Chapter Summaries

During therapy, Lumian recovered the memory that Termiboros, the sealed angel in his chest, had influenced him into forgetting their conversation. After Susie helped him understand the danger and manage his emotions, Lumian asked to explore more of his subconscious memories.

• Lumian agreed to let Susie awaken his memories of recent events in chronological order.
• Lumian discovered a blank in his memories and remembered speaking with Termiboros, who had tempted him to break the seal.
• Susie explained that even a sealed angel could influence Lumian and warned him that a curse could be worse than a gift; Lumian wrote a memo to ask Madam Magician about Termiboros.
• Lumian realized Madam Magician expected the Suzanne Mathis problem to erupt again, and Susie helped him set a two-week trigger to control intense emotions about Louis Lund.
• Lumian asked Susie to awaken more memories hidden in his subconscious.

Lumian’s treatment with Susie revealed that Pons Béné and his men had drowned Raymond, strangled Ava, and buried them in the cemetery, while Lumian’s genuine grief suggested he had not been responsible for their deaths. After Susie helped him face his suspicions and placed a suggestion to block an unprotected honorific name, Lumian watched Black Scorpion Roger’s house and recognized the coachman entering it as Louis Lund.

• Lumian dreamed of Pons Béné and his men burying Raymond’s and Ava’s bodies, and woke overwhelmed by anger and grief.
• Susie explained that the dream reflected real events: Raymond had been drowned, Ava strangled, and both bodies buried in the cemetery; Lumian’s emotions showed their deaths had little to do with him.
• Lumian questioned whether Susie’s reassurance meant he had not been ready to face Madame Pualis and Louis Lund before, then went to watch Black Scorpion Roger’s house.
• Anthony Reid approached a hired carriage and caused its coachman to raise his head, while a manservant came out of 126 Market Avenue to bring the coachman inside.
• Lumian recognized the coachman entering the house as Louis Lund and concluded that his target had finally arrived.

Lumian and Franca tracked Louis Lund from Market Avenue, but Black Scorpion Roger’s presence forced Lumian to adjust his plan. Once Roger left the carriage, Lumian and Franca ambushed Louis and knocked him unconscious.

• Lumian met Anthony Reid and told him to wait at the rear entrance while Franca offered to help follow Louis Lund.
• Franca concealed herself with an ability and used perfume as a trail for Lumian to track Louis Lund’s carriage.
• Black Scorpion Roger rode with Louis Lund before leaving the carriage near Honest Man’s Market with a wooden box.
• Lumian followed Louis Lund along a dark road and leapt onto the coachman’s seat.
• Louis Lund attacked Lumian, but Lumian restrained his arm while Franca struck him behind the ear and knocked him unconscious.

Lumian and Franca captured Louis Lund and questioned him under the influence of Truth Serum. Louis revealed how Madame Pualis caused pregnancies and described the Parish Priest’s attack on the Castle, leaving Lumian asking where Madame had been during the raid.

• Lumian and Franca ambushed Louis Lund, then Franca disguised herself as a coachman and drove while Lumian questioned him.
• Lumian gave Louis Truth Serum, and Louis admitted he had once sought the Parish Priest’s help before becoming devoted to the Mother.
• Louis explained that intimate relations with Madame Pualis could cause pregnancy, and that a strange growth developed alongside the fetus and had uses in potions and spells.
• Louis told Lumian that his first child died when the Parish Priest attacked the Castle, killing several Gardeners, a Warlock, and the children.
• Louis named some of the Parish Priest’s allies who took part in the attack, and Lumian asked where Madame Pualis had gone at the time.

Lumian questioned Louis Lund about Madame Pualis’s ruined Otherworld, her abilities, and the Parish Priest’s attack on Cordou Village. He learned where Madame Pualis lived and sent Louis to offer her a meeting, though Louis still lacked proper clothes to leave.

• Louis Lund explained that Madame Pualis’s resurrection created flawed half-corpse beings that lasted only seven days, and that she had tried to build a miniature Otherworld to please Mother.
• Louis Lund said Madame Pualis seemed to range between Sequence 5, Banshee, and Sequence 4, Malevolent Lord, also called Benevolent Lord or Madame.
• Louis Lund revealed that Naroka was suspected of being killed for discovering the Parish Priest’s plot, and described the strange children in the Castle’s Tower and his warnings to the Parish Priest.
• Louis Lund said he and coachman Sever later received a revelation and joined Mother, before the Parish Priest attacked the Castle in March; he also reported that Beaost and Cassie had become Warlocks and Madame Pualis had left Cordou Village.
• Louis Lund disclosed that Madame Pualis lived on Gorse Street in the Noel District, and Lumian asked him to arrange a meeting by delivering her reply to a safe house before the next night.
• Lumian let Louis leave and promised not to harm Madame Pualis, but Louis pointed out that he could not go out wearing only his shorts.

Lumian and Franca discussed Madame Pualis, the Stinger Gang, and the Beyonders who had targeted Jenna, while agreeing to alert the authorities. Back at the Golden Rooster Inn, Lumian wrote to Madam Magician about Termiboros and received her reply, which revealed that he was uniquely unlucky to have an angel-level being sent into him.

• Lumian let Louis Lund leave with his clothes and carriage, then told Franca he hoped goodwill would lead Madame Pualis to meet with him.
• Lumian explained the Night Tour Society, the Great Mother, and the Stinger Gang’s connections, then described the gang members’ abilities to Franca.
• Franca told Lumian about a man whose string of accidents revealed he was likely a Beyonder; Lumian identified him as Mr. Eve and linked him to Hedsey’s attack on Jenna.
• Lumian gave Franca details about Hedsey, Mr. Eve, Suzanne Mathis, and the Old Pigeon Cage, and Franca agreed to report the matter to the authorities.
• Lumian wrote to Madam Magician about Termiboros’s attempts to tempt him and his treatment, then received her reply stating that an angel-level being had been sent into him and that no one else was as unlucky.

Lumian weighed his immediate threats and considered how to deal with the Stinger Gang while waiting on his other missions. His plans were interrupted when he saw that Charlie faced an imminent, potentially fatal disaster.

• Madam Magician explained the difficulties evil gods faced infiltrating the world and advised Lumian to seek her counsel before dangerous actions involving Termiboros.
• Lumian paid Anthony Reid 400 felkine for completing the commission and asked him to wait a week before submitting information about Louis Lund to the authorities.
• Lumian returned to the Breeze Ballroom, drank absinthe, and assessed his priorities, deciding the Stinger Gang posed the most urgent threat.
• Lumian considered targeting the Stinger Gang's leaders before they advanced, then observed that Charlie's fortune was stained with blood and signaled an imminent life-threatening calamity.

Lumian realized Suzanne Mathis might soon return and endanger Charlie, so he warned Charlie and sought Franca’s help. After Franca alerted her contacts, her reminder that Suzanne could attack even in a crowd sent them rushing back to the Breeze Ballroom.

• Lumian suspected Termiboros had caused Suzanne Mathis to reappear soon and planned to protect Charlie by sending him to a church and asking Franca for help.
• While using the Mystery-Peering Glasses, Lumian saw bluish-green hair entwined with vines underground and concluded Suzanne Mathis was hiding beneath the Market District.
• Disguised, Lumian warned Charlie that Suzanne Mathis would return within three days and told him to seek refuge at a church; Charlie decided to wait at the crowded ballroom until Charles returned.
• Lumian told Franca his suspicions and countermeasures, and she contacted her authorities through secret channels.
• Franca warned that Suzanne might attack Charlie even inside the crowded ballroom, so Lumian and Franca hurried back there.

Lumian discovered that someone impersonating him had taken Charlie underground, and he and Franca followed their tracks through Underground Trier. They reached a cave-in and watched the fake Lumian emerge from the blocked passage.

• Lumian learned that Charlie had left the Breeze Ballroom with someone posing as him, and he suspected Suzanne Mathis was involved.
• Franca used Charlie’s clothes and a mirror to divine that Charlie and the impostor were underground.
• Lumian and Franca found signs of a struggle near a drain entrance, then followed Charlie’s footprints into Underground Trier.
• Lumian recognized the route as one taken by the people who had drugged Jenna, and inferred that the impostor was taking Charlie to Suzanne Mathis.
• Lumian and Franca reached a cave-in, where the rubble shifted and a blond, blue-eyed man who looked exactly like Lumian emerged.

Lumian and Franca confronted the false Eve underground and discovered he was a Half-God with powerful abilities that stirred desire and greed. They killed him after a falling stone disrupted his aura, and the chapter ended with both of them recovering from his lingering influence using smelling salts and a pungent vial.

• The false Eve accused Lumian of impersonating him, but Franca exposed the disguise and slipped into the shadows.
• The false Eve revealed his Half-God aura, terrifying Lumian and Franca until a falling stone struck his shoulder and broke his concentration.
• Lumian provoked the false Eve, resisted his desire-inducing power, and stabbed himself with the Ritual Silver Dagger to regain his senses.
• The false Eve fled after tossing a gold coin, but Franca trapped him on ice and stabbed him with her black-flamed Sleeve Sword.
• Lumian and Franca attacked the wounded false Eve together, and Lumian killed him with a bullet to the forehead.
• Franca used smelling salts to suppress her desire, and Lumian pressed a pungent Metal Vial beneath her nose before sniffing it himself.

Franca used her self-created spiritism technique to question the dead impostor, Rentas, and uncover the Bliss Society’s connection to Suzanne Mathis. The group had been preparing to bring Charlie to Suzanne’s altar, where she would recover enough to leave in two days.

• Franca performed spiritism on the fake Eve and learned that his name was Rentas and that he belonged to the Bliss Society.
• Rentas explained that Suzanne Mathis had turned the women’s secret society into a group worshiping the Mother Tree of Desire, and that male members were excluded from its central affairs.
• Lumian learned that Suzanne’s followers had brought Charlie underground to leave him for her after she recovered from wounds inflicted by official Beyonders.
• Rentas revealed that Suzanne had died during a bestowal of gifts and become an evil spirit, while memories and portraits of her helped preserve her rationality.
• Franca saw the route to Suzanne’s altar in a quarry cavern but cut off the vision when a huge stump came into view, and Rentas said Suzanne would recover completely in two days.

Franca and Lumian questioned Rentas about Suzanne Mathis, the altar, and the Bliss Society, learning more about the Actor gift and its powers. They left the altar alone after realizing Suzanne could become as powerful as a demigod when connected to it.

• Franca learned that Suzanne had recovered enough to communicate but remained weak, and that no one guarded the altar while she was injured.
• Rentas revealed that Maip Mayer, Suzanne’s former lover, handled the Bliss Society’s core affairs and was the only one who could contact its female members.
• Rentas explained that the Old Pigeon Cage gave aspiring Bliss Society members a safe place to perform and that the Sequence 7 gift was called Actor.
• Rentas described Actors’ abilities to alter their bodies, imitate observed people and skills, and stimulate a desire to perform; Lumian realized the gift had affected his own behavior.
• Rentas identified the sequences as Miser, Sex Addict, Actor, Awarded, and Little God of Love, and said Suzanne had appeared as a Half-God when connected to the altar.

Lumian and Franca questioned Rentas about the Bliss Society, then debated how to protect Charlie from Suzanne Mathis. Lumian abandoned a risky fortune-transfer plan, and Charlie’s blood calamity immediately weakened.

• Rentas told Lumian and Franca that the Bliss Society’s core members had used false identities at the Old Pigeon Cage, and he could not confirm whether Charlotte Calvino belonged to them.
• Rentas’s spirit dissipated before Franca could ask about Maip Mayer, and she searched his corpse and divided his disguises, money, smelling salts, and knockout drug with Lumian.
• Lumian proposed transferring Charlie’s blood calamity, but reconsidered after realizing the plan might require using the power sealed inside him.
• Franca proposed taking Charlie to White Coat Street and holding out until the authorities acted the next day, and Lumian and Charlie agreed.
• Lumian checked Charlie’s fortune again and found that the calamity had weakened after he abandoned the transfer plan, leading him to suspect Termiboros had influenced the situation.

Lumian and Franca escaped Underground Trier with Charlie after killing Rentas and concealing his body, while worrying that Suzanne Mathis’s altar might still pose a threat. Back at Franca’s apartment, they discovered that Jenna was apprenticed to the Old Dovecage Theater, linking her to the same place as the Bliss Society.

• Franca dismissed Lumian’s concern that the Misers could track their stolen belongings, and Lumian hid Rentas’s corpse in a blocked cavity.
• Lumian planted and detonated explosives to bury the cavity, then left with Franca and Charlie as black flames erased the traces of blood and the fight.
• Franca explained that the official Beyonders might offer Charlie a dangerous but well-paid job if Suzanne Mathis’s threat remained unresolved.
• The three waited at Franca’s apartment until Jenna arrived, and Franca concealed why they were gathered there.
• Lumian asked where Jenna was apprenticed, and Jenna revealed that she studied at the Old Dovecage Theater.

Jenna learned that the Old Pigeon Cage was tied to the Bliss Society and the Mother Tree of Desire, then shared her impressions of its staff with Lumian and Franca. When she realized official Beyonders would investigate the theater, she worried that her real identity could put her mother and brother at risk.

• Lumian tested Jenna with a Gold Louis, and Franca explained the Bliss Society and its connection to the Old Pigeon Cage and Hedsey.
• Jenna suspected Hedsey had watched her at the theater, while Lumian and Franca concluded she was not a believer of the Mother Tree of Desire.
• Jenna worried about losing the tuition she had paid, and Lumian and Franca discussed taking over the Old Pigeon Cage if Maip Mayer fled.
• Jenna described Maip Mayer, Rentas, Eve, Charlotte, and the other acting teachers, noting Rentas's exceptional acting.
• Jenna realized official Beyonders would investigate the Old Pigeon Cage and feared that her use of her real identity would endanger her mother and brother.

Jenna feared the authorities would discover her supernatural abilities, so Lumian and Franca helped her plan how to appear like a devout worshipper of the Eternal Blazing Sun. By morning the immediate danger had passed, and Jenna headed to Saint Robles Church while Franca secretly followed her.

• Franca explained that she could ask "007" to help Jenna but could not guarantee he would be involved in the investigation.
• Lumian and Franca advised Jenna to use her acting skills and present herself as a recent, devout believer in the Eternal Blazing Sun; Jenna rehearsed the role and warned Charlie not to reveal her abilities.
• A bearded man carrying a lantern found traces of gunpowder and blood near a collapsed underground cavity and studied the buried corpse.
• At dawn, Lumian saw that Charlie's luck had returned to normal and concluded the group was safe for the moment; he took Charlie back to the Golden Rooster Inn while Franca stayed with Jenna.
• After Franca passed information to "007," Jenna removed her makeup, changed, and set off for Saint Robles Church; Franca concealed herself and followed.

Jenna bought a blessed amulet at Saint Robles Church before police investigated the Old Dovecage Theater for Maip Mayer’s suspected cult ties. Meanwhile, Angoulême warned Charlie that Suzanne Mathis could return and offered him a protected clerical job, while Lumian watched them and sensed danger.

• Jenna attended morning prayer at Saint Robles Church and bought a Sun Sacred Emblem amulet for 30 felkine.
• Angoulême de François burned away vines and branches in an Underground Trier cavern, revealing masses of snakes, rats, and insects.
• Police entered the Old Dovecage Theater, identified Maip Mayer as an evil cultist, and made the actors and apprentices sign declarations of faith.
• Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun Beyonders notarized the declarations, and some triggered blood-red glows and screams.
• Angoulême told Charlie that Suzanne Mathis had not completely died and offered him a clerical position with a monthly salary of 320 felkine after probation; Charlie accepted.
• Lumian watched Charlie leave with Angoulême and Imre, sensed a premonition of danger, and ducked as Angoulême turned toward the Golden Rooster Inn.

Lumian learned that the Official Beyonders had screened theater workers for Mother Tree of Desire worship and that several actors, including Charlotte and Maip Mayer, were missing. After Charlie moved to a new job and Lumian went to seek a meeting with Madame Pualis, Louis Lund arrived in a carriage with a woman inside.

• Lumian reflected on an Official Beyonder noticing his fortune-reading and returned to studying Aurora's Witchcraft Notes.
• Franca told Lumian that a Notary's contracts had been used to screen workers, that seven actors had worshiped the Mother Tree of Desire, and that Charlotte, Maip Mayer, Real Eve, and Rose were missing.
• Franca said she planned to discuss buying the Old Dovecage Theater with Gardner and left to visit her lover about lingering effects from Rentas.
• Charlie returned to the Golden Rooster Inn, said he had a new job and was moving, and promised to try to give Lumian a hint if a critical moment arose.
• Lumian went to Apartment No. 9 to await Madame Pualis's reply, but found no letter in the mailbox.
• Louis Lund arrived in a carriage and opened its door, revealing the faint outline of a woman inside.

Lumian met Madame Pualis, who tested his strength in an illusory wilderness and confirmed Guillaume Béné had become a Sequence 5 Fate Hunter. She revealed her past affair with Guillaume, their child’s death, and that Aurora attacked her during the assault on the Castle.

• Lumian entered Madame Pualis’s carriage and fought her and a monstrous python in an illusory wilderness before Mr. K’s finger helped him recover.
• Madame Pualis confirmed Guillaume Béné was a Sequence 5 Fate Hunter and invited Lumian to worship the Great Mother, but he refused.
• Madame Pualis told Lumian that Guillaume had fathered her child and later killed the child without knowing it was his.
• Madame Pualis said Guillaume’s attitude changed after questioning Naa La Yiza and other villagers over zodiac heresies.
• Madame Pualis revealed that Aurora had attacked her when Guillaume and the others attacked the Castle.

After Madame Pualis revealed that Aurora had attacked her as a Fate Hunter, Lumian recalled fragments of Aurora’s past and struggled to contain his distress. Jenna found him sitting in the rain and urged him to seek the reason behind Aurora’s actions, so he decided to investigate her Witchcraft Notes and asked whether Franca was home.

• Madame Pualis told Lumian that Aurora had attacked her as a Fate Hunter and described her growing interest in the stars and her homeland.
• Lumian questioned Madame Pualis about Aurora, a lizard-like sprite, and the Warlock legend, then wandered through the streets in a daze.
• Jenna sheltered Lumian from the rain outside the Breeze Ballroom and told him to find out why someone he trusted had acted as they did.
• Lumian remembered Aurora’s words about her notes and decided to search her Witchcraft Notes for clues to the source of her abnormality.
• Jenna said Franca was likely spending the evening with Gardner Martin, and Lumian turned toward Messy Street.