In Budapest, the investigators decide to avoid the Orient Express for the final leg of their journey to Istambul. Menkaph is on the train and must undoubtedly have noticed that his victim and the Whispering Fez are missing. They decide to hire a coach to the border, and ride the local trains across the Serbian kingdom and Bulgaria. Moving as fast as the connections allow, the team arrives in Istambul almost a day after leaving Budapest.
The daughter of prof. Demir is waiting in the train station. She guides them to the professor's house and lets them know that a few hours ago, her father was assaulted by armed thugs who took her brother hostage and stabbed her father in the stomach. They demand the return of the Fezzes and the book and the immediate departure of the investigators from Istambul. The professor informs the investigators of everything he knows that may be of use to the situation:
- the kidnap exchange is to happen at the docks at noon.
- Menkaph is working with Nisra, who is the true mastermind of the cult.
- Demir does not know where the cult is based, but maybe others in the occult underworld can help.
- Menkaph had fallen foul of Selim Makryat, a crimelord and occult leader. Perhaps he could point to the cult's current whereabouts.
- Demir can read the last section of the Whispering Fez, encoded in persian hieroglyphics, but he'd need several hours to do so.
The investigators head to the fortress of Selim Makryat in Scutari, where they manage to gain an audience with the crimelord. His nine-year old son Mehmet is seated behind, listening intently to the whole conversation. The investigators plead for information that will allow them to stop Menkaph and Nisra's plans. Makryat decides to support them and lets them know that the Children of the Fez are hiding in the smallest of the Prince's Islands, used by the Byzantines to exile their nobility. He also tells them to seek out the Frenchman, another paragon in the occult circles of Istambul, who was Nisra's tutor in the arcane arts.
The Frenchman
The Duc des Esseintes lives in a luxurious palatial mansion, complete with peacocks, pools and gardens full of exotic fragrant flowers. On entering the premises, their visual perception seems to play tricks, as everything becomes foggy and hazy. The duke meets with them in the grand veranda. After they explain their plight, the Frenchman agrees that Nisra needs to be stopped. He gives the investigators a small glass vial that "contains the essence of Dream, able to alter your mental state and access that which would otherwise be beyond the reach of mortal thinking", to use in the presence of his former disciple. He also comments that Nisra already has a prince under her influence, an estranged cousin of the Sultan.
The secrets of the Fez
Professor Demir manages to decode the last section of the Whispering Fez, that holds the key to the fezzes' destruction. If the fez is put on in the presence of a Master and its runes read in a specific fashion, a battle of wills will ensue. If the Destroyer manages to subdue the Master, the Fezzes will be destroyed.
The exchange
With little time to plan, the investigators decide to leave the book at prof. Demir's house and try to trick the cultists that it was stolen by Selim Makryat's agents. They wait at the pier until a caique arrives with the cultists, Menkaph and the hostage boy. On hearing that the book is not there, Menkaph shoots dead the boy and has the investigators arrested and moved to the island HQ for interrogation.
The Children of the Fez
Less than an hour's boat ride later, they arrive in the tiny 10th Prince's Island, where the cult have made their headquarters. The cultists are preparing for a grand ceremony, with torches and arcane symbols drawn on the main inner courtyard. Menkaph goes to fetch Nisra to interrogate the heroes, and returns soon after. On seeing the cult leader, the young exploress Adele dons the Fez, drinks the strange vial with the essence of dreams, and utters the syllables that begin the Fez Destruction Ritual.
Nisra is initially bemused that a novice even thinks to utter a challenge, but she soon realises the battle is skewed against her - the dream essence elevates the hero to a whole new level of consciousness. Locked in the battle of wills, Adele materializes her mental attacks in different shapes and forms, overpowering Nisra and shattering her fez on each blast. The final attack lands a grotesque blow, shattering the Blood Red Fezzes of everyone in the audience and decapitating the wearers with a horrid, acidic explosion of thick pestilent darkness.The hero's fez melts away, leaving horrible burns but sparing the deadly explosion.
As the cult scatters away horrified, the investigators run back to the boat and hurry back to the city.
Aftermath
Professor Demir is devastated by the loss of his son. He retreats onto himself and distances himself from further occult study. His daughter Reza takes over his considerable library and collection. The Fez is kept under lock and key in the restricted library of Istambul university.
The sudden disappearance of the Children of the Fez from Istambul presents a power vacuum that Selim Makryat soon moves to fill. His Brothers of the Skin incorporate the most promising members of the decapitated cult as well as their treasured lore. Soon, the Brothers of the Skin will turn their attention away from their home ground.
They young Mehmet Makryat grows into adulthood and will later be encountered in the 1923 adventures.
As for the Frenchman, he fades into oblivion by the turn of the century and his traces are lost.
