Chapter Summaries

Maeve helped the Communion hold the palace by enduring the Lords of Dreams and devouring them, while Elliot’s power strengthened her further. As Victoria prepared to leave with stolen building materials, she sensed Evan nearby and turned to find Vanessa behind her.

• Dorothea sent Maeve to draw the Lords of Dreams’ attention while the Communion’s Believers killed them.
• Maeve discovered she could endure the monsters’ attacks and began eating corpses, living Dream Creatures, and severed tentacles to recover her strength.
• Elliot used [Dream Memory; Blood Moon] to activate Maeve’s [Blood Moon Slaughter], letting her fight back as the battle stabilized.
• Victoria ran low on spirituality, rested, then gathered bricks and stones to take with her.
• Victoria sensed Evan in the courtyard and turned around to find Vanessa questioning why she was stuffing bricks into her skirt.

Victoria and Vanessa discovered that the dream world was sealed off and the Great Beings were preparing to flee history, while Elliot wondered whether the Worm’s Descent and his own talent were tied to an Important Historical Node. The chapter ended with Elliot suspecting that the node might be important to him rather than to history.

• Vanessa arrived in Victoria’s Abode, and Victoria realized Evan was there too as she questioned why everyone from her Grand Library had been pulled into the dream.
• Vanessa told Victoria that they could not leave the dream and that the Seven Orthodox Churches had lost contact with the Great Beings.
• Victoria theorized that every Abode had been invaded and explained that sealing an Abode meant preparing to flee history with its believers.
• Victoria concluded that the Great Being had gathered her, Vanessa, and Evan to take them along, while Elliot realized he had deliberately brought Vanessa and Evan had arrived on his own.
• Elliot wondered whether the Great Beings were fleeing because of the Worm, checked his Path Card, and suspected that an Important Historical Node might be important to him rather than to history.

Vanessa and Victoria watched an intelligent, enormously powerful dream creature break into the Courtyard and kill Maeve. As the monster charged at Victoria, Vanessa stepped in front of her and unleashed a burst of white light.

• Vanessa asked Victoria whether their gathering marked an important historical node, and Victoria said she had sensed no such point.
• Vanessa used Spirit Vision to reveal Evan’s phantom and discovered she could direct him, while Victoria could not.
• Victoria explained that the great beings planned to seal the Abode and leave the Second Era, but Vanessa wondered whether the seal was meant to keep dream creatures out.
• A huge, intelligent dream creature tore open a rift in the Courtyard and killed Maeve, whose death the Brass Dial recorded.
• The creature charged at Victoria, and Vanessa stepped in front of her and released violent white light from her eyes.

Vanessa used [Spirituality Pressure] to kill a powerful dream monster, while Maeve resurrected after her death by devouring its corpse. The blood moon repeatedly disappeared and returned, and Victoria warned that more dream creatures were approaching.

• Vanessa struck the charging monster with [Spirituality Pressure], stopping it and leaving it mangled for Victoria to finish off.
• Elliot realized Vanessa's spell had been far more powerful than usual, though he did not know why.
• Vanessa recognized the flesh devouring the monster as Maeve and recalled that [Blood Moon Slaughter] granted Maeve one resurrection under the blood moon.
• The blood moon vanished and returned, changing Maeve's recovery speed and leaving Vanessa unsure whether Maeve could resurrect again.
• Victoria sensed more intelligent dream creatures approaching and told Vanessa to prepare for another fight.

Vanessa and Victoria teamed up to fight a powerful dream creature, using Vanessa’s Spirituality Pressure to hold it still while the others attacked. Afterward, Vanessa told Victoria that Maeve could restore her spirituality, but the method was to eat Maeve’s flesh.

• Vanessa demonstrated her powerful Spirituality Pressure, and Victoria stopped her from aiming it at her again.
• Victoria told Vanessa to conserve her power while the Immortals handled ordinary dream creatures, and they planned for another powerful monster.
• When a huge rift opened, Victoria used spider silk to swing Vanessa in front of the monster so Vanessa could stun it, allowing the Communion believers to fire and Victoria to strangle it.
• Vanessa told Victoria that Maeve had a way to restore her spirituality, then revealed that the method was to eat Maeve’s flesh.

Victoria and Vanessa helped stabilize the battle against the Lords of Dreams, while Victoria discovered that eating Maeve’s flesh restored her Spirituality. Elliot suspected the Worm was changing the Dream World, and the chapter left him wondering what stronger threats might still emerge.

• Victoria hesitated over eating Maeve’s flesh, but bit into it when her Spirituality ran low and found that it tasted sweet and restored her strength.
• Maeve shared more of her flesh with Victoria, who spun a web while the Communion and the others fought the endless Dream Monsters together.
• Elliot watched the battle line stabilize and wondered whether the Great Beings had sealed their Abodes to keep the Lords of Dreams out.
• Elliot suspected the Worm had removed restrictions on the Lords of Dreams, allowing stronger ones to enter Abodes, and wondered whether an unseen being was guiding the Dream World’s changes.

Elliot connected the believers’ loss of control to the Dream World and suspected it was a conscious force lifting its restrictions. After learning that Michel and Sidney were leading troops to support the Expedition, Elliot inferred that the expeditionary army was fighting the Lord of Dreams.

• Elliot noticed Evan’s phantom growing more solid and wondered whether Evan was being resurrected after losing control.
• Elliot linked Elsa, Dorothea, Vanessa, and Flora’s conditions to the Dream World and theorized that it was deliberately causing anomalies to break free of its restrictions.
• Conrad told Elliot that Michel had invited him to join a force departing to support the Expedition, with Sidney leading alongside Michel after their reconciliation.
• Conrad said he could not reveal the Expedition’s purpose because Elliot was still before the Veil, but Elliot could reach his own conclusions.
• Elliot reasoned that the Great Beings’ Abodes had been attacked by the Lord of Dreams and concluded that the expeditionary army was likely fighting it.

Elliot realized Michel’s expedition invitation was a royalist attempt to win the Sterling Family’s support, but refused to join because he would not leave the Hearthfire District. At the Third Prince’s Palace, Sidney told a woman that Elliot had declined, disappointing her expectations for an important historical node.

• Elliot reasoned that Michel’s invitation was meant to distance him from the Old Nobility and draw the Sterling Family toward the Royal Family.
• Elliot told Conrad to send Michel a polite refusal, explaining that he would not join the expedition.
• Conrad accepted Elliot’s decision and went to write back to Prince Michel.
• Sidney knocked three times on a pitch-black room in the Stage-Play Difference Engine, but received no answer.
• A lavishly dressed woman asked Sidney whether Elliot had agreed, calling the invitation an important historical node.
• Sidney said Elliot had refused, and the woman dropped her grape in surprise.

Sidney asked Lillian about Phoenix, who had betrayed the Hollow Cathedral and stolen a world-changing relic, then invited her on an expedition. Meanwhile, Vanessa and Victoria discussed Maeve’s apparent growth in strength and realized it contradicted a rule about dreams, leaving them unsure how she was gaining power.

• Lillian told Sidney that Phoenix had been spotted in the Hearthfire District and had erased his tracks.
• Lillian said Phoenix had betrayed the Hollow Cathedral and the [Shell of Regret], then refused Sidney’s invitation so she could pursue him.
• Vanessa noticed Victoria repeatedly watching Maeve while the two fought from Victoria’s expanding spiderweb.
• Victoria explained that she was conserving her strength and questioned why Maeve seemed to grow stronger by eating flesh and blood.
• Victoria told Vanessa that people could not gain power using things from a dream, though they could collect supernatural materials there.

Victoria warned Vanessa that gaining power in dreams caused irreversible loss of control and transformation into Dream Creatures. Vanessa realized Elsa’s powerful Nightmare Form might be connected to that process and wondered whether Elsa’s resurrection in the Dream World would make her more like a true Nightmare.

• Victoria explained that using Formless Arts or making sacrifices in dreams caused the attempt to fail and the caster to lose control.
• Victoria warned Vanessa that people who lost control in dreams would irreversibly transform into Dream Creatures.
• Vanessa connected Elsa’s loss of control and powerful Nightmare Form to the Nightmares in the Dream World.
• Vanessa wondered whether Elsa’s resurrection amid the Dream Creature corpses would strengthen her Nightmare Form and make her unable to function in the Present World.
• Victoria asked Vanessa whether she had noticed that something seemed off about Evan.

Vanessa used [Spirit Vision] inside the Great Being’s [Abode], claiming her spirituality had assured her it was safe. She and Victoria then noticed Evan absorbing something from the Lord of Dreams’ corpse, and Vanessa asked Victoria what it was.

• Vanessa realized she could see Evan without activating [Spirit Vision], then used it and saw a huge phantom beside Victoria.
• Victoria slapped Vanessa and warned that using [Spirit Vision] in a dream could cause irreversible madness.
• Vanessa claimed her spirituality had told her it was safe inside a Great Being’s [Abode], and Victoria accepted that possibility.
• Vanessa suggested that their abilities might also be safe to use, saying the Great Being did not seem to intend to stop them.
• Vanessa told Victoria that Evan appeared to be absorbing something from the Lord of Dreams’ corpse and asked what it was.

Vanessa saw that Dream Creatures contained white motes of power that entered Evan, while Victoria warned that absorbing dream power was dangerous. When a Nightmare emerged through a rift, Vanessa used [Spirituality Pressure] twice and realized the Nightmare had shifted all its eyes out of sight to evade the stronger attack.

• Vanessa used [Spirit Vision] to see white motes inside Dream Creatures and watched some of them flow into Evan.
• Victoria tried to pull Evan away with spider silk, but it passed through him as a new Nightmare appeared in a rift.
• Vanessa saw that the Nightmare had motes of light and reacted more like a living creature than the Dream Creatures.
• Vanessa used [Spirituality Pressure] on her own, but the Nightmare only paused before the Lord controlled her to use it again.
• Victoria hauled Vanessa back, and Vanessa saw that the Nightmare had moved all its eyes behind the rift to evade the stronger attack.

Vanessa faced a nightmare that dodged [Spirituality Pressure] and seemed certain to kill her. Just before Victoria rescued her, the nightmare stopped, closed its eyes, and bowed to Vanessa, leaving her stunned after it was destroyed.

• The nightmare dodged Elliot's [Spirituality Pressure], leaving Vanessa without the nearby points of light needed to use it again at full strength.
• Victoria pulled Vanessa away as the nightmare's gaze fixed on her and her spiritual intuition warned that she could not escape death.
• Vanessa used [Secret Art: Overdraft] to force out another [Spirituality Pressure], but it barely affected the nightmare.
• As Victoria rushed to Vanessa, the nightmare stopped, closed all its eyes, and bowed slightly toward her.
• Time returned to normal, and Victoria's bullets and spider silk cut the nightmare into pieces before she pulled Vanessa behind her and asked if she was all right.

Elliot analyzed the defeated nightmare and theorized that Lords of Dreams might be fragments that could gradually reassemble into a complete, powerful being. He wondered whether the nightmare had recognized his use of [Spirituality Pressure] because it had encountered him before it was divided.

• Elliot reviewed the nightmare's unusual strength and its refusal to attack or evade Vanessa before it was killed.
• Elliot compared the nightmare with the weaker, distorted Lords of Dreams and considered whether they were fragments of a larger being.
• Elliot used pieces of bread to illustrate how fragments might fit together and restore a complete form.
• Elliot reasoned that nightmares could grow stronger until they became whole, and questioned whether a complete Lord of Dreams would be a Great Being.
• Elliot recalled that the nightmare distinguished his layered [Spirituality Pressure] from Vanessa's and wondered whether it had seen him before it was divided.

Elliot considered whether the Lords of Dreams had once been whole and questioned whether Maeve’s [Worm] was connected to the nightmares. After the nightmare’s death, Vanessa struggled with its gesture of recognition, while Victoria worried over her; Vanessa’s fluctuating Spirituality then drew their attention to a piece of the corpse pointing nearby.

• Elliot recalled that the nightmare had acknowledged him before dying and wondered what the Lords of Dreams had been before they were divided.
• Elliot considered whether [Worm] was a nightmare, but doubted the idea because Maeve’s powers and the worm were tied to the moon while dreams seemed unrelated.
• Elliot noticed that Maeve’s [Crescent Moon Prayer] had come off cooldown, but decided not to summon the worm again until he understood it.
• Vanessa sat dazed beside the nightmare’s corpse, hurt by its gesture of kindness and imagining that it might once have known her.
• Victoria checked Vanessa for a mental attack, and Vanessa concealed what she had experienced while Victoria regretted putting her in danger.
• Vanessa’s Spirituality fluctuated, and a piece of the nightmare’s corpse flipped over and pointed somewhere nearby.

Vanessa witnessed a luminous figure emerge from the nightmare’s remains, and Elliot discovered that the resulting [Momentary Remembrance] Card could dispel [Despair] but was slowly being forgotten. As the dream battle intensified, Dorothea reinforced the defenses while Victoria ate Maeve’s flesh to restore her spirituality and asked for Evan.

• Vanessa used [Spirit Vision] and watched the nightmare’s lights gather around one piece of flesh before a luminous figure gave her a curtsy and vanished.
• Elliot examined the [Momentary Remembrance] Card and learned it could dispel [Despair] once and was counting down as the [Forgetting] slot slowly consumed it.
• Elliot suspected the nightmare had not truly died and that he would encounter it again.
• Dorothea ordered the soldiers to fire despite Maeve being in the fighting, then prayed for supplies, weapons, ammunition, and reinforcements as the Lords of Dreams grew stronger and more numerous.
• Victoria ate Maeve’s roasted flesh to restore her spirituality, then asked for Evan to be brought over because his body was nearly solidified.

Vanessa and Victoria discovered that Evan could attack Dream Creatures despite remaining untouchable, and he gradually became fully solid. When he regained consciousness, he recognized Victoria but seemed unnervingly emotionless.

• Vanessa tried to touch Evan but her hand passed through him, then told him to attack a Dream Creature.
• Evan fired a shoulder cannon, annihilating the targeted Dream Creature and many others in a huge explosion.
• Victoria observed that Evan could affect the dream while remaining immune to attacks and the Formless Art.
• Evan finished solidifying as nearby spirits vibrated, and Victoria bound him with spider silk in case he had lost control.
• Evan opened his eyes, listened to Victoria explain who she was, and nodded with precise, mechanical movements, making Vanessa wonder if the Lord controlled him.

Elliot discovered that someone else was controlling Evan, while Vanessa and Victoria found that Evan’s Spirit had separated from his flesh. Elliot suspected the loss of control was connected to himself and the Dream, and noticed Evan’s Spirit Body was whole despite his mechanical prostheses.

• Elliot tried to control Evan through the Difference Engine, but Evan’s Card was rejected because someone else was already controlling him.
• Elliot took control of Vanessa and watched her question Evan, whose movements and responses were delayed.
• Vanessa used Spirit Vision to discover Evan’s Spirit remained where he had stood after Victoria pulled his physical body away.
• Victoria reunited Evan’s Spirit and body, and he regained control but was told he could not leave the Courtyard.
• Elliot concluded Evan’s loss of control might be connected to him and the Dream, then noticed Evan’s Spirit Body had no prostheses.

Sidney agreed to get Elliot to join the expedition in exchange for Lillian helping him claim the throne after Michel killed the monarch. Elliot learned that Conrad’s identity was concealed and then discovered the court had requisitioned his Difference Engine Core for the war effort.

• Lillian told Sidney that Elliot had refused her requests to join the expedition, and Sidney said he believed Elliot would change history.
• Sidney promised to get Elliot onto the expedition and reminded Lillian to help him ascend the throne after Michel killed the monarch.
• Elliot asked Conrad about his identity, and Conrad said it involved [Concealment] and could be revealed once Elliot reached middle rank.
• Elliot considered sacrificing the Lords of Dreams’ corpses to the Difference Engine, but Conrad warned that the expedition needed the machine cores.
• Conrad explained that Elliot’s Difference Engine Core had been officially requisitioned under the War Act because it had belonged to a minor noble in New Scandinavia.

Elliot first planned to flee with his Difference Engine Core rather than surrender it, but Third Prince Sidney offered him an exception to the Edict and a collection of new machines in exchange for going to the Expedition Frontline. As Elliot considers accepting, Conrad explains that his family’s ritual can connect him to [Concealment] without a Great Being, prompting Elliot to realize the Great Beings’ influence may be weakening.

• Elliot decided to take his Difference Engine Core to New Scandinavia and hide rather than hand it over under the Edict.
• Conrad told Elliot that Third Prince Sidney had secured him an exception, allowing him to keep the Core while going to the Expedition Frontline without fighting.
• Conrad added that Sidney would send Elliot his collection of Difference Engines, including the latest models and one Elliot had recently tried to order.
• Elliot reconsidered the trip after recalling that his family’s ritual could let him come into contact with [Concealment].
• Conrad explained that most rituals did not require a Great Being, and Elliot realized that the Great Beings’ influence over supernatural people might be diminishing.