Summary for Session 1

Vashti Aghraeradha works in the art department of Vanity Fair in New York City, living the transcendentally mundane life of a former art history student. One afternoon she receives an unusual assignment from her boss: check out some new, very gifted science fiction artists.

Armed with their portfolios, Vashti makes a few calls. She finds that one artist is away and "resting," according to the woman who answers the phone, and this peaks her interest. Her other call is a positive, although the artist who answers is confused, and appears to personify abstract concepts and inanimate objects. (Unknown to Vashti, this is a sure sign of dementia animus.)

Vashti heads to one of the artist's homes, just to check up on him, but finds out that he's been sent to a psychiatric hospital. As she leaves, she meets up with Sean, an old friend from college. However, Sean is changed. He has in fact had his memory replaced by that of his analog in the other timeline, an ether ship captain who owned the Pride of Foucault. With his memories not matching up with the world around him, he has fled to Vashti, tattered and confused.

Worried, Vashti takes him back to her place, where she finds that the grill over her window has been torn away and her white plush bear, Pearl, has been taken. She phones the police, who actually arrive a few minutes later to return her bear (taking it from a sack full of white bears). After the police leave, things get really weird: Pearl stands up, opens the front door, and starts walking down the stairs.

There's an explanation behind this, fortunately. Lucinda Takeshi is the False Power of Toys and servitor of the Mimic Dahlia Thorn. She's been sent off to gather up Oliver, a child guardian who is also an Anchor, and who thus has survived the unmaking of the other time line. She initially used local thieves to gather the bears, paying them in toys of solid gold. However, with more and more pressure coming from a more and more frantic Dahlia, she has resorted to a drastic solution: she has spoken a Word of Command to make all the white plush bears in the city grab all the other white plush bears in the city and walk to where she's waiting. They've been told to stay hidden to avoid dementia animus, but not all the bears are smart enough to do that--they are teddy bears, after all.

Sliding into dementia animus, Vashti starts to follow the bears, and the creatures take her to an abandoned warehouse. (New York is full of those, right?) Peering through the window, she sees a negotiation between Powers, but then she hears a cry for help from another bear. This one is Oliver, and she rescues it from the tide of similar white bears sweeping it into the warehouse.

She heads back to the apartment, but she can't get much clarified--Oliver doesn't have the conceptual framework to explain the Valde Bellum from the ground up. They are interrupted by Strephon, the Power of Reflections, who has been sent by Gideon the Fallen to atone for a previous failure and stop Dahlia.

After Strephon's brief interrogation, Dahlia herself arrives, furious and desperate. Vashti, Sean, and Oliver flee to the bathroom as the titans war outside. As the sounds die down, they tentatively re-emerge into a devastated room. Dahlia has been banished, and Strephon sits, mortally wounded. Discovering Vashti's appreciation for beauty, Strephon performs one final act of spite against his Imperial master: he makes Vashti the new Power of Reflection, sure that she will follow the Code of Heaven.

Hearing boots outside, the trio flees to the bathroom, where the mirror has been replaced by a swirling portal. With no other exit, they step through.