Recaps

Elliot learned that the Old Duke had left on an expedition amid problems involving the Royal Family and the emperor’s health, while Conrad confirmed that Lady Camilla had gone with him. After considering whether to approach Victoria, Elliot returned to the Difference Engine and faced the Communion’s growing problem with believers losing control.

• Elliot learned from Conrad that he could not be told certain secrets until he reached Middle Rank, but the Old Duke could perform a protective ritual for him after returning.
• Conrad explained that the Theresia Festival had gone wrong because there were fewer sacrificial offerings, and said the Royal Family’s problems seemed connected to the emperor’s health.
• Elliot connected the emperor’s condition to the Third Prince’s defiance, the Old Duke’s actions, and the loosened control of the Night Watch Bureau and Dome Institute.
• Elliot asked about Lady Camilla and learned that she had gone on the expedition with the Old Duke.
• Elliot considered approaching Victoria, then decided not to rush into it after learning they might have had a conflict before his amnesia.
• Elliot returned to the Difference Engine and saw that Vanessa, Dorothea, and Elsa had each begun losing control on successive days.

Flora felt isolated as her companions became distant, then dreamed they all abandoned her. She woke to find a black hole where her heart had been.

• Flora returned to the mansion and found Dorothea talking to herself while Maeve stayed in her room.
• Flora cooked dinner, but Maeve said she was busy, leaving Flora alone at the table.
• Flora dreamed that Vanessa, Dorothea, Allen, and the others left her one by one.
• Flora woke from the nightmare and discovered that her heart was gone, replaced by a black hole in her chest.

Flora discovered that her heart was missing but felt no fear or distress, and her companions noticed that she had become emotionally vacant. Elliot advanced her to the second rank, but the ritual changed nothing, leaving him without a solution.

• Flora found a hole where her heart should have been and decided it did not matter because the [Thing of Immortality] replaced its function.
• At the dining table, Flora's companions noticed her strange detachment and realized that the food she had cooked tasted wrong.
• Elliot compared Flora's state to Dorothea's earlier rational state and recognized that Flora seemed like an empty shell.
• Elsa's corpse performed the sacrifice ritual, and Elliot advanced Flora to the second rank, but her condition remained unchanged.
• As Elliot prepared to switch to Vanessa, Flora stared blankly at Elsa's corpse.

Elliot discovered that he could control Flora and began planning a supernatural squad to help believers who lost control. Meanwhile, Victoria overheard Vanessa performing psychoanalysis on the box containing Elsa's corpse.

• Elliot controlled Flora's body, and Flora felt little resistance as the experience filled the emptiness within her.
• Elliot considered how the changes to Dorothea, Sia, Flora, Elsa, and Vanessa could be useful.
• Elliot decided to form a supernatural squad to handle believers who lost control and summoned the Old Butler to ask about the Hearthfire District's budget.
• Victoria watched Vanessa and listened as she spoke to Elsa's corpse inside a box, realizing Vanessa was performing psychoanalysis on it.

Victoria checked on Vanessa, who was chatting with Elsa’s corpse, and reassured her that the Night Watch Bureau would ignore her secret society. Elliot learned that the Emperor was ill and an important expedition was underway, then entered Elsa’s Dream again, where the Lord of Dreams appeared.

• Victoria asked Vanessa if she was all right, and Vanessa said she would chat with Victoria after she died.
• Vanessa told Victoria she had joined a secret society and feared the Night Watch Bureau would target it; Victoria said the Bureau was pulling back and revealed that the Emperor was unwell and several princes were making moves.
• Victoria hinted that something going wrong with the expedition could have serious consequences, then left Vanessa to read.
• Elliot listened to the recorded conversation and concluded that the Night Watch Bureau’s retreat would help the Hearthfire District, while the expedition warranted investigation.
• Elliot entered Elsa’s Dream with both Corpse Cards, sensed Spirituality pulsing inside the box, and saw the Lord of Dreams reach through a crack in the air.

Elliot killed a steady stream of Lords of Dreams whose remains fed the power gathering in Elsa’s box. When Elsa finally began to reform, she emerged as an enormous mass of flesh and blood with countless limbs, leaving Elliot stunned and retreating.

• Elliot wondered why Lords of Dreams kept entering Elsa’s dream after he arrived and suspected the Difference Engine gave him unusual control over dreams.
• Elliot killed a Lord of Dreams as it squeezed through a rift, and its white motes of light flowed into Elsa’s box and strengthened her.
• More Lords of Dreams appeared in rapid succession, and Elliot repeatedly killed them while Elsa absorbed the light from their corpses.
• Elliot watched Elsa’s status for signs of danger as her absorption accelerated, but nothing seemed wrong.
• Elsa’s box began to glow and her body reformed as a huge mass of flesh and blood with countless limbs, so Elliot backed away.

Elsa returned from her rebirth with immense power after consuming the Lords of Dreams, though using it quickly weakened her. Elliot saw the Lords’ white motes rise toward the Abodes of Great Beings before Dream Entry ended, leaving him wondering what Middle Rank Supernatural people encountered in the Deep Zone and whether the motes could be used.

• Elliot watched Elsa’s enormous body shrink back to its original size and wrapped her in a blanket.
• Elsa awoke among the Lords of Dreams’ corpses and mistook Elliot for a Great Being or his agent.
• Elliot explained that the corpses had been consumed for Elsa’s Resurrection, and Elsa discovered she could wield the Lords’ power at the cost of rapidly weakening herself.
• Elliot urged Elsa to return to the Present World as cracks formed in the Dream, then used [Spirit Vision] to follow white motes rising toward the heavens.
• Dream Entry ended, and Elliot wondered whether Middle Rank Supernatural people could contend with Lords of Dreams and whether the white motes’ power could be put to use.

Elsa woke after her resurrection and reunited with Clara and Dorothea, who had fused with Sia. After Allen told her that the people they saved had forgotten them and credited Theresia with the peace, Sia reminded them that their actions had mattered to the refugees who survived.

• Elliot considered whether greater supernatural power made Extraordinary Ones less human and wondered what held the Empire’s order together.
• Elsa woke in the Mansion in the Hearthfire District after her resurrection and was greeted by Clara, Allen, Maeve, Simon, and Dorothea, who explained her fusion with Sia.
• Elsa asked whether they had won and saved the Hearthfire District, and Allen said they had defeated the monsters but could not change what followed.
• Allen explained that the refugees had been forgotten by history while the people thanked Theresia for peace, leaving him unsure whether their efforts had any meaning.
• Sia told Elsa that she was one of the refugees they had saved, said she would never forget, and bowed to Elsa as Cult Leader.

Elsa began taking charge of the Communion after learning that the former Canteen had grown to several thousand Believers, while the Hearthfire District rapidly developed into a self-contained industrial community. When Vanessa returned from the Imperial Palace, she learned Elsa had gone off to do something unexpected.

• Elsa comforted Sia, then asked about the Canteen and learned it had become the Communion with several thousand Believers.
• Allen gave Elsa a list to sort and check, and Maeve agreed to show her how to handle it.
• Elsa completed Allen's list that night and returned to the Communion, where her calm manner eased the Believers' doubts about her leadership.
• Elsa diligently took on the Communion's work and gradually established herself as its Cult Leader.
• The Hearthfire District developed worker housing, hospitals, schools, shops, clubs, and Communion venues as the factories and workers' lives became integrated.
• Vanessa returned from the Imperial Palace, found the Hearthfire District unfamiliar, and asked Allen what Elsa had gone off to do.

After returning from the Grand Library, Vanessa discovered that Elsa had become the Communion’s acting Cult Leader and led a squad against Believers who lost control. Elliot sent Vanessa into his dream to investigate, found that Lords of Dreams could not enter it, and discovered that Elsa’s kills had earned him a [Dream Memory] card for the Blood Moon Scene.

• Vanessa returned to the Hearthfire District and learned that Elsa was leading a squad with Maeve, Simon, and Flora to handle Believers who lost control.
• Allen explained that Vanessa remained the Cult Leader, though Elsa managed the Communion while Vanessa was away.
• Elliot used the Difference Engine to send Vanessa into his dream, where she explored the empty palace called the Abode.
• Elliot tested Maeve’s dream and confirmed that Lords of Dreams tried to enter it, while none appeared in his own dream.
• Elliot decided to resume training and begin construction in his dream, then found the Blood Moon Scene among the [Dream Memory] cards awarded for Elsa’s kills.

Elliot used the Blood Moon Dream Memory to let Maeve perform the ritual to summon the Worm, which began a long countdown after she was pulled from the Dream. He then noticed Vanessa’s Veil talent had triggered, suggesting someone had tried to detect her and been misled.

• Elliot used [Dream Memory · Blood Moon] to turn his Dream red and brought Maeve inside.
• Maeve transformed with [Crescent Moon Prayer] and drew the complex summoning ritual in the Dream.
• Maeve activated the ritual, was pulled out of the Dream, and Elliot saw the Worm’s countdown begin at 700.
• Elliot wondered whether the Worm was connected to Maeve’s Monster form and planned to have Vanessa investigate the Secret History with Victoria.
• Vanessa’s Card trembled, and Elliot found a [Veil triggered] log entry, indicating someone had probed her and been misled.

After an unknown entity probed Vanessa, Elliot realized Maeve might also be exposed and hurried to protect her. Meanwhile, [Path · Glimmer] began ascending, and a young man emerged from the ruins of the Cosmog Dynasty and began manipulating history.

• Elliot linked the probe targeting Vanessa to Maeve’s dream summoning of the Worm and feared Maeve had already been discovered.
• A new [Ascension] slot appeared, and [Path · Glimmer] entered it with a countdown of 999.
• Elliot sent Vanessa to seek Victoria’s advice, then ordered Conrad to prepare a horse so he could go to the Hearthfire District and protect Maeve.
• A young man emerged from the ruins of the Cosmog Dynasty and said history had changed too much, including events in the Dream World.
• The young man wound his pocket watch until its hands moved in different directions, then watched a moon relief in the ruins begin to change.

Vanessa visited Victoria’s library at three in the morning to seek information about a long-haired monster, but their conversation turned to the possibility of a Third Industrial Revolution and humanity’s stalled scientific progress. Victoria remained hopeful for a new age, while Vanessa left the conversation suspecting that something about the expected order of technological change was wrong.

• Vanessa arrived at Victoria’s library late at night and found her awake, then noticed she was reading Introduction to Steam Engineering.
• Victoria explained that she was studying steam engineering because the Third Industrial Revolution might be approaching, though she could not predict when it would begin.
• Victoria told Vanessa that technological development seemed to have reached its limits and said the coming age of science and rationality would let humanity build a new world.
• Vanessa considered the long stagnation of scientific progress and wondered whether history had lasted far longer than its public record suggested.
• Victoria invited Vanessa to browse the safe books and offered to answer questions about secrets because she knew every book in the Library.
• As she searched the shelves, Vanessa realized she expected scientific progress to drive an Industrial Revolution, not appear alongside it, and wondered why Victoria seemed so certain of the coming changes.

Victoria investigated Vanessa’s connection to Elliott and decided to let him visit, while Vanessa studied in Victoria’s library and asked about the Blood Moon. Victoria explained that no Blood Moon existed before the First Era and challenged Vanessa’s understanding of the moon’s phases, leaving her with a troubling question about how a Blood Moon could appear.

• Victoria learned that Vanessa worked in the Hearthfire District canteen and had met Elliott Sterling through Flora Belenga Lancaster, then ordered the maids to tell the Imperial Palace she would invest a knight as her personal guard.
• Victoria told her maids to let Elliot come to her residence, making sure he understood that it was permission rather than an invitation.
• Vanessa finished reading in the library, and Victoria offered to answer her questions except those about dangerous Secret Histories.
• Victoria warned Vanessa to avoid Fog Whistle’s forbidden [Holy Scripture] and said that records of the Blood Moon began only after the First Era.
• Victoria questioned Vanessa’s account of astronomy and pointed out that a Blood Moon appeared abruptly at the moon’s least complete phase, asking where it got the sunlight it reflected.

Vanessa questioned the blood moon’s origins, and Victoria revealed that it had only appeared after the First Era, warning that learning supernatural truths carried a price. Victoria explained ascension and the danger of Vanessa’s spirit vision, leaving Vanessa puzzled about how the starry sky and the Abode were connected.

• Vanessa noticed that the blood moon’s changing phases and scarlet light did not fit her understanding of astronomy, and Victoria suggested placing the sun at the center of the universe.
• Victoria told Vanessa that records of the blood moon from before the First Era did not exist because the blood moon only appeared afterward, causing Vanessa to bleed from her eyes, nose, and ears.
• Victoria explained that learning the truth could exact a supernatural price and answered Vanessa’s question about scientific progress by saying that the blood moon had not existed for earlier physicists to study.
• Victoria told Vanessa that ranks four through six were middle rank and required an ascension ritual, which made people stronger but distanced them from humanity.
• Victoria said Vanessa’s spirit vision likely required looking directly at the starry sky in a dream, and Vanessa wondered whether the real danger was seeing the Abode.

Victoria offered to make Vanessa her knight and keep her in the Library forever, but Vanessa challenged Victoria’s belief that the world could not be saved. Victoria withdrew into the Library, while Vanessa left with the Golden-Haired Dog, and Elliot began considering Victoria’s claim that the Second Era had repeatedly been destroyed.

• Victoria told Vanessa to learn court etiquette because she planned to invest her as a knight and take her to meet His Majesty.
• Victoria bound Vanessa with Golden Threads and insisted that Vanessa would remain in the Library as her knight forever.
• Vanessa said she cared about the people outside and challenged Victoria’s plan to build an Abode instead of trying to save them.
• Victoria argued that the world was beyond saving and named Elliot, Sidney, Thorne, and Michel as mistaken before retreating into the Library.
• Vanessa left the Library, and the Golden-Haired Dog followed her outside.
• At the Sterling Family’s mansion, Elliot reflected on Victoria’s offer to Vanessa and grew serious over her claim that the Second Era had been destroyed repeatedly.

Elliot questioned why Victoria had compared him to powerful historical figures and began to suspect that the Frostmoon Uprising and the repeated destruction of the Second Era hid deeper truths. He also learned that Maeve needed an Ascension Ritual to reach Middle Rank, but feared her Path might require her to devour another Believer.

• Elliot noticed the Difference Engine's log said Lillian Rose was destroying the Second Era, though the era continued despite her repeated efforts.
• Elliot wondered whether the Frostmoon Uprising had been significant enough to place him alongside Sidney, Michel, and Thorne, and questioned why the Old Duke and Victoria doubted the supernatural route.
• Elliot reflected on the strange rules governing history, Sacrifice, and access to supernatural power, then forced himself to stop speculating.
• Elliot realized Maeve had reached the barrier to Middle Rank and needed an Ascension Ritual.
• Elliot connected Maeve's flesh-devouring healing to the [Restoration] Path and suspected she might need to eat another Believer on that Path to ascend.

Elliot considered whether supernatural power itself caused distortion and decided to investigate the Ascension Society as a possible source of flesh Maeve could consume to ascend. Vanessa visited Dorothea to discuss Maeve’s need, but Dorothea rejected the Ascension Society as a target and suggested the Genesis School instead.

• Elliot wondered whether the original Elliot had refused sacrifice because power distorted those who gained it, then considered finding supernatural people from Maeve’s [Restoration] branch.
• Elliot recalled the Ascension Society’s path, [Flesh Ascension], and decided to ask Dorothea about it.
• Vanessa walked through Saint Clair to the Hearthfire District, removed Victoria’s coat of arms, and asked the Factory Guard members to take her to Dorothea.
• Dorothea explained that she and Sia alternated work using different bodies in the present world and in dreams.
• Vanessa told Dorothea that Maeve could ascend by consuming supernatural people, and Dorothea said the Ascension Society was not an acceptable target and proposed the Genesis School.

Vanessa learned how the Ascension School and Genesis School followed different forms of the same Path, then heard that the Genesis School had returned to the Imperial Capital. Dorothea and Elliot questioned whether sacrifices that required eating people would eventually make them no different from the Genesis School.

• Dorothea explained that the Ascension School advanced by sacrificing and devouring its own regenerating flesh, while the Genesis School created Flesh Men and Bone Men to cheat the sacrifices.
• Dorothea told Vanessa that the Genesis School could not use Formless Arts or enter dreams because the Great Being rejected its distorted creations.
• Dorothea warned Vanessa that the Genesis School had begun operating again in the Imperial Capital, with traces found in the Canal District sewers, and Vanessa agreed to alert Eleanor.
• Dorothea wondered whether she and Maeve might someday eat people for power and become indistinguishable from the Genesis School.
• Elliot read Dorothea's question through the Brass Dial and reflected that sacrifices could lead him down the same path as the original owner of his body.

Elliot struggled to decide whether the Difference Engine’s purposes justified sacrifice, then resumed his work while managing his new duties as an heir. Victoria invited him to the Library to knight Vanessa, and Elliot planned a formal visit to learn more about the Sacred Blood Nobles.

• Elliot could not decide whether to accept sacrifices and stopped working on the Difference Engine for the night.
• Conrad told Elliot that Victoria had invited him to the Library to knight Vanessa, and Elliot agreed to visit Victoria that evening with a formal gift related to books.
• Conrad mentioned an invitation to a Helms Family banquet and asked whether Elliot should return an item, prompting Elliot to wonder about the family and the item.
• Elliot returned to the Difference Engine and decided to check on the Night Watch Bureau because Vanessa and the others could not manage everything alone.

Elliot used Vanessa’s disguise as Eleanor to visit the Night Watch Bureau, where he learned that the Helms Family planned a Blood Feast and examined the repaired message room. He left Elsa’s flesh by the Difference Engine Core, hoping to equip it at night and bring it into a dream.

• Elliot sent Vanessa, disguised as Eleanor, to the Night Watch Bureau to contact Dalton and investigate the Bureau after the festival.
• Dalton dismissed reports of the Genesis School and told Vanessa to focus on the Helms Family’s upcoming Blood Feast in the Embassy District.
• Vanessa asked Dalton what a Blood Feast was, and he described it as a blasphemous banquet that even other nobles despised.
• Elliot inspected the rebuilt message room and suspected that the Bureau could not truly repair or modify [The Thinker].
• Vanessa performed a ritual with Elliot’s help, and he used [Bestowal] to place Elsa’s flesh beside the Difference Engine Core.
• Elliot planned to leave Elsa’s flesh on the Core, equip it at night, and enter the dream.

Elliot discovered that Elsa's corpse could not enter a dream, and Vanessa found that touching [The Thinker] prevented her from dreaming, suggesting the machine was anchored in the present world. Elliot then visited the Library to meet Victoria and found an unidentified figure waiting in an armchair.

• Elliot tried to send Elsa's corpse, first with and then without the Difference Engine Core, into a dream, but both attempts failed.
• Vanessa tested entering dreams at the Night Watch Bureau and discovered she could not do so while touching [The Thinker].
• Vanessa concluded that [The Thinker] could not compute dreams or altered history because it was anchored in the present world.
• Elliot committed the machine's limitations to memory and left to visit Victoria.
• Elliot arrived at the Library and saw a figure reclining with their back to him in an armchair.

Elliot visited Victoria in the Grand Library and gave her Secret Histories recorded by the Sterling Family. Their discussion of the Frostmoon Uprising revealed that they were speaking in a place outside the Present World, leaving Elliot to suspect that true history could not be recorded or altered from within it.

• Elliot entered the Library and teased the still-angry Victoria by inspecting the furnishings before giving her a wrapped gift.
• Victoria eagerly accepted the Secret Histories Elliot had brought, then asked whether he was still unwilling to perform a Sacrifice.
• Elliot said he believed Sacrifice was the wrong path, and Victoria admitted it might indeed be wrong.
• Elliot asked Victoria about the Frostmoon Uprising, and she pointed out that he had once called it the Great Revolution.
• Elliot corrected himself by saying there had been no revolution in history, only the Frostmoon Uprising, and Victoria said history had already been altered and the revolution had failed again.
• Elliot realized the Library had become the Void, then reasoned that some histories could only be shared outside the Present World and wondered whether beings in the Dream World were changing history.

Elliot learned more about Victoria’s role in the Frostmoon Uprising and her plan to build an eternal Abode, while she asked him to support her and appoint Vanessa as her Knight. Victoria then presented Michel’s invitation for Elliot to join an expedition, leaving him questioning her account of the political balance between the Old and New Nobility.

• Elliot wondered whether Victoria had participated in the Frostmoon Uprising and whether repeated failures were connected to the destruction of the Second Era.
• Victoria said she had chosen to build an eternal Abode to shelter Elliot, Vanessa, and the others from the succession of eras and from life and death.
• Victoria asked Elliot to let Vanessa become her Knight and to support the Abode, saying she feared she would not finish it in time as the world’s deviation worsened.
• Victoria gave Elliot Michel’s invitation to join an expedition, promising that Michel would arrange a Sacrifice so Elliot could reach a high rank.
• Victoria said Elliot was worth winning over because he had rejected degeneracy, but Elliot questioned her claims that the Sacred Blood Nobles had declined and Parliament’s New Nobility were weak.

Elliot questioned Victoria about the Blood Feast, Abodes, and Lillian, then learned that history could be rewritten as a rare phenomenon rather than by an organization’s power. Victoria suggested that the Rose Cross might be able to observe true history and exploit the phenomenon, leaving Elliot with a new possibility about the secret society.

• Elliot realized Victoria had already committed him to attending the Blood Feast, which he suspected involved nobles sacrificing commoners.
• Victoria explained that collecting [Secret Histories] could help her Grand Library ascend into an Abode, and described how an Abode could restrict and threaten its guests.
• Elliot asked whether an [Immortal] could destroy the Second Era, but Victoria said even Great Beings might not be able to do so.
• Elliot asked Victoria about Lillian and the Rose Cross; she recognized Lillian as a dancer but had never heard of the organization.
• Elliot told Victoria he suspected the Rose Cross could rewrite history, and she explained that history could be changed only through immense power and cost, as a phenomenon that could be observed and exploited.