098. Hive

The Garou descend on the Hive.

***"Changeling: the Dreaming was my first LARP; Vampire: the Masquerade was my second. Werewolf: the Apocalypse was one where you're always under threat."***

Sophia, Patches, Braum, and Sir Xaeron puzzle over Flight-of-Victory's dream. Perhaps by dreaming of Kaylie and her pack, the Garou is worried that they may be moving on the Hive? Could the cell phones represent a lack of ability to communicate? Where do the Pattern Spiders fit in? "Nightmares have a way of reflecting hopelessness," Xaeron advises, and the motley vows to aid the fight in any way they can.

Patches and Braum weigh the pros and cons of the Advanced Probability Enhancement Engine, with Patches still concerned that using it might be unbalancing fate; Braum is more pragmatic, suggesting that if they "use" it only when necessary, perhaps they will come out ahead? Upstairs in Sophia's penthouse, she puts a drunken chimerical Mab to sleep and relaxes in a bath with Xaeron. Sophia gets Xaeron to agree not to discuss the events of the dream, and then invokes Protocol (satisfying his rule that she "test" her new Arts on him). Xaeron had mentioned using Geas only once, Sophia tentatively asks: what happened? Xaeron tells her of his mortal parents, and how after their separation, his mother had tried to ruin his father out of spite. While he isn't happy about having done it, he put her under a Geas to leave him alone, and they both seem the happier for it.

The next morning, Dr. Sayley delivers the samples of Flight-of-Victory's tainted leg to the Exhaust, nothing that it doesn't seem to react to any normal medical treatment; when Braum mentions having been "purified" at the Cairn, she hypothesizes about maybe needing to use the opposite force of the Corruption on it? Sophia steps out to visit her artist's circle in Montreal's Old Port, as Braum and Patches set about making Flight-of-Victory comfortable, noticing that the corruption has spread even further up her legs. The Sept Elder apologizes to the pair, noting that since she didn't dream the night before, spending time in her dreams must have been a waste of time. The two begin to describe the dream that they did witness, and several points spark the Garou's interest. The Pattern Spiders around Patches confirm that they met her in Flight-of-Victory's dream, and that they are messengers for the Weaver, but that their message is being somehow disrupted. The twenty phones in the dream, then, must be a message for her that can't be sent! Describing the young garou with the dark hair and mangled jaw, Flight-of-Victory recognizes her as her adopted daughter, Arya Of-Valour. Perhaps she is still alive in the Hive!

In the Old Port, Sophia happens to run into Layla Measures-Twice, who seems distant and contemplative. Sophia coaxes out of her that twenty Garou are heading off that evening to destroy the Hive in the West Island of Montreal. Sophia, panicked, begs them not to go to their deaths… or at the very least to allow the motley to accompany them for aid. Layla is tentative, but eventually gives in, naming their meeting place that evening. Sophia rushes back to The Spark, informing the others of the upcoming attack. Patches immediately grabs Zistor out of bed to start crafting silver daggers for the Garou warriors. Kyoko and Xaeron agree to accompany the motley in support of the werewolves, and Sophia begins to use her powerful Spring magics to help heal Flight-of-Victory. The potent magic brings the corruption up to the surface of her legs, re-enchanting her limbs to function normally until the following sun-up. Every inch the full warrior, Flight-of-Victory prepares to surprise the other Garou at the site of the battle, until she is stopped by Braum.

The troll draws Whisper and slowly works to stab the blade into the corruption, willing it away: the blade explodes with magic, draining Braum of his Glamour and most of his health, collapsing the knight. But the corruption simply disappears into thin air, having been destroyed by the treasure. Patches returns and presents Flight-of-Victory with four silver blades, and her locked, enchanted to create a Portal Passage. The Sept Elder is overwhelmed: even though it must have cost them much, they used their resources to aid the Garou in their fight.

Angell Woods Park, dusk. Sophia, Braum & his son Aidan, Patches, Xaeron, and Kyoko accompany Flight-of-Victory to the meeting place. Kaylie, Layla, Pasebakhaenniut, Ash Bleeding-Edge, Clutches-At-Straws, and the rest of the werewolves are there, shocked to see their once-alpha return, seemingly cleansed. Wielding Whisper, Flight-of-Victory stands before the assembled Garou and rallies them. "I wasn't sure we could trust the Fae, but now we use their weapons, accept their magic. Come with me on my next Flight of Victory!" Howling, the Garou descend into the Hive.

Waiting for them outside, the motley hear a strange song coming from under the ground. Sophia uses Mab to play it back, and Patches realizes that it's actually a pattern, a message: whoever is singing from underground seems to want to communicate a pattern of numbers. Relaying them to Pasebakhaenniut, Patches and Xaeron descend into the Hive to plant explosive charges to bring it down. Inside, they discover Whisper abandoned in a room that seemed to have held a prisoner. They escape just as the warrens begin to collapse, and the Garou emerge from the Portal Passage, wounded but mostly alive. Pasebakhaenniut brings news that they managed to rescue Arya Of-Valour, at the cost of a few Garou, namely Layla Measures-Twice, and Clutches-At-Straws, who took out the heart and has posthumously earned a new deed name, "Whispered-Endings" . Patches fires a 21-gun salute in honour of their fallen friends, and the motley, exhausted, smiles in victory.