Arc:Through A Glass, Darkly

Arc runners: Valrae and Hudson

-------Arc Timeline-------

Zero Sum Game

Tensions soared the night an informal coven of witches gathered in secret to resurrect Valrae Ivy Baines, convicted enemy of the Larket state. Now, with her aid, the barrier that protects Cenril from Kahran and his dark army is restored but the city's problems are far from solved. Peace is fragile and idle minds lead to idle chatter. Who is Uma Abelin, and whose interests does she protect? Can Cenril’s witches be trusted - was their leap of faith worth the potential conflict with neighboring Larket?

Will the powers at play within the barrier destroy the city before Kahran even makes his second attempt?

Prologue

1. The Nature Of Prophecy
2. Hell Is Empty
3. Mandamus
4. For The Good That I Would Do
5. By Thine Own Hand
6. Phantom Pain
7. Gathering Clouds

Head of the Hydra

Though an unsettling but welcome quiet has fallen on the Kahran front, rest is hard to find in Cenril. Someone calling himself Henry Cramer interrupted Mayor Uma's Peace Gala to make a show of intimidation and to spread awareness of his newly released and controversial book that calls for the legal persecution and killing of witches. Though his claims ranged from fairly typical to near outlandish, could his very public announcement and strongly opinionated book garner him enough followers to be dangerous? Freedom of speech is the new theme in town, and there's a new, smaller-circulation paper, Veritas, that promises to be transparent when no one else will. What do they need to be transparent about, when the Fisherman's Almanac is reporting that everything's fine?

Chapter One

1. Peace Is A Fragile Thing
2. White Lies
3. The Death of a Familiar
4. I Need To Talk To A Dead Woman‎
5. Lurid Truths‎
6. Whom He May Devour‎
7. The Harvest Moon
8. Uncomfortably Numb
9. A Certain Slant of Light
10. From Combatant To Combat Expert
11. Duck, Duck, Dead
12. Smoke And Mirrors Made Me Lightning
13. Strange Fruit
14. The Longest Night
15. If All You Have Is A Hammer
16. Everything Looks Like A Nail
17. Dead End
18. God, Glory, and Gold
19. Rescue Our Souls From Their Ravages
20. Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad
21. Star-Crossed Contrarians
22. Seeking Asylum
23. Fractured
24. Creepin'
25. Gone Away
26. The Most Dangerous Kind of Bad Dog
27. I Know How You Solve Problems
28. Rainbow In The Dark
29. Hindsight is Twenty-Twenty
30. Pseudo Expiation
31. Cell Block Tango
32. City of Cenril versus Alvina Landon
33. Breaking Point

Push Comes to Shove

The Cenril status quo is getting hit from all sides. Cramer and his people are not all talk: there are attacks on the witches, and it's beginning to feel unsafe to be a witch in Cenril of all places. Mayor Uma's mayorship is being subtly undermined by the media and pressure that is exposing her ties to Hudson and Alvina Landon when the latter is arrested on charges of malicious biting by a werewolf. It's time for everybody to take these threats seriously - and maybe get their hands dirty.

Chapter Two

1. That's Not MY Cenril
2. Charges Dropped Against Alvina Landon
3. Whatever Happened to Sterling Townsend
4. Whatever Happened to Candice Snow
5. Another Dead Journalist
6. A Pact With The Devil
7. Lammas Festival
8. Dark Side Of The Moon
9. Clever Girl
10. No Man Is An Island
11. Light of Other Days
12. The Truth about Sterling Townsend
13. Placing Blame
14. And So It Goes
15. Less Than The God He Pretends To Be
16. The Benefit Of The Doubt
17. The Man Behind The Mask
18. The Benefit Of The Doubt Cont.
19. Life's Bitter Herbs
20. As The Veil Thins
21. Pick Your Poison
22. Meri's Amulet and Meadow's Transformation
23. Little Fires Everywhere
24. Exactly Like Him
25. Secrets Make Friends
26. Amen

NPCs

Uma: Responsible for seedless grapes and the spell that summoned a barrier around the city of Cenril the night of the massacre on the SS Turnt. Widow of Fitz Johnson and now Cenril's mayor.

Joanie: An attractive older woman employed as Hudson's personal assistant. One of the witches who helped cast the barrier spell.

Jules Egnasse: A middle-aged man who is editor-in-chief of the Veritas, a small-circulation newspaper that has promised to print the truth, always, no matter how unflattering.

Henry Cramer: A mysterious masked man claiming to have written "The Hammer of Witches" and formed a group of similarly witch-hating followers. His true identity is unknown. While his beliefs and accusations may seem ludicrous to some, to others his claims seem to ring true.

Bianca: One of the witches on the list that marked them for death that had been found in the book of a witch hunter. Valrae extended an invitation to a secret gathering of witches that lead to a call for the formation of a coven.

Candice Snow: Mistress to Sterling Townsend, mayoral candidate that ran again Uma's Husband Fitz. She and Sterling fled to Rynvale after the news of their relationship and Candice's pregnancy was spread by Hudson and his men to ensure Fitz's victory.