Twilight echoes with the sound of shifting bricks, creaking wood, and the patter of sliding soil as the zombies move in on the mages. Most of the cabal quickly heightens their senses to counter the sudden darkness. Adele meanwhile throws up a Ban to keep the undead away. As the horde bounces off the magical barrier, the mages and Miguel catch their breath. There are over 20 of the creatures surrounding them. They quickly realize their summoning worked but the spirit is University itself and so is all around them. Valkyrie readies a spell as they prepare their next move. Adele attempts to control a zombie but the spirit's hold is too strong. The spirit ignores their attempts at communication. A sense of its feelings becomes apparent when the sprinklers go off, dousing the track field. As the mages get soaked, the zombies slowly back off to the edge of the field. Then the bulbs burst in the street lamps, which topple, bringing the live wires to the growing pools of water. The mages quickly alter the conductivity of the water, halting the danger.
They decide to run for it. Miguel, in dire cat form, pounces on one zombie while Colt shoots another with his silenced pistol, opening a hole for the others. Valkyrie speeds herself up while Adele and Mammon run for it. The zombies bite Colt and savage Miguel. As the mages continue to flee, Miguel rips an arm off of the zombie he is fighting. Colt shoots a zombie in the head as he goes, learning this is not enough to kill the walking dead. Valkyrie slashes another, frying it with electricity and lopping off an arm in the bargain. The zombies however move in, chewing on Valkyrie and Miguel. With the others in the clear, Miguel, Colt and Valkyrie run for it. But Colt slips on the oddly shifting soil and Valkyrie falls as well trying to drag him out of there. The zombies swarm them but Mammon returns and is able to throw the ones on Valkyrie off of her. Miguel also returns, trying to tackle one. Colt shoots his way free and they run. The zombies are hot on the tail of Colt and Mammon while the others quickly speed off to Adele.
Adele meanwhile has mapped a path out of the university. Glancing back to ensure she is followed, she is soon joined by Valkyrie who is moving as fast as a speeding car. As Mammon and Colt slowly manage to lose their pursuers, the female mages encounter a final barrier of five zombies between them and the safety of the streets. The two however easily evade them, Valkyrie moving with blinding speed and Adele vaulting over the zombies. The others soon catch up. Colt attempts to shoot through the horde, while Mammon ineffectually tries to push past them. Valkyrie helps out by knocking a zombie away, flinging it atop a wrought iron fence. Adele again tries to control the undead but fails. But with the distraction, including Miguel's help, the two other mages escape. The werecat drags a final zombie off campus where it reverts to being just a corpse.
Safely off campus, they watch as the zombies leave, seemingly unable to leave the university grounds. Miguel posits that the spirit is a genus loci of some sort, though it is not located in Shadow like it normally would be but seems fettered to the physical university itself. Valkyrie wanders along the edge of campus examining the ley lines, and using geomancy determines that the the lines are bent and distorted. The ley lines leaving campus filled with the resonance of the spirit. It seems the spirit is something similar to Ellsworth and Burgess, a being fused with the local architecture.
The cabal returns to their sanctum where they research the university and its architecture. They are able to confirm the distortion in the ley lines but are unable to determine when the distortion occurred. They seem to be pulled towards something not evident in the visible landscape. Something is artificially bending them. They return to the Athenaeum, where by conferring with Logos, they are able to obtain the historical records on the local ley lines. From them they find that up to seven years ago the lines were positioned normally but sometime between then and 3 years ago, things changed. They are also able to determine that the distortion seems to be centered on Psychology Building.
With this in mind, the cabal finds itself split. Colt and Mammon want to make contact with the spirit while Valkyrie and Adele want to investigate the distortion in Psychology Building. Adele suggests dividing up, "How could anything go wrong?" Shaking his head, Mammon lets the younger mages go off to investigate.
The exterior of the building lends no clues, though the area is situated badly, creating bad feng shui. Adele acts like a tour guide showing Valkyrie inside. As they wander the deserted halls, their unseen senses tingle. They hear ghoulish laughter, unearthly howls and shrieks of fright from one of the classrooms. The door turns black as if burning, but no heat or fire is evident. Green light flickers from underneath and Twilight echoes with that horrible noise. In a few moments, these effects stop and the door opens. Valkyrie hides while Adele waits in the hall. Several professors exit and purposely ignore the young student. Valkyrie quietly reads their mental states and auras while Adele identifies who they are. They are all Sleepers and the group consists of Dr. Cathcart, a depressed Anthropology professor; Dr. Miller, the crazy Art History teacher they saw the previous night; an unknown Indian man who has a mizture of fear and idealistism in his mind; an unknown blond haired man who is afraid; Dr. Detwiler, a Psychology professor obsessing over something; Dr. Angela Rutledge, a biologist and Adele's advisor who is also afraid; Dr. Bennet, a physicist filled with distrust; and the Building Services Manager Judy Lyden who seems unfazed.
After the teachers leave, the mages examine the room finding little trace of what happened there. But they know something happened...and when. They head back the Mysterium to find an Acanthus.
Meanwhile Mammon and Colt find one of the maintenance zombies. Using spirit tongue Mammon is able to converse with the creature. The zombie though is slow to respond, mostly staring and nodding. Eventually he is able to get through to the simple minded being, which by this point is speaking through five of the zombies. Using Mind Magic, Mammon can sense its consciousness, which is on the level of an autistic child though much more alien. Eventually Mammon is able to convince it that they can make a better deal with it and to give them sometime to get an offer together. The mages then head to the Mysterium, meeting up with Adele and Valkyrie along the way.