Chapter Summaries

Alhaitham tested Xingsu’s scholarship and discovered that he could master a language and memorize research in remarkably little time, then praised him and offered his help. Xingsu asked Nahida about Eleazar and learned it was linked to Irminsul’s withering, leaving him and Nahida considering whether harmful information might be behind Irminsul’s affliction.

• Xingsu told Alhaitham that Nahida had rescued him from Irminsul and brought him to the Akademiya, and Alhaitham inferred how she had arranged his admission.
• Alhaitham tested Xingsu on Tighnari’s research and learned that Xingsu had mastered the common tongue overnight and memorized details from the books in about an hour.
• Alhaitham recognized Xingsu’s learning, rigor, and kindness, introduced himself as the Akademiya’s Scribe, and offered to help him.
• Xingsu wondered about Eleazar’s origins, and Nahida appeared when he thought of asking her about it.
• Nahida explained that Eleazar was a pathological change caused by Irminsul’s withering and Withering Zones, and said Irminsul had long been polluted.
• Xingsu told Nahida about Collei and his ideas about Eleazar, prompting Nahida to consider whether harmful information might be causing Irminsul’s affliction.

Xingsu studied basic Akademiya subjects and expected to move into new accommodations, while the story shifted to Rosalyne visiting Peruere aboard a ship. Rosalyne freed Peruere from her shackles and offered her a comfortable room, and their conversation ended with Peruere saying she would not live much longer.

• Xingsu crammed introductory material from the Akademiya's Darshans, and Katayoun told him that accommodations had been arranged for him.
• Rosalyne entered Peruere's cabin and asked whether she had killed Crucabena.
• Rosalyne praised Peruere for ending Crucabena's cruel rule, unlocked her shackles, and led her to a comfortable bedroom.
• Rosalyne explained that she had disapproved of Crucabena's treatment of the House of the Hearth's children and asked Peruere about her resistance.
• Peruere said that someone else had been involved but had died, and Rosalyne recognized her own past grief in Peruere's desolate expression.
• Peruere said she would not live much longer and took a sip of tea.

Rosalyne comforted Peruere and urged her to seek another way forward rather than accept a fate she feared, then let the exhausted girl sleep. After waking in Sumeru City, Xingsu learned from Lin that the black mist he absorbed contained encrypted memories and wondered whether he could use his ability to cure Eleazar, but Lin said memories could not simply be deleted.

• Rosalyne told Peruere that the Tsaritsa might forgive her and promised to help if the Fatui sought to punish her.
• Peruere worried the Tsaritsa might still punish her, and Rosalyne urged her to find another way out and never accept an unwanted fate.
• Peruere fell asleep in Rosalyne’s safe room, while Xingsu later woke in his own room after a long rest.
• Xingsu bought shawarma for dinner and chatted with Lin, who could sense the food through his memories.
• Xingsu asked Lin to examine the black memory mist he had absorbed, and Lin explained that it was encrypted information carrying intense negative emotions.
• Xingsu considered whether he could cure Eleazar by deleting the encrypted memories, but Lin said memory deletion was not something they could do.

Xingsu explained why Memokeepers preserved all memories and why the Cremators opposed them. In Snezhnaya, Peruere remembered her lost friends as she watched the aurora, then accepted the Tsaritsa’s pardon and became the new Knave, tasked with taking over the House of the Hearth.

• Xingsu told Lin that Memokeepers collected every memory, while the Cremators burned memories they judged useless.
• Peruere watched the aurora from her cell and remembered the promise she had made with Xingsu and Clervie to see it together.
• Pierro arrived at Peruere’s cell and announced that the Tsaritsa had pardoned her and named her the new Knave.
• Pierro offered Peruere control of the House of the Hearth and said she would replace Crucabena’s methods.
• Peruere accepted the title of The Knave and agreed to take over the House of the Hearth.

Pierro introduced Arlecchino as the new Knave and offered to answer five of her questions before advising her to consider where the world should go. Later, Xingsu went with Tighnari to treat Collei’s worsening Eleazar, stabilizing her by absorbing the black mist but taking on its painful memories.

• Pierro introduced Arlecchino to the other Harbingers as the new leader of the House of the Hearth, and Rosalyne congratulated her.
• After the meeting, Pierro offered to answer five questions about the world or Arlecchino’s origins, then told her to consider where the world ought to go.
• Tighnari found Xingsu studying Ley Lines and asked him to help Collei after her Eleazar symptoms worsened and her usual medicine failed.
• Xingsu went with Tighnari to the Forest Rangers’ camp and absorbed the black mist from Collei, calming her flare-up so she could sleep peacefully.
• Tighnari confirmed that Collei was stable, while Xingsu endured the pain, fear, and despair contained in the mist and showed signs of strain.

Xingsu reassured Tighnari that he could help Collei again, then left Gandharva Ville for Sumeru City. Arlecchino took over the House of the Hearth and announced new rules and a new beginning for its children.

• Xingsu explained to Tighnari that his Eleazar treatment relied on a unique power and could not be reproduced, but promised to help Collei if her condition worsened.
• Tighnari explained the difficulty of getting help quickly from Sumeru City, and Xingsu suggested carrier pigeons, which Tighnari said had failed because predators ate them.
• Xingsu thanked Tighnari and left Gandharva Ville along the forest path toward Sumeru City.
• Arlecchino returned to the House of the Hearth as its new master and saw the wary, numb children gathered in the hall.
• Arlecchino abolished the previous Knave's rules, forbade the children from killing one another, and told them to stand united and remain true to their principles.
• Arlecchino declared that Crucabena belonged to the past and asked the children to call her Father.

Arlecchino reassured the children of the House of the Hearth and began replacing Crucabena’s cruel rules with new ones. Meanwhile, Xingsu considered the Akasha Terminal’s technology and wondered whether it could serve purposes beyond delivering knowledge.

• A timid girl called Arlecchino “Father,” and other children gradually followed, as Arlecchino promised to protect them.
• Arlecchino entered Crucabena’s former office and examined files that treated the children as weapons and ordered the disposal of those deemed unsatisfactory.
• Arlecchino burned the children’s old files and began writing new rules for their growth.
• Xingsu recorded his treatment of Collei, his observations about Memoria erosion, and the treatment methods he discussed with Tighnari.
• Xingsu reconsidered the Akasha Terminal as a fast information-transmission device and reflected on the complex technology behind it.
• Xingsu wondered whether the Akasha Terminal had a purpose beyond providing knowledge.

Xingsu spent months studying the Akasha Terminal and published papers on curing Eleazar and building a communications system called the Wisdom Network, triggering fierce controversy across the Akademiya. As criticism and political resistance mounted, Xingsu remained calm at Puspa Café, where Arlecchino thanked Sandrone for her hospitality.

• Xingsu studied the Akasha Terminal and discovered that a student’s request about the Akademiya’s outside letters earned him assists equal to the population of a desert tribe.
• Xingsu submitted a paper arguing that Eleazar came from negative memories and could be treated by purifying memory vessels, but reviewers initially rejected and mocked it.
• Xingsu demonstrated his treatment before Tighnari, Nafis, and Amurta scholars, curing a patient and winning Amurta’s acclaim, then refused Nafis’s offer to become his student.
• Xingsu submitted “Building the Wisdom Network,” proposing changes to the Akasha Terminal’s systems, and provoked condemnation from conservative scholars and the Grand Sage’s faction.
• Xingsu sat at Puspa Café amid the controversy while Arlecchino thanked Sandrone for her hospitality.

Sandrone and La Signora condemned Crucabena’s treatment of the House of the Hearth before Columbina annoyed Sandrone by borrowing her coffee and asking if she drank machine oil. In Sumeru, Xingsu discussed the controversy surrounding his Wisdom Network research with Tighnari, Alhaitham, and Kaveh, who criticized the Akademiya for dismissing work it could not understand; the gathering ended with Cyno still away in the desert.

• Sandrone and La Signora said Crucabena’s brutal methods toward the orphans had justified putting an end to her.
• Columbina took a sip of Sandrone’s coffee, called it bitter, and asked whether Sandrone drank machine oil.
• At Puspa Café, Kaveh asked Xingsu how he had mastered so many fields, and Xingsu credited his broad study to a blessing from the God of Wisdom.
• Tighnari warned that Xingsu’s Wisdom Network research had caused controversy, while Alhaitham said most of its critics had not read or understood the paper.
• Xingsu and the others criticized the Akademiya for branding difficult research heretical, and Tighnari noted that Cyno was away surveying the desert.

Xingsu bought restricted Akasha components from Dori, paying a deposit and setting aside Mora for shawarma. Elsewhere, Arlecchino refused Dottore’s proposal to use vulnerable children in experiments, and Dottore left with a threat to test how long she could protect them.

• Xingsu reached Dori’s hidden rainforest storeroom after passing the guard’s password checks.
• Xingsu asked Dori for signal filters, alloy plates, and Akasha radio-frequency chips, and Dori explained the chips were highly restricted.
• Xingsu offered two months of his salary, and Dori agreed to obtain the components and gave him an address.
• Xingsu paid Dori 160,000 Mora, then took back 5,000 Mora to buy shawarma.
• Arlecchino rejected Dottore’s proposal to trade children’s lives for experimental data and warned him not to raise the matter again.
• Dottore left Arlecchino with a warning that her conviction might not keep the children safe for long.

Arlecchino discovered a report about Xingsu in Sumeru and burned it to keep the other Harbingers from learning about him. Meanwhile, Xingsu’s experiments continued to fail, and after mercenaries ambushed him, he defeated them with unexplained fighting skills and demanded to know who had sent them.

• Arlecchino read a report describing Xingsu’s work on a new Wisdom Network and recognized traits like those of someone from her past.
• Arlecchino burned the report to conceal Xingsu’s identity and research from the Harbingers, then sat lost in thought.
• Xingsu struggled to build a communications system, as Ley Line transmissions and wireless chips both failed during his experiments.
• On his way back from a field trial near Gandharva Ville, Xingsu was ambushed by mercenaries who accused him of owing their boss money.
• Xingsu instinctively defeated the mercenaries, watched one escape, and asked their leader who their boss was.

Xingsu forced Dori’s debt collectors to take him to her, where she realized they had attacked him by mistake and apologized. She invited him to dinner at Lambad’s Tavern, hoping to win his favor while he ate his way through the expensive meal.

• Xingsu defeated the mercenaries sent to collect a debt, and their leader led him to Dori.
• Dori learned that Xingsu had beaten her men and panicked when he confronted her about the attack.
• Xingsu reminded Dori that he had already paid her in full, and she offered him dinner to make amends.
• Dori escorted Xingsu to Lambad’s Tavern and booked a private dining room, surprising Lambad with her deference.
• Xingsu devoured the tavern’s expensive dishes while Dori kept smiling and worried about the cost.

Xingsu discussed his combat instincts, Collei’s Eleazar, and Lin’s fading sense of self with Lin, while resolving to stay until he could cure Collei. Elsewhere, Sandrone agreed to meet Arlecchino’s unusually strong child and make her a toy, unaware she would regret it.

• Xingsu told Lin that he had defeated a mercenary squad through instincts that seemed to come from his past life, and Lin said those instincts had survived the loss of his memories.
• Xingsu said he would remain in Sumeru until he cured Collei, whose painful past he had glimpsed while treating her, and remembered promising her that she could be healed.
• Lin explained that Memokeepers risk losing their sense of self through the memories they gather, but said she sent Memetic Entities like Xingsu to live ordinary lives and preserve their memories.
• Sandrone complained to Columbina and Arlecchino that Arlecchino’s child had mangled another refined-steel toy.
• Arlecchino apologized and offered to find another solution, but Sandrone insisted that Arlecchino bring the child to her workshop so she could make a suitable toy.

Xingsu publicly demonstrated independent communicators that bypassed the Akasha, reviving Akademiya debate and alarming its senior sages. As Azar considered how to stop him, Dottore showed interest in Xingsu and asked Scott whether he remembered his name.

• Xingsu demonstrated a distributed communication system that connected personal communicators without Akasha permissions, and Dori anticipated profits from selling the devices.
• The Akademiya's senior sages learned that Xingsu had created an independent network they could not control, and Azar called it a challenge to their order.
• Azar blamed the sages' earlier opposition to Xingsu's research on the Akasha, then insisted that restricting his access had been the right decision.
• Azar rejected the idea of expelling Xingsu outright because it could provoke discontent, and he considered another way to deal with him.
• Dottore examined Xingsu's paper with interest and asked Scott if he remembered Xingsu.

Scott, a boastful envoy for The Doctor, confronted Xingsu at the House of Daena and provoked him into throwing him out. Afterward, Xingsu realized Scott knew him from a previous life and feared he might once have belonged to the Fatui, leaving him troubled by the possibility that he had harmed people like Collei.

• Scott interrupted Azar and the sages, praising The Doctor's god-creation plan and learning that Xingsu was at the House of Daena.
• Scott accused Xingsu of neglecting his librarian duties and challenged the accuracy of the books, then mistook “cesium” for “csgo” and made a crude joke.
• Xingsu recognized that Scott had come to pick a fight and used his knowledge of physics to throw him out.
• Xingsu reasoned that Scott's familiarity with him and his own fear of The Doctor suggested he might have been a powerful Fatui member in his previous life.
• Memories of Collei imprisoned in a laboratory surfaced, and Xingsu wondered whether he had once caused similar suffering.

Xingsu learned that Cyno’s arrest was meant to protect him from Azar and the approaching Fatui Harbinger, The Doctor, and agreed to flee Sumeru. He prepared to cross the desert toward Fontaine, leaving Tighnari with a message for Collei.

• Xingsu resolved to stop dwelling on his past life and decided to visit Collei once he had finished his current business.
• Cyno interrogated Xingsu over fabricated charges, then joked with him until Tighnari arrived.
• Tighnari and Cyno explained that Azar and the Akademiya were moving against Xingsu and that The Doctor was coming to Sumeru.
• Cyno told Xingsu that he had to leave Sumeru immediately, while Tighnari promised to care for Collei and pass along Xingsu’s message.
• Cyno said the port and eastern road were blocked, leaving the desert route to Fontaine as Xingsu’s only escape.
• Tighnari warned Xingsu about Eremites and Ruin Guards, gave him supplies, and said a friend would help him cross the desert.

At Caravan Ribat, Xingsu was intercepted in a consciousness prison by Dottore, but Lin destroyed the Harbinger’s projection and freed him. Xingsu met Dehya using Cyno’s password and continued toward the desert, while Dottore realized his attempt had cost him.

• Cyno escorted Xingsu to Caravan Ribat and gave him a password to exchange with Dehya, his guide.
• Dottore trapped Xingsu’s consciousness in a gray-white space and tried to examine his memories and brain.
• Xingsu attacked Dottore’s projection and mocked his behavior, but Dottore grabbed him by the throat.
• Lin intervened, shattered the consciousness prison, and warned Xingsu not to let anyone invade his memories.
• Xingsu found Dehya, exchanged Cyno’s football password with her, and prepared to continue into the desert.
• At Port Ormos, Dottore told Scott that an impatient egomaniac had paid the price for his haste.

Dehya brought Xingsu to Aaru Village, where Candace let him stay after Dehya vouched for him. Unable to sleep, Xingsu overheard Dehya and Candace putting on makeup, then asked them how the village maintained peace and managed its scarce resources.

• Dehya led Xingsu and the Blazing Beasts mercenaries into Aaru Village and explained that Cyno had vouched for Xingsu.
• Candace allowed Xingsu to stay in a guesthouse and told Dehya she would have patrols avoid the area.
• Xingsu got up at night and overheard Dehya encouraging Candace to try makeup.
• Dehya and Candace discovered Xingsu outside their house, and he explained that he could not sleep and wanted to learn about the desert.
• Candace explained the village rules for keeping peace and protecting water and farmland, while Dehya said the Eremites knew not to provoke Candace.
• Xingsu thanked Candace and said he might bring food for the village children before quickly leaving.

Dehya and her mercenaries escorted Xingsu through the Great Red Sand by hidden ruin paths, where he studied traces of ancient civilization and wondered about the secrets beneath the Mausoleum of King Deshret. They reached the border of Fontaine, where Dehya said goodbye to Xingsu, who continued his journey with the desert arc left unresolved.

• Candace told Dehya that Fatui checkpoints had sealed the main routes, so Dehya gathered veteran mercenaries to escort Xingsu through hidden paths in the ancient ruins.
• Dehya's group crossed the desert while Xingsu examined ancient inscriptions and mechanisms and reflected on the secrets beneath the Mausoleum of King Deshret.
• Dehya shared desert rumors about the Mausoleum, and Xingsu said its undiscovered secrets could change all of Sumeru.
• The group reached Fontaine's border, where Dehya and the mercenaries ended their escort and wished Xingsu safe travels.
• Xingsu gave Dehya Tighnari's sunscreen ointment, and Dehya accepted it before wondering why Xingsu thought she liked cosmetics.

Sumeru's residents reflected on Xingsu's scholarship, kindness, and departure after his conflict with the Akademiya, while Xingsu shared his impressions of them. Their recollections revisited his treatment of Collei and left his research journey toward Fontaine unresolved.

• Nahida and Tighnari recalled Xingsu's persecution by the Akademiya and expressed hopes for his travels and eventual return.
• Alhaitham, Kaveh, and Cyno praised Xingsu's character, learning ability, and academic sincerity.
• Collei recalled that Xingsu endured pain while treating her Eleazar and said she wanted to become kind like him.
• Dori lamented her lost investments, while Dehya and Candace praised Xingsu's fighting ability and openness toward desert people.
• Xingsu questioned Nahida's unexplained absence and shared his impressions of Tighnari, Alhaitham, Kaveh, and Cyno.
• Xingsu recalled how Collei inspired his Eleazar research and praised the kindness and protection offered by Dori, Dehya, and Candace.