Chapter Summaries

Klein read more of Roselle’s diary, then the Tarot Club members discussed Beyonder ingredients, formulas, and leads they wanted. After the gathering, Derrick tried to contact the former exploration team captain, who unexpectedly spoke to him from behind.

• Klein read Roselle’s diary entries about discovering a supernatural battle and a mysterious silver medallion, then let the Tarot Club members trade.
• Fors asked for a Spirit Eater’s stomach pouch and Deep-sea Marlin blood, and Derrick offered Spirit Eater pouches in exchange for the Sun High Priest potion formula.
• Fors asked for ways to make money, while Klein had The World request leads on several Sequence 6 Beyonder ingredients.
• Alger asked the Tarot Club to find Botis, a man connected to the disappearance of colonial slaves, and offered at least a hundred pounds for information.
• After the gathering, Derrick knocked on the metal wall to contact the former exploration team captain, but an aged voice spoke from the bed behind him.

Derrick survived the former exploration captain’s sudden mutation, which Colin Iliad attributed to the Sun pathway’s connection to Amon. Derrick reported the incident to the Fool, while Klein considered how to improve his Magician potion digestion.

• A split-headed monster attacked Derrick in his room, but Derrick’s prayer summoned a powerful beam of light that destroyed it and revealed a phantom wearing a monocle.
• Colin Iliad arrived and collected a pure white sword and a translucent worm from Derrick’s bed, then explained that the prisoner had been kept under observation to learn about Amon.
• Derrick suggested his Bard and Light Suppliant sequences had triggered the mutation, and Colin questioned him before confirming his condition was stable and sending him home.
• Derrick recounted the incident and his suspicions to the Fool, then fell asleep as his right index finger began tapping on its own.
• Klein resumed planning his Magician Code and decided to test whether audience applause could help digest his potion.

After discovering that Amon had secretly attached himself to The Sun, Klein devised a mystical communion ritual to connect with the gray fog and find a way to stop him. As the ritual began, Klein felt power stirring but had no way to use it yet, and he turned his attention to the Sun Brooch.

• Klein saw Amon coiled around The Sun through the crimson star and realized Amon intended to use him to reach the gray fog at the next Tarot Gathering.
• Klein found no way to remove Amon with his available powers and artifacts, so he adapted a Blood Moon Ritual into a mystical communion ritual for The Fool.
• Klein instructed The Sun to test the ritual, and Derrick used his own blood to write The Fool's honorific name and prepare the altar.
• Derrick recited the honorific name and began connecting with the gray fog while Amon remained attached to him and watched the ritual.
• The mysterious space trembled and power rose through the gray fog, but Klein could not conduct another ritual to harness it, so he looked toward the Sun Brooch.

Klein used the Black Emperor card to strengthen the holy figure and drive Amon’s parasite from Derrick, allowing Derrick to complete the Mysticism Ritual and receive knowledge from Mr. Fool. A surviving Amon avatar escaped into a ravine, and Klein realized he needed to advance quickly before Amon returned to the City of Silver.

• Klein used the Black Emperor card to stabilize and strengthen the golden figure as Amon reached through the crimson star toward the gray fog.
• The golden figure merged with Derrick and forced Amon’s shriveled hand to retreat, expelling the parasite from Derrick’s Spirit Body.
• Derrick received knowledge about creating holy water and expelling evil spirits, saw images of Amon’s former hold on him, and thanked Mr. Fool.
• Amon appeared beside a ravine beneath a one-eyed giant, said “Fool,” and jumped into the ravine.
• Klein returned to the real world and resolved to advance his Sequence and improve his control of the gray fog before Amon could return.

Klein considered how to act as a Magician and decided to seek a relatively safe opportunity to take the initiative. In the City of Silver, Derrick confirmed he had escaped Amon’s influence, while Leonard heard a lesson at Serenity Cathedral that closely matched his own experience with a High-Sequence Beyonder.

• Klein reasoned that Magicians had to actively seek opportunities to perform and considered investigating Emlyn White’s companions as a relatively safe start.
• Colin Iliad ordered the shadow to keep watching Derrick, suspecting he was communicating with Amon, but warned against provoking Amon without clear evidence of malice.
• Derrick coughed up a dead, translucent worm with twelve rings and concluded that he had escaped Amon’s influence.
• At Serenity Cathedral, Leonard attended Senior Deacon Crestet Cesimir’s lesson on how High-Sequence Beyonders might deceive or parasitize Red Gloves.
• Leonard’s smile faded as Cesimir described a Parasite who offered knowledge and benefits while using its host as nourishment.

Leonard confronted the Parasite in his mind and learned that it was hiding from an enemy named Amon. Meanwhile, Klein investigated Emlyn White’s former neighbors and searched the Whites’ abandoned home, where he discovered Emlyn’s collection of dolls.

• Leonard questioned the Parasite about its intentions, and it explained that it needed a host to recover while hiding from a terrifying enemy.
• The Parasite told Leonard that the enemy’s surname was Amon.
• Disguised as a policeman, Klein questioned residents near 48 River Bend Avenue and learned that the White family had been kind and law-abiding.
• Klein entered the Whites’ abandoned home and found their rooms in disarray, along with books about herbs and folk remedies.
• Klein discovered a room full of lifelike dolls and wondered whether Emlyn was obsessed with collecting them.

Klein investigated the White residence and found no evidence of deaths or suspicious disappearances, then sent Detective Stuart a misleading lead about Emlyn White. Meanwhile, Alger finished digesting his Navigator potion and planned his rise through the Church, while Klein recognized that his spiritual intuition was warning him against divining the Werewolf characteristic and resolved to test the Biotoxin Bottle instead.

• Klein divined the doll’s origins and confirmed that Emlyn White had bought it, then found no deaths at 48 River Bend Avenue in the past ten years.
• Klein checked the River Bend police station’s missing-person records and found nothing suspicious.
• Klein wrote Detective Stuart a letter claiming that an informant had seen Emlyn White on Tuttwa Street.
• Alger finished digesting his Navigator potion and imagined secretly advancing through the Church while remaining captain of the Blue Avenger.
• Alger wondered whether the card beside Mr. Fool might be connected to Roselle's Diary and resolved to seek diary pages.
• Klein realized his spiritual intuition had been stopping him from divining the Werewolf characteristic and decided to test the Biotoxin Bottle the next day.

Klein investigated Madam Mary’s threatening letter and suspected it was a political setup to sway public opinion over Backlund’s atmospheric pollution inquiry. His deduction was confirmed when Hibbert Hall asked Mary to publicize the threat, while Klein later prepared to investigate the Biotoxin Bottle.

• Klein posted a letter to Detective Stuart and noticed that Mrs. Doris’s health remained poor despite her recovery.
• Madam Mary told Klein that she had received a threatening letter and a damaged doll, and asked him to protect her.
• Klein reasoned that the threat was likely staged to provoke public anger, then promised to protect Mary if his prediction proved wrong.
• Hibbert Hall visited Mary and asked her to let a reporter publicize the threat, confirming Klein’s deduction.
• Klein went above the gray fog to divine the origins of the Biotoxin Bottle.

Klein learned that the Biotoxin Bottle came from a deadly experiment, while Audrey studied a theory of shared consciousness with Islante. At Harvest Church, Klein found Emlyn already converted to the Earth Mother’s faith, and Emlyn revealed that he recognized Klein as the new owner of the Master Key.

• Klein divined the Biotoxin Bottle’s origin and saw a laboratory experiment consume its maker and everything in the room, leaving behind the bottle.
• Islante taught Audrey that individual consciousnesses were connected through a shared subconscious, and Audrey suspected Islante was a Mind Reader rather than a true Psychiatrist.
• Klein went to Harvest Church to investigate Emlyn White’s situation and found Emlyn serving as a priest.
• Emlyn told Klein that he had become a believer of the Mother Goddess and would soon be allowed to go home.
• Emlyn recognized Klein by his scent and called him the new owner of the Master Key.

Klein discovered that Emlyn had been subjected to a suggestion by Father Utravsky’s Nightmare Candle, making him want to return to the Harvest Church. Klein helped Emlyn leave and brought him back to his family’s home, where Emlyn thanked him and Klein named the payment he expected.

• Emlyn told Klein he had tricked Father Utravsky into letting him go, but Klein warned him that the bishop’s Nightmare Candle could expose lies and plant suggestions.
• Klein revealed that Emlyn’s parents had moved away from River Bend Avenue, prompting Emlyn to rush to Father Utravsky and ask to go home.
• Father Utravsky calmly allowed Emlyn to leave, and Emlyn soon admitted he felt compelled to return to the Harvest Church and help there.
• Emlyn decided to resist the suggestion by moving far away, but first asked Klein to take him back to River Bend Avenue.
• Klein accompanied Emlyn to number 48, where Emlyn eagerly looked toward his bedroom and thanked Klein; Klein requested a finder’s reward, carriage fare, and Beyonder medicinal concoctions as payment.

Klein collected payment from Jurgen, reported Emlyn White’s whereabouts to Detective Stuart, and reflected on how others’ reactions shaped his performances. When Stuart praised him for solving the case, Klein sensed that the applause had helped digest his potion.

• Emlyn White offered Klein the Sanguine’s friendship if he could remove the Nightmare Candle’s influence, and Klein promised to look for a suitable method.
• Klein received six soli from Jurgen Cooper for taking care of Brody and wrote Detective Stuart a report explaining that Emlyn had returned to 48 River Bend Avenue.
• Klein hired a coachman to deliver the report, then reflected that a performance depended on the reactions of everyone involved.
• Klein considered other possible performances, but decided that confronting the Tudor ruins’ Evil Spirit was too dangerous and that he would wait to ask about Will Auceptin.
• Klein studied the Book of Secrets while keeping a low profile ahead of the next Beyonder gathering.
• Detective Stuart praised Klein for quickly finding Emlyn, and Klein sensed that Stuart’s admiration had helped digest his potion.

Klein received his share of the reward for finding Emlyn White and brought Emlyn to examine Mrs. Doris. Emlyn’s medicine eased her breathing, though he warned Klein that her condition was irreversible and she might live only three to five years.

• Stuart paid Klein thirty-one pounds for his help and praised him as a skilled detective.
• Klein studied the Book of Secrets and prepared beef bone and radish soup while waiting for Emlyn.
• Emlyn arrived after visiting the Harvest Church, complaining that he could not escape the Psychological Suggestion, and Klein learned he had a medical license.
• Klein introduced Emlyn to Mrs. Doris and Lawyer Jurgen as a doctor specializing in lung diseases.
• Emlyn warned Klein that Mrs. Doris’s condition was irreversible but gave her medicine that eased her breathing.
• Jurgen watched Mrs. Doris improve and happily saw her stand and pick up Brody, while Klein remembered Emlyn’s grim prognosis.

Klein paid Old Kohler to gather information and learned that Liv’s younger daughter had disappeared, prompting him to offer help. Meanwhile, Fors met an elderly man seeking news of Anlisa and Labol, and the chapter ended with Klein arriving at Liv’s home.

• Emlyn questioned Klein’s payment for finding him, then left after Klein explained their agreement.
• Klein gave Old Kohler fifteen soli and heard about religious preaching in East Borough, the failed textile workers’ struggle, and Liv’s missing younger daughter.
• Klein offered to help Liv find her daughter and went with Old Kohler to visit her family.
• Fors encountered an elderly man at Anlisa’s former home, learned he was Labol’s older brother, and agreed to tell him what had happened.
• Klein entered Liv’s home and found Liv listless while her older daughter blamed herself for her sister’s disappearance.

Klein investigated Daisy’s disappearance, used her vocabulary booklet to trace her to the heavily guarded home of the suspected criminal Capim, and left without approaching it. Elsewhere, Fors met Lawrence Nold, who learned about Anlisa’s will and worried that the Abraham Family was fading away.

• Liv told Klein that Daisy had disappeared while delivering laundry with Freja in Broken Axe Lane, and Freja gave him Daisy’s vocabulary booklet as a tracking item.
• Klein asked Old Kohler to watch for missing unemployed female textile workers, then used the booklet and his cane to trace Daisy northwest.
• Klein’s search led to Capim’s luxurious, heavily guarded home, where his intuition warned him of danger, so he told the carriage driver to move on.
• Fors told Lawrence Nold that Anlisa had left her savings and cash to her, and that Anlisa and Labol were buried at Green Cemetery.
• Lawrence reflected on the Abraham family’s losses and wondered whether it would fade away.

Lawrence mourned the Abraham Family’s losses and feared for its future, while Fors asked The Fool to protect her from Lawrence’s divination. Klein used a ritual and a paper angel to interfere with divination, leaving Fors shaken by the angel she saw.

• Lawrence recalled how Botis’s betrayal devastated the Abraham Family, killed his brother Richard and children, and left him with little hope for revenge or restoration.
• Lawrence realized he might be the last survivor of his father’s branch and sat grieving in a cheap café.
• Fors prayed to The Fool about meeting Lawrence and worried that his divination might reveal her secrets.
• Klein sent Fors instructions for a ritual that would interfere with divination, then used the gray fog and a paper angel to protect her.
• Fors performed the ritual and woke from Artificial Sleepwalking after seeing a majestic angel wrap her in black wings.

Fors learned that Mr. Fool had sent an angel to protect her, while Klein discovered Daisy had been kidnapped and held at Capim’s villa. After learning that rescuing her was dangerous, Klein began investigating Capim’s associates and used possession to bypass a supernatural warning on one of the villa’s men.

• Fors recalled seeing a black-winged angel and wondered about Mr. Fool’s identity before thanking him and cleaning up her altar.
• Klein divined Daisy’s circumstances and saw that Capim’s men had abducted her and taken her to a villa where other women were held.
• Klein confirmed that rescuing Daisy was dangerous and decided to investigate Capim himself while asking Miss Magician and Miss Xio to look into his connections.
• Klein possessed a man leaving Capim’s villa, but found that the man’s spirit was protected by a restriction that would alert an enemy if he tried Spirit Channeling.
• Klein stopped the ritual, possessed the man again, and had him recite a prayer to The Fool.

Klein used a possessed subordinate’s memories to learn about Capim’s villa, its powerful residents, and the abuse taking place there. After arranging the subordinate’s death to erase traces of his involvement, Klein returned home and began divining when Capim’s dinner would take place.

• Klein used mystical communion to learn that Mr. Hunas, Mr. Berris, and Ma'am Kitty were among the villa’s powerful figures, and that Hunas could confine the underground area.
• Klein saw Capim’s guests include Mr. Hunas, House of Commons member Wadra, and a deputy director, while girls were abused in the villa.
• Klein decided to act alone and wait for the right time to carry out his plan.
• Klein sent the subordinate into a fight with Zmanger Gang members, where the man was stabbed to death and Klein returned to his body.
• After checking out and returning to Minsk Street, Klein went above the gray fog and wrote a divination question about the time of Capim’s dinner.

Klein used dream divination to determine that Capim’s dinner began around 7:30, then prepared to attack Capim’s villa while disguised with the Black Emperor card. The chapter ends with Klein approaching the villa undetected, protected from prophecy and divination.

• Klein divined Capim’s dinner time and noticed that Capim’s wife and children were absent from the dining room.
• Capim ordered Odes to kill the Zmanger Gang’s local leader in revenge for Fabian, but Hunas warned him not to disrupt their plans.
• Hunas arranged for a girl from Capim’s shipment to be brought to his room, while Capim reflected on his crimes and hoped to reunite with his family.
• At 7:23, Capim, Hunas, Parker, and Kitty began dinner at the villa.
• Klein performed a ritual, used the Black Emperor card to strengthen and disguise his Spirit Body, then flew toward Capim’s villa.
• Klein reached the villa’s entrance without the guards noticing him, and the Black Emperor card protected him from prophecy and divination.

Klein infiltrated Capim’s dinner in spirit form and released the Biotoxin Bottle, poisoning the guests and servants before attacking Hunas, Kitty, and Parker. After evading their spells and using Wraith abilities to impair them, Klein trapped Parker by the door while Hunas attempted to free him.

• Klein entered Capim’s villa in spirit form, surveyed the dining room, and released the Biotoxin Bottle while the key figures gathered for dinner.
• Capim and the servants developed severe symptoms, prompting Hunas, Kitty, and Parker to realize the room was poisoned and try to find the intruder.
• Hunas imprisoned Klein’s apparent figure, but Kitty’s bullets struck a Paper Figurine Substitute as Klein extinguished the room’s flames.
• Klein used Wraith’s Shriek to injure Kitty and disorient the others, then froze Parker with a touch and imprisoned him beside the door.
• Hunas cast Release on Parker’s transparent prison as Klein evaded the spell and remained inside the dining room.

Klein endured Hunas and Kitty’s attacks while his toxin and gas traps weakened them, waiting for the dining room to fill with coal gas. As Hunas and Kitty prepared to strike again, Klein ignited the gas and engulfed the room in an explosion.

• Klein used sacred air bullets against Hunas, but Hunas put on an iron-black glove and used its powers to repel and restrain Klein while Kitty attacked him.
• Klein used two Paper Figurine Substitutes to survive Hunas and Kitty’s attacks, then continued fighting as their movements grew sluggish from the toxin.
• Hunas and Kitty drove Klein into a desperate position, and he used his third Paper Figurine Substitute to escape Hunas’s charge.
• Hunas repeatedly invoked his glove’s powers to restrain Klein while Kitty reloaded her revolver, and both prepared to finish him off.
• Klein revealed that he had damaged the gas pipes and allowed coal gas to fill the room, then snapped his fingers to ignite it.
• The gas exploded, filling the dining room with flames as Hunas and Kitty were caught in the blast.