Chapter Summaries

Klein learned that the Lord of Mysteries had begun awakening within him, then returned to a rebuilding Backlund and met Leonard at Saint Samuel Cathedral. He left Leonard with a reminder that Guardians fought constantly against danger and madness.

• The Seven Lights told Klein that the Great Old Ones could be parts of The Original and that the Celestial Worthy was likely awakening within him.
• Klein returned to Backlund and saw residents repairing the city as it recovered from the war.
• Klein prayed at Saint Samuel Cathedral, where Leonard arrived and joined him.
• Leonard told Klein he had become a senior deacon and a Sequence 4 Nightwatcher, and wondered whether the war’s hardships had been bait.
• Klein said he was an Angel and described it as pain, a curse, and responsibility before reminding Leonard that Guardians fought against danger and madness.

Klein kept his distance from Benson and Melissa while considering Melissa’s path as a Beyonder, then summoned Arrodes to question it about the Earth Mother. Arrodes identified the name it had heard during the battle of the gods as the Sanguine Ancestor’s, and Klein asked about the current situation in Feysac.

• Klein learned through Miss Justice that Benson had become a deputy section chief and Melissa was considering becoming a Reader, and he decided to keep away from them while quietly supporting her prospects.
• Klein booked an inn room and attempted to summon Arrodes, but the mirror did not appear, so he used a gold coin to locate it.
• Ikanser traveled toward Intis with a Machinery Hivemind member while the caged Arrodes reacted violently aboard the train before abruptly falling silent.
• Klein summoned Arrodes in a carriage and found it unusually eager to please him.
• Klein asked Arrodes who the Earth Mother really was, and it said it had heard a voice from Dark Heaven call the Sanguine Ancestor’s true name during the battle of the gods.
• Klein asked about the current situation, including conditions in Feysac.

Klein learned that the Evernight Church planned to stabilize the postwar situation by accepting defectors, avoiding further purges, and negotiating with its allies. He also learned that the River of Eternal Darkness might be the price for the Goddess’s gifts, then met the angel Bonova Gustave aboard the train.

• Arrodes showed Klein an Evernight Church document outlining plans to accept defectors, limit purges, preserve ordinary Feysac citizens’ faith, and seek peace through negotiations.
• Klein inferred that the Goddess wanted stability while she suppressed the Primordial and consolidated the authorities of Death and the God of Combat.
• Arrodes said the Evernight Goddess needed the River of Eternal Darkness to advance, and explained that Death had gone mad after using it to accommodate a non-neighboring Uniqueness.
• Arrodes listed Zaratul, the Blasphemy Slates, and the Fool-related cards and Mythical Creature as possible sources of the Attendant of Mysteries potion formula.
• Arrodes said Klein’s sense of a pillar and dominion resembled what it had seen in the Ancient The Sun God, then asked to accompany him.
• Klein appeared before the praying Bonova Gustave aboard the train and asked how to address him.

Klein obtained the Magic Mirror, sent Azik a letter, and began wandering as a magician rather than immediately pursuing dangerous leads. Katarina carried the Red Angel Evil Spirit toward headquarters through the Mirror World, but a young man intercepted them.

• Bonova allowed Klein to take the Magic Mirror after asking whether he was Evernight's Blessed.
• Klein sent Azik a letter describing his journey, the war's outcome, his advancement to Miracle Invoker, and his questions about the River of Eternal Darkness.
• Klein postponed exploring Calderon and seeking the Card of Blasphemy near the Antigonus Family's ancestor, choosing instead to wander with Arrodes.
• Katarina agreed to take the Red Angel Evil Spirit to headquarters, and he abandoned the Gatekeeper's body to accompany her.
• Katarina entered the Mirror World but was forcibly diverted into an unfamiliar room with the Red Angel Evil Spirit.
• A young man holding a rusted, bloodstained crown greeted them and moved a crystal monocle from his left eye to his right.

Amon and the Red Angel Evil Spirit agreed to consider cooperating, while a wandering magician granted a grieving girl her wish before disappearing. At the Tarot Club meeting, Klein reflected on how its members had risen to positions of influence and noted that Judgement faced the hardest path to becoming a demigod.

• Amon prepared to leave Katarina, but the Red Angel Evil Spirit offered cooperation because their plans for restoring the Lord differed from Alista Tudor's.
• A wandering magician granted Orich's companion's wish by restoring the brothers' bomb-damaged home, then vanished before they could thank him.
• The magician granted a little girl her wish to see her dead father again, and she embraced the soldier who appeared before him.
• The Tarot Club members gathered above the gray fog, and Klein reviewed their growing influence across the mystical world.
• Klein noted that Judgement had the greatest difficulty advancing in strength before he began the meeting.

The Tarot Club learned that the Earth Mother was Lilith, the Sanguine Ancestor, and discussed the consequences of the war of gods. Mr. Fool revealed that his condition had recovered and offered the Sea God's identity, status, and strength for exchange.

• Alger sensed that Mr. Fool had grown far more powerful, while Leonard asked the Tarot Club to discuss the war of gods and Feynapotter switching sides.
• Derrick revealed that the real Giant Queen Omebella had died long ago and that her remains were in the City of Silver.
• The Fool gave clues that led the Tarot Club members to identify the Earth Mother as Lilith, the Sanguine Ancestor.
• Leonard noted that the Church of Evernight had stopped using the title 'Lady of Crimson,' and Emlyn realized he had never truly changed his faith.
• Alger suggested that the Tarot Club focus more on exchanging intelligence and cooperating in secret as its members became demigods.
• The Fool said he had recovered considerably and offered the Sea God's identity, status, and strength for exchange.

At the Tarot Club, Klein offered the Sea God's identity and other resources in exchange for tasks, prayers, and devout wishes, while assigning Alger to help settle people from the Forsaken Land of the Gods. Audrey asked how to face events controlled by powerful beings, and Gehrman warned that the Apocalypse would arrive in a little over a decade and could destroy everyone, even the gods.

• Alger realized he could become the Sea God and asked the Fool what he would have to pay in exchange for the identity, status, and strength.
• Klein said he would require assigned tasks, frequent prayers, and devout wishes, and told Alger to help the Sea God's believers settle people from the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
• Klein offered other items in exchange, including a Law Mage potion formula and Beyonder characteristic, prompting Xio and Fors to consider their ambitions to advance.
• Audrey asked what one should do when an outcome depended entirely on powerful beings, and Alger urged her to gain power until she could take part in their struggles.
• Gehrman warned the Tarot Club that the Apocalypse would arrive in a little over a decade and could destroy everyone, including the gods.

At the Tarot Club, Gehrman Sparrow warned that the apocalypse would arrive in a little over a decade and revealed enough to make the members realize he had become an angel. After the gathering, Xio and Fors set out to pursue their own goals, while Emlyn returned to the Harvest Church and was greeted by familiar visitors.

• Gehrman Sparrow warned the Tarot Club that the apocalypse would come in a little over a decade and that even deities could be destroyed.
• The Tarot Club members realized Gehrman Sparrow had advanced to the level of an angel, and he urged them to consider what they would do next.
• Xio decided to return to Military Intelligence Section 9 and work hard, while Fors traveled to Pritz Harbor to tell Dorian Gray Abraham she had finished digesting the Traveler potion.
• Emlyn visited the reopened Harvest Church, changed into priest robes, and worked alongside Father Utravsky to clean it.
• Baron Kasimi Odora, Viscount Ernes Boyar, and other familiar people entered the Harvest Church, making Emlyn smile.

Klein traveled to Beldan disguised as a wandering magician to witness the scars left by the war and perform wish magic. There, he discovered that the city’s rules had been unnaturally changed and that he could not return to Sefirah Castle, leaving him to seek answers from Arianna.

• Klein entertained a young man and his parents aboard the train with the Magic Mirror Arrodes, which revealed that the young man was traveling to get married and teased him with questions.
• Klein arrived in Beldan and reflected on the war and his decision to follow Feysac’s invasion route to witness its aftermath.
• Klein spotted Arianna in the street but lost track of Her before he could ask why She had come to Beldan.
• Klein found a new notice declaring strict rules for the city, including that no one could leave without the consul’s permission.
• Klein discovered that an invisible force prevented him from returning to Sefirah Castle, and Arrodes advised him to find Arianna and learn what had happened.

Roy, Byers, Phil, and Pasha encountered a supernatural anomaly in Beldan that seemed to punish people for breaking the law. After finding an official notice ordering citizens to arrest outsiders, they realized they might be targets.

• Roy, Byers, Phil, and Pasha discussed supernatural powers in a bar while searching Beldan for Byers's surviving relatives and friends.
• Phil reached for a wallet beside an injured man and his left hand was severed by an unseen force.
• Roy led the group to Webb's clinic, where they found Webb and a nurse hanged by invisible ropes.
• Roy and the others suspected the incidents punished theft and adultery, then decided to leave Beldan and watch their behavior.
• Roy and the others read a notice ordering citizens to arrest outsiders, and the surrounding citizens turned toward them with strange eyes.

Roy, Phil, Pasha, and Byers tried to evade Beldan’s supernatural laws, while Klein appeared as a wandering magician and granted their wishes. Arianna then revealed that Larion had fled with the Sealed Artifact 0-02, leaving Klein to learn the reason for her pursuit.

• Roy led the group away from citizens who were hunting outsiders, and they decided to return to the municipal square to tear down the notices.
• At the noticeboard, Klein explained that damaging it brought punishment and demonstrated his strange powers by regrowing his severed hand.
• Klein restored Phil’s hand and used a silver mirror to reveal that Byers’s family was at the gravekeeper’s cottage in Gorolin Cemetery.
• Pasha asked Klein to protect the group until they left Beldan alive, and Klein accepted their wishes as payment for his magic.
• Klein summoned a Historical Void projection of Arianna, who said Larion had fled with the Sealed Artifact 0-02 and that she was tracking Him.

Klein learned that “0-02,” known as the Rulebook, was imposing increasingly complex rules across Beldan and might be awakening. He and the others set out to find and seal it before the rules became impossible to obey, while Klein warned them that the fleeing Patriarch was an angel.

• Arianna told Klein that the Church of the God of Combat had lost its records on “0-02,” and that the Goddess had called it the Rulebook.
• Klein and Arianna concluded that the rules were growing more stringent, and Arianna said they needed to find and seal “0-02” before certain events occurred.
• Klein discussed how the Rulebook might define crimes, and he and Pasha proposed that its rules had to match what the public accepted as criminal.
• A curfew notice appeared on the noticeboard, prompting Klein to lead the group away before they violated the new rule.
• Klein suspected “0-02” was a book hidden somewhere rather than still carried by the Patriarch, and revealed that a Patriarch was an angel.

Klein helped Roy, Pasha, Phil, and Byers find loopholes in Beldan’s escalating edicts while they searched for the Patriarch of the Church of the God of Combat, who might possess 0-02. When a new order banned all living creatures from entering the sewers, Klein teleported the group to a Storm church.

• Roy and the others realized the Patriarch was an Angel and became more wary of Klein, who reminded them to escape the streets before curfew.
• The group used the sewers to evade the curfew, and Klein deduced that Byers escaped the orders’ effects because he was both a Beldan local and an outsider.
• Klein used Arrodes to monitor the noticeboard and enlisted Lady Arianna to watch the Evernight churches while the group planned to search churches for the Patriarch.
• Arrodes revealed a new edict banning living creatures from entering the sewers, and Klein teleported the group to the nearest Storm church.
• During the teleportation, the group saw sewer rats and cockroaches convulse and die, then witnessed the strange, abstract Spirit World.

Klein failed to stop Larion from escaping Beldan, but a curtain in the Spirit World trapped the patriarch there temporarily. After new rules threatened the group, Klein restored Byers's home and discovered that the Magic Mirror could exploit a loophole in 0-02's rules by punishing someone who lied.

• Larion turned into rotting fluid, escaped into the Spirit World, and found his way blocked by a Historical Projection of the Curtain.
• Pasha read two new rules from the noticeboard: churches had to close early, and inns could only accommodate registered guests.
• Klein granted Byers's wish and restored his destroyed home at 18 Red Maple Street, then gathered the group inside to test the Magic Mirror.
• Roy asked the mirror where to find his next potion, and it showed Larion waiting in the Spirit World.
• The mirror asked Roy who he had given his first time to; when Roy lied, it struck him with lightning, revealing that it could injure someone without being punished.

Klein exploited ambiguity in the new laws to make the Magic Mirror enforce a penalty, forcing 0-02 to name the Trunsoest Brass Book as the sole law enforcer. He traced the book to a library, then sought Larion’s help in finding a way to seal it.

• Klein explained to Roy, Pasha, Byers, and Phil how the Magic Mirror could punish an outsider under the ambiguous laws.
• The Magic Mirror revealed new clauses naming the Trunsoest Brass Book and its authorized agents as the only law enforcers.
• Klein used the connection to 0-02 to locate the brass book in a library, where he was punished for entering a restricted public area.
• The book displayed rules that threatened Klein, and Arianna arrived after he summoned her location and told him that records on sealing 0-02 had been destroyed.
• Klein entered the Spirit World and offered Larion a deal for the method of sealing 0-02, but Larion questioned whether Klein thought he would agree.

Klein and Arianna searched for a way to seal the Trunsoest Brass Book, and Klein realized that a deity might trap it by inducing contradictory rules. He created a paradox involving Beldan’s citizens and sent Byers into the library to search the book for clues before it could correct the contradiction.

• Larion refused Klein’s offer and urged him to pray to a deity to seal “0-02.”
• Klein noticed that Larion’s words suggested a deity could seal the artifact, and he shrank Beldan Municipal Library to escape its latest punishment rule.
• Arianna proposed concealing the soil beneath the table so “0-02” would fall into the earth’s core, but the book issued a new rule forbidding damage to itself.
• Klein deduced that a deity could trap “0-02” by inducing it to create contradictory rules, then proposed concealing the rest of Beldan so the city would collapse.
• Klein brought Byers to the library and had him enter; because the book’s rules protected Beldan’s citizens while forbidding unauthorized entry, it became caught in a paradox.
• Klein told Byers to watch the open page and leave as soon as a new article began forming.

Klein used Byers to inspect the Trunsoest Brass Book and learned how it would reset if its rules became too extensive and inconsistent. He summoned a distorted hall from the Tudor-Trunsoest era to provoke the book into filling its remaining pages, then left with Arianna to wait for its rules to reset.

• Byers touched and flipped through the Trunsoest Brass Book while Klein used Dream Divination to examine its pages.
• Klein ordered Byers to leave and feign an attack, preventing the newly added rules from punishing him for touching the book or violating curfew.
• Klein learned the book would invalidate its rules if its pages filled without forming a rigorous system, and Arianna suggested exploiting that behavior.
• Klein summoned the distorted ruling hall of the Tudor-Trunsoest United Empire, prompting the book to add clauses until its final pages were filled.
• Klein and Arianna left for Byers's house to wait an hour while Arrodes monitored the book's notices.

Klein repeatedly trapped Larion in Beldan before exploiting the reset of 0-02 to steal it and bring it to the half-Fool in the Hornacis Mountain Range. He traded 0-02 for Roselle’s Fool card, while the Brass Book became stuck in a cycle of rules being invalidated.

• Klein restored his spirituality and repeatedly replaced the Curtain around Beldan, frustrating Larion until the Angel escaped into a crowd of dangerous Spirit World creatures.
• When 0-02 began erasing its rules, Arianna touched and threw the Brass Book to Klein, who caught it and teleported away before its new rule took effect.
• Klein took 0-02 to the ancient palace on the Hornacis Mountain Range, where the half-Fool’s tentacles seized the Brass Book and the Fool card flew toward the entrance.
• Klein’s Historical Projection caught the Fool card and threw it out before the palace doors closed, leaving 0-02 behind with the half-Fool.
• Klein retrieved Roselle’s Fool card, while 0-02 repeatedly began forming rules only for the clause declaring them invalid to appear and erase them.

Klein resolved the Beldan incident, treated survivors, and fulfilled Roy and Pasha’s wishes before leaving them outside the city. Elsewhere, a legal researcher discovered a note about the Trunsoest Brass Book.

• Klein told Arianna that he had thrown 0-02 into an abandoned palace on the Hornacis Mountain Range, and Reinette Tinekerr reported that Larion had escaped the Spirit World.
• Klein took a Sequence 8 Pugilist characteristic from Larion’s remains, then used Herabergen Rambis to make Byers forget his contact with 0-02.
• Arrodes detected no remaining hidden dangers in Beldan, and Klein gave Roy the Pugilist characteristic as the fulfillment of his wish for another potion.
• Klein Teleported Roy, Pasha, Byers, and Phil out of Beldan, introduced himself as Merlin Hermes, and told them about The Fool and Danitz’s mission in the Rorsted Archipelago.
• A young legal researcher in another city found a sheet of paper describing the Trunsoest Brass Book.

Klein learned the advancement ritual for Attendant of Mysteries, verified the formula, and tested accommodating the Fool card before returning to Beldan. Meanwhile, Derrick’s City of Silver scouting team reached Bayam, where Derrick spotted a man in a Storm robe and felt his nervousness disappear.

• Klein read the Fool card’s formulas for Attendant of Mysteries and The Fool, then divined to confirm the Attendant of Mysteries formula was genuine.
• Klein examined the marionettes he had stored above the gray fog and considered how their interactions could create a projection in the Spirit World.
• Klein accommodated the Fool card, split off a self to answer prayers, and returned to the real world to heal people in Beldan and learn about the war.
• Danitz discovered that the City of Silver half-giants had eaten some of his whale oil and received a Sequence 8 Beyonder Characteristic as compensation.
• Derrick led Liaval, Candice, and the City of Silver scouting team to Bayam, where he saw a man in a Storm robe and immediately felt calm.