Chapter Summaries

Lumian learned that Mr. Fool’s Angel of Time had eliminated the Amons in Trier, including those at the Different from the Rest dance hall, and told Franca the news while discussing their stalled search for Loki. Jenna helped them realize that Loki and the other pranksters may be monitoring their targets, and Termiboros warned Lumian that he would already have encountered Loki if he had not taken precautions against pursuit.

• Lumian investigated his pocket watch’s delay, sent Madam Magician an account of the strange events, and learned that the Angel of Time had eliminated the Amons in Trier.
• Lumian told Franca that the Alone bar’s cellar was an Eighth Bureau base and that investigating its typewriter could expose them to dangerous agents.
• Lumian and Franca discussed Loki’s possible Seer pathway abilities, but could not find a safe way to identify him.
• Jenna suggested judging the pranksters’ actions from their perspective, and Lumian reasoned that they might have a way to monitor their targets.
• Termiboros told Lumian that he would have encountered Loki after leaving Old Street if he had not taken precautions against being followed.

After learning that Loki had likely followed him to the Alone bar, Lumian tried to figure out how to draw the elusive Marionettist out. He instead used Fitz’s debt claim as a reason to provoke the weakened Different from the Rest dance hall, punching a monocled guard and breaking his monocle.

• Termiboros told Lumian that Loki had likely followed him after he left Old Street and used the Alone bar’s typewriter as bait.
• Lumian suspected the silent newspaper reader at the Alone bar might have been Loki or one of his marionettes, but concluded that repeated visits would be too risky.
• Lumian visited Fitz at the Golden Rooster Inn and asked for proof that Timmons owed him 100,000 felkin; Fitz handed over their business contract.
• Disguised, Lumian entered the Different from the Rest dance hall by claiming Monet had invited him, then went toward the stairs to find Timmons.
• When a monocled guard stopped him from going upstairs, Lumian punched him and shattered his monocle.

Lumian broke into the Different from the Rest dance hall, took 110,000 felkin from Timmons, and escaped after discovering that the monocled staff would not stop him. Franca found that nearly everyone around the dance hall was a puppet, and Lumian later felt his body growing stiff as he approached the Golden Rooster Inn.

• Lumian passed the monocled guards, shot out windows, and confronted Timmons, who agreed to hand over money and jewelry rather than resist.
• Lumian opened Timmons's safe, took its contents, then fired a golden bullet past Timmons before escaping through the office window.
• Franca watched the dance hall and saw people act like puppets when they were not interacting with guards, but she could not locate the Marionettist controlling them.
• Lumian and Franca agreed to seek clues about the Marionettists from their contacts at the next gathering, then left in a hired carriage.
• Lumian parted from Franca on Market Avenue and headed toward the Golden Rooster Inn, where his joints suddenly began to stiffen.

Lumian used spreading flames to expose Loki while resisting the Marionettist’s control, and Franca arrived to help. They briefly cornered the disguised target, but a passerby’s supernatural aria blinded them and allowed both men to escape.

• Lumian realized Loki was slowing his thoughts and stiffening his body, then tested whether pain and fire could disrupt the control.
• Lumian spread flames across Messy Street to drive people away and identify anyone hiding nearby; he spotted a man flashing through the fire.
• Franca sensed through her Mirror Substitute that Lumian was under attack and hurried to Messy Street, where she used a mirror and black flames to turn the flashing figure into a paper figurine.
• Lumian’s body and thoughts recovered, and he and Franca attacked the suspected Loki with the Heng-Ha Art and an Ice Crystal Spear.
• A passerby sang an aria invoking the Sun, blinding and disorienting Lumian and Franca; when they recovered, the suspected Loki and the singer had vanished.

After Loki escaped, Lumian moved to the Breeze Ballroom to protect his acquaintances and investigate how Loki had recognized him despite his counter-surveillance measures. He paid Fitz his share of the recovered money, then changed his appearance and left through a window, apparently setting a new plan in motion.

• Lumian failed to find Loki or the marionette, then decided to avoid bringing danger to Fitz and the Golden Rooster Inn by relocating to the Breeze Ballroom with Franca.
• Franca agreed to change her appearance and hide, and planned to send Jenna to stay with her brother.
• At the Breeze Ballroom, Lumian reasoned that Loki had likely recognized him when he crossed Old Street, perhaps through a method that could see through disguises but could be evaded with careful counter-surveillance.
• Lumian gave Fitz fifty thousand felkine from the recovered money, keeping the interest and his agreed share of the principal.
• Lumian changed his appearance, checked that no people or animals were outside, and climbed out of the bedroom window.

Lumian sent Hella a request to help expose Loki, then used a safe house as bait while Franca hid nearby. Loki tracked Franca down and began turning her into a marionette, leaving her resistance suppressed as he chanted to the Immortal Lord of Heaven and Earth for Blessings.

• Lumian wrote to Hella explaining his suspicions about Loki, the April Fool's Day group, and his plan to lure Loki into an ambush.
• Franca urged Jenna to lie low, disguised herself, and returned to a safe house across from Lumian's.
• Hella agreed to help, and Lumian waited in the safe house while a rat watched him before retreating when footsteps approached.
• Loki attacked Franca at the No. 6 White Coat Street safe house, using his voice to disrupt her attempts to resist and reveal that he could sense her within one kilometer.
• Loki said he would make Franca his marionette and began chanting to the Immortal Lord of Heaven and Earth for Blessings.

Lumian rushed to save Franca from Loki’s ambush, but the attack left Franca unconscious and trapped Lumian under a Wraith and Marionettist’s control. Loki revealed his betrayal of Aurora and sealed the room, driving Lumian toward losing control as his fury erupted into a terrifying aura.

• Lumian used the Mirror Substitute’s connection to reach Franca, who was being overwhelmed by whispers from a mysterious door and the Wraith possessing her.
• The Wraith detached from Franca and moved into Lumian, while Franca’s Mirror Substitute activated and she collapsed unconscious in the bedroom.
• Loki restrained Lumian with a Wraith marionette and mental interference, then explained that he had lured Lumian away from home and recognized him by the seal inside him.
• Loki mocked Aurora’s suffering and revealed that her doctor had shared her private struggles with the April Fool’s Day group for their amusement.
• Lumian’s fury ignited crimson flames and pushed him toward losing control, but Loki said the gray fog had sealed the room against outside help.
• A savage, overwhelming aura burst from Lumian and pierced the fog barrier, surging toward the sky.

Lumian’s uncontrolled fury drew the attention of powerful figures across Trier, but Hella intervened before he could lose control. She brought Lumian and the others to a deserted mine, entered Loki’s dream to question him, and discovered that he had plotted against the Society for amusement and against Muggle for a reason tied to the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth.

• Lumian’s savage aura stirred sleepers and alerted Beyonders, Church forces, Gardner Martin, Olsen, Count Puyver, and others across Trier.
• Lumian blasted through a wall and found Loki’s marionette, but Hella arrived, put the scene into darkness, and transported Lumian, Franca, Loki, and the marionettes to a deserted mine.
• Hella summoned the Wraith out of Lumian and entered Loki’s dream, where she asked why he had plotted to murder members of the Society and Muggle.
• Loki said the Society members were only useful for amusement and began to connect Muggle’s murder to the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth before Hella collapsed the dream.
• Loki’s body became a puddle of flesh and blood, and Hella found no Beyonder Characteristic; meanwhile, a pale hand reached out from a dark red coffin in the black castle.

Hella rescued Lumian and Franca from Loki, who had deliberately lost control but could still resurrect elsewhere. Franca connected Loki’s evil god, the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth, to her own transmigration, and Lumian proposed summoning only April Fool’s Day members to an emergency gathering.

• Hella confirmed Loki had died by losing control but could resurrect elsewhere because of his worship and special nature.
• Lumian learned that Hella had subdued Loki in seconds and resolved to grow stronger so he could eventually kill Loki himself.
• Franca and Hella discussed Loki’s fragmented recitation of the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth’s honorific name to avoid attracting the evil god’s attention.
• Franca revealed that a monster in a game she played before transmigrating worshipped the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth, suggesting a connection to her arrival in this world.
• Hella proposed revisiting the transmigration question at a Society gathering, and Lumian suggested inviting only April Fool’s Day members to an emergency meeting.

Lumian and Franca survived Loki’s attack with Hella’s help, then learned that the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings had directed Loki against Aurora. They entered the Night Kingdom palace for an emergency gathering, where two figures arrived after them.

• Hella left to prepare an emergency gathering while Lumian and Franca discussed how Loki had nearly turned them into marionettes.
• Franca suspected the Society members shared a trace of the Celestial Worthy, and Hella said advancing to Sequence 4 or finding a concealing Mystical Item might suppress it.
• Hella revealed that Loki had blamed the Blessed One of Heaven and Earth for Blessings for his plot against Muggle, and said Aurora’s body and family had already been affected by something.
• Hella identified the other marionette as a likely recipient of an Evil God’s Gifts whose pathway included Speaker and Singer, and said believers called the deity First Philosophy or Master of Mysteries.
• Lumian and Franca entered the Night Kingdom palace, disguised themselves with Hella’s help, and waited for the April Fool’s Day members to arrive.
• Two figures suddenly materialized in the silent palace.

Lumian and Franca exposed Loki’s betrayal to the April Fool’s Day members who had been left behind and persuaded them to share what they knew. Afterward, Lumian burned Loki’s remains and gained a new insight into digesting his Pyromaniac potion.

• Hella told the gathered April Fool’s Day members that Loki had betrayed the Society, while Lumian used Aurora’s voice to describe how Loki and I Have a Friend had harmed him.
• Black Soil questioned Muggle about being deceived by Madwoman, and Lumian and Franca convinced the members that Loki’s absent allies had used them as expendable pawns.
• Hella asked the members to write down their dealings with Loki’s group and temporarily stay at least five kilometers away; she then checked that none were hidden accomplices or Celestial Worthy followers.
• Lumian asked whether the gathering’s concealment aura could help locate Madwoman and the others, but Hella said they no longer carried it.
• Hella warned Lumian and Franca that they might have three to six months before Loki could rebuild his marionette forces, and advised relocating if they could not kill him.
• Lumian burned Loki’s remains with a Crimson Fireball and realized that a Pyromaniac could ignite others by daring to ignite himself.

Lumian and Franca survived Loki’s trap in the Abandoned Mine, while Hella revealed she had switched to the Evernight pathway to avoid becoming a vessel for her deity. After returning to Trier, Lumian told Franca what Loki had said about Aurora, and Madam Magician was waiting in his room to ask why he had used the Blood Emperor’s aura.

• Franca told Hella about the transmigration clues, including the shadow’s words about the Blood-Colored Son of Heaven and the Underworld Daoist, and warned that Loki might have accomplices in other groups.
• Lumian collapsed the ground beneath Loki’s corpse to contain its corruption, and Franca disposed of the marionettes’ bodies and collected the Wraith’s shed dust and remaining spirituality.
• Hella confirmed that she had advanced to Sequence 4 as a Night Watcher after switching from the Death pathway, explaining that continuing on it could make her a vessel for her deity.
• Lumian and Franca returned to Messy Street, where Lumian revealed that Loki had described the Society’s betrayal and mockery of Aurora; Lumian said he wanted the other April Fool’s Day members to live with humiliation and regret.
• Franca and Lumian planned to report the incident and request transfers if Loki remained alive after two months, then separated for the night.
• Lumian returned to Room 207 at the Golden Rooster Inn and found Madam Magician waiting; she asked why he had used the Blood Emperor’s aura.

Lumian told Madam Magician how Loki’s group had led him to unleash the Blood Emperor’s aura, and she linked the strange coincidences to the deity worshipped by the Aurora Order. She revealed that Loki’s group served the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth, Mr. Fool’s ancient enemy, and left Lumian with the Tarot Club’s mission to hunt the deity’s followers.

• Lumian recounted his investigation of the Soul-Summoning Spell, Loki’s apparent resurrection, and the events that triggered the Blood Emperor’s aura.
• Madam Magician warned that Amon’s gift of Earthblood ore and other coincidences might have been arranged by the deity worshipped by the Aurora Order.
• Madam Magician identified that deity as the Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth and explained that an improper prayer to Mr. Fool could draw a response from Him.
• Lumian connected Mr. Fool’s honorific name to the Celestial Worthy’s and asked about their relationship; Madam Magician compared it to the Ancient Sun God’s possible resurrection after the Aurora Order’s deity inherited half His legacy.
• Madam Magician suggested the Celestial Worthy might seek to hasten the apocalypse and force Mr. Fool to stop resisting His return.
• Madam Magician made hunting Loki and the Celestial Worthy’s followers a shared Tarot Club mission and asked Lumian to send her the information Hella compiled.

Madam Magician explained the Celestial Worthy’s influence and warned Lumian how to respond if her instructions seemed wrong, while Lumian resolved to digest his Pyromaniac potion. In the aftermath of the aura on White Coat Street, Jenna and Franca faced questions about what happened, and Lumian learned that people were seeking information about it.

• Madam Magician told Lumian that she was vulnerable to the Celestial Worthy’s influence, explained how he could conceal his seal’s traces, and warned him not to tell Two of Cups everything.
• Lumian decided that his next step was to digest the Pyromaniac potion.
• Jenna met with Valentine and Imre, learned of the terrifying aura on White Coat Street, and began suspecting Franca had been involved.
• Franca returned to Apartment 601 and found Gardner Martin waiting; he told her the aura had erupted from No. 6 on White Coat Street.
• Anthony Reid asked Lumian why people were seeking information about the previous night’s strange aura, and Lumian said it had erupted on White Coat Street.

Lumian learned that Guillaume Béné’s widow was receiving visits from a mysterious man and asked Anthony Reid to track the pattern, hoping to catch the Sinners’ liaison. Gardner Martin then told Lumian to investigate No. 6 White Coat Street, while Franca recounted the recent fight to Jenna and exchanged messages with 007; the chapter ended with a silver skull delivering the April Fool’s Day members’ statements to Lumian.

• Anthony Reid told Lumian he could read his involvement in the White Coat Street incident from his expressions, then reported that General Philip’s widow donated heavily to the Dreamseekers charity.
• Anthony Reid revealed that Guillaume Béné’s widow had remained at No. 20 Terrace Street and was sometimes visited by a mysterious man; Lumian asked him to identify the visits’ pattern so they could catch Bouval Pompairo.
• At the Breeze Ballroom, Gardner Martin asked Lumian about the violent aura and instructed him to investigate No. 6 White Coat Street once official surveillance eased.
• Franca told Jenna that Charles had fought and killed the Marionettist Loki, then received 007’s question about the aura and said she would explain at the next gathering.
• As midnight approached, a silver skull brought Lumian a thick stack of papers containing the April Fool’s Day members’ statements.

Lumian studied the April Fool’s Day confessions and planned investigations into Loki and I Have a Friend, while Franca received the documents and considered how to obtain a messenger. Later, Lumian questioned Lucano about his medical studies and asked whether he knew of frontal-lobe surgery.

• Lumian reviewed Hella’s annotations and concluded that Loki might be found through the ancient castle in his dream, while I Have a Friend might be traced through the medical profession.
• Lumian sent copies of the confessions to Madam Magician, and Franca received the originals from the messenger skull.
• Franca told Jenna she had devised a possible way to summon a spirit-world creature and arrange a messenger contract, then read a telegram from 007 complaining about her presence in the Market District.
• Lumian considered seeking a task from Mr. K to act as a Pyromaniac and stopped at the Mill Ballroom.
• Lucano told Lumian he was studying medicine to prepare for becoming a Doctor and to pass himself off as a physician, prompting Lumian to ask about frontal-lobe surgery.

Lumian investigated a bizarre Trier custom of eating bread dipped in condemned prisoners’ blood and suspected it was an April Fool’s prank by I Have a Friend. He visited the Rouvois General Execution Ground, where two prisoners were executed and people rushed toward the bloodied ground.

• Lucano Toscano told Lumian that a new custom claimed bread dipped in a condemned prisoner’s blood could cure illnesses.
• Franca recognized the custom as resembling an old folk practice from her homeland and suggested I Have a Friend might have revived it as a prank.
• Lumian told Franca about the Blood Emperor’s aura on his hand, then disguised himself before going to the execution ground.
• Lumian found a crowd at the Rouvois General Execution Ground, including people holding bread near the front.
• Two condemned prisoners shouted opposing slogans and were shot, after which the bread-holders rushed toward the bloodstained ground while Lumian searched the crowd for the prankster.

Lumian investigated the rumor that prisoners’ blood could cure illness, then caught a suspicious man digging up blood-soaked weeds beneath the gallows. Meanwhile, Franca met Bruns Soren at the Red House Café and sought to join the women’s revelry parties.

• Lumian followed a man carrying blood-soaked bread and learned he hoped it would cure a sick family member, though the rumor came secondhand.
• Lumian waited at the execution ground until nightfall, then watched a tall, thin man in a top hat dig bloodstained soil and search beneath the gallows.
• Franca told Bruns Soren about the Bliss Society and said she wanted to investigate it and attend the revelry parties.
• Bruns Soren introduced herself and said Franca would have to pass a screening before joining the parties.
• Lumian appeared beside the man beneath the gallows and asked what he was digging up, startling him.

Lumian subdued Lano Brujah, a Sanguine gathering Mandrake, and questioned him about the plant’s effects. He learned that Lano believed its concoction suppressed the Spiritual Tide State during full moons, though it caused recurring hallucinations, before Lumian vanished and left Lano guessing at his strength.

• Lumian knocked Lano unconscious with the Heng-Ha Art and identified him as a Sanguine of the Apothecary pathway.
• Lano introduced himself as Lano Brujah and explained that he gathered Mandrake to make a concoction for the Spiritual Tide State.
• Lano said Mandrake grew beneath hanged corpses and could also be cultivated with the blood of other executed prisoners.
• Lano speculated that Mandrake’s medicinal effect might have emerged after the Spiritual Tide State began affecting Sanguine during full moons.
• Lano admitted that his Mandrake concoctions caused visions of flowers, dancing little people, and mushrooms growing on his body, and that he had not yet reported his findings to his elders.
• Lumian disappeared using Spirit World Traversal, and Lano concluded that he was a powerful Beyonder.

Franca tried to gain Bruns Soren’s trust while probing her connection to the Bliss Society, and Lumian reported dangerous leads to Madam Magician. He later told Jenna that April Fool’s Day had deliberately caused his sister’s misfortune and urged her to become a Witch so she could help him fight them.

• Franca revealed her public identity and goals to Bruns Soren, then warned her about the Bliss Society and its Sex Addict abilities.
• Lumian decided to report the human-blood bread and mandrake rumors, along with his suspicions about Loki and the Alone bar, to Madam Magician and the Tarot Club.
• The Doll messenger delivered Lumian’s letter and complained that he had failed to notice her changed appearance.
• Lumian visited Jenna and explained that April Fool’s Day had deliberately sold his sister the Soul-Summoning Spell, causing her problem.
• Jenna offered to help, and Lumian told her to focus on becoming a Witch before revealing that April Fool’s Day intended to kill him.