Recaps

Lumian and Hella followed an awakened skeleton through the Catacombs, hoping to find the Samaritan Woman Spring, while Monet repeatedly appeared and unsettled them. They reached a vast tomb chamber, where an unseen figure ordered them to stop.

• Monet identified nearby tombs as belonging to Fourth Epoch families, including the Amon Family, and described undead gathering near a possible anomaly.
• Monet left, and Hella animated a skeleton to lead them toward the place where the undead were gathering.
• Monet reappeared and asked to join them, then withdrew after Lumian suggested he wait until they had explored.
• Hella linked people who wore Monocles to the Amon Family, and Lumian and Hella continued following the skeleton toward a tomb chamber.
• Monet appeared again near the chamber and offered to pass on last words; Hella and Lumian declined to attack him and continued inside.
• A hoarse voice called for them to stop, and a figure staggered into view at the edge of the candlelight.

Lumian and “Hella” reached the Samaritan Woman Spring beneath the Catacombs, where the spring’s strange mist and a pitch-black hole revealed a connection to the grayish-white mist that protected him. The earthblood ore suddenly returned to Lumian’s hand, and the skeletons around the spring invited them to try it as a terrifying aura emerged from the hole.

• Lumian and “Hella” bypassed the elderly Catacombs Administrator by using her black diamond ring to conceal themselves in a mistlike state.
• They descended through a bone-strewn passage and found that Lumian’s Mr. Fool seal protected him from the grayish-white mist.
• Lumian and “Hella” entered the mist and found the Samaritan Woman Spring, where pale water surged around wet black hair and indistinct figures.
• The spring water drained into a lightless hole and returned darker as Lumian found the lost earthblood ore in his pocket.
• A skeleton touched its right eye and laughed, and the surrounding skeletons repeated, “Now that you’ve got it, how could you not come and give it a try?”

Lumian and Hella were trapped at the Samaritan Woman Spring after Monet’s theft and return of the Earthblood Ore triggered a dangerous anomaly. The spring swept the monstrous figures back into its depths, but it surged again as Lumian fled, leaving him hoping the Torture gloves would draw in another threat and give them a chance to escape.

• A towering, rotting figure of madness and invisible flames emerged from the spring, while other entities and living black hair dragged Lumian toward the water.
• Melodious singing calmed the entities, and Lumian realized Monet had returned the stolen Earthblood Ore to lure him into triggering the anomaly.
• Lumian tried to escape with Hella, but the area blocked Spirit World Traversal; the ore crumbled, and its blood-colored specks seeped into his palm.
• The entities seized Lumian and pulled him toward the spring until the water burst through and swept them back into the pitch-black hole.
• Lumian fled uphill with Hella, but the spring surged again; unable to finish reciting Mr. Fool’s honorific name, he relied on the Torture gloves to attract other dangers.

Franca and Jenna confronted a suspicious commissioner who planned to tamper with their contract, while Lumian and Hella struggled against the horrors at the Samaritan Woman Spring. A pale hand dragged the enormous armored figure into the spring’s depths, but two rust marks pierced Lumian’s corrupted right hand before the water vanished.

• Franca questioned the warlock-dressed commissioner’s terms and prepared to use mirror divination, while Jenna recognized his reaction as suspicious and attacked with Mental Piercing.
• Lumian and Hella resisted the spring’s madness and the attacks of the white-robed figure and black hair, but the enormous armored figure forced them back to the water’s edge.
• As the spring’s inhabitants reached for Lumian, he prepared to cut off his corrupted right hand and cursed the absent dangerous creatures.
• A pale hand emerged from the spring’s dark opening and dragged the enormous armored figure back into the depths.
• The armored figure’s madness sent two rust marks through Lumian’s Torture glove and into his corrupted right hand before the spring water withdrew.

Lumian and Hella collected the true water of the Samaritan Woman Spring and escaped the Catacombs as the pale currents surged again. Franca and Jenna defeated a Warlock Commissioner, but his death and spirit were linked to a hidden danger; Lumian left still affected by the Catacombs and worried about the earthblood ore corroding his palm.

• Hella explained that the droplets seeping from the soil were the true Samaritan Woman Spring water, and she and Lumian collected some in enchanted gold bottles.
• Lumian and Hella fled the slope when the pale spring water gushed out again, reaching the fog's edge and escaping the Catacombs.
• Jenna and Franca ambushed and restrained a Warlock Commissioner, then killed him when his words triggered a collapse in the tunnel.
• Franca questioned the Commissioner's spirit, which spoke vaguely about machinery, life, and people at the Deep Valley Monastery slipping into the Abyss before a spreading fog shattered the mirror and destroyed his body.
• Franca and Jenna found a brass key and coins, erased their traces, and left; later, someone arrived carrying a miniature golden kettle.
• Lumian told Hella that the Catacombs' effects still lingered, then left for the Public Carriage stop while worrying about the earthblood ore and rust in his palm.

Lumian returned from the Samaritan Woman Spring with worsening corruption and asked Madam Magician how to remove it. After Mr. Fool's angel purified most of the damage, Madam Magician identified the scars on Lumian's palm as a mark linked to the Blood Emperor Alista Tudor, and Lumian's attempt to sense it caused the apartment building to shake.

• Lumian reached the Safe House looking corpse-like and sent Madam Magician a letter asking how to remove the corruption from the Samaritan Woman Spring.
• Madam Magician arrived and told Lumian to pray to Mr. Fool for an angel's purification.
• The angel purified Lumian's worsening corruption, but the scars caused by the earthblood ore remained on his right palm.
• After hearing Lumian's account, Madam Magician identified the terrifying figure in the spring as likely the Blood Emperor Alista Tudor and explained that his remnants could persist after death.
• Madam Magician said Lumian's scars were not corruption but a mark that could let him open treasures left by Alista Tudor, and Lumian's attempt to sense them made the room and apartment building shake.

Madam Magician explained the danger and uses of Alista Tudor’s aura, then revealed that Monet and the anomalies around the Different from the Rest Dance Hall were manifestations of Amon, an ancient angel with countless avatars. Lumian decided to keep the aura for his future Underground Trier mission, but remained wary of Amon and asked what the Samaritan Woman Spring’s water did.

• Lumian withdrew his spirituality from the scar, stopping its mutation, and Madam Magician explained that Alista Tudor’s aura had no direct effect but could make him more impulsive and dangerous.
• Madam Magician warned Lumian to vent his accumulated negative effects and explained that the aura might help him underground while also attracting anomalies; Lumian decided to keep it.
• Lumian questioned the motives of Monet and the Different from the Rest Dance Hall, and Madam Magician cautioned him that their true purpose was still uncertain.
• Madam Magician revealed that Monet was Amon, a former King of Angels and deity who now used Parasitism to create countless avatars, including members of the Amon Family and people associated with the dance hall.
• Madam Magician warned Lumian that Amon’s avatars were always angel-level despite being weakened, and Lumian asked what the Samaritan Woman Spring’s water did.

Lumian reviewed how his failure to report Justice’s commission and check his belongings let Amon return the earthblood ore to him before the Samaritan Woman Spring, while suspecting Termiboros had knowingly stayed silent. Justice used the spring water to repair the damaged mausoleum, and Lumian’s scar faded before someone began pounding on his window.

• Madam Magician told Lumian he should have reported Justice’s commission and warned him to be more careful before seeking the entrance to Fourth Epoch Trier.
• Lumian reviewed his mistakes, suspected Termiboros had noticed Amon return the earthblood ore, and left the safe house after checking his belongings.
• Magician told Justice about the incident, and Justice concluded that it resembled a certain person’s style; Magician predicted the gates to Fourth Epoch Trier would soon open.
• Justice poured Samaritan Woman Spring water onto the damaged mausoleum in a special dream, healing it further and noting that two more treatments should suffice.
• After sleeping, Lumian found that his palm scar had faded, wrapped his normal left hand in bandages, and heard someone pounding on his bedroom window.

Lumian and Jenna went to rally families owed compensation by factory owner Old Edmond, while Franca planned to report a sinister discovery to the Purifiers. When Lumian caught a man using a trick to preach the God of Disease, he attacked him and demanded he produce an impossible sum of money.

• Franca told Lumian and Jenna about their encounter with a secret cave and agreed to hand its key and information to the Purifiers.
• Jenna took Lumian to meet families awaiting compensation and explained why she disliked Madame Morgana, whom she then incited against Alphonse and Old Edmond.
• Lumian noticed a neatly dressed man tricking local women with banknotes while preaching that the God of Disease could protect them from illness.
• Lumian struck the preacher with his revolver, challenged the God of Disease to heal him, and demanded that he count out a hundred thousand felkine.

Lumian interrogated a swindler who recruited believers for the God of Disease, while Jenna led a crowd of workers to confront Old Edmond and recover their compensation. After both groups succeeded, Lumian returned to the Golden Rooster Inn and teased Charlie in the bar.

• Lumian forced the middle-aged swindler to reveal that a pale, thin Messenger of the God of Disease had taught him tricks and arranged to split the proceeds.
• Jenna turned the compensation claimants into a crowd that marched on Old Edmond’s home, while Lumian shot three of the swindler’s accomplices and sent the swindlers to a Steam church.
• Jenna and nearly a hundred debt collectors overwhelmed Old Edmond’s guards and surrounded his family until he began paying the delayed compensation from his household’s valuables.
• Jenna offered Lumian her compensation in gold jewelry, but he said he would buy it after collecting money from the Breeze Ballroom.
• Lumian returned to the Golden Rooster Inn, offered to buy the basement bar a round at Charlie’s expense, and joked that Charlie could pay by doing a striptease.

Gabriel prepared to leave the Golden Rooster Inn for Saint Michel Street, but his farewell to Safali revealed she was moving to a place called the Hostel. The next morning, Lumian found Gabriel and Safali gone, then received a letter and a silvery-white mask from the Doll Messenger.

• Lumian bought drinks for the bar regulars and watched Charlie perform a drunken striptease.
• Gabriel told Lumian he was moving to Saint Michel Street because Chaser of Light had attracted the confidence of its director and actors.
• Gabriel reminisced about the inn and explained that its cycle of tenants inspired Chaser of Light before heading upstairs to thank Safali.
• Gabriel found Safali covered in lifelike painted faces, spent the night with her, and asked her to move with him, but she said she was going to the Hostel.
• Lumian returned from his morning routine and found Gabriel's room and Safali's room empty, then received a letter and a silvery-white mask from the Doll Messenger.

Lumian received Lie, a mask that let him alter his appearance and body, and tested it by transforming into Aurora and Franca. Later, Gardner Martin told him that Count Puyver had invited him to a salon at Red Swan Castle.

• Lumian read that Lie could change his appearance, manipulate flames, transfer injuries, and amplify his emotions when worn, so he decided not to use it alongside Torture.
• Lumian put on Lie, transformed into Aurora, and greeted her reflection before changing back.
• Franca met Lumian disguised as her and learned about Lie, the Samaritan Woman Spring, and his plans to attend the Curly-Haired Baboon Research Society's gatherings.
• Franca gave Lumian a lesson about the Society's gatherings and asked him to transform into her; she touched his cheek before Lumian left.
• At the Breeze Ballroom, Sakota showed Lumian his wanted poster and told him Gardner Martin wanted to see him.
• Gardner Martin told Lumian that the Rose School's surprise attack had been repelled, then gave him Count Puyver's invitation to a salon at Red Swan Castle.

Lumian worried that the Rose School and Bliss Society might target him after their losses, then helped Ludwig return to Baron Brignais and negotiate less homework. Elsewhere, Valentine and Imre followed a brass key to an old house in Deep Valley Town.

• Gardner Martin warned Lumian against unnecessary exploration and told him where Red Swan Castle was.
• On a carriage ride, Lumian considered whether the Rose School and Bliss Society would pursue him, then spotted Ludwig fleeing from home.
• Lumian tracked Ludwig down, persuaded him to return, and agreed to negotiate a lighter homework load with Baron Brignais.
• Baron Brignais halved Ludwig's homework, and Ludwig asked for an extra serving of dessert.
• Valentine and Imre stood with Deacon Angoulême outside an old house that a Sealed Artifact identified as the destination indicated by the brass key.

The Purifiers searched the abandoned house and found a sealed sacrificial site, while Angoulême suspected a ring had been removed from its altar. Lumian and Franca went undercover at the Red House Café to investigate the Bliss Society’s efforts to recruit women from its pleasure parties, with Lumian disguised as a dog to watch from outside.

• Valentine and Imre found the old house ransacked, and Angoulême’s team discovered papers mentioning Albert Goncourt and an underground riot.
• Angoulême used the Humanoid Machine and Celia Bello’s key to open a cellar door, where sunlight cleared resentful mist from a sacrificial site and revealed an empty impression in the altar.
• Lumian told Franca that the Bliss Society had approached women attending Red House Café parties and that they needed to find its hidden members, including Maip Mayer.
• Franca disguised herself with Lie, while Lumian used a Ritual Dog Skin to transform into a large dog and monitor the café.
• Franca entered the Red House Café in Chaillot as Lumian watched from a spot near its entrance.

Franca surveyed the Red House Café while Lumian, transformed into a dog, watched the entrance and drew the attention of a suspicious orange-red-haired woman. After Franca shook off the woman, Lumian went to inspect Red Swan Castle and the nearby Sacred Heart Monastery.

• Franca observed the café’s customers as Lumian scared off a stray dog with a trace of the Blood Emperor’s aura.
• An elderly woman fed Lumian a honey-roasted chicken wing, while Franca laughed at his awkward attempts to eat it.
• A woman with long orange-red hair arrived at the café, spoke with a tranquil young woman, and followed Franca after noticing her.
• Franca toured Chaillot Town and lost the orange-red-haired woman among the shoppers; Lumian then left to survey Red Swan Castle.
• Lumian visited the Sacred Heart Monastery and noticed a large golden-haired dog sitting nearby and watching the church.

Lumian surveyed routes around Red Swan Castle, then returned to Franca and discussed his dog-hide transformation and her observations at the gathering. Franca identified the orange-red-haired woman as likely connected to the Witch Sect, whose origins and hostility toward unaffiliated female Assassins she explained.

• Lumian mapped escape routes near Red Swan Castle, abandoned his plan to approach it as a dog, and used up a ritual dog hide to return to human form.
• Franca told Lumian that wearing the Lie necklace had made her obsess over her own appearance, but she had managed to remove it.
• Lumian described how the dog hide restricted his senses and behavior, then asked Franca about the women she had observed.
• Franca explained that the orange-red-haired woman had followed her and was likely a Witch from the Witch Family, also known as the Witch Sect.
• Franca told Lumian that the Witch Sect controlled most Witch pathway resources and hunted unaffiliated female Assassins because its members sought to emulate the Primordial Witch.
• Franca said she feared the Witch Sect discovering her and asked Lumian what they should do next.

Lumian advised Franca on infiltrating the Witch Sect and then attended Count Puyver’s salon at Red Swan Castle, where he found the hall matched his nightmare. He encountered Laurent and was introduced to Count Puyver’s cousin, Miss Alois.

• Lumian proposed that Franca contact the Witch Sect to infiltrate it and gain access to its resources, while keeping her work with the Iron and Blood Cross Order secret if needed.
• Lumian suggested Franca could use her Witch Sect position to support Jenna, while Franca considered the risks and said she would consult her Major Arcana.
• Lumian described an alternative plan to hunt a Witch for information about the women’s pleasure parties, then investigate suspected Bliss Society members linked to Suzanne Mathis.
• Three days later, Lumian arrived at Red Swan Castle for Count Puyver’s salon and recognized its main hall from his nightmare.
• Lumian spotted Laurent at the salon, and the two silently agreed to act as if they did not know each other.
• Count Puyver laughed at Lumian for arriving without a female companion and offered to let him invite his cousin, Miss Alois.

At Count Puyver’s salon, Lumian used his fabricated identity to impress the guests while watching Laurent gain a deputy editor-in-chief position through the connections he had cultivated. The King Cake Game began, and Lumian’s vision of the dark-red-haired man returned as he chose his piece.

• Lumian met Alois and Cornell at Count Puyver’s salon and won over the guests with a joke about his father appointing him general manager.
• Cornell offered Laurent a position as his assistant and deputy editor-in-chief after observing him at Vichy Café.
• Lumian asked Cornell about the Interstellar Bridge advertisement and offered to sponsor the poet Ilett’s writing.
• Count Puyver began the King Cake Game, and Lumian waited until the count had chosen before selecting a piece he thought lacked the gold coin.
• As Lumian picked up his cake, his mind went hazy and he saw the narrow glass window and the dark-red-haired man gouging out his eyes.

Lumian became king in Count Puyver’s King Cake Game and used his authority to command the guests, while a crazed spirit circled overhead and stirred their emotions. The game continued under the spirit’s growing influence until a terrified scream rang out from elsewhere in the Castle.

• Lumian saw a man wearing his face gouge out his eyes, but the Blood Emperor aura drove away the madness affecting him as a crazed spirit hovered above the drawing room.
• Count Puyver and the guests searched their King Cakes for the coin, and Lumian found it in his piece.
• Lumian declared himself king or emperor, and the guests felt compelled to obey him.
• Lumian ordered Count Puyver to give him thirty thousand Felkine in gold, and Puyver brought him five gold bars.
• Lumian ordered Anoli to kiss Ilett, who teased him afterward as the guests became increasingly restless.
• A shrill, terrified scream sounded from somewhere in the Castle.

At Red Swan Castle, Lumian ate the King Cake offering to draw away and ultimately dispel the blood-mad spirit, then ended the game and left with Ilett. On the road home, Termiboros warned him that a hostile dangerous creature had followed him from the castle, and Lumian prepared to fight.

• Lumian had Maren paint with his butt while Count Puyver's valet reported trouble elsewhere in the castle and screams continued to sound.
• Lumian ate the sacrificial piece of King Cake, provoking the mad spirit to focus on him until it vanished after he finished the offering.
• Lumian assigned the remaining players their tasks, ordered them to keep the game secret, and declared the game over.
• Lumian declined Count Puyver's offer of thirty thousand Felkine, then gave Ilett 3,000 Felkine and dropped him at Sacred Heart Monastery.
• Termiboros warned Lumian that a hostile dangerous creature had followed him since Red Swan Castle, so Lumian jumped from the carriage and put on the Torture gloves as the woods darkened.

Lumian killed the wax figure that had stalked and attacked him, then reported the encounter to Gardner Martin. Gardner concluded that Vermonda Soren, the Sauron Family ancestor, was still alive in some unknown state.

• A living wax figure crawled from the river and used Intimidation before attacking Lumian, who resisted and fought back with his Torture gloves and Fire Infusion.
• Lumian’s rapid blows triggered the gloves’ desire detonation, and the wax figure exploded internally before burning and melting.
• Lady Moon appeared in the woods after Lumian left and examined the remains of the wax figure before vanishing.
• At Red Swan Castle, Count Puyver watched a wax figure head crack and melt, then realized it had been killed and worried about Charles Dubois and the organization behind him.
• Lumian waited in hiding before returning to Number 11 on Memorial Hall District Springwater Street, where he told Gardner Martin about the attack while concealing his use of the Torture gloves.
• Gardner Martin said Vermonda Soren had not truly died and remained alive in a state they could not yet understand.

Lumian learned that his mission was to investigate the Sauron Family’s decline and secrets while continuing to attend Count Puyver’s invitations, and he borrowed Laurent money in exchange for regular reports from The Little Trierian. After a series of nightmares revealed that Miss Alois remained sane during a bloody vision and showed him a mysterious coffin and heart, Lumian recorded the details and sent them to Madam Magician.

• Gardner Martin told Lumian to keep meeting Count Puyver so the Iron and Blood Cross Order could investigate the Sauron Family’s condition and secrets.
• Lumian saw Faustino escort a mysterious cloaked visitor into Gardner Martin’s study, then returned to the Golden Rooster Inn.
• Laurent asked Lumian for 500 felkine to rent an apartment and improve his standing as a deputy editor-in-chief, and Lumian agreed in exchange for regular reports from The Little Trierian.
• Lumian counted his gold and prepared to fulfill the Armored Wraith’s contract before going to sleep.
• In his nightmare, Lumian saw Count Puyver, Miss Alois, and other banquet guests; most went mad, while Miss Alois remained relatively normal, before a vision of a bronze coffin and a contracting shriveled heart appeared.
• Lumian woke, reflected on the Sauron Family clues in the nightmares, and sent an account of them to Madam Magician.

Lumian and Franca summoned the Armored Wraith again, fulfilling his contract with gold and asking where he came from. Franca understood his answer, which connected a Blood Son of Heaven, the underworld, and a Nether Daoist, but left its meaning unclear.

• Madam Magician told Lumian to prioritize investigating the Iron and Blood Cross Order and the Sauron Family, while Franca accepted a long-term mission involving the Witch Sect and the Primordial Witch.
• Lumian visited Franca, explained his findings about Gardner Martin, and agreed to help summon the Armored Wraith with her twenty-five thousand Felkine.
• At the burned-out building at Lister Docks, Lumian and Franca performed the ritual, and Lumian paid the Armored Wraith gold worth one hundred thousand Felkine.
• Lumian asked the Armored Wraith where he came from, but the spirit answered in a language Lumian could not understand before leaving.
• Franca recognized the language and translated the answer as, “The Blood Son of Heaven threw the underworld into chaos; the Nether Daoist sacrificed himself to enter the river.”

Lumian and Franca linked the Armored Wraith’s words to the Blood Emperor’s remnant and a mysterious river they identified as the Yellow Springs, giving Franca new hope of returning to her homeland. Later, Lumian encountered Aosta Trull and received a letter from Hella inviting him to a gathering.

• Lumian told Franca about his experience at the Samaritan Woman Spring and theorized that the Blood Emperor’s remnant had entered the Yellow Springs, where an Underworld Daoist sacrificed himself to seal it.
• Franca concluded that the Armored Wraith might be a creature sealed by the Underworld Daoist and agreed that they should not help it escape before they were powerful enough to handle it.
• Franca decided not to share the revelations at the Curly-Haired Baboon Research Society gathering until they understood the April Fool’s Day problem, while Lumian agreed to ask about death-related rivers.
• Franca waited at the Red House Café for the orange-red-haired Witch, but she did not appear and two other women instead struck up conversations with her.
• Lumian met Aosta Trull near the Breeze Ballroom, learned that Aosta had found safe honorific names to pray to, and exchanged a secret gesture with him.
• Hella sent Lumian a letter inviting him to a gathering and instructing him to recite an incantation around ten o’clock if he wanted to attend.

Lumian disguised himself as Aurora and entered a gathering of the Curly-Haired Baboon Research Society, hoping to find her among its members. He reached the Academy group and scanned its members, but had not yet identified Aurora.

• Lumian prepared his disguise at the Nightingale Street safe house, using Lie to take on Aurora’s appearance and labeling himself “Muggle.”
• Lumian recited Madam Hella’s incantation and was transported to the Society’s palace gathering.
• Lumian spotted Franca, disguised as “Sleeve Sword,” but followed Hella’s instructions and headed toward the Academy group without greeting her.
• Lumian reflected on Aurora’s relaxed manner at gatherings and hoped to find her among people who shared her origins.
• Lumian arrived at the Academy group and read the members’ code names, including “Peter Pettigrew,” “Professor,” and “Griffin.”