Quickly the Ebon Cross and the Guardian strike force ready for combat. Bursting in they see the now worn out and mad mage, John Marion, appear in four locations. Colt shoots at one version finding it to be just an image. The others attack but discover that John can anticipate their actions. Fortunately his attempt to shunt Colt into the future is countered by Zulu and they soon adapt a plan to ensure they can hit him with Adele using spacial map to pin point his location so Colt can shoot him. With Zulu countering his attempts to stop time or otherwise ruin their plans, he is soon heavily wounded through Colt’s and Mammon’s attacks. The others keep his images busy, denying him an escape. Finally thwarted he causes the combatants to suddenly and explosively share the same location. Only Adele escapes unscathed thanks to a spacial anchor, though Mammon is somewhat protected through his ingenious spell. In the end however they all survive except John who was destroyed by the collision.
Meanwhile Roach is able to convince the principal to evacuate the school. More Guardians show up including several who the cabal has never met before. While the others look for healing from their dire wounds, Adele begins to search the school for the resonance of the effect causing these mad mages. She finds the school’s structure permeated by swirling vortexes of supernal energy as if it is primed to affect someone with these False Awakenings. The rest of the cabal investigates John’s office, finding a strange machine that John somehow made into an artifact. Valkyrie determines that it seems to use some powerful form of time magic and the Ebon Cross decides to leave it in the care of the Guardians for now.
Meanwhile another Guardian, highly skilled in life magic comes and heals them. It is only later that they realize this must have been Mask, the hidden Master of the Life Arcanum and the most powerful member of the Guardians of the Veil in the city. Oddly they have difficulty remembering him or her. Mammon meanwhile calls the Heirarch to make sure the school is kept off limits until they can remove the magical effect. The Consilium with the Guardians of the Veil’s help soon concoct a cover story about the danger of a sinkhole beneath the school. They close off access to the building and secretly move the artifact to the Censorium.
The cabal then heads back to the sanctum to rest and have some freshly baked cookies by Adele. Along the way Adele is called by her mother who relays that Michael’s school was closed because of a sinkhole beneath it. Once back at the sanctum, Adele apologizes to the others about the incident with the vampire and Valkyrie discusses why she was upset.
As the discussion goes on Adele gets a text from Miguel who needs to talk to her. She tells him to come over in an hour. When he arrives, he explains that he was asked to smooth things over between her and Kiril, the vampire she scared off at the library. He lets her know he isn’t a threat and is likely the nicest vampire in the city. Realizing her mistake, Adele gives Miguel a letter to give Kiril:
Dear Kiril,
Sorry for the misunderstanding in the library, but I have not had many positive encounters with your kind. I regret interrupting your research, and wonder if you have read Pathophysiology of Blood Disorders. I'm sure you will find a copy in the University library and hope you will feel free to make use of the library as you need.
Sincerely,
Adele the willworker
Several days later Kiril sends a thank you letter back.
Finally the time for the Consilium meeting arrives. After sitting through a half hour petition by the Free Council for a more open Assembly system of governance, the Council calls Colt forward and declares him to be one of the Sentinels of the city. He is given an official sigil for Chicago to be used in official Consilium business.
The Council then discusses the events at the school. The details of the artifact are the first on the agenda. It seems to be a device for viewing or perhaps altering history but the exact details are still unclear. It doesn’t seem to be a danger in and of itself. The Council approves moving the artifact to Tomorrow’s Legacy’s care for further study.
Next they discuss the situation at the school. They have decide to seal off the school using the Mind Arcanum to make a barrier that will dissuade the non-Awakened from approaching. Unfortunately there appears to be no way to remove the effect. The Guardians of the Veil describe the history of this phenomena. It seems a Silver Ladder mage created a similar effect a decade ago. Killing or imprisoning the effected individuals completely fails to stop the effect as does destroying the current vector (which in this case is an entire school building). One course of action would be to deliberately infect a Sleeper and then isolate them so when they die the new vector created can be hidden away. The Council is uneasy with this plan and when the Guardians acknowledge that the original mage, Portia, is still alive, they ask them to bring her to the city.
Finally the issue of Dickinson’s broken deal with the Ebon Cross is brought up. The Council listens to the Black Hats’ review of Chicago Workings. They conclude it is not a serious danger to the city. Mammon however argues persuasively otherwise. After hearing the sworn testimony that Dickinson was working alone as well as Mammon’s arguments, they decide to punish her with a year of menial labor, to restrict access to the Chicago Workings in the Lorehouse and to put the new cabal, the White Passage, in charge of monitoring the city’s geomantic configuration. To account for the loss of value to the Ebon Cross, Dickinson is force to owe them a major favor, enforced by a sympathetic link.
In the weeks that follow, Quick and Valkyrie scour the city for new mages to potentially induct into the Admantine Arrow, hoping to bolster their moderate faction. Eventually Quick hears of a newly Awakened mage passing through the city. The mage, Robert Hope, survived a car bomb in Iraq and after a long coma awoke completely healed. The two approach him and quickly help him make sense of what happened to him. They recruit him and begin to train him in the use of his magic. They decide to keep him isolated for now to shelter him from the Monastery’s suspect teachings.
At the same time Mammon works to drum up support for Athaliah as Councilor. As part of this he approaches the Anchorites, Councilor Pispir’s own cabal, to talk with Tommyknocker and Pythia. Tommyknocker is ambivalent about the process. He respects his mentor but also feels like there could be improvement. Tommyknocker is more worried about his cabalmate Pythia’s mental health. Her focus on asceticism aside, she seems to be getting violent with her attempts to ‘help” those addicted to drugs and other vices. Mammon agrees to help talk to her and together they convince her to seek out Decima’s advice on her dreams (and hopefully get help).
Then word spreads through the Awakened community. The vector for the False Awakening has been triggered at the school!