Chapter Summaries

Theresia rose above Saint Clair and destroyed the monsters with explosions, while the Difference Engine recorded the end of the Second Era and the start of the Third. The machine then rejected that outcome because Chi did not agree, and resumed calculating the Second Era.

• Theresia ascended over Saint Clair as people across the city watched her rise.
• Theresia’s gaze drove the monsters into a frenzy, and her explosions reduced them to human-shaped ashes.
• The engineers prayed as the Difference Engine recorded that the Second Era had ended and the Third Era had begun.
• The Difference Engine overloaded and printed that Chi did not agree, ordering the Third Era chapter deleted and the Second Era calculation continued.

After the Empire erased memories of the Purification Ritual, Elliot found that the wounded and Factory Guard members who had prayed to the Canteen still remembered the battle. Seeing their faith and longing, he climbed onto crates to address the survivors and began to rally them against history abandoning them.

• Elliot walked through the spotless Hearthfire District after Theresia's Purification Ritual, seeing only scorched human-shaped marks where the dead had been.
• A merchant remembered the night as a fireworks display but could not describe what he had seen, and Elliot realized history had been rewritten so people forgot the massacre and the Factory Guard's sacrifices.
• Elliot went to the factory courtyard to see the wounded and discovered that they still remembered how he had rescued them.
• Elliot recalled that the Factory Guard and accompanying civilians had recited the Canteen's prayer during the rescue, and suspected their prayer and sacrifices had protected their memories.
• Elliot climbed onto crates and told the survivors that they had fought together and that he had not abandoned anyone in the Hearthfire District, before warning that history meant to abandon them.

Elliot rallied the factory workers, whose memories had survived the rewriting of history, and promised to honor their sacrifices with a monument. He left Allen in charge of the factory’s defense and began planning how to hide the workers’ unusual memories before the Night Watch Bureau noticed.

• Elliot told the workers that people beyond the factory no longer remembered their battle or sacrifices.
• Elliot promised to remember the fallen, compensate for every life lost, and build a monument recording what happened.
• Elliot gave Allen authority to lead the factory’s defense and mobilize its people and supplies in his name.
• Elliot returned to the Mansion and planned to blame the Rose Cross for the erased memories and turn the workers into believers.

Elliot recruited nearly two thousand Factory workers into Vanessa’s Faith and used the Difference Engine to identify and eliminate traitors. As the Factory’s believers organized and Elliot planned to unite the Hearthfire District, Flora went to help Vanessa while Maeve sought shelter from Theresia’s purification.

• Elliot switched to Vanessa and used the Difference Engine to recruit the Factory’s workers in batches.
• Elliot checked the believers’ activity logs, and Vanessa eliminated those who were betraying or reporting him.
• Dorothea registered the new believers through the night as Elliot considered merging the Hearthfire District’s factories into one industrial complex.
• Flora reflected on her unexpected interest in joining Vanessa’s Faith, then hurried to help her.
• Maeve sensed that Theresia’s purification could kill her and, unable to escape or fight, headed toward the towering church for shelter.

Simon and Maeve took shelter from Theresia’s approaching purification in a church, where they found Priest Adam and the Factory Guard. They survived the fiery attack inside, while Maeve reflected on how the Empire, the Church, commoners, and monsters had become impossible to distinguish.

• Simon and Maeve chose the Hearthfire District church as the only shelter they could reach before Theresia attacked.
• Simon persuaded the blind Priest Adam to let them inside, and Maeve entered the church in her monstrous form.
• Maeve and Simon discovered Phoebe and the Factory Guard sheltering in the church with Priest Adam’s permission.
• Theresia’s purification engulfed the street in flames, killing the people and monsters caught outside.
• Priest Adam brought the group water and prayed as Maeve watched the burning street and wondered whether Theresia treated everyone equally.

Elliot secured the Factory workers’ silence and considered how their growing faith could form a vast secret society, then used Maeve’s accumulated progress to advance her to Second Rank. Maeve fully recovered and gained a choice of new abilities.

• Elliot confirmed that the night’s events had been erased from history and relied on the Difference Engine, Vanessa, and the workers’ loyalty to keep the Factory’s secrets.
• Elliot considered turning the Factory’s self-sufficient community and thousands of Believers into an organization unlike any other Society.
• Elliot checked Maeve’s Tree of the Supernatural and selected two more [Restoration] nodes, bringing her total to four.
• Maeve advanced to Second Rank, stabilized dreams with Spirituality, and fully restored her condition.
• Elliot read Maeve’s three new ability choices: [Rage], [Delicacy Holy Communion], and [Transformation].

Elliot selected new abilities for Maeve and discovered that eating monsters had advanced her to middle rank. He tried to advance her further, but the system said she did not meet the prerequisites.

• Elliot considered Maeve’s three Restoration abilities and chose [Transformation] and [Delicacy Holy Communion].
• Elliot found Maeve’s progress still full and advanced her, selecting [Blood Moon Slaughter] and [Wild Hunt].
• Elliot discovered Maeve had enough progress to reach middle rank after eating monsters all night.
• Elliot tried to advance Maeve to fourth rank, but the system rejected the attempt because she had not met the prerequisites.

After the Blood Moon ended, Saint Clair awoke clean and sunlit, and its residents believed Theresia had manifested. Elliot visited the Factory, where workers celebrated their survival, but he questioned what had really happened and how much of the truth remained hidden.

• Elliot found that Flora’s Believer Card had changed, but he could not determine why he was unable to advance her and decided to ask her later.
• At dawn, Saint Clair’s residents saw the clear sky and the Bronze Angel statue, then knelt and praised Theresia for the apparent miracle.
• Elliot walked to the Factory, where the guards welcomed him and workers celebrated his leadership in defending the Hearthfire District.
• Elliot remembered the festivalgoers who had died and become monsters, and he realized the city’s residents had forgotten them.
• As the workers carried Elliot and cheered, he wondered whether the truths he knew were only another layer in a deeper dream.

Elliot was questioned by the Old Duke, who gave him control of the Hearthfire District and arranged a series of public engagements to establish him as the Sterling Family’s heir. Elliot then asked Conrad how to keep the Night Watch Bureau from investigating the factories, and Conrad said its control of the Imperial Capital was about to end.

• The Old Duke asked Elliot about problems with the sacrifice, then told him Sidney had been confined for challenging the sacrifice before His Majesty.
• The Old Duke gave Elliot authority over the Hearthfire District’s production and handed him a schedule of social and political engagements.
• Elliot accepted both documents with a noble’s salute and asked Conrad to obtain a Difference Engine catalog from the Troy Society.
• Conrad advised Elliot not to visit Sidney while he was confined, and Elliot asked about the Sterling Family’s influence over the Night Watch Bureau.
• Conrad told Elliot that the Night Watch Bureau’s control over the Imperial Capital was about to end.

Elliot learned that controls in the Imperial Capital would ease after the festival and discussed protecting the Machine Priests who had sided with him. He discovered that the Frostmoon Uprising had been erased from official history, received Victoria’s bill for items taken from her Library, and learned that Vanessa planned to search for information about monsters.

• Elliot learned the Night Watch Bureau and Dome Institute would gradually ease the Imperial Capital’s controls and arranged to station loyal Machine Priests at the factory.
• Conrad explained that Prince Michel was a favored heir and warned Elliot to be cautious when contacting Princess Victoria because of the Frostmoon Uprising.
• Conrad told Elliot that the uprising remained in people’s memories despite no longer existing in history, leading Elliot to suspect the Royal Family had altered the historical record.
• Elliot received Victoria’s bill for supplies and household items, including a cleaning rag, and realized it was the score she had mentioned settling.
• Vanessa told Maeve she would not return that night because she planned to seek information about the monsters.

After the Festival disaster, Vanessa and the Canteen's believers struggled to rebuild the Hearthfire District while she sought answers about the monsters and [Worm]. On her way to the Library, Vanessa entered an unnaturally silent alley beneath a moon despite the morning, and her [Spirit Vision] revealed something that left her frozen.

• Vanessa and the others discussed their losses, the Canteen's growing influence, and inviting believers to vote on a new name for their society.
• Vanessa left for the Library, passing people who worshipped Theresia and noticing that fear still lingered in the streets.
• Vanessa turned into an alley to avoid a patrol officer and found the streets unnaturally silent beneath a bright crescent moon, though it was morning.
• Vanessa sensed no danger with her spirituality, then activated [Spirit Vision] and froze at what she saw.

Vanessa experienced a terrifying vision after returning from a moonlit street, but trusted her Spirituality and did not attack Victoria. Victoria told her she had fallen into temporary madness and warned that it could happen again.

• Vanessa left the moonlit street, turned off Spirit Vision, and headed for the Library while sensing something was wrong.
• At the Library entrance, Vanessa saw a monstrous web and fell through a door made of spider silk.
• Vanessa resisted the urge to attack the monster and trusted her Spirituality’s judgment, revealing Victoria instead.
• Victoria said Vanessa had suffered temporary madness and explained the three kinds of madness.
• Victoria inferred that Vanessa had Spirit Vision and called it a terrible ability because Miskatonic University made it available to commoners.

Victoria warned Vanessa that her visions might be signs of Spiritification, which could trap her permanently in the Dream World, and let her recover in the Library. She asked Vanessa to investigate the Overflowing Garden, a place Vanessa recognized as the bookstore Daydream.

• Victoria explained the dangers of madness and Spirit Vision, then agreed to keep Vanessa in the Library and give her psychoanalysis.
• Victoria found Vanessa's mind strangely normal and suspected she had experienced Spiritification after seeing spiderwebs in a moonlit alley.
• Victoria explained that Vanessa might be seeing projections of the Dream World and could eventually become trapped there as a monster.
• Vanessa mistakenly asked whether the spider woman she saw was Victoria's true appearance, and Victoria angrily corrected her.
• Victoria told Vanessa the Library could shield her from Dream World images and asked her to investigate the Overflowing Garden.
• Vanessa recognized the Overflowing Garden as Daydream, the bookstore where a great being had controlled her and performed a sacrificial ritual.

Vanessa told Victoria that she had entered [Overflowing Garden] through the bookstore Daydream, making Victoria fear she would stop visiting the Saint Clair Grand Library. After ordering Vanessa to rest from her injured mind, Victoria realized she was anxious about losing her and began considering how better service might keep her close.

• Vanessa asked whether Victoria had any connection to [Overflowing Garden], and Victoria said she hoped her library would someday become its equal.
• Victoria explained that no one had entered [Overflowing Garden], and Vanessa revealed that she had visited it twice through Daydream.
• Victoria panicked that Vanessa would abandon her library, but Vanessa reassured her that she preferred its service.
• Victoria had a bed moved into the library and ordered Vanessa to sleep while her mind recovered.
• Victoria watched Vanessa sleep, worried that [Overflowing Garden] had gained her recognition, and wondered whether the library's better service could keep her from leaving.

Sia signed a contract to become a Supernatural person after Maeve referred her for a job, accepting the dangers because poverty seemed worse. That night, she entered the Dream World, where Maeve found her and offered to explain what to do.

• Sia told the clerk Maeve had referred her, and he explained the contract and the risks of exploring the Dream.
• Sia signed the contract and was told to sleep on time so Maeve could guide her in her dream.
• Sia returned to the refugee camp and fell asleep in her new bedding.
• Sia awoke in a grand marble corridor in the Dream World, where Maeve found her and pulled her along to show her around.

Maeve brought Sia to learn about the supernatural world, where Sia was introduced to the Canteen’s organizations and had her ability registered. Elliot’s search for Dreams with a Blood Moon was revealed as a way to have Maeve summon the dangerous [Worm] inside a Dream.

• Maeve escorted Sia to a hall, where Phoebe led her to Xiao’s explanation of the supernatural world.
• Xiao explained that the Communion handled supernatural affairs under Elsa, while the Guild managed daily needs under Dorothea.
• Sia had her Flame Mark and innate ability, [Stepwise Optimization], recorded and received a nameplate.
• The registrar told Sia to record the setting of her Dream because they were searching for Dreams with a Blood Moon.
• Elliot planned to have Maeve summon [Worm] in a Dream to reduce the risk of destroying the real world.

Elliot searched the believers’ dreams for a Blood Moon World while Maeve returned to the Mansion after guiding their dreams. There, she found blood rituals and learned from Simon that they were trapped inside the house.

• Elliot began searching the believers’ Dream Worlds for one with a Blood Moon.
• Maeve returned to the Mansion, where the missing entrance light and the smell of blood made her uneasy.
• Maeve found three ritual diagrams in the living room and detected blood coming from the bedrooms upstairs.
• Simon revealed himself and told Maeve that a ritual’s effects had changed his eyes; he asked when she had last seen Dorothea.
• Simon told Maeve they were trapped in the house, and Maeve discovered that she could not open a window or break its glass.

Maeve found Simon and Flora trapped inside a house that would not let anyone leave, and learned that its moving weaknesses suggested the house was alive. Her plan to wait for Allen to arrive was met with unease when Simon pointed out that Dorothea had not appeared.

• Maeve learned that Simon, Flora, and Dorothea had been trapped in the house since the previous afternoon, unable to open the door or windows.
• Flora explained that her [Weakness Insight] revealed the window's weakness was moving, while Simon's rituals to pin the house's weaknesses had failed.
• Maeve realized the house might be alive and trapping them inside, and Simon and Flora warned her against using Dream Entry in their dangerous situation.
• Maeve proposed waiting for Allen to arrive and keeping the door open so they could escape.
• Simon asked Maeve if she had noticed that Dorothea had returned with them but had not appeared.

Maeve and Simon learned that Dorothea had vanished from her locked room, leaving fragments of the Monocle, and feared the house was dangerous. Maeve then saw Dorothea in a window’s reflection, where she warned that danger was beside Maeve.

• Simon told Maeve that Dorothea had disappeared from her locked room and that he had found fragments of the Monocle on her desk.
• Simon warned that the house might be malicious and urged everyone to investigate before dawn.
• Maeve fell into a strange trance, began transforming into a fur-covered monster, and was awakened by Simon at the cost of blood running from his eyes.
• Flora told Maeve that her visions might contain truth, and Maeve recounted seeing Dorothea in the glass wearing the broken Monocle.
• Maeve said Dorothea pressed her face against the window, became terrified, and pointed at Maeve while warning of danger beside her.

Flora realized that she and the others were trapped in separate illusions, while Elliot hesitated to send Allen back without knowing what was happening inside the house. He turned to Vanessa for help, as Victoria woke in the Library with the sensation that someone was lying on top of her.

• Flora mistook Allen at the door for a chance to escape the illusion, but he could not hear her and ran away in terror.
• Flora discovered that she was trapped inside an eye, just as Dorothea had been trapped in Maeve's eye.
• Elliot determined that Allen had never left the Factory and that the people in the house were likely experiencing different illusions.
• Elliot looked to [Esoteric Cult Leader Vanessa] as the person he could rely on.
• Victoria slept in the Library and vaguely felt that someone was lying on top of her.