Alone amid the destruction Valkyrie quickly ducks out of sight, watching the gathering crowd for Eckhart’s reappearance while magically diminishing the fire. She is aided by some unexpected rain fall. A half hour into her watch, the fire crews have the blaze under control but Eckhart has yet to reappear. But another mage, Roach, does turn up. He asks for her story about what happened here while complaining about his bad day. After Valkyrie explains about the gas explosion and the battle, Roach mentions the other disasters. Cicero’s sanctum was destroyed by fire and a factory on the south west end of the city burned down. He asks where the rest of her cabal is and then goes looking for them. With night fallen and Eckhart’s fate unknown, Valkyrie leaves a message at his hotel and prepares to leave to search for Cicero.
Meanwhile across town at the docks, the rest of the cabal acquaint themselves with Cocheta while leaving their unconscious or mind controlled attackers to the police. As they drive to the Promethean, Cocheta accuses the mages behind this of being Left Handed, using their magic to twist spirits into freakish perversions. Along the way Colt calls Roach to alert the Guardians to the current troubles. Roach informs him about the other attacks and asks for where Valkyrie is. As Roach hangs up to find her, the mages notice many more fire spirits than normal in the city as well as many fear spirits.
Driving slowly through the city, past police checkpoints, they hear the news blame the attacks on Al-Queda. Cocheta fills them in further about the legacy of these terrorist mages, the Neocologists, and states that Eckhart is one of them, their lead teacher of the legacy. Colt makes another call, this time to the Promethean where he catches Vincent, who is helping out there. He makes sure the hotel staff are on the lookout for Eckhart.
Valkyrie calls on her way to Cicero’s while they drop off Cocheta at the Promethean. They also learn that Athaliah is conscious but still stunned by the destruction.
Colt does a quick guess that there may be some occult significance to the fires. But the attack on Circero doesn’t fit the developing pattern. Colt, Mammon and Adele head over to the site of Valkyrie’s battle to try to track Eckhart and Carbon Zero.
Meanwhile at the rain soaked ashes of Cicero’s sanctum, Valkyrie surveys the damage. Roach is already there, sifting through the destruction. He tells her that their spells determined that it was a Seer attack orchestrated by Midas. They don’t know where Cicero is or the exact specifics due to the powerful wards over the area. They have sent Quick to Gary to retrieve a student of Cicero for a sympathetic link. Valkyrie is able to determine that the ley lines have shifted. It seems the artifacts Cicero was using to artificially change the ley lines have been removed. His other spells seem to be still working, indicating he is still alive. Also the ley line nexus there shows that the city’s resonance is being tainted by fire.
Meanwhile at the smoldering ruins of Eckhart’s last battle, the cabal find that shadow is scarred by the explosion. Blood and pus oozes up from the earth like a physical burn wound. The unnatural speed at which the wound formed is frightening but worse a nearby ley line is spreading the resonance of fire and violence through the city. Colt decides something needs to be done and begins moving the ley line temporarily.
Adele meanwhile contacts a dog spirit in Shadow that is trying to frighten away the spirits of fire and fear. She is able to convince the spirit to tell her what happened. It seems that a powerful group of spirits called the Seven Conflagrations appeared here wounding Shadow. It tore off to the south, claiming the time of the Great Fire Spirit was near. Meanwhile the mages who entered Shadow chased after each other to the north. While Adele is finding this out, Zio calls Mammon to warn him that he has identified the arsonist for the factory fire. It was a member of the Arrow known as Ravage. He will need to inform the Guardians but wanted to pass the information to them first for their cabalmate Valkyrie’s sake.
Mammon calls and informs Valkyrie about the arsonist. She decides to deal with it after the current crisis and upon hearing about the plan to move the ley lines, heads to the burnt out factory. Mammon then calls Goes to get a replacement for Colt so they can track down this spirit.
Valkyrie calls the nearest Disciple of the Arcanum of Prime she knows, White Ash. Unfortunately there is no answer. Worried she heads to his apartment. He doesn’t answer the door but she can hear a groan. She slices through his lock with a magically sharp credit card and breaks in. She find her mentor incapacitated from a dose of heroin. Disgusted she leaves, welding the lock back together on the way out.
Scrambling for help to move the ley line, she calls Andate and convinces the Libertine to help in exchange for a later favor. At the same time, Adele is worried about her boyfriend with regards to this spiritual chaos. She calls Miguel but also gets no answer. Worse when she scries him, she finds him fleeing a swarm of glass shards and stinging insects. She leaves a message to call her, hoping he can deal with his problem on her own. Then Adele and Mammon create a portal to the reflection of the factory ruins in Shadow. Colt quickly calls and updates the only other sentinel in the city, Bourdelle, as to the situation and then he joins the others as they cross town.
Investigating in Shadow, the cabal quickly realizes that the spirits were here due to the nasty wound they left. Worse it appears they possessed one of the witnesses to the fire. They contact Zio across the gauntlet and he is able to determine the man who was claimed by the spirits. They return to the real world and regroup with Valkyrie. Taking the Fire Tamer along they seek out the spirit controlled victim.
Colt tracks the man to a church. Planning ahead, Valkyrie fireproofs the cabal. Colt, Mammon, and Adele enter from the front where they find a number of candles lit, pulsing in height and heat. Meanwhile Valkyrie sneaks in from the rear. They can hear voices from the confessional. As the others approach, Adele gets a phone call from Miguel. He is okay but had to flee to the north end of the city. Meanwhile Mammon spies on the confessional. Inside he sees the man, burned and contorted with pain. He seems to be struggling with the spirits and asking the priest for help.
The cabal interrupts their conversation and Adele seals the spirit aspect of the man inside the confessional. Valkyrie sensing the possibility for hostilities fireproofs the confessional. The fire spirits however destroy the confessional in a powerful blast of flames. Thankfully Valkyrie’s magic protects the cabal while Colt shields the priest. The mortal is obviously fighting the possession and Mammon uses the opportunity to magically strengthen his resolve. While the priest freaks out, Colt attempts to calm the spirits possessing the man. Unfortunately it is too little too late. The man pushes Colt away, urging him to flee. His skin blackens and he explodes. Valkyrie is able to contain the blast and the church is only mildly damaged
In Shadow however a new wound festers as the combined fire spirit escapes...