The provided text consists of extensive excerpts from the novel, The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge, which is confirmed by the title page information and the "About the Author" section. These excerpts narrate a dark, steampunk-inflected world centered on the protagonist, Aoife Grayson, a clever engineering student from Lovecraft City, who is desperately trying to find her missing brother, Conrad, after their mother was confined to an asylum due to the fictional necrovirus that causes madness. The story follows Aoife as she flees the rationalist society of Lovecraft with her friend, Cal Daulton, and a mysterious guide named Dean Harrison, journeying to her estranged father's ancestral home, Graystone, and encountering heretical magic, ghouls, and entities like the menacing Kindly Folk and the villainous City Head, Grey Draven. The Table of Contents outlines the novel's structure, tracking Aoife’s escalating involvement with the world’s secret magical undercurrent, referred to as the Weird, culminating in her realization that the city’s scientific facade is a lie and her subsequent capture and escape from the Proctors.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.