Chapter Summaries

Maeve and Elsa discussed the hunger and changes brought on by their growing powers, leaving Maeve frightened that they were losing themselves. Maeve remembered why she had struggled to become stronger and regained her resolve.

• Maeve recalled how Elsa's Nightmare Form had overwhelmed her senses and wondered whether she had defeated only a single hair of Elsa's monster.
• Elsa asked Maeve to let her replenish the power she had spent, and Maeve offered her arm because her flesh and blood could restore Elsa.
• Elsa admitted that her hunger became nearly uncontrollable after using her power and described how death and corpses had begun to seem beautiful to her.
• Elsa asked Maeve whether they were straying from themselves as their power grew, and Maeve felt fear and confusion take hold.
• Maeve remembered that she had worked hard so she and her older brother could live better, and she regained her resolve.

Maeve helped Elsa regain control of her monstrous power, then revealed that Warren’s missing body was beneath the Abode in the Dream World. Their discovery of who could touch the Golden-Haired Dog left them wondering why Flora’s [Restoration] did not qualify.

• Maeve persuaded Elsa that they needed to control their monstrous abilities rather than fear them, and Elsa replenished her power by eating Maeve’s flesh.
• Maeve’s flesh rapidly regenerated, and she warned Elsa not to overdraw her power or lose control of her other form.
• Maeve told Elsa she had tracked the missing Believer Warren and found his body beneath the Abode, outside the Present World.
• Maeve and Elsa prayed in the Washroom, then located the body directly below the golden fountain and decided to dig after receiving no response.
• Elsa discovered the Golden-Haired Dog let her pet it after she ate Maeve’s flesh, and Maeve realized Flora also had [Restoration] but could not touch the dog.

Elsa and Maeve dug up the golden fountain in the Lord's Abode, only to discover it was fed by a natural spring that had no drain and began flooding the washroom. They continued digging underwater in their monster forms, while Elsa repeatedly pulled Maeve over for bites to sustain her Nightmare Form.

• Elsa and Maeve wondered why the dog liked them and Vanessa, then Maeve denied ever feeding her flesh to anyone but Elsa.
• Maeve transformed into a monster and dug around the golden fountain, while Elsa moved it aside and found only spring-water channels beneath it.
• Elsa noticed the fountain had no return inlet, and the spring water kept flowing until it flooded the washroom.
• Maeve and Elsa shut doors to contain the water, but the level rose to Elsa's neck and the fountain sculpture could not plug the spring.
• Elsa transformed partly into her Nightmare Form and plunged underwater to dig through the floor, while Maeve followed in monster form.
• Elsa repeatedly dragged Maeve over for bites as she continued digging underwater.

Elsa and Maeve found a battered pewter flask beneath the water, which seemed to be the source of the flooding but could not be stopped or damaged. Elsa decided they should leave the Dream and ask Flora for help, while Victoria returned to the Abode and was swept away by the flood.

• Elsa brought Maeve above the surface when she nearly drowned, then Maeve pointed her toward an object buried in the dirt.
• Elsa dug up a pewter flask that poured out water, and Maeve recognized the water as what she had been swallowing.
• Elsa and Maeve concluded that the flask was connected to Warren's corpse and causing the rising water, but their attempts to stop it failed.
• Elsa proposed leaving the Dream to ask Flora for help, noting that Victoria could not enter the Abode.
• Victoria returned to the Abode, opened a heavy door, and was swept away by surging water.

Victoria discovered that the Abode had flooded and struggled through the water to find its source. She subdued a newly born relic, a tin kettle, and wondered if she could pose as one of the Abode’s believers.

• Victoria, unable to swim, escaped the flooded room by clinging to the ceiling and questioned why the Abode was underwater.
• Victoria entered the corridor and found that the water blocked spiritual perception and corroded her spider silk and flesh, while the Abode’s walls and furnishings remained unharmed.
• Victoria realized the water had a will and recognized her as an outsider, so she wove a cocoon and followed the current toward its source.
• Victoria found a tin kettle beside a hole beneath the washroom and identified it as a newly born relic producing the flood.
• Victoria wrapped the kettle in her hair and poured Spirituality into it, reducing the flow, then considered pretending to be a believer in the Abode.

Victoria discovered that the Abode extended into a vast, living world and concluded that its hidden Great Being was deliberately supporting her plan to escape the Second Era. She decided to preserve their unspoken distance, keep taking materials, and pretend to be a Believer so she could ask for what she needed.

• Victoria used the Tin Flagon to stop the flood and found real soil and the house's foundations beneath the Mansion.
• After exploring outside, Victoria realized that the Abode contained an entire living world and feared its Great Being was watching her.
• Victoria decided the Great Being had arranged the Relic's rampage to reveal the Abode and signal their continued presence.
• Victoria concluded that the Great Being opposed the Second Era and was secretly helping her build an Abode to escape it.
• Victoria resolved to act as though she knew nothing, keep taking materials, and pray to the Great Being as a Believer.

Victoria prayed to Elliot as she explored his dream, and Elliot discovered that she had become a Retainer. As Vanessa prepared for her Investiture, Victoria arrived at her etiquette lesson looking unusually radiant.

• Victoria mistook Elliot for a Great Being, prayed for a bookcase, and found the one he had placed in the Mansion.
• Elliot noticed the Golden-Haired Dog was still digging and discovered a Card depicting Victoria as a Retainer.
• Elliot suspected that Victoria's prayers had made her a Retainer, then decided to skip Vanessa's Investiture and remain at the Difference Engine.
• Vanessa struggled to learn Court Etiquette and was told she could wear a military uniform only if she had military merits.
• Victoria entered Vanessa's lesson looking more energetic and radiant than before.

Vanessa prepared for her knightly investiture and learned that her oath to Victoria would carry no supernatural force. After a sleepless night, she was dressed for court and left waiting to begin the ritual.

• Victoria rejected Vanessa’s gown as impractical and had her changed into a man’s formal outfit for their visit to the Imperial Palace.
• Victoria explained that Vanessa’s knightly oath would be a personal pledge, not supernatural control, and dismissed Vanessa’s hypothetical about an all-powerful emperor.
• Vanessa agreed to prepare for the ritual but was too excited to sleep well.
• The next morning, the maids dressed a groggy Vanessa for court while she stood by passively, feeling like a puppet.

Victoria prepared Vanessa for her noble investiture and took her from the Library to the Imperial Palace, where Vanessa was struck by the palace’s unusual appearance. The chapter ended as Victoria urged Vanessa to go inside for the ritual.

• Victoria had servants dress Vanessa in fine clothes, and Vanessa left her old garments behind without asking about them.
• Victoria taught Vanessa to offer her arm like a gentleman, and the two left the Library in a carriage.
• Victoria told Vanessa that the Investiture Ritual would transfer some of her power, though only enough to raise Vanessa a few ranks.
• Vanessa arrived at the Imperial Palace and felt its architecture evoke distortion, pain, and struggle before the impression vanished.
• Victoria tugged Vanessa’s sleeve and told her it was time to go.

Vanessa entered the Main Hall for her investiture ceremony, while Elliot watched the Difference Engine transform into a strange, uncontrollable display. The chapter ended as Vanessa saw that the throne held only writhing, putrid flesh instead of His Majesty.

• Victoria warned Vanessa to follow the ceremony and avoid drawing attention as they waited among the nobles.
• A royal steward summoned everyone to the Main Hall, where Victoria explained that His Majesty Thorne could only be there.
• Elliot saw the Difference Engine clear its cards, display distorted images, and narrate Vanessa’s experience in unfamiliar first-person passages.
• Elliot realized he could no longer control the Difference Engine and relied on Victoria to protect Vanessa if anything went wrong.
• Vanessa entered the Main Hall and looked up at the throne, where she saw ceaselessly writhing, putrid flesh.

Vanessa’s visions in the Imperial Palace revealed a mass of rotting flesh on the throne, and she tried to stop Victoria from approaching it. At the Difference Engine, Elliot’s choice shifted from No to Yes, and Vanessa exposed the truth aloud.

• Victoria used her power to end Vanessa’s hallucinations, but Vanessa still saw rotting flesh covering the throne.
• Victoria urged Vanessa to continue the ritual and walked toward the throne, but Vanessa grabbed her hand to stop her.
• Elliot faced a timed choice about revealing the truth and placed Vanessa’s Card in No.
• Elliot saw the choice change to Yes, and the Difference Engine recorded an Important Historical Node.
• Vanessa pointed at the throne and shouted that the figure there was rotting, stinking flesh.

Vanessa spoke against Emperor Thorne under the Great Being’s influence, but he let her go without punishment. Victoria revealed that everyone knew the truth behind the throne and explained that the events were an inevitable historical node, leaving Vanessa unable to become a noble.

• Vanessa condemned Emperor Thorne before the court, and he dismissed her without punishing her.
• Vanessa noticed that the nobles and guards reacted strangely and remembered Victoria warning her not to speak about what she saw.
• Victoria walked to a pool and wept over the failure of her carefully planned Investiture Ritual.
• A court lady told Victoria that Emperor Thorne said she should go home and that the failure was not her fault.
• Vanessa realized Victoria and the others knew what sat on the throne, and Victoria explained that important historical nodes could not be avoided.
• Victoria told Vanessa that she would never be able to become a noble.

Victoria explained to Vanessa that history revolved around important nodes and that Vanessa had become a fixed fulcrum after speaking before the Throne; Vanessa fainted from exposure to [Secret History]. Elliot then discovered that [Path; Glimmer] required two important historical nodes and connected the unknown second node to Tobias’s prophecy about Sidney.

• Victoria told Vanessa that important historical nodes drove history and that Vanessa could never become a noble because she had shifted history.
• Victoria revealed that Magic Emperor Tryst had changed history by ending the Mythological Era and beginning the First Industrial Revolution, and Vanessa passed out.
• Elliot realized the Difference Engine could no longer reveal what was happening after Vanessa fainted.
• Elliot inserted [Path; Glimmer] into the [Ascension] slot and saw that ascension had failed because one of two important historical nodes was missing.
• Elliot identified Vanessa’s statement about rotten flesh upon the Throne as the fulfilled node and recalled Tobias’s prophecy that Sidney was his key node.
• Elliot wondered why his Path card depended on Vanessa and Sidney, and how the [Prophet in the Urn] had known about the nodes in advance.

Elliot realized that a chain of coincidences may have forced him toward a prophesied Historical Node, leaving him to wonder whether he was being controlled. He suspected dreams and an Abode might offer a way beyond the watchers’ reach, then found a Card in Victoria’s Golden-Haired Dog’s mouth.

• Elliot questioned whether the events leading to Vanessa’s Investiture were coincidences or an inevitability imposed by a prophecy.
• Elliot suspected that a being had manipulated his choices and considered that it might not know about his connection to Vanessa through the Difference Engine.
• Elliot reasoned that dreams might escape the monitoring of [The Thinker] and wondered whether building an Abode could protect someone from watching eyes and history.
• Elliot entered his dream and found Victoria’s Golden-Haired Dog at the excavation site, where it had just finished digging.
• Elliot coaxed the dog into letting him take the object in its mouth and discovered that it was a Card.

Elliot discovered that the Golden-Haired Dog, Xixi, had been searching for a discarded [Dream Memory; Washroom] Card and fed it several more Cards. He brought the sleeping Xixi out of the dream, then found that Victoria’s prayer had activated a new [Prayer] slot and entered the dream to investigate.

• Elliot recognized the Card Xixi found as his failed first [Dream Memory; Washroom] attempt and gave it to the dog.
• Elliot fed Xixi several [Dream Memory] Cards, after which the dog fell asleep.
• Elliot brought the sleeping Xixi out of the dream and found [Retainer Xixi] and [Retainer Victoria] Cards beside the Difference Engine.
• The Difference Engine pushed Victoria’s Card into a newly appeared [Prayer] slot while her prayer appeared in the dialogue box.
• Elliot entered the dream and heard Victoria praying for permission to enter his Abode.

Elliot learned that Victoria’s prayers could reach him directly, while Victoria was pulled into the Dream after praying to the Great Being above the Dream. After Victoria warned that the expeditionary army would soon be in danger, Elliot wondered whether Sidney might join Michel in reinforcing it.

• Elliot realized that Victoria’s [Prayer] connected directly to him and inserted her Card into [Dream Entry].
• Victoria prayed to the Great Being above the Dream and was pulled from her Abode into the Dream, leaving her shaken by the possibility that her prayer had reached a being above all Great Beings.
• Victoria hurriedly moved materials into her Abode and privately said that Thorne had failed and the expeditionary army would be in great danger, with Michel likely going to reinforce it.
• Elliot appeared after Victoria left and considered whether her words were a hint about another Important Historical Node.
• Elliot wondered whether Sidney, an experienced battlefield commander leading the Knights, might accompany Michel to reinforce the expeditionary army.

Elliot learned that the Communion had located the Genesis School and was preparing an operation under Dorothea’s command. The chapter ended with a cloaked man visiting a ruined house at 29 Portland Street and leaving an unopened pill on an armchair.

• Elliot asked Conrad to send a sincere visiting card to the Third Prince and agreed to visit Victoria at the Library the next day.
• Elliot saw that Retainer Xixi’s status was [Learning] and wondered what the dog would become after learning.
• Elliot discovered that Maeve, Elsa, and the other believers had gathered in the Hearthfire District, where Dorothea was appointed to command the operation against the Genesis School.
• A cloaked man entered a derelict house in Saint Clair’s old town, examined the rooms, and left before morning.
• The man left an unopened pill on a shabby armchair.

Dorothea used a mirror to investigate the old house and found signs that someone had lingered beside the armchair, prompting her to contact Maeve before Elsa. At the Communion meeting, Maeve explained Dorothea’s reputation for watching everyone, only for Dorothea to appear and ask her about the tracking.

• Dorothea emerged from a mirror in the old house and found pills on an armchair and a dusty floor patch where someone had stood for a long time.
• Dorothea decided the visitor might not have been her father and asked Sia to contact Maeve before Elsa.
• Dorothea explained to the Communion that she had been using a mirror imbued with her spirituality to observe the old house and travel there.
• Maeve told Clara that workers called Dorothea the omnipresent Dorothea because she appeared in mirrors to catch them slacking off.
• Dorothea appeared behind Maeve and asked her to describe how she had assisted with the tracking.

Maeve revealed that the supernatural pills left at Elsa’s old house were made of flesh and blood and led her to a Genesis School gathering place. Elsa feared her missing father was connected to the school, but Flora argued he likely had not joined it, leaving the pills’ origin unexplained.

• Maeve recounted that Dorothea had searched the old house but found no trace of the missing man.
• Elsa recognized the pills left on the armchair and asked Maeve to explain what she had learned about them.
• Maeve said her [Song of Flesh] identified the pills as edible flesh and blood, and she used a piece of one to track the Genesis School.
• Dorothea confirmed that Maeve had traced the pill to a Genesis School gathering place, alarming Elsa and the others.
• Allen urged everyone not to jump to conclusions, and Flora reasoned that Elsa’s father probably had not undergone a Genesis Ritual or joined the school.

Elsa and the Communion prepared to destroy a Genesis School hideout after Maeve’s Wild Hunt led them to it. Elsa called on Elliot’s Machine Priests for support and offered Eleanor a promotion, leaving the group ready to coordinate an assault.

• Maeve explained that the Communion had identified more than twenty Genesis School cultists by watching meat vendors and tracking their need for bloody meat and victims.
• Dorothea reported the hideout’s size and possible combat strength, prompting concern that the Communion lacked enough fighters.
• Elsa revealed that Elliot had gathered a dozen or so Machine Priests in the Factory District and ordered Flora to contact him.
• Elsa told Eleanor that her service in the Hearthfire District merited promotion to detective inspector.