Chapter Summaries

Vanessa directed Lillian to open a permanent passage and sent her to search the Imperial Capital’s outskirts for Phoenix, who had been disrupting history. After Lillian completed the ritual, Vanessa cleared away the room and Lillian activated it, leaving the passage beginning to open.

• Lillian began inscribing a ritual to create a permanent passage, explaining that it required inventing a self-consistent history.
• Vanessa revealed she knew Lillian had hunted Phoenix and directed her to ruins on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital.
• Lillian promised to find Phoenix and recover the Hollow Cathedral’s stolen sacred object.
• Several hours later, Lillian finished the ritual on a wooden board in the top of her tower.
• Vanessa moved the room’s walls, ceiling, and furnishings away, leaving the floor and ritual behind.
• Lillian activated the ritual as runes lit up and Vanessa heard seawater gurgling.

Vanessa and Lillian opened a passage from the Sea of the Moon into the Courtyard, but Vanessa could not find the old concealed cave. The passage began flooding the tower, and Vanessa told Lillian that a Difference Engine would soon come through it.

• The Lords of Dreams gathered around the opening in the seabed as Vanessa and Lillian crawled through, and Vanessa’s White Light drove the Dream Creatures away.
• Vanessa had Lillian enlarge the passage and throw a chunk of rock into it, then confirmed that the concealed cave had vanished.
• Vanessa and Lillian returned to the tower, where seawater poured through the room-sized rift and flowed toward a lake in the Wood.
• Vanessa told Lillian that a Difference Engine would come through the passage, leaving Lillian stunned.

Elliot sent a Difference Engine into the Sea of the Moon and began exploring cooperation with its Dream Creatures. Vanessa had Dorothea transport a seabed boulder to Maeve, who discovered she could eat it.

• Elliot dropped a Difference Engine from the Shallow Zone into the Sea of the Moon, and Lillian moved it through the passage.
• Elliot considered working with the Dream Creatures to make use of the Sea of the Moon and its resources.
• Vanessa asked Dorothea to use the Mirror Secret Art to carry a large seabed boulder to Maeve in the Wood.
• Dorothea exhausted her spirituality transporting the boulder, so Vanessa fed her Maeve meat to restore it.
• Maeve chewed the boulder and discovered that the stone was edible.

Elliot investigated the strange seabed stone that Maeve could eat and found that it was a different kind of existence from Dream Creatures, while it greatly advanced her progress. With the passage open and the Difference Engine delivered, he arranged plans for engineering lessons and seabed mining before preparing to explain his rise to Duke Sterling to Michel and Sidney’s Expedition.

• Elliot had Vanessa give Maeve a seabed stone labeled [Chunk of meat] by the Difference Engine, and Maeve found it extraordinarily delicious.
• Maeve said the stone was entirely different from Dream Creatures, and Elliot saw that eating it had increased her progress far more than eating them.
• Elliot instructed Dorothea to place the Difference Engine outside the Palace Hall and organize mechanical engineering lessons for the Believers.
• Elliot told Dorothea to organize Believers to mine ordinary stones from the seabed beyond the passage.
• Elliot prepared to tell Michel and Sidney’s Expedition how he had become Duke Sterling, and his pocket watch displayed his mother’s promise to help.

Elliot learned that Lady Camilla had become a Mechanical Spirit who could inhabit machines imbued with his spirituality and help command the expedition. An investigation revealed that the Reforging Flame’s machine was a Fire-Control Prophet calculating a ballistic trajectory, leaving Elliot to wonder whether the Old Duke intended to save the era with a gigantic weapon.

• Elliot used a pocket watch to communicate with Lady Camilla, who explained that she could move between machines connected to his spirituality as Family Head.
• Lady Camilla said she could command the expedition’s war fortress, while Elliot reflected on the Old Duke’s unexplained departure and the memories that had been erased.
• Cora reported that the machine on the platform was a computing machine resembling a Difference Engine and explained that Reforging Flame machines used furnaces and flexible fuel.
• Cora explained that the Reforging Flame’s compact Fire-Control Prophets calculated artillery trajectories, unlike the Troy Society’s Difference Engines, which extrapolated many possible futures.
• Elliot learned that the platform’s Fire-Control Prophet had calculated an unknown ballistic trajectory and wondered whether the Old Duke had been building a gigantic bomb to save the era.

Elliot reviewed the fortresses’ operations and learned that his Formless Art had severely injured or driven mad those who looked directly at him. Unsure why his ability had become so powerful, he blamed an out-of-control Relic and prepared to travel by boat to explain the Old Duke’s replacement to Sidney and Michel.

• Elliot asked Cora about the fortresses, and she explained that Lady Camilla had taken charge of most operations while leaving some decisions to him.
• Cora reported that Elliot’s Formless Art had caused severe mental and physical harm to several people who looked at him, including permanent madness in a high-rank priest.
• Elliot considered how his heightened presence, unstable state, and the victims’ eye contact might have strengthened [Spirituality Pressure], but he could not explain why higher ranks suffered worse effects.
• Elliot told Cora to describe the incident as an out-of-control [Relic] and leave the remaining affairs to Lady Camilla.
• Elliot decided to find a boat to explain the Old Duke’s replacement to Sidney and Michel, and said he would check on Elsa’s Spirit Body.

Elliot discovered that Elsa had consumed another warehouse of Lord of Dreams corpses, so he sent her to the seabed to eat rocks. After revealing that he had become Duke Sterling, he learned from Sidney that a prophecy foretold the Second Era’s destruction and explained why the nobles had descended into depravity.

• Elliot sensed Elsa’s location, found her absorbing another warehouse of corpses, and told her to search the seabed for rocks to eat.
• Cora’s ship returned, and Elliot slipped aboard before meeting Sidney and Michel at the dock.
• Elliot told Sidney and Michel that Duke Sterling was dead and pinned the Coat of Arms to his collar, declaring himself the new Duke Sterling.
• Elliot asked what his father had meant by saving the era, and Sidney revealed the prophecy that the Second Era would end without another era following it.
• Sidney explained that the Prophet in the Urn’s prophecies had never failed, and that the nobles had abandoned hope and embraced the Blood Feast after their attempts to resist fate failed.

Elliot learned that the Empire’s leaders feared the era’s imminent destruction, explaining their desperate plans and willingness to gamble everything on the expedition. As the fleet prepared to depart, the pocket watch warned him that Dream Creatures were approaching.

• Sidney told Elliot that the era’s destruction could come at any moment, and that its signs showed the end was close.
• Sidney doubted the expedition could continue without Duke Sterling, but Elliot revealed that Lady Camilla could command the War Fortress; the pocket watch confirmed she was still present.
• Sidney and Michel kept the expedition scheduled for the next day, with Elliot assigned to guard the Dock and Sterling's Garrison.
• The next morning, Elliot saw the assembled fleet and received a warning from the pocket watch that a group of Dream Creatures was coming.

Elliot reported the Dream Creatures’ arrival to Sidney, but the fleet detected nothing and the warning was dismissed as a false alarm. Elliot realized the creatures were actually clinging outside the dock’s portholes, and they departed only after he silently urged them not to attack.

• Elliot told Holly that Dream Creatures had appeared and noticed her surname matched Maeve and Simon Strauss’s.
• Elliot used a typewriter to relay Lady Camilla’s warning that Dream Creatures were three hundred meters below the dock.
• Sidney ordered the nearby ships to move away, but the fleets spotted no creatures and the detection reading vanished.
• Elliot recalled a previous Difference Engine error and looked through a porthole, where he saw Dream Creatures covering the dock.
• Elliot silently urged the creatures to leave without attacking, and they rose away from the dock.

Elliot discovered that he alone could see a swarm of Dream Creatures, and he suspected Nightmares could make other creatures invisible. Sidney launched the Expedition Army into the Abyssal Sea despite the danger, while Elliot stayed behind to investigate the Mine and the Dream Creatures.

• Elliot questioned the guards and sentinels, who had not seen the Dream Creatures he had observed outside the ship.
• Elliot told Sidney about both sightings and proposed that Nightmares could conceal other Dream Creatures and might be able to reach the surface.
• Sidney admitted that no records described such behavior but decided the Expedition Army had to continue into the Abyssal Sea.
• Sidney formally asked Elliot to hold the rear, then departed with Michel and the Expedition Army as Elliot watched the fleet disappear into the depths.
• Elliot read a reassuring message in the Pocket Watch and ordered Cora to gather Dream Creature reports, prepare a ship and escort, and summon Allen while he prepared to inspect the Mine.

Allen and the Believers traveled underwater to investigate the mines and found that seawater caused none of them any cognitive deviation, contrary to expectations. A former miner named Old Henry revealed the disturbing physical changes he had suffered from the work.

• Allen led the Believers into the sea and aboard the ship, where they discovered they could breathe underwater.
• Allen had the Believers assess their condition and calculate their cognitive deviation, but their results showed little or no effect from the seawater.
• Allen questioned sailors about the mines and learned that Old Henry had worked as a miner.
• Allen noticed Old Henry's aged appearance, overlapping voice, and scars, and Old Henry explained that an eye, a tentacle, and even a head had once grown from his body.

Allen learned that seawater corruption could transform miners into Dream Creatures, but he and the Believers showed no signs of being affected. As the Duke chose Allen to accompany him on an inspection of the mine, Allen prepared the Believers to hide their resistance and learn the mine’s survival rules.

• Old Henry and the sailors described how the sea altered miners’ bodies, minds, and sense of identity.
• Allen asked the sailors about seawater corruption and the mine, then returned to find that none of the Believers had been affected.
• Allen suggested that the Lord’s protection had increased their resistance, and the Believers accepted the explanation and prayed.
• A Machine Priest told Allen that the Duke had chosen him to accompany an inspection of the mine.
• Allen ordered the Believers to imitate the signs of seawater corruption and memorize the mine’s survival rules.

Allen and the Believers arrived at an enormous underwater mine, where he questioned why heavily mutated workers were paid more despite producing less. During Elliot’s inspection, Cora told him something that prompted him to send Allen to investigate the ore warehouse and record the ore’s quality and shape.

• The Communion members saw the vast spherical mine, and Allen met Old Henry, who had returned to work for extra pay despite his severe corruption.
• Old Henry said the mine paid more for experienced, mutated workers, but Allen pointed out that Old Henry could not produce enough extra ore to justify triple pay.
• Allen warned the Believers that the mine’s practices seemed suspicious, since overworking workers could bring compensation costs and their corrupted corpses became Dream Creatures.
• Elliot arrived with Cora and inspected the mining operation, learning that workers’ two-hour shifts could be extended for extra Leo to increase output.
• After Cora whispered something to him, Elliot gave Allen a key and ordered him to inspect the ore warehouse, recording the ore’s quantity, quality, and shape.

Allen took control of a Mine warehouse and discovered that its highest-quality ore consisted of miners who had been transformed by the Mine. The manager admitted that workers and supervisors knowingly stayed until they became human ore for the Empire, leaving Allen shaken by their sacrifice.

• Allen and the Communion believers took over the warehouse, where he found far more supernatural ore than the Communion possessed.
• Allen opened boxes of premium ore and discovered human-shaped bodies fused with the earth.
• The Mine manager explained that prolonged exposure to the ore transformed miners into valuable human ore, and that the Mine kept them there for this purpose.
• Allen confronted the manager, who revealed that he too was mutating from exposure to the ore.
• The manager said the Empire needed them and that workers chose to become ore rather than return to their families corrupted and disfigured.

Allen learned that the mine's workers included loyal veterans who accepted death to support their families, and he promised that the Empire would witness their loyalty. Elliot discovered that his believers had been infected with parasites at the mine and used the Stage-Play Difference Engine to inspect the ore, where he saw it moving and suspected the ore was alive.

• A mine supervisor told Allen that he had served the Royal Family and that several workers had come to the mine after mutating or losing comrades to Dream Creatures.
• Allen learned that workers accepted the danger partly because their death benefits would support their families, and he promised the Empire would witness the supervisor's loyalty.
• Elliot found that the Card Difference Engine marked his believers as infected with parasites and moved its core to the Stage-Play Difference Engine to examine the mine.
• The Stage-Play Difference Engine showed that workers dug inward through a hard outer shell into a sphere made entirely of ore.
• Elliot noticed the ore shifting slowly and wondered whether the mine's ore was alive.

Elliot realized that the ore parasitized miners and that Dream Creatures seemed to limit its accumulation, then spotted an enormous Nightmare and followed it through the sea. The Nightmare led Elliot’s ship to an uncharted mine.

• Elliot learned that most soldiers had worked in the mines and were exposed to the ore, though their mutations could lessen after they left.
• Elliot concluded that large accumulations of ore caused infection and that Dream Creatures deliberately prevented too much ore from gathering.
• Elliot spotted an immense Nightmare in the sea, visible only to him, and ordered the crew to follow it.
• Elliot steered the ship after the Nightmare until it stopped, and the crew discovered an uncharted mine.

Elliot led the expedition to a mine through spiritual guidance, prompting Pascal to call it a blessing from the Furnace. Sage Eliobuyazi challenged that claim by praying for confirmation, while Elliot insisted the Furnace would respond, leaving the Church and the Sterling Family’s authority at odds as Eliobuyazi beseeched the god for revelation.

• The crew and Machine Priests were shocked when Elliot’s directions led them to a mine in the Sea of the Moon.
• Elliot said his spirituality had guided him, and Pascal declared the discovery a blessing from the Furnace.
• Sage Eliobuyazi rejected Pascal’s claim and began praying to verify whether the Furnace had guided them.
• Elliot insisted that the Furnace would respond, leaving Pascal worried that the prayer’s outcome would undermine them.
• Eliobuyazi prayed aloud for the Furnace to grant grace and reveal whether it had guided the expedition.

Elliot used the Stage-Play Difference Engine to stage a display of the Furnace’s power, but the Furnace unexpectedly answered with a real miracle. After Eliobuyazi begged for mercy, the flames receded and the cabin’s machines resumed working.

• Eliobuyazi prepared a prayer ritual, confident that the Furnace would not respond and that he could expose Pascal and Elliot.
• Elliot moved the Difference Engine Core from the Card Difference Engine to the Stage-Play Difference Engine to create a miracle.
• The cabin went dark as flames, hammering sounds, and a machine hymn surrounded Elliot, while the Furnace’s power melted the Machine Priests’ prostheses.
• Elliot confronted Eliobuyazi, who confessed his error and begged to keep serving the Furnace.
• The Furnace’s flames subsided, the cabin’s lights and machines returned to normal, and the Machine Priests stayed prostrate.

Elliot’s gaze triggered a Divine Revelation that left Eliobuyazi gravely injured and convinced the Machine Priests that [Casting Forge] had manifested through him. As Pascal recorded the unprecedented event, Eliobuyazi recovered from terror into fanatical worship and begged Elliot to make him a Mechanical Spirit.

• Eliobuyazi questioned Elliot’s claim of a revelation, and Elliot’s gaze burned him so badly that the other Machine Priests stayed prostrate and silent.
• Scapa declared that a Divine Revelation had occurred, while Pascal rushed to record it despite his melted Prostheses.
• Pascal explained that the Great Being’s direct manifestation was unprecedented since the Mythological Era, though the Sea of the Moon lay outside the ordinary Present World.
• Elliot saw Eliobuyazi crawling away in madness and decided that leaving him in that state would warn the others.
• Eliobuyazi’s terror turned into fanaticism, and he hailed Elliot as [Casting Forge]’s incarnation before begging to become his Mechanical Spirit.

After Elliot received fresh guidance, he discovered he could control the ship through his spirituality, and it carried him to another mine. His crew knelt in awe, while Pascal wondered whether Elliot was the Great Being’s illegitimate son.

• The Machine Priests rescued Eliobuyazi and repaired their prostheses while Pascal recorded the incident with his nose.
• Elliot sensed guidance again and ordered the crew to move the ship, but the Machine Priests had not finished repairing themselves.
• Elliot felt the ship respond to his spirituality and directed it to move without operators or fuel.
• The ship followed Elliot’s instructions to a new mine, and the crew knelt to pray before him.
• Pascal marveled at how a Great Being seemed to guide Elliot and wondered if he was its illegitimate son.