The cabal discusses the mysterious cards they have received from Madame Cleo Verthank. Mammon mutters about how he needs to get new apartment again, since someone else now knows where he lives. The cabal decides to investigate this matter further in the three days before the meeting. Colt contacts his mentor Athaliah about the subject. She suggests investigating the Silver Ladder and Mysterium libraries to determine Cleo's order and background. Colt and Adele head to Promethean but after hours of research find no records of this mage. Valkyrie meanwhile talks to the mages of the Monastery and is forced to conclude she does not belong to the Adamantine Arrow either.
The next day the cabal decides to go to the Athenaem. Mammon drives them over. As they get close they hear about a coming storm on the radio. Suddenly a Honda Prelude swerves into their lane. Mammon turns out of the way at the last minute. The mages' unseen senses tingle as they recognize the power of magic in the area. All the lights at the intersection turn green as a girl jumps out of a bus door, directly in the path of Mammon's car. He slams on his brakes but they fail. As he again swerves out the way, Valkyrie magically braking the car. Through his driving skill, Mammon is able to bring his car to a safe stop on the side of the road. Behind him a five car pileup ensues, almost hitting a news crew who were taping nearby. The mysterious girl runs off.
Exiting the car, Adele goes to check on the film crew for clues to what actually happened. There she finds herself interviewed by Merika Seth, a local weather reporter. As she fends her off with vague answers, Valkyrie slips off invisibly to tail the mysterious girl. The trail eventually leads to a nearby church. Meanwhile Mammon and Colt pop the hood and investigate the damage. Examining the unlikely failure, Mammon calls Triple-A.
As people begin to recover from the accident, a large pack of bikers come down the street. They have black tinted helmets obscuring their features and wear no insignia. The leader stops in front of Mammon and stares at him for a full minute. Then just as mysteriously, they drive off. Adele uses this distraction to sneak away from the news crew and regroup with the others. As Mammon wonders at the weirdness, he asks, "where is Valkyrie?" Colt goes to track her down, reading her fading aura in her footsteps.
Meanwhile at the church, Valkyrie slips into the empty chamber. A few candles light the vast space. In the distance she can hear voices from the confessional. She sneaks closer to listen in, recognizing one of the voices as Father Luke.
“I think that I’m going crazy, Father,” says the girl. “I can’t breathe. I feel like I’m suffocating...it’s like something gigantic is weighing down on me.”
The priest cuts in: “You’re just going through normal teenage difficulties. I see many young people like you, tormented by feelings of doom. I think that it comes from our society, the way we have been raised to believe that the end is just around the corner. Relax, Norna; all of this will pass.”
Again, Norna is quiet, as if debating her next words. Then she blurts out, “It goes a lot further than that, Father Williams! Today I imagined my mother dead, and I’m worried...”
“I’m sure that this is nothing, Norna, nothing to be worried about at all.” Father Luke finishes by reassuring Norna that her mother is safe, but very likely worried. He says he will go telephone her.
As the priest exits the confessional, he spots Valkyrie. Somewhat surprised, the older man says he trying to help the girl and heads off to call Norna's mom. At this point Colt arrives and the two mages discuss the situation. Their mage sights indicate this girl is a mage, perhaps newly Awakened. Meanwhile Norna leaves the confessional, trying her best to ignore them. Colt comes over to comfort her, but the teenager warns him off, "Don’t talk to me. The longer you remain near me, the more you’re certain to lose.”
Valkyrie tries tries to persuade her to open up. Gradually, Norna admits to having visions of them, visions that end badly. Father Luke returns and says that her mother is driving over. At this Norna blanches. “But our car is in the shop!”
Father Luke tries to cover this lapse up, but soon loses control. He freaks out. His pleasant face contorts with pain and rage. Losing his composure and civilized demeanor, he shouts, “How dare you profane the House of my Lord and Master? For this, He will bind you in eternal fetters and drain your very essence! Then you will beg for forgiveness and release. May Cob have mercy upon you!”
At the same time two tall men in black suits and sunglass enter the church. Colt confronts them but their comments and actions are eerily bizarre, they even claim to be from a purely fictional government agency. Colt calls Mammon with the recent events and the two other mages head to the church. With violence seeming eminent, Valkyrie leads Norna out of the church by the back door. But she finds herself slowing down as if the air itself is becoming sticky. The mysterious men engage Colt and Valkyrie while Father Luke panicking begins to hurl celestial fire. As the rest of the cabal arrives the scene is one of chaos with Colt struggling with a super strong MiB and Valkyrie slicing at another while dodging blasts of celestial fire. Adele meanwhile notices the pattern spiders surrounding Valkyrie in Twilight and commands them to stop. Mammon runs up behind one of the MiBs and clocks him from behind. Meanwhile Valkyrie hacks up the other MiB, getting only slightly injured by his icepick. In the end they stop the spirits and knock out the MiBs. However it seems both Norna and Father Luke has fled in the chaos. While the MiBs seem to disintegrate before their eyes, Adele orders the Pattern Spiders after Father Luke and then heads after Norna.
Adele exits the church into the back parking lot. She turns right, down the backstreet, towards the nearest bus stop. As Colt follows, Adele spots the young mage and runs over to her. Together they convince her to come with them and regroup with the others by Mammon's car. Mammon meanwhile phones Athaliah, alerting her to the strange events and that Father Luke, Pispir's provost has gone crazy. He also grabs a note left behind when the MiB bodies vanished. It has a local address on it.
While Mammon deals with Triple-A, the others head up to Jamba Juice with Norna. There they get the full story from the young mage. She was being followed by the men in black. She is confused about why they were after her and why Bishop Williams (a.k.a. Father Luke) was also after her. They quiz her on any recent weird events she has experienced recently, learning about her visions and the odd unlikely things that occur around her. Valkyrie reveals to teen that she has Awakened and can now see the world as it truly is. They head back to the car to discuss this more fully. They decide to take Norna home while they start to explain that she is a mage and what that means. Adele passes Valkyrie a note explaining Norna's name was on Anna's list. Along the way Mammon shows Colt the note he found on the MiB. The address is Norna's.
They get to Norna's house, a nice Victorian with a tower. As they approach Mammon carefully scans the house with Space magic. He finds two people in house, a woman downstairs and another in a trunk in the attic. Without saying anything he halts the group and directs Adele and Norna to stay in the car. Valkyrie scouts around the house invisibly, finding Norna's mom in the kitchen. Scrutinizing her with magic, she is shocked to find the woman enchanted with Life and Mind magics, all hidden with Prime. She appears to be some sort of strange sleepwalker masquerading as Norna's mother. Colt, Mammon, and Valkyrie confer and decide to go to the door to meet her. When she answers, they will dispel the magics on her and see what is really going on.
After a long wait, the impostor opens the door. Colt dispels the Life spell on her and her features melt into those of some unknown woman. Mammon immediately punches in her in the face. As she freaks out, demanding to know what's going on, Valkyrie dispels the Mind spell. Suddenly the fight goes out of her and curls up into a ball, crying that she doesn't know anything. Valkyrie and Mammon argue about their respective actions for a moment, then Mammon attempts to interrogate the woman. But her mind seems to be a blank slate. Colt meanwhile goes upstairs and finds the corpse of Norna's real mother in a trunk. Adele and Norna enter the house, with the young girl asking, "where is Mom?" The cabal works to keep her downstairs while they work out what has happened. Adele looks at the body. She sees that the death was earlier in that day, and was caused by being stabbed in eye with an ice pick. The Moros changes the corpse so the cause of death was a heart attack.
Meanwhile downstairs, Mammon and Valkyrie examine the impostor. Valkyrie is able to determine the resonance of the spells used to cloak her, a resonance the group knows. It is the same as that used on Merlin and Anna. Finally they tell Norna that her mother is dead and allow her to see the body. Norna cries, blaming herself and breaking down into sobs. The others comfort her. To keep her busy and to deal with the next step, Adele and Norna pack, discussing her past as they work. As Norna looks at a picture of her long deceased father, she asks about visiting the grave site one last time. Adele says they might do that the next morning.
Mammon makes a series of phone calls. First he calls the Lictor, Nomos, to arrange some paperwork for Norna so she doesn't end up a ward of the state. Then he calls Athaliah to explain the situation. She teleports over and examines the impostor. She's never seen anything like it and remarks on a really weird thing. With Colt confirming it magically, they learn the woman is only one year old. When told about the resonance, she examines it and suddenly takes Mammon aside. She knows who cast that spell. At Mammon's prodding she tells Adele after informing him. Adele's benefactor is Midas, the head of the Seers of the Throne in Chicago. Decima calls shortly after, telling Mammon she will take care of the paperwork. Then the group take Norna back to the sanctum and put her up for the night.
The next day they go to the graveyard. Quickly Adele spots Norna's father drifting nearby. After checking that the ghost is cognizant, she casts a spell to allow Norna to hear and see him. Her father comforts her and says goodbye one last time. He also warns her to be wary of his old colleague Dr. Smith.