As Nehjarra’s essence dissipates into Shadow forever, the cabal can see reality unraveling around them. Mammon looks into the future trying to find out how long they have but it is too uncertain. Mammon and Adele quickly cast a portal from the dying Wending to the jungle realm. They lead the tribe through. The Wise Man however chooses to remain behind. He entrusts the safety of the tribe to Colt. That the last that is ever seen of him.
As they rest in the jungle, Colt talks to the chief. He tells him they have two choices: stay here or come with him back to the Fallen World. Both are foreign and dangerous locations. The chief says he will need time to carefully decide, he promises an answer once Colt returns from his remaining business.
Then Colt walks into the jungle and confronts the Old Woman. He asks the crone if she will harm the tribe. She tells him no but blames him for the destruction of the other Wending. She vanishes rather than continue the conversation.
As they descend down the path to the desert Wending, Colt asks Adele if she can remove the blood stains on the Dark Man, weakening him. She agrees to do so once they reach the desert. The Dark Man cannot be allowed to join with the last guardian.
They soon reach the edge of the jungle. Crossing the plains they are hit by a sandstorm and find themselves in the desert. The Dark Man is surprised to find the blood has turned to water.
As he glares at the others, they see a black blot floating nearby in Twilight. Adele scrutinizes it, sensing the resonance of vampires, blood, and faith. However she realizes this is not the resonance of the spirit itself. It has no resonance. It is also as powerful as Nehjarra. She clutches the glacial ice closer.
The spirit approaches them but avoids Adele. It tells them of its loneliness and its desire to bond with another being. It offers to help them and explains it can remove the binding spell placed on it, allowing Algol to be freed.
The Dark Man edges forward but Colt warns him to back off. Adele places herself between him and the spirit. Through telepathy they quickly discuss their options. Bonding with it seems bad. Killing it would destroy this Wending even faster than the last. Killing the Dark Man to thwart him might be equally bad. They decide to head back to jungle first. Colt convinces the spirit to come with them, telling it that they will help it but need to return to the jungle.
Once back at the jungle, they discuss the situation. They decide they can’t let the Dark Man join with the spirit. Colt tells the him to leave or else. Just as he begins to protest, he jerks as if not in control of himself. He then rips off his face, reveals the utterly black skin of the avatar of Greed. It seems It wants to talk to Mammon before the Dark Man goes.
It then tempts Mammon with the power of joining with the spirit. It tells him that his double Amon is doing something similar. It also tells him that the Dark Man is a limited servant of Its and believes Mammon is a much more worthy recipient of this power. Adele attempts to convince him not to do it, pointing out he doesn't need the power.
Mammon agrees to do it if It will get rid of the Dark Man. Then there is a horrible scream. The Dark Man explodes and disintegrates. Mammon joins with the spirit.
They return to the tribe. The chief informs Colt that they will go with him. The cabal then forms a portal to Colt’s ranch in California. They move the tribe there and then Colt and the others go to talk to his family. They find his brother first. Colt reveals that he is a mage and demonstrates his supernatural strength. He manages to convince his sibling to help in his plan to reintroduce the tribe to the world. Mammon grant the chief knowledge of English to help. James helps Colt convince his sister though she does not take it as well.
The group returns to Chicago. Peace has returned to the city in their absence. Talks are underway for a vote for a permanent new Councilor. Also the Mysterium has sent a delegation from Norfolk, Virginia to do an internal investigation of the order in the wake of the Babbage scandal.
Valkyrie meanwhile has been reaching out to the other orders while they have been gone. She has begun to recruit mages for her emergency response team. She has also been in talks with the Guardians about possible new recruits. They have an Acanthus, with some history of mental illness, who might be harnessed for the Arrow.
She also has been talking to Red Knight, the Arrow’s official recruiter. The older man has been reluctant to force more Awakenings in the wake of Colt’s failed recruitment and the Banisher and Fire Worshipper incidents. He has two prospects: Alexander Kawalski, former professional fighter and part time mob enforcer, and Lisa Mokashi, a troubled widow hunting the demons that killed her husband. Valkyrie tells him to check if Lisa is mentally stable first. She also tells him they must be honest with them and give them the truth. He begins to go to work on Alex.
Meanwhile Valkyrie also hears a rumor that Zio has dug up dirt on the Iron Hand. She realizes she needs to stop Lealtad from doing anything stupid.
There is a new council meeting shortly after they return. Part of the meeting’s business is to welcome more visitors: Cocheta and an apprentice as well as a spirit of justice with mage-like abilities. These Scions of God are in the city to deal with the ghost-mage of one of their legacy. They believe that destroying the ghost will free his spirit. Mammon telepathically warns Adele.
Adele summons Rota and explains what has happened. Rota reiterates the philosophy he believes: that the ghost is a necessary part of the whole person and that only by combining a spirit and ghost can Ascension be accomplished. With Adele’s powers, he is so close to his Ascension. He just needs to retrieve his spiritual half from the Astral.
The cabal convenes that evening. Adele asks for their help in finding Rota’s spirit so he can accomplish his goal. They agree to do an emergency Astral journey. They set themselves up in the Demense with Recon, Arachne and the Spirit bound to Mammon to guard them.
They meditate. Mammon quickly finds the proper focus and drives deep into the Astral. He is somewhat startled when his dream vestibule shows the scene of his funeral but soon reaches the Omphalus. There amid the dead yellow grass, he scries Rota’s spirit. Oddly he finds the scry redirected to where the spirit was: the main hall of Aeonic Citadel of Death and Matter.
Adele meanwhile passes through a mall and watches as her adoptive parents vanish in the distance. She wanders past the food court and spies her college friends wave as she goes by. Colt is back in the desert. He spies a jeep full of his marine buddies going over a ridge. A dust storm blows up. Once it passes he find the bodies of the people he killed lying around him. He visits each one and explains why he did what he did. Then he moves on. Finally Valkyrie finds her way into the Astral. She passes through her old neighborhood in Georgia. The houses are abandoned and decaying.
They all gather by Mammon. Valkyrie sings open the ancient weathered stone and they descend into the darkness. The tight twisting passage goes deeper and deeper. Finally they reach a chasm with a sheer wall on the far side. There is nowhere to go but down. They spot a carved lion’s head on the wall below them. Mammon remembers his movies and throws some sand forward. It falls into the void. He probes downward. It goes down for a long long time. They decide to take the leap of faith together.
They fall for a scary minute. Then there is jerk at their ankles and they find themselves hanging by one foot from a tree branch. Mammon recognizes the tarot of the hanged man. They pull themselves up onto the branch. They are on an enormous tree going up into the clouds and down an unknown distance. Mammon uses magic to determine that either direction will get them where they need to go. They descend.
As they climb down they encounter a mass of bronze and silver scaled serpents, the Typhonides. They are tearing away at the tree, ripping building sized chunks of bark off. The tree shivers from the violence. Valkyrie creates a magical elevator and takes them downward in safety.
Adele recalls lore about a possible way to the Dreaming Earth involving these creature. She talks to the largest one and asks to be taken down. Surprisingly it agrees, claiming to be helping the Neverborn. Rota speculates this might be a chthonic entity from the Underworld, something that was never alive and always dead.
The mass of serpents deposits them on a vast forest floor made up rotting leaves the size of umbrellas. Adele kisses the creature and it climbs back up into the trees. They begin to walk along, looking for the trial to leave this realm. The leaves and fallen wood begin to rot, decaying into a black sludge filled with wriggling worms.
As they continue even their shoes begin to decay. Valkyrie floats them forward and the forest decays away completely. Rota says they must have missed the trial. Realizing someone needs to allow themselves to decay, Adele jumps off the platform. Her feet instantly rot and a mist rises up around them.
They see a blue glow through the mist and press forward. Ahead they find petrified trees with veins of glowing minerals. Then they see clockwork figures emerge from the mist with television boxes for heads.