Chapter Summaries

Klein offered Audrey Beyonder Characteristics from Herabergen Rambis and explained the king’s plan and the Hermits of Fate’s desire for a world war. After learning about the Hounds of Fulgrim and Demonic Wolves of Fog from Arrodes, Klein began considering how to use the creatures’ properties to find them.

• Klein offered to sell Audrey a Dreamwalker characteristic for eight thousand pounds and a Hypnotist characteristic for Susie for four thousand pounds, and Audrey agreed to pay before Friday.
• Klein told Audrey that King George III sought to become a demigod through rituals in the Blood Emperor’s ruins, while the Hermits of Fate wanted a war spanning the world.
• Audrey left the space above the Gray Fog, and Klein began transforming Herabergen Rambis’s Beyonder Characteristic into a potion inside an isolated glass bottle.
• Klein summoned Arrodes, who explained that Hounds of Fulgrim lived in gaps in history and that few Demonic Wolves of Fog remained, all skilled at anti-divination and deceit.
• Klein reasoned that materials related to Demonic Wolves of Fog might help him use the Law of Beyonder Characteristics Convergence to draw out Hounds of Fulgrim.

Klein questioned Arrodes about the king’s secret and the whereabouts of Katarina and Trissy, then received a warning that he should be careful. Xio and Fors planned their next steps, while Klein used the Gray Fog to subdue the mysterious bottle with the Unshadowed Crucifix.

• Klein asked Arrodes about the king’s secret, Katarina, and Trissy; the mirror showed the Blood Emperor’s ruins for the first two questions and darkness for the last.
• Arrodes warned Klein to be careful and showed him a vast night sky before Klein ended the exchange.
• Xio and Fors learned that the problem had been resolved, then agreed to return to East Borough and hide once Xio obtained the Judge potion formula.
• Xio asked Fors to lend her money for a button she wanted to buy, and Fors agreed.
• Klein checked the bottle above the Gray Fog, heard it offer wishes in exchange for gold coins, and inserted the Unshadowed Crucifix to suppress it.

Klein separated a pure Manipulator Beyonder Characteristic from the mutated glass bottle, then attended afternoon tea and considered the danger surrounding the Blood Emperor’s ruins. The chapter ended with Sharron’s message that they would act at ten that night.

• After three hours, Klein removed the Unshadowed Crucifix from the mutated glass bottle and discarded the precipitated Manipulator Beyonder Characteristic above the Gray Fog.
• At afternoon tea, Macht praised Hibbert’s growing maturity, and Klein agreed to invest ten thousand pounds in Portland Moment’s machinery laboratory after professional checks.
• Klein warned Portland Moment that the laboratory needed protection from industrial spies and foreign sabotage.
• Macht told Klein that Major General Qonas Kilgor remained missing, and Klein worried about threats connected to the Blood Emperor’s ruins.
• Reinette Tinekerr delivered a letter from Sharron saying, “We act at 10 tonight.”

Klein sent Sharron a warning and gave Reinette Tinekerr a charm as he prepared for the night’s events. Meanwhile, Emlyn and Maric began targeting Rose School of Thought agents in Backlund, but Charlie Lake’s signal alerted another operative before the attack’s outcome was revealed.

• Klein reminded Sharron to keep things under control in Backlund and gave Reinette Tinekerr a Yesterday Once More charm and payment.
• Emlyn White and Maric watched Charlie Lake’s bookstore and planned to trace the Rose School of Thought’s intelligence network through three agents.
• Emlyn wore the Rose’s Vow ring so Earl Mistral could share Maric’s briefing with the Sanguine participants.
• Charlie Lake resisted an attack in his bedroom with a Purification charm, but supernatural forces killed him and silenced his screams.
• A Southern Continent maid noticed frost on Charlie Lake’s gas pipes, while a neighboring agent saw the half-drawn curtain signal an emergency and stood up.

Mistral, Sharron, and Nibes found an abandoned restaurant trap that unleashed a blood-red moon and threatened to force reproduction on those nearby. The red moon faded after an unseen intervention, and Sharron concluded the targets had not been warned by the Mother Tree of Desire.

• A maid sent word of Charlie Lake’s accident through a face that appeared on her arm, while a bat flew away from the bookstore.
• Mistral and Sharron gathered above the restaurant, and Nibes sealed it off with his enormous wings.
• Mistral unleashed a glass orb that illuminated the restaurant, then tore away its roof and revealed a wireless receiver, a telegram, and a strange figure soaking in wine.
• The figure’s wine formed a red moon that threatened Sharron, Mistral, Nibes, and Klein’s marionette with sinister reproductive effects.
• The red moon suddenly dimmed and vanished, and Mistral and Sharron determined the targets had left at almost the same time they arrived.
• Sharron told Mistral that the Mother Tree of Desire had not alerted the targets to danger.

After a failed attempt to capture a Rose School of Thought demigod, Klein suspected the apparent trap had concealed a secret and urged Sharron and Maric to investigate cautiously. He then received Audrey’s request to complete a Beyonder characteristic transaction and planned to explore Groselle’s Travels.

• Mistral and Sharron concluded that the Rose School of Thought had likely detected the danger through another means, and withdrew before the authorities arrived.
• Klein watched Sharron disappear, learned from Reinette Tinekerr that she could not see what had happened, and left the area.
• Emlyn told Maric that the operation had failed to find its target, and they decided to leave the vicinity.
• Klein proposed that the Rose School of Thought’s improvised trap had concealed a secret, and advised Sharron and Maric to monitor its members carefully.
• Audrey prayed to Mr. Fool to deliver twelve thousand pounds to Mr. World for Beyonder characteristics, and Klein told her to begin the sacrifice.
• Klein resolved to explore Groselle’s Travels as part of his effort to prepare for the increasingly tense situation.

Audrey drank the Dreamwalker potion and explored the Mind World before mastering her new abilities. Above the gray fog, Klein asked Leonard for help entering the dreams of people from several ancient eras, leaving Leonard stunned by the dangerous prospects.

• Audrey received Mr. Fool’s blessing, drank the Dreamwalker potion, and saw a vision of the peaceful future she hoped to create.
• Audrey observed dream bubbles around islands of consciousness and glimpsed the Sea of Collective Subconscious before waking herself.
• Audrey learned that Dreamwalkers could guide and modify dreams, and could traverse between nearby dreams to move covertly.
• Klein met Leonard above the gray fog and asked him to help with several dreams.
• Klein named a Loen soldier, a Fourth Epoch noble, a Third Epoch Ascetic, and a Second Epoch elf and giant, prompting Leonard to suspect he would need Pallez’s help.

Klein recruited Leonard and Audrey to explore the dreams of people preserved in Groselle's Travels, hoping to uncover secrets of the past. The three entered the book’s snowy world and set out to investigate Snowman, an Ascetic from the Third Epoch.

• Klein asked Leonard for blood and arranged to explore dreams with him and Audrey on Sunday night, warning Leonard not to tell Pallez Zoroast about the plan.
• Leonard used Klein’s conversational techniques to mislead Pallez about the dream exploration, but Pallez noticed that Leonard was hiding something.
• Audrey practiced cutting her skin to provide blood for the ritual, while Klein prepared the blood, the Lies mask, and the Unshadowed Crucifix.
• Klein summoned Audrey and Leonard above the gray fog, explained that their targets were inside Groselle’s Travels, and brought them into its world with their blood.
• The group arrived in a snowbound city, where Klein identified Snowman as their first target and planned to investigate him before Mobett.

Klein, Audrey, and Leonard entered Snowman’s dream to uncover what he knew about the Angel Kings. Snowman recited scripture about the Ancient The Sun God and the eight Angel Kings, then revealed that Evernight cultists were hiding in the diocese.

• Leonard used his Nightmare ability to put Snowman to sleep, and Audrey brought Klein and Leonard into Snowman’s dream.
• Audrey reshaped the dream’s altar into a vision of the Ancient The Sun God surrounded by the Angel Kings.
• Snowman described the Angel Kings, identifying the Dark Angel as the Lord’s left hand and deputy ruler of heaven, Adam as the eldest son, and the Angel of Time as the second son.
• Audrey inferred that some Angel Kings had followed the Ancient The Sun God from weakness while the Angel of Wisdom had likely joined from a hostile faction.
• Snowman declared that Evernight cultists were hiding in the diocese, according to an oracle from the Kings.

Klein, Audrey, and Leonard explored Snowman’s memories before entering Mobett’s dream, where Leonard tried to use his connection to Pallez Zoroast to gain Mobett’s trust. Mobett recognized Pallez as his great-grandfather and revealed that he was an Angel, while Leonard began questioning him about the Zoroast Family.

• Klein connected Snowman’s report of surviving Giants in the Northern Ridge Mountain Range to the Feysac people and the God of Combat.
• Audrey guided Snowman through his vow to become an Ascetic, and Klein acknowledged his devotion before they moved on.
• Mobett complained in his dream about the cold and Siatas taking up most of their bed, then went to drink at a tavern.
• Leonard introduced himself to Mobett as Pallez Zoroast’s student, but Mobett guessed that Leonard was Pallez’s host for Parasitism.
• Mobett explained that Pallez was his great-grandfather and that he had not seen him for perhaps two thousand years.
• Leonard told Mobett that Pallez had nearly been killed by Amon, then asked why the Zoroast Family had not been as cold and evil as other great Solomon Empire nobles.

Klein, Leonard, and Audrey questioned Mobett about the Solomon Empire, the Zoroast Family, and the cosmos. The discussion ended with them entering Siatas's dream and hearing her ask Mobett to move her unborn baby into his body.

• Mobett explained how anchors and Beyonder Pathways shaped the behavior of high-Sequence beings, then described Pallez Zoroast and identified his portrait in the dream.
• Mobett listed the Solomon Empire's great families and described the era's political balance among the emperor, the gods, and their allies.
• Mobett said Duke Bethel Abraham was a powerful angel who might become a god, and shared the Abraham Family's three rules for wandering the cosmos.
• Mobett recalled that the True Creator's believers smoked and said Medici and Ouroboros followed the True Creator, while Bethel seemed to believe only in himself.
• Audrey led Klein and Leonard into Siatas's dream, where Siatas asked Mobett to steal her unborn baby into his body, and Audrey offered to handle the situation.

Klein, Leonard, and Audrey explored Siatas's dream to learn about the Second Epoch, discovering that the ancient gods' alliances and wars differed sharply from familiar histories. The dream identified Salinger and Olkina among the ancient gods' followers, linking them to major figures of the Fourth Epoch.

• Audrey reshaped Siatas's dream into the Elf King's palace, where Soniathrym condemned Ormir for betraying the ancient gods and causing Lilith's fall.
• Cohinem said Lilith had also brought down Kvastir and Flegrea, while Soniathrym revealed that Ormir was seeking human allies and admitted he had visited the Giant King's Court to punish him.
• Siatas's memories showed that the five great races had once divided dominion during a relatively peaceful period, and Klein and Leonard discussed how little recorded history revealed about the era.
• Audrey asked which subsidiary gods had survived the ancient gods' downfall, and Siatas named Salinger and Olkina among those who joined other powers.
• Klein recognized Salinger as the Death Emperor and Olkina as the Blood Moon Queen, wife of the Night Emperor.

Klein, Audrey, and Leonard explored Siatas's memories of elven history and customs, then entered Longzel's dream to learn potion formulas. They arrived at Groselle's home, their final stop before searching the book's collective subconscious for the secret behind its existence.

• Siatas recounted the elves' history, describing the Age of Sprouting, the Age of the First Gleam of Fire, and the Twin Age, and confirmed that the Eastern Continent had been the site of the Giant King's Court.
• Audrey guided Siatas's dream to a memory in which Queen of Calamity Cohinem said the Western Continent might exist as a homeland for some elves, while Siatas's own homeland was where her king, queen, and family lived.
• Klein, Audrey, and Leonard left Mobett and Siatas's bedroom and saw Longzel on the street; Klein confirmed that Longzel had been a soldier from Loen over a century earlier.
• Audrey and Leonard helped Klein enter Longzel's dream, where Longzel tried to embrace his mother in a dream of Backlund but could not touch her.
• Audrey obtained the Judge and Punisher Knight potion formulas and guided Longzel into a happy dream with his family.
• Klein, Audrey, and Leonard reached Groselle's home to obtain information from his subconscious before searching the book's collective subconscious.

Klein, Audrey, and Leonard explored Groselle’s dream to learn about the Giant King’s Court and then entered the Sea of Collective Subconscious. They discovered a suspicious restriction surrounding the Forest of Decay before encountering a violent demigod-level giant phantom.

• Audrey guided Groselle’s dream and learned a route into the Giant King’s Court through the Forest of Decay and the Desolate Tunnel.
• Klein, Audrey, and Leonard questioned why only Giant King Ormir could enter the place where his parents were buried, and suspected it held another secret.
• The three passed through a palace door in the dream and descended a staircase into the Sea of Collective Subconscious.
• Audrey repeatedly used Placate to soothe the group and Groselle’s subconscious as they crossed the silent Mind World.
• A demigod-level giant phantom emerged from the sea of shifting lights and spread its madness toward Klein, Audrey, and Leonard.

Klein, Leonard, and Audrey crossed the Sea of Collective Subconscious, purifying a dangerous giant imprint and avoiding further hazards. They came upon a vast city at the center of a deep-sea pit, which Audrey identified as the City of Miracles, Liveseyd.

• Klein controlled the group’s emotions and used an illusion to shield Leonard and Audrey from the giant phantom’s terror.
• Leonard used his Spirit Warlock ability and Audrey used Placate to weaken the phantom’s influence.
• Klein purified the giant imprint with the Unshadowed Crucifix, and Audrey calmed the group after they saw its true form.
• Audrey explained that the Sea of Collective Subconscious had no universal core region, so Klein used divination to choose their route.
• Klein, Leonard, and Audrey explored the sea and discovered a deep-sea pit containing a vast city that Audrey recognized as Liveseyd.

Klein, Audrey, and Leonard discovered a vast city in the Deep-Sea Pit that might be Liveseyd, the City of Miracles, and Klein considered whether it was the original city or a second one imagined into existence. They entered the city and headed toward Ankewelt’s palace, where Audrey noticed that the area’s abnormalities were converging.

• Klein recognized the city as possibly Liveseyd and reconsidered Vice Admiral Iceberg Edwina’s claim that Groselle’s Travels appeared after Liveseyd disappeared.
• Klein theorized that a second Liveseyd might have been imagined after the original vanished, perhaps with the Dragon of Wisdom involved.
• Klein and Audrey jumped into the Deep-Sea Pit, and Leonard followed after questioning whether they had checked for danger.
• Klein told Leonard and Audrey that his divination showed no current danger and led them toward the palace he believed had belonged to Ankewelt.
• Audrey observed that the abnormalities throughout the city seemed to converge on Ankewelt’s palace.

Klein, Leonard, and Audrey entered the Hall of Honesty, where their thoughts were spoken aloud, and studied murals that revealed the book’s history and its connection to 008 and the quill. The chapter left them wondering whether the murals shaped reality and whether Adam had influenced events around the travelogue.

• Klein, Leonard, and Audrey entered the palace and discovered that the hall voiced their thoughts aloud.
• Klein, Audrey, and Leonard struggled to control their thoughts as the hall exposed their private reactions and they began examining its murals.
• Klein recognized Yurizan in murals depicting the history of the world inside the book, including the frost Dragon’s defeat and the growth of city-states.
• Klein and his companions found murals tracing a parchment book from a Giant to elves, the stars, and a ship, before it reached a top-hatted man.
• Leonard identified the book as 008, and Klein wondered whether the Dragon of Imagination had intended to unite it with the quill and whether Adam had intervened.

Klein, Audrey, and Leonard explored the City of Miracles and considered whether its murals could affect reality or make imagined objects materialize. Behind the Dragon of Imagination’s throne, they discovered a sealed bronze door and fled to the Gray Fog when something beyond it began calling to them.

• Klein reasoned that the murals on the hall’s left might make their depictions come true in the material world, and the group considered testing the idea.
• Audrey suggested that the blank space above the palace might let them materialize imagined objects, while Leonard wondered about painting the Dragon of Imagination.
• Klein approached the pillar suspected to be the Dragon of Imagination’s throne and found a dark passage behind it.
• Audrey’s thought of light made the passage illuminate, revealing an ancient bronze door covered in symbols that resembled chains.
• Klein, Audrey, and Leonard heard heartbeats and saw many dark, cracked eyes beyond the door as the Unshadowed Crucifix shone and an unnatural chill spread through them.
• Klein enveloped Leonard and Audrey with his spirit and ended the summoning by returning them to the Gray Fog.

Klein, Audrey, and Leonard recovered from the influence of the Hall of Honesty and analyzed what might be sealed beneath Liveseyd, the City of Miracles. They considered links to Ankewelt’s plans and to terrifying forces from underground or the cosmos before agreeing to investigate further and protect one another’s secrets.

• Klein asked Audrey and Leonard how they felt after returning above the Gray Fog, and both said the strange awakening presence had vanished.
• Klein proposed that the sealed thing might be a powerful creature Ankewelt had imprisoned, a key to Ankewelt’s plans, or something tied to the book’s world.
• Audrey suggested the seal might contain Ankewelt’s deepest fears or mental shadows, which could contaminate the book’s world if left unchecked.
• Klein connected Audrey’s underground hypothesis to a corrupting door beneath an ancient castle in Delaire Forest and a dark, bottomless well encountered at sea.
• Klein, Audrey, and Leonard agreed to seek more information, keep the secrets they had learned, and ask Mr. Fool to witness their oath.

Klein tested whether the people suspended in the Door of Light’s cocoons could be reached through their domains of consciousness, but found them sealed away. After Audrey and Leonard reflected on the exploration and Leonard spoke with Pallez about Amon, Adam, Mobett, and the Spectator pathway, Klein summoned Arrodes to ask about a mysterious bronze door, and the mirror replied that it had come from underground.

• Klein used Herabergen Rambis’s Manipulator Beyonder Characteristic to probe the cocoons and found that their occupants were alive, but their mind islands were sealed off.
• Audrey swore secrecy and reflected on the exploration, concluding that caution was essential in the mystical world.
• Leonard asked Pallez about Amon and Adam, the Spectator pathway, and Mobett Zoroast, and told him Mobett had married an elven Singer in a real dream.
• Klein summoned Arrodes and asked about a bronze door beneath an abandoned castle in Delaire Forest, and Arrodes answered that it had come from underground.