Chapter Summaries

Klein attended a Beyonder gathering, sold a Hunter pathway Beyonder Characteristic to Mr. Eye of Wisdom, and sought protection from a powerful enemy. When no one would take the bodyguard commission, he agreed to buy Black Snake’s dangerous mystical item, hoping to use it safely above the gray fog.

• A suspected Apothecary hired someone to clear beasts from the Backlund Bridge Area sewers, offering medicine and thirty pounds.
• A hooded woman offered a runic steel sword and a transforming meat saw; the sword went to a gloomy man, and Mr. Eye of Wisdom bought the saw.
• Klein showed the gathering a dark red Beyonder Characteristic and accepted Mr. Eye of Wisdom’s offer of four hundred pounds for it.
• Klein asked for a bodyguard against a Sequence 6 or Sequence 5 enemy, but no one accepted the dangerous commission.
• Black Snake offered Klein a mystical item that could reveal a great existence’s voice but might harm or kill its user, and Klein agreed to buy it for four hundred pounds.

Klein obtained a black ear at the gathering and tested it above the gray fog, where its connection to the True Creator nearly overwhelmed him. He turned the released madness into an iron-black charm called Words of Filth.

• Klein traded the Hunter Beyonder Characteristic to Black Snake for a black ear and left the gathering with the item.
• Klein returned to Minsk Street and summoned himself and the black ear above the gray fog.
• Klein used divination to investigate the ear’s origin, triggering a voice of evil and filth that caused his body to mutate.
• Klein endured the attack, then scattered the ear’s Beyonder characteristic over the detached tentacles of madness.
• Klein created an iron-black charm that infected its target with madness and named it Words of Filth.

Klein accepted Mary Gale’s commission to investigate whether her husband had a mistress, while Audrey learned that Intis’s ambassador Bakerland was an intelligence chief and a Sequence 6 Conspirer. The chapter ended with Audrey seeking Glaint’s help to contact Xio and Fors.

• Klein read that a gunfight had broken out on Red Brick Lane and wondered whether the military and Intis agents had found Ian Wright.
• Mary Gale hired Klein to follow her husband, offering ten pounds for concrete evidence of an affair and lending him a portable camera.
• Audrey spoke with Ambassador Bakerland at a ball, then left after Cons Lielsen warned her that Bakerland was an old lecher.
• Cons told Audrey that Bakerland was Intis’s intelligence chief, a Sequence 6 Conspirer with a potentially Sequence 5 assistant, and said Bakerland would soon be replaced.
• Audrey gathered more information and asked Glaint to help her contact Xio and Fors.

Klein confirmed that Doragu Gale was having an affair and learned through divination that a Seer-pathway Beyonder controlled the threadworm that had entered his room. Audrey asked Xio and Fors to assassinate the Intis ambassador, Bakerland Jean Madan.

• Klein followed Doragu from the Coim Company to the exclusive Cragg Club and used dream divination to see him with a young blonde woman.
• Klein decided to identify the woman and gather concrete evidence of the affair by following her later.
• Above the gray fog, Klein divined that a Seer-pathway Beyonder had controlled the iron-black threadworm that infiltrated his room, though he could not identify the controller.
• Klein suspected the mysterious space above the gray fog might contain something related to the Seer pathway and recognized the ambassador's attendant as a possible source of potion formulas.
• Audrey asked Xio and Fors to assassinate Intis ambassador Bakerland Jean Madan.

Audrey commissioned Mr. A to assassinate Intis's ambassador, Bakerland Jean Madan, and accepted his demand for 10,000 pounds. Meanwhile, Klein gathered evidence for Mary and considered hiring Maric’s friend to protect him as he prepared to face the ambassador’s Beyonder.

• Audrey asked Fors and Xio to find a capable assassin for Bakerland Jean Madan, offering 4,000 pounds and fees for their help.
• Mr. A demanded either a high-sequence potion formula or 10,000 pounds, and Audrey chose the cash payment with 2,000 pounds upfront.
• Klein told Mary that her husband had visited the Cragg Club and identified Erica Taylor; Mary arranged to get him into the club so he could gather proof of an affair.
• Klein visited Bravehearts Bar to mislead the ambassador’s allies and found Maric, who offered his stronger friend’s protection for 1,000 pounds over three days.
• Klein asked for time to raise the money and said he would choose the protection dates within the next two weeks.

Klein confirmed that Mr. A was likely to carry out the assassination of Ambassador Bakerland and told Audrey her decision to hire him was sound, while warning her not to appear in person. After arranging a payment and checking the reliability of Maric’s friend as a potential bodyguard, Klein met Mary Gale, Allen Kreis, and Talym Dumont at the Cragg Club.

• Klein listened to Audrey’s report that Mr. A had agreed to assassinate Ambassador Bakerland for ten thousand pounds or potion formulas, and he decided not to provide Aurora Order members with the Unshadowed formula.
• Klein divined that hiring Maric’s friend as his bodyguard carried little risk and that Bakerland would face a deadly threat from Mr. A.
• Klein told Audrey that her decision was correct, warned her not to appear in person, and requested one thousand pounds for his adorer’s operating expenses in place of the Light Suppliant formula.
• Audrey arranged the one-thousand-pound payment, and Klein confirmed that it had reached the anonymous account by Thursday.
• Klein met Mary Gale at the Cragg Club, where he greeted surgeon Allen Kreis and riding instructor Talym Dumont.

After joining the Cragg Club, Klein received a premonition of great danger and hired Maric’s unseen associate to protect him. He returned home and glimpsed the pale woman guarding him in his mirror.

• Klein paid the Cragg Club’s fees, received his membership badge, and toured the club before settling into a lounge.
• Klein sensed an omen, divined that great danger awaited him in the next few days, and dreamed of Ian beneath a red moon.
• Klein withdrew a hundred pounds from the Bank of Backlund and agreed to pay Maric a hundred pounds upfront and three hundred pounds per day for protection.
• Maric told Klein that his associate had begun protecting him covertly, though Klein could not detect her during the ride home.
• Klein saw his reflection change into a pale woman in a black court dress, who curtsied before vanishing from the mirror.

Klein learned from Ian Wright how the espionage case over the Hermosuin Manuscript unfolded and realized his own unmasked identity had left him trapped in danger. After Ian departed, Klein resolved that killing the Intis ambassador was his best chance to remove the threat.

• Ian Wright visited Klein to apologize and explained that Detective Zerrell had been a Feynapotter spy who trained homeless children to gather intelligence.
• Ian recounted how Zerrell found a clue to Turan von Hermosuin’s manuscript, was killed, and left an emergency contact method in a false tooth that Ian used to reach his superior.
• Ian said Intis agents ambushed him, while Military Intelligence Section 9 rescued him and learned the manuscript’s location.
• Klein deduced that a traitor near Zerrell’s superior had exposed the spy network and caused Zerrell’s death and Ian’s ambushes.
• Klein reviewed his own mistakes and concluded that failing to disguise himself made fleeing dangerous, so he planned to assassinate the ambassador to eliminate the risk.
• Ian left to hide from the authorities, and Klein watched him disappear into the moonlight as the mysterious woman vanished from the bay window.

Klein waited at home for a possible attack while the Intis ambassador Bakerland attended a ball and arranged to seize the Hermosuin Manuscript. The chapter ended with Bakerland exposing Irene as an attacker and demanding to know who had sent her.

• Klein decided to stay home and rely on his preparations rather than seek shelter, and he convinced his hidden bodyguard that he was a Beyonder.
• Sergeant Faxin rang Klein’s doorbell, leaving Klein to wonder why the police officer had come.
• Bakerland attended a ball at the Intis embassy while his operatives pursued Ian Wright and the manuscript, hoping Rosago would secure it and escape Military Intelligence Section 9.
• Bakerland met Irene at the ball and took her to his room, where spider-like legs emerged from her hands as she attacked him.
• Bakerland struck Irene, subdued her, and demanded to know who had sent her.

Bakerland was assassinated by a Shepherd of the Aurora Order, who escaped after overcoming the ambassador’s defenses. At 15 Minsk Street, Klein received a warning from Sergeant Faxin to stay safe and beware of strangers.

• Bakerland tortured Irene for information, but a Rose Bishop emerged from her body and killed her.
• The Shepherd trapped Bakerland in an isolated space by distorting the ambassador’s own rules, then revealed his identities and abilities.
• Bakerland used a puppet to immobilize the Shepherd, but a cough caused by disease broke his control.
• The Shepherd used a recorded ability to become a dark knight and cut Bakerland in two.
• The Shepherd escaped through the embassy walls before the military attachés arrived.
• Klein cautiously opened his door after a coin toss, and Sergeant Faxin warned him to stay safe and beware of strangers.

Klein defeated the Seer pathway Beyonder Rosago by using a Words of Filth charm and shooting him, though the True Creator's ravings also harmed Klein and his bodyguard. He then carried Rosago's remaining spirituality above the gray fog to perform Spirit Channeling and began seeking the Seer pathway potion formulas.

• Inspector Faxin revealed himself as Rosago and used his abilities to control Klein while trying to seize control of Klein's bodyguard.
• Klein used the Words of Filth charm to disrupt Rosago's control, and its power caused all three of them to collapse in pain.
• Klein recovered first, shot Rosago five times in the head, used a Requiem Charm on the corpse, and put his bodyguard to sleep with Sleeping Charms.
• Klein avoided directly Spirit Channeling Rosago's contaminated corpse and instead carried the dead man's remaining spirituality above the gray fog.
• Klein discovered that he could perform Spirit Channeling there without praying to anyone and divined for the Seer pathway potion formulas.

Klein used Spirit Channeling to learn the Seer pathway formulas for Magician, Faceless, and Marionettist, then returned from the gray fog and found Miss Bodyguard awake. They searched Rosago’s remains and divided his belongings, including a corrupted Beyonder characteristic and a mystical Notary item.

• Klein channeled Rosago’s spirit and learned the Magician and Faceless potion formulas, along with warnings about relying too heavily on divination.
• Klein learned the Marionettist formula and its ritual of consuming the potion amid a mermaid’s singing before his dwindling spirituality ended the session.
• Klein returned to the bloodied room, where Miss Bodyguard had awakened, and told her he had used charms because Rosago’s corpse seemed likely to reanimate.
• Miss Bodyguard advised Klein to find a psychiatrist, and they began searching Rosago’s corpse before Military Intelligence Section 9 could arrive.
• Klein found cash, ritual supplies, paper figurines, and a Notary mystical item; Miss Bodyguard took the item and explained Rosago’s Beyonder characteristic had been corrupted by an evil god.
• Klein picked up Rosago’s pitch-black eye, recognizing that he would need to learn how to remove an evil god’s corruption.

Klein survived Rosago’s attack with Miss Bodyguard’s help, then learned that Bakerland had been assassinated. Miss Bodyguard returned after cleaning up the scene and continued her contracted protection of Klein for three days.

• Klein touched Rosago’s contaminated Beyonder Characteristic, saw black threads extending from himself and Miss Bodyguard, and stored the item in an iron cigarette case.
• Miss Bodyguard merged with Rosago’s corpse, restored its appearance, cleaned the murder scene, and left to retrieve Rosago’s original clothes and dispose of evidence.
• Klein reflected on Rosago’s powers and the danger of the battle, then used a coin divination that indicated Bakerland was dead.
• Two military attachés examined Bakerland’s body at the Intis embassy and suspected that a Shepherd, possibly from the Aurora Order, had carried out the assassination.
• Miss Bodyguard returned to 15 Minsk Street, accepted Klein’s promise to pay her remaining 900 pounds directly, and said she would protect him for the rest of the three-day contract.

Klein reviewed the strange pull drawing him toward Seer-related people and events, then set plans to grow stronger and find Lanarvus. The next morning, he learned Military Intelligence Section 9 had found nothing and read that the Aurora Order had claimed responsibility for Ambassador Bakerland’s murder.

• Klein checked that Rosago’s Beyonder Characteristic was concealed, then wondered whether his repeated encounters with the Seer pathway reflected a strange mutual attraction.
• Klein rejected divining the nature of his mysterious characteristic and planned to gather materials, find protection, invest, take commissions, and pursue Lanarvus.
• The lady bodyguard told Klein that Military Intelligence Section 9 had come the previous night and found nothing, then warned him away from opening the iron cigarette case.
• Klein read that Ambassador Bakerland had been murdered and that the Aurora Order had claimed responsibility for the attack.
• Klein prepared to go out and catch someone cheating.

Audrey learned that Mr. A had assassinated Ambassador Bakerland, while Xio and Fors arranged to pay the remaining fee without meeting him. Meanwhile, Klein used the lady bodyguard to conceal his camera’s flash and hid in Erica Taylor’s room to photograph her with Doragu Gale.

• Audrey heard Earl Hall and Hibbert discuss Bakerland’s assassination and realized Mr. A had completed the task she commissioned.
• Xio and Fors worried about delivering the remaining eight thousand pounds, but Mr. A instructed them to deposit it into several anonymous bank accounts instead.
• Mr. A refused to investigate who had commissioned the assassination and declared that the Aurora Order needed to plunge the continent into chaos; afterward, he coughed up bloody fragments and swallowed them.
• Klein followed Erica Taylor to the Cragg Club, where the lady bodyguard concealed the flash inside his camera.
• Klein used a tarot card to enter Erica’s room and hid in a cabinet, waiting for Doragu Gale and Erica to be alone.

Klein secretly photographed Doragu Gale and Erica Taylor for his employer, then learned that the Intis ambassador had been assassinated and that pollution reforms were about to pass. After withdrawing cash and returning home, he headed to the Bravehearts Bar to seek contact with Beyonder circles.

• Klein used a supernatural camera to photograph Doragu Gale and Erica Taylor together, then escaped the room unnoticed with Miss Bodyguard.
• Klein met Allen Kreis at the Cragg Club, where Allen told him the Intis ambassador had been assassinated and the Aurora Order had claimed responsibility.
• Allen said the Government Employee Unified Examination Bill and pollution measures were expected to pass, and explained that Mary hoped to join the Atmospheric Pollution Investigation Commission.
• Allen told Klein that a run of surgical mistakes had left him worried about his work and license.
• Klein withdrew five hundred pounds, gave three hundred to Miss Bodyguard, returned home, and later set out for the Bravehearts Bar to seek Beyonder contacts.

Klein returned to the underground gathering and warned the Apothecary to abandon his herbs after learning that Black Snake had died in the sewers. As the gathering ended, Klein learned that the Apothecary had chosen his path for the potions’ effects on sexual performance.

• Klein asked Miss Bodyguard whether anyone was watching him, then went to the Bravehearts Bar to ask Kaspars about another underground gathering.
• Kaspars arranged for Klein to attend that night’s gathering, where Klein wore a mask and hood while Miss Bodyguard secretly followed him.
• The Apothecary announced that Black Snake had died in the sewers, and Klein advised him to abandon his herbs and report the dangerous beasts to the police anonymously.
• Eye of Wisdom praised Klein’s suggestion, and the members continued trading items before the gathering began to disperse.
• Eye of Wisdom and the Apothecary recognized Klein as the man who had bought an ominous item from Black Snake, and Klein said he had been lucky.
• The Apothecary revealed that his teacher had urged him to choose a path that could make someone lucky, but he had instead become an Apothecary for the potions’ effects on sexual performance.

Klein asked the Apothecary and Eye of Wisdom about medicines, potion formulas, and mystical items, then learned about the risks and rarity of Sealed Artifacts. Eye of Wisdom declined to sell his powerful 2-081 but described two other items for sale, which Klein said he would consider at a later gathering.

• The Apothecary described his interest in Backlund and asked Klein to help him find medullary crystals of the Elven Spring, but refused to teach him the Apothecary potion formula.
• The Apothecary offered to bring Klein four spiritually enhanced sedatives, and Eye of Wisdom approved Klein’s attendance at the next gathering and explained how to find its announcement and entry signal.
• Klein asked whether anyone had mystical items for sale, and Eye of Wisdom described the powers and danger grades of Sealed Artifacts before introducing his 2-081.
• Eye of Wisdom explained that 2-081 could reveal information about opponents and sometimes imitate their abilities, but warned that overusing it could turn its user into an idiot.
• Eye of Wisdom refused to sell 2-081 and instead offered a sun-domain brooch and a water-and-wind-domain hat, each with significant drawbacks and a high price; Klein said he would consider them later.

Klein noticed a murder that resembled the Blood Worship Cult’s work, then accepted Miller Carter’s commission to investigate a concealed underground structure beneath his new house. The chapter left Klein preparing to explore the structure despite the lady bodyguard’s warning that it held some danger.

• Klein and the lady bodyguard spotted a mutilated woman near an alley, and she identified the murder as resembling the Blood Worship Cult’s work.
• Klein returned home, collected the photographs and his bail money, withdrew his remaining cash, and paid the lady bodyguard six hundred pounds.
• Miller Carter hired Klein to investigate a concealed underground structure beneath his house on Williams Street, offering fifty pounds and limiting him to three assistants.
• Klein divined that he should accept the commission, asked the lady bodyguard about the danger, and agreed to investigate.

Klein explored the underground structure beneath Miller Carter’s house and discovered a vast nest of snakes behind a set of stone doors. After his bodyguard drove the snakes away, he entered the hall and suspected the structure dated to the Fourth Epoch.

• Klein delivered Mary’s photograph, received the remaining seven pounds, and watched her leave with Starling Summer.
• Klein went to Miller Carter’s mansion on Williams Street, where renovations had exposed a secret basement door.
• Klein entered the underground passage, inspected its empty rooms, and opened the black stone doors at the end.
• Klein found a huge nest of snakes in the hall and asked his lady bodyguard what she could do.
• The lady bodyguard drove the snakes away with freezing wind, and Klein entered the hall and identified its distinctive candleholders as possibly Fourth Epoch in style.