Flashback:
Some time early in the cabal's history Adele talks to Mammon and about what to do about confession. Mammon admits that he keeps things separate, anything to do with the supernatural he does not bring up in confession. Colt keeps back details but is upfront with it with the confessor. He walks a narrow path but tries to honest.
Adele continues to confess to Father Joseph about things she felt guilty about.
Valkyrie meanwhile being Protestant believes in a direct connection to God. So she keeps this stuff between God and her.
Present:
In the autumn, for her work in saving the city and other deeds Valkyrie is raised to the status of Thunderbolt Guardian. After a short ceremony where the order confirms her status, White Ash approaches her about intensifying her training. He congratulates her on her accomplishments but brings up those aspects of her training that she has neglected. He first discusses the Duel Arcana, something she may need to do, both for the cabal and for her own advancement in the order. As they discuss setting up some training sessions, he also brings up the Order's belief in strength through flexibility. He asks her how she would deal with ranged combat with Sleepers. As part of his help, he offers to help teach her specialized techniques in martial arts and thrown weapons. This he explains is part of the basis of the training she will need to master the deepest secrets, the secret martial art known as the Adamant Hand.
Later while Mammon and Colt are out of town on business, Adele and Valkyrie decide to paint the kitchen and dining room. They go with yellow with lavender accents for the kitchen and light blue with maroon accents for the other room. They also get a carpet for the dining room as well as a lace dining cloth.
Once they get back, Decima announces at the next Silver Ladder Caucus that due to her hard work and leadership during the crisis with the death of Cob, Adele will be raised to the official rank of Acolyte in the Silver Ladder. A week later the ceremony takes place, including the cabal, the Silver Ladder, the Concilium leaders, and Arachne.
The ceremony itself takes place in the Promethean's auditorium. The Heirarch, Councilors, Decima, and Athaliah fill the first semi circle. The Provosts, Nomos, Goes, and Delphi make up the second circle. The cabal, the Sentinels, the Heralds, Arachne, and Pythia make up the third circle. TommyKnocker, Samson, and Fakir complete the fourth circle.
Decima calls upon the ghosts of deceased Proximi and mages as well as those ghosts bound to Adele: Hope and Rota. The cabal, Goes and Fakir are called forward and sworn to the truth. After Adele's powers and accomplishments are outlined, they are asked if they feel the inductee should be elevated to the Silver Ladder. After their assent, Adele is called forward and quizzed briefly on the Lex Arcana. They then perform the ritual ceremony to signify that Adele is one of the order with all the rights and privileges.
They then head to the celebratory party where many others from the Consilium are waiting. While Mammon schmoozes, Adele goes around to everyone to thank them for attending. Mammon finds Zio talking with Dearborn and Cornerstone. He joins their discussion about the history of Chicago and the rebuilding after Great Chicago Fire. Cornerstone asks Mammon about his opinion of whether the mortals involved had some knowledge of the geomantic pattern they were building. Talk arises about the Chicago Workings Folio and who made it. As the conversation progresses it becomes clear that Dearborn and Cornerstone are well versed geomancy. While Dearborn emphasizes metaphysical structure behind the city, Mammon and Cornerstone consider both the spiritual and physical city to be equally important.
Adele meanwhile encounters the Heirarch's cabal as she progresses through the assembled mages. She has a short chat with Liz, a bit of a vagabond groupie, which leaves the naive young mage bewildered. She also encounters Dante who talks to her in a fairly stiff and formal manner.
A few weeks later, Mammon is driving home from sanctum. As he takes a detour to avoid some traffic, he has to swerve to avoid a guy running across the street. Glancing back he sees the man collapsed, shaking on the sidewalk. He stops and approaches the frightened youth who is babbling about seeing a ghost. Peering into the mortal's mind, Mammon sees the image of a ghostly priest. The victim himself, a young black man, is clearly a drug dealer. Mammon quickly scans twilight but sees nothing there. He leaves the frightened young man and decides to investigate this a bit.
Later after some research, he discovers that a Father Isaiah Freeman was the victim of a gang killing a year ago, and is likely the ghost haunting Switchtrack Alley. There also have been many accidents there over the last year, some of which turned deadly. Armed with this knowledge he recruits Adele and Valkyrie to investigate.
They visit the street, finding the area run down and poor. This is reflected in Shadow, while Twilight is relatively empty. They quickly head to the local church. As they approach a woman flees the church, with an elderly black priest chasing after to stop her. She makes it to the street and collapses praying for forgiveness. Mammon reads her mind, learning of her adultery and that she thought she was crying tears of blood before. Mammon and Father Neely pull the young woman, Ardith, to safety and calm her down. She eventually realizes that the blood is not there and relaxes. They send the woman home and Neely thanks Mammon for his help, heading back to the church.
Meanwhile Adele slips into the old brick church while Valkyrie watches outside. The church is somewhat empty but also holds an anchor to a ghost. Mammon meanwhile talks to Neely about Ardith's tears. He quickly picks up that the old man is holding something back. However Mammon agrees to keep an eye on Ardith for him.
Adele scrutinizes Neely, approaching him about helping out. They find that they have a friend in common, Father Joseph, and Adele agress to help out with the soup kitchen. The young mage cleverly sounds out that Father Neely was here when the death occurred. As she consoles him of the job he has while she slowly steers the conversation, eventually getting the aged priest to tell the whole sad story. She learns about the gang leader Lay-Z who terrorizes this area. Isaiah tried to unite the community to drive out the gangs and for that the leader of the Switchblades murdered him in the street in front of everyone. They were too afraid to stop him or to speak out against him. Neely has tried to convince the ghost to move on but none of his prayers have helped.
Meanwhile Valkyrie spots a leyline transporting negative energies from Chicago out to Gary. It is certainly not helping matters. Elsewhere Mammon's unseen sense tingles. He spots the ghost in twilight and at the same time sees a large wad of cash on the ground. Before he can pick it up he sees a car barreling down on him and dodges out of the way. The driver after recovering says she was trying to avoid a little girl in the street. Valkyrie and Mammon regroup with Adele after the senior mage extricates himself from the police investigation of the crash.
The cabal confers on what to do next. Valkyrie knows the word on the street is that Lay-Z had an accident not too long after that crippled him. He also supposedly knows some voodoo. Miguel warns Adele that the gang is dangerous. They decide to investigate the anchor in the church. They travel in twilight to the building that evening and Adele summons the ghost of Isaiah. Initially angry, Valkyrie is able to calm him down somewhat. The ghost reveals it is putting fear into the sinners on this street. Doing in death what he couldn't in life. Eventually however he comes to the conclusion that they are witches and attacks the cabal, creating an illusion of the church covered in blood and hurling pews about. Most of them see through it and a fight begins.
The ghost attacks but their magical defenses defeat him. Hope shoots him with an arrow and Valkyrie burns him with a flaming sword. As he screams about the hell fire, he disappears leaving for another of his anchors. They leave and investigate further.
They find another anchor in a bloodstain on the street where he died. Even after all of this time it clings there like a black mark on the community. Investigating Lay-Z, they find that the police are well aware of him but have nothing to charge him with that will stick. Using his contacts Mammon gets hold of their complete dossier on him. They get a picture, his real name, and learn that the accident has left him bound to a wheelchair. Adele scries the gang leader, finding him at home surrounded mundane wards against ghosts. Lay-Z is the last of the ghost's anchors.
The cabal begins to plan how to get the gang leader convicted and to restore the church hoping this will resolve the ghost's anchors and free Switchtrack alley from the hauntings.