Chapter Summaries

Lillian watched the Communion’s believers haul mysterious ore from the Sea of the Moon with help from a massive Nightmare, and feared both the creature and Vanessa’s influence over it. When Vanessa brought her food, Lillian balked at the still-living Maeve meat and demanded to meet the cook.

• Lillian saw a tentacle-eyed Nightmare move enormous crates of seabed ore down from her tower, and wondered whether the Sea of the Moon’s seabed had once been alive.
• Lillian recalled how the Nightmare had silently approached her, caught her after three teleportations, and later obeyed Vanessa by entering the Abode to help the believers.
• Lillian remembered that she had tolerated the tower’s new sea view, the Nightmare on her roof, and the believers’ noisy work because she did not want to cause trouble.
• Vanessa brought Lillian a lunch box of Maeve meat and told her that it would be her food from then on.
• Lillian sensed that the cooked meat was still alive and asked Vanessa to bring Maeve over so the cook could see what was wrong with it.

Lillian confronted Vanessa and Maeve over supposedly living meat, then used her [Concealment] power to restore a cooked piece to its past state. The meat reattached itself to Maeve, leaving Lillian stunned to learn that Maeve meat was literally Maeve's flesh.

• Lillian accused the meat in her lunch box of being alive and asked Vanessa to bring Maeve to her.
• Vanessa brought Maeve, who explained that she had supplied the meat but Dorothea had cooked it.
• Lillian used [Concealment] to connect the meat's present with its past, restoring it to a fresh state.
• The restored meat flew back onto Maeve and reattached itself to her body.
• Lillian realized Maeve meat was Maeve's own flesh and asked whether Maeve was an [Undying].

Maeve discovered that her flesh could keep living after being eaten and let her use [Shadow of the Lunar Eclipse] on those who consumed it. Lillian explained that an [Immortal] was someone who had undergone a Great Being’s Elevation Ritual, leaving Maeve and Vanessa questioning how they had come to the Abode without one.

• Lillian explained that living flesh retained vitality, and Maeve called to the charred pieces of her own flesh and received an answer.
• Maeve realized her Talent could act through her flesh, causing Vanessa and several believers in the Courtyard to suffer as Maeve tried to control them.
• Vanessa reassured Lillian that Maeve’s ability and the meat were part of the Lord’s arrangement, and Lillian reluctantly ate the Maeve meat.
• Lillian explained that an [Immortal] was someone who had undergone an Elevation Ritual personally presided over by a Great Being.
• Maeve and Vanessa exchanged a glance because neither had undergone an Elevation Ritual.

Lillian explained that [Undying] beings could transcend history and that [Important Historical Nodes] shaped its course, but Vanessa and Maeve challenged her belief that the Theater’s dead could not have mattered. Lillian’s convictions collapsed, her power ran wild, and Miss Elegy declared that she had gone mad.

• Lillian explained that [Undying] beings transcended history, and that [Important Historical Nodes] could rewrite it.
• Lillian said she had let civilians die at the Theater to save the Second Era, arguing that they would survive in other histories if the Era continued.
• Vanessa questioned whether someone among the Theater’s victims could have been the key to saving the Second Era, despite leaving no trace in history.
• Maeve asked whether the Era’s destruction might be inevitable while its continuation depended on chances Lillian had discarded.
• Lillian broke down, transformed into shifting slime and arguing voices, and lost control of her supernatural power.
• Dorothea and Flora arrived, and Miss Elegy assessed that Lillian had gone mad.

Vanessa learned that Lillian belonged to the Hollow Cathedral, a church destroyed in every history whose believers could still travel to its past. She realized the Lord’s first meeting with Lillian must have taken place in an Abode that no longer existed in the present.

• Vanessa worried that she had driven Lillian mad and brought a bucket of Lillian’s remains to Victoria for help.
• Victoria mistook Lillian’s remains for food, took the bucket, and spilled Lillian across the floor.
• Victoria explained that the Hollow Cathedral had been destroyed in every history, though its believers kept trying to save it despite knowing they would fail.
• Victoria revealed that the believers could travel to the past, return to their former Abode, and pray to their vanished Great Being for power.
• Vanessa remembered that Lillian had said the Lord first met her at the Hollow Cathedral’s Abode and realized it had existed only in the past.

Vanessa learned that Lillian had died in this layer of history after losing faith, but could survive in other histories as an Immortal. Victoria agreed to restore Lillian while sending Vanessa to gather materials, then confronted Lillian, who revealed she knew Victoria was building an Abode within the Abode.

• Victoria explained that Vanessa had shattered Lillian’s faith and caused her to die in this layer of history, though her obsession and Immortality could keep her alive across histories.
• Vanessa asked Victoria to restore Lillian, and Victoria agreed after Vanessa promised to collect a list of materials from the Abode.
• Victoria sent Vanessa out to gather samples, then watched her leave the Library.
• Lillian reformed herself from the bucket and challenged Victoria, saying the Great Being’s gaze watched everywhere in the Abode.
• Lillian revealed that building another Abode within the Abode could evade that gaze and said she knew what Victoria was planning.

Victoria’s strongest web attack failed to stop Lillian, who overwhelmed her and then restored the Abode. Lillian revealed that Victoria was an important juncture in history, but warned that this did not mean Victoria had succeeded and suggested that her death could serve history.

• Victoria wrapped Lillian in a massive silk cocoon, but Lillian appeared beside her and shredded her web defenses with duplicate bodies.
• Lillian tore through the cocoon with her bare hands, and Victoria realized she had been defeated.
• Victoria awoke across a tea table from Lillian, who said the Abode had been restored and claimed they could be allies.
• Victoria concluded that building an Abode had let her transcend history’s destruction and attain immortality, but Lillian said being an important juncture did not mean she had succeeded.
• Lillian told Victoria that her death could be the event that affected history.

Lillian tried to recruit Victoria into an alliance to leave the Abode and change history, then argued that the Great Being was guiding them through hidden hints. The chapter ended with Lillian interpreting the waterfall flooding her home as a message for them.

• Lillian told Victoria that many Abodes had failed to prevent the Second Era’s destruction and proposed an alliance to leave their Abode.
• Lillian explained that she wanted to save the Hollow Cathedral, while Victoria stayed silent when asked whether she was leaving for Vanessa.
• Lillian speculated that Vanessa might be directing history and warned Victoria that the Great Being in the Abode was terrifying and uncanny.
• Lillian persuaded Victoria to assume the Great Being had a plan for them and urged her to abandon mortal ways of thinking.
• Lillian pointed out the waterfall pouring onto her home and declared that the hole above it was a hint from the Great Being.

Lillian persuaded Victoria that the Great Being had opened a passage to the Sea of the Moon for them to investigate, and the two prepared to leave. In the Deep Zone, Lady Camilla detected Elliot’s signal coming from the Abyssal Sea.

• Lillian argued that the passage to the Sea of the Moon was a hint from the Great Being and that she and Victoria should prove their worth by going there.
• Victoria agreed to leave with Lillian and put her into the bucket to disguise her, as she had promised Vanessa she would.
• Sidney worried that strange changes in the Dream, the sealed Abode, and Dream Creatures could signal the Era’s destruction.
• Lady Camilla revealed that her Detector had picked up Elliot’s signal from the Abyssal Sea.

Sidney worried that Elliot’s signal and the Expedition’s suspiciously smooth progress pointed to danger in the Sea of the Moon, while Lady Camilla warned him that Spirituality Intuition might guide people toward a predetermined fate. Michel then reported finding a cluster of mines, and as he and Sidney went to celebrate, Camilla detected the presence of another old friend on the Seabed.

• Sidney panicked over Elliot’s signal, but Lady Camilla confirmed Elliot was safe and said her Spirituality Intuition suggested the signal was real.
• Lady Camilla warned Sidney that Spirituality Intuition might be one of several forces steering history toward predetermined outcomes, and Sidney stopped their discussion of [Secret History].
• Sidney told Lady Camilla that the Dream Creatures seemed to be deliberately avoiding the Expedition.
• Michel entered and reported that his team had destroyed a group of Dream Creatures before finding at least a dozen ore spheres.
• Sidney went with Michel to celebrate, though he still wondered whether the Dream Creatures’ avoidance could lead to an outflanking attack.
• Lady Camilla continued operating at full power and detected another old friend on the Seabed, suspecting the detector was broken.

Elliot found thirty-seven mines while leading the Expedition Army, and the crew increasingly treated him as an incarnation of [Casting Forge]. He distracted them with games made from Cards to conceal his Difference Engine, then returned to his cabin to check on the Believers and investigate the ore.

• Elliot learned that communication with the Expedition Army was failing as it explored deeper, while Cora reported that they had found thirty-seven mines.
• The crew and Machine Priests grew to revere Elliot after [Casting Forge] intervened, even though Elliot was not Its Believer.
• Elliot handed Cora and the crew entertainment Cards and games made with other Difference Engines to disguise his use of the Stage-Play Difference Engine.
• Elliot left the command room and returned to his cabin, letting the Nightmare wait while the crew began mining the discovered deposits.
• Elliot compared the shallow-sea ore with Seabed ore, noted that Believers showed [Infected with parasites] near the former, and went to check the Difference Engine's records.

Elliot used machines delivered by Dream Creatures to mine the Sea of the Moon’s seabed, then discovered Elsa Ramsey’s Spirit Body was sinking past the seabed while devouring flesh chunks. When her descent stopped, the Sea of the Moon began to tremble, and Elliot’s instincts warned him that something beneath it had awakened and that he had to flee.

• Elliot read the Difference Engine’s records and realized it could record conversations hidden from a Great Being’s gaze.
• Elliot had Machine Priests build simple mining machines, which Dream Creatures delivered to the seabed passage, allowing the Communion to haul ore into the Courtyard.
• Elliot noticed Elsa Ramsey’s Spirit Body was missing and found records showing she had reached the seabed and was repeatedly devouring flesh chunks before diving again.
• Elliot realized Elsa’s Spirit Body might have passed through the seabed and kept descending beneath it, where a heartbeat seemed to come from the Abyssal Sea.
• Elsa’s Spirit Body stopped diving as the ship, Dock, and Sea of the Moon began to tremble, and Elliot’s intuition warned him to escape immediately.

The Sea of the Moon began to awaken, transforming the mined ore into Awakened Flesh Chunks and making the seabed surge like a living creature. Maeve protected Dorothea from the upheaval until Victoria arrived and held back a giant hand.

• Elliot noticed that the ore Cards had changed into Awakened Flesh Chunk Cards and took control of the chaotic ship.
• Maeve sensed a heartbeat beneath the seabed and warned the Communion's Believers to flee toward the passage and the Courtyard.
• Dorothea arrived through a mirror just as the seabed surged, and Maeve shielded her from crashing rock before carrying her toward the passage.
• A massive hand formed from the seabed and lunged at Maeve, while Dorothea could not carry Maeve through a mirror because she was too large.
• Victoria held back the hand as Maeve prepared to be crushed, then emerged anew from her own split skin.

Victoria and Maeve struggled to escape the living Seabed as its enormous stone hands attacked and the passage began to collapse. Elsa arrived with a plan to save Maeve, while a mass of Dream Creatures surged down to protect her and batter the Seabed.

• Victoria pulled Maeve and the Communion Believers toward the passage while the living Seabed attacked them.
• Victoria discovered Maeve could not change back into human form, and the passage was too small to let her through.
• Victoria and Maeve were struck by the Ascent Curse, and Lillian warned that the passage was close to collapsing.
• Elsa arrived and told Victoria to rescue the other Believers and level the ground beside the passage, promising Maeve that her plan might save her life.
• Dream Creatures rushed down onto the Seabed, striking back its stone hands as Elsa advanced through the surrounding chaos.

Elsa and the Believers fought to hold the Seabed back while Elliot altered the stage set to make a passage large enough for Maeve. Maeve became trapped in the rift and died, but Elsa repeatedly switched the moon between Blood Moon and Full Moon, resetting Maeve’s resurrection as the chapter ended.

• Dream Creatures joined the fight and pressed the Seabed down while Elsa cleared an area around the passage rift.
• Victoria rescued the surviving Believers and Lillian, then sent them through the passage; Elsa kicked Lillian through after her.
• Elliot dug through the stage platform to enlarge the passage, but Maeve still could not fit through it.
• Elsa positioned Maeve with her head inside the Courtyard and her body stuck in the rift, where she was attacked as the Dream Creatures faltered.
• Maeve died and resurrected under the Blood Moon, then watched Elsa rapidly alternate the moon between Blood Moon and Full Moon to reset her resurrection.

Sidney’s fleet lost its sensors and communications as a gigantic Nightmare and a vast mass of Dream Creatures rushed toward the Abyssal Sea. The chapter ended with Michel reporting that the newly discovered mines had come alive.

• Sidney ordered the fleet to hold position after its detectors and communications failed, while Lady Camilla reported that ships near the Abyssal Sea had been hit first.
• A huge tentacle passed the Judgment Angel, and Sidney recognized the creature as the Nightmare Elliot had described.
• Sidney noticed the Nightmare was diving and saw Dream Creatures from every direction rushing down into the Abyssal Sea.
• Sidney ordered the fleet not to attack, but one ship fired without authorization; the Dream Creatures ignored the attack and continued diving.
• Michel rushed in and told Sidney that the mines they had discovered had come alive.

Sidney and Michel learned that the mines were living eggs connected to the moon, and a parasitic outbreak spread through the Expedition Fleet. Allen and the Communion believers fought to contain the infection and protect Lord Elliot, though they were infected themselves.

• A wounded soldier told Sidney and Michel that the mines had been alive and were eggs, then declared that he was the moon before long hair burst from his wounds and blood.
• Michel identified the spreading hair as a parasite, and Sidney drew his sword as the infected soldier attacked them.
• Long-Haired Monsters erupted across the Expedition Fleet, setting off battles and explosions throughout the Sea of the Moon.
• Allen refused to lead infected believers to Lord Elliot and insisted they defend the Hearthfire District by keeping the outbreak from reaching the Duke.
• Allen recalled that cutting the first maddened sailors had released monsters from their bodies, and he saw the parasite's hair writhing beneath his own skin.

Allen and the Communion believers fought monsters aboard the ship while their own parasitic infections worsened with every use of spirituality. As the believers prepared to face their apparent final battle, a huge monster began smashing through the cabin door.

• Allen killed a monster that had emerged from a believer, but black hair began growing from his own arm as the parasites reacted to his use of spirituality.
• Allen realized that the infected believers were trapped in a worsening cycle of fighting monsters and deepening their infestations.
• The believers despaired over being abandoned, but Allen urged them to keep fighting for their Lord, the Hearthfire District, the Duke, and the Communion.
• The believers regained their courage and prepared to leave the safe cabin and fight, while Allen wondered whether he could lead them through the crisis.
• A huge monster rammed the cabin door, leaving it close to breaking as the believers prayed and readied themselves for battle.

Allen recognized the moon-linked monsters in the Sea of the Moon as creatures from the Saint Clair festival as the blood moon appeared across the world. The Thinker announced that the Second Era’s end had failed after an unknown intervention, and Elliot confronted Allen and the Communion’s Extraordinary Ones.

• Allen recognized the monster outside the hatch as one from the Saint Clair festival and connected the creatures to the moon.
• People and cultists across the world saw the moon turn blood red and move, while Tobias told Isaac that the Prophet in the Urn had forced a prophecy into the Helms family’s minds.
• The Thinker predicted humanity’s defeat and the end of the Second Era, but its calculations jammed and then declared that the era’s end had failed because “He does not agree.”
• The Thinker recalculated countless futures and finally printed, “He turned his gaze toward the moon.”
• Allen urged his companions to warn the Duke about the monsters’ true nature, but Elliot emerged with armed Machine Priests and confronted them.

Elliot arrived in the infected zone and used his power to burn the monsters parasitizing the Communion believers out of their bodies. With the believers restored and ready to fight, he led them back into the ranks, assuring them that the Furnace protected them from infection.

• Elliot told Allen and the infected believers to rejoin the ranks and help exterminate the monsters.
• Elliot used Spirituality Pressure to burn the parasitic infection out of the believers without harming them.
• Allen and the believers found themselves restored, then praised the miracle of the Furnace to avoid revealing that Elliot had healed them.
• Allen warned Elliot that the monsters spread infection through blood, attacks, and prolonged contact.
• Elliot told Allen that the Furnace protected them because the monsters could infect flesh but not steel.