August 23rd, 2025 – Cleveland

Daphne summons Boober to try to get some perspective on the situation and he begins wailing in sadness about the loss of the Daughter of Summer. Daphne senses that he’s being disingenuous, which is an extremely disturbing prospect for her.

Meanwhile, Emily examines the small server in the wiring closet. It was connected to a series of sophisticated sensors designed to detect fae-folk and trigger the fire doors, release the shadow creatures, and transmit a notification to an unknown receiver. The party has little luck opening the doors on their own, so Jamie prepares to transport them out via the world of the dead.

While waiting around, Seamus spots a photograph stuck behind a desk in the largest office in the suite with the name “T. Randall” on the door. The picture is a group shot at what appears to be an archaeological dig. There are Stonehenge-like standing stones covered with runes in the background, and there are four men in the foreground. One is Jones, another is Dr. Pickens from the bookstore in One-Eyed Cat Lane, and another is Teddy. The fourth man is unidentified. On the back of the photo is written “Shenandoah Valley Site, April 2015”.

“I may have some sins to atone for,” mutters Teddy’s voice in Emily’s head.

Jamie helps the party bypass the heavy doors and they depart, leaving Sam’s body behind. Emily examines Sam’s phone and finds only two messages of note, the first is a message from “Dennis” a week prior sending her the location of the insurance office. The text reads “Possible Division Office”. The second is a message from an unknown sender a few days later with the location of the party’s overnight train stop outside of Detroit. Emily attempts to trace the number but only discovers that the device with that number is currently in Toronto. She also discovers that the location tracker in the van is likely only traceable from Sam’s phone and nowhere else.

After returning to the rental house, the group interrogates Teddy, so makes his voice heard over several speakers in the house. Teddy admits to having been a member of the combined Division/Technocracy unit tasked with preventing Jones’ vision. He fled the organization five years prior when his friend, a man named Daniel Albertson (the fourth man in the photo), was “consumed” by the Technocracy. He swears that he had no knowledge of Emily until he sensed her awakening and found out about Jones’ interest. He also reveals that at the time he’d left the organization, they were aware of two henge sites, the one in Virginia in the photo, and another in Northern Ireland.

During the conversation, Daphne slips out. She boosts a car, heads back to the insurance office, sets fire to the building, then visits a pot dispensary and liquor store before returning.

The party decides to stay the night at the house before deciding their next course of action. During the night, Daphne wakes up and sees fae-folk guarding the door on the other side of the veil. After a few moments a woman enters the house (Daphne is unsure if she is seeing the faerie realm or not) and stops to study Daphne somewhat disdainfully. She observes that “you barely have your eyes open” and asks Daphne if she realizes that “armies are gathering under her banner in both the fae and mortal world”. The woman, who Daphne assumes is Queen Mab, goes on to state she just “wanted to get a look at you, now that we near the end” before leaving.

After she leaves, Seamus, who was stirred awake by the visit, asks if he can join Daphne’s army and she accepts, and something magically-profound occurs between the two (Boober’s voice is heard saying “a pact is made”). They feel that Seamus is now bound to Daphne at a very deep level.

So she sends him out for Taco Bell.