Chapter Summaries

Lumian used a confrontation with “Giant” Simon to present himself as loyal to Gardner Martin, then raised Jenna’s performance fee at the Breeze Ballroom. Jenna revealed she had overheard Lumian’s staged display and teased him before leaving.

• “Giant” Simon questioned Lumian’s trust in Louis and Sakota and complained about the dancers’ base pay, urging Lumian to join him in confronting the Boss.
• Lumian overturned a table and accused Simon of conspiring against Gardner Martin, prompting Simon to leave without pursuing the matter.
• Jenna met with Lumian to negotiate her performance fee, and Lumian raised her pay to 10 felkine for ten songs and two-thirds of the stage tips.
• Jenna joked that her main job was being the shared mistress of Charles and Franca, then hinted that she knew Charles was a false name.
• Jenna told Lumian she had overheard his conversation with Simon and thought his loyalty performance was excessive, then left after Lumian asked whether she had worn perfume.

Lumian tested an unknown liquid from one of Hedsey’s vials, and Franca used divination to identify it as a potion that induced the desire to confess. After returning to the Golden Rooster Inn, Lumian met Mr. K, who presented three Mystical Items for him to choose from.

• Lumian left the Breeze Ballroom late at night and went to his safe house to hide Aurora’s Witchcraft Notes.
• Lumian tested the unknown liquid on a rat in an alley, but it only made the animal squeak and behave restlessly.
• Franca used divination and learned that the liquid induced the desire to confess, making it difficult for someone to lie under questioning.
• Lumian told Franca that he had rented the safe house to protect Aurora’s notes, and Franca spoke briefly about her deceased younger brother.
• Lumian returned to the Golden Rooster Inn, then met Mr. K at 19 Schell Street on Thursday evening.
• Mr. K offered Lumian three Mystical Items priced between fifteen thousand and twenty thousand felkine.

Lumian inspected three Mystical Items and chose the dangerous gold-rimmed glasses, which offered disguise and other supernatural abilities. After testing them and glimpsing disturbing sights, he left Mr. K’s headquarters and went to buy painting supplies, where he balked at the price of canvas.

• Mr. K explained the abilities, drawbacks, and prices of the Circus glove, the brown-lensed glasses, and the Flare button.
• Lumian chose the glasses and paid Mr. K 15,000 felkin for them.
• Lumian tried on the glasses, saw hidden images including a face he recognized as Mr. K’s, and quickly removed them when he felt an urge to paint.
• Lumian left the headquarters and stopped at an oil painting supply shop to buy materials.
• Lumian protested when he learned that one roll of canvas cost 160 felkin.

Lumian experimented with using the Mystery-Peering Glasses to create supernatural paintings and makeup, discovering effects that could repel ghosts or make people fail to recognize him. After returning to the inn and falling asleep, he awoke from a vision of a burning sea of crimson flames.

• Lumian used the Mystery-Peering Glasses and painted an image that made anyone who stared at it itch, then created a sun painting that warmed Room 207 and repelled ghosts.
• Lumian applied makeup to alter his appearance and tested it at the Breeze Ballroom, where Charlie and Jenna failed to recognize him.
• Lumian washed off the makeup at the café, returned to his room, and fell asleep after the experiments drained his spirituality.
• Lumian dreamed of falling underground until the soil opened onto a burning sea of crimson flames, then awoke gasping in the dark.

After a strange dream confirmed that the buried remains beneath the Breeze Ballroom could trigger lingering effects from the Mystery-Peering Glasses, Lumian decided to limit how often he used them. At the ballroom, he joined the Savoie Gang bosses in investigating a missing shipment of smuggled goods and people in Underground Trier.

• Lumian slept at the Golden Rooster Inn and had only ordinary dreams, strengthening his suspicion that the bones beneath the Breeze Ballroom had caused his earlier nightmare.
• Lumian checked Charlie’s condition and tried to reassure him about Suzanne Mathis by jokingly calling out her name.
• Louis and Sakota told Lumian that the Savoie Gang bosses had gathered at the Breeze Ballroom because something serious had happened.
• Rat Christo explained that a shipment of liquor and guns, along with its carriers and escorts, had disappeared underground, including his brother.
• Franca proposed searching the smuggling route in pairs, and after the first two pairs found nothing, Lumian and Franca followed a smuggler into Underground Trier.

Lumian and Franca investigated the smuggling route where a caravan and Elken had vanished, but their search uncovered no clear explanation. As they turned back, the footprints they had left behind disappeared and the missing caravan’s tracks appeared ahead of them.

• Franca warned Lumian to prepare for mystical dangers, and he showed her his corrupted Mystery-Peering Glasses and explained their effects.
• Fernandez led Lumian and Franca through a concealed quarry passage to the place where the caravan’s return footprints abruptly ended.
• Franca used Elken’s handkerchief and a compact mirror to divine his location, seeing the caravan walk into darkness before the vision went black.
• Lumian and Franca headed back to Fernandez, but Lumian noticed their own footprints had vanished and the missing caravan’s tracks had appeared in front of them.

Lumian and Franca realized the tunnel had led them into a strange underground space, possibly connected to Fourth Epoch Trier. After a bloodied figure resembling Franca’s former self fled into the darkness, they followed the smuggling caravan’s footprints and found blood along the trail.

• Franca guessed that she and Lumian had entered another world, and they found the caravan’s footprints appearing abruptly in the tunnel.
• Franca suspected the anomaly might be connected to their Hunter and Witch pathways or to ruins from Fourth Epoch Trier.
• Lumian and Franca returned to the quarry cavern, where a blood-covered figure resembling Franca before she became a Witch turned and vanished into a tunnel.
• Franca explained that the figure had been her former self, while Lumian searched the cavern and found no figure from his own past.
• Lumian and Franca followed the caravan’s footprints toward the Observatory District and discovered scattered drops of blood among them.
• Franca felt blood drip from her nose as Lumian’s expression froze.

Lumian and Franca tracked a smuggling caravan’s blood trail through a dark space, then used a Mirror Substitute to protect Lumian while he searched for an exit with the Mystery-Peering Glasses. He found a mirror at the bottom of a dangerous pool that reflected a light-filled cave and a route out, but Franca’s substitute shattered after Lumian encountered the monster’s face.

• Franca’s nosebleed and the pair’s growing blood loss led them to follow the caravan’s trail, which ended abruptly in the Auxiliary Shaft.
• Franca tested her compact mirror and divined that Lumian should search for an exit with the Mystery-Peering Glasses.
• Franca made a Mirror Substitute from Lumian’s blood and hair to shield him from danger.
• Lumian used the glasses and saw a mirror at the bottom of a pool reflecting a cave connected to a lit tunnel.
• A monstrous face filled Lumian’s vision and nearly knocked him unconscious, but the shattered Mirror Substitute helped him recover.
• Lumian told Franca where the pool and reflected exit lay, and Franca wondered whether the space was connected to Witches.

Lumian and Franca concluded that a mirror at the bottom of the pool could be an exit from their strange underground space. They escaped through it just before the bloated monster could attack, emerging in a dim passage beyond the pool.

• Franca suspected the underground space was a restricted part of the Mirror World and urged Lumian to head for the pool.
• Lumian and Franca reached the pool, where they saw the monster’s hostile presence reflected in patches of ice on the walls.
• Lumian prepared a Spirit Wall and began a Summoning Dance to distract the monster while Franca searched underwater for the mirror.
• Franca dived into the pool, fended off living strands of hair-like waterweed with black flames and frost, and found an ancient silver mirror that led outside.
• As the monster drew close to Lumian, Franca returned with the mirror and pulled him through it into a dim passage.

Lumian and Franca escaped a dangerous Mirror World and learned that Christo’s missing caravan had returned after becoming trapped in the same strange space. The chapter ended with Franca noticing that Elken had opened a door with his left hand despite being right-handed.

• Franca recovered a sinister silver mirror from the tunnel and kept it after warning Lumian about mysterious mirrors.
• Lumian and Franca found Fernandez, returned to the real world, and agreed to tell Christo only that they had entered an unknown space and escaped with Mirror Magic.
• Christo told them that his brother Elken and the missing caravan had returned with their goods over an hour earlier.
• Elken said the caravan had been trapped in a strange world, suffered unexplained bleeding, and escaped that afternoon.
• Franca noticed Elken awkwardly used his left hand to open Christo’s office door, though Christo confirmed that Elken was right-handed.

Franca and Lumian suspected that the Elken who returned from the Mirror World was a reflection that had replaced the real man, and they decided to report the incident to the authorities rather than confront his family. At dinner, Franca cornered Christo and demanded to know what was hidden in the shipment, but he insisted he had only followed orders to bring it to Trier.

• Franca noticed that Elken had begun favoring his left hand after leaving the Mirror World, and Lumian suggested that a reflection had replaced the original Elken.
• Franca used divination to locate Elken and found him happily reunited with his wife and children, so she hesitated to expose him or force him back into the mirror.
• Lumian advised Franca to report the incident to the authorities, and she agreed to pass the information along.
• Lumian and Franca attended Christo's dinner and enjoyed the meal with Elken and the other smugglers.
• Franca drew Christo closer and demanded to know what the shipment contained, but Christo said his boss had only ordered him to bring it to Trier.

Lumian and Franca learned that Gardner Martin had secretly sent an iron box to Trier, then Lumian went to watch Mr. Eve’s apartment after his Prophecy indicated the landlord would visit the Old Dovecage Theater. The chapter ended with Mr. Eve still inside past the predicted time, leaving Lumian unsure whether his Prophecy had failed.

• Franca confirmed through divination that Christo had delivered Gardner Martin’s iron box to Springwater Street, and Lumian warned Christo not to conceal future problems from him.
• Lumian admitted that he and Franca had bluffed Christo about entering a strange world, and Franca agreed to keep Gardner’s secret quiet while asking Lumian to pretend he knew nothing.
• At the Breeze Ballroom, Lumian spoke with Charlie about the young singer whose father had died after owing money to loan sharks.
• Lumian disguised himself as a vagrant and went to the Old Dovecage Theater to observe Mr. Eve, hoping to gather information related to Suzanne Mathis and prepare for Ghost Exorcism.
• Mr. Eve returned to his apartment but did not leave for the theater by midnight, making Lumian question whether his Prophecy had been wrong.

Lumian concluded that the Mr. Eve who had been questioned by the authorities was likely an impostor, while the real Mr. Eve had been at the Old Dovecage Theater. He performed Fortune Transfer on an unlucky vagrant, and the ritual’s power settled into a gold coin.

• Lumian reasoned that the man in Mr. Eve’s apartment might be a convincing fake, explaining the changed fortune and why the official Beyonders had found nothing unusual.
• Lumian chose a badly unlucky vagrant as material for Fortune Transfer, offered him a silver coin for his cooperation, and knocked him unconscious when he tried to flee.
• Lumian took the vagrant to a quarry cavern, prepared the ritual altar, and used the man’s blood and burned hair to draw mysterious symbols.
• Lumian prayed to the corruption sealed in his chest to take away the vagrant’s misfortune, then placed a gold coin beside him as a medium.
• The ritual’s illusory river enveloped the vagrant and coin before the power contracted onto the coin, which looked dimmer afterward.

Lumian successfully transferred a vagrant’s misfortune onto a gold coin and used the coin to set a trap for Mr. Eve. After investigating Elodie’s background, he watched Market Avenue and left Mr. Eve with the coin, hoping to trigger the curse.

• Lumian completed Fortune Transfer, moving the vagrant’s coming misfortune onto a 5-Felk gold coin.
• He returned the vagrant to his alley, where the man woke, found his silver coin and bandaged arm, and assumed someone had paid him for blood.
• At the Golden Rooster Inn, Lumian questioned Elodie and learned she had worked as a supporting actor, now cleaned at the inn, and held a factory job.
• Lumian went to Market Avenue to watch for Louis Lund and Mr. Eve, based on the prophecy and Hammer Ait’s information.
• When Mr. Eve emerged from his apartment building, Lumian pretended to flee and accidentally dropped the cursed gold coin; Mr. Eve picked it up and pocketed it.

Lumian arranged for Fortune Transfer to bring bad luck to the fake Mr. Eve and watched the Stinger Gang’s headquarters while considering how to influence the Market District election. After seeing Hugues Artois campaign under heavy security, he delegated surveillance of Black Scorpion Roger’s home and learned that the Savoie Gang supported Artois.

• Lumian watched the fake Mr. Eve pocket the gold coin, then left, confident that Fortune Transfer could no longer be interrupted.
• Lumian read the candidates’ platforms at a café across from 126 Market Avenue and favored Jacques Samson’s proposals, while considering how to keep Hugues Artois from winning.
• Lumian saw Hugues Artois give a speech under tight police security and spotted a striking red-haired woman among the candidate’s campaign team.
• Lumian ordered Louis and Sakota to send four men to watch 126 Market Avenue for Black Scorpion Roger, then asked them to maintain order at the ballroom.
• Louis told Lumian that the Baron had instructed the Savoie Gang to vote for Hugues Artois.

Lumian learned that the Savoie Gang supported Hugues Artois and waited for news of Louis Lund, while police used a mirror to expose and capture mirror people at Rat Christo’s warehouses. The raid left several gang members dead, including a porter whose son played in Jenna’s band.

• Lumian questioned Louis Lund about the Savoie Gang supporting Hugues Artois, then left a message for Anthony Reid asking him to watch for Louis on Market Avenue.
• A subordinate told Lumian that police had gone to Rat Christo’s warehouses, and Lumian sent him back to watch for Louis Lund.
• Deputy Assistant Commissioner Angoulême exposed a full-length mirror at the warehouses, drawing Elken and other mirror people into it as police subdued the others.
• Lumian heard that Rat Christo was fine but several of his subordinates had died, then saw a band member learn that his porter father had died in an accident.
• Jenna told Lumian about the band member’s family, and Lumian understood the likely connection to the deaths at the warehouses.

Lumian arranged for Anthony Reid and Franca to watch for Louis Lund while he attended his psychotherapy session, hoping to avoid missing the lead or worsening his condition. As he prepared to leave Franca’s apartment, Jenna arrived at the door.

• Jenna explained to Lumian that she planned to comfort the grieving band member later, drawing on how her mother had helped her after her father died.
• Lumian decided to ask someone with Beyonder abilities to follow Louis Lund while he attended psychotherapy, and told Anthony Reid to track the man if he appeared.
• Lumian asked Franca to follow Louis Lund and, if possible, capture him; she agreed to help and learned about Anthony Reid’s role.
• Lumian explained that his psychological problems made it important not to miss treatment, then prepared to leave Franca’s apartment.
• Footsteps stopped outside Franca’s door, and she recognized the visitor as Jenna.

Lumian used a disguise to attend Police Inspector Everett’s meeting with Market District gang leaders, where Everett tried to mediate his dispute with Roger. Lumian rejected the settlement and openly challenged Roger and his allies, leaving the meeting on the brink of a gang conflict.

• Lumian climbed down from Franca’s sixth-floor apartment and returned to Market Avenue while Jenna arrived and stayed the night with Franca.
• Lumian checked on the four thugs watching Black Scorpion Roger’s residence, then slept uneasily at the Breeze Ballroom.
• Louis told Lumian that Inspector Everett had invited the Market District gang bosses to Valia Café, and Lumian disguised himself as Charles before going.
• Everett introduced Lumian to Roger, Harman, and Castina, then offered to settle the dispute if Lumian handed over six months of the Breeze Ballroom’s earnings.
• Lumian splashed coffee at Roger, accused the group of refusing mediation, and challenged them to come after him at the Breeze Ballroom.

Lumian disrupted Police Inspector Everett’s mediation by shooting at Baldy Harman, then argued that he had been ready to kill the Stinger Gang leaders before agreeing to keep the peace until the election ended. Later, he went to Mason Café in the Botanical Garden District and waited at booth D.

• Lumian splashed coffee on Black Scorpion Roger, then fired at Baldy Harman when Harman provoked him.
• Police Inspector Everett stopped the confrontation and ordered the gangs to behave themselves for the three days before the election.
• After Everett and the other gang leaders left, Lumian told the Savoie Gang leaders that he had hoped to provoke a fight and eliminate the Stinger Gang’s leaders.
• Lumian dismissed the consequences of defying Everett, while the Savoie Gang leaders grew wary of his willingness to risk killing the Stinger Gang.
• At a quarter past three, Lumian went to Mason Café, ordered Intis coffee, and waited at booth D.

Lumian met with Susie for a therapy session, recounted his recent experiences, and discussed his progress in rebuilding social relationships. Susie explained how Spectators could influence people through psychological invisibility and revealed that another Psychiatrist had been present during the session.

• Lumian told Susie about his experiences over the past two weeks, including Charlie, Jenna, and Franca, while keeping some details private.
• Susie said Lumian’s willingness to form new relationships showed that his mental state had improved, and she identified his reluctance to grow closer to Red Boots.
• Susie explained that mid-sequence Spectators could use face-to-face psychological suggestion and psychological invisibility to create coincidences.
• Susie described the Secret Supplicant pathway’s Hermit sequence and warned Lumian to beware of Spectators, including those who could influence people from far away.
• Lumian learned that Susie’s companion had arranged for a newspaper boy to bring him an outdated newspaper and was sitting invisibly across from him.