At the Athenaeum, the cabal confers on their findings. Valkyrie fills in Arachne and the others on what they found at the Psychology Building. After taking the girl back to the site of the weird event, they augment her senses with magic so she can capture the whole scene when she peers back in time. Colt and Mammon meanwhile tell the others about their conversation with the entity. Arachne, peering into the past, paints a scene of the professors gathered in the room under strange lighting with text books and other objects floating in the air. There are strange symbols written on the chalk board, similar to ones they found overlaying the High Speech runes at the Athenaeum. As she completes the runes, the lights flicker and Mammon senses the University's attention focus on them. Worried Arachne asks if she should cross out the image. Mammon reads its mental state as curious and tells her to leave it alone.
As they discuss the situation, Arachne asks how did the professors know how to make these symbols. The cabal then looks into the the background of these professors. Mammon is especially suspicious of Judy Lyden. They discuss their next step. Do they check out the library for magical texts, involve the Mysterium, or confer with Diana Coal and her shop? Do they tail the teachers? Valkyrie recalls seeing these symbols in Chicago Workings and advocates heading back to the sanctum. Arachne points out that Dr. Detwiler was the one drawing the symbols. Mammon announces his plans to sit in one of the professor's classes to investigate him.
As the weekend continues, Adele looks into the connections between the suicides and the professors. She find little in the way of patterns. She gathers all the information however and presents it to Valkyrie for what little help it provides. Valkyrie meanwhile learns that the symbols focus geomantic energies, forming an incomplete alphabet with far reaching consequences. Colt mentions the idea getting the mages of Tomorrow's Legacy to infiltrate the professors' secret society. He tails the society members to get a better idea of who they are for this purpose. Following them and reading their resonances he learns that Cathcart is depress but a dedicated teacher, Bauer wants to leave and looks likely to run, and the art professor Miller has been directly affected by the spirit, with an active connection to it. It is likely this which drove her mad. Mammon meanwhile sneaks into Detwiler's office, using magic to impersonate him and conning a custodian into opening up the office. After a bit of searching and some magic to find a key to the file cabinet, he find Detwiler's notes. An entire history of the group and their activities are included. Rapidly memorizing it, he returns everything to its original place and heads back to the sanctum to discuss the findings.
Athaliah meanwhile stops by to find out how they are doing. They describe their findings and she offers to talk to Fossura about infiltrating the secret society. Mammon then presents his notes, including a timeline of the society. In 1993, Dr. Cathcart discovered the symbols drawn in the basement of the library. He felt a feeling of menace, but later returned and took pictures. He then slowly gathered a group of professors to investigate the phenomena. The lines were gone but with the pictures Dr. Detwiler was able to find a book from the special collections section of the library detailing them. Using them Detwiler conducted an experiment during the Spring Break of 2000 to show this was all hokum. This caused the weird phenomena and likely the birth of the entity.
They head to the library to get the book. Moving through the poorly organized stacks, they enter the rare book section. Adele gets the locked door to open while Valkyrie disables the electronic security. Unfortunately the book is missing. Colt reads Binary's resonance in the area where the book should be. Reflecting on her trust issues, Adele and Mammon email her about the book.
Colt begins to track her and but as they cross a courtyard, he spots a sniper on top of a tall building overlooking them. Quickly he tackles the shooter's target, an innocent college student. The shot strikes him instead where his shielding magics absorb most of it. He quickly pulls the youth to safety, while Adele magically convinces a door to a nearby building to open. Valkyrie gets out of sight, while Mammon takes cover and stabs at the mind of the shooter. Undeterred, the shooter lines up her next shot. Colt organizes the students in the courtyard to get out but the ground is suddenly slick and everyone finds it hard to escape. Adele pulls one student to safety, while Mammon continues to mindstab the shooter. A student is shot and Colt runs over and heals him. Adele tries to convince the rifle to jam but finds herself thwarted. As Mammon slowly crushes the woman's mind, Valkyrie hurries into the building to go after the shooter herself. Another student is hit but the shot is off, the pain slowly getting to the sniper. Colt drags the wounded student to safety, while directing the few students left out of the area. Adele begins to make her way into the building as Valkyrie starts up the stairs. Mammon urges the beat up shooter to "let go" and she succumbs to unconsciousness.
Valkyrie is the first to reach the shooter. She finds the student passed out, and quickly knocks the gun away. Studying her resonance, she find a strong feeling of desperation overlaying the girl's discipline. Colt, Adele and another student soon arrive. Shortly afterwards they are all questioned by the campus police, while Colt is reluctantly tended to by the paramedics.
Eventually they able to continue their search for Binary. The trail leads to a parking lot. As Colt voices his frustration, Mammon gets an email reply from Binary asking about the sniper. Mammon replies to it, saying they have new information. Just then he hears a voice from behind him, saying it is clear they know something. They turn to face Binary, who explains the conspiracy must be after them. Adele directs them to a coffee house, to avoid meeting any of her classmates. There they discuss the conspiracy and their findings. Binary turns the book over to them (as she has enough people after her). They recognize the handwriting as that of the writer of Chicago Workings. The manuscript was penned 132 years ago, and rebound 64 years ago. Reading through it they determine that the the entity was created through a ritual use of the symbols but distorted by the bad feng shui of the Psychology Building. They concoct a plan to rebuild the entity at the library. Under Adele's advice they also examine how this will affect the city as a whole, working to reach the most beneficial outcome.
As they research the necessary ritual, they discuss what to do about book. Do they give it to the Mysterium or keep it for themselves? They decide to fill Tomorrow's Legacy in and enlist their help. But Mammon convinces the other cabal that for their help they would keep the book and they would owe the Ebon Cross a favor. The individual cabal members' reactions were varied with Fossura focused on the details and Mosaic intrigued by the entire process. Carnegie and Logos were mainly worried about the Mysterium's collection.
Adele, Arachne, Logos and Mosaic work on the symbols for the ritual, directed by Valkyrie. Colt, Fossura, Iskandria, Lion, and Mammon stand guard for any trouble. Trouble soon occurs as the entity mobilizes its zombies to attack. Mammon is able to hold the door shut for a while but soon the horde tears the door apart. Mammon tries to physically hold the breach but eventually is pushed aside. The first zombie through is cut down by a shotgun blast to the head from Colt. As they swarm in, the last symbol is put in place and the old entity is eliminated as the geomantic energy realigns. The zombies collapse and the mages breathe a sigh of relief.
They quickly move the corpses to their original destination at the medical center. Soon after Judy Lyden is fired when all the custodial staff disappears. There are allegations about her hiring illegal immigrants and pocketing their pay. In the weeks to come she is sued by the university and charged with embezzlement.