Chapter Summaries

Lumian asked Madam Magician about the Criminal pathway, the Rose School, and the Mother Tree of Desire, then arranged for her to help find an Artisan to make a Mystical Item from the Shadow Tree Branch. He left determined to use his resources quickly to strengthen himself against the Parish Priest.

• Lumian learned that Sequence 6 of the Criminal pathway was Demon and Sequence 5 was Apostle of Desire, and Madam Magician explained Demons’ powers and varied malice-sensing abilities.
• Madam Magician warned Lumian to avoid concealed alternate spaces where an Angel might descend, and identified Abomination as the Rose School’s leader and a Sequence 1 Angel.
• Madam Magician explained the Mother Tree of Desire’s connection to The Bound God and the Prisoner pathway, then discussed the Indulgence and Temperance Factions and named three smaller groups that worshipped the Mother Tree.
• Lumian asked Madam Magician to find a Half-God-level Artisan to make a Mystical Item from the Shadow Tree Branch, and she agreed to treat it as his reward for joining the Iron and Blood Cross Order.
• Lumian resolved to use his resources to improve himself quickly and gather allies before facing the Parish Priest.

Lumian explored Rhaps, the White City, where he saw signs of colonial injustice and heard clergymen mention the power of Evernight encroaching there. Back at the Breeze Ballroom, Franca told him she was preparing to advance to Pleasure Witch and asked him to look for genuine Mummy Ashes.

• Lumian explored Rhaps’s market and learned that Salient Empaya, the owner of Highland Secret Potions, could supply Mummy Powder in large quantities.
• Lumian watched a trial in which two Intisian soldiers accused of murdering a husband and raping his wife were expelled from the highlands rather than punished there, provoking protests from local spectators.
• Lumian overheard clergymen near the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun mention that the power of Evernight was encroaching in the area.
• Madam Magician returned Lumian to the Breeze Ballroom, where he organized Mr. Poet’s interpretations of the dream’s symbols.
• Franca told Lumian she had gathered the ingredients for the Pleasure Witch potion except for genuine Mummy Ashes and asked him to search for them at his Occult Gathering.

Lumian learned from Franca how indiscriminate terrorism could alienate potential allies, and her words helped him form his first Pyromaniac acting principle. As he prepared to capture Guillaume Béné with Franca’s help, she sensed a possible Wraith watching him; days later, Lumian encountered Miss Safali and headed to collect his reward from Mr. K.

• Franca explained that the Rose School’s indiscriminate terrorist attacks pushed potential sympathizers toward the colonizers and undermined resistance in the Southern Continent.
• Lumian reflected on Franca’s advice to find allies and isolate enemies, gaining a new understanding of Pyromaniac and nearing his first acting principle.
• Lumian asked Franca to advance to Sequence 6 and help capture Guillaume Béné, whom a prophet said would appear in the Red Princess District the following week.
• Franca warned Lumian not to rely entirely on Gardner Martin and then quietly told him she sensed a possible Wraith near his window; Lumian stayed alert as the days passed.
• On the day Mr. K’s promised reward was due, Lumian saw Miss Safali return to the Golden Rooster Inn and then took a carriage to the Boulevard District.

Lumian chose the Dignity brooch as a Sealed Artifact, reported the Rose School’s activity to Mr. K, and formulated his first Pyromaniac acting principle. He later asked Madam Magician to arrange a Mystical Item using the Lucky One characteristic and Shadow Tree Branch, and received Spirit World Creature information in preparation for a new gift of Fate.

• Mr. K explained the powers and dangers of the Clown Mask, Source Blood, and Dignity, and Lumian chose Dignity.
• Lumian told Mr. K about the Werewolf matter and the Rose School, provoking Mr. K’s anger and slightly digesting his Pyromaniac potion.
• Lumian left and formulated the acting principle that a Pyromaniac ignited not only matter, but also hearts and society.
• Lumian decided to combine the Lucky One Beyonder characteristic with the Shadow Tree Branch and wrote to Madam Magician for help finding a Half-God-level Artisan.
• Madam Magician agreed to help arrange the item and sent details about Spirit World Creatures, saying Lumian was nearing preliminary potion digestion and could soon receive a new gift of Fate.

Lumian tested the Dignity brooch, discovering that it could seal openings and make nearby people and creatures loathe him, then waited for its effects to fade underground. He met Jenna, who had been paid potion ingredients by the Purifiers for information about Deep Valley Quarry, and they left Underground Trier together.

• Lumian used Dignity to seal the safe house and test its abilities on a rat before ending the test and putting the brooch away.
• Lumian tested Dignity’s loathing effect outside, drawing hostile attention from pedestrians and police officers before escaping into Underground Trier.
• Lumian discovered that the effect also provoked a venomous snake, then waited in a quiet cavern until the aura weakened.
• Lumian met Jenna, who explained that the Purifiers had paid her with ingredients for the Instigator potion after verifying her Deep Valley Quarry information.
• Jenna worried about her debts and how much she owed Franca, while Lumian encouraged her to pursue the potion and explained his three-fireball lighting arrangement.
• Lumian and Jenna left Underground Trier and entered Apartment 601 at No. 3 White Coat Street, where Franca regarded them suspiciously.

Lumian discussed the Dignity Sealed Artifact with Franca and Jenna, who checked Jenna’s ingredients for the Instigator potion and advised her to prepare carefully. He explained his plans for digesting his Pyromaniac potion, then encountered Anthony Reid leaving the inn and suspected the death of Hugues Artois had ended Anthony’s investigation.

• Lumian told Franca and Jenna that the Dignity brooch made him repulsive after he removed it, and Franca identified abilities associated with the Black Emperor pathway.
• Franca confirmed that Jenna had the main ingredients for the Instigator potion and urged her to get into the right state before advancing.
• Franca said she still could not find genuine Mummy Ashes, while Lumian planned to digest his potion by setting fires and encouraging people rather than inciting them into harm.
• Lumian called Franca contradictory, and she explained that she retained goodwill and hope despite recognizing the world’s cruelty.
• Lumian saw Anthony Reid leaving the Golden Rooster Inn and asked whether Hugues Artois’s death had caused Anthony’s trail to go cold.

Lumian provoked Anthony Reid into confronting his lingering pain over Hugues Artois and invited him to join the investigation. Anthony came to Room 207, where Lumian admitted that the investigation into Artois's backers had not yet begun.

• Lumian bought Anthony Reid absinthe and mocked Pavar Nissen's wish to use prohibited drugs to improve his painting, persuading him to abandon the idea.
• Lumian hinted that Anthony's battlefield trauma and psychological problems could leave him unable to advance or at risk of losing control, then urged him to investigate Hugues Artois's past.
• Lumian told Anthony that he had contributed to Artois's death and that his group was still investigating, then left the bar and waited in Room 207.
• Anthony arrived at Room 207 and admitted that his soul had long burned with pain and resentment over the war.
• Lumian told Anthony that Celia Bello was his friend and that he had discovered Artois was supported by evil god cults, then confessed they had not yet investigated Artois's backers.

Lumian explained how he had concealed his intentions from Anthony Reid, then heard Reid's account of Hugues Artois abandoning his unit during the war. After reviewing Spirit World creature records left him exhausted, Lumian visited Franca and Jenna as Jenna prepared to advance to Instigator.

• Lumian told Anthony Reid that his genuine showmanship had hidden his subtle expressions and allowed him to misread Lumian's intentions.
• Lumian promised to follow up on the Hugues Artois affair after the coming week and described how Jenna could approach the Purifiers for information.
• Anthony Reid recounted how Hugues Artois retreated with his company without warning the other positions, leaving Reid and his comrades under attack.
• Anthony Reid said his attempts to report Hugues Artois failed, his two surviving comrades later died, and he came to the Market District to investigate Artois's political rise.
• Lumian read descriptions of Spirit World Creatures at the safe house, became exhausted, and fell asleep.
• Lumian visited Franca and Jenna the next morning as Jenna prepared to advance to Instigator, explaining that he hoped she could help him deal with Guillaume Béné.

Jenna drank the Instigator potion and gained the ability to sense and influence others’ emotions, desires, and malicious thoughts. Lumian planned to help compensation claimants confront a factory owner, then learned that Baron Brignais’s illegitimate son had gone missing.

• Franca helped Jenna prepare and drink the Instigator potion, and Jenna endured its effects without losing control.
• Jenna discovered that the potion had enhanced her body, thinking, and ability to sense and influence people, and agreed to repay Franca for both potions.
• Lumian proposed using Jenna’s Instigation and his Agitation to gather families owed compensation and confront the factory owner; Jenna agreed to investigate.
• Jenna asked Franca when she would meet the client assigned by the Purifiers, and Franca complained that the task was risky and poorly compensated.
• Jenna teased Lumian about caring for his friends before he left for Breeze Ballroom.
• Lumian learned from Sakota that Baron Brignais’s illegitimate son had gone missing and recalled the boy Brignais had picked up at Susie Steam Train Station.

Lumian helped search for Baron Brignais’s missing illegitimate son and followed Termiboros’s instruction to visit the ballroom’s food cellar, where he encountered a strange boy eating raw meat and rats. The boy denied being Brignais’s son, called him his godfather, and revealed that he had run away from lessons and was from Lenburg.

• Lumian sent Sakota and other gang members to help Baron Brignais search for his missing illegitimate son.
• Lumian warned Rat Christo that the disappearance might be unusual, then asked him to look for genuine mummy ashes.
• Termiboros told Lumian to go to the Breeze Ballroom’s food-storage cellar, calling the visit an encounter with destiny.
• Lumian found a boy in the cellar eating raw steak and a rat, and recognized his clothes as matching those in the portrait of Brignais’s missing son.
• The boy said Brignais was his godfather and guardian, denied being his illegitimate son, and explained that he had run away to avoid lessons and exams.
• The boy told Lumian that he was from Lenburg.

Lumian found Ludwig, a hungry boy who claimed to believe in the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, and took him upstairs for a meal. Baron Brignais arrived to take Ludwig home, leaving Lumian still wondering where Termiboros’s promised opportunity was.

• Lumian questioned Ludwig about eating raw rats and learned that Brignais fed him generously, but Ludwig had run away without breakfast or morning tea.
• Lumian tested Ludwig’s religious claims, and Ludwig’s attempts to explain how evil-god believers could disguise themselves exposed his suspicious knowledge.
• Lumian invited Ludwig to eat at the café, and Ludwig accepted after Lumian promised to stay with him.
• Ludwig devoured and critiqued a large meal until Baron Brignais arrived and identified him as Ludwig.
• Brignais took Ludwig home and paid the bill after Lumian reminded him, while Lumian asked Termiboros where the opportunity was.

Lumian consulted Madam Magician about Termiboros’s prediction of an encounter and followed its hint to an acting opportunity at Lister Docks. After setting a fire that exposed a likely scheme to conceal missing warehouse inventory, he preliminarily digested his Pyromaniac potion and returned to his safe house still needing to find a suitable contract creature.

• Lumian wrote to Madam Magician about Ludwig and Termiboros’s prediction, and she advised him to watch the boy while confirming the acting opportunity at Warehouse No. 3.
• Lumian overheard Hector and Honoré planning to cover up missing inventory by burning down the warehouse, then set fire to their nearby office instead.
• Hector and Honoré discovered their office was burning, while Albus warned Guy that his hesitation had brought an accident.
• Lumian entered the blaze in a cloak of flames and left the docks, gaining preliminary control over his Pyromaniac potion’s powers.
• Lumian returned to his safe house pleased with his progress but worried that the thousand-page collection on spirit world creatures would take too long to find a contract creature.

Lumian devised a way to review Spirit World Creature records quickly so he could choose a contract partner before hunting Guillaume Béné. After a Knowledge Rabbit began mutating from exposure to the material, Lumian sent it back to the Spirit World, then met Baron Brignais, who revealed that he had converted to the God of Knowledge and Wisdom.

• Lumian planned to have Franca, Jenna, and Anthony Reid help him compile briefings from Madam Magician’s Spirit World Creature records, and Madam Magician gave him permission while warning them to avoid dangerous creatures.
• Madam Magician suggested using Two of Cups and divination to select creatures, but Lumian chose to review the material himself and prepared tables for the briefings.
• Lumian successfully summoned a Knowledge Rabbit and had it read the records, but it grew to two meters tall with scarlet eyes after prolonged exposure, so he stopped its work and dismissed it.
• Lumian summoned another Knowledge Rabbit to copy his table a hundred times, then rested until morning.
• Lumian went to Messy Street to seek Anthony Reid’s help, but Baron Brignais met him outside the Golden Rooster Inn and said he had converted to the God of Knowledge and Wisdom.

Lumian organized Baron Brignais, Anthony Reid, Franca, Jenna, and the Knowledge Rabbits to index materials about spirit world creatures so he could choose a contract creature before confronting Parish Priest Guillaume Béné. After preparing to seek a gift underground, he encountered the swindler Monet, who put on a monocle.

• Lumian asked Baron Brignais to read some spirit world creature materials and extract keywords, and Baron Brignais agreed.
• Lumian hired Anthony Reid to help index the materials and told him he might later need support against a powerful enemy.
• Lumian had Franca, Jenna, Anthony Reid, and the Knowledge Rabbits work through the materials, while he monitored them for abnormalities.
• Lumian collected the completed tables, made three copies, and went to Underground Trier the next morning to prepare a ritual.
• Monet arrived at the quarry cavern, recognized Lumian, greeted him, and fitted a crystal-looking monocle into his right eye socket.

After Monet’s unsettling appearance in Underground Trier, Lumian followed Termiboros’s warnings, sought protection from The Fool, and consulted Madam Magician about the danger. With her reply confirming a major threat but no immediate anomaly, Lumian began the ritual to pray for a gift from the Power of Fate.

• Lumian met Monet in a quarry cavern, and after Monet left, Termiboros warned him to move because the man gave Him a sense of danger.
• Lumian relocated to another cavern, but Termiboros warned him to pray to The Fool for an Angel’s protection, so Lumian performed the ritual and left.
• After finding a cavern Termiboros deemed safe for the moment, Lumian summoned Madam Magician’s Messenger and asked whether he could perform the gift ritual.
• Madam Magician replied that the situation involved a major problem, suspected an Angel was targeting Termiboros, and said there should be no anomalies for some time.
• Lumian began the ritual to pray to the Power of Fate for a gift.

Lumian advanced to the Contracted One pathway and learned how his new ability to make contracts with summoned creatures worked. At the quarry entrance, he found an invitation to a dance hall bearing a Monocle image, leaving him unsettled by the possibility that Monet was still watching him.

• During the advancement ritual, Lumian experienced life as a hunter, vulture, hyena, and lion before awakening as a Contracted One.
• Lumian examined his new abilities and learned that contracts required a creature’s consent, imposed influence and limits, and demanded a negotiated price.
• Lumian decided he would use Mr. Fool as the witness for future contracts rather than the fate-linked existence associated with his new knowledge.
• When Lumian asked Termiboros if he had anything to add, the Angel answered, “The mine entrance.”
• At the quarry entrance, Lumian found an invitation to Lovers’ Night at the Different from the Rest Dance Hall, marked with a Monocle and red Intis writing.
• Lumian suspected Monet might still be nearby and searched the silent cavern as he felt watched.

After escaping the Different from the Rest dance hall’s unsettling invitation, Lumian reported the incident to Madam Magician and selected spirit world creatures for his next contracts. He prepared to summon them in a burned-out building under Mr. Fool’s witness, with Dignity pinned to his chest, and was about to begin the ritual.

• Lumian burned the dance hall’s invitation, escaped Underground Trier, and told Madam Magician what had happened; she warned him to stay away while Mr. Fool’s Angel of Time investigated.
• Lumian studied spirit world creature records and selected the Abscessed Severed Hand, the Headless Bride or Man-Faced Mantis, and the Thousand-Eyed Evil or Screaming Shadow as possible contract targets.
• Lumian went to the burned building at Lister Docks and prepared an altar, intending Mr. Fool to witness the contracts.
• Lumian retrieved the Dignity brooch from his military flask and pinned it to his chest before preparing to recite the summoning incantation.

Lumian summoned several Spirit World creatures to learn their abilities and negotiate contracts, using liquor as a bribe. He secured the Abscessed Severed Hand’s Spirit World traversal and the Man-Faced Mantis’s Face of Niser, then found a new creature demanding a costly sacrifice as he searched for an unconsciousness-inducing scream.

• Lumian contracted with the Abscessed Severed Hand, promising to find its body in exchange for access to its Spirit World traversal trait.
• Lumian ended his summoning of the Headless Bride after learning that her price was the sacrifice of a blood relative or friend.
• Lumian contracted with the Man-Faced Mantis for its Face of Niser ability, enduring three minutes of burning as the price.
• The Thousand-Eyed Evil caused Lumian to fall asleep when he summoned it, and it returned to the Spirit World without attacking him.
• Lumian summoned an armored shadow that demanded a blood sacrifice of more than ten people or 100,000 felkine, then discovered its Heng-Ha Art ability.

Lumian acquired the Heng-Ha Art and Spirit World Traversal from his contract creatures, then took Franca and Jenna from Trier to the White City near the Stars Plateau. The group set out to find genuine Mummy Ashes.

• Lumian completed his contract with the armored shadow, gaining the Heng-Ha Art and Spirit World Traversal, and tested the abilities in his bedroom.
• Lumian tested Face of Niser by taking on Gardner Martin's appearance, then rested to recover his spirituality.
• The following morning, Lumian told Franca he could take her to find a real mummy on the Southern Continent, and she asked whether they could travel using one of his contract creatures.
• Jenna agreed to join Lumian and Franca, and the two women dressed warmly for the winter plateau.
• Lumian used Spirit World Traversal to take Franca and Jenna from Trier to a barren island, then to the White City, and invited them to enter.

Lumian, Franca, and Jenna visited Salient's shop to inspect real mummies and bought a portion of one from the previous year. As they left the burial chamber, the passage lamps suddenly dimmed, and Salient turned in alarm.

• Lumian led Franca and Jenna to Highland Secret Potions and asked Salient to show them a real mummy.
• Salient opened a sealed basement passage, where Franca identified a mummy made two weeks earlier as genuine but not ancient.
• Salient admitted he bought fresh corpses to make mummies, then led the group to an older one from the previous year.
• Franca confirmed the older mummy was genuine, paid five hundred felkine for fifty grams, and watched Salient cut off part of its arm.
• As the group walked back through the passage, all the lamp flames shrank and dimmed, and Salient turned in astonishment.