Chapter Summaries

Horace and Rellana left Leyndell after enduring the nobles’ wedding overtures, while Rennala ordered an investigation into the Originist School’s experiments on Albinaurics and sorcerers. In her laboratory, Melina discovered suspicious life-sized puppets and realized Sellen was concealing something.

• Horace and Rellana traveled from Leyndell toward Liurnia, and Horace resolved to use the Black Knife Assassins to deal with nobles who had annoyed him.
• Rennala heard Messmer and Gaius report that the Originist School had used an abandoned tower laboratory to experiment on Albinaurics and sorcerers in pursuit of Star Seeds.
• Rennala ordered the Great Rune Knights to act and instructed Lusat and Azur to scrutinize the Originist School.
• Sellen told Melina that she was broke after paying her back taxes and blamed the expense of making puppets.
• Melina saw life-sized puppets in Sellen’s storeroom, questioned what they were made of, and concluded that Sellen was hiding something.

Horace returned to Lakeside Town and learned that Melina had been acting strangely and visiting Sellen’s laboratory, so he went to investigate. At Northen Manor, Sellen pressured the Northen Family to continue a disturbing experiment involving lifelike puppets made to resemble her, while Horace was on his way there.

• Horace arrived in Lakeside Town, where Uriel welcomed him and immediately recruited his companions to help clear the town’s backlog of paperwork.
• Messmer told Horace that Melina had become distracted and was frequently visiting Sellen’s laboratory, prompting Horace to investigate.
• Horace went to the Academy, where Master Azur told him Sellen had gone to the Northen Family’s estate to discuss business.
• At Northen Manor, Sellen approved another revised proposal and ordered old Northen to continue her experiment despite his misgivings.
• Old Northen agreed to proceed as he looked over rows of frames holding flesh-and-blood puppets with faces identical to Sellen’s.
• Horace headed for Northen Manor to find Sellen.

Sellen and the Northen Family tried to create a Star Seed without sacrificing other sorcerers by making dolls that could contain fragments of her own soul. Their experiments failed, but Sellen planned to use Runes to split and repair her soul, while an unseen white-haired doll began to move.

• Sellen changed her Star Seed research after Melina’s respect for life made her unwilling to sacrifice other sorcerers, and she funded the work by selling Melina Dolls.
• Sellen recruited the Northen Family to help create duplicate sorcerer vessels using their dollmaking and Spirit-Calling techniques.
• Sellen and Old Northen reviewed the failed seventy-eighth experiment, which had produced an imitation Primeval Glintstone that could not serve as a soul core.
• Sellen proposed using Runes to stabilize a division of her soul and repair the original, allowing soul fragments to be placed in duplicate dolls and later reunited.
• Sellen began preparing the seventy-ninth experiment despite dwindling funds, while a white-haired doll’s fingers twitched in the Northen Family’s display cabinet.

Fragments from Sellen’s 78 failed experiments awakened a white-haired doll and drove her to seek revenge. Horace and Sellen encountered her at Northen Manor, but Sellen mistook her for an interesting artifact and carried her toward the laboratory to study her.

• Fragments of Sellen’s failed experiments awakened the doll and filled her with a desire to confront her creator.
• Horace arrived at Northen Manor and ordered Old Northen to take him to Sellen in the underground laboratory.
• Horace recognized the doll as the Avenger of the Black Ring, while the doll sensed that Sellen was below.
• Sellen emerged from the basement, lifted the doll to inspect her, and was bitten on the wrist.
• Horace told Sellen to preserve the doll so they could study her, and Sellen carried her toward the laboratory.

Sellen learned that the White-Haired Puppet was formed from the consciousness remnants of her seventy-eight failed experiments, but she refused to stop her soul-splitting research. Horace sought a way to restrain her and confronted her with the possibility of Melina learning the truth.

• Horace and Sellen discovered that the White-Haired Puppet carried remnants of consciousness from Sellen’s failed experiments, and the puppet accused Sellen of creating and abandoning them.
• Sellen struggled to justify her experiments, while Horace challenged her to recognize the suffering of the consciousnesses she had treated as failures.
• The puppet called Sellen her mother, and Sellen apologized, but she insisted that her pursuit of True Magic would continue with improved methods.
• Horace objected to Sellen’s experiments as a violation of souls, but realized that threats or Great Runes might not overcome her obsession with knowledge.
• Horace noticed Melina’s note in Sellen’s notebook and asked how Sellen would feel if Melina learned about the experiments and the suffering they caused.

Sellen halted her experiments after Horace reminded her that Melina would oppose harming living beings, and she began rebuilding her bond with Doll. Later, a strange rumor from Leyndell claimed Godwyn had attacked the capital with Fortissax to abduct someone, leaving Horace baffled.

• Horace convinced Sellen to suspend her experiments by making her consider how Melina would view them.
• Doll slapped Sellen's hand away, but eventually accepted her gentle head pat while remaining angry.
• Doll stayed at Northen Manor, and Sellen visited her with gifts while Horace privately worried Messmer might learn of their closeness.
• Horace heard that the Formless Mother had become active again but chose not to investigate.
• Uriel told Horace a rumor claimed Godwyn rode Fortissax to attack Leyndell and carry someone off, and Horace questioned who Godwyn could be abducting.

Godwyn brought Morgott and Mohg to Horace after forcibly rescuing them from the sewers beneath Leyndell. Horace agreed to shelter the brothers and arrange their training as Godwyn headed to the Mountaintops of the Giants, while tensions within the Golden Dynasty continued to emerge.

• Horace read Devonia’s account of Godwyn damaging Leyndell’s gates and wondered what his nephew was doing.
• Godwyn arrived at Lakeside Town with Morgott and Mohg, whom he had taken from Leyndell after nobles refused to release them.
• Godwyn explained that he had used force to rescue his brothers and asked Horace to care for them while he went to find Godfrey.
• Horace agreed to let the boys stay and told Uriel to prepare rooms and arrange training with the Inquisitor Knights.
• Godwyn left with Fortissax for the Mountaintops of the Giants, and Horace reflected on the Golden Dynasty’s growing internal conflicts.

Horace learned that the Formless Mother had chosen Mohg as her representative for the thousand-year competition after Morgott resisted her influence. She asked Horace to use his Law and her power to create a female avatar so she could visit the surface, leaving him wondering what cute name to give her.

• Horace questioned the Formless Mother about Mohg's Bloodflame aura, and she admitted she had chosen him as her representative after Morgott resisted her influence.
• The Formless Mother explained that Morgott and Mohg had been born while Godfrey was away, and that their birth had caused Marika severe pain.
• Horace noticed that the Formless Mother's thoughts had become more fluent, and she revealed she was preparing to visit the surface through an avatar.
• The Formless Mother asked Horace to create a female avatar that could feel pain, and Horace agreed to try.
• Before disappearing, the Formless Mother asked Horace to give her avatar a cute name, and he wondered why she seemed strange.

Horace struggled to develop incantations under his Law of Restraint, but the Great Rune Knights adapted his basic drafts in unexpected ways and began creating their own. He decided to provide the framework and let the knights specialize and innovate.

• Horace created three basic incantations, [Oath], [Chains], and [Punishment], and gave them to the Order of the Great Rune Knights.
• Uriel used [Oath] while swearing to finish his paperwork, gaining enough attack speed to swing a greatsword rapidly as he recited his tasks.
• The knights discovered new uses for [Chains] and [Punishment], including briefly restraining mounted enemies and making repeated sigils explode.
• Uriel developed [Uriel's Resolve], an incantation that increased attack speed and reflected his determination to clear paperwork.
• Horace reasoned that Restraint relied on understanding rules and exchange rather than faith, so he left further incantation development to the knights.

Horace expanded commoner education by opening schools and using aggressive tax audits to obtain books from Caria’s nobles. The chapter ended with Melina summoning Horace and Messmer to Northen Manor to witness a “miracle” arranged by Sellen.

• Horace opened a school for commoners in Lakeside Town and began gathering books from nobles through tax audits, fines, and confiscations.
• Horace distributed printed teaching materials to new schools and planned further education, talent selection, and a purge of loyalists attached to bloodlines and tradition.
• Horace told Uriel to place the latest school budgets in his study and notify Messmer about follow-up audits of East Lake District families that had not donated books.
• Melina told Horace that Sellen wanted him and Messmer at Northen Manor to witness a miracle, leaving them unsure what Sellen had done.

Horace, Sellen, and Messmer discovered that Daphne had rebuilt herself into a towering, powerful Doll using spare parts. Sellen accepted Daphne’s gentle affection, though a postscript noted that Daphne later switched back to her original body at Sellen’s insistence.

• Horace entered the workshop and found Daphne transformed into a giant, muscular Doll while Sellen stood stunned.
• Old Northen explained that Daphne had dismantled her original body and assembled a new one from parts in the Northen Family’s Parts Repository.
• Daphne demonstrated her strength by crushing the air with a sonic boom and leaving dents in the workshop floor.
• Sellen approached Daphne to inspect her, and Daphne gently held Sellen’s hand and stroked her head.
• Melina asked whether Daphne could teach her to fight, while Messmer wondered if he should be more polite to Sellen.
• At Sellen’s insistence, Daphne later switched back to her original body.

Horace and Sellen completed a human vessel for the Formless Mother, whom Horace named Lilith, while Daphne worried that the newcomer would take Sellen’s affection from her. Lilith awakened and eagerly embraced the body’s capacity for pain, then went to change into clothes Sellen had prepared.

• Horace used the Law of Restraint and Great Runes to prepare a young girl’s body as Lilith’s vessel.
• Daphne watched anxiously as Sellen reassured her that she would always be her Daphne.
• Lilith awakened, learned to walk in her new body, and pinched herself to experience pain.
• Lilith announced that she wanted to go out and provoke Marika, but Horace told her to get dressed first.
• Sellen gave Lilith a red dress and shoes, and Horace sent her to change in the changing room.
• Horace admitted to Sellen that Lilith might be manageable, while Daphne continued to fear losing Sellen’s attention.

Rennala told Rellana that the moon was choosing her as a spokesperson after Horace refused, and urged her sister to have a child with Horace who could become a more suitable vessel. Rellana headed to her bedchamber while Rennala hoped the moon would soon leave her alone.

• Lilith came out of the dressing room in a crimson dress and asked Horace whether she looked good.
• Rennala told Rellana that the moon spoke to her at night and had chosen Horace before turning to her as a second choice.
• Rennala explained that becoming the moon’s spokesperson could bind Caria to its Law, so she wanted a child who might serve as a different vessel.
• Rennala urged Rellana to take the initiative with Horace and revealed that she had prepared incense, wine, and new nightclothes for her.
• Rellana left for her bedchamber, and Rennala asked the moon to wait until a more suitable vessel appeared.

The Onyx Lord discovered that rot was stirring across the Lands Between and breeding within the stagnating Golden Order in the jar holding Marika’s First Blood. Meanwhile, Lilith lured Horace away from his paperwork by claiming Rellana had prepared a surprise for him.

• The Onyx Lord told Miriel that he had sensed rot rising in Leyndell, the Lake Region, and elsewhere, with the Lake Region feeling especially strange.
• Miriel revealed that the contents of the jar holding Marika’s First Blood were changing, and he and the Onyx Lord realized rot had begun to breed within it.
• The Onyx Lord wondered what would happen if the Golden Order stagnated completely, while Miriel answered with a long, ominous sigh.
• Lilith climbed through Horace’s study window and told him that Rellana was waiting with a surprise.
• Horace sensed Lilith’s excitement over a prank but found no malice, then left the study to see Rellana.

Horace and Rellana tried to conceive a child while Lilith secretly took power from the Church of Vows and impersonated Rennala. She visited the real Rennala and offered to help her bear a child who could serve as the moon’s Empyrean.

• Rellana wore revealing lingerie at her sister’s urging, and Horace embraced her and spent the night with her.
• While Horace and Rellana were together, Lilith slipped into the Church of Vows and took something associated with stagnant death and festering rot.
• Lilith transformed herself to resemble Rennala and went to find the real queen.
• Rennala woke from a nightmare about the moon and found Lilith beside her bed.
• Lilith told Rennala she could help her prepare a child to become the moon’s Empyrean, and Rennala listened under her influence.

Lilith secretly made Rennala pregnant with a seed formed from Marika’s blood so the moon would turn its attention away from the queen. The next morning, Horace learned that Rennala’s pregnancy had been officially announced, and he suspected Lilith was responsible.

• Lilith subdued Rennala, implanted the seed, and planned to witness Marika give birth to the Omen twins.
• Froesanks worked through paperwork in Leyndell while Messmer befriended two Winged Serpents and asked them to stay with him.
• Sellen reassured Daphne that the Doll would always be her first child.
• Marika spent the night restless and wondered whether the Formless Mother was behind her unease.
• Uriel brought Horace news that Rennala was pregnant, and Horace suspected Lilith had caused it.

Horace learned that Lilith had made Rennala pregnant to divert the moon and to experience childbirth, while Messmer accepted the Winged Serpents as companions. Marika sensed Lilith was plotting and cursed her, unaware that Lilith was eagerly anticipating Marika’s next childbirth.

• Horace confronted Lilith, who explained that Rennala’s pregnancy would give the moon a new representative and free Rennala from its attention.
• Lilith admitted she had arranged the pregnancy to experience Rennala’s childbirth pain and hoped to witness Marika’s next labor.
• Messmer learned that the Winged Serpents had come to comfort him and accepted them as companions.
• Ordovis reported that Prince Godwyn had left Leyndell for the Mountaintops of the Giants, and Marika voiced her suspicions about Lilith.
• Marika cursed Lilith, while Lilith watched Leyndell from Lakeside Town and looked forward to Marika having another child.

Horace attended a celebration for Rennala’s pregnancy and learned that she understood Lilith’s deception but had agreed to cooperate because the moon’s harassment had stopped. Back in Lakeside Town, Seluvis showed Horace his successful combat puppet designs and received approval to continue his research.

• Rellana questioned Horace about Rennala’s sudden pregnancy, then privately wondered whether she should try to have a child herself.
• At Caria Manor, Rennala told Horace that Lilith had arranged the pregnancy to divert the moon’s attention and that the moon’s whispers had stopped.
• Rennala agreed to cooperate with the pregnancy but warned that she would retaliate if Lilith harmed Rellana or Caria.
• Seluvis burst into Horace’s study and presented designs for Crayfish and crab puppets, reporting that twelve prototypes had passed their tests.
• Horace praised Seluvis, approved funding for further puppet and octopus research, and sent the exhausted sorcerer away to rest.

Horace agreed to take Lilith to the Lake of Rot to investigate the growing activity of rot and let her examine the sealed God of Rot. After arriving in Nokstella with Messmer and Alberich, the group headed south toward the lake, while Lilith secretly took an interest in the Night Witch.

• The Crayfish and Crab puppets impressed the Order of the Great Rune Knights, and Uriel approved twenty Crayfish puppets for Gaius's Albinaurics.
• Lilith returned after several days away and reminded Horace of his promise to take her to see the God of Rot's wounds; Horace agreed to leave in three days.
• Horace brought Messmer and Alberich to the Lake of Rot because their flames could help protect them from rot, and he stopped Lilith from trying to make Alberich bleed.
• The group reached Nokstella, where the Night Witch warned Horace that rot had become more active and directed them toward the lake.
• As the party left for the Lake of Rot, Lilith secretly decided she wanted to steal away the Night Witch.

Horace and his companions reached the Lake of Rot, where Lilith triggered a mechanism that raised platforms from the water. Horace investigated the lake’s sealed essence and inscriptions, while Messmer found an unconscious Onyx White King for him to take back.

• Lilith stepped into the Lake of Rot and tasted its water, while Horace considered whether rot also involved abundance and change.
• Lilith stepped on a hidden stone slab, raising several platforms from the lake and summoning dragonkin soldiers, whom she instantly erased.
• Horace found inscriptions describing how the Flowing Water Swordsman had sealed away rot.
• Messmer brought Horace an unconscious Onyx White King, and Horace ordered him to take it back to keep the Black King company.
• Lilith returned from the water and urged Horace to visit the sealed figure at the lake’s center.