shadow Tree and saw a transparent, lizard-like creature in the depression where the tree had vanished.

After escaping the Shadow Tree, Lumian reconsidered Termiboros’s role and learned from Madam Magician that an unknown force, not the sealed Angel, had aided him. The possibility of a fate-influencing accomplice connected to the Sufferer left him with a new mystery.

• Lumian saw the lizard-like sprite in the Shadow Tree’s pit, and Termiboros questioned whether he had caused the misfortunes surrounding Lumian and Suzanne Mathis.
• Lumian realized Termiboros had tried to manipulate him into seeking help, while Suzanne Mathis had stalled and concealed her own plan to use the ritual’s protection.
• Franca and Lumian fled as Official Beyonders and clergy arrived, but Madam Magician transported Lumian away and told him that Franca, code-named Two of Cups, belonged to their secret organization.
• Lumian recounted the recent events to Madam Magician, who concluded Termiboros could influence his choices but could not leak power strong enough to enhance Fallen Mercury or summon the Montsouris Ghosts.
• Madam Magician suspected an accomplice outside Lumian was covertly influencing fate, and Lumian connected the possibility to the Sufferer from his dream.

Lumian discussed the hidden meanings in his dreams and his plans with Madam Magician, then reunited with Franca and the wounded Jenna after Jenna assassinated Hugues Artois. Later, a young man arrived at the Golden Rooster Inn and visited the Underground Bar, where he learned about the Fool’s Instrument.

• Lumian told Madam Magician that his dreams might reveal a hidden helper trying to free Termiboros, and she agreed to seek expert interpretations of the dream symbols.
• Lumian chose to continue his Aurora Order mission, while Madam Magician explained why the Shadow Tree could not be destroyed without enormous costs and why she wanted him to grow more independently.
• Madam Magician warned Lumian not to carry the Shadow Tree’s trunk constantly, then left him and Franca on Messy Street.
• Jenna returned wounded and told Lumian and Franca that she had assassinated Hugues Artois and been shot during her escape.
• Lumian, Franca, and Jenna headed for the Golden Rooster Inn, where they encountered Anthony Reid and saw the damaged building.
• Some time later, a young man rented Room 302 at the Golden Rooster Inn and visited the Underground Bar, where a blond-haired drinker introduced him to the Fool’s Instrument.

Jenna continued her ordinary life despite being wanted, while Franca explained the Tarot Club and its sleeping leader, Mr. Fool, to Lumian. Lumian learned that Mr. Fool’s Church had a small presence in Trier and asked how it related to the Tarot Club.

• Jenna read conflicting newspaper reports and saw a wanted notice bearing a portrait that looked nothing like her.
• Jenna continued studying acting and singing, while the Official Beyonders’ actions helped her brother Julian recover and find work.
• Franca told Lumian that the Old Dovecage Theater was earning more than she had expected.
• Lumian asked Franca about the secret organization they had joined, and she revealed that it was the Tarot Club, led by Mr. Fool.
• Franca explained that Mr. Fool had fallen asleep and described the limits and risks of seeking his help.
• Franca told Lumian about Mr. Fool’s small church at Lavigny Docks, and Lumian asked how the church related to the Tarot Club.

Franca explained the Tarot Club’s Major and Minor Arcana holders, their organization, and how members sought their help. When Jenna arrived, Lumian left for the Catacombs to bury Mad Flamang and Roul and his wife’s ashes.

• Franca told Lumian that the Tarot Club was led by Mr. Fool and that its Major Arcana holders commanded their own forces, including the Church of the Fool.
• Franca described the known Major Arcana holders and explained that she usually avoided troubling Madam Judgement, though the Major Arcana could provide powerful assistance.
• Franca said the Tarot Club had at least eight Saints and more than one Angel, and shared her dream of becoming a Half-God and earning a Major Arcana card.
• Franca told Lumian that Minor Arcana holders had no regular gatherings and could communicate only through their Major Arcana holders.
• When Jenna came upstairs, Lumian announced that he was going to the Catacombs to bury Mad Flamang and Roul and his wife’s ashes.

Lumian accompanied police officers into the Catacombs to bury the ashes of three deceased tenants, where he felt an unseen presence watching him. On the way out, two wedding guests extinguished their candles and vanished, while the rest of the group failed to notice they were gone.

• Lumian rode with officers Robert and his colleague to Inferno Square, carrying the ashes of Roul and meeting tomb attendant Kendall.
• Kendall led Lumian and the officers into the Catacombs, where Lumian sensed unseen gazes but chose not to investigate them.
• The group passed a wedding party celebrating among the dead before reaching the Tomb Lamp Tomb Chamber.
• Lumian realized Flamang had avoided recording where his family was buried because he felt guilty, and he placed Flamang's urn in an empty spot instead.
• On the return journey, two young wedding guests blew out their candles and disappeared, unnoticed by the rest of their party.

Lumian witnessed a wedding party in the Catacombs apparently lose a couple without anyone noticing, then discovered that Flamang's belongings included an unusual mineral specimen called Earthblood. Termiboros connected the specimen to why the Montsouris Ghosts had never come to kill Flamang.

• Lumian saw a couple vanish from the Catacombs wedding procession, while the other guests and Kendall acted as if nothing had happened.
• After leaving the Catacombs, Kendall questioned Lumian about watching the wedding party and warned him not to imitate them.
• At the Market District Police Headquarters, Lumian examined Flamang's belongings and found a mineral sample labeled Earthblood.
• Lumian read Flamang's notes that some Earthblood specimens might cause irritability and mania, then took all of Flamang's belongings.
• Lumian asked Termiboros what was special about the specimen, and Termiboros asked whether Lumian thought it was normal that the Montsouris Ghosts had never come to kill Flamang.

Lumian investigated the Earthblood ore’s connection to Flamang and the Montsouris Ghosts, then decided to postpone exploring Underground Trier until he was stronger. As he considered unanswered questions about Aurora and Hella, he received a summons from Gardner Martin.

• Lumian questioned Termiboros about whether the Earthblood ore had delayed the Montsouris Ghosts from killing Flamang, and Termiboros said the ore could serve as a key to Fourth Epoch Trier.
• Lumian wrote to Madam Magician, who explained that the powerless ore could trigger unpredictable encounters in underground areas and advised him to carry it only when prepared.
• Lumian hid the ore in his safe house and studied Aurora's Witchcraft Notes, wondering whether White Paper held information about Aurora and why she had not contacted Hella during lucid moments.
• Lumian decided to discuss Hella with Franca before questioning her, then went to his Breeze Ballroom at dusk.
• René told Lumian that Gardner Martin wanted to meet him on Springwater Street at ten the next morning.

Lumian encountered Charlie fighting Monet, who revealed that he had been scammed by the dance hall Different from the Rest and offered Lumian a monocle. Later, Jenna described a strange starry-sky vision, and Franca recognized it as a sign that Jenna had digested her Assassin potion before Lumian privately asked Franca about Hella.

• Lumian spotted Charlie fighting Monet on Market Avenue and learned that Monet had swindled Charlie before, then repaid him with interest.
• Monet said he had been scammed twice over shares in Different from the Rest and showed Lumian a monocle he had received there, but Lumian refused it.
• Lumian warned Charlie to keep his distance from Monet, then walked home with Jenna, who described feeling lost and seeing an illusory thing shatter into a starry sky.
• Franca told Jenna that the starry-sky vision meant she had digested her Assassin potion, and Jenna discussed her understanding of assassination as acting.
• Lumian asked Jenna to leave so he could speak privately with Franca, then asked what sort of person Hella was.

Lumian investigated whether Hella was trustworthy and learned that Aurora had stopped writing to her before the Cordou Village disaster. After arranging to meet Hella in Trier, Lumian received a secretive mission from Gardner Martin to retrieve something from Underground Trier.

• Franca told Lumian that she trusted Hella and suspected other Tarot Club members belonged to the Curly-Haired Baboon Research Society.
• Lumian wrote to Madam Magician about Aurora's unusual behavior, and she replied that Hella was trustworthy.
• Hella said she had received no letters from Muggle since February and proposed meeting Lumian in Trier to discuss the disaster.
• Lumian agreed to meet Hella, then completed his morning routine and spotted Baron Brignais escorting a child from Susie Steam Train Station.
• At Gardner Martin's villa, Rat Christo sensed Lumian's advancement to Pyromaniac, and Gardner assigned Lumian a secret noon collection mission in Underground Trier.

Lumian accepted Gardner Martin’s mission to retrieve a box from the Albert Mine, while carefully acting wary enough to avoid arousing the boss’s suspicion. He and his companions set off into Underground Trier, where Lumian questioned how dangerous the mission really was.

• Lumian weighed whether Gardner Martin’s assignment was a test or a dangerous operation, then agreed after observing Christo and Simon’s reactions.
• Gardner Martin showed Lumian, Christo, and Simon a detailed map of Underground Trier and explained how to reach the Albert Mine through two hidden tunnels.
• Gardner Martin said they had to reach the mine before noon, take a box from a trader without speaking to him, and never open it on the way back.
• Lumian, Christo, and Simon took carbide lamps and headed for Underground Trier.
• Lumian asked Christo and Simon about their past missions; Christo said he had completed three and Simon said he had completed one.
• Simon suggested the mission might be a test for advancement, and Lumian asked whether those who failed would die on the spot.

Lumian led Christo and Simon into Underground Trier for a mission, warning them that Gardner Martin might be using them as bait and persuading them to cooperate for survival. After they revealed their abilities, Lumian showed that he had advanced to Sequence 7 and positioned himself as the team’s leader as they continued underground.

• Lumian suggested Gardner Martin might have sent them underground as bait, making Christo and Simon fear the mission could be dangerous.
• Lumian urged the three of them to abandon the mission if survival seemed impossible and proposed that they cooperate fully.
• Christo revealed that he was a Sequence 8 Beast Tamer, described his animal companions, and introduced Taffy, a rat that could sense hidden dangers and estimate people's strength.
• Simon disclosed that he was a Sequence 8 Pugilist with weapons and combat skills, and Lumian praised his judgment before revealing his Pyromaniac flame.
• Lumian told Simon that Gardner Martin had helped him obtain the ingredients for advancement, then gave him Scorpion Venom to coat his weapons.
• As the team continued through the passage, Lumian privately reflected that he had used fear, his strength, and a small favor to establish himself as their leader.

Lumian led Simon and Christo through hidden tunnels to the Albert Mine for Gardner Martin’s exchange with a trader. After strange voices and unexplained footsteps unsettled the group, Lumian approached the trader and discovered that the man wore socks despite the sound of leather shoes; the trader then asked whether Gardner had sent him.

• Lumian told Simon and Christo to remain silent in the second tunnel, stay calm, and follow his directions unless they faced direct danger.
• Lumian volunteered to approach the trader and take the case, then led the others into the Albert Mine and waited for the appointed time.
• The three heard strange underground shouts and fighting, followed by footsteps that stopped just before reaching the mine.
• The trader appeared carrying a small leather case, and Christo warned Lumian that Taffy sensed danger.
• Lumian noticed the trader wore only gray socks, contradicting the leather-shoe footsteps, before the trader asked if Gardner Martin had sent him.

Lumian delivered a mysterious suitcase to Gardner Martin after escaping the Albert Mine with Simon and Christo from a headless monster and the trader Olsen. Gardner praised Lumian and ordered Olsen to keep observing him, while the suitcase’s contents remained unknown.

• Lumian took the suitcase from the limbless Olsen as a headless monster seized him, then fled through the Hidden Tunnel with Simon and Christo.
• Christo’s rat warned of extreme danger as the monster’s footsteps followed them, and Lumian ordered Simon and Christo to help seal the tunnel entrance.
• The three escaped to the Underground First Floor and returned to 11 Springwater Street, where Gardner accepted the suitcase and praised them.
• Gardner told Lumian that the devil was their friend and hell was other people, then asked Olsen to observe Lumian and his associates.
• Olsen left with the suitcase and straightened his crooked head with a crack.

Lumian suspected Gardner Martin had tested him during the dangerous mission and agreed to help Christo and Simon analyze future assignments. After recounting the mission to Franca and Jenna, he heard Franca suspect Gardner was preparing to bring him into the Iron and Blood Cross Order’s inner circle.

• Lumian wondered whether Gardner Martin had arranged the mission as a test and whether someone was secretly watching him.
• Christo and Simon asked Lumian to help them analyze future secret missions, and Simon apologized for his earlier behavior toward him.
• Lumian decided to continue his psychotherapy the next day and went to Franca’s apartment to discuss the mission.
• Franca and Jenna listened as Lumian described the headless trader and monster, and Franca suspected Gardner had tested Lumian because he wanted to bring him into the inner circle.
• Franca complained that Gardner still did not trust her despite their long relationship and had never tested her.