Editing Blake Thorburn (section)

===Collateral===

Blake arrives in Toronto and is warned of the local lord, [[Conquest]]. His driver, an employee of Mann, Levinn & Lewis, gives the price for the lawyer's favour in transporting him: he must read the diabolist text [[Black Lamb's Blood]]. Blake is also warned that the next time he makes such a deal, he'll need to assist the lawyers in an errand; this seems to be an attempt to set Blake up for future recruitment to the firm. Inside his apartment, Blake meets with his landlord, Joel, and thanks him for the loan of Joel's car. The pair are soon joined by all Blake's old friends and acquaintances: Alexis, Amanda, Goosh, Tyler, Nick, and Joseph, as well as a new friend of Alexis's, Tiffany. Blake reveals the danger of his circumstances without mentioning their supernatural origins. Later in the evening, Alexis suggests that she and Tiffany could help Blake to overcome his aversion to physical contact, but he refuses for the time being.

Rose then alerts him that a [[Fell|stranger]], a servant of the Lord of Toronto, has infiltrated the gathering. The stranger, Fell, informs Blake of an appointment with Conquest. Blake buys a painting as a gift for the Lord before departing to the meeting. There, he is introduced to Conquest and some of the entity's subordinates: [[Isadora]], [[Jeremy Meath]], and [[Diana Thompson]]. The meeting is peaceful until Jeremy, at the behest of his ex-wife [[Sandra Duchamp]], exposes Blake's family history of diabolism. Conquest immediately seizes upon this opportunity for power, demanding that Blake call down the demon [[Ornias]] so that Conquest can take control over it, and his fractured council becomes divided in their loyalties. Rose and Blake stall by requesting books from the house in Jacob's Bell, which is inaccessible due to the Duchamp / Behaim ritual. In the meantime, Conquest tasks Blake with binding and bringing [[Pauz|three]] [[Hyena|troublesome]] [[Abstract Demon|beings]] to him over the course of three days, while Rose, given physical form, is bound by Conquest as a hostage.

Fell arrives the next day at Blake's apartment to volunteer information about the three beings. While travelling to the neighborhood where the first being, an Imp named [[Imp|Pauz]], is located, Blake discovers that he is under surveillance by local wildlife. He soon finds that Pauz's domain is infested with corrupted, feral animals, which attack him en masse. Blake makes a protective circle from the feces and innards of a dead rabbit, and Rose demands that Pauz appear to them. In the following negotiation, Pauz expresses a desire to be brought to Conquest as corrupting the entity would serve its goal of perverting the natural order.

Rose and Blake escape and make their way to a college in search of assistance from the sphinx Isadora. There they run into Tiffany, a student at the college, and some of Jeremy's followers. A conflict with the Jeremy's followers seems inevitable, but Rose breaks a few windows to alert Isadora, who scatters them. However, the sphinx refuses to help Blake, insisting that he still bears a corrupting presence ('radiation') from dealing with Pauz and will serve to disrupt the balance of the universe. Disheartened, Blake goes for coffee with Tiffany. After a brief conversation, a fight breaks out nearby, possibly due to Blake's irradiation.

Blake returns to his apartment without Rose, whose has been missing since breaking the windows, and prepares to bind Pauz. He travels to the Dowghty house that Pauz inhabits, where he discovers that Pauz had a hand in Rose's absence. Blake draws up a seven-page contract stipulating that Pauz will be bound ''only'' until a few minutes ''after ''Blake's deadline for bringing Conquest the third being. However, upon binding Pauz to the book Black Lamb's Blood, Blake realizes that the Imp can no longer protect him from its corrupted minions and the formerly possessed inhabitant of the house. With the [[Frost Hatchet]] he manages to fend off these attackers and even rescue Dowght, but sustains many wounds in the process and is forced to rudely summon Fell for transport. He then delivers Pauz to Conquest and finds that Rose is unconscious due to Pauz's efforts.

When Blake arrives home he tends to his injuries, using glamour ink to cover most of them, before contacting his cousin Paige, who Joel informs him visited when he was out. He admits to Paige that Molly's death was murder and that he is in danger, but urges her to stay away for her safety.

The next day, Fell drives Blake out to meet the [[Knights of the Basement]], a small local group of practitioners who have information about the second and third beings. During the drive, the pair discuss the perils of knowledge of the supernatural and Fell's family servitude to Conquest. They also pass ghosts and spectres that have been maimed and enslaved by the [[Hyena]], the second being. The Knights are friendly after brief initial distrust, and reveal that they are [[Dabbling|Dabblers]] with no powerful specialties who prefer to minimize contact with Others. Still, they inform Blake about their encounter with the [[Abstract Demon]], the third being, who removed several of their number. They later stress that they are fearful of opposing Conquest directly, and discuss the [[Sisters of the Torch]] and other local powers. [[Nick]] gives the extent of his knowledge on the [[Hyena]] and loans Blake some chain and a few weapons; he also teaches the young diabolist runes for Wind and Silence.

Blake goes to confront the Hyena in the nearby forest, and encounters the ghost of [[Evan Matthieu|a little boy in a red hood]] while running from the swathes of Others that were maimed by the Hyena. Blake discovers that the boy, Evan, had been hunted by the Hyena but had escaped its clutches for days before finally freezing to death in the forest. Co-operating with the young ghost, Blake uses branches of holly and Nick's chain to ensnare the Hyena and bind it in the form of a sword, which he brings to Conquest.

He then returns to the forest, now free of the Hyena's influence and spectres, and uses the Sight to find Evan's body, which he wishes to put to rest. Before he can do so, however, it is revealed that local police have been tailing him and he is arrested for Evan's murder.