The cabal can hear the wolves approaching in the forest, searching for prey. Still transformed into animals they hurriedly sneak through the forest, hoping to make it to the river and safety. But Mammon snaps a tree root with his hoof. Instantly howls echo from three directions. As the wolves close in, they run. Adele flies above, destroying traces of their scent and slowing the wolves briefly. The wolves themselves are massive, the size of ponies. Mammon, his athletic skill greatly enhanced by magic, escapes the wolves first. He finds a narrow path that ends in a pile of bones, remains of those who failed to escape the wolves. The others soon catch up and they begin the half mile trek to the river, led by Deer Woman.
They stealthily make their way to the river but find a huge old wolf lurking there, sniffing at the water’s edge. The limping monster is the size of a horse. Most are able to sneak past, skipping across the water slicked rocks. The White Lady is first across. The Dark Man lingers by the rear and stumbles on the stones.
The old wolf perks up and runs forward to eat the Dark Man’s mangy fox hide. Colt, still in the form of a rabbit, leaps in front of him to protect him. But the Dark Man bites Colt from behind, splattering his orange coat with his blood. The wolf attacks Colt but gets a kick in the face instead. They quickly flee across the river, leaving the wolf behind.
As they exit the forest, they resume human form again. They find themselves on the edge of a river, near a lake. Colt recognizes primordial Chicago as well as the fact that the realm is dying. The Wending is decaying and falling apart.
Deerwoman leads them to a hill overlooking a primitive village. A few boats are out on the river fishing. She explains she cannot take them there as the tribe is responsible for killing her people. She tells them an evil has taken root in the village but says they can trust an old man called “Finder of Catfish”.
Colt sneaks into the village and finds the old man. He traces back Finder’s steps to his hut and waits for him to return. The hut is decorated with containers of roots and herbs hung from the ceiling. When the old man returns, Colt reveals himself. Finder takes the revelation calmly and asks where he came from and why. Colt explains that he has come from another world but that he is here to help, both to save the tribe and to root out a deceiver among them. He says that he follows the way of the Circle of Four.
The old man seems to believe him and tells him of the recent troubles with the shamaness. She has convinced the tribe to murder the deer people, claiming they were taking all the local game. He tells him how the trouble began with the interloper, Cicero, who fought the servants of the Old Ones with fire and destruction. After he stole the great stone that shines the fish became few and the animals began to disappear. Now that the deerfolk are gone, the tribe is turning on itself.
Colt asks him to bring those who will listen to meet him and his allies that evening. He intends to remove the evil of Nehjarra with their help. He also plans to rescue the tribe from the approaching doom.
That night the old man brings his granddaughter “Summer Thorn” and his friend “Floating Log” to their camp. As Mammon chuckles about the man’s name, Colt greets them, telling them he is a member of the Circle. The tribesfolk are awed by someone who claims to belong to their pantheon of gods. Colt convinces them not to honor him and they talk.
The mages learn more about the village’s troubles. Their chief is weak willed. The chief’s son is violent and hates outsiders. His best friend “Deer in the Brush” is an idiot in the thrall of the shamaness. Summer Thorn however defends the chief’s son, “Tall Tree in the Storm”, and claims she can make him see reason. Also it seems the shamaness is now preaching against the Old Ones, claiming they are hiding things from them, keeping them from a more comfortable existence.
The old man confides that he knows how to find an agent of the Old Ones, the Wise Man. He promises to seek his help in this conflict. Summer Thorn meanwhile will try to bring Tall Tree to meet Colt.
After the tribesmen leave, the mages rest. Early in the morning they begin their investigations. Mammon scries the village. He finds the village in commotion. Floating Log has been murdered and his body dropped in the river. Adele determines the murder weapon was a stone knife, in fact the weapon of Deer in the Brush.
Looking further Mammon finds that only a few people have been possessed by Nehjarra as well as several key people influenced, such as the chief. Tall Tree however has not. Mammon spies Summer Thorn convincing Tall Tree to follow her. She escorts him out past both the Deer in the Brush and her romantic rival Spring Flower. In the meantime the shamaness orders a search for any interlopers who might have killed Floating Log. Deer tries to follows Summer Thorn and Tall Tree but Adele makes sure he gets lost in the woods.
Tall Tree and Summer Thorn soon arrive and finds Colt alone. Colt convinces him to listen to him by answering his challenge to tell him about his knife’s past. The mage convinces the young man that the shamaness is wrong and being controlled. He gives them an enchanted pine nut to feed the shamaness. It will weaken and trap the spirit within her.
After the two leave, Mammon and Adele hide the camp from the search parties. As they watch them leave, an old Native American man appears. He tells them he is the Wise Man and after short conversation he agrees to help. They soon realize that the Wise Man is tired and wants to die. He defends the sealing of Algol as the right decision at the time. They talk long into the evening with him, learning the history of Circle, the nature of Wendings, and hints at the ultimate abilities of the Legacy. Adele is entranced by the man himself and his fragmented soul. He is a subsoul of an Archmage. They also learn Nehjarra loses his powers when confronted with the truth about itself. Finally they find out the final spirit, Idigam, is hiding in the desert Wending fragment and desires to fuse with another being. It is unclear what effect that will have.
Meanwhile the shamaness has eaten the pine nut, binding Nehjarra to her. She leads a new hunting party to the camp. While the others hide, Colt faces the angry tribesfolk alone, standing inside a binding circle.
But then Tall Tree speaks out against killing Colt. Nehjarra tries to silence him through the shamaness but fails. The Wise Man appears and grants them all spirit sight so they can see the evil spirit for themselves. Then he grabs the Shamaness and hurls her into the circle. Colt undos the binding and Nehjarra is trapped in the circle.
As the shamaness flees, they attack the weakened spirit. Mammon and Adele weaken its resistance while the White Lady rips into its corpus and then both she and the Dark Man devour its essence. The Wise Man and Colt also siphon its essence. With no essence and no health, it dies.
But as the dust settles, Colt sees that the realm is crumbling. There is little time to move the villagers.