Chapter Summaries

Elsa used Honey Water to heal and inspire the refugees, turning the Hearthfire District into a sanctuary and strengthening the Communion. Elliot anticipated a confrontation with the True God Church and asked Conrad for information about its forces.

• Elsa calmed the refugees, served them Honey Water, and healed their illnesses and wounds.
• The refugees became devoted to Elsa, voluntarily upheld order, and embraced the Communion as the Nobility's scheme collapsed.
• Elliot concluded that the Nobility would need the True God Church to act against the Communion and expected its regular army to attack next.
• The Communion's Believers settled the refugees, most of whom stayed in the Hearthfire District, and news of the events began spreading through the Imperial Capital.
• Elliot asked Conrad about the True God Church's forces, and Conrad explained that most information was kept in the Secret Library, the War Fortress in the Sea of the Moon, and the Reforging Flame Church.

Elliot questioned Conrad about the Empire’s military strength and realized how vast the forces of the Royal Family and nobles were compared with the Communion. He asked how much high-rank Supernatural could affect a battlefield, leaving Conrad poised to explain their strategic value.

• Conrad told Elliot that the Royal Family maintained forty to fifty thousand soldiers and could quickly muster around a hundred thousand reserves.
• Conrad explained that the Seven Holy Bloodlines each had smaller standing armies, but together the Empire’s nobles could mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops.
• Elliot learned that nobles could bring about fifty thousand soldiers toward the Imperial Capital, including roughly thirty thousand nearby.
• Elliot compared the Communion’s thousand-plus Supernatural with the nobles’ forces and recognized its advantage in the variety of Paths available through the Difference Engine.
• Conrad warned that most Supernatural were vulnerable to battlefield firepower and that only high-rank Supernatural had substantial strategic value.
• Elliot asked Conrad how high-rank Supernatural could affect a battlefield.

Elliot discussed the military power of Supernatural people and learned how the Sacred Blood Nobles viewed his strength. He ordered Conrad to investigate Daphne Fitzgerald while wondering how Immortals compared with Great Beings.

• Conrad explained that the Silent Sanctuary’s ninth-rank Archbishop had endured artillery and helped win the Horam River Battle, but Supernatural forces were costly and slower to raise than industrial armies.
• Elliot recalled how he had sealed Sidney, Tobias, and Victoria, intimidated the nobles, and demonstrated overwhelming power, leading the nobles to believe he was beyond high rank.
• Conrad said he did not know how many beings beyond high rank remained among the nobles because Tobias had forcibly promoted the current family heads and their fathers had vanished, except for the gravely ill Duke Fitzgerald.
• Elliot asked about the Fitzgerald Church, and Conrad explained that the [Old Clock] governed history already written and that Daphne Fitzgerald’s claim about Elliot’s place in Third Era history puzzled him.
• Elliot ordered Conrad to investigate Daphne and considered whether he could win over one of the six noble families.
• Elliot reflected on Lillian’s power as an Immortal and wondered how even Immortals compared with the Great Beings, recalling her unequal battle with the [Primordial Blood].

Elliot learned that the nobles were shifting their attacks toward the Hearthfire District and struggled to allocate advancement points to the Communion’s many believers. Seeking a way to delegate the work, he investigated high-rank Ascension and found Sterling Family methods for completing Ascension tasks, including shortcuts.

• Elliot concluded that the nobles would focus on fighting in the Hearthfire District, while the Old Butler warned him not to underestimate Duke Helms’s prophecies.
• Elliot realized that he could not personally allocate points to thousands of believers and considered using [Rationality] to delegate the task.
• Elliot reviewed how supernatural ranks separated commoners from nobles and considered Tobias’s ability to borrow power from the future.
• Elliot went to the Secret Library to research Vanessa’s high-rank Ascension and discovered Sterling Family methods for advancing along the [Indomitability] Path.
• Elliot read that the Sterling Family had devised shortcuts for Ascension tasks, including one requiring a person to turn their body into a forge.

Elliot investigated the High Rank Ascension requirements for several Paths and suspected that Vanessa’s task to “examine oneself” might require her to examine him. He arranged for Vanessa to inspect him in the Hearthfire District, leaving the outcome of her Spirit Vision and Analysis unresolved.

• Elliot read how the Order of the Indomitable Flame fulfilled its Ascension task by implanting a small internal forge, and he studied the sparse records for other Paths.
• Elliot considered whether Vanessa’s requirement to “examine oneself” meant using Spirit Vision to examine him, another self of hers.
• Elliot disguised himself and entered the Hearthfire District under the pretense of joining the Communion.
• Vanessa arrived to conduct his examination, and Elliot stopped controlling her.
• Vanessa activated Spirit Vision as Elliot wondered which layers of his disguise she would see through.

Elliot and Vanessa each used [Analysis] during their meeting and received different clues: Elliot learned that [Knowledge] was the only path to the Third Era, while Vanessa saw a warning about love and Great Beings. Elliot stopped Vanessa from attacking him, escaped safely, and completed his Ascension mission through her sacrifice.

• Elliot used [Analysis] while looking at Vanessa and learned that [Knowledge] was the only way to reach the Third Era.
• Elliot realized Vanessa might be the key to reaching the Third Era and wondered whether she had received the same information.
• Vanessa used [Analysis] and saw a message linking love to the tragedies of the Furnace and the Blood Lord, ending with the claim that He loved no one.
• Vanessa grew suspicious of Elliot and began gathering Spirituality, so Elliot used the Difference Engine to control her and stopped her from acting.
• Elliot escaped the Hearthfire District, pondered Vanessa's message, and decided that love must be a powerful authority.
• Elliot had Vanessa perform a sacrifice, selected Ascension, and saw a blood-red light confirming that the mission had succeeded.

Elliot completed the task to reach the seventh rank through Vanessa and considered whether spirituality tied people to fate, which might explain his refusal to make sacrifices. He opened the Difference Engine’s Ascension interface and began examining Vanessa’s three choices.

• Elliot completed [Gaze Upon Fate] and became a seventh-rank Supernatural person, then reflected on how spirituality could reveal and bind someone to fate.
• Elliot wondered whether his past self had refused sacrifices to avoid fate and erased clues about the past to protect himself.
• Elliot steadied himself and opened Vanessa’s second Ascension interface, where three Cards appeared.
• Elliot examined the first Card, which showed Vanessa at a banquet holding a wine bottle and a coupe filled with thick amber liquid.

Elliot chose knowledge ascension after interpreting Vanessa’s dreamlike card as a vision connected to the Overflowing Garden. Upon reaching the seventh rank, he gained the chance to choose a dream form and discovered an ability that could turn knowledge into Secret History, potentially erasing it from the world.

• Elliot examined three cards depicting Vanessa amid honey and blood, enthroned on bones made from Elsa’s remains, and lying in red-rippled water.
• Elliot connected Vanessa in water to the Overflowing Garden and chose the third card, selecting knowledge ascension.
• The Difference Engine advanced Elliot to the seventh rank, restored his condition, and offered him a choice of dream form.
• Elliot read the three dream-form talents: Honey Wine, Philosopher’s Stone; II, and Knowledge Pollution.
• Elliot realized Knowledge Pollution could conceal knowledge as Secret History and considered its power to undo civilization’s technologies.

Elliot weighed the Difference Engine’s three talent options and tried to understand how [Philosopher's Stone; the Second] might build on Vanessa’s creation ability. He found no guidance from [Analysis] and ended the chapter wondering whether the talent could give machines souls.

• Elliot considered how [Knowledge Pollution] could turn knowledge into [Secret History] and block mortals from accessing the supernatural.
• He judged [Honey Wine] redundant while the Courtyard had plenty of [Honey], but worried that refusing [Philosopher's Stone; the Second] might cut off a powerful talent series.
• Elliot used [Analysis] on the three options but received no information, then suspected it only helped when he lacked crucial knowledge.
• Elliot recalled that Vanessa could create ordinary materials and machines but not life, gold, or supernatural materials.
• Elliot wondered whether [Philosopher's Stone; the Second] could make creations respond to him by giving machines souls.

Elliot made Vanessa's talent permanent with [Philosopher's Stone; Part Two], then chose [Rationality] and realized the artifact might be bringing machines to life. He used multiple Elsas to rapidly turn believers into Supernatural people, ending with Dorothea urgently requesting an endless supply of recruits.

• Elliot inserted Vanessa's card into [Philosopher's Stone; Part Two] and made her talent permanent.
• Elliot discovered that advancing Vanessa to higher ranks required enormous numbers of sacrifice offerings, so he chose [Rationality] instead of raising her rank further.
• Elliot controlled three Elsas at the Difference Engine and had one insert a card into the [Sacrifice] slot.
• An Elsa corpse at the Communion Headquarters awakened and ordered the emergency response duty room to bring as many believers as possible for sacrifice.
• Dorothea brought a line of believers to the altar, where Elsa rapidly transformed them into Supernatural people.
• More Elsas emerged from coffins and began preparing altars, so Dorothea called for more believers and told the duty room to keep them coming.

Elliot used Rationality Mode to speed up the allocation of believers’ abilities, clearing the way for the Communion to expand beyond the Hearthfire District. He tested his seventh-rank strength and his ability to create objects with the Philosopher’s Stone, ending with a newly made pistol that jammed when he fired it.

• Elliot refined Rationality Elsa’s instructions to prioritize synergistic abilities and stop when Analysis found relevant information.
• Elliot decided the Communion would expand beyond the Hearthfire District, since the growing supply of believers had outpaced his ability to allocate their points.
• Elliot tested his strength by firing a revolver at his head, catching the bullet, and charging into a Courtyard building, but he failed to break through its wall.
• Elliot removed the damaged building and created a revolver from scratch with the Philosopher’s Stone, realizing his limited mechanical knowledge constrained what he could make.
• Elliot aimed the newly created revolver at his head and pulled the trigger, but the bullet jammed.

Elliot discovered that his revolver and the Communion’s warships had developed wills of their own, with the gun guiding his shots and the ships influencing their repairs. He ordered compulsory mechanical education and certification for the ships, while planning to advance the Communion’s core believers and strengthen the Hearthfire District.

• Elliot confirmed that his revolver refused to fire at him until he sensed its will, then followed its guidance to hit a distant warship with an unaimed shot.
• Simon told Elliot that he had found the clue for his first ascension, and Elliot arranged for him, Elsa, Maeve, and the others to advance together later.
• Simon reported that the Communion’s engineers were struggling to repair the warships because the ships were guiding their own repairs and Sia’s parts had strange traits.
• Simon described how the Dawn, the Radiance, and the Silver's Right Hand had tricked engineers into installing modifications that suited them, leaving the Silver's Right Hand sunk in the shipyard.
• Elliot ordered compulsory mechanical classes, exams, and graduation certificates for the ships, and demanded a crackdown on illegal modifications.

Elliot learned that the Dawn had been repaired and planned to use it to explore the Deep Sea in search of Holly. In the Hearthfire District, Elsa showed him the completed first phase of an underground seawater dock and explained plans for connecting it to the sea and fortifying it.

• Elliot learned that the Dawn was repaired using spare parts and decided its powerful engines made it suitable for a mission to explore the Deep Sea.
• Elliot asked Simon about preparations for opening the passage between the Dream and the Present World through the Sea of the Moon.
• Elsa greeted Elliot with an improvised tableware gesture, and Elliot suggested she use a crow gesture instead.
• Elsa showed Elliot an amber model of the Hearthfire District and revealed that seawater lay beneath the Royal Canal and the Imperial Capital.
• Elsa explained plans to build an underground dock, connect it to the canal, and reinforce the facility with sea valves.

Elsa showed Elliot the Holy Communion Plate, a steel plate inscribed with a sacrificial ritual that removed dirt when fueled by blood. Elliot approved of the invention and saw it as a way for the Hearthfire District to excavate the planned shipyard with far fewer workers.

• Elliot questioned whether the Hearthfire District could manage Elsa's enormous shipyard project and asked about its new digging technology.
• Elsa revealed that she had awakened mechanical talent and led Elliot underground to demonstrate her invention.
• Elsa poured her blood into the grooves of a steel plate and pressed it against a wall, sacrificing a large mass of dirt.
• Elsa called the device the Holy Communion Plate and explained that it let Believers perform sacrifices while moving.
• Elliot praised Elsa's invention and recognized that its premade ritual could make excavating the shipyard much easier.

Elliot and his allies brought the warship Dawn through a passage into the Underground Shipyard and prepared to build a fleet. As Crawford’s coronation approached, Elliot investigated the nobles’ plans while Crawford secretly consulted the Holy Scripture about sacrificing them.

• Elliot coordinated with Simon to open a passage from the Sea of the Moon, and Maeve crossed it to the Underground Shipyard.
• Elsa directed believers to fill the shipyard with seawater, and the Dawn sailed through the passage as the crowd cheered.
• Elsa estimated that the Dawn could reach the sea within a week and that the full shipyard would be ready in about a month.
• Elliot learned that Crawford’s coronation would take place at a new Imperial Palace beside the Nobles’ House, and he asked Conrad for the ceremony’s detailed schedule.
• Crawford dressed for his coronation, dismissed the nobles’ attempt to control him, and asked the Holy Scripture whether a sacrifice could kill them.

On his way to the New Emperor’s enthronement ceremony, Elliot discovered that the blank book in his carriage was the [Holy Scripture], which explained how intense emotions could serve as offerings and change the world. The [Holy Scripture] invited him to witness a demonstration as his carriage arrived at the Nobles' House.

• Elliot found a blank book in his carriage, recognized it as the [Holy Scripture], and began communicating with it by writing on its page.
• Elliot asked about the missing Fog Horn Fraternity, and the [Holy Scripture] said it had sent its core members away from the Imperial Capital because it foresaw future chaos.
• The [Holy Scripture] explained that Spirituality and intense emotion were both foundations of the Supernatural and paths to the supreme.
• Elliot recalled that an orphan’s beloved wooden club had worked as an offering, and questioned why emotions were not used more often.
• The [Holy Scripture] offered to demonstrate the power of fervent emotion, but Elliot’s carriage arrived at the Nobles' House before he could respond.

Elliot entered the Nobles' House, branded its steel door with the name of a Hearthfire District factory, and challenged Tobias's authority over the Council Chamber. He forced Alvin to leave by invoking the chamber's noble-rank rules, while the door opened on its own.

• The [Holy Scripture] burst into gentle flames and vanished, and Elliot wondered whether the [Casting Forge] had protected him.
• Elliot carved [Manufactured by Hearthfire District No. 2 Steel Factory] into the Nobles' House's new steel door, and the nobles accepted it rather than risk a confrontation.
• Elliot entered the Council Chamber and learned that Tobias had excluded Crawford because he was the affair of state under discussion.
• Elliot told Alvin to give up his seat, arguing that Alvin had no inherited noble rank and therefore had no right to attend the deliberations.
• Daphne Fitzgerald confirmed that Elliot's duke status had been recognized by the Third Era, while Alvin had not been formally invested, and the chamber door opened on its own.

Elliot joined the nobles on their way to the newly built Imperial Palace for the coronation, while Isaac warned him that his interference was disrupting the relationship between history and the future. As the nobles showed signs of division under Tobias, Elliot considered using that fracture to his advantage and arrived at the palace expecting the day to bring trouble.

• Tobias ended Elliot’s confrontation with Alvin by leading the nobles toward the Imperial Palace to watch the coronation.
• Elliot wondered why Daphne had helped him, while Isaac asked whether he expected to fight and explained that prophecies about Elliot could make history and the future fall out of step or become inverted.
• Isaac suggested that these changes might allow the Third Era to arrive, and Elliot said he would fight back if anyone challenged him.
• Elliot noticed that the nobles were divided and considered winning over some families to weaken Tobias’s alliance.
• Tobias showed the nobles the newly built Imperial Palace, whose lavish appearance left Elliot momentarily dazed.

During Crawford’s coronation, Elliot noticed that [Analysis] described the crown as sealing a contract between the New Emperor and his subjects. The clue led him to reconsider the Royal Family’s obligation to [Justice], leaving him questioning why they had to obey it.

• Tobias hurriedly began the coronation, and the nobles gathered while Crawford waited before the Throne.
• Royal knights presented the scepter, and an attendant carried the crown around the court for the nobles to inspect.
• Elliot used [Spirit Vision] on the crown, then stopped the attendant when [Analysis] revealed that the New Emperor’s coronation would seal a contract.
• Elliot connected the crown’s contract to the Empire’s laws and the Royal Family’s adherence to [Justice].
• Elliot questioned why the Royal Family had to obey [Justice] if power gained through sacrifice could not be taken back.

Elliot realized that the Crown’s contract bound the nobles as well as the emperor, and suspected the gathered family heads knew nothing about its terms. He let the blood ritual proceed, and Crawford shocked the ceremony by placing the blood-soaked Crown on his own head.

• Elliot inferred that the nobles had secret obligations under a contract with the emperor, possibly tied to the Empire’s hidden Throne.
• Crawford silently signaled Elliot, who connected the revelation to the [Holy Scripture] that had appeared in his carriage.
• The Master of Ceremonies called for the Seven Holy Bloodlines to contribute blood to the Crown, and Elliot chose not to interrupt the ritual.
• The nobles gave their blood, which the Master of Ceremonies poured over the Crown.
• Crawford cut his hand on his sword, seized the blood-covered Crown, and placed it on his head, leaving the Master of Ceremonies staring toward Tobias in alarm.