In the months that follow, peace returns to the city. Miguel and Adele begin to officially date, while Pispir appoints a new provost, Delphi. The traitor Father Luke remains on the run but the Guardians of the Veil eventually report that he has been dealt with. Mammon finds himself busy doing errands and transmitting favors for Athaliah as she campaigns for the position as Councilor. As part of this he visits a new mage in the city, Zio. The mage they met at the edge of the Abyss has aquired a large Victorian manor in the near west end of the city. The older mage greets Mammon and invites him inside. They chat for a while and Mammon learns that the Mastigos has moved from Georgia and has a passion for antiques. He also learns that though he is a member of the Free Council, Zio is not political and is only interested in furthering his own studies. In the following weeks Mammon and Zio work together, with Mammon helping him to get established in the the buying and selling of antique furniture in Chicago.
Valkyrie meanwhile has to take care of her new mentor, White Ash, ferrying him back and forth to rehab, as he tries to shake his demons. She and Colt notice the gradual spread of a resonance of charity throughout the city as Ellsworth grows in power. They also notice that the resonance of Printer's Row and Wabash Avenue is becoming infused with a passion for artistic expression, likely due to the work of the Dreamcatchers.
With the coming of Autumn, Adele returns to college. While she is excited about the upcoming Battle of the Bands that she plans to see with Miguel, she also begins to have troubling dreams. They revolve around a young blond haired man hanging himself in front of a large arched window.
Meanwhile Valkyrie's friend Bobby Hart talks to her about a new gig she has landed. With her husband's e-business going poorly she is struggling to make ends meet. That is why she excited about this new jazz club, the Wanderer's Blues. She asks Valkyrie to stop by in a couple days after she managed to get comfortable.
However the next day her husband Daniel shows up looking for Bobby. He explains she didn't come home last night and asks if Valkyrie knows anything. Together they go to where Bobby said the club was, even though Daniel says he had already looked there. At the supposed location, they find a simple brick apartment building. There are no visible signs of the club, but Valkyrie can detect a strong resonance of jazz. Daniel soon gives up and goes to the police. After he has left, Valkyrie looks around some more and finds an entrance to the jazz club which wasn't there before. She leaves a magical mark and gives Colt a call.
After filling Colt in, Valkyrie descends into the club to investigate. Inside, the sound of blues as only Chicago can create permeates the smoky air. A tiny room with a few rickety tables showcases a plain wooden stage with an old-fashioned microphone and sound system. Bobby is currently singing but looks different, older. Colt soon arrives after leaving a note at the sanctum. The two mages quickly identify the other occupants of the club as ghosts. Colt scrutinizes Bobby's resonance finding her desperate and passionate while Valkyrie orders a drink and talks to the bartender. Colt realizing he is out of his depth, exits the club (which is a dead zone) to call Adele. After waking her up and explaining the situation, he realizes that 2 hours have passed while he was in the club. Warning Adele via text about the time dilation, he then waits for backup. Adele in turn calls Mammon who gives her a ride to the club's location. Soon a tired and poorly dressed Mammon along with a somewhat stylish Adele meet Colt outside the ghostly jazz club.
While the others investigate outside, Valkyrie chats with her friend Bobby, trying to convince her to leave. She is reluctant however and doesn't believe that much time has passed. Adele scrutinizes twilight seeing the jazz club reflected there, along with signs of fire damage. A similar sight appears in Shadow. They discuss what to do and what it is they are facing, ultimately deciding it is the ghost of a genus loci, the spirit of a place.
The cabal enters the ghostly jazz club. Mammon finds his watch running slow, while Adele determines that the ghosts within are weak but that a strong presence fills the structure. Both are able to confirm that Bobby is not possessed but instead is being affected by the genus loci's powers. Mammon shields her mind while Colt fills Valkyrie in on their findings and the time warp. Adele creates a numina shield against the jazz club's ghostly powers and they are able to convince Bobby to leave. As they leave however she collapses as the strength is drained out of her. Mammon picks her up and pulls her out as the cabal escapes.
Once outside Colt is able to determine that Bobby is in fact 10 years older and that others in the cabal have lost time, though to a much smaller extent. Colt offers to guard the club as he hates jazz. Valkyrie takes Bobby home, while the others realize that the entrance disappears in the daylight. Intrigued, Adele studies the twilight doorway and later researches the Wanderer's Blues' history. She learns of the fire that destroyed the club in 1937 as well as some details about genus loci. She also asks her boyfriend's advice but all he can say is that such spirits are very dangerous and resistant to change. The cabal also talks to Arachne and Ishtar to see what they can tell them about the time distortion. Unfortunately there is little the fledgling mage Arachne can do to help. Valkyrie is able to shed light on site's past activities, realizing that one of the ghosts was a jazz player named George Carter, who disappeared in the 1950s.
Valkyrie decides to talk to Bobby both to calm her down and to discover how she encountered the club. The troubled woman exxplains that she just spotted the jazz club one night, like her eyes were drawn to it. The Obrimos regroups with the cabal in the evening along with Miguel and Arachne to determine what to do about the dangerous phenomenon. They realize that they can't easily stop it and its anchors are such that banishing it is out of the question. Ultimately they contact the Guardians of the Veil through Virgil. The creepy mage takes control of the conversation, explaining that the Guardians will keep watch over the threat and keep Sleepers away. To aid in this Adele and Virgil seal the entrance temporarily, so that Sleepers can no longer enter.
With the crisis under control, Adele returns to the subject of her troubling dreams. She meditates on the visions in her oratory and is able to recall further details. There was a church steeple that could be seen outside the window, one that she remembers being near campus. She consults with Mammon and then goes looking for the equivalent place at the university.
With Merlin's help she scries out from the church steeple, picking out the likely dorm rooms that could match her dream. With that information in hand, she researches those dorms and discovers among the recent suicides, there was a student who hung himself in one of those rooms. She tries to scry his ghost, but with the weak sympathetic connection, fails.
The next day Athaliah takes Mammon with her to help the Mysterium with some suspected spiritual troubles. Their Athenaeum, on the edge of the university, has been plagued with electrical problems as their internet, phones and even the AC have been cut off. More troubling is the defacing of High Speech symbols that generate their wards. Mammon is able to confirm the residue of spiritual powers at work and finds the resonance of the area to be filled with knowledge but also a feeling of oppressiveness. He wanders outside and finds a local spirit in twilight. The owl-like knowledge spirit however is unable to give him any concrete information.
Mammon decides to summon the troublesome spirit, calling it based on the resonance of its numina. As he casts the spell, the lights blink across campus and the phone rings in the Athenaeum. Mammon answers it but only hears static. When he uses *69 he finds his call goes to the emergency phone at the chemistry building where Adele is finishing up her lab with her friend Veronica. Arachne tags along with Mammon as they head over. She mentions that she saw a suspicious woman around recently and Mammon is able to identify her as the conspiracy theorist Binary. Meanwhile Adele learns from Veronica that there have been a lot of electrical problems across campus lately. Once Mammon arrives, Merlin scurries out to meet him. The mage asks if there have been any spirits nearby, but Merlin has not seen any. The rodent does bring up the possibility of lighting spirits, however.
Mammon calls Valkyrie and Colt and invites them over. Finishing lunch, Colt says goodbye to his marine buddies and heads over. The two arrive as class ends and the cabal begins its investigations. They discover the resonance covers the entire university and that the real world oppressive architecture is even more so in Shadow. There is also a strange lack of ghosts in the area. Valkyrie inspects Athenaeum and uncovers that the symbols have not been defaced but rather marked over with some unknown runes. Colt meanwhile looks for supernaturals in the area and spies a janitor who lacks an aura!