Chapter Summaries

Mo Fei checked on Mia’s theater training, Zane’s health and studies, and Jimmy and Lucy’s growing independence as the children continued to mature. As they prepared for new stages in their lives, everyone planned a celebration for Tom’s sixth birthday.

• Mo Fei secretly watched Mia’s theater training and was impressed by her improved singing and perseverance through painful flexibility exercises.
• The theater’s owner noticed Mo Fei’s quiet visit and regarded his resolve to support Mia as unusual.
• Mo Fei continued treating Zane, whose health improved as he excelled at grammar school and attracted interest from several professors.
• Jimmy and Lucy took on more cleaning at the orphanage and competed to see who could get the strongest reaction from Tom with their stories.
• The children decided to celebrate Tom’s sixth birthday together as they prepared to begin new chapters in their lives.

Over four years, the orphanage children had grown up and pursued their own paths, while Mo Fei supported their plans and helped them prepare for the future. With Kyle home for his O.W.L.s, everyone gathered at the orphanage for a celebration.

• Aiwen became a skilled broker, and he and Aisha planned to marry after his first business venture succeeded.
• Lina mastered bread-making and saved money to open a small shop, while Boer learned medicinal formulas from Mo Fei.
• Kyle’s return initially widened the gap between him and the other children, but Boer helped him reconnect with his Muggle family; Kyle later returned nervously for his O.W.L.s.
• Mia became an actress’s apprentice and began receiving training through Earl Winter’s household, while Zane prepared to take his grammar-school examination and pursue advanced study.
• Mo Fei prepared food to help Kyle’s memory, then hosted a celebration where everyone gathered at the orphanage and shared a meal.

Mo Fei prepared a feast of magical ingredients for Tom’s birthday, reflecting on how magic affected the food and the protection it might give wizards. The meal restored much of the ingredients’ benefits, and Kyle left with an even stronger interest in confronting and eating magical creatures.

• Mo Fei toasted the coming changes and future adventures with the children before serving the feast.
• Mo Fei recalled how magic made magical ingredients difficult for ordinary tools to damage and wondered whether wizards’ attitudes toward Muggles helped preserve a protective magical law.
• Mo Fei served dishes made from fire salamander meat and deep-sea squid tentacle, which the children eagerly ate.
• Mo Fei found that his improved cooking skills preserved nearly all the ingredients’ effects, and he noted that the food had helped improve the children’s health, especially Zane’s.
• Kyle reflected on how eating magical-creature meat had diminished his awe of the creatures, and Mo Fei encouraged him to grow strong enough to kill and eat even a dragon.

Mo Fei recalled Tom’s magical outburst at age three, when the child floated, spoke Parseltongue, and summoned snakes to the orphanage. After calming Tom and hiding the magic books, Mo Fei gave him a Muggle-focused education, while Tom remained fascinated by magic and followed Kyle during visits home.

• Mo Fei redesigned the orphanage dormitory so each child had a room of their own, while Tom continued sharing his room with Mo Fei.
• Soon after Tom’s third birthday, Mo Fei found him floating in bed as wind swirled and snakes gathered outside in response to his Parseltongue.
• Mo Fei held and soothed Tom until the outburst ended, then watched the snakes retreat and planned to search the orphanage for any that remained.
• Mo Fei hid the magic books in a renovated basement and taught Tom from Muggle textbooks, finding him an unusually quick learner.
• Tom stayed eager to learn about magic and followed Kyle during holiday visits, prompting Jimmy to tease him out of jealousy.

Mo Fei tried to keep Tom’s growing charm from drawing attention, especially as Grindelwald’s influence spread through Europe. Although Miss Colleen Winter considered sending Tom to the theater, Mo Fei declined, and Tom instead began learning theater skills and aristocratic etiquette from Mia.

• Tom’s charm helped Aiwen sell bread quickly, but Mo Fei stopped him from selling there to keep outsiders from noticing him.
• Mo Fei worried that Grindelwald’s Acolytes might discover Tom and take him away for training.
• Miss Colleen Winter suggested that Tom could become a theater star, but Mo Fei put off the idea because Tom was a wizard.
• Mia taught Tom theater training and then aristocratic etiquette, while Mo Fei learned acting and singing skills by observing.
• Before Tom turned six, Mo Fei made him practice etiquette despite his dislike of the training.

Mo Fei discussed the children’s plans for the year and reassured Aiwen and Lina as they prepared to start businesses. Mia shared news of her stage debut, and Miss Colleen sent extra tickets so more of the children could attend.

• Mo Fei observed that Tom and Mia used their dining etiquette while the other children ate less neatly, and reflected on why they had different reasons for learning it.
• Mo Fei advised Aiwen to prioritize his safety as he prepared to go into business, promising he could recover from any losses.
• Mo Fei encouraged Lina to open a bakery in the West End even though she doubted her bread was ready.
• Mo Fei asked Mia about her stage debut the following week, and she showed the group the three tickets her teacher had saved for her.
• Mo Fei assigned the three tickets to Lina, Lucy, and Jimmy, then Miss Colleen sent two more tickets so Mia could have more loved ones at her debut.

Zane gained a professor’s approval and an opportunity to travel abroad, while Mo Fei considered the difficulties Lucy and Jimmy faced as the orphanage’s children attracted attention. For Tom’s future, Mo Fei planned to teach him ancient alchemical crafts, beginning with making pure water.

• An elderly legal expert accepted Zane as his student and invited him to travel abroad to help revise legal provisions.
• Mo Fei agreed to the arrangement and prepared emergency pills for Zane’s heart condition.
• Lucy and Jimmy faced adoption attempts and harmful rumors after people sought connections to Earl Winter through the orphanage.
• The children shared their skills with Tom, teaching him social manners, fire handling, Wizarding World stories, arithmetic, and writing.
• Mo Fei decided to supplement Tom’s Muggle education by teaching him crafts from magical books, starting with the ancient alchemical method for making pure water.

Mo Fei reconstructed the skill of making pure water and discovered that it could remove magic from ingredients while greatly increasing their energy. As Kyle settled on a future in tailoring, Mo Fei decided to teach the difficult craft to Tom instead.

• Mo Fei spent Belief Points to learn pure-water making, then mastered its process of collecting dew and exposing it to sunlight and moonlight for a month.
• Mo Fei discovered that pure water transformed magical meat into ordinary meat packed with energy, and he added it gradually to the children’s meals, improving Zane’s health.
• Mo Fei decided that teaching the skill to Kyle was pointless because Kyle had little interest in alchemy.
• Kyle told Mo Fei he wanted to become the foremost clothes maker in the Wizarding World, and Mo Fei advised him to learn Muggle tailoring fundamentals from Mrs. Field.
• With Kyle occupied by his tailoring ambitions, Mo Fei decided to teach pure-water making to Tom.

Mo Fei taught Tom meditation and helped the orphanage’s children pursue their separate goals as life grew quieter. Meanwhile, Miles’s older sister learned he had vanished and blamed Mo Orphanage, setting up a new crisis.

• Mo Fei spent two Belief Points to raise meditation to the introductory level, which helped him control his thoughts but revealed no obvious power.
• Mo Fei taught meditation to Tom, Lina, and Mia, though only Tom was meant to benefit from the lessons.
• Aiwen left to begin a new life with Aisha, and Zane departed by train with his mentor after Mo Fei gave him medicine and safety advice.
• Mia, Kyle, Lina, and Boer kept busy with theater, exams, breadmaking, and therapeutic massage, while Lucy, Jimmy, and Tom remained at the orphanage with Mo Fei.
• Miles’s older sister regretted punishing him, discovered he had disappeared, and blamed Mo Orphanage after learning its name.

Catherine recalled how Miles’s trouble with Earl Winter damaged her marriage and social standing, then learned that a growing mass in her brain was likely incurable. Desperate for help, she entered the home of a reputed witch doctor.

• Catherine remembered that Miles’s affair with Earl Winter had cost her and her husband years of repairing their reputations and relationship.
• Catherine learned that Miles had stolen from the Black Snake Gang and disappeared, leaving her with grief and resentment.
• Catherine’s health deteriorated, and after doctors revealed that a growth in her brain was pressing on her nerves, she returned home in despair.
• Catherine sought out a witch doctor rumored to have miraculous medicines and found his house in a desolate area between the West End and the East End.
• Catherine entered the witch doctor’s pitch-black room, and the door closed behind her.

Catherine consulted a witch doctor about her illness, and he told her it was a curse linked to her and her younger brother’s attempt to target the orphanage. He offered to break it in exchange for money and demands involving her husband, and Catherine agreed.

• Catherine visited the witch doctor and begged him to save her from her illness.
• Catherine confessed her secrets, including her younger brother’s work for the Black Snake Gang and their failed attempt to target the orphanage.
• The witch doctor claimed someone at the orphanage had killed her younger brother and used him to curse Catherine.
• The witch doctor said Catherine had to make an orphan lose everything and die in agony to break the curse, and demanded fifty thousand pounds, a passing assessment for her husband, and that she kill him and leave Britain.
• Catherine agreed to the conditions and asked the witch doctor to help her as she complained that her legs felt weak.

After leaving the witch doctor, Catherine committed herself to carrying out his plans to create chaos. The witch doctor received orders from Gellert Grindelwald and arranged a poisoning at an investment reception to help the Acolytes enter Britain unnoticed.

• Catherine left the witch doctor's house and decided to follow his instructions despite the risks to herself and her husband, Earl Winter.
• The witch doctor read and destroyed a letter from Gellert Grindelwald, whose orders called for the Acolytes to stir up trouble in London and gather intelligence.
• The witch doctor summoned the leader of the Black Snake Gang and questioned him about the theft of venomous snakes two years earlier.
• The witch doctor ordered the gang leader to establish a chamber of commerce, poison wine at an investment reception, and leave without getting involved further.
• The witch doctor planned to use unrest, accidental deaths, and heightened Muggle security concerns to distract Britain and help the Acolytes cross the border.

Catherine plotted to target the children at Mo Orphanage, while Mo Fei began teaching Tom meditation and Pure Water. Tom chose a vividly imagined snake as his meditation anchor, leading Mo Fei to uncover an incomplete magical-beast cultivation skill whose consequences remained uncertain.

• The witch doctor agreed to intensify the chaos in London at Lord Grindelwald’s request.
• Catherine investigated Mo Orphanage, identified likely targets, and planned to kill several children and sell the twins to a predatory viscount.
• Lina arranged to open her bakery in the West End, while Mo Fei began teaching Tom two arts.
• Tom struggled with making Pure Water but excelled at meditation and described a luminous snake as his anchor.
• Mo Fei suspected Tom’s affinity with snakes came from Parseltongue and decided to find him a snake to raise.
• Mo Fei consulted the Snake Control Technique scroll and discovered the unupgradeable skill [Serpent Magical Beast Cultivation (Incomplete)].

Mo Fei taught Tom meditation and how to collect pure water, guiding him through repeated failures until his dew barely met the requirements after a month. Meanwhile, Lina opened her bakery in the West End, where Catherine began visiting regularly and growing acquainted with her.

• Mo Fei let Tom study the viper section of the scroll and had him practice meditation while also teaching him to make pure water.
• Tom struggled to collect clean dew, making mistakes until he regained his composure and kept trying.
• Mo Fei compared Tom’s collected water with clean water, and Tom acknowledged his mistakes and asked for guidance.
• Tom practiced collecting and assessing dew for a month, until his harvest barely met the requirements.
• Lina opened her bakery in the West End, and Catherine began visiting often to buy bread and chat with her.

Catherine learned that the orphanage had become disconnected from Earl Winter and planned to abduct the twins, kill her husband, and have the Mo Orphanage attacked. Her attempt to arrange an adoption failed when Jimmy and Lucy refused to leave, and Tom sensed something suspicious about the prospective parents; Catherine then hired the Black Snake Gang to drug the twins, supply poison, and kill everyone at the orphanage.

• Catherine learned that Earl Winter had left the orphanage's affairs to Miss Colleen and that Mia and Manager Kalai were no longer closely involved.
• Catherine recruited her husband by catching him with his mistress, then planned to use the Black Snake Gang to kill him and help her complete the witch doctor's task.
• Catherine arranged for an elderly couple to adopt Jimmy and Lucy, but the twins cried at the thought of leaving Mo Fei, and Tom's wary reaction sent the couple away.
• Tom told Mo Fei that the snake in his mind had seemed wary when he looked into the elderly couple's eyes.
• Catherine mortgaged her house and ordered the Black Snake Gang to drug and abduct the twins, give her instant-killing poison, and murder everyone at the Mo Orphanage.
• The Black Snake Gang agreed despite the danger, after a poisoning and assassination attempt at Earl Winter's chamber of commerce reception had left London under lockdown in the West End.

After Earl Winter’s accident destabilized London, Mo Fei fortified the orphanage against a possible attack. When the Black Snake Gang launched a night raid, Mo Fei’s traps hindered the intruders, and he confronted the group preparing to set fires.

• Stefan warned Mo Fei that the orphanage might be targeted amid the unrest, so Mo Fei shut its gates and urged Mrs. Field and Aisha to seek shelter if needed.
• The Black Snake Gang split into groups to climb the orphanage walls and prepare fires around its perimeter.
• Mo Fei’s poisonous plants weakened the climbers, while slippery walls and raised bricks made their approach dangerous.
• Mo Fei slipped out the back door to stop the men preparing the fire, but one of them noticed him and mocked him.
• Mo Fei told the men that defeating them would not be difficult.

Mo Fei fought off two attackers and recalled how Mia’s stage performance had revealed how he could gain Light of Spirituality. He had used the point from that performance to master Combat and chose the health-preserving Live to a Hundred trait, leaving him confident against his current opponents.

• Mo Fei knocked out one attacker and dislocated all his joints, forcing the other two to draw their snake blades and prepare to fight.
• Mo Fei recalled watching Mia perform in a play and gaining a point of Light of Spirituality when the performance moved its audience.
• Mo Fei concluded that Light of Spirituality came from powerful emotional resonance, could be gained only once from the same scene, and depended on people who trusted him.
• Mo Fei spent the point on Combat, choosing Live to a Hundred over Amazing Martial Power.
• Mo Fei found that Live to a Hundred transformed his combat techniques into stronger, health-preserving martial arts and felt the remaining attackers posed little threat.

Mo Fei defeated the Black Snake Gang attackers who had targeted the orphanage, but their one-armed veteran Hei Shi arrived and demanded to know whether Miles had once brought a venomous snake there. Hei Shi prepared to attack, leaving Mo Fei wary of what he might do next.

• Mo Fei used his control over his body to make one attacker stab his companion in the throat, then kicked the other away and killed him by throwing a poisoned blade.
• Two attackers who had been hanging from the orphanage wall fell; one died, while the other injured his ankle, leaving only him and an unconscious man alive.
• Hei Shi, a one-armed veteran of the Black Snake Gang, entered the orphanage and warned the neighbors not to interfere.
• Hei Shi said he had come to leave no one alive and asked Mo Fei whether someone had brought a venomous snake to the orphanage years earlier.
• Mo Fei thought of Miles, the snake cage, and the scroll, but stayed silent as Hei Shi prepared to vent his resentment on him.

Mo Fei was trapped by Hei Shi and a swarm of venomous snakes, but Tom Riddle opened the door and used Parseltongue to stop the snakes and turn them against Hei Shi. Hei Shi died from their bites, leaving Mo Fei safe for the moment.

• Hei Shi summoned a swarm of venomous snakes with his whistle, surrounding Mo Fei and blocking his escape.
• Hei Shi told Mo Fei that the Black Snake Gang's boss had ordered the attack and that an arrogant woman had also offered a bounty.
• As Hei Shi sent the snakes lunging at Mo Fei, Tom Riddle opened the orphanage door and commanded them to stop with Parseltongue.
• Tom realized the snakes were attacking Mo Fei, became enraged, and ordered them to kill Hei Shi.
• The snakes swarmed over Hei Shi and bit his throat, killing him.

Tom revealed that he could understand and command venomous snakes, saving Mo Fei from the attackers and driving the snakes away. Mo Fei let Tom keep one lost snake as a pet, then sent him inside while adults dealt with the aftermath.

• Tom told Mo Fei that he had heard the snakes as words and ordered them to attack after seeing Mo Fei in danger.
• Mo Fei comforted Tom, praised him for saving his life, and warned him to master his dangerous power rather than overuse it.
• A wounded attacker tried to escape, but Boer knocked him unconscious with a shovel.
• Tom ordered the venomous snakes to leave through the sewers, and the neighbors fled inside after seeing them.
• Tom explained that one snake could not find its way home, and Mo Fei agreed to let him keep it if he cared for it safely.
• Mo Fei sent Tom back inside to reassure Jimmy and Lucy while he handled the aftermath.