Aftermath

Valkyrie’s emergency response team receives a text one July morning: “Celestial Records 37th and Morgan, the breach is underway”

Most of them head directly there. Arachne checks for Adele first but she isn't there. The dogs have been fed and the ghosts are lurking about but no one else is at the house.

Samson is the first on the scene. As he recovers from a coughing fit, the others arrive. The lot is empty with only an old sign promising future construction. Tibbs senses for nearby minds and feels the presence of someone being chased. He warns the others just before a shaven headed woman runs around some debris and collapses. Three color shifting blobs quickly follow her. Two savage her battered body while the last attacks Samson, bruising his leg.

The old mage backs off and hits the creature with a blast of telekinetic force. Rocky runs over to the woman and smashes one of the blobs with his fists. Tibbs shoots the one Samson attacked.

The one Rocky hit explodes into a thick mist. The last blob halts its attack on the woman to bite at Rocky’s leg. He kicks it back and smashes it into a pulp. The final blob spits acidic goo onto Tibb’s gun partially melting it. Zelda kills the blob with a magically enhanced shot of her pistol.

Arachne runs over to the bloody woman. Half of her face is eaten away. Desperately she tries to save her. As Arachne stabilizes her, Rocky tries to heal her. But it is too late. She dies.

The mages begin to investigate the crime scene. Marina uses space magic to get an idea of where this woman came from. There is no portal but there is a gap where she came from. But it doesn't lead anywhere. More disturbing is that all of space is wrinkled as if it had been crumpled up.

Zelda remembers her from the cult around the Disciples of Nehjarra. She should have been killed with the rest of them. Tibbs calls his police contacts for the files so they can confirm that. Samson and Rocky figure out the creatures were chaos spirits, something that hasn't been seen since the earthquake. Arachne meanwhile looks into the past. 3 years ago, there was a record store here called Celestial Records. It had a strong resonance of the Aether fed to it via a ley line. Samson looks around and confirms the ley line is still here. bIt is now weaker and has moved. Tibbs hides the cause of death, making it look like an animal attack.

Marina asks the obvious question, “Where is Valkyrie?”

They try to call her but she doesn't pick up. Arachne looks where she was the last time she saw her using Time magic. The result is disturbing. It is like she existed but she was never actually present. They decide to get some answers and head to the Promethean. Tibbs picks up the report on the way. The woman, Sarah Perry, definitely died last year.

At the Promethean, they find much fewer people than normal in the lobby. Marina notices no mages are present and the staff looks worried. Rocky orders whiskey and finds a shot glass ready. He takes the bottle and gives the glass to the server. They question him about what is happening. He says, “they are all gone.” Tibbs reads his mind check to see if he is lying. He isn't but he is holding something back to protect them. Marina tells the others about the Proximi curse. If the staff tell them the future they will only make it worse.

The staff believes they are doomed but advise them to Gary or Precinct 13 or the epicenter of the earthquake. They decide to check out the epicenter since they are close by. The location is next to a clockshop that has recently closed down. In Twilight they can see numerous pattern spiders swarming over the streets and infrastructure. Rocky talks to the spiders and they say they serve the Weaver and Ellsworth. They need to fix things. Some begin to follow Arachne around.

Tibbs decides to summon Ellsworth. As he is doing this the others can see ley lines aligned about this location shifting. Ellsworth appears in Twilight. The old man seems confused, babbling about layers, multiple realities, and the difficulty of holding stuff together. He refers to Marina by her sleeper name and claims she is a serial killer. Samson he thinks is dead. He claims he can't save the city but he can hold it together long enough for them to get out. He says he can’t see two areas of the city: Gary and Precinct 13. He explains the Ebon Cross had a plan, a plan to release the fallen god Algol but that it would destroy a parallel world. It is at this point they all realize there is a red star in the sky, something they never noticed before.

They decide to check out the precinct. The police station is still wrapped in police tape. The interior is riddled with bullets from when the Antediluvian made its way through here. Nervously Tibbs senses for minds but find none nearby. Rocky however can sense a powerful spirit nearby. As they walk along they hear distant sounding screams and voices. Tibbs spots a transparent vision of Sgt Jones, who died in the battle. He looks alive. Samson grabs the man’s wrist and makes contact. He struggles with Samson, seemingly unable to see him. Then he vanishes. Zelda tells them he didn’t read as a ghost.

Arachne finds a fresh newspaper on a desk. It is dated November 2015 and its front page article is about the 10trh anniversary of the tragedy at Precinct 13. Zelda uses Time magic to detect the time slips happening here. They follow the destruction deeper into the station. Then they spot two figures bundled in coats, goggles and hats. They move forward to attack. Tibbs shoots one in the leg, causing it to lurch forward onto a desk. Rocky charges and pummels the other. Then Samson calls down electricity from the fluorescent light above them frying both of them. The clothing collapses and Rocky sees the spirits appear in twilight as clothes before fading away.

They continue farther to a hallway. The ground is covered in ash. This is where Tibbs and his friends made their final stand. They push through the formerly blocked emergency exit. They are outside with the El roaring above them. Looking up, those with spirit sight see a demonic train staring down at them.

They talk with this Demon Spirit El, learning it knows what is happening. It claims to know how to escape but wants to be freed. They are wary of releasing the demon. It tells them Gary is gone and they can see for themselves what awaits them. They agree to look.

On the way to Gary they suffer a time skip. They stop and summon Ellsworth to discuss their options. The pattern spiders are still following Arachne. Ellsworth tells her on some levels of reality she became the Weaver. He can’t see those levels. He doesn't believe he will die if this world dies since he exists on many levels but the same can’t be said of them. Arachne meanwhile says she thinks she could use the time skip phenomena to travel back in time and change her past. They agree to let her try.

Arachne/Weaver and the other jump back 2 years to when Arachne had to chose to be the Weaver or not. This time she says yes. They return to the present with Arachne as a powerful mage-spirit. With her help they pinpoint the weak points of reality. She can see the path of the demon Algol as it punches through layer after layer. Celestial CDs is the most likely location. The only question is when he arrives. If they can reach the hole they can leap into the surviving world.

They decide to have the best hope they need to release the El. They bind it to an oath to help them and Rocky undos the binding on the train. They and Arachne’s pattern spiders board the train and they drive off.

The train grinds to a halt by the lot. Weaver can sense parts of reality falling into the Abyss. She looks back and forwards in time. The gate doesn't exist in the future nor when the building stood. Rocky looks at the text. It was sent at 8:24 AM. Weaver looks back and sees the portal, they leap back in time.

The train roars across the street, plowing through the hordes of chaos spirits. A crystal statue stands near the entrance but they blow past it. They fall down the hole...

And wake up on Sunday morning. Their version of reality can taken hold. As before they get a text from Valkyrie but it says “Celestial Records 37th and Morgan, the breach is underway. Make sure there are not any fires.”

Arachne is still the Weaver. Ellsworth never became the spirit of the city. Samson survived the Antediluvian. Marina Awakened and never became the Anna Adele knew. The city is safe. The meet Valkyrie by the store.