Recaps

Klein and the Nighthawks defeated the tuxedo clown, treated their injuries, and secured Sealed Artifact 2-049 and the Antigonus Family Notebook. As they prepared to return with Riel Bieber’s remains, Dunn left Leonard behind to keep ordinary people away.

• Klein killed the tuxedo clown with two shots and helped Al Hasson and Borgia take Goddess’s Gaze.
• Leonard revealed he had recovered and hinted that he and Klein both had unusual abilities.
• Dunn checked the Antigonus Family Notebook and ordered it kept behind Tingen City’s Chanis Gate with Sealed Artifact 2-049.
• The Nighthawks searched the clown’s corpse and warehouse, finding no useful clues and mangled remains attributed to Riel Bieber’s dangerous ritual.
• Dunn explained that Riel Bieber had lost control and told Leonard to guard the site while the others gathered the remains and returned with the sealed items.

After Riel Bieber's defeat, the Nighthawks recovered a strange Beyonder material and Dunn offered Klein official membership, which Klein accepted. On the carriage ride back, Klein explained how he had killed the Secret Order's clown, while concealing that Sealed Artifact 2-049 had controlled him.

• Borgia found a fist-sized mass of grayish-white matter at the site of Bieber's destruction, and Dunn stored it in a metal box.
• Dunn told Klein that he would apply to the Holy Cathedral for permission to let him read the Antigonus Family's notebook and offered him a place on Tingen City's Nighthawks team.
• Klein accepted Dunn's offer after considering the benefits, restrictions, and his goals of learning mysticism and safely increasing his power.
• Al Hasson asked Klein how he had killed the Secret Order's clown, and Klein claimed the clown had mistaken him for someone under 2-049's control.
• Klein said he had lured the clown into 2-049's area of effect by grabbing a strip of paper and pulling him closer, then used gunfire to finish him.
• Dunn remarked that the Seer pathway leading to Clown was strange.

After the Nighthawks returned to Blackthorn Security Company with Sealed Artifact 2-049 and the dead Beyonder, Klein struggled with the memory of killing the tailcoat clown and tried to confront his fear by examining the corpse. The corpse suddenly grabbed Klein’s wrist, leaving him in danger.

• Klein joked that Seers and Clowns both appeared in circuses, lightening the Nighthawks’ mood as they returned to Zouteland Street.
• Dunn sent Frye and Loyao to help Leonard at Tilley Warehouse, then directed Klein to fetch Old Neil for healing ritual magic.
• Klein recalled the tailcoat clown’s death, became unsettled, and tried to distract himself by cleaning his clothes.
• Frye showed Klein the clown’s corpse and sketched its face, explaining that he had once wanted to become a painter before joining the Nighthawks.
• After Frye left Klein to guard the room, Klein noticed a strange brand on the corpse’s wrist and reached to inspect it.
• The corpse’s lifeless hand suddenly seized Klein’s wrist.

Klein was frightened when the tuxedo clown’s corpse briefly revived, gripped his wrist, and repeated “Hornacis,” then he reported the incident to Dunn and went home to rest. He woke hungry and learned that his mentor had sent him a letter about Hornacis.

• The tuxedo clown’s corpse grabbed Klein’s wrist, murmured “Hornacis” three times, and released him before going still again.
• Klein discovered that the corpse’s brand had become a floating ball of blue-tinged blood, then told Frye what had happened.
• Klein reported the corpse’s words to Dunn, who said he would notify the Holy Cathedral and sent Klein home to rest.
• Klein worried that the Secret Order might seek revenge, but decided they were unlikely to identify him as the killer.
• Klein slept until evening, and Melissa told him that his mentor had sent him a letter.

Klein read his mentor’s recommendations for research on the ancient ruins of Hornacis, then learned that the Antigonus Family Notebook and Sealed Artifact 2-049 were being transferred to Backlund. As he awaited approval to become a full Nighthawk member, Old Neil told him that membership required completing an independent mission.

• Klein read his mentor’s letter about the Hornacis ruins and wrote back to thank him, asking Melissa to mail it.
• Melissa told Klein and Benson that Selena had invited their family to her birthday dinner, and they agreed to attend and pay for her present.
• Dunn told Klein that Nighthawks were taking Sealed Artifact 2-049 and the Antigonus Family Notebook to Backlund, and that the Secret Order investigation had identified a coachman and a temporary residence.
• Dunn said the Holy Cathedral might take two or three days to decide on Klein’s full membership application, while Rozanne lamented the staff shortage and joked that Klein should marry to recruit another civilian worker.
• Old Neil told Klein that becoming a full Nighthawk required him to complete a mission independently.

Klein continued his Nighthawk training and researched the ruins of the Main Peak of Hornacis, while Anna recommended him as a Seer to her sick friend Bogda. At Deville Library, Klein encountered its owner, Sir Deville, after reading about a possible ancient temple near the mountain summit.

• Old Neil told Klein that completing a solo mission was a Nighthawk ritual and discussed the likely Clown Sequence and his mysticism lessons.
• At a dinner, Bogda revealed he needed liver surgery but feared the operation, and Anna urged him to seek a divination from Klein Moretti at the Divination Club.
• Klein obtained a library card at Deville Library but learned it lacked the book he sought, so he read journals about the ruins near the Main Peak of Hornacis.
• Klein wondered whether the ancient temple described in the journals was the one from his dream, then noticed Sir Deville approaching with his butler and tapped between his eyebrows.

Klein divined that Bogda Jones's liver surgery would likely end in death, then directed him to Rosen's Folk Herb Store as a source of hope. Bogda found the shop and, despite doubting the shopkeeper's remedies, paid for medicine.

• Klein studied the Hornacis Mountain Range ruins in library journals and decided not to visit them.
• Bogda waited at the Seer Club until Klein arrived and asked him to divine the outcome of his liver surgery.
• Klein drew the reversed Wheel of Fortune and dreamed that Bogda died during surgery.
• Klein recalled Rosen's Folk Herb Store, divined that it was a promising lead, and directed Bogda to Vlad Street in the East Borough.
• Bogda found Rosen's Folk Herb Store, where the shopkeeper offered him herbal medicine for ten pounds and an additional dubious remedy.
• Bogda lost confidence in the shopkeeper but trusted Klein's guidance and took out two banknotes to pay.

Bogda drank a foul herbal potion and woke feeling that his abdominal pain had eased, while Klein completed two protective amulets and became an official Nighthawk. The chapter ended with Klein and Melissa helping Benson prepare for Selena’s birthday dinner, which Melissa hoped would lead him to romance.

• Bogda suspected Klein and the herb-shop owner of cheating him, but bought the herbs and drank the potion after his father urged him to consider surgery.
• The owner told Shermane to stop buying herbs because too many customers were coming, and offered to let him run the shop in exchange for half its monthly profits.
• Bogda suffered an upset stomach overnight, then woke refreshed and found that his abdominal pain had largely disappeared.
• Klein engraved two amulets for Benson and Melissa, sensing a powerful surge as he completed the final symbol.
• Dunn told Klein the Holy Cathedral had approved him as an official Nighthawk and assigned him an ordinary commissioned task in place of an initiation mission.
• Before Selena’s birthday dinner, Klein lent Benson a tailcoat after Melissa explained that she hoped he would find a romantic partner there.

Klein attended Selena Wood’s birthday dinner with Benson and Melissa, where he gave his siblings handmade amulets and met Elizabeth, a girl he had encountered at an underground market. The evening ended with Klein sensing strange fluctuations upstairs as he left a poker game.

• Klein gave Melissa a handmade silver amulet, and she accepted it; Benson also accepted the amulet Klein had made for him.
• Klein, Benson, and Melissa traveled to Selena Wood’s home for her birthday dinner and met Mr. Old Wood and the other guests.
• Klein recognized Elizabeth as the girl he had helped choose an amulet at the underground market, but both pretended they had not met.
• Elizabeth told Klein that Selena felt healthier after wearing the amulet, and Klein learned that Elizabeth attended Evans Public School.
• Klein lost at Texas hold’em, went toward the bathroom, and stopped when his Spirit Intuition detected strange fluctuations upstairs.

Klein discovered that a supernatural force was corrupting Selena during a Magic Mirror Divination and prepared a ritual to save her. He arranged for Elizabeth to lure Selena into his bedroom, where he would draw on the Evernight Goddess’s power.

• Klein used Spirit Vision and pendulum divination to confirm that the sitting room contained supernatural danger and that Selena was being corrupted.
• Klein distracted Melissa and summoned Elizabeth, then warned her that the Magic Mirror Divination had gone wrong.
• Elizabeth secretly looked into Selena’s mirror and saw only a sinister, full-length image of Selena inside it.
• Elizabeth showed Klein where Selena kept her occult supplies and agreed to lure Selena into the bedroom after five minutes.
• Klein prepared candles and ritual materials, planning an interrupted ritual to confront the unknown entity affecting Selena.

Klein performed an interruptible ritual to free Selena Wood from the evil taint revealed by her Magic Mirror Divination. After the ritual drained his spirituality and caused him severe pain, he found Selena restored and told Elizabeth the problem was resolved.

• Klein prepared an interruptible ritual invoking the Evernight Goddess and asking her to free Selena Wood from evil and misfortune.
• Elizabeth brought Selena to her bedroom, where Klein pulled Selena inside and sealed the room with a barrier of spirituality.
• Selena transformed as Klein completed the ritual, and a blackish-green gas was drawn into the silver bowl as the parchment burned.
• Klein found Selena unconscious with her aura restored, but the ritual left him in pain and close to losing control of his Beyonder powers.
• Klein cleared the altar, opened the bedroom door, and told Elizabeth that Selena's Magic Mirror Divination mistake had been corrected.

Klein rescued Selena from a dangerous Magic Mirror Divination and warned Elizabeth about forbidden mystical practices. After Selena woke with no memory of the incident, Klein learned the full incantation and planned a stop at the company before going to Zouteland Street.

• Klein told Elizabeth that Selena was safe, learned she had studied mysticism with Hynas Vincent, and warned her to avoid incantations connected to beings beyond the seven deities.
• Klein used a coin divination to confirm Selena was no longer in danger, while Elizabeth found Selena unconscious beside the shattered mirror and helped her wake.
• Elizabeth told Selena that her divination had attracted something dangerous, persuaded her not to try it again, and elicited the incantation about the True Creator.
• Klein returned to the poker game, won six pence, and later got the complete incantation from Elizabeth.
• Klein told Benson and Melissa he needed to stop by the company before they went to Zouteland Street.

Klein reported the incident involving Selena’s Magic Mirror Divination to Dunn, who assigned the investigation of Hynas Vincent to the team. Klein then reassured Melissa with a misleading explanation, but the next morning Dunn revealed that Hynas had died after Dunn saw a terrifying vision in his dream, and sent Klein to begin his initiation mission.

• Klein told Dunn and Leonard about Selena’s attempted summoning and recommended investigating Hynas Vincent, so Dunn praised his handling of the incident and said the team would investigate.
• Leonard told Klein that his initiation mission had already been assigned, and Dunn instructed him not to ask about it until the next day.
• Melissa asked Klein why Elizabeth and Selena had acted strangely, and Klein blamed their behavior on Elizabeth confronting Selena about the evil words used in her divination.
• Dunn told Klein that Hynas Vincent had died after Dunn saw an enormous cross and a bloodied man nailed upside down in Hynas’s dream.
• Dunn said the team would continue investigating and ordered Klein to complete his initiation mission.

Klein investigated the supernatural harassment tormenting Sir Deville and accompanied Inspector Tolle and Sergeant Gate to the philanthropist’s home. As Klein entered Deville’s bedroom, his Spirit Intuition suddenly warned him of danger.

• Dunn assigned Klein to investigate the unexplained groaning and sobbing that had been disturbing Sir Deville for over a month.
• Klein changed into his probationary inspector’s uniform and met Inspector Tolle, who described Deville’s wealth, political ambitions, and failed attempts to stop the harassment.
• Klein and Tolle rode to Deville’s home, where Sergeant Gate greeted them and Sir Deville awaited their investigation.
• Klein activated his Spirit Vision, found nothing unusual about Deville, and asked him to lead them to the bedroom where the groaning had first begun.
• Klein entered Deville’s bedroom with the group, and his Spirit Intuition warned him of danger.

Klein investigated the supernatural haunting of philanthropist Sir Deville and used Dream Divination to uncover that it came from female workers who died of lead poisoning in Deville’s factories. He discovered that Hayley’s death and the workers’ accumulated resentment were tied to the factory, but the dream ended before he could resolve the haunting.

• Klein sensed pale, grieving figures around Sir Deville and concluded that strands of death resentment were haunting him.
• Klein confirmed that the haunting eased temporarily whenever Deville traveled, then returned and worsened.
• Klein sent the others away, had Deville lie down, and used Dream Divination to communicate with the resentful spirits.
• Klein witnessed the deaths of Charlotte, Mary, and Laverty, realizing they were female factory workers who had died from lead poisoning.
• Klein saw Hayley conceal her worsening symptoms because her family needed her wages, then collapse and die beside the road as a Deville family carriage passed.

Klein helped Sir Deville trace his psychological distress to guilt over lead poisoning at his factories and the death of Hayley Walker. Deville compensated Hayley’s parents, and the spirit haunting him disappeared, though Klein explained the others’ experience as mass hysteria.

• Klein told Deville that his guilt over harmed workers had built up and that Hayley Walker’s death had triggered his distress.
• Klein advised Deville to compensate Hayley’s parents and publicize the dangers of lead, while Deville agreed to find them and pay them.
• Deville gave Hayley’s parents 300 pounds, and the pale figure behind him faded away as they left.
• Deville asked why his servants and bodyguards had also heard the crying, and Klein called it mass hysteria.

Klein resolved Sir Deville’s nightmares by explaining them as mass hysteria, then rested and prepared for another Tarot Club gathering. Audrey and Alger also readied themselves to join the mysterious meeting, where Klein summoned Justice and The Hanged Man.

• Klein explained mass hysteria to Sir Deville, who went to bed and appeared to have his troubles resolved.
• Klein told Dunn that resentment tied to factory deaths had caused Sir Deville’s nightmares, and Dunn arranged for the compensated worker’s family to leave Tingen.
• Klein went home to rest, reviewed his experiences, and summoned Justice and The Hanged Man above the gray fog.
• Audrey prepared to enter her Spectator state and wondered whether Susie could join the Tarot Club.
• Alger waited early in his cabin for the gathering and steadied himself with a glass of liquor.

At the Tarot Club gathering, Klein read a new page from Emperor Roselle’s diary, learning more about Zaratul, the Secret Order, and potion digestion. The gathering ended with Alger reporting the Aurora Order’s search for the True Creator, whom Klein called the Fallen Creator.

• Audrey gave Klein a new page of Emperor Roselle’s diary, and he read Roselle’s account of meeting Zaratul, the Secret Order’s leader and a former Seer.
• Audrey asked where to find the Psychology Alchemists and how to tell when she had digested her Spectator potion; Alger advised patience, and Klein explained that acting could shorten digestion to as little as a month.
• Klein told Audrey and Alger that the Tarot Club would carefully assess any new members and keep secrecy as its guiding principle.
• Alger reported that an Aurora Order Listener was searching for the True Creator’s sanctuary and explained the being’s role in mystical organizations.
• Klein called the True Creator the Fallen Creator.

At the Tarot Club gathering, Alger explained the history of several secret organizations, including the Moss Ascetic Order and the Hidden Sage, while Klein connected the Secret Order’s activities to the Antigonus Family. After the gathering, Klein failed to create an alternate persona but sensed a faint prayer from one of the crimson stars.

• Alger agreed to explain secret organizations to Audrey in exchange for 1,000 pounds, and gave her the delivery address in Pritz Harbor.
• Alger described the Moss Ascetic Order’s origins and said it became an evil organization after the Hidden Sage came alive as a personified evil god.
• Klein recalled that the Secret Order pursued objects left behind by the Antigonus Family and considered using that connection to obtain the Clown potion formula.
• After ending the gathering, Klein tried and failed to create an alternate persona above the gray fog.
• Klein touched an illusory crimson star and sensed a faint, indistinct prayer.

Klein investigated a mysterious youth praying in an unfamiliar language, then learned that the apothecary he had recommended sold a potent potion made with mummy powder. He went to inspect Rosen Darkwill’s shop and found it closed with a notice that it was for sale.

• Klein watched a youth praying above the gray fog but could not understand his language, which seemed related to Ancient Feysac or Jotun.
• At the Divination Club, Klein learned that Mr. Vincent had died, then reunited with Bogda, whose liver disease had been cured after visiting Rosen’s Folk Herb Store.
• Bogda revealed that he planned to buy Rosen’s mummy-powder potion, and Glacis endorsed the apothecary’s remedy from his own experience.
• Klein traveled to Vlad Street to investigate Rosen Darkwill and found the shop shut with a business-for-transfer notice on its door.

Klein returned to the Blackthorn Security Company, where Dunn explained Madam Daly’s rapid advancement and her conjecture that some Sequence pathways combine seemingly unrelated abilities into a powerful whole. The conversation ended with Klein learning about his further studies and combat training, which Dunn had forgotten to mention.

• Rozanne told Klein that Madam Daly had visited and described her wish to become a Beyonder and travel the world.
• Dunn told Klein that Daly had advanced unusually quickly through the Corpse Collector, Gravedigger, and Spirit Medium Sequences, and that she had advised him to become a true nightmare.
• Dunn explained Daly’s conjecture that some Sequence pathways consisted of independent abilities that combined at a high Sequence, possibly Sequence 4, and Klein considered how it might apply to Seer and Clown.
• Dunn told Klein that Gatekeeper belonged to the Spirit Medium pathway and invited him to the Nighthawks’ feast that evening.
• Old Neil told Klein to continue studying ritualistic magic and languages and to practice combat for two hours each afternoon, explaining that Dunn had forgotten to tell him.

Klein began combat training with the former knight Gawain, whose first lesson left him badly exhausted. After joining the Blackthorn Security Company for dinner and eating a second steak to recover, Klein woke the next morning sore and struggled to move as Melissa noticed his condition.

• Leonard brought Klein to Gawain, who agreed to train him after seeing his poor punches and kicks.
• Gawain assigned Klein strength training and set a schedule of four sessions a week for the first month.
• At dinner, Dunn welcomed Klein as a full member of the Nighthawks, and Leonard and the others ate most of Klein's food while he recovered from training.
• Klein asked for another dinner, then quickly ate a freshly cooked steak and learned the meal had cost 5 pounds 9 soli 6 pence.
• The next morning, Klein woke with aching muscles and shuffled outside, where Melissa asked what was wrong.

Klein visited Hoy University to read a book about ancient ruins on the Main Peak of Hornacis and found evidence linking them to his dream and the Nation of Evernight. Azik then warned him that three recent coincidences suggested something might be guiding events, but he could not identify the cause.

• Klein explained to Melissa that his sore muscles came from joining combat training, then left home after breakfast to visit his mentor at Hoy University.
• Klein found Azik waiting in Cohen Quentin's office and read A Study of the Ancient Ruins on the Main Peak of Hornacis.
• Klein learned that the ancient civilization worshiped the night, kept its dead at home for three days, and vanished without leaving any tombs.
• Klein connected a photograph of the ruins' palace to the palace in his dream and suspected it belonged to the Nation of Evernight described in the Antigonus Family Notebook.
• Azik asked Klein about recent coincidences, and Klein recalled three incidents involving the notebook, Riel Bieber, and Selena.
• Azik said Klein's fate seemed discordant but admitted he could not determine why, and Klein used Spirit Vision to inspect Azik's aura.

Klein investigated whether supernatural forces had influenced several apparent coincidences, discovering above the gray fog that Elliott’s kidnapping had been guided by an unseen power. He glimpsed a red chimney in a distorted garden and ended the chapter preparing to seek clues about the Clown potion.

• Klein’s ordinary divinations and dream visions showed no supernatural cause behind Elliott’s kidnapping, Riel Bieber’s stay in Tingen, or Selena’s magic mirror incident.
• Suspecting Lecturer Azik had warned him based on hidden knowledge, Klein sealed his bedroom and divined above the gray fog, where the pendulum confirmed supernatural guidance in Elliott’s kidnapping.
• Klein’s dream divination revealed a distorted garden with a dark red chimney, but he could not determine the force’s purpose.
• When Klein divined the other two incidents above the gray fog, the pendulum stayed still and his dream visions showed only fragmented fog.
• Klein planned to improve his Seer abilities, investigate Azik’s knowledge, and confirmed that Clown was the Sequence 8 potion after Seer.
• Klein could not divine whether later Seer Sequences each gained a new ability, so he wrote down a statement seeking clues to the Clown potion.

Klein’s divination for clues to the Clown potion led him to connect the Antigonus Family Notebook to Hynas Vincent and Welch, and he decided to seek the surviving witness to their exchange. He used the power of the gray fog to reproduce a clear portrait of the witness, giving himself a lead to investigate.

• Klein’s dream divination showed scenes connected to Riel Bieber, Welch, Hynas Vincent, and the Antigonus Family Notebook.
• Klein realized Hynas Vincent had sold the notebook to Welch and suspected the notebook or the Secret Order might hold clues to the Clown potion.
• Klein decided to find the old man who had witnessed Welch and Hynas Vincent’s exchange, beginning with the Divination Club, and planned to visit Azik more often.
• Klein drew a rough portrait of the old man above the gray fog and prayed to himself for help depicting the image.
• Klein returned above the gray fog, transmitted the portrait through his prayer, and watched his hand produce a lifelike likeness before the vision faded.