Recaps

Old Neil taught Klein the principles and precautions of ritualistic magic, then performed a prayer to the Evernight Goddess to resolve a bill. The ritual ended successfully, though neither Old Neil nor Klein knew exactly how the debt would be settled.

• Klein questioned Old Neil’s use of magic to handle the bill, and Old Neil reminded him of the Mystery Pryers’ maxim and warned him against contacting unknown beings.
• Old Neil explained how ritualistic magic used candles, symbols, incantations, and a clean spiritual environment, stressing that low-Sequence Beyonders should pray only to orthodox deities.
• Old Neil arranged three candles and other ritual implements, sanctified a silver knife, and sealed the area around the altar.
• Old Neil drew control and elimination symbols on the imitation bill, prayed to the Evernight Goddess for funds, and burned the parchment in a cauldron.
• Old Neil declared the ritual complete and said the bill would be settled reasonably, leaving Klein doubtful about how it would work.

Klein learned more about ritualistic magic from Old Neil, who recovered his thirty-pound debt after returning a lost wallet to Sir Deville. At a lavish banquet, Audrey observed the guests like a Spectator until she spotted Susie watching her from the balcony shadows.

• Klein questioned Old Neil about ritualistic magic, and Old Neil explained that incantations could be improvised if they followed the proper format and expressed their meaning reverently.
• Old Neil and Klein found a wallet containing more than three hundred pounds and waited for its owner to return.
• Sir Deville’s butler verified the wallet, and Old Neil returned it in exchange for thirty pounds, settling his bill.
• At a banquet, Audrey watched the guests and scrutinized their gestures, conversations, and relationships from the shadows.
• Audrey sensed someone on the balcony and saw Susie watching her, causing her composed Spectator demeanor to collapse.

Alger pursued a Listener of the Aurora Order while Klein learned that Riel Bieber had vanished with the Antigonus Family Notebook and continued searching for clues. The chapter ended with Angelica telling Klein that Glacis had called him a miraculous doctor, leaving him bewildered.

• Alger said he was pursuing a Listener of the Aurora Order.
• Jack's father told him about the Creator and a sacred sanctuary, then collapsed in agony and shouted that they were lying.
• Dunn told Klein that Riel Bieber had disappeared with the Antigonus Family Notebook and that the Nighthawks were searching for him.
• Dunn asked Klein to keep going out in hopes of sensing the notebook, and advised him to continue practicing with firearms and building his strength.
• Klein practiced shooting, wandered the city, and visited the Divination Club, where Angelica told him Glacis had called him a miraculous doctor.

Klein used his spiritual abilities to comfort Angelica and deliberately demonstrated pendulum divination to attract clients at the Divination Club. Angelica recommended him to a melancholy woman named Anna, who asked him to divine what had happened to her missing fiancé and his ship, the Clover.

• Klein explained his earlier insight about Mr. Glacis as face divination and used Spirit Vision to notice Angelica’s hidden sorrow, advising her to let her grief out.
• Klein demonstrated pendulum divination over his tea where Angelica could see, hoping she would recommend him to club visitors.
• A melancholy young woman arrived seeking a divination, and Angelica recommended Klein despite his recent arrival at the club.
• Klein met the woman in the Citrine Room, where she introduced herself as Anna and explained that her fiancé and the Clover had failed to reach Enmat Port after leaving the Southern Continent.
• Klein asked Anna which method of divination she wanted to use.

Klein used astrological and dream divination to find that Anna’s fiancé, Joyce Meyer, had survived a calamity and returned to her home. His dream also revealed a ruined mountain palace and a disturbing presence, which he suspected was connected to the Nation of Evernight or the Antigonus Family Notebook.

• Anna gave Klein Joyce Meyer’s details, and Klein’s astrological chart suggested Joyce would face a calamity but survive.
• Klein used dream divination and saw Joyce escape a sea of blood, then approach a house with a toy windmill; he also saw a ruined palace and writhing transparent worms.
• Klein told Anna that Joyce had returned to her home and urged her to comfort him rather than question him.
• Anna hurried home and found Joyce waiting at the door; she embraced him, astonished that Klein’s divination had been correct.

Joyce recounted surviving a pirate attack and a deadly mutiny before returning to Tingen, and Anna told him that Klein had predicted his arrival. After Klein returned home, he began reviewing his recent discoveries and questions, starting with why acting helps digest a potion.

• Joyce told Anna and her parents that pirates led by Nast had robbed the Clover but spared the passengers’ lives.
• Joyce recounted how a violent mutiny killed many aboard the Clover, and how Tris helped the survivors fight back and endure until the violence ended.
• Joyce explained that the Clover eventually reached Enmat Port, where survivors were detained, before he returned to Tingen and reunited with Anna.
• Anna told Joyce that Klein Moretti had divined his return and directed her to embrace and comfort him.
• Klein left the Divination Club, returned home, and spoke with Benson and Melissa about Mrs. Schodde’s visit.
• After his family went to bed, Klein began organizing his notes and wrote down his question about why acting was key to digesting a potion.

Klein reviewed his theories about potion digestion, the limits of a Seer’s abilities, and the uncertain mechanics of his rituals, then recorded questions about the Antigonus Family and Hornacis. He burned his notes to hide his use of Chinese and began a letter to Senior Associate Professor Cohen Quentin asking for information about Hornacis’s main peak.

• Klein reasoned that acting might help digest a potion by bringing the body, mind, and spirit into alignment with its residual psyche, and he planned to verify the idea.
• Klein considered why Seers lacked direct combat abilities and decided to treat fixed energy levels and complementary powers as his leading explanation.
• Klein analyzed the Luck Enhancement Ritual, questioned who its target was and why its effects differed, and decided to proceed cautiously with further tests.
• Klein wrote down questions about the voices he heard, Hornacis, the Nation of Evernight, and the Antigonus Family’s powers.
• Klein burned his four pages of Chinese notes to prevent anyone from discovering them and resolved to take stock weekly.
• Klein began writing to Senior Associate Professor Cohen Quentin to ask for historical materials about Hornacis’s main peak.

Klein devised a ritual incantation that would let Justice and The Hanged Man send him messages through the gray fog, then entered the mysterious space for the Tarot Gathering. Audrey arrived as a newly advanced Beyonder, and Klein opened the meeting by asking whether they had found any of Roselle’s diary entries.

• Klein gave Melissa a letter for Cohen Quentin to mail, then spent the day studying and practicing mysticism.
• Klein devised an incantation identifying him as the Fool above the gray fog so Justice and The Hanged Man could send requests for leave.
• Klein used the ritual to enter the space above the gray fog and summoned Alger and Audrey to the gathering.
• Klein noticed the dragon symbol on Audrey’s chair and the storm symbol on The Hanged Man’s chair, and recognized that Audrey had become a Beyonder.
• Klein congratulated Audrey and asked whether either of them had found Roselle’s diary entries.

Klein received three pages of Emperor Roselle’s diary from Audrey and Alger, including Roselle’s early choice of the Reader pathway and his discovery of acting. He explained acting to Audrey and Alger, then Alger offered to pay for the answer with information about the Antigonus Family.

• Alger gave Klein two memorized pages of Emperor Roselle’s diary, and Audrey contributed one page.
• Klein read Roselle’s entries about his voyage, arranged marriage, choice of the Reader pathway, and discovery that acting quieted potion backlash.
• Audrey asked what acting meant, and Klein explained that a Sequence potion’s name served as an invitation to become its master by acting like the intended guest.
• Audrey praised the explanation and offered a valuable exchange, while Klein requested more Roselle diary pages or information about the Antigonus Family.
• Alger said he could pay for Klein’s answer and began to offer information.

Klein learned that the Antigonus Family was connected to the second Blasphemy Slate and used the gathering to share information about the Spectator pathway. He then taught Audrey and Alger a ritual intended to let them contact him outside their usual Monday meetings, ending as he gave them its incantation.

• Alger explained that the second Blasphemy Slate appeared at the end of the Third Epoch and that the Antigonus Family rose under the Tudor Empire before the Church of Evernight destroyed it.
• Alger told Audrey that the Spectator pathway continued with Mind Reader and Psychiatrist, but the Psychology Alchemists member he knew had been sunk near Sonia Island.
• Audrey asked what would happen if an ordinary animal drank a Sequence 9 potion, and Alger said it would likely die or become a monster unless it endured the potion.
• Klein asked Audrey and Alger to cooperate in an attempt to let them request leave and contact him outside their usual gathering time.
• Klein taught Audrey and Alger a ritual using food, candles, essential oils, and a silver knife, then began reciting its incantation in Hermes.

Klein taught Audrey and Alger a ritual incantation for contacting him, then examined the strange symbols and mysteries surrounding the gray fog. After the gathering, Audrey and Alger returned to their lives, while Klein recorded Roselle’s diary entries and prepared to continue practicing as a Seer.

• Klein taught Audrey and Alger an incantation for a ritual that could let them request his assistance, and asked them to try it before Wednesday.
• Audrey reported that her suggestions about parliamentary examinations and separating administrative and political affairs had gained support, while Alger mentioned the rise of secret organizations; Klein cryptically replied that ancient powers were awakening.
• After Audrey and Alger left the gathering, Klein examined the chair’s unfamiliar constellation symbol and searched the area around the temple above the gray fog, finding nothing unusual.
• Audrey returned to her bedroom, reflected on the gathering, and found Susie watching her from a dark corner.
• Alger awoke in his guarded cabin aboard the Sonia Sea and wondered whether the Fool was an ancient existence.
• Klein wrote down remembered details from Roselle’s diary, burned his notes, and prepared to go to the Divination Club to continue practicing as a Seer.

Klein returned to the Divination Club, where Angelica thanked him for helping her feel better and Glacis asked him to divine an investment opportunity. Klein warned Glacis that the venture would end badly, then learned an unknown visitor had come to seek a divination from him.

• Klein visited the Divination Club and saw that Angelica’s spirits had improved after his advice.
• Klein learned that Hynas Vincent was away lecturing in Enmat Port, then reunited with Glacis, who had recovered from his illness after taking medicine from Rosen Darkwill.
• Glacis asked Klein to divine whether he should invest in Lanarvus’s proposed steel company, which was based on an iron deposit in the Hornacis Mountain Range.
• Klein’s astrological divination warned that the investment would go badly, and Glacis said he would consider the advice.
• Angelica told Klein that a visitor had come to request a divination without a recommendation or looking through the club’s album.

Klein interpreted Joyce Meyer's recurring dream and concluded it pointed to Mr. Tris, the survivor who had saved Joyce aboard the Clover, as a suspicious figure. Joyce left to visit the police station, while Audrey prepared to perform a ritual with Susie guarding the door.

• Joyce asked Klein to interpret his identical recurring dream about falling from the Clover into a blood-red sea while Yunis King fell to his death.
• Klein explained that the repeated dream was a spiritual warning and guided Joyce to consider what he might have overlooked aboard the ship.
• Joyce recalled that the Clover's violence had erupted abnormally and realized he had wanted to question Yunis King about what had driven him to act.
• Klein concluded that Joyce's dream pointed to the companion who caught him and later let go, and Joyce identified that person as Mr. Tris.
• Joyce thanked Klein, paid him one soli, and said he might visit the police station.
• In Queens Borough, Audrey told Susie to guard the door while she performed a ritual.

Audrey performed the ritualistic magic she had learned from The Fool and prayed for a good dream, while Klein sensed the ritual’s effects and realized its descriptions could reach him through the gray fog. At the Blackthorn Security Company, Dunn warned Klein about Tris, a suspected Instigator Beyonder connected to the Clover tragedy, and prepared to teach him about Beyonders and secret organizations.

• Audrey prepared her ritual, accidentally fell asleep in the bath, then arranged an altar and prayed to The Fool for a good dream.
• Alger considered testing The Fool’s abilities but avoided performing unknown ritualistic magic aboard the Blue Avenger, then announced that the ship would stop at the Rorsted Archipelago for a day.
• Klein heard brief, painful whispers and saw the four black dots from the Luck Enhancement Ritual appear on his hand before fading away.
• Klein inferred that Audrey or Alger had tried the ritual he taught them and resolved to check whether the gray fog had retained their messages.
• Dunn showed Klein an internal wanted notice identifying Tris as a suspected Sequence 8 Instigator and perpetrator of the Clover tragedy, then said it was time Klein learned about Beyonders and secret organizations.

Klein studied the Nighthawks’ internal documents on Beyonders and secret organizations, learning about several Sequence Pathways and their abilities. He found links between the Seer pathway, Zaratul, and the Secret Order, then discovered Tris’s Sequence potion was Instigator.

• Klein went to the armory with Dunn’s signed document, and Old Neil agreed to show him information on Beyonders before taking him to the underground market the next night.
• Old Neil brought documents from behind Chanis Gate, and Klein learned that the Seer pathway’s Sequence 8 and Sequence 7 potion names were unknown, though their abilities were recorded.
• Klein read that the Seer pathway originated with the Zaratul Family and might be connected to the Secret Order, recalling Zaratul’s appearance in Roselle’s diary and the notebook tied to his transmigration.
• Klein reviewed the Sailor and Spectator pathways, learning about Raging Folk, Navigators, Mind Readers, and Psychiatrists as he considered The Hanged Man’s likely Sequence.
• Klein read about the God of Steam and Machinery’s Reader pathway and other records, including the Corpse Collector, Mystery Pryer, Apprentice, and Marauder pathways.
• Klein found that Tris, the perpetrator of the Clover massacre, had the Sequence potion name Instigator.

Klein learned about Gnosis, the Demoness Sect, and the world’s many secret organizations while continuing his studies and spending time with Benson and Melissa. Meanwhile, Tris met a Demoness Sect member who gave him a Sequence 7 formula and revealed that his next potion was Witch.

• Klein read that Gnosis had ties to the Abraham and Tamara families and the Demoness Sect, then asked Old Neil about the sect and learned that it worshipped the Primordial Demoness and spread disaster.
• Klein sorted the secret organizations into three historical groups, decided against divining Tris’s whereabouts, and spent the day studying instead of joining the hunt for him.
• Klein bought Benson beer and Melissa lemon cake with his extra allowance, then shared dinner with his siblings and planned to test his ritual above the gray fog after they went to sleep.
• Tris met a hooded woman at a dockside hiding place and said he had completed his task and was ready to advance.
• The woman gave Tris a book containing a Sequence 7 formula and three main ingredients, and Tris discovered that the potion was called Witch.

Klein tested whether his ritual could connect him to the gray fog and send answers to those who prayed to him. He reached Audrey and Alger with the words “I am aware,” then returned to his room and planned to visit an underground market with Old Neil.

• Klein performed his ritual and confirmed that Audrey’s prayers had reached the crimson star representing her.
• Klein sent Audrey the response “I am aware,” and she woke from a dream of The Fool, then planned to digest her Spectator potion and seek the Psychology Alchemists.
• Klein concluded that he could transmit information through the connection but could not use it to draw on the gray fog’s power.
• Klein answered The Hanged Man’s prayer with “I am aware,” and Alger heard the words after finishing his ritual in the City of Generosity.
• Klein returned to his bedroom, removed the Wall of Spirituality, and prepared to visit the underground market with Old Neil the next day.

Klein and Old Neil visited the Evil Dragon Bar’s underground market after hearing that Tris had escaped a gunfight there. Klein encountered Admisol, a young man whose unusual Spirit Intuition made him known as “Monster,” then noticed someone asking about an ingredient for the Spectator potion.

• Klein and Old Neil arrived at the Evil Dragon Bar and learned that Tris had fled after being recognized and chased by armed men.
• Old Neil led Klein through the bar and its hidden entrance into the underground market, explaining its owner Swain’s background and the market’s business.
• Admisol approached Klein, screamed in pain, and collapsed after sensing something about him; Old Neil explained that Admisol’s high Spirit Intuition suited the Monster Sequence, whose potion was held by the School of Life.
• Klein browsed the market’s ingredients and charms while Old Neil went to settle his bill.
• Klein overheard someone ask whether a powder was ground from Ox Teeth Peony and recognized it as a supplementary ingredient for the Spectator potion.

Klein visited an underground market with Old Neil, bought unfinished silver charms, and advised a girl on choosing a protective charm. After returning to Daffodil Street, he noticed a trembling young woman boarding the carriage and used Spirit Vision to check on her.

• Klein inspected the market’s protective charms and bought two unfinished silver ornaments after bargaining with the stallholder.
• Klein explained how charm materials related to deities and helped a girl select a gold charm for her friend’s health.
• Klein found no genuine Beyonder materials and left the underground market with Old Neil, who explained where such materials were traded.
• Klein noticed the gold-rimmed gentleman buying Elven Flowers but chose not to investigate him.
• Klein saw a trembling young woman board the carriage on Daffodil Street and activated Spirit Vision to examine her aura.

Klein returned home and learned that Tris had escaped a police and Beyonder operation, then heard more about the failed pursuit from Dunn Smith. Dunn took Klein to Chanis Gate because Sealed Artifact 2-049 had arrived and Klein’s ability to sense the notebook might be needed.

• Klein returned home and spoke with Melissa about her new dress, while Benson teased him for forgetting to compliment her.
• Bic Mountbatten asked the family whether they had seen a wanted young man, and Klein realized the police were searching for the escaped Instigator Tris.
• Rozanne told Klein that Tris had escaped the dock district operation, and Dunn explained that the Beyonders had lost his trail in Iron Cross Street.
• Klein offered to help track Tris through divination, but Dunn said the Machinery Hivemind had an experienced Mystery Pryer.
• Dunn told Klein that Sealed Artifact 2-049 had arrived and led him toward Chanis Gate, instructing him to keep bending and extending his arm without stopping.

Klein joined Dunn and the Backlund Nighthawks as they transported Sealed Artifact 2-049 to Riel Bieber’s home. The artifact’s influence intensified near the Antigonus descendant, and when the team opened its chest, a strange clown puppet emerged and stared at Klein.

• Dunn introduced Klein to Lolota, Al Hasson, and Borgia, who were helping transport 2-049 while keeping their arms moving to resist its sluggishness effect.
• Al Hasson carried the iron-black chest containing 2-049, which pounded violently and caused Dunn and others to become sluggish as the team left the Blackthorn Security Company.
• Lolota explained that 2-049 usually affected one person at a time within five meters, and the group traveled to Riel Bieber’s home while monitoring one another.
• At Riel Bieber’s apartment, 2-049 entered a berserk state and affected two people at once; Al Hasson confirmed that Riel was an Antigonus Family descendant.
• Al Hasson released the chest’s spiritual restraints, and a small, cloth-wrapped clown puppet emerged and fixed its pupil-less eyes on Klein.

Klein and the Nighthawks followed Sealed Artifact 2-049 to a warehouse where Riel Bieber might be hiding, while the puppet repeatedly tried to control them. Klein divined that danger awaited inside and that someone was nearby; an attacker launched a fireball, and the group moved to keep the artifact away from the unfolding fight.

• 2-049’s influence intensified, but Dunn woke Klein before the puppet could fully control him.
• Al Hasson used 2-049 as a compass, and Leonard drove the group to a warehouse in the docks.
• The Nighthawks sealed 2-049 in its chest and approached the warehouse, where Dunn asked Klein to divine the danger.
• Klein’s pendulum indicated great danger inside and danger nearby, prompting the group to prepare for an ambush.
• An orange fireball flew toward them, and the Nighthawks dodged while Al threw the chest away from the attacker and ordered Leonard and Borgia to guard it.
• Klein realized the group could stay beyond 2-049’s range during the fight, then drew his revolver and rose to his feet.

Klein and the Nighthawks fought a tailcoated Clown while another painted attacker slipped into the warehouse where Riel Bieber was hiding. A scream from inside and the sudden frenzy of 2-049 left the confrontation in turmoil.

• Al Hasson recited a poem that calmed the tailcoated Clown, but Lolota’s punch exposed his first appearance as an illusion.
• The tailcoated Clown dodged gunfire, used deceptive finger snaps and flames, and fought Dunn, Al Hasson, and Lolota among the crates.
• Klein shot a second painted attacker running across the warehouse roofs, then deliberately fired into the sky as the attacker reached the warehouse where Riel Bieber was hiding.
• Lolota restrained the tailcoated Clown while Dunn’s poem weakened him, and Al Hasson shot him after a scream rang out from the innermost warehouse.
• The scream stopped, strange breathing sounded from the warehouse, and 2-049 went berserk inside its iron-black chest.

The Nighthawks fought the out-of-control Riel Bieber and defeated him by extracting an ancient notebook from his body, but the explosion sent Sealed Artifact 2-049 near Klein. As the artifact’s arm reached from its cracked box, Klein’s thoughts began to slow.

• The tuxedoed Clown escaped after using a strip of paper to break free of his restraints, while the team turned toward the panting inside the warehouse.
• Riel Bieber emerged as a grotesque monster, and his scream injured Klein, Al Hasson, Leonard Mitchell, Borgia, Dunn, and Lolota.
• Dunn held Riel Bieber in place with a sleep-inducing power while Lolota struck him and pulled an ancient notebook from his intestines.
• Riel Bieber exploded, leaving the Nighthawks injured and unconscious as the blast hurled Sealed Artifact 2-049 beside Klein.
• A thin arm reached from the cracked box, and Klein’s thoughts suddenly slowed.

Klein escaped Sealed Artifact 2-049’s control by using the gray fog, then tricked the returning Secret Order clown into the puppet’s range. He left the clown immobilized and aimed his revolver at him.

• Klein recited the incantation to reach the gray fog and break 2-049’s control over him.
• Klein used spirit pendulum divination to confirm that returning to the real world was safe, then returned to his body.
• A tailcoated clown offered to awaken Klein in exchange for help retrieving the Antigonus Family’s notebook and promised to teach him the Sequence 8 name, Clown.
• Klein pretended to remain controlled and nodded, then seized the clown’s paper stick and pulled him toward 2-049.
• Klein fired past the clown to make him dodge into the puppet’s five-meter range, where 2-049 immobilized him.
• Klein aimed his revolver at the trapped clown and fired.