Chapter Summaries

Klein used the combined powers of a Marionettist and the Wraith Senor to secretly take control of Mr. X during the Aurora Order gathering. He left Mr. X alive as the meeting ended, waiting for a safe chance to act while wary of a hidden Saint.

• Klein entered Mr. X's gathering and waited until he was within range before targeting his Spirit Body Threads.
• Klein paused his manipulation to release Senor from the sealed cigarette case, then resumed controlling Mr. X as Senor possessed him.
• Senor's covert movements repeatedly disrupted Mr. X's attempts to warn others, open a Traveler's Door, and use a mystical item.
• Klein gained near-total control of Mr. X but refrained from killing him because he could control only one puppet and feared the hidden Aurora Order Saint.
• When Mr. X ended the gathering, Klein mingled with the departing members and opened Lemano's Travel Notes by feel.

Klein used Lemano's Travel Notes to unleash a tornado, kill Mr. X, and escape an Aurora Order demigod with Senor. After disguising himself and returning to his hotel as Gehrman Sparrow, the chapter ended with Bishop Electra visiting Dawn at 160 Böklund Street.

• Klein summoned a tornado that destroyed the gathering house and swept him and Mr. X onto another street.
• Klein shot Mr. X with Death Knell, killing him while Senor's Wraith abilities reassembled his head.
• An Aurora Order demigod trapped Klein in darkness, but Klein used Lightning Storm and Traveler's Door to escape with Mr. X's corpse.
• Klein separated Senor from Mr. X's corpse, used a recorded ability on Senor, destroyed his robe, and returned to the hotel disguised as Gehrman Sparrow.
• Leodero Valentin surveyed the flattened house, while Bishop Electra arrived at 160 Böklund Street to visit the ill Dawn.

Klein used the Magic Mirror Arrodes to impersonate Dawn Dantès during Bishop Electra’s visit, then returned and Grazed Mr. X’s spirit above the Gray Fog. He gained the Traveler’s Door ability and considered its potential for long-distance travel and combat.

• Walter brought Bishop Electra to Dawn Dantès’s bedroom, where Electra discussed the Church of Evernight’s stance on clergy marriage and asked Dawn about his preferences in a wife.
• The false Dawn, played by Arrodes, described being attracted to women of several ages and circumstances, unsettling Richardson and Walter before Electra changed the subject and left.
• Klein returned through the balcony, praised Arrodes’s disguise, and put away the Magic Mirror after it thanked him.
• Klein went above the Gray Fog and Grazed Mr. X’s spirit before it dissipated, acquiring Traveler’s Door and the Apprentice ability Door Opening.
• Klein considered how Traveler’s Door could enable long-distance travel and make a Traveler difficult to fight, then noticed a ruby-inlaid ring on Mr. X’s hand.

Klein investigated Mr. X’s possessions, repurposed the Flower of Blood ring for Senor, and freed the last spirit in Creeping Hunger. Fors received proof of Mr. X’s death and his spellbook, while Klein was left suffering Death Knell’s new weakness: fear of women.

• Klein used Senor to retrieve Mr. X’s belongings, then learned that the Flower of Blood ring granted flesh-and-blood control but randomly robbed its wearer of thought and judgment.
• Klein decided Senor could safely wear the ring as a marionette and put it on his left index finger.
• Klein released Andy Haydn, the Interrogator spirit from Creeping Hunger, and learned that Andy had died in 1338 after being captured by a Feysac colonel.
• Klein had The World tell Fors that Mr. X, Lewis Wien, was dead and sent her the proof and Lemano’s Travel Notes.
• Fors confirmed Lewis Wien’s identity, found new wind and lightning spells in the spellbook, and asked for additional payment for her help.
• Klein returned to the real world and realized Death Knell had left him with a fear of women.

Klein spent Saturday recovering from a restless night and learned he was invited to a banquet, while Alger searched the Abyss Maelstrom for the Obninsk Sea Monster. After the creature resisted his attempt at mental communication and attacked him, Alger escaped and prayed to The Fool.

• Klein woke after a night of unsettling dreams and noticed that Walter looked exhausted.
• Walter told Klein that he had two tutoring lessons and would attend Portland Moment's banquet that evening.
• Alger used marine creature affinity charms to learn where the Obninsk Sea Monster appeared and steered the Blue Avenger there.
• Alger released Sanguine Anesthetic Gas throughout the ship, then dove underwater to find the monster's lair.
• The Obninsk Sea Monster resisted Alger's charm and attacked him with a whirlpool, but Alger escaped.
• Alger prayed to The Fool beneath the sea after wondering whether the monster had sensed the Lord's aura.

At a dinner hosted by Portland Moment, Klein answered Alger’s prayer by trying to win the Obninsk Sea Monster’s goodwill. After his first attempt failed, Klein subdued the monster with Lightning Storm, allowing Alger to enter its stomach and advance to Ocean Songster; Klein then returned to the banquet and explained his absence.

• During dinner, Klein received Alger’s prayer asking for help gaining the Obninsk Sea Monster’s goodwill and told Alger to investigate the Feysac colonels who fought at the Battle of Conot in 1338.
• Klein’s attempt to influence the Obninsk Sea Monster through affinity with marine creatures failed, so he used Lightning Storm to make it submit and open its mouths.
• Alger swam into the monster’s stomach and drank the Ocean Songster potion he had prepared.
• Alger endured the potion’s effects by singing, with the monster’s stomach reflecting his sound waves until he regained control and advanced to Ocean Songster.
• Alger escaped the monster and returned to the Blue Avenger, while Klein returned to the dinner and told Mrs. Willis that a strange food he ate as a youth had weakened his stomach.

At Portland Moment’s dinner, Dawn Dantès joined the men in the sitting room while noticing Hibbert Macht searching the garden. Hibbert discovered and neutralized a supernatural disturbance buried in the soil, leaving its cause and the household’s involvement unresolved.

• Dawn Dantès avoided smoking because he was recovering, and the men teased him about remaining single and his supposed interest in all kinds of women.
• Dawn noticed Hibbert Macht leaving the house and searching the garden, then suspected she had detected a supernatural anomaly.
• Portland Moment told the guests he would leave Backlund University to become principal of the new Backlund University of Technology.
• Hibbert found spiritual materials buried together in the garden and sensed that the disturbance could haunt nearby houses if left alone.
• Hibbert used her ability to make the spirituality gathered beneath the soil vanish.

Hibbert recalled her terrifying encounter with a Wraith while Klein sent Senor to check on Trissy in the sewers. Trissy said she would leave the next day and revealed a hidden passage, while Fors learned that her teacher had arrived in Backlund.

• Hibbert suspected that the creature she had encountered was a Wraith and decided she needed charms or items from the Sun domain.
• Klein sent Senor into the sewer and found Trissy recovering in her hiding place.
• Trissy told Senor she planned to leave the next day and questioned whether he was truly Admiral of Blood.
• Trissy revealed a hidden passage in the sewer and said she had found traces of prolonged human activity there.
• Fors received a letter telling her that her teacher was already in Backlund.

Fors visited her teacher Dorian Gray in Backlund and told him about a reward seeking information on the Abraham Family and Mr. Door. She then revealed that Gehrman Sparrow had killed Lewis Wien and presented Dorian with his head.

• Fors checked into the Hat Trick Inn under the false identity Margaret Taylor, carrying Mr. X's head in her suitcase.
• Fors met Dorian Gray and told him that a masked woman was offering a reward for information about direct descendants of the Abraham Family and Mr. Door.
• Dorian told Fors that Mr. Door was an Abraham Family ancestor who disappeared during the War of the Four Emperors, and Fors wondered why anyone was still seeking information about him.
• Dorian explained that he had come to check on Fors's digestion progress and advised her on acting as an Astrologer.
• Fors told Dorian that Gehrman Sparrow had killed Lewis Wien and showed him Wien's cracked head.

Dorian warned Fors to avoid Gehrman Sparrow, then compensated her for killing Lewis Wien with a Scribe potion formula, an ingredient, and properties worth about ten thousand pounds. Elsewhere, the Church of Storms investigated Mr. X’s assassination while Klein studied the teachings of Saint Samuel at the cathedral, where a sudden disturbance was suppressed.

• Dorian told Fors that Gehrman Sparrow was dangerous and questioned why he had charged only ten thousand pounds to kill Lewis Wien.
• Dorian gave Fors a crystal ball, the Scribe potion formula, Asman's brain, and two Backlund properties as compensation for her part in Lewis Wien’s death.
• At Saint Samuel Cathedral, Leodero Valentin heard that investigators had caught several attendees of Mr. X’s gathering but had not identified the assassin.
• Roy Wellington proposed using captured attendees as informants and drawing the Aurora Order into the search, and Leodero ordered him to request a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact.
• Klein studied the Epistles of the Saints with Bishop Electra, but a burst of malice upstairs was quickly subdued by an icy force from underground.

Klein investigated the hidden sewer passages Trissy had mentioned, found signs of an ongoing excavation, and decided to seek a Marauder-pathway item before exploring further. The next morning, Emlyn received a message directing him to the Bravehearts Bar for a lead on the person he was seeking.

• Klein suspected that the sealing core beneath Saint Samuel Cathedral had reacted to an internal keeper’s abnormal change and considered how that might obstruct his plan to enter the Chanis Gate.
• Klein agreed to host a ball at 160 Böklund Street the following Saturday and asked Walter and Taneja to prepare for it.
• Klein entered the sewers, confirmed that Trissy had left her former hiding place, and found a concealed cave with two unfinished secret passages.
• Klein sent Wraith Senor through both passages but found only ordinary earth and insects, then chose to wait until he could obtain a Marauder-pathway item before exploring further.
• Emlyn received a note with his newspaper telling him to go to the Bravehearts Bar for a lead on the person he was seeking.

Emlyn received locations for two Moon Primordial believers from Ian and planned to investigate them that evening, while Audrey settled into her new home and prepared for the Tarot Gathering. At the gathering, Cattleya presented two pages of Roselle’s Diary, and Klein began reading them.

• Emlyn met Ian outside the closed Bravehearts Bar, paid him 300 pounds, and learned the locations of Argos and Galis Kevin in the East Borough.
• Emlyn decided to investigate the two targets after the Tarot Gathering, avoiding a daytime attack that could draw attention from the authorities.
• Audrey watched her belongings being arranged in Stoen, reflected on Susie’s dedication to studying, and waited alone for the gathering to begin.
• The Tarot Club members assembled above the Gray Fog, and Fors considered offering Lemano’s Travel Notes for rent to fellow members.
• Cattleya gave Klein two pages of Roselle’s Diary, and he read an entry dated December 29th about the completed mausoleums and there being no turning back.

Klein read Emperor Roselle’s final diary pages, which warned another transmigrator to choose a pathway carefully and beware of the moon. At the Tarot Club, Cattleya asked whether Roselle might still be alive, while Fors offered World extra payment and asked about renting Lemano’s Travel Notes.

• Klein read Roselle’s epilogue, learning that Roselle believed there were other transmigrators and warning them about occupied pathways, neighboring Sequence 0s and Sequence 1s, and the moon.
• Klein considered what Roselle’s warning might mean and wondered whether the emperor had survived and was watching him.
• Cattleya asked Mr. Fool whether Emperor Roselle might still be alive, and Klein replied, “Perhaps.”
• Fors requested a private conversation with World and offered him 5,000 pounds as extra compensation for Mr. X’s head.
• World said he would accept less if Fors paid in gold coins, and Fors asked when he planned to use Lemano’s Travel Notes so she could rent them out.

Fors introduced a rental system for Lemano's Travel Notes, and several Tarot Club members sought to borrow it. The notebook was booked by The World for the coming weekends, while Emlyn arranged to rent it for the next two days.

• Klein recognized Fors's plan to rent Lemano's Travel Notes and agreed to reserve it for the weekend and the following week.
• Fors explained the notebook's abilities and negative effects, prompting Audrey and other Tarot Club members to express interest in acquiring it.
• Fors clarified that she was renting the notebook, then set a base fee of 300 pounds, 50 pounds per extra day, and a requirement to replenish two recorded pages.
• Alger asked to rent the notebook for an upcoming two-day period, but Fors said it had already been reserved by The World.
• Emlyn requested to rent the notebook for today and tomorrow, and Fors quoted him 400 pounds plus two additional recorded pages.
• Fors listed some of the notebook's recorded powers, and Alger wondered whether The World had used powers from the Storm domain and decided to investigate events in Backlund.

At the Tarot Club, Fors sold Lemano's Travel Notes' powers to Emlyn and shared information about Mr. Door, while the members traded for Beyonder items and discussed an angel's blood. The meeting ended with Fors warning Emlyn about a serious incident in the East Borough, and he asked what had happened.

• Emlyn agreed to pay Fors 400 pounds to record Beyonder powers in Lemano's Travel Notes, and Fors relayed the Abraham Family's information about Mr. Door to Cattleya.
• The World asked Cattleya to find a Sequence 9 or Sequence 8 Marauder mystical item, then offered Fors an Interrogator Beyonder characteristic for 1,000 pounds; she accepted.
• Cattleya asked whether The World could obtain a drop of Mythical Creature blood, and he said an angel of the Monster pathway wanted an acceptable price for it.
• Klein reflected on the possible significance of the good-luck authority in The Fool's honorific name and considered contacting Will Auceptin.
• Fors warned Emlyn that the East Borough was on high alert after a serious Beyonder incident, and Emlyn asked what had happened.

At the Tarot Club, Emlyn planned his mission in the East Borough, while Alger warned Derrick to be cautious about the City of Silver’s former Chief’s mausoleum. After the gathering, Klein received a visit from Mary, who asked whether he would buy shares in the Coim Company because someone else wanted to sell.

• Fors told Emlyn that a demigod-level Storm power had appeared during the East Borough incident, prompting the Tarot Club members to suspect the World’s involvement.
• Emlyn decided to enter the East Borough after dusk and realized Lemano’s Travel Notes could help him escape if his mission went wrong.
• Alger urged Derrick to investigate the former Chief’s mausoleum carefully because it might be dangerous.
• After the Tarot Club meeting, Klein reflected on future trades in recorded Beyonder powers and welcomed Mary to his home.
• Mary asked Klein whether he would acquire shares in the Coim Company, explaining that someone else wanted to sell.

Klein considered Mary’s offer to buy a three-percent stake in the Coim Company and agreed to investigate the company before investing. Meanwhile, Emlyn disguised himself to hunt Argos, but found Argos’s room empty and then discovered him with Galis Kevin, leaving Emlyn facing two artificial Vampires.

• Mary explained that she needed funds to buy a minority shareholder’s three-percent stake and asked Klein to acquire it under agreements that would let her repurchase his shares later.
• Klein agreed to have lawyers and accountants investigate the Coim Company, and Mary invited him to visit it the next day.
• Emlyn disguised himself as a poor worker and made his way into the East Borough to find Argos.
• Emlyn found Argos’s room empty, then went to Galis Kevin’s address and sensed that Argos was there with Galis.
• Emlyn realized he would have to confront two artificial Vampires and felt apprehensive despite having Lemano’s Travel Notes.

Emlyn White used patience, Lemano's Travel Notes, and a carefully planned attack to kill Galis Kevin. When Argos returned and entered the room, Emlyn hid and prepared another Lightning Strike.

• Emlyn White hid in the apartment building until Argos left, then concealed his scent and body before approaching Galis Kevin's room.
• Emlyn used Door Opening from Lemano's Travel Notes to enter through the wall and struck Galis Kevin with Lightning Strike.
• Emlyn appeared behind Galis Kevin, snapped his neck, and removed his head before the artificial vampire could regenerate.
• Emlyn waited for Galis Kevin's Beyonder Characteristic to separate, but heard Argos return and knock at the door.
• Emlyn hid in a corner as Argos entered through the window and spotted Galis Kevin's head on the bed.
• Emlyn quietly turned Lemano's Travel Notes to Lightning Strike as Argos stared at the head.

Emlyn White killed the out-of-control artificial Vampire Argos with Lightning Strike and Water of The Sun, then erased the evidence and escaped. After hiding Lemano's Travel Notes at home, he headed to the Odora residence to announce his victory and collect his reward.

• Emlyn White surprised Argos with repeated Lightning Strike attacks and used Water of The Sun to weaken him.
• Emlyn finished Argos with more lightning and Water of The Sun, then absorbed the corpse with illusory bats.
• Emlyn collected the Beyonder Characteristics from Argos and Galis Kevin, packed Galis Kevin's head, and burned away the room's evidence.
• Emlyn used Teleportation to leave before the police arrived, and the East Borough policemen found no bodies or tenant.
• Emlyn hid Lemano's Travel Notes at home, then went to the Odora residence to claim his reward.

Emlyn won the Sanguine hunting competition after killing two artificial Vampires and learned he would receive Lilith’s Ring, prompting Klein to warn him to remove it before praying or attending gatherings. Meanwhile, Klein prepared for his weekend ball and visited Ma'am Mary’s company after learning she had borrowed heavily to buy shares.

• Emlyn showed Kasimi the heads and Beyonder characteristics of two artificial Vampires, revealed that he had advanced to Baron, and claimed victory in the hunting competition.
• Kasimi awarded Emlyn a place on the future Viscount shortlist, assistance with the ritual, Lilith’s Ring, and three thousand pounds in exchange for the Beyonder characteristics.
• Emlyn left the villa and calculated the Beyonder powers he needed to record in Lemano’s Travel Notes.
• Klein heard Emlyn’s prayer about Lilith’s Ring and instructed him to remove it whenever he prayed to the Fool or attended a gathering.
• Klein trained for his weekend ball with Vahana, who warned him that Ma'am Mary had pledged her shares and borrowed a large sum of money.
• Klein told Vahana he would wait for lawyers and accountants to investigate before making business decisions, then went with Richardson to visit Ma'am Mary’s company.