Our intrepid band of mages have a corpse on their hands. They haven’t been able to determine what the motive for his death is, but they do feel sure that he was killed by a Mage. The also know that he was himself recently Awakened. This could have been the work of a Banisher, or a case of inter-Order politics gone way too far. They have some work to do if they are going to figure it out.

Matt’s ghost informs them that he had recently received a book from an artist friend of his who goes by the name Skree. Skree handed it over freely enough at a Comic Con where they were showing off their works, and told him that there was no pressure to give it back, but that he’d love to hear Matt’s thoughts on it at some point after Matt had read it. The book is one of those New Age types of things about channeling the power within you… or so Matt thought right up until the puppets started walking around on their own. The mantra was only supposed to help the practitioner align himself with the tools of his trade. It was supposed to make his life easier. The spell did indeed make animating puppets easier, but he had never figured it would do anything at all, much less make them independently mobile.

Damien only had to glance at the book’s spine to see the truth of it: Freak Ounce Press. Skree must have been working on bringing him into the Free Council.

It took some doing to find Skree, and sadly with little reward. Skree was saddened to hear what had happened, but Matt had only recently Awakened and Skree had only had time to suspect that he had before he was gone. That’s why Skree gave him the book. He was trying to determine whether or not Matt actually had become a Mage.

Unsure what to do next, Aenaiyah turned to Fate for advice. Fate seemed to think it would be a good idea for Aenaiyah to go to work.

When a dead body turned up in a parking lot near her job at a bar called ‘The Hole in the Wall’ Aenaiyah decided that maybe she shouldn’t have asked Fate for advice after all. Fate never seemed to lead her to places she wanted to be.