Recaps

Klein realized his divination had shown a future departure, not Trissy’s actions the previous night, and sent the Nighthawks to intercept her. While Trissy boarded a train at VEnya and planned to change routes, Klein fully digested the Seer potion.

• Klein divined that Trissy was leaving Tingen by steam train but could not identify her train or destination.
• Klein recognized that steam trains did not run at night and realized his vision showed Trissy’s future departure.
• Klein told Leonard what he had divined, and Leonard alerted Dunn Smith, who led the Nighthawks toward the station.
• Old Neil warned Klein that divination was not all-powerful, and Klein’s Seer potion fully digested.
• Trissy boarded a first-class train at VEnya and planned to get off after three stops before continuing to Backlund by another means.

After digesting the Seer potion, Klein planned how to explain his rapid progress and hinted to Dunn Smith that acting might help Beyonders master their potions. He left the captain’s office wondering how to act as a Clown.

• Klein discreetly changed how he activated Spirit Vision and decided to give Dunn Smith hints about his potion progress over the next two weeks.
• Old Neil told Klein he could begin making charms, but Klein had used up his material quota and planned to visit the underground market.
• Klein learned that Trissy had escaped capture after leaving the train before it reached Tingen.
• Klein told Dunn that visits to the Divination Club and following his Seer Code seemed to help him master the potion and avoid hearing or seeing strange things.
• Dunn considered Klein’s conjecture, while Klein left the office wondering whether acting as a Clown meant joining a circus.

Klein trained with Gawain, visited the underground market to buy charm-making supplies, and learned that Admisol was behaving strangely. The chapter ended when Swain asked Klein and Old Neil to help stop a Mandated Punisher who had lost control.

• Klein finished digesting the Seer potion and argued to Gawain that combat and traditional weapons could still complement firearms, so Gawain ordered him to repeat his exercises ten times.
• Klein went to the Evil Dragon Bar to check Beyonder-material prices, but the materials he wanted were far beyond his budget.
• Klein learned that Admisol had been trembling and shouting about death and corpses, and planned to use divination to find him later.
• Klein bought supplies for making charms, spending one pound and fifteen soli and leaving himself with little private savings.
• Swain told Klein and Old Neil that a nearby member of a Mandated Punishers squad had lost control and needed to be stopped before harming ordinary people.

Klein and Old Neil helped Swain stop a Mandated Punisher who had lost control from escaping into the Tussock River. The monster was killed, and Old Neil revealed that it had served alongside Swain for decades.

• Swain asked Old Neil and Klein to help restrain the out-of-control Mandated Punisher aboard a river freighter.
• Old Neil gave Klein a Sleeping Charm and explained how to activate it while they hurried to the ship.
• Klein shot the fishman-like monster as it charged for the river, but the bullet barely wounded it.
• Old Neil and Klein threw Sleeping Charms, briefly slowing the monster and giving Swain an opening to attack.
• Swain leapt onto the dock and crushed the monster's head with a powerful blow.
• Old Neil told Klein that the monster had served with Swain for twenty or thirty years, protecting Tingen City before it lost control.

Klein and Old Neil left the docks after the Mandated Punishers dealt with a monster, and Klein returned home to discuss hiring a maid with Melissa and Benson. Meanwhile, Audrey disguised herself to attend a secret gathering with Glaint, Fors, and Xio, where she met its organizer, Mr. A.

• Klein and Old Neil left the docks after Old Neil explained that Nighthawks had to trust their teammates and told Klein he would ask Swain to replace the Sleeping Charm.
• Klein returned to Daffodil Street, found Melissa home and Benson cooking, and agreed with Benson to look for a maid-of-all-work despite Melissa's reluctance.
• Audrey changed into a hooded disguise, left Viscount Glaint's residence with him, and met Fors Wall and Xio Derecha at a nearby house.
• Xio Derecha dropped a three-edged spike and explained that it helped persuade unreasonable people to talk calmly.
• Audrey entered the gathering and observed the hooded organizer, Mr. A, whom Fors identified as a powerful Beyonder.

Audrey attended Mr. A’s Beyonder gathering with Fors, Xio Derecha, and Viscount Glaint, where she bought three pages of Emperor Roselle’s notes and requested Spectator and Mind Reader formulas. She left without finding a formula seller, and back home she noticed Susie giving her a meaningful look.

• Audrey and her companions entered Mr. A’s gathering, where she read the anonymous requests and was surprised by the low prices of the listed Beyonder items.
• Audrey bought three pages of Emperor Roselle’s notes from a young man and confirmed that their writing matched the pages she had obtained before.
• Audrey requested Spectator and Mind Reader formulas, while Viscount Glaint requested the Apothecary formula; Xio Derecha eyed the Sheriff formula on the blackboard.
• Mr. A privately asked Audrey whether she wanted other Sequence 9 formulas, but she replied that she only wanted Spectator.
• During the break, the young man claimed that tattooing Roselle’s symbols had made him stronger and healthier, but Audrey declined his offer.
• Audrey left the gathering with Fors, Xio Derecha, and Glaint, then returned home and saw Susie give her a meaningful look.

Audrey learned that the king and prime minister had shifted their attention to reforms, while Klein investigated Admisol’s frightening visions and found that Elizabeth was plagued by recurring dreams of a black-armored knight. The chapter ended with Klein suspecting that Elizabeth’s visit to an abandoned castle and the blood she left there had caused the dreams.

• Audrey questioned Susie, who reported that the king and prime minister had postponed plans to retaliate against the Feynapotter Empire and were pursuing administrative reforms.
• Klein found Admisol trembling at the Evil Dragon Bar, but the young man panicked and could only describe a dream filled with corpses.
• Klein decided to report Admisol’s condition to his captain and planned to consult Mr. Azik after his return.
• Klein went to the Divination Club, where Elizabeth asked him for help with recurring nightmares about a black-armored knight with glowing red eyes.
• Elizabeth told Klein that the dreams began after she visited an abandoned castle near Ramde Town and was pricked by thorns, leaving blood behind.

Klein used a Dream Charm to investigate Elizabeth’s nightmares and found a wraith’s thought in her dream. He reported the danger to Dunn, who prepared to take Klein and Frye to Ramde Town, then asked whether Klein had noticed any changes in himself.

• Elizabeth asked Klein to divine the cause of her nightmares, and he had her sleep in the Red Agate divination room.
• Klein activated his Dream Charm and entered Elizabeth’s dream, where she revealed she had suspected he worked at the Divination Club and had tried to find him.
• A black-armored knight with a wraith’s thought appeared in the dream, and Klein stepped between it and Elizabeth before shattering the dream.
• Klein told Elizabeth the nightmares would end within a week, then privately resolved to report the wraith to Dunn; Elizabeth left with numb arms from sleeping on the table.
• Klein told Dunn about Admisol’s frightening dream and Elizabeth’s encounter with the wraith, and Dunn decided to go to Ramde Town with Klein and Frye, bringing Sealed Artifact 3-0782.
• Dunn asked Klein whether he had felt any changes over the past two days.

Klein, Dunn, and Frye traveled to Ramde to confront the wraith in an abandoned castle, carrying the Mutated Holy Emblem of the Sun. Dunn kept the wraith within the emblem’s range for over a minute until it vanished, but Klein then sensed something disturbing near the castle’s dining room.

• Klein told Dunn that acting according to his Seer Code had made his potion experience feel easier, and Dunn arranged for him to join the trip to Ramde.
• Dunn retrieved Sealed Artifact 3-0782, and he and Klein left with Frye, who drove the carriage to Ramde by way of Daffodil Street.
• The three Nighthawks found the wraith in the ruined castle, where it knocked Dunn aside and kicked the holy emblem out of its range.
• Klein and Frye fought the wraith, but Klein was caught in a dream created by Dunn and watched a false version of the fight unfold.
• Dunn revealed that he had been buying time, and the wraith dissolved after remaining near the Mutated Holy Emblem of the Sun for over a minute.
• A black iron gauntlet fell from the wraith, and Klein sensed illusory pain and filth calling to him from the steps near the dining room.

Klein, Dunn, and Frye investigated the hidden basement beneath the castle and concluded that someone had recently disturbed a corpse, releasing its resentment as a wraith. While questioning Ramde Town residents, Klein found a portrait of the first Baron Lamud that looked strikingly like Azik.

• Klein divined that exploring the castle's hidden location would go smoothly, and Dunn opened the concealed trapdoor beneath the living room step.
• Klein and Dunn found a headless skeleton in a coffin; Dunn theorized that someone had recently opened it and taken the deceased's head, releasing the resentment that became the wraith.
• Frye's examination confirmed that the man had died of poisoning and that the marks on his neck were less than three months old.
• The Nighthawks returned to Ramde Town and questioned longtime residents; Klein found that two people remembered being injured at the castle as children.
• A yellow-haired man offered Klein an oil portrait of the first Baron Lamud, and Klein noticed that the baron resembled Azik and had a mole in the same spot near his right earlobe.

Klein investigated a portrait said to depict the first Baron Ramde and found that it closely resembled Azik, prompting him to wonder whether Azik had lived through multiple lives. After divining whether to tell Dunn, Klein decided to share only the portrait's resemblance and then responded to a renewed signal from a mysterious youth whose plea suggested a link to the Forsaken Land of the Gods.

• Klein threatened Rogue Gray with his revolver and learned that the portrait was a copy of a badly damaged painting found in the old castle, with no proof it depicted the first Baron Ramde.
• Klein considered whether Azik was an ancient Beyonder who had lost his memories or had been reincarnated, and decided not to report his full suspicions to Dunn.
• Above the gray fog, Klein's spirit pendulum advised him not to tell Dunn, while his dream showed Azik rescuing him from a sea of blood and standing beside him in a mausoleum.
• Klein decided to tell Dunn only that a townsman had shown him a supposed portrait of the first Baron Ramde that resembled Azik.
• Klein noticed the crimson star contracting and expanding, heard a youth plead in Jotun for a great god to free the people of darkness from a curse, and suspected a connection to the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
• Klein touched the illusory crimson star to respond to the youth's signal.

Derrick killed his parents to prevent them from becoming evil spirits, then prayed to a deity for the City of Silver and was brought before Klein. Klein offered him a chance to grow stronger through equivalent exchange, and Derrick began recounting the city’s history.

• Derrick reluctantly stabbed his dying parents with a silver sword after an old man explained that only a blood relative could prevent them from becoming evil spirits.
• Derrick returned home, prayed to a deity using an ancient crystal ball, and was transported to the palace above the gray fog.
• Klein introduced himself as the Fool and offered Derrick an opportunity to obtain what he wanted through equivalent exchange.
• Derrick asked for the initial Sequence potion formula to become a Sun, and Klein told him to avoid going out or sharing a room with anyone for the next two days.
• Klein asked Derrick to exchange the opportunity for the history of the City of Silver, and Derrick began by explaining that it had once been called the Nation of Silver.

Klein listened as Derrick described the City of Silver’s history, its people, and the dangers of the Forsaken Land of the Gods. Derrick chose The Sun as his code name before Klein ended the connection, with plans to summon him again within two days.

• Derrick recounted how the City of Silver survived the Deep Dark Age and endured for 2,582 years in a land without a sun.
• Derrick explained that the City of Silver followed the Giant pathway and named its known Sequences, including Sequence 4 Demon Hunter.
• Derrick described the Council of Six and revealed that Elder Lovia followed the Shepherd pathway, which began with Sequence 9 Mystery Pryer.
• Derrick told Klein that the City of Silver’s people became evil spirits after death unless someone of the same bloodline ended their lives.
• Klein told Derrick he might summon him again within two days and asked him to choose a tarot card code name.
• Derrick chose The Sun, and Klein severed their connection.

After recruiting Derrick Berg, Klein joined Dunn and Frye’s investigation in Ramde Town and took the first shift guarding Sealed Artifact 3-0782 outside town. Using the gray fog to bypass interference, he discovered that the artifact had absorbed a mysterious golden liquid and began divining the liquid’s origin.

• Derrick Berg woke from his vision in the City of Silver, saw the crystal ball shattered, and found a strange symbol had appeared and vanished on his hand.
• Klein returned from the gray fog and met Dunn and Frye, who confirmed the Wraith had only appeared within the past two or three months.
• Dunn assigned Klein to carry Sealed Artifact 3-0782 outside Ramde Town, and Frye accompanied him to establish a handover point.
• Klein settled beside a deserted grove, prepared a protective ritual, and divined the Mutated Holy Emblem of the Sun’s origin.
• Klein entered the space above the gray fog and saw the emblem absorb a drop of golden liquid from an altar.
• Klein separated the golden liquid from the materialized emblem and began divining the liquid’s origin.

Klein’s divination of the golden liquid exposed him to a godlike presence and nearly killed him, though the gray fog protected him. He recovered with new Sun pathway formulas and knowledge, then returned to the woods with Sealed Artifact 3-0782 intact.

• Klein divined the source of the golden liquid and saw a blazing sun, which burned him and damaged the palace and bronze table above the gray fog.
• Klein restored the palace and table, resolved to avoid divining matters involving higher beings, and concluded he needed to reach an angelic level to fully control the gray fog’s power.
• Klein recalled and recorded knowledge gained during the divination, including Sun pathway potion formulas, a Solar Flare Charm technique, and warnings about looking directly at gods.
• Klein identified the golden liquid as divine blood from the Mutated Holy Emblem of the Sun and considered the implications of the Unshadowed formula and the artifact’s power.
• Klein returned to the woods and confirmed that Sealed Artifact 3-0782 was intact.

Klein finished his overnight guard duty, then dreamed that Dunn invaded his dream and ate all the food on the table. After returning to Tingen, Klein arranged a meeting with Dr. Duster at the shooting club and began asking what he wanted to discuss.

• Klein handed Sealed Artifact "3-0782" to Frye and went back to the inn to sleep.
• Dunn entered Klein's dream, ate the food in the Moretti home, and left after giving Klein a thumbs-up.
• Klein returned to Tingen with Dunn and watched Frye prepare the mission report and reimbursement request.
• Klein arranged to meet Dr. Duster at the shooting club and rested before the appointment.
• Duster arrived at the club, rented a shooting range, and let Klein in; Klein reimbursed him and asked what he wanted to discuss.

Klein questioned Duster about Hood Eugen and the Psychology Alchemists, then traded advice on resisting loss of control for Duster’s help obtaining the Mind Reader formula. Afterward, Klein reconsidered the Church of the Evernight Goddess’s history and realized its destruction of the Antigonus Family raised troubling questions about what it had seized.

• Duster told Klein that Hood Eugen remained at the asylum, helping patients, and that the Psychology Alchemists had recently held only a small gathering in Awwa County.
• Klein reasoned that the Psychology Alchemists had not discovered the Acting Method and wondered why the Church of the Evernight Goddess seemed not to have developed it either.
• Duster described his worsening murmurs and hallucinations, and Klein offered to share his experience and the Nighthawks’ methods for preventing loss of control.
• Klein asked Duster to obtain the Mind Reader formula, then explained that a Beyonder should understand and live according to the meaning of their potion’s name.
• After leaving, Klein realized that the Church of the Evernight Goddess had destroyed the Antigonus Family but appeared to have obtained only the Seer formula, despite the family possessing much of the Seer pathway.

Klein weighed the risks of advancing to Clown and divined that he should obtain the potion through the Nighthawks. He summoned Derrick to arrange future contact and introduced him as The Sun at the Tarot Club’s gathering, where Audrey brought two more pages of Roselle’s diary.

• Klein considered why the Church restricted information about the Seer pathway and decided that applying for the Clown potion was an acceptable risk.
• Elizabeth thanked Klein because her nightmares had stopped, then left to visit Melissa another time.
• Klein divined above the gray fog that he should obtain the Clown potion through the Nighthawks.
• Klein summoned Derrick, gave him his titles and instructions for future gatherings, and explained the Tarot Club.
• Klein introduced Derrick as The Sun to Audrey Hall and Alger, and Audrey announced that she had collected two more pages of Emperor Roselle’s diary.

Audrey, Derrick, and Klein arranged a three-way exchange involving the Mind Reader formula, the Bard formula, and Roselle’s diary pages. After Klein received the pages, he learned that certain Beyonder pathways could be exchanged at high Sequences.

• Audrey asked Klein for the Mind Reader formula in exchange for Roselle’s diary pages, and Klein considered how to arrange payment through an anonymous bank account.
• Derrick offered to obtain the Mind Reader formula, explaining that the City of Silver possessed formulas from the Spectator pathway.
• Klein proposed that he give Derrick the Bard formula, Derrick give Audrey the Mind Reader formula within two gatherings, and Audrey give Klein the diary pages.
• Klein conjured the Bard formula for Derrick, and Audrey sent him two pages of Roselle’s Diary.
• Klein read Roselle’s entries describing how certain pathways could be exchanged from Sequence 4 onward, including Sleepless and Corpse Collector, and Reader and Mystery Pryer.

Klein learned from Roselle’s diary that some high-sequence pathways could be exchanged and that an ancient organization possessed the second Blasphemy Slate. At the Tarot Club, Audrey reported progress on public examinations and asked about Mr. A, while Alger revealed that Qilangos had entered Backlund and requested help finding him.

• Klein read Roselle’s diary entries about pathway exchanges, the second Blasphemy Slate, and an unnamed ancient organization.
• Audrey told the Tarot Club that the king and prime minister had approved public examinations and asked Alger for his promised reward in clues about the Psychology Alchemists.
• Audrey asked what the members knew about Mr. A, and Alger explained that he was likely one of the Aurora Order’s letter-named divine envoys.
• Alger told Audrey that Admiral Hurricane Qilangos had secretly entered Backlund and asked her to find his whereabouts without confronting him.
• Alger asked The Fool to provide his blessed one’s help if needed, and The Fool agreed if that person happened to be in Backlund.

At a Tarot Club gathering, Audrey agreed to help find Admiral Hurricane Qilangos after learning about his mystical item, Creeping Hunger, and the Shepherd abilities it seemed to grant him. Afterward, Derrick recorded a Bard formula and prayed to The Fool, while Klein prepared to collect Detective Henry’s final report on the red chimney investigation.

• Alger explained that Creeping Hunger needed a living person’s soul and flesh every other day and seemed to give Qilangos a range of abilities.
• Derrick identified those abilities as resembling a Shepherd’s, explaining that Shepherds devoured Beyonder souls and used their powers; Klein said Shepherd was Sequence 5 of the Mystery Pryer pathway.
• Audrey accepted Alger’s commission to search for Qilangos, and Alger promised a reward whether or not she succeeded; Klein helped him produce Qilangos’s portrait.
• After the gathering, Derrick wrote down the Bard formula and prayed to The Fool in Jotun, while Klein heard the prayer and chose to respond later.
• Klein left home to collect the final report on the red chimney investigation from Detective Henry.

Klein examined Detective Henry’s report and searched fifteen houses with red chimneys but found no match for the place in his dream. That night, Madam Daly contacted him through a spirit and confronted him about discovering the acting method, leaving Klein to acknowledge that her example had helped him.

• Klein paid Detective Henry the remaining commission and took the investigation report.
• Klein identified twenty-five houses whose tenants had changed and visited fifteen of them, but none matched the house from his dream.
• Klein returned home and prepared dinner for Benson and Melissa before going to bed.
• Madam Daly contacted Klein through a translucent face in his bedroom, and Klein sealed the room with a Wall of Spirituality.
• Daly explained that Dunn had written to her about Klein’s Seer Code, and she told Klein she knew he had worked out the acting method.
• Klein admitted that Daly had served as his example.

Klein learned from Daly that the Church knew about the Acting Method but restricted who could discuss it, and she taught him a ritual for summoning her messenger. The next morning, Klein arrived at the Blackthorn Security Company and went to report something to Dunn.

• Daly explained that the Church had records of Beyonders who advanced by acting, but only those who had mastered the method could discuss it under oath.
• Klein promised to tell Dunn about the Acting Method through his special application, and Daly offered to help him once she learned why the Church concealed it.
• Daly taught Klein a ritual that summoned her personal messenger and warned him not to alter the description of the spirit.
• Daly said she had reached Sequence 6 and left to return to Backlund, while Klein decided not to experiment with the ritual or visit the gray fog that night.
• The next morning, Klein congratulated Rozanne on the new clerical staff member and entered Dunn's office to report something.

Klein explained his insights about potion rules to Dunn, then continued his mysticism studies and searched for the red-chimney house connected to his divination. He visited Azik and revealed a portrait resembling him, prompting Azik to ask Klein to take him to the abandoned castle near Ramde Town.

• Klein told Dunn that following a potion’s implicit rules had helped him become a genuine Seer and stop his murmurs and hallucinations, and Dunn said he seemed to have understood a few things.
• Klein decided to submit a special application to Dunn within two days, then covered the armory while Old Neil slept off the effects of ritual magic.
• Klein continued his training and checked the remaining houses with red chimneys, but none matched the one from his divination.
• Klein visited Azik and told him that an old portrait of the first Baron Lamud from an abandoned castle near Ramde Town closely resembled him, including his mole.
• Azik said he might need to see the castle himself and asked Klein to take him there; Klein agreed after arranging to go home first.

Klein accompanied Azik to the abandoned castle in Ramde, where Azik recovered fragmentary memories and tried to trace the person who had taken his child’s skull. He failed to find the skull’s location but asked Klein to help investigate, and said he planned to leave Tingen once the matter was resolved.

• Klein left Melissa at home and traveled with Azik to the abandoned castle in Ramde.
• Azik recognized the castle from his dreams and recalled his wife, son, and life there before opening the concealed basement entrance.
• Azik opened the coffin and recognized the headless skeleton as his child, then used his blood to search for the missing skull.
• The search showed Klein a vision of the skull crumbling beneath a tree, but Azik could not locate whoever had taken it.
• Azik asked Klein to help continue the investigation, and Klein agreed while keeping his red-chimney lead to himself.
• Azik said he would resign and leave Tingen to search for his lost past after the matter was resolved.