As Athaliah and Mammon work to calm the neighbors after Valkyrie's Anamoly, Councilor Alys arrives. She glares at the damage and sets to aiding the clean up. Before she leaves she makes it clear that Valkyrie will be appearing before the Council to answer for this. Mammon and Valkyrie discuss her reckless use of Vulgar magic. Then after being healed, Valkyrie showers up and gets some new clothes, sneaking back home to Evan.
As they wait the week for the next Council meeting, Colt cleans up the sanctum and installs a new door. The group also discusses what to do about their knowledge of Black Dog's actions. They debate who to tell as well what motives he had. Was this just a power play? Adele, suspicious, wants to probe deeper. They decide to meet with Decima and Athalaih who already know their suspicions. Decima advocates letting Black Dog's plan to succeed, to preserve the Arrow in the Concilium. In the end however they decide to inform the Concilium and allow Black Dog a chance to fight for his freedom and leadership of the order. How Lealtad will react to this is unknown.
Mammon and Adele decide to scry Anna in a ritual casting using the crow feather Merlin obtained. After three hours, they see her sleeping in an abandoned office building on rotten bed of salvaged pillows and stuffed garbage bags. While Adele studies the room, Mammon moves his scry position to a nearby crack in the wall, up a nearby building, and gets the ley of the land. Together, the cabal then uses this information to track down where Anna is staying. Unsure what they will do about her however, they leave her there, though Adele scries her frequently over the coming weeks. Anna is apparently living the life of a homeless vagrant while searching for some supernatural threat to bring against Adele.
Finally the Council meeting occurs. Most of the Arrow is gathered, they presume in support of Valkyrie. Even Father Luke, Pispir's provost gives them his support, though he warns much of Council is likely against them. Mammon having reviewed the facts and numerous precedents, prepares to present his case. Roach working as Advocate and Accuser for the Guardians, accuses Valkyrie of Use of Vulgar Magic in Front of Witnesses and Exposure of Sleepers to Paradox. Mammon easily dismisses the first charge and after the facts of the case are outlined, delivers a rousing speech in which he exonerates Valkyrie of any wrong doing. The council votes, with Ezekiel enthusiastically voting not guilty and the Mysterium members forced to agree. Pispir abstains. Valkyrie is released without even the minor reprimand everyone expected.
Next Ezekiel leads the Council in revealing the truth of what happened to Hippolyta. Lealtad is furious and eagerly joins the duel that the Council dictates with Black Dog. The loser will be banished and with Black Dog's banishment being permanent. As they begin the duel both opponents try to win a battle of wills. Black Dog conjures a shield of space, spinning Lealtad's own rending Space attacks into unknown vortices. Lealtad brings up a shield of Life to counter the older Moros's sword of Death. The battle is long and brutal. Using mage sight, the onlookers see wraiths drain away Lealtad's strength while her mastery of Space tears through Black Dog's defenses. Finally though he is able to break through. "Yield", he demands. "Never", she returns and begins a fight to the death. Back and forth they fight, physical wounds now opening up through the force of their magics. Lealtad begins to choke, straggled by shadows, while the Black Dog is brutally slashed by rips in space. Eventually the older mage collapses into unconsciousness and Red Thunder has to step in before the Arrow can take his friend's life.
In the weeks that come, Black Dog leaves the city, banished. Most of his cabal joins him and Red Thunder tells the Council he will soon join them. Word soon comes that the Black Dog has overthrown the Gary Concilium and become Heirarch. New Sentinels are appointed after hours of arguments: Bourdelle, Pythia, and Quick.
A couple weeks after the Council meeting, Miguel shows up at the sanctum door heavily wounded. While Colt heals him, Adele sets up a mental trip wire about the sanctum. After about an hour he wakes up and explains what happened. He was in Shadow trading with some blight spirits when he and his friends, Bill and Vick, were attacked by Pattern Spiders. Bill and Vick were killed or captured by them and Miguel barely escaped with his life.
While Adele gathers the cabal, Colt goes to location they were attacked, on this side of the Guantlet. Peering to the other side, he finds a wounded section of city, burnt out and bleeding. Blight spirits and twisted fire spirits wander across the cinders. There is some blood and a spirit gnawing on a metallic leg, like that of the spiders Miguel described. He calls Adele and she and the others come over. As they investigate, peering across the Guantlet, they find the remains of Vick but not Bill. It seems the Pattern Spiders murdered Vick and dragged Bill off somewhere. As they ponder how to track the lost Sleeper, they do a quick scry, finding him alive but guarded by metallic Pattern Spiders. They head to the Lowe Street Prosperity Mall and cross over at the locus. Colt quickly tracks the path of the spiders, noticing the repair work they did along the way. Once near the perfectly maintained office building where Bill is kept, Mammon spots a Pattern Spider and magically compels it to help them. It reveals it is "fixing" things and that Bill is being repaired (as he was "leaking"). The spirit leads them into the building and they find the mortal calcified into immobility. Colt heals the captive (now a Sleepwalker) and convinces the spiders to release him. They also learn of the spider's master, a potent spirit known as Cob. As they return home they quiz Miguel on other potent spirits. He mentions his patron the Painted City, a blight spirit, and the EL a demonic spirit of trains and murder.
A few days later, Colt and Mammon have Miguel over for dinner to discuss his involvement with the wound and bringing Sleepers there. They try to convince him to spread the blight around and not let it clump up. In discussing this they begin to learn how bad the situation really is.
Meanwhile the cabal discusses what to do with Anna. From their scrying they know her powers are demonic in origin and not something they can remove from the Sleepwalker. They are able to learn that the mental rearranging used on her was done by a Mage. The same mage who bound Merlin to Adele. As most of the cabal begins to feel murder is the only solution, they begin to pressure Adele to make a decision. In the end however they are force to give her time to decide for herself.