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In this chapter, Morrison has something "fun" planned for the pack, and David is forced to reflect on himself and his new surroundings.

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David yawned as he woke up. He was in Urhan, snuggled up against the pile of fur and limbs in the bedroom. Colin was right next to him, curled into a small, tawny furred ball. David looked at the window, there was the faint light of twilight from the period just before sunrise coming through the curtains. It was time to get up and return to the library. He got up and bowed forward in a canine stretch.

He was standing up from his stretch when he felt the mattress shift and heard an annoyed growl. He didn’t get enough time to run when an extremely large mass of patchwork coloured fur tackled him from his side.

He snarled and thrashed against his attacker, but Tsu’mara’s sheer size and the experience that she had over him kept David pinned. His thrashing was forcibly stopped when a black mass and a golden orange mass joined Tsu’mara in keeping David pinned.

“We always knew,” said Lucas in the First Tongue.

“Horrible sneak,” added Jesse.

David thrashed his head, the only part of himself he could move from underneath the pile he found himself under. When it became clear to him that he couldn’t worm his way out, he let out a long, howling whine.

An annoyed, and groggy snarl cut through David’s howling.

“Just sleep, David,” said Colin, still curled into a ball behind them. His ears pinned back from David’s incessant howling.

David’s howl lessened to sad whimpers. His ears pinned back and he stopped his thrashing. Tsu’mara, Jesse, and Lucas eased off him but still stayed on top of David, just no longer actively holding him down. With more freedom to squirm, David took the opportunity to snap at Tsu’mara’s leg and sank his teeth into her ankle, who yelped in pain and shock, and jumped off David.

With the main weight keeping him pinned down gone, David squirmed out from underneath Jesse and Lucas, and tore out of the bedroom with his tail between his legs.

He fled to the library and jumped up onto the couch. He curled up into a ball and whined in between growls. The others weren’t supposed to know that he had been sneaking into the bedroom at night. They weren’t supposed to know that he’d been sleeping up against them most nights.

He let out a small, keening whine and his heart twisted, Why did Colin take their side?

He lay there, in a ball, stewing in his own misery for the next couple hours until the others woke up properly for the day. His ears perked up when he heard Colin arguing with Tsu’mara while Jesse made breakfast.

“Why?!” demanded Colin, “”Why couldn’t you let me take it at MY pace?”

Tsu’mara answered with a growl, “I’m fed up with him constantly acting like he wants nothing to do with us despite following us everywhere. Like when he spied on us while we were renovating the cabin.”

Colin snapped back, “I was making progress! If you were just patient for a little bit longer he would’ve stayed. He almost did yesterday!”

Lucas joined in, “He’s not wrong. He was kind to me yesterday. Well, kinder. He was still a massive prick about it.”

There was a sound of a slap. Presumably from Colin over Lucas’ language because of Lucas’ following reply; “Well, it’s true. You heard him.”

“Well too bad,” retorted Tsu’mara. “I’m sick and tired of him waking us up every morning whenever he tried to sneak out.”

“Breakfast’s ready!” called out Jesse.

“Fine!” snapped Colin. “Then you take his breakfast to him.”

“Why me?” asked Tsu’mara.

“Cause I’m not gonna risk getting mauled cause of YOUR impatience!” answered Colin.

“Oh for crying out loud,” groaned Lucas. “Jesse, give me that.”

David growled when he heard footsteps approach the library. When he saw Lucas enter, holding a plate of blueberry waffles and strips of crispy bacon, he raised his hackles and bared his teeth in a truly savage growl.

“Oh, get off it,” snapped Lucas.

He put the plate of food on the desk and before he left said, “It's not even sneaking when we can smell you every morning.”

David snarled at him with Lucas ignoring it as he returned to the others. David wanted to ignore the food, but his resolve very quickly crumbled when the tantalising smell of the sweet waffles and savory bacon made him lick his chops and made his stomach growl. He slid off the couch and snuck up to the desk. He took slow, careful steps and would jump back at the slightest sound from the dining table.

He put his forepaws up on the desk and slowly ate the breakfast Lucas brought in, and kept his ears trained on the others in case they tried to sneak up and ambush him again.

“It’s never that cold in there when I’m in there,” said Lucas, sounding like he had a mouthful of food.

“It isn’t?” asked Colin, concerned.

There was the sound of one of the solid dining chairs sliding on the floor as Colin said, “I need to make some calls.”

“About what?” asked Jesse.

“Gotta confirm some suspicions,” answered Colin. “Lucas, since Elder Morrison has plans for you guys today, if you have time do you think you can help me at the library?”

“With what?” asked Lucas.

Colin sounded suddenly nervous, “I’ll tell you when we get there if we have the time. I also need fresh water. Natural water, none of the additives you see in tap and bottled water. The stream David and I found out in the desert last week should suffice.”

David finished his breakfast and slinked back to the couch. He curled back up and brooded until Morrison arrived and took some breakfast for himself.

“I have fun plans for you lot at sunset, so make sure you’re here and rested up for that,” said Elder Morrison at the table.

Morrison didn’t stay long, not explaining his plans for the pack and left soon after finishing his breakfast.

“Looks like I’ll be able to help you with the library after all, Colin.” said Lucas, “What time do you want to go?”

“As soon as you’re willing,” answered Colin.

“Oh, okay,” said Lucas. “I don’t start working there till next week so I can go now.”

The pair then left, quickly at Colin’s ushering, and Jesse and Tsu’mara left to do their own things, leaving David by himself in the house.

He stayed in Urhan, brooding on the library couch all day. Whenever someone returned to the house, which for most of the day was Tsu’mara, he growled and snapped at her whenever she came near the library. His constant outbursts earned annoyed scoffs from Tsu’mara whenever she got near. Jesse, he rarely snapped at. Not because David had forgiven him for what happened in the morning, but because David never noticed him until he had already gone. Like when he somehow left a croque madame sandwich for David on the armrest of the couch David was lying on without David even noticing. He ate the offered sandwich but growled all the while. Despite the growls he eagerly licked the plate clean of its cheese, crumbs and egg.

He only stopped his constant growls when Colin and Lucas returned. But he still refused to leave the library, even for dinner. Dinner was early, and was something that was quickly thrown together since they all, bar Colin, had to be ready soon after whatever Morrison had planned for them. David still refused to come out of the library for it, making an apologetic Colin risk bringing him dinner.

David growled initially at Colin when he walked in with David’s food, but Colin’s fearful pause made David’s heart twist and he reduced his growl to a grumble.

Colin took that as permission to come closer he approached.

“I’m sorry,” said Colin, putting the plate of food on the floor close to the couch. “This wasn’t how I wanted it to go. I wanted you to make the choice to stay yourself.”

David glared at him with his ears pinned back. He was tense, anxious that the red head might pounce and drag him out to the others.

Colin stood up and left but stopped in the doorway. He turned back and told David, “Elder Morrison will expect all of you. So you should shift to Hishu and go out to meet him soon. The others are getting ready already.”

David didn’t move until Colin was out of sight. He slid off and started eating from the plate on the floor. He stopped and his head snapped up to the door when he saw movement at the corner of his eye. It was a pair of black hands slowly putting a change of David’s clothes in the library’s doorway.

He snarled at Tsu’mara, earning another annoyed scoff from the woman.

He didn’t shift to human form until the others were waiting outside for Morrison, shaking their heads when they heard David’s sobbing as he painfully shifted forms. David stumbled outside and joined them soon after, and stood separate from them, making them roll their eyes at him.

After several moments of David glaring at them, and them ignoring glaring, Morrison pulled up in front of the house in his Sheriff’s Department SUV. He honked the horn and yelled out, “Get in!”

David tried to take the front passenger seat, but Jesse dashed in to beat him to it forcing David to sit in the back next to Lucas. He pressed himself as much as he could against the door to give himself as much distance from Lucas as possible.

Morrison took the pack up the main road of Pioche and pointed out several landmarks, telling them to keep note of them for when he gets to where he’s taking them. The last location he pointed out was a catholic church.

“That church is new, gonna be having its first Sunday service this Sunday,” said Morrison. “You lot should attend so I can introduce you to a friend of mine.”

David gave the elder a questioning look. He found it hard to believe that he had friends.

Morrison finally stopped outside of Boot Hill Cemetery. He led them past many, old and worn gravestones. Some were so old and worn that they were completely blank. David looked around and rubbed his arms. The place exuded a feeling of death, and he wondered what about the place was so fun in the Old Man’s eyes.

“Boot Hill Cemetery is home to a really strong locus,” explained Morrison as he led them further into the cemetery, the feeling of death getting stronger and stronger.

That made it click for David and he started quickly looking around, the feeling of death was a very real thing and was coming from whatever the Locus was in the cemetery. Lucas seemed to realise it too as he started quickly looking around like David was. His eyes lingered on each gravestone before moving to the next.

Morrison finally stopped in front of a blank, visually unassuming blank gravestone. Jesse and Tsu’mara were looking around confused but David and Lucas' eyes were trained on the gravestone, the hairs on the back of their necks raised. The feeling of death exuded so strongly from it that, to the two Ithauer, they could smell it. It smelled almost tasty.

Morrison noticed the twos reaction and said, “This locus resonates with Death essence, which is complementary to Uratha.”

The elder looked at all of them and asked, “Do any of you know how to reach across the Gauntlet?”

They all nodded except David who said, “I know how to cross at Locuses-”

“Loci,” corrected Lucas, which David growled at.

David continued, “I know how to use other Loci. Like using a punch clock like I was an employee, and a therapist’s couch like I was a nervous patient.”

He pointed at the gravestone locus, “But I have no idea how I’d go about using this one.”

Morrison gave a single nod and said, “What you’re describing is using essence to reach across. That’s the fast way. Another way is to meditate at the locus. It’s slow but it’s free.”

He then kneeled in front of the gravestone, beckoning the rest of the pack to do the same.

David found it surprisingly easy to meditate on the locus. He didn’t know if it was because he was experienced in meditating from the meditating the Bone Shadow elders taught him when he spent those first two weeks with them, or if it was because of the Death essence the locus exuded that the Old Man said compliments Uratha. Possibly both, he thought. He was thankful that this meditation was nowhere near as tortuous as the sensory torture room or as infuriating as it was when he meditated in front of the rage spirit.

It was a gentle transition through the Gauntlet unlike all of his other crossings, it felt like he was slowly sinking through water. When the sensation passed over his head, he opened his eyes. He was still kneeling in front of the gravestone locus, and he was thankful that he wouldn’t have to go out of his way to find it like he had the office locus. He stood up, brushed off the dirt and gravel from his legs, and looked around.

It still looked like a regular cemetery, but was far, far larger than in the Mundane. With row after row of both gravestones, and wooden grave markers. The colour of everything was also muted, almost sepia in tone. There were also people walking around, translucent people. All in different eras of fashion. One a man with a fifties era sweater vest, a woman in a nineteen twenties flapper dress.

He then finally noticed that it was only him, the Old Man, and Lucas there with them. David saw a silver glow from underneath Lucas’ shirt from where his shadow gifts, and presumably, his auspice were visible.

David touched his forehead, where his own auspice was glowing, visible for everyone to see. He couldn’t hide it like Lucas could.

He looked over to Morrison and saw a multitude of glowing silver runes but nothing that looked like his auspice.

Morrison saw him looking over him and pulled up his sleeve and showed off a glowing silver rune. A ring with a single thin, curling line like a teardrop crossing through the bottom of the main ring. The sigil of the Cahalith auspice.

He remembered back to one of his theory lessons with Colin, where the wolfblood had him reading from books in the library. Lessons he found a lot more boring than his practical ones. Colin told him that most Uratha’s auspices appeared as runes rather than looking like the actual phase of the moon like David’s did. David mentioned the Moon Shadow Riders he had met on his way back from burning down the Asylum had all their auspices looking like phases of the moon instead of runes like other Uratha did.

David mentioning the bikers’ auspices matching his own annoyed Colin and made the wolf-blood derail the lesson to rant for several minutes about their Elodoth. Saying at one point, “As if that tool needed any other damned excuse to say that you should’ve joined his pack instead of ours.”

The rant surprised David. Less him ranting about the biker gang’s Elodoth, because Colin had ranted about him before, but more because he had said ‘damned’ during it. That was the closest David had ever seen Colin come to actually swearing before. He must really not like their Elodoth.

He looked around the graveyard to see how Tsu’mara’s and Jesse’s auspices looked like in the Spirit World but didn’t see them anywhere. He looked around quickly, not sure where they were. After a few minutes the two finally appeared, stumbling slightly. David could see silver glows under their clothes from what he assumed were their auspices. On Jesse it was on his lower belly, and Tsu’mara it was her lower back. When they saw David looking at them, he quickly turned away with scoff.

With the last of the pack across the Gauntlet, Morrison stood up and said, “See how big the cemetery is on this side of the Gauntlet? It shows the history of the cemetery rather than its actual size in the Mundane. The feeling of something can change the size and landscape of the area’s reflection in the Shadow.”

David rolled his eyes. He already knew how the Spirit World’s reflection of the mundane reflected how people perceived an area rather than the Mundane reality of it.

The Old Man then pointed at the translucent people wandering around, “That over there are ghosts. You don’t normally see them in the Shadow unless in a graveyard near a locus. There’s not many left here at Boot Hill Cemetery since they stopped making new grave plots, but they’re common at other cemeteries.”

Morrison led them away from the locus towards a large, imposing mausoleum. That was something that was not in the Mundane version of the cemetery. Gravestones with metal fences around them, sure. But never a large mausoleum like what they now approached.

As they approached the mausoleum, the ghosts quickly left the area, scattering to the far edges of the cemetery.

As he stopped in front of the mausoleum, he told the pack, “Alright, keep your wits about you. Don’t freak out and be respectful.”

The feeling of death, which was diminishing the further away from the locus, suddenly intensified. A robed figure phased through the mausoleum’s door. It floated above the ground, it had no feet. A skull with flaming wicks for eyes and bullets for teeth floated in the robe’s hood. A bandolier of old, archaic ammo was across its chest, and on its back was a man sized crucifix that was aflame with spectral purple and blue flames. It spread its arms, revealing its hands; one a noose of hemp rope, the other a skeletal hand made of gun barrels.

Morrison bowed to the spirit and stayed in his bow as he said, “Hello, Keeper, pleasure to see you again. I’d like to introduce my newest pupils. Pack, this is Keeper-of-Boots, the ruling spirit of Boot Hill cemetery, and the lord of the court of death spirits of all of Pioche’s cemeteries and graveyards.”

Lucas was the first to bow. He gave a deep bow and said with reverence, “Thank you for allowing us into your domain.”

David bowed soon after, saying nothing.

Jesse gave the spirit a nod, and Tsu’mara gave a smaller bow than Lucas and David and said, “It’s an honor to meet you.”

The death spirit looked at the pack for a moment before it returned the bow. It waved them off with its skeletal gun barrel hand and turned to leave. As it turned, it said to Morrison in a hoarse, strangled voice, “Try to keep these ones from dying as fast as the others, Howlmore.”

The Keeper-of-Boots then phased back through the mausoleum’s door.

Morrison stood up from his bow and told the pack, “The Keeper is the most important spirit in Pioche, and one of the most powerful. Second only to the spirit of Pioche itself. He’s old and very powerful and will kill all of you easily, so stay on his good side. But he’s good as a contact.”

He led them away from the Keeper’s mausoleum. He gestured at the gravestones and gravemarkers, saying, “Way back when, the government tried to build a railroad through here and dug up all the graves. The locals didn’t like that at all. So after some peaceful protests, and some not so peaceful protests that got covered up, the bodies were reburied and the cemetery reconsecrated.”

“But,” he said, putting a harsh emphasis on the word that made all of them snap their attention to him and kept them from drifting off during his lecture, “They buried the bodies in random plots, not at where their actual gravestones and grave markers were. And to make it worse, the original census was lost, so no one knows where anyone is buried. No one except for Keeper-of-Boots. That’s why he’s such a good contact.”

“I’m assuming you’ve had to dig up a grave or two if you know all those details?” asked Lucas.

Morrison nodded, “Every now and then you need the bone of a murderer for a spirit ban or bane, or rite component. Important to know who’s who.”

David wondered out loud, “What do you have to pay in kind to a powerful death spirit like that to be allowed to go digging up the graves in his domain?”

Morrison waved his hand dismissively, “He doesn’t care about that. He cares more about ghosts, keeping them as subjects or eating them. He doesn’t eat them much anymore now that people aren’t being buried in this cemetery anymore. So just ask him nicely first and he should give you their location no problem.”

Eventually, the pack was led out of the overly massive cemetery and onto Pioche’s main street. They saw the spiritual reflection of Pioche’s buildings. Many buildings that were old and rundown in the Mundane were far more rundown in the Spirit World, looking more akin to rotted, wooden skeletons than anything that actually resembled a proper building. There were a few though that looked pristine, as if brand new. The Thompson’s Opera House, the local library, the museum, the Gunslinger’s cafe, and both clubs. Especially the Nevada Club of Pioche.

Morrison pointed at each pristine building, “You can see which places the townspeople care about and what they don’t. The locals’ investment preserves buildings in the Shadow.”

On Morrison’s tour of Pioche’s spiritual reflection they passed what, to David, could only be described as a large wizard's tower. Both David and Lucas stopped to gawk at it, David in silent confusion, and Lucas saying, “Is that the Mason’s Lodge? It’s only a plain, ugly two story building in the Mundane.”

“Yep,” said Morrison, his voice sounding far off and faint. Both David and Lucas tore their eyes off the large tower and saw that Morrison was leaving the two behind. They both ran to catch back up with the others.

When they caught up, Morrison pointed out a bizarre sight. The Gem Theatre which was half pristine and half ruined, divided directly down the middle.

“The theater’s renovation is reflected in the Shadow,” explained Morrison. “Things happening currently reflect in the Shadow. Not just the old.”

David was confused, “But I thought it took a while for things in the Mundane to be reflected in the Shadow. When I set the asylum on fire, it was still fine in the Spirit World. Only the locus I used was starting to burn.”

“That was you?” asked Morrison. “I thought the Moon Shadow Riders finally snapped and burnt the place down. Asylums are hell to deal with in the Shadow. Damn near impossible to navigate. Shit’s always moving around and trying to deliberately get you lost.”

That confused David. He was able to navigate the asylum’s spiritual reflection just fine.

Morrison shook his head and waved David off, “You’re getting me off track. You’re thinking too logically about the Shadow. Logic isn’t a thing here, the moment you start thinking you understand this place is when it kills you with something you didn’t expect. You’d do well to remember that, especially as an Ithaeur.”

He then took them further into the town’s reflection, pointing out and explaining different things about the town and how the locals’ perceptions and beliefs shaped the town version of it in the Spirit World.

He only stopped when they reached a familiar place. The drug dealer Ralph Baker’s house. There were two spirits there, one that was a man sized canvas voodoo doll stuck with multiple syringes, and the other just a vague shadow cast upon the house’s exterior. The pack wouldn’t have thought it was a spirit if it wasn’t arguing with the doll in the First Tongue.

David knew exactly what kinds of spirits they were the moment he saw them. The doll stuck with syringes was an addiction spirit, and the shadow spirit was a fear spirit. He saw spirits like them plenty of times on the streets and in asylums, with them being some of the most common ones he saw.

The two spirits were arguing over who would get to influence Ralph on the other side of the Gauntlet to produce essence for them. The fear spirit wanted to make the pitiful drug dealer break down and have a panic attack, and the addiction spirit wanted the dealer to assuage the panic attack with drugs.

Morrison laughed and asked the pack, “What do you wanna do?”

David kept quiet but he sided with the fear spirit. Not because he thought it was in the right, but because he was biased against Ralph. He wanted Ralph to suffer, not just for threatening him with a gun the day before but also for spreading drugs throughout the town. David also didn’t want the addiction spirit and its needles anywhere near himself. So why should Ralph be able to escape, if even briefly, with drugs?

“I wish I had some popcorn,” said Jesse. “I wanna see them fight over him.”

Both Tsu’mara and David grimaced. They knew if the spirits started fighting, trying to yank the drug dealer and addict between themselves, it’d cause a lethal reaction from causing a massive panic attack while on drugs. David had seen plenty of people on the streets die like that. He only understood now that he was Uratha and learned he wasn’t hallucinating spirits that what was about to happen was the cause of those deaths most of the time.

He didn’t know how Tsu’mara knew that Ralph would die if the spirits fought, but she did and told Jesse that Ralph would.

Jesse’s mood changed after being informed that, becoming upset and snapping, “Well I don’t know how to go about it! We’re Iron Masters, we deal with humans more than we do spirits.”

Lucas put a hand on Jesse’s shoulder and tried to calm the feminine man down, saying “That’s fine, everyone has their role in the pack. You and Tsu’mara excel in the more violent things in the Mundane, and David and I excel here and with Spirits. Just look at how you two did with the meth lab.”

Jesse smiled slightly, “I guess that’s true.”

David watched Lucas console Jesse and couldn’t help but notice that even Lucas seemed like he was unsure about how to deal with the quarreling spirits.

Tsu’mara growled barged past the three of them, shoulder checking all of them as she shifted to Dalu form. She snarled at both of the spirits who immediately stopped their bickering, cowed by the threat of violence from the Rahu.

She stared down the addiction spirit and snarled in the first tongue, “I don’t understand why you’re so obsessed with this one specific person when there’s plenty of other people to feed off. There’s plenty of alcoholics at the clubs you could feed off of.”

The addiction spirit answered, stammering as he told the warrior snarling at him, “I’m aware but I’ve been feeding off him for years. This-” It pointed at the shadowy spirit, “-fear interloper needs to leave.”

“I want you both to leave!” snarled Tsu’mara.

The addiction turned to Morrison and complained with a petulant whine, “You’re going back on our deal, Howlmore.”

Morrison held up his hands and said in the First Tongue, “They’re not my pack and can choose to run you off if they want.”

David looked at Lucas, who still looked unsure, and decided to approach the addiction spirit. He told them in the First Tongue, “You already get plenty from Ralph. You said yourself that there are plenty of other people to feed off of. The fear spirit should get a turn with him.”

The addiction spirit looked to Morrison to get the elder to back them up. He did not.

“The Spirit Master made a ruling and since there’s no Walker Between in the pack his ruling takes precedence in this matter,” said Morrison in the First tongue. Spirit Master and Walker Between being what Ithaeur and Elodoth meant, respectively, in the First Tongue.

The addiction spirit looked over the pack, and noticed the glowing silver auspice sigil underneath Lucas’ shirt. It jabbed a canvas finger at him and said petulantly to Morrison, “There’s two of them!”

“Uhh,” said Lucas, surprised he suddenly got dragged into the argument. “I agree with David.”

“They’re both in agreement. The ruling stands,” Morrison said in the First Tongue with a shrug. He then did a shooing motion towards the addiction spirit with a hand.

The addiction spirit walked off with a huff down the road, making its way to one of the clubs on main street.

The fear spirit’s shadowy form grew, climbing against the wall of the house. Everyone felt an increased tingle of fear in the air and pushed into the Mundane as the spirit increased the resonance of its domain upon the drug dealer on the other side.

Morrison ushered the pack away as the fear spirit started feeding. He told them as they started making their way back to Main Street, “It’s been my policy here to allow spirits to influence events on the other side but never cross in order for them to generate their own sources of essence. Makes it easier to deal with a whole host of spirits by myself.”

He continued as the pack got back onto Main Street, “Some territories are stricter and don’t allow that at all. Since this is your territory now, you can punish them for doing that if you want but it’ll be a bitch to enforce with just the four of you.”

“Isn’t letting them influence the Mundane a bad idea?” asked Lucas.

Morrison waved him off, “Not all influencing is bad. Something like a healing spirit influencing a doctor would be a benefit. It only becomes a problem when they go overboard or try to cross the gauntlet which is where we come in. Asides, influencing shitbags like Baker isn’t that bothersome.”

He then turned his attention to David and told him, “The addiction actually did have a claim to Ralph. But now that the territory is owned by your pack, it’s your pack’s decision whether to uphold my old deals.”

They continued back to the main road, down the NV-321, stopping at the Million Dollar Courthouse. Which, in the Spirit World, was a massive, imposing fortress of a building. The bricks of the building were made of stacks of cash, the columns of the building were studded with silver dollars and the windows were all stained glass with scenes of the justice system.

David was excited to see the stained glass. But as he got closer, something was off about them. Upon closer inspection the scenes depicted in the glass showed not scenes of justice but scenes of extreme corruption. The window with Lady Justice, she was peeking from under the blindfold; another with a set of scales, a judge was holding one of the sides down literally putting a finger on the scale. Another window was of a politician at a podium addressing a crowd, drawn in the style of a late-19th-century political cartoon. The caption coming from the politician, in the First Tongue, read simply “Lies”.

David backed away from the windows in surprise and noticed the other corrupt details of the courthouse. The Seal of Nevada, the Seal of Lincoln County, and the Seal of the United States all appear in front of the doorway in the front portico. But each was inverted and turned upside down. The American Flag flew at half mast and upside down on a flagpole out front.

He sniffled and suppressed a sneeze, the building had a strange scent to it. The others also noticed the strange smell.

Morrison smirked at their reactions and said, “Shift to Urhan and you’ll be able to tell what that smell is.”

David didn’t want to shift, the pain of it still hasn’t abated despite Colin’s assurances. So he didn’t want to shift unless it was completely necessary. Jesse and Tsu’mara didn’t seem to want to shift either. As to why, David didn’t know nor asked.

Only Lucas shifted, but even then it was only his mouth he shifted. David quickly turned away, disturbed by the appearance of a wolf muzzle on a human face.

Lucas sniffed at the air before shifting his back to normal and said, confused, “It smells like, uh, satire and irony?”

Morrison chuckled, “Yep. The building hates the public as the public hates it.”

Tsu’mara gave an amused scoff, “That seems about right. Just like when I was back in the military.”

Morrison walked up to the court’s door, flashed his deputy badge and snapped, “I’m coming in. Warrant be damned.”

The doors then swung opened by themselves, creaking in a way that sounded almost like chuckling.

Morrison ushered the pack in and said, “Help yourselves to the accommodations. We’ll only be staying a short while and anything you get from the gift shop is on the County’s dime.”

Something about Morrison’s tone sounded off. Like he was lying, but badly. But David had seen Morrison lie before to the Sheriff, so he knew he could do so convincingly. He looked at Morrison, longer and more directly than what was polite, and when Morrison noticed he gestured with his head to the gift shop.

David shrugged and walked off to the gift shop with the others, the building creaked as they walked around, browsing the gift shop’s stock. None of what he saw interested David, poor quality pens and pencils, notepads with bad quality paper, and lighters.

He paused.

He turned back to the lighters and picked one up. It was a zippo lighter, etched with the Lincoln County seal on one side and an image of Million Dollar Courthouse on the other. But they were Spirit World’s reflection, so the seal was upside down and the courthouse was how it looked in the Spirit World.

He looked at Morrison and asked, “And we can take stuff back to the Mundane?”

Morrison nodded, “Not just spirits can cross from the Shadow. You can take objects from it too.”

David shrugged and pocketed the lighter. Lucas found a book, which looked to be a bank ledger, and started copying numbers down.

“Huh,” said Tsu’mara, holding a box and looking at it curiously, “The place actually sells ammo.”

She pocketed it and looked over to Jesse, as did David and Lucas, when Jesse said, “Ohhh, someone’s perverted.”

Jesse was holding a pair of lacey, black lingerie. He pocketed them for himself.

As the pack each took things from the gift shop for themselves, the creaking of the building subsided. Floorboards no longer creaked underneath them as they walked. The lights stopped buzzing and flickering.

Just as David noticed that the building was doing so in accordance with their actions, Morrison called out, “Alright, time to go to the convenience store for free gas.”

The building creaked again as they started filing out, again sounding like it was laughing.

Morrison didn’t say anything until they were out of the courthouse, and out of sight of the building, “The courthouse is a spirit of corruption and abuse of power. But, seemingly contradictory, it’s a very safe place for you lot to be. As long as you play along with abusing your power and authority as Uratha.”

“Like how we’re pretending to be your grandkids in order to get jobs easier?” asked Tsu’mara?

“Exactly,” said Morrison. “It’s also really senile. So it’s very easy to act like you’re abusing your power even if you’re not. So if any of you are bad liars, you’ll be fine.”

David let a short ‘ah’ at that, understanding why the Old Man’s tone was a bit weird in the Courthouse.

“The puppet display in the Mundane certainly doesn’t help its senility,” Morrison then said.

“The WHAT?” said David.

“Yeah, the courthouse has a mock court with a bunch of mannequins,” said Lucas. He then softly elbowed David, who growled at him, and told David, “You’d know that if you took up my offer to check out the town with me when we first moved in.”

David shuffled away, glowering at Lucas.

Morrison continued, ignoring David’s attitude, “The courthouse is also a really safe place if you play along with its nature. It’s also a good place to hold down in an emergency, or lay a trap for the Pure if they come sniffing around.”

“Now,” said Morrison, walking down the main road, “Just one more sport before we leave.”

Jesse looked the other way from where Morrison was walking and said, “But the grocery store is the other way.”

“He was just saying that to play along with the Courthouse’s spirit,” said Lucas.

“Oh,” said Jesse.

Morrison led them to their last stop in his tour of Pioche’s spiritual reflection, a familiar place. The cabins. Their appearance in the Spirit World was like a microcosm of the rest of Pioche. The middle cabin, Morrison’s cabin, was pristine. The furthest cabin, the wrecked cabin was little more than a pile of broken wood. And the cabin closest to the den, the one that was half finished when the pack moved in and that Jesse and Tsu’mara were continuing the renovation on, was just like the Gem Theater. One half was pristine and the other a ruin, separated directly down the middle of the cabin.

David was too busy looking at the differing states that he failed to notice the glaring absence.

“Where’s the house?” asked Tsu’mara.

David looked over to where the house was, where it should have been. Instead, it was just an empty plot with a hole in the ground in the centre of it. Rocks lined the entrance of the hole, and the hole was only big enough for them to crawl into in Hishu, or walk in in Urhan.

They all took turns to look inside the entrance of the hole, and what they saw was a small cave with a pile of loose furs in the middle of it. It was a literal wolf den. The furs also had a multitude of scents attached to them and all of them familiar; fruity, old books, paint, coffee. It was their wolf den.

“This is the house?” asked Tsu’mara.

Morrison shook his head, “No. The house was built so recently that it doesn't exist in the Shadow. It’s what’s known as a Place That Isn’t and spirits can’t notice them.”

“Then what’s this then?” asked Tsu’mara, pointing at the wolf den.

“That’s your lot’s impact on the Shadow, not the house’s. Because Uratha are half spirit, your actions impact the Shadow pretty much immediately,” explained Morrison. “This area being your den also exudes an aura that terrifies spirits, so they’d avoid it. Only the most ballsiest or desperate of spirits would dare come near an Uratha’s den.”

“Then what the hell is hanging around the library?” Lucas muttered to himself.

“What?” asked David.

Lucas ignored him and Morrison either didn’t notice or cared about what he had said and continued lecturing them, “In time, the den here will get larger and change the lay of the land around it. How? I can’t tell you, each pack’s actions change their Den’s reflection in unique ways. You should see a Storm Lord pack’s den in the Shadow. Now that is how a den should look.”

The pack all rolled their eyes at that last comment.

“Now come on,” said Morrison, walking off down the road towards the small wooden tower that was visible from the house, both in the Mundane and in the Spirit World, Mine Head.

As they got closer, they expected to see something about the mine entrance to be different than it was in Mundane, but it was exactly the same. Eerily so. Morrison led them into the mineshaft, down into the eerie darkness that seemed to cling everything. Not even David’s new lighter seemed to light anything, even with the flame intensified, forcing the pack to navigate by following Morrison’s scent, which smelled almost entirely of alcohol.

Eventually, something did manage to breach the darkness. A weak, flickering light was visible at the end of the tunnel. David shivered as he saw it. A light at the end of the tunnel was supposed to mean hope, but David didn’t feel that. He felt a faint feeling of fear and despair. The air felt like it was becoming thin, feeling slightly harder to breathe.

“Old Man?” David asked warily.

“It’s fine,” said Morrison without looking back. “That’s where we’re meant to be going.”

He continued to lead them onwards until they reached the source of the weak light at the end of the tunnel. It was coming from an old antique mining helmet, the exposed flame of its acetylene lamp flickering and looking like it’d go out at any moment. The helmet was on the head of a skeleton that still had scraps of clothes on its bones.

David and Lucas looked at the helmet in confusion. The helmet was old, very old.. The lamp should have run out of acetylene long before the body was fully decomposed

“Is that?” they asked in unison.

“A locus, yes,” said Morrison. “It’s weak right now but I’ve been working on making it stable but it’s gonna be a long while before it is. So no taking any essence from it, and don’t use it to cross over unless it’s an emergency. Having a locus right next to your den is a very valuable, and very rare privilege. So take care of it and don’t let anything happen to it.”

Jesse nudged the skeleton with a foot and asked, “Is that a real skeleton or something the Shadow created?”

“It’s real,” answered Morrison. “The mine had a cave-in a long while ago and the poor son of a bitch got trapped. He was trapped for so long, and experienced such an overwhelming amount of fear and despair that he created a locus and crossed over just before he died.”

David looked at the skeleton in dim lamplight and felt a great deal of pity, but also some amazement. It had taken an entire office of people being abused for ages to create the punch clock locus, and it required god knows how many patients getting raped by Doctor Foley for who knows how long to create the therapy couch locus. Just how much did that miner despair in order to create a locus all on his own?

“Speaking of which,” said Morrison, snapping David out of his thoughts, “It’s too cramped in the Mundane’s tunnels because of the cave-in, so everyone’s gonna have to shift to Urhan.”

The pack looked at David expectantly. He shied away from their gaze, he didn’t want to shift unless it was necessary. But the mine was caved-in on the Mundane side and there were five of them there. Six if you count Tsu’mara’s massive size as two people.

He brought a hand to his mouth, and after several hard, anxious breaths, bit down.

But the familiar soul rending pain didn’t come that would knock him out from using essence to shift instantly didn’t come. Instead he felt like he got hit by numerous simultaneous blows from orderlies. He let out a scream and dropped to all fours.

He stood, panting in Urhan form in both pain and confusion. It was still torture to shift but the shifting wasn’t as bad as it was just earlier in the evening.

“What? How?” he asked in the First Tongue.

Lucas rolled his eyes and told David in an annoyed tone, “Colin told you multiple times now that shifting will hurt less in time.”

“But earlier,” David countered in the First Tongue.

“He told you that you need to tether yourself more to the Spirit. Travelling to, and spending time in the Shadow is one of the ways to do it,” said Lucas, more annoyed. He shook his head, “The Bone Shadows really didn’t have any time to teach you properly, did they?”

David snarled at the Iron Master Ithaeur.

“Cut it out,” snapped Morrison, “Hurry up and shift so you can fight it out in your den away from where you could damage the locus.”

He then pinched the bridge of hs nose and grumbled, “Why the fuck did it have to be two bloody Ithaeur? I swear, multiple Rahu are easier than this.”

The rest then shifted into Urhan, and gathered around the mining helmet locus. With the elderly gray wolf in between the two younger black wolves to seperate them after they kept growling and snapping at each other.

“Now focus. Meditate,” ordered Morrison in the First Tongue.

David ceased his growls at Lucas and sat on his haunches. He closed his eyes and focused on the fear and despair that hung in the air. It was so faint, like a thin smoke that the slightest breeze would blow away. He knew just focusing on that wouldn’t work, it was too small an effect and he was too inexperienced. So he focused on what he was thinking before, thinking about how the man, whose remains laid in front of him, would have felt. Trapped metres under the ground, in the dark unable to move. Barely able to breathe. How long was he like that? Hours? Days? What eventually killed him? Exposure? Dehydration? Internal injuries?

He shook his head. He himself had been through so much horror in his life, but he couldn’t even imagine how the man felt trapped in the mine alone in complete and total darkness.

As he realised that, he felt as if he was surfacing from being underwater. Once fully surfaced he opened his eyes to see the skeleton gone, with only the dimly shining mining helmet laying on the ground.

He looked around, but again, only saw the Old Man and Lucas with him. After several minutes a familiar maned wolf, and african wild dog appeared, swaying slightly until they gained their bearing.

Morrison got up and led them out of the mine. He wasn’t kidding about it being cramped. Even in Urhan there were parts where their shoulders were grazing against the stony ceiling. With Tsu’mara’s large size, she had to crawl during those segments of the trek through the abandoned mine.

Finally, they reached a part of the mine where they no longer had to stay in Urhan. They all shifted back to Hishu except David, who followed behind like a black shadow. They reached the entrance to the mine and Morrison took out a key and unlocked the metal gate blocking them from the outside world.

“Good thing that gate’s here,” said Lucas. “Will keep people from finding the Locus.”

“Who do you think put the gate in?” scoffed Morrison.

They all filed out of the mine and saw the eastern horizon starting to brighten, the sun was about to start rising soon. David didn’t realise they had spent the entire night in the Spirit World.

“I have to head back to Boot Hill to get my car back,” said Morrison, locking the gate to the mine. “I’ll be busy all day but I’ll be back for dinner later tonight.”

“Do you have any culinary preferences, Elder?” asked Jesse.

Lucas and David shared a look. They both recognised that it’d be the first time he joined them for dinner instead of eating in his cabin. They also both noted, without saying anything to each other, that Morrison was ignoring the fact he told them to leave him alone.

Morrison shifted back into Urhan and lopped off into the darkness back towards Booth Hill Cemetery.

Left alone outside the mine entrance the pack left towards the house within sight just up the road from where they were. They separated once in the house, David heading off to the library.

David stood in the dark, cold library looking at the couch he had been using as a bed. His ears pinned back, what he had been pretending to use as a bed. The couch was so uncomfortable to sleep on, and the library so cold that he couldn’t get any proper sleep. Not to mention the horrible, lonely dreams he’d get whenever he did get any sleep. It all forced him to sneak into the bedroom with the others to get any amount of decent sleep, and would sneak out in the mornings so they wouldn’t know he had even been there.

But they did know. David let out a small whine. They always knew.

He turned away from the couch, and with his tail between his legs, slunk towards the bedroom.

When the other three, already back in Urhan, saw him slink into the bedroom, they all gave different reactions. Lucas ignored him and slumped down in the middle of the bed next to where Colin was sleeping in a small, tawny furred ball. Tsu’mara looked at David and gave a proud, self-satisfied huff. Jesse, once David stepped onto the bed, got excited and went to try and join David in the far corner of the bed the shaggy black wolf was standing in.

David pinned his ears back and raised his hackles, he snapped and snarled at Jesse as the maned wolf tried to get close.

The constant snarls and snaps woke up Colin, who looked around groggy and confused. When he saw David, hackles raised, in the corner he jumped up excitedly.

David snarled at Colin too, despite how much doing so felt like it was wrenching his heart. But that didn’t stop Colin from trying to come closer, the red wolf laid down on his belly and cautiously crawled up to the snarling black wolf.

David continued to growl and snarl. Why wouldn’t they leave him alone? He just wanted to sleep. Colin continued to crawl up to and curled up into a ball at David’s paws to go back to sleep.

With David letting Colin come close, despite his vocal protests, Jesse took that as permission to approach as well. But he stopped when both Colin and David growled at him. The maned wolf gave an indignant huff and joined Tsu’mara and Lucas in the centre of the bed.

Surprised that Colin growled at Jesse as well, David stopped his growling and looked at the red wolf below him in shock.

“Sleep,” Colin said in the First Tongue.

David’s hackles fell and he slowly, and awkwardly laid down, trying to avoid getting too close to Colin. But with how he put himself in the corner, and how Colin curled up against David’s paws, he was forced to wedge himself in between the wall behind him and Colin. He put his head on top of Colin with a huff. He tried to hold onto his anger and indignation, but the bed was so comfortable compared to the library’s couch, and the room was so much warmer when compared to the library, that his eyes very quickly started to droop.

Just as sleep started taking him, and knowing he wouldn’t remember it, he let himself relax and he curled up around Colin, rubbing his head slightly into Colin’s fur breathing in the calming, fruity smell.