There are dragons in the caverns of the deep
And there are dragons in the blanks upon the chart.
There are dragons in the shadows while you sleep
And there's a dragon in the shadows of your heart.— Dragon Ballade, Zander Nyrond
[ This session is even less likely to be true to what happened than the last one, since Magariel's player and inveterate note-taker was present for part of it but ill, and the referee's note-taking was shoddy because I obviously didn't need them as Mike was there! ]
Chris Keel rolls up to collect Helophel and take her back home where Sam Curtis is waiting, so that they can finish off the talk that was so rudely interrupted a few hours earlier. They talk somewhat in the car, and Helophel comes to the conclusion that she needs to do something dramatic and miraculous to really convince Chris. She proposes to take her celestial form in the car, then slide through the walls into Chris' bathroom. Chris looks a touch skeptical, but does accede to her subsequent request to warn his partner. She also makes sure that he has stopped the car before going celestial, not wanting to cause an accident.
To say that Sam is surprised when a bloody great snake with six eyes and wings glides smoothly through the wall and heads towards the bathroom is something of an understatement. In fact he is so surprised that he shoots at it in a completely automatic response, despite having been told not to. Sigh. Helophel recorporealises and steps out of the bathroom at about the point that Chris enters the flat, still picking his jaw up. "I asked you not to do that," she says plaintively. "So you're paying for the repairs," Chris insists.
Having established that there are strange things out there, and they are talking to one of them, the trio sit down and talk. Helophel explains more about the nature of the War, explains a bit about Soldiers and asks Curtis and Keel if they would be willing to work for God (or at least the Archangel Michael)? Having already had a solid resonance on Curtis when he agreed provided it did not interfere with working for CI5, she is more interested in Keel, and is rather glad when his apparently glib and unconditional acceptance turns out to be true. They then have to work out just what is going to go in the official report, during which Helophel phones the Cenotaph Offices to create the Department of Extra-Normal Affairs, which is therefore not a lie when she proposes that it be her official affiliation.
Blakely meanwhile consults with DS Winters, and gets to talk to Excel and the McKenzies who are still at the hospital helping the police with their enquiries. He successfully resonates on Andrew, discovering that he is in a loving relationship with his wife, but not a lot more than that. The McKenzies' story is interestingly divergent from what Blakely already knows. They curiously fail to mention the rugby players, and are vague about their reasons for being down there. They also fail to mention the flaming people; to hear them talk, they just found Wells in the sewer, got him to the surface and waited indoors for the ambulance to arrive. Blakely does persuade them to allow him to accompany them home, so that he can pick up towels and the like that might provide more forensic evidence. Oh, and the manacles that Wells was suspended by. This duly happens, and Blakely's covert scan for anything else interesting doesn't really find anything. He leaves, reminding them to come in to the station tomorrow morning for their official statements.
Meanwhile, Boriel and Aesclepius swipe lab coats and get past the police guard on the Burns Unit, largely because the Elohite is a manipulative little sod rather than because of any theoretical acting ability of the Malakite's. Once up there, Aesclepius examines Wells for any sign of tracery while Boriel tries resonating and beats the odds again. The result he gets confirm that Wells is a rule-oriented person who doesn't change those rules lightly, and that his most dishonorable action was inaction; he let someone get away through being too slow (and considers that he let them down by so doing). Not long after they are joined by Atoziel, who uses his Seraph of Destiny attunement to get Wells' true name again; it's still "Justin." Reasoning that a Humanity attunement might still be running, Atoziel intends to come back later and try again once the angels know for certain that Wells has been unconscious for 24 hours.
Since Aesclepius isn't any too satisfied with his examination, the trio head off to get an in-person report from Excel. Arriving near the McKenzie's flat as Excel is leaving, they talk and Excel uses his Seraph of Lightning attunement to show them exactly what happened. The Elohite still has absolutely no idea what it is, but at least he can now state that it is completely beyond his experience.