Since pacing around the cell was futile (and ultimately, impossible due to its size), it was time for the ragabash to come up with an escape plan.

His situation was a little better now, escaping wasn't going to cause is immediate demise in a bath of silver and he had his clothes.

And in his hollow shoe sole was a pocket mirror…

Aaron congratulated himself on hiding that useful evasion tool in such a clever place. But there were more urgent matters at end; he would have all the time to gloat about it once he escapes.

He gazed at his own reflection in the mirror and focused… It took him about ten minutes, his connection to the umbra being rather weak, to difficultly step sideway into the lab's penumbra.

The place made him feel sick; the feeling of restrain he felt in the material cell was nothing next to the oppressive sterility of the local spirit world. The place was cold, empty of all emotions; clearly the taint of the weaver was all over the place, there webs everywhere. The sooner he would get out, the better.

Fortunately, the cell's umbral reflection seemed intangible enough for him to push trough, then all he would have to do his find the exit, he didn't expect to find any major obstacles on his way.

Alley-Fang had been wrong in the past, and he was wrong again.

He shared his umbral cell with a spirit that took the shape of a large arachnid busy spinning a web in the cell.

A pattern spider? What the hell was a pattern spider doing in there?

The spider spirit turned its attention to Alley-Fang, obviously displeased with being interrupted; she raised her forelegs and revealed her sharpened hooks.

Alley-Fang shifted to Glabro. Let's not get confused, he was more than a match for any pattern spider on a one on one basis.

Those statistics however assume he has enough space to move and all his valid limbs, and in the current situation, he was in a cramped space with a mangled arm.

Still, he managed to dodge most of the thing's attack and land a few good punches on the weaver servant. The spider got tired of stand up fighting and used her terrifying web attack.

There was not enough space to avoid that, Alley-fang was engulfed in the spirit's web, which started slowly calcifying him, trying to freeze him forever in this sterile wasteland.

He tried to fight back but the harder the web got, the more trouble he had to move. In desperation, he focused all his will and all his gnosis on one purpose: getting back to the material world on the double.

Probably by Gaia's divine intervention, he did manage to pierce the extremely tick gauntlet on the first try and putted it between him and the pattern spider.

Ok, he had to come up with a plan B. To him, plan B usually meant: "retry plan A, till it works", but that was downright stupid for the moment.

Meanwhile, back at the Road-kill-smell sept, a tall Native American girl with long, braided black hair and dark eyes was pacing around the dirty floor in exasperation.

"I can't stand sitting around here and do nothing, one of our packmate has gone missing, why aren't we out there looking for him?"

Sarika Summer, or Bloodhunt, had been seething for a day and a half and now, pilled up frustration was flooding out of the wendigo ahroun.

-And what do you suggest we do? Get out on the street and sniff around for his smell?

Asenka, youngest member of the pack, had said that last sentence in a very ironic and disrespectful tone. The raven haired woman was of the shadow lord tribe, she was still a cliath, one rank lower then the rest, but she still packed quite an attitude.

-Why not? You might be able to stay here and wait for the other gnawers to come back, but that's because you have never lost a packmate before, and you haven't known Aaron for as long as I have…

-What? You think you care more about his disappearance then I do, just because I haven't been around as long as you have? Tell you what, I care about Aaron too, I'm worried about him, but that's no reason to got out in the big city and hope for a lucky guess at were he might have gone, so mind your damn temper! The young ahroun wasn't preaching by example.

-I'll dare you talk to me like that!

-That's enough, both of you!

Cry-the-red-tear, the pack's philodox had just brought the two ahroun to silence.

-The very last thing we need is to start bickering among ourselves, Sarika, we are all worry about Alley-Fang but none of us has the skill to pick up his track, Asenka, you show more respect to your alpha.

-Sorry Sarika.

-Yeah, I'm sorry too.

They sat down near Cry-the-red-tear. The Uktena Metis was sitting cross-legged in crinos form and seemed to be concentrating.

-Any luck with the mental link? Asenka asked.

-No, something is blocking weasel's power, I cannot reach Alley-Fang were he his now.

-Doesn't that give us a clue where he might be, there are after all few places where a totem link is cut, Bloodhunt intervened.

-I summoned weasel while you two where arguing, she should be here shortly.

Suddenly, the small fury spirit appeared in the material world.

-I'm here as by your summon Cry-the-red-tear, what can I do for you my children? Oh but wait, one of you is missing…

-Indeed weasel, Alley-Fang as gone missing and wherever he his, we cannot reach him through the link that unite us.

-That is strange indeed, the link I provided this pack with transcend worlds as well as most barriers, but wait, one thing might be strong enough to block it…

-By all mean tell us, please.

-The only one of the triat with the power to cut Alley-Fang from the link is not the Wyrm, even the great corrupter cannot disrupt the bound that unite a pack…it would have to be the weaver…

-You think the weaver did this! Asenka asked.

-No, no, not the weaver himself foolish girl, he has much greater plot to attend to. It is possible however that Alley-Fang is being held captive in an area with a very high weaver taint, which would block enough to stop communication, but not enough that I can't sense that he's alive and that he still benefits from my gifts.

-At least we know that much, if he's alive then there is still hope to save him, said Bloodhunt.

-If you could get closer to Alley-Fang, not next to him since that would make it irrelevant, but a bit closer, maybe the link could be re-established.

-The thing his, Alley-Fang is the only one among us who knows the rite of the questing stone, or as any knowledge of how to navigate the streets without getting…

-Lost in the industrial district and get ambushed by a pack of black spiral dancers? Asenka was referring to a misadventure that had happened to her alpha last time she tried to find her own way in a city…

Bloodhunt turned to Asenka and let out a feral snarl.

-Enough already, can't the two of you focus on the matter at end! Cry was getting tired of his packmate's bickering

-Sorry, it's just that I'm on the hair trigger right now; I only wish we had some leads...

A small woman dressed in rags entered the basement at this time.

"Your wish has been granted Sarika, for we have found Aaron's traces, care to join the search?"

That was Sirine Empty-the-cupboard, the sept's leader.

Sarika picked up her storm spear fetish and rose to her feet.

-Let's go guys; we've got a packmate to rescue!

Asenka took her fang dagger, Cry his rune staff and weasel went back to the umbra; the three werewolves followed Sirine, eager to be reunited with their packmate.

Meanwhile, unaware of his pack's current worries, Alley-Fang was still sitting in his cell. He had not come up with another escape plan. Using open seal on the door did work, but there were a couple silver bullet armed guards waiting for him to try that.

The best he had managed to do was to stay in Glabro to accelerate his arm's healing rate, which was still damn slow.

Eventually, he heard a familiar voice in the cell's speaker.

"Aaron, can you hear me."

-Loud and clear Sarah.

-I'm sorry to have kept you waiting; I heard you tried to escape by disappearing.

-Try is right, the local vermin made sure I wasn't getting out that way. Since you know that I assume there are cameras in here?

-Yes, I can see you right now and as such I would ask you not to change form.

-Oh yeah, the "GLS sighting maddening effect", we call that delirium.

-Delirium is it? Well we did manage to create a drug that temporarily neutralize this effect, but its short lasting, expensive and bad for my health, so please don't force me to take one.

-It's that little pill you took before running out of the room right? Well don't worry; I'm not forcing you to take drugs. I would get crushed if I shifted to Crinos here anyway.

-Crinos?

-I assume you must call it something like: "wolf-man-body-configuration-pattern" or something like that, but Crinos is shorter.

-I agree. Say, could we get back to some of yesterday's questions? The ones you could not answer properly because I didn't believe in magic.

-Didn't? You believe now?

-Well, after what I saw, any answer might make sense.

-Ok, well for what's about my clothes...it's kind of a long story.

-I've got all day, were you planning on going somewhere?

Aaron smiled.

-Nah, not now, I'll let you guys think you've got me trapped a little longer…

-Then I'm eager to hear your story.

Somehow, Aaron could tell this wasn't some sort of psychological trick to get answer out of him; she really wanted to hear him out. If she would like the answers however, that was another matter.

-Ok, first, sorry to tell you that but the world as you know it is one among many.

-Why do I have the feeling you're not referring to alien life form…

-I'm not, I'm talking about another world that overlaps this one, like a reflection, we call it the umbra, or the spirit world.

-Spirit world?

-This world, the one we are in right now is the material world; beyond this one is the umbra, where the spirits dwell. Just about anything in the material world as its spirit reflection in the umbra: plants, animal, building…

-What about people?

-Well I'm not an expert on the umbra but I have never seen a human spirit so far…

-Assuming all you said is true, what does that have to do with werewolves?

-Oh, we shape-shifters are half flesh half spirit; we can exist in both world and travel from one to another at will, that's how I disappear: I go in the umbra.

-That sounds like the perfect escape route, why did you come back.

-Well, remember when I said there were spirits in the umbra?

-Yes

-Well material thing have spirits bound to them, but spirits don't necessarily have material things bound to them, so there are hostile spirits in this building's umbra.

-What…kind of spirits?

-Spider-like spirit that serves a powerful entity that favour unchanging sterility. It tried to calcify me were I stood.

-And you don't look like you're in a state to fight…

-In a few days my regenerative powers will restore my arm and that spider's paying for it.

-Which brings a point, why has it not healed yet?

-The damage inflicted by other werewolves takes longer to regenerate.

-Speaking of the thing that inflicted you that wound…

-More on that later, didn't you want to know how my clothes could adapt to my body size?

-Oh, yes of course.

-By mean of a special ritual, I forged a deal with the spirit of these clothes so that they bound themselves to my spirit half, so they change the form of their material counterpart to fit my transformations.

-Quite complicated for the simple result it gives.

-The theory is complicated, but the ritual itself is quite simple.

-So by mean of some rituals, you can compel spirits o do things for you.

-Shaper-shifters made pacts with the denizens of the spirit world long ago; they are bound by these pacts to help us when we ask properly, by mean of rituals.

-That's a lot to take all a once…

-Then maybe we should wait a few days before I talk to you about yesterday's werewolf and the black spiral dancers.

-No, its ok, I really want to know.

-Ok well, in the beginning…

-The beginning?

-Oh yeah, forget the whole big bang crap 'cause I'm about to tell you how the world really came to be.

-Ok… go ahead…

-Well, there are and have always been three fundamental entities that encompass all that exist, they are collectively known as the triat and individually known as the Wyrm, the Wyld and the Weaver.

The Wyld is what creates raw material, the Weaver is what gives it a fixed shape and the Wyrm is the agent of balance, it destroys things that have existed too long to make place for renewal.

That's the perfect triat, the ultimate harmony, that's what should be. But somewhere along the way, longer ago than any werewolf can remember, something terrible happened. The Weaver got insane and refused the Wyrm's role as agent of balance, so to keep it from destroying all its creations, it trapped the Wyrm in its web. As he tried to free himself, the Wyrm became even more entwine in the Weaver's trap. Over time, captivity drove the agent of balance mad, the Wyrm was known from this day forward as the great corrupter. The Wyrm has since that time been what you might call the very incarnation of evil.

And that's why we, werewolves exist. The spirit of the earth, Gaia, created the Garou to be her warriors, we are born to make war against the Wyrm and keep it from destroying our mother, Gaia.

There was not a sound in the speaker.

-Hey Sarah, you still there?

-Yes, it's just that, your telling me all this and even without proof, I'm tempted to believe you. I usually never believe anything without proofs, and this is something I truly wish was false, because it means I was wrong, I was wrong all along.

-Yeah, were not disease ridden mutant, were half spirit warriors standing between an insane, dark god of destruction and the world's total annihilation.

-World's total annihilation?

-Oh yes, the world on its last ride as we speak, the apocalypse is coming, the Wyrm gets more powerful everyday from all the corruption and violence in the world and soon, he's gonna bring about the final battle, and if the werewolves loose this one, I'm afraid the world is doomed.

-Slow down here, the end of the world is near, I heard some werewolves babble about that, now you're telling me it's real?

-As real as it gets, if we loose the final battle, which will begin soon, the whole planet's in for one hell of a ride. And one detail, the augury of our victory looks grim.

-Wait, this apocalypse thing concerns the whole world, I mean, sure this Wyrm thing sounds awfully strong but surely there is something human military power can do against that, my point is, why not expose yourselves to the population, we're not as strong as you might be, but maybe we could make a difference.

- (sigh) Sarah where am I?

-In a DNA lab I told you that…

-Why am I here?

-Because we cap…oh I think I see your point…

-Plus the delirium would make it hard for human and werewolves to fight effectively side by side.

-Yeah…

-By the way, about your other question, we call the evil werewolf tribe black spiral dancers because they were once a Garou tribe, the white howlers that went to Malfeas, the Wyrm's umbral realm and were tricked into walking in a maze called the black spiral.

-and then…

-The white holwers died that day; the Wyrm swallowed the tribe whole and spitted the black spiral dancers back at Gaia…

-Not the kind of thing that cheer up an army.

-You said it.

-If you truly believe any of what I just said, I'm sorry. It was hard for me to hear all this after my first change: that the world is dying, that I'm a warrior on the loosing side of a war and that I must hide what I really am from the rest of the world until the day I die, which could now be any day. I can only imagine how this must be for you, at least I discovered I had supernatural powers at that time, you have been rob of the bliss of ignorance with nothing to make up for it. I just hope you can use that knowledge to your advantage; once again, I'm sorry.

-Its ok, I'd rather know a horrible truth then a wonderful lie. If you'll excuse me, I must go.

Her voice hinted Alley-Fang that the revelation had shaken her greatly, maybe that's why the litany says the veil should not be lifted, maybe it was meant to protect human as much as Garou.

-One last thing…about the other werewolf, it was one of them black spiral dancers, right?

-Yeah, kind off, but there was more to him then that, but you've heard enough atrocities for one day.

Telling her what he knew about the abomination would also mean telling her about vampires, nothing to cheer her up…

-Ok, good nigh Aaron.

-If you say so, it's not like I can tell…

-I'll see what I can do to make your captivity more comfortable, but getting you freed is near impossible unless I convince everyone that what you told me is true, quite unlikely too.

-Just do your best, but don't worry, I can manage to escape on my own.

-Indeed, goodbye Aaron.

-Goodbye Sarah.

The speaker went silent. Alley-Fang hoped that, if she did believe him about the triat and the apocalypse, she had the nerves to deal with that knowledge, he had gotten a little carried away in his explanation and he feared he might have said too much too quickly.

The speaker went on again: "Alley-Fang?"

That wasn't Sarah.

-Who's this?

-None of your business street mongrel, you'd better convince doctor Hapkin that all you just said was a load of crap, or I will personally make your stay among us as close to hell as I can.

-It was all true, and I would really like to see you come here and make threats to me face to face!

-Oh but I know it was true, I already knew all you said and more, but for your own good, you might want to shut you yap.

-Pah! Sarah and everyone here have right to know, you don't scare me, whoever you are!

-Let me put it another way, tomorrow when she come to speak to you, you're going to convince her that all you said was a lie, some insane ranting or whatever, so long as she does not believe you anymore…

-and why would I do that?

-For doctor Hapkin's own good, does that sound like a good reason?

-Why you…These words pulled out to Alley-Fang and threatened to drive him into a berserk frenzy.Fnny, he had known Sarah for only two days but threats to her aroused his rage.

-And by the way, don't try the umbra again; I putted more spiders on your case, goodnight Garou.

The speaker went out. Whoever that guy was, he had a lot of influence in both the local bureaucracy and the local umbra. This was bad, if he obeyed this guy, he was going to spend the rest of his life in here and if he didn't, Sarah would suffer from it.

"Sarika, Asenka, Cry, where are you?"

Meanwhile, Aaron's pack had been led to the alley where he had been captured. "That's the place, we picked his lingering smell around here, but we can't track it to anywhere" Sirine said.

-Well, maybe this is closer to his actual whereabouts, let's try connectin, Sarika said.

-Here goes nothing.

Cry-the-red-tear started focussing to locate Alley-Fang.

-That was chapter three. By the way, if anyone out there truly hates what I'm doing, it might be time to tell me because I'm on an inspiration roll. Can't guarantee I'll stop though.

Thanks again to FF demon-angel; she's been harassing me about a third chapter since I posted the second, feels good to be appreciated.

There will be a fourth one, and as many others as it takes to concluded the great plot developing in the twisted reaches of my imagination, until next time folks.-