Chapter Summaries

Xio investigated the deaths of Gavin and Williams after they helped search for Lanarvus, while Klein learned of the same killings from Justice and decided to inspect the explosion site. He prepared to search for the murderer and ended the chapter setting out on the first step toward revenge.

• Xio questioned the drunk Jean and learned that Gavin had distributed Lanarvus’s portrait at the Workers' Union Tavern before he drowned.
• Klein was released from the Ries Police Station with help from Jurgen Cooper and agreed to a formal working relationship with him.
• Justice told Klein that the investigation into Lanarvus had been disrupted by an explosion on Dharavi Street and Gavin’s drowning.
• Klein used Dream Divination to identify the explosion site as a possible source of clues and considered that the murderer might be watching it.
• Klein brought the Eye of All-Black back from the gray fog, disguised himself, and prepared to investigate the area near the explosion site.

Audrey and Fors attended a strange anatomy class in a nearly abandoned medical college while Klein searched for clues about the blast-damaged crime scene in the East Borough. Klein found a tall, ferocious-looking man hiding there and sent his portrait to Miss Justice as a clue.

• Audrey and Fors entered a classroom filled with corpses and skeletal specimens, where a corpse in an academic gown opened his eyes and began the lesson.
• Klein searched apartments opposite the crime scene with the Eye of All-Black but found no one hiding there.
• Klein detected black threads emerging from the blasted room and realized someone was inside it.
• Klein traced the threads to a tall man concealed in the shadows, then escaped through a communal washroom window before the man could pursue him.
• Klein returned to his East Borough apartment, confirmed he was safe above the gray fog, and sent Miss Justice a portrait of the man as a clue.

Audrey received a clue from Mr. Fool about the suspected murderer, while Klein encountered the hardship of a homeless man in the East Borough. Xio later spotted a nearly two-meter-tall man entering a tavern as she searched for the suspect.

• Mr. Fool showed Audrey a portrait of a tall man in black clerical robes, and Audrey told Fors she would seek clues about the Dharavi Street explosion.
• Klein stayed in his East Borough apartment, then met a starving homeless man and bought him food before giving him money for an interview.
• Klein attended a luncheon at the Summers' home, where Mrs. Starling Summer discussed the cost and social expectations of hosting guests.
• Xio disguised herself as a short man and searched the Workers' Union Tavern for the suspected murderer.
• A nearly two-meter-tall customer entered the tavern, and Xio recognized him as a possible match for the suspect.

Xio investigated the suspected murderer called Giant and spotted someone who might be Lanarvus at the Dockworkers' Union. After hearing Justice’s report, Klein decided to confirm the identification himself, despite a failed divination, and began planning a cautious approach.

• Xio recognized Giant at the Workers' Union Tavern, confirmed his identity with Burton, and learned he sometimes visited the Dockworkers' Union.
• Xio watched the union disguised as a vagrant and saw a man whose eyes and mocking expression reminded her of Lanarvus.
• At Summer's home, Klein received Justice’s report that Giant was dangerous and that someone suspected to be Lanarvus had appeared at the union.
• Klein considered the risks and possible reasons his divination about Lanarvus had failed, then decided he still had to investigate.
• Klein planned to pose as a reporter, borrow Mike Joseph's fake press credentials, and take precautions before visiting the Dockworkers' Union.

Klein disguised himself as a reporter to investigate the Dockworkers' Association and discovered that Lanarvus carried the aura of the True Creator. After confirming his identity through divination, Klein told Audrey that Lanarvus possessed the Fallen Creator's divinity and urged her to notify the Church of the Evernight Goddess.

• Klein disguised himself as reporter Stansen and interviewed staff at the Dockworkers' Association while searching for Lanarvus.
• Klein recognized Lanarvus by the aura of the True Creator and hid his shock by pretending to have a stomachache.
• Klein continued his interviews, noticed what he suspected was Miss Xio outside, and encountered Isengard Stanton, who said he was investigating Shermane's death.
• Klein went to the Cragg Club, confirmed he had not been followed, and used divination to verify that the familiar figure was Lanarvus.
• Klein answered Audrey's prayer and told her to inform the Church of the Evernight Goddess that Lanarvus possessed the divinity of the Fallen Creator.

Xio and Fors passed the warning about Lanarvus and the True Creator’s divinity to the Evernight Church, and Klein watched the Nighthawks raid Lanarvus’s dormitory from a clock tower. The raid ended when Lanarvus revealed that he was also the True Creator, unleashing a godlike aura that shattered the mirrored world.

• Xio and Fors read the warning that Lanarvus possessed the True Creator’s divinity, and Xio decided the Nighthawks should avenge Williams.
• Klein disguised himself, climbed the East Balam Dock clock tower, and waited to watch the raid from afar.
• Crestet Cesimir and two Nighthawks used Sealed Artifact 1-63 to enter the dormitory within a mirror world.
• The Giant attacked the Nighthawks, but Cesimir killed him, and the Nighthawks killed three Aurora Order assassins.
• Lanarvus descended the stairs and declared that he was also the True Creator, then revealed a divine aura that shattered the mirrored world.

Klein discovered that the True Creator’s attempted descent through Lanarvus had failed and pursued Lanarvus’s escape route to the sewers. Lanarvus fled underground, where Klein ambushed him with a playing card.

• Klein sensed the evil presence vanish, divined that Lanarvus remained a slight danger, and learned that Lanarvus had separated from the True Creator’s divinity.
• Klein divined that Lanarvus would escape through the sewers and rushed down from the clock tower.
• Lanarvus explained to Crestet Cesimir that the True Creator had been replacing him and that he had tried to attract outside help.
• Lanarvus deflected Cesimir’s attempt to stop him, escaped through a washroom window, and descended into the sewers.
• Klein, disguised as a happy clown, struck Lanarvus in the chest with a playing card.

Klein fought Lanarvus in the sewers while trying to hold him off until the Nighthawks and military personnel arrived. After killing Lanarvus, Klein mourned the captain and fully digested his Clown potion.

• Lanarvus dodged Klein’s tarot-card attacks, then used his altered body to deflect the cards and charge at him.
• Klein relied on his Clown instincts and acrobatic balance to evade Lanarvus’s blows while preventing him from escaping.
• Klein used a Sleeping Charm to affect both of them, then broke free of its effects and punched Lanarvus in the throat.
• Klein stabbed Lanarvus’s eyes with tarot cards, snapped his neck, and kicked his head off after Lanarvus fell.
• Klein laughed, silently addressed the captain, and felt his Clown potion digest completely.

Klein escaped after killing Lanarvus, concealed the evidence, and took a mysterious badge whose inscription suggested it granted admission somewhere. As Klein resolved to focus on advancing as a Beyonder, authorities treated the Dockworkers' Association residents for a parasitic infection, and Audrey learned of Lanarvus's tarot-covered corpse and recognized the Tarot Club's role.

• Klein searched Lanarvus's corpse, took a badge engraved with symbols of fate and concealment, and scattered his remaining tarot cards over the body before fleeing.
• Crestet Cesimir and the other pursuers found Lanarvus's corpse surrounded by tarot cards, making it appear to be the scene of a ritual sacrifice.
• Klein reached his rented apartment, burned his outfit, remaining charms, and Lanarvus's badge above the gray fog, then decided to focus on gathering ingredients and advancing to Magician.
• Doctors and police arrived at the Dockworkers' Association dormitory, gave the residents azure medicine, and made them vomit parasitic flesh into metal barrels.
• Viscount Glaint told Audrey that Lanarvus had been found dead and covered in tarot cards, and Audrey concluded that Mr. Fool's Blessed had done it.

Audrey reflected on the Tarot Club’s role in Lanarvus’s death while the Nighthawks investigated the killing and feared Aurora Order retaliation. At the Tarot Club gathering, Klein hinted that Backlund’s poor districts had become breeding grounds for evil gods, leaving Alger bewildered.

• Audrey imagined Lanarvus’s corpse covered in tarot cards and told Glaint that a powerful Beyonder might have acted alone.
• Daly confronted Crestet Cesimir for keeping her out of the operation against Lanarvus, then confessed how long she had wanted revenge.
• Nighthawk investigators considered whether Lanarvus’s killer was a Secret Order Clown or belonged to an unknown organization, and found that a bounty hunter’s informant had no connection to the murder.
• Cesimir warned that the Aurora Order might retaliate after its failed attempt to welcome the True Creator, and ordered investigations into the Factory Borough, Dock Borough, and East Borough.
• Klein returned home, rested, and went above the gray fog to prepare for the Tarot Club gathering.
• At the gathering, Audrey reported that the task was complete, and Klein said Backlund’s poorest districts were breeding grounds for evil gods, confusing Alger.

At the Tarot Club, Klein used the story of Lanarvus and the misery of Backlund’s poor districts to make Audrey recognize the threat and consider pushing for reform. He then studied Roselle’s diary, heard Derrick’s progress, and learned that a pirate gathering might offer the ingredients he needed.

• Alger wondered how the simple portrait-search task had thwarted a major evil-god plot, while Audrey realized Lanarvus had been a vessel for the True Creator’s descent.
• World described the deadly poverty and working conditions in East Borough, Dock Borough, and Factory Borough, prompting Audrey to plan to learn more and urge her father to support reforms.
• Klein read Roselle’s diary entries about high-sequence items attracting Beyonders of the same pathway and a hidden second Card of Blasphemy, then wondered whether the gray fog caused the attraction.
• Derrick told World that he had advanced to sequence 8 and planned to obtain the Mist Treant ingredients soon.
• Alger said a pirate gathering on the Sonia Sea could have the Evil-patterned Black Panther spinal fluid and Elven Spring marrow crystals, but asked what Klein could offer in exchange.

Klein used The World to trade a detailed secret about the path to godhood to The Hanged Man Alger for two Beyonder ingredients. The Tarot Club’s discussion turned to Audrey seeking the Sun pathway’s Sequence 7 formula and Alger reporting that Qilangos’s fleet had a new controller.

• Klein offered Alger an incomplete Unshadowed formula, but Alger said he did not need it and proposed exchanging secrets about the top of the sequences instead.
• Klein and Alger compared their secrets through Mr. Fool, then agreed that Alger would obtain Evil-patterned Black Panther spinal fluid and an Elven Spring Medullary Crystal in exchange for Klein’s detailed supplement.
• Alger read that a sequence existed above Sequence 1 and that it was the sequence of true gods, while Audrey asked Derrick what the Sun pathway’s Sequence 7 formula would cost.
• Audrey promised to seek the Sun pathway’s Sequence 7 formula, and Klein abandoned his attempt to trade for a mystical item after realizing Alger would have little left to offer.
• Alger announced that Admiral Hurricane Qilangos’s fleet had been brought under someone’s control and that a new pirate admiral had emerged.

At a Tarot Club meeting, Alger briefed the members on pirate leaders, while Derrick explained that Backlund’s serial killings matched a Devil advancement ritual. The meeting ended with The Fool identifying the deity in a ruined temple as the Fallen Creator.

• Audrey asked Alger about pirate admirals, and he described Disease Maiden Tracy and several pirate kings and admirals, including the Mystery Queen and Cattleya’s ties to the Moss Ascetic Order.
• Audrey reported eleven murders in Backlund targeting former streetwalkers, and Derrick recognized the killings as a Devil ritual used to advance from Sequence 6 to Sequence 5.
• Derrick explained the ritual’s victim count, timing, and consumption of internal organs, while Klein listened and noted the City of Silver’s preserved knowledge.
• Alger explained why Beyonder potion formulas were rarely traded, citing fraud, dangerous testing, costly ingredients, and the risks of losing control.
• Derrick described a half-destroyed temple in the City of Silver with a statue of a naked man nailed upside down to a cross, and The Fool identified it as the Fallen Creator.

Derrick learned that Elder Lovia’s Shepherd pathway was connected to the True Creator and grew worried about the City of Silver. After the gathering, Klein examined a mysterious badge and considered how to act as a Magician, while Xio and Fors discussed the bounty for Lanarvus and Audrey received news that Susie’s gift was on its way.

• Alger told Derrick that the Fallen Creator was also known as the True Creator and described the pathway that led to Shepherd, leaving Derrick alarmed about Elder Lovia and the City of Silver.
• Klein ended the gathering, then infused Lanarvus’s badge with spirituality and discovered it revealed a future gathering at Babur Valley.
• Klein assessed the ingredients he needed for the Magician potion and began considering how to act as a Magician.
• Fors told Xio she would let her keep the bounty, and Xio said she would avoid working for the masked man unless she had no other options.
• Audrey received a telegram from Alfred saying the Rainbow Salamander had arrived, and she told Susie its gift would soon reach them.

Klein tested Leppard’s bicycle and planned its patent and production, while Alger watched the pirate gathering welcome Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy and Admiral of Stars Cattleya. Audrey arrived at her manor to find two enormous drakes intended as presents for Susie.

• Klein advised Leppard to lower the bicycle’s costs, funded the next stage of research, and urged him to seek investors and file a patent.
• Leppard told Klein about an upcoming Emperor Roselle exhibition, and Klein said he would attend.
• Alger watched pirates flee as Vice Admiral Ailment Tracy arrived aboard the Black Death, then saw Admiral of Stars Cattleya cross a bridge of starlight to the island’s palace.
• Alger recognized Cattleya’s astronomical instrument as resembling the strange glass bottle he had once obtained.
• Audrey and Susie reached the manor’s deliveries and discovered two huge drakes that Audrey had brought as Susie’s presents.

Audrey learned that Susie had fully digested her Spectator potion, while Klein received the remaining ingredients for his advancement and prepared the Magician potion. After drinking it and enduring dangerous residual effects, Klein became a Sequence 7 Magician.

• Audrey asked Susie about her potion digestion and learned that Susie had completed it the previous month or earlier.
• Alger sacrificed the Evil-patterned Black Panther's spinal fluid and Elven Spring medullary crystal to Mr. Fool for Klein.
• Derrick prayed that he had gathered the Mist Treant's true root and sap, which Mr. Fool passed to Klein.
• Klein prepared the Magician potion and used a gold coin divination to confirm that it had succeeded.
• Klein drank the potion, endured visions and temporary changes to his arms, and recovered as a Mid-Sequence Beyonder and Magician.

After advancing to Sequence 7, Klein tested the Magician’s abilities and learned their uses and limits. A premature Blood Moon then triggered Fors’s recurring ravings, leaving her desperately calling on the Fool for help.

• Klein examined the Magician’s nine main abilities, including Damage Transfer, Flame Jump, Air Bullet, and Paper Figurine Substitute, and considered how they could help him survive and escape.
• Klein noticed the moon suddenly turn blood-red and recognized the unusual sight as a Blood Moon, which could intensify the powers of the Underworld and Spirit World.
• Fors suffered the maddening ravings brought on by the Blood Moon and found that prayers to the God of Steam and Machinery did not ease her pain.
• As Fors feared she would lose control, she recited the incantation from the mysterious paper Xio had found and begged the Fool to save her.

Klein answered Fors’s plea during a Blood Moon and stopped the ravings from pushing her toward losing control. He explained that the source might be an immensely powerful being asking for help, then invited Fors to join the Tarot Club, where she chose Magician as her code name.

• Klein heard an unknown woman’s plea and used his spirituality to establish a connection with her above the gray fog.
• Fors’s pain and agitation vanished, and she found herself before Klein at the bronze table.
• Klein recognized the door symbol behind Fors’s seat and suspected the ravings came from Mr. Door.
• Klein told Fors that the ravings might be a request for help from an existence far beyond her level, and promised he could lend her a hand during full moons.
• Fors asked to join the regular gatherings, and Klein invited her to attend each Monday at three in the afternoon.
• Fors drew a tarot card and chose Magician as her code name.

After surviving the blood moon and advancing, Fors returned to Xio while Klein considered his next steps and resisted getting involved in Backlund’s serial murders. A jeweler named Lago Calman then hired Klein to protect his son Adol until the following afternoon.

• Fors woke unharmed after Mr. Fool saved her and returned to the apartment she shared with Xio, assuring her the ravings had not affected her.
• Klein read news of the serial killer’s eleventh case but decided not to investigate, then planned his preparations for acting as a Magician and advancing to Faceless.
• Klein made paper figurines to prepare for using his powers and planned to visit a circus for inspiration.
• Lago Calman visited Klein and asked him to guard his son Adol, who feared that former criminal associates were coming to kill him.
• Klein accepted Lago Calman’s offer of ten pounds to protect Adol until the next afternoon.

Klein joined the detectives hired to protect Adol Calman and discovered that the boy was haunted by a supernatural presence. During the night, Klein lured the spirit into revealing itself and destroyed it, leaving Adol to wake from his nightmare.

• Klein met Adol, whose trembling and hallucinations accompanied a greenish-black aura that suggested he was haunted.
• Klein met detectives Kaslana, Lydia, and Stuart, then agreed to share the overnight guard shift with Stuart.
• Stuart told Klein he suspected Adol was haunted rather than threatened by human attackers.
• When Adol woke and went to the bathroom, Klein followed him and used a match and Azik's copper whistle to draw out the spirit.
• Klein ignited and destroyed the invisible entity, and Adol's eyes gradually regained focus.
• Klein asked the newly awakened Adol what had happened to him.