As Autumn ends and the cold winter begins the Ebon Cross hears about a new cabal forming, the White Passage. A small mixed Free Council and Mysterium group, it is made up of Dearborn, Cornerstone, and the new comer Zio. For the Ebon Cross itself, Mammon finally returns after a month of heavy work on their revitalization project. Colt works with the Dreamcatchers as part of this, offering to help with their public relations to drum up support. Valkyrie meanwhile is making headway in building a moderate faction within the Arrow. She talks with Quick about recruiting new (reasonable) Arrows. Quick will look out for promising cops, while Valkyrie does her own searching. Their goal is attract enough neophytes to form an elite squad to help the Consilium in times of trouble.
Meanwhile the holidays roll around and with it, Adele and Hope put their plan to haunt Anna into action. From Twilight, Adele creates illusionary scenery and "gifts" Anna with ghost sight. As the murderer slumbers, Hope drifts into her bedroom dripping blood and wakes her. As spooky shadows writhe behind her, Hope tells Anna she is here to remind her of her of crimes. She will be haunted by three ghosts who will show her why she must confess. After Hope fades away, Anna gets up and brews a cup of tea to calm her nerves. As she turns to head back to bed she is faced with the ghost of Old Lady Agnes. Spectral lights surround her as the old ghost greets Anna, asking how she has been since she last saw her. The ghost then rambles about her life, until she finally remembers her purpose. She guides the confused and increasingly worried mortal through images of her past, starting with Agnes's home and then through the various scenes of horror and joy in Anna's life. Eventually she terrifies Anna with how much she has been absorbed into the darkness and leads the murderer into the fire that consumed her family.
As Anna flees that scene she finds herself outside the coldly smoldering ruins, next to a small child, the ghost Kat. Kat calms her and leads her into a dream like version of her neighborhood. There she shows her the happy people nearby that Anna keeps herself isolated from. She explains Anna is much like a ghost herself, always alone, isolated by her tragic and hidden past. As she fades away, the sky becomes dark and Rota appears in a black cloak. As a cold wind whips around, the tall figure gestures down the street to a cemetery. Meanwhile Rota also enchants Anna so she does not make the connection to Dickinson's 'A Christmas Carol'. At the cemetery, Anna finds the burial places of her murder victims. Rota gesture to a freshly filled grave. Anna digs up the grave, finding her own body with the knife that killed Hope protruding from her chest. Everything goes black and Anna freaks out.
She finds herself in her apartment, holding the knife. Hope reappears and forgives Anna, giving her an icy hug before melting away. Shaken, Anna immediately confesses her crime to the police, who connect her to the serial killings two years ago. Hope's anchor to the knife dissolves and Hope is left tethered only to Adele. She voices her worries for her friend, but Adele thanks for her for her help and explains that Hope has already done enough. Her remaining obligation taken care of, she moves on to her final reward. Meanwhile Adele still owes Kat and creates an new anchor for the child-like ghost. The travel bag she is now tied to should allow her to see the world as she always wanted to.
As the new year arrives, Colt and Valkyrie survey the city, looking for disturbances in the resonance and ley lines of Chicago. They find Switchtrack Alley revitalized by their efforts but they also find a lot of activity with the ley lines. In particular someone is pumping the resonance of the Aether throughout the city. There are other disturbances as well. At least three architectural firms are using the principles of Chicago Workings to build grids within the city. Two seem limited to the techniques in the Burgess copy, indicating they may be Seer fronts. The other however has a more complete understanding. They decide to follow up on the Aether resonance first, rather than tangle with the Seers. They find the ley lines shifted magically as if by some powerful force. Following the lines, they find a twist at an apartment building. Colt makes out the resonance of an artifact embedded in a wall. They get Mammon and Adele to scry the site. They find that the wall adjoins an occupied apartment housing a Sleeper family of Mexican immigrants. Inside the wall, is a tombstone of petrified wood, with a space spell upon. The spell is likely an alarm and was cast by Cicero.
They leave the artifact and Valkyrie approaches Cicero. The Exile admits to placing it there as part of his research. He acquired the artifacts from a student of his in Gary, the mage Plotimus. He is also aware of the two Seer fronts but doesn't know who or what is behind the new firm, Kirksey. Mammon begins to investigate this new player in geomancy. Before he learns much however, he gets a phone call from Zio. The older mage has something to tell him and they arrange to meet up later that day. At a restaurant, Zio hesitantly explains that he feels he has wronged the cabal. He explains that he obtained a copy of Chicago Workings from the Free Council Lorehouse and used it with his new cabal. He didn't realize the Ebon Cross had not freely shared it, something he figured out only through talks with the Mysterium. He apologizes for his order and also lets Mammon know that the White Passage is behind the new firm.
Mammon calls the Dreamcatchers to give them a chance to explain. Bourdelle answers the phone but claims not to know anything about it. Then Mammon heads to the Lorehouse himself to confirm Zio's story. The Lorehouse is run by a cabal known as the Black Hats, a mixed Guardian and Free Council cabal that includes the conspiracy theorist Binary. At the squat brick structure that serves as their sanctum, he is greeted by the Guardian Gibson, who shows him in. Inside he also encounters the messy Libertine, Troll. Gibson pulls up their records on Chicago Workings, confirming that it was donated by Dickinson about a month after they let her and her cabal peruse it. Warned of its danger if mishandled, Gibson agrees to have it reviewed again. Mammon brings his findings back to the rest of the cabal. They discuss what to do next. Valkyrie suggests to discuss it civilly with the Dreamcatchers while Mammon and Colt believe it is necessary to get a neutral party involved to avoid escalation. In the end they bring it to the Consilium who agree to discuss it at their next meeting in three weeks.
Meanwhile Adele finds her mother worried about her brother's behavior. It seems that Michael DeSilva has been acting weirdly lately. He is oddly quiet, and his room is completely clean for a change. Adele's mother asks her to see if anything is bothering him. While mundane inquiries turn up nothing, using mage sight Adele spots a mind effecting spell on her brother by some unknown mage. She determines the mage in question is an adept of the arcanum of Mind and that the spell was cast on a number of people but should fade in a few days. After determining that Michael had no new friends or teachers who might have done this to him, she takes her findings to the cabal. Valkyrie speculates it could be a rogue mage while Colt guesses it might be a teacher. The two agree to watch the school during the day while Adele scries as she can.
Together they find some teachers affected by some sort of love spell and identify the school janitor as the mage behind this. Colt breaks into the school that night and investigates. He finds some magical tools built from machinery but nothing that indicates an established order, just some pictures of a dog and an unknown woman. Colt calls Mammon and together they work out how to approach this neophyte mage. They decide to take Valkyrie along as a distraction and Adele insists on coming as well. They meet janitor, John Marion, before school starts and convince him to hear them out. They explain who they are and that they understand what is happening to him. He agrees to meet them after school. Later they offer to teach him to use his powers more effectively and learn that John lived near Abbey's facility and may have been exposed to something there. Worse he Awakened by having strange dreams of a realm corresponding to no known watchtower.