Chapter Summaries

Klein proposed a sacrificial ritual that would let Alger send Beyonder materials to him for bestowal upon Audrey, and arranged for Alger to test it after the gathering. He also told Audrey to discreetly introduce two potential members to his name, then remained above the gray fog awaiting the sacrifice.

• Klein explained that Alger could sacrifice materials to him through a ritual and that he would bestow them upon Audrey.
• Klein gave Alger the ritual steps and symbol, instructing him to try materials containing spirituality first and Beyonder materials if that failed.
• Alger agreed to attempt the ritual after the gathering and promised to notify Klein when he had secured more Beyonder materials; Audrey offered to compensate him if needed.
• Audrey asked whether two discreet Beyonder women with Backlund connections could join the Tarot Club, and Klein said they required examination.
• Klein instructed Audrey to discreetly acquaint the women with his name and encourage their interest in it.
• The gathering ended, and Klein remained above the gray fog to await Alger's sacrifice.

Alger successfully offered the Rainbow Salamander's pituitary gland to The Fool, who then enabled Audrey to receive it and advance to Sequence 8 as a Mind Reader. Klein made preparations for his disguises and rented a room in the East Borough, then waited for his advertisements to bring work; on Thursday morning, someone finally rang his doorbell.

• Alger completed the sacrificial ritual, and The Fool accepted the Rainbow Salamander's pituitary gland.
• Klein told Audrey the ritual had succeeded and instructed her how to ask The Fool to bestow power.
• Audrey performed the ritual, received the pituitary gland, and drank the Mind Reader potion, advancing successfully.
• Klein bought disguise supplies and rented a room in the East Borough for his plans.
• Klein tested rituals and charms using only his spirituality while waiting for commissions, and someone rang his doorbell on Thursday morning.

Klein accepted his first commission as a detective and used divination to find Mrs. Doris’s missing cat, Brody. After returning home, he met Ian, who asked him to investigate the suspected disappearance of Ian’s former employer, detective Zerrell Victor Lee.

• Klein accepted Mrs. Doris’s offer of five soli to find her missing cat, Brody.
• At 58 Minsk Street, Klein used a cane divination to locate Brody inside an old cupboard and reunited the cat with Mrs. Doris.
• Jurgen told Klein that Brody had been one of the mainstays of his grandmother’s life and that she had begun hearing the cat’s cries.
• Klein returned to 15 Minsk Street and found Ian waiting outside his home.
• Ian told Klein that his former employer, Zerrell Victor Lee, might have gone missing after Ian discovered signs of a break-in at his home and received no response through their agreed contact method.

Klein agreed to investigate Detective Zerrell for Ian, who paid him five pounds and promised three future favors. After a divination failed to reveal more about Ian, Klein broke into Zerrell’s home, subdued three men waiting in the bedroom with a Sleeping Charm, and prepared to use Dream Divination to locate the detective.

• Klein negotiated a contract with Ian to investigate Zerrell in exchange for five pounds and three favors, and Ian provided information about the detective.
• Ian refused to explain what Zerrell had been investigating and said he would contact Klein when the time was right.
• Klein’s divination about supernatural involvement failed because he had too little information about Ian’s situation.
• Klein went to Zerrell’s darkened home and used Spirit Vision to discover three people waiting inside the bedroom.
• Klein used a Sleeping Charm to put the three men to sleep, found Zerrell’s tawny hairs, and sat down to attempt Dream Divination.

Klein used Spirit Channeling to learn that Meursault of the Zmanger Gang had been sent to Zerrell’s house to wait for Ian, then traced Zerrell’s corpse to a sewer in the East Borough. His attempt to learn how Zerrell died failed, so he decided to leave the investigation to the police.

• Klein questioned a sleeping man through Spirit Channeling and learned that Meursault had sent him to wait for Ian at Zerrell’s house.
• Klein left the house without waking its occupants and traveled through the East Borough, where he encountered poor residents being driven from the streets.
• After resting, Klein used Zerrell’s hairs and a dowsing rod to locate his corpse in a sewer.
• Klein tried to learn the cause of Zerrell’s death through Spirit Channeling, but found that someone had dealt with Zerrell’s spirit.
• Klein concluded that a Beyonder had been involved and decided to tell Ian to go to the police.

Klein showed Ian Zerrell’s mutilated corpse, then discovered Ian had secretly returned to the sewers after they parted. At Glaint’s home, Audrey paid Xio and Fors for their work, and Xio found a hidden message in a borrowed book that named the Fool.

• Klein took Ian to Zerrell’s corpse in the sewers, where Ian confirmed the detective’s identity and Klein urged him to notify the police.
• Ian gave Klein the location of Kaspars Kanlinen at Bravehearts Bar as a source for guns and ammunition, then returned to the sewers after they separated.
• Audrey gave Xio and Fors eight hundred pounds for their work, and Xio said they had a possible lead on the Psychology Alchemists.
• Audrey subtly guided Xio and Fors toward books at Glaint’s home, and they borrowed books that matched their interests.
• Xio found a hidden sheet in her book bearing Roselle’s symbols and an Ancient Hermes passage naming the Fool above the gray fog.

Klein noticed an investment advertisement and later used Xio’s prayer to test whether he could pull someone above the gray fog. After Xio accidentally recited his honorific name, she dreamed of the mysterious space and woke fearing that a hidden existence had noticed her.

• Klein circled an advertisement for a new mode of transportation and received an unspoken prayer from a petite woman he recognized as one of Miss Justice’s companions.
• Xio realized she had silently recited an Ancient Hermes passage that might be a hidden existence’s honorific name, then panicked when she saw a stranger’s hair in the mirror and struck Fors as she came through the bathroom window.
• Xio told Fors about the paper hidden in a book, and they searched the other books before deciding to sleep and see whether anything happened.
• Klein pulled Xio above the gray fog, briefly showed her the mysterious space, then severed the connection and saw a new crimson star appear.
• Xio woke from a vivid dream of the gray fog and resolved to seek someone skilled in exorcism at the next Beyonder gathering.

Klein refused Meursault’s offer to find Ian, then visited Inventor Leppard and invested in his bicycle project. After returning home, Klein saw a pair of eyes in the bathroom mirror.

• Meursault offered Klein up to fifty pounds to locate Ian Wright, but Klein refused the commission.
• Klein traveled to Saki Street to inspect Leppard’s horse-free transport invention.
• Leppard showed Klein his large, human-powered carriage, and Klein suggested developing a simpler bicycle for everyday customers.
• Klein invested one hundred pounds in Leppard’s bicycle project for a thirty-five-percent share and agreed to draw up a contract.
• Back at home, Klein saw a pair of eyes reflected in the bathroom mirror.

Klein killed Meursault, a Beyonder and Zmanger Gang enforcer, then used Spirit Channeling to discover that an Intis ambassador had ordered him to find Ian Wright because Ian might be connected to an extremely important item. Klein recovered Meursault’s Beyonder Characteristic but was left to deal with the corpse and the destruction in his home.

• Meursault attacked Klein with overwhelming strength and speed, forcing Klein to dodge through his home until he grabbed a standard contract.
• Klein threw the contract into Meursault’s throat, killing him, then confirmed with Spirit Vision that no other enemies were nearby.
• Klein used Dream Divination on Meursault and saw a middle-aged man called Mr. Ambassador order Meursault to find Ian Wright alive if possible.
• Klein learned that the ambassador had given Meursault a potion and money to control the Zmanger Gang, and that Ian might be connected to an extremely important item.
• Klein collected the dark red Beyonder Characteristic that formed from Meursault’s corpse and wondered which Sequence it belonged to.

After killing Meursault, Klein weighed how to handle the corpse and used divination to choose reporting the death to the police. He implicated Meursault’s connection to an ambassador while hiding the supernatural evidence above the gray fog, and the sergeant prepared to report the politically sensitive case.

• Klein divined that reporting Meursault’s death to the police was safer than hiding the body or fleeing.
• Klein altered the scene to support his self-defense account, then moved Meursault’s Beyonder Characteristic and other evidence above the gray fog.
• After waiting for the right interval to pass, Klein left 15 Minsk Street and told two constables that an intruder had attacked him and died during the struggle.
• Klein told the arriving sergeant that the dead man was Meursault, an executioner for the Zmanger Gang, and described his meetings with an ambassador.
• Klein said he worshipped the God of Steam and Machinery, while the sergeant focused on reporting the case involving a foreign ambassador.

Xio bought the Sheriff potion formula and hired a believer in the Sun to purify her and Fors. Meanwhile, Klein endured a Beyonder interrogation about the ambassador and Ian Wright, then learned Lawyer Jurgen was waiting to bail him out.

• Xio paid for the Sheriff formula and found that its rare main ingredients would be difficult to obtain.
• Xio asked for help with a suspected haunting, and a masked believer in the Sun performed a purification ritual for her and Fors.
• At the police station, Klein was taken to an interrogation room and identified the ambassador who had met Meursault.
• Klein truthfully told the interrogator when he last saw Ian Wright and where Detective Zerrell's body was hidden.
• The interrogator released Klein, and the sergeant took him to complete the paperwork for Lawyer Jurgen's bail.

After being bailed out, Klein assessed the costs of his fight with Meursault, spoke with his neighbors, and planned to acquire a gun and a Beyonder bodyguard. Elsewhere, Xio and Fors received a note inviting the Arbiter who bought the Sheriff formula to a meeting.

• Jurgen bailed Klein out for ten pounds and agreed to draft his investment contract for two pounds.
• Klein returned home, accepted an invitation from Luke and Starling Summer, and discussed his detective income and their finances.
• Klein planned to visit Ian’s bar to buy a gun and seek a powerful Beyonder bodyguard.
• A masked man purified Xio and Fors’s room and gave Xio the collected droplets to sprinkle around it.
• A waiter delivered Xio a note inviting the Arbiter who purchased the Sheriff formula to meet in the study.

Xio agreed to take voluntary commissions from a masked man who promised to sell her the ingredients for the Sheriff potion. Meanwhile, Klein bought a revolver and went to meet a potential bodyguard at the Bravehearts Bar, where he discovered a card room full of Living Corpses.

• Xio met the masked man, who admitted he had arranged the sale of the Sheriff formula and offered her paid tasks in exchange for the potion ingredients.
• Klein restored his belongings, then went to the Bravehearts Bar to buy a powerful revolver and fifty rounds from Kaspars Kanlinen.
• Klein asked Kaspars to find him a formidable bodyguard, and Kaspars arranged a meeting with a potential candidate.
• Kaspars led Klein into a card room where Klein used Spirit Vision and realized that everyone playing cards except the man who approached him was a Living Corpse.

Klein failed to hire Maric to protect him from the unnamed ambassador, then reasoned that Ian Wright’s whereabouts were central to the danger. After divining Ian’s location and discovering that purification had kept a channel open to Xio, Klein prepared to continue his investigation above the gray fog.

• Klein told Maric that an important person backed by a nation might be after him, and Maric refused the bodyguard job as too dangerous.
• Klein told Kaspars he would return the next night and ask him to seek other formidable contacts.
• Klein analyzed the ambassador’s motives, concluded Ian Wright’s whereabouts were the crux of the problem, and considered asking the Tarot Club for help dealing with the ambassador.
• Klein divined Ian’s whereabouts and saw him sleeping in a cramped room, then wrote a statement denying that he knew where Ian was.
• Klein entered the space above the gray fog, confirmed the divination’s negative result, and watched a prolonged scene of Xio and her companion receiving an exorcism from a follower of the Eternal Blazing Sun.
• Klein realized that the purification had sustained his connection to Xio and prepared to divine Ian’s whereabouts again.

Klein used dream divination to identify Meursault’s potion as a Hunter potion and deduced where Ian Wright had appeared, then left a note to attract the ambassador’s attention. On the full-moon night, Fors suffered worsening ravings, and Klein awoke to find his note turned around, though divination suggested no person had entered his room.

• Klein divined that Meursault had taken a Hunter potion and concluded that the ambassador was likely a senior diplomat from Intis.
• Klein deduced that Ian Wright had visited the telegraph office on White Rum Street, near East Borough and the Backlund Bridge Area, and left a note about Ian on his desk.
• Under the full moon, Fors endured agonizing ravings, lost handfuls of hair, and feared she might lose control the next time.
• Klein found that the note had turned around despite the closed window and suspected someone had entered his room unnoticed.
• Klein divined that no one had sneaked into his bedroom and considered that the result had been interfered with or that whatever moved the paper was not human.

Klein investigated the intruder who entered his bedroom, confirmed the Iron-black worm had been sent by Intis Ambassador Bakerland Jean Madan, and then attended the Tarot Club gathering. The gathering ended with Alger revealing the Secret Order’s ties to the Republic of Intis, giving Klein another lead as he prepared to deal with the ambassador.

• Klein met Jurgen for breakfast, reviewed the contract, and paid Leppard the first installment of 50 pounds.
• Klein searched the Tussock Times and identified Intis’s ambassador as Bakerland Jean Madan.
• Klein used divination to learn that an iron-black worm had entered his bedroom and moved the paper about Ian Wright, and confirmed that the ambassador had dispatched its controller.
• Klein summoned Audrey, Alger, and Derrick to the Tarot Club, where Audrey celebrated her advancement to Sequence 8 and Alger submitted six pages of Roselle’s Diary.
• Alger told the gathering that the Secret Order had ties to the Republic of Intis, which Klein connected to his impending dealings with the ambassador.

At the Tarot Gathering, Klein issued a mission to assassinate Intis ambassador Bakerland Jean Madan, presenting it as a task for one of his adherents. Justice and The Hanged Man agreed to pursue it, while Audrey planned to gather information and hire someone to carry out the killing.

• Klein explained that he had shaped his image as a powerful but restricted figure and announced a mission for his newly arrived adherent in Backlund.
• Klein named the target as Intis ambassador Bakerland Jean Madan, prompting Audrey to worry that his assassination could lead to war.
• Alger described Bakerland as an intelligence chief who supported unrest and likely had Beyonder allies, and Audrey concluded the killing could be blamed on Feynapotter.
• Audrey accepted the mission conditionally and requested the Psychiatrist formula and ingredients as payment, while admitting she still owed Klein's adherent a bounty.
• Alger also accepted the mission, saying that being away from Backlund did not prevent him from assassinating Bakerland.

Klein read Roselle’s diary entries about the Seer and Monster pathways, Beyonder inheritance, and Nast Solomon, then opened the gathering for trades. Audrey asked Derrick for information about Dragons, while Derrick requested the Sequence 8 Bard potion formula.

• Klein read Roselle’s account of Zaratul identifying himself as a Sequence 2 Miracle Invoker and explaining that the Monster pathway, rather than the Seer pathway, represented fate.
• Klein considered how the diary changed his understanding of the Seer pathway and read Roselle’s notes on Beyonder Characteristics being passed to children.
• Klein learned that Roselle had secretly promised the pirate Savigny Solomon help advancing to a High Sequence and had predicted that Savigny’s child Nast would rule the Five Seas.
• Klein ended the diary reading and invited Justice and the others to trade information.
• Audrey asked Derrick for information about Dragons, and Derrick asked her for the Sequence 8 Bard potion formula.

At the Tarot Club, Derrick explained the history and powers of the dragons, giving Audrey a clearer idea of the Spectator pathway while raising questions for Klein about Sealed Artifact 008 and the Second Epoch. After the gathering, Audrey received a telegram from Alfred saying he had found two Rainbow Salamanders, though she no longer needed them.

• Audrey agreed to find The Sun the Bard potion formula, and Klein offered to provide the Light Suppliant formula in exchange for future help from her followers.
• Klein gave Derrick the Light Suppliant formula, and Derrick began a private exchange with Audrey about dragons.
• Derrick described the Dragon of Imagination, Ankewelt, and the Dragon of Nightmare, Alzuhod, whose abilities reminded Klein of Sealed Artifact 008.
• Derrick recounted how the dragons fell after the Creator awakened, leaving Audrey and Klein uncertain about how their histories differed from the accounts they knew.
• After the Tarot Club ended, Audrey received a telegram from Alfred saying he had found two Rainbow Salamanders, and she realized she no longer needed them.

Audrey planned to gather information about Ambassador Bakerland before commissioning his assassination, while Klein reasoned about the Secret Order’s connection to the intruder who had spied on him and sought contacts and a bodyguard among Backlund’s Beyonders. The chapter left Klein attending a masked gathering, where a member requested help dealing with beasts in the sewers.

• Audrey decided to attend Countess Grelint’s ball to observe Ambassador Bakerland before meeting Xio and Fors about the assassination commission.
• Alger changed into Intis clothing, put on a mask, and entered a concealed house in Bayam.
• Klein suspected the iron-black-worm intruder was a high-Sequence Seer connected to the Secret Order and planned to seek a bodyguard and sell Meursault’s Beyonder characteristic.
• Klein paid Kaspars two pounds to bring him to a secret gathering of masked Beyonders.
• A masked attendee asked the gathering for help clearing clever beasts from the sewers that had eaten his medicinal herbs.