ONE

Arriving back in Highgate Cemetery in London, the travellers are greeted by a sandwich-munching Gaudium, who has thought to bring food for them all. Returning to their hotel, they summon first the spirit of Ambriel, who resumes her place inside Sam, and then Aristarchus. As they are wrenched back from the Abyss, Ambriel and Aristarchus find themselves travelling with a third demon, Hemanndu, who explains that she too has been called to London. With Charlie departed, Aristarchus is forced to seek out a new host and he finds one in Joseph, a single parent with a seven year-old daughter called Jasmine.

Guided by Beltaracten, the five Fallen decide to beard the lion in his den and pay Sarisel a visit. However, when they reach the house, the Earthbound has gone. The entire garden has been dug up and moved.

A short time later, Beltaracten is contacted by Lalaroth, a Devourer in Sarisel's service. He apologises for not contacting Beltaracten before they moved, but the Defiler was nowhere to be found. On behalf of his master, he requests a service from Beltaracten. There is a container vessel in Portsmouth harbour that is being held up by customs. Due to the nature of its cargo, Sarisel would prefer the vessel not to be searched and would like Beltaracten to use his considerable influence to get the vessel released. Beltaracten correctly guesses that the cargo is made up of human children. Sarisel does not want the children to be discovered and authorises Beltaracten to destroy the boat should anything go wrong…

In a dream, Sam is approached by the spirit of woman, whom she encountered in Binah on the Tree of Life. She explains that a change in the world is imminent. She has sent one of her own to aid Sam, the one called Hemanndu. Following the spirit's advice, Sam locates Hemmadu at the Happy Bunny Lap Dance Club, where she has possessed a pole dancer called Candy Munroe. Candy was shot by a punter and it was her dying breath that summoned drew Hemanndu from the Abyss.

Beltaracten tells the others about Lalaroth's/Sarisel's request and he, Aristarchus and Azazel concoct a plan to rescue the children. Beltaracten will convince the harbour master to release the vessel, but while it is still close to shore, Aristarchus will lay a path into the container and use it to smuggle the children out. Raphael will take care of the children while Aristarchus conceals himself within the container. Beltaracten, meanwhile, will have set explosives throughout the boat - 'in case of emergencies' - and will be travelling as part of the crew. Once the vessel is in international waters, Aristarchus will attack Beltaracten while Azazel steps out of the spirit realm and drives the crew off of the boat. Once they are in the water, Beltaracten will use the attack as an excuse to destroy the vessel and any evidence that the children have already been rescued.

Unfortunately, things do not quite go according to plan.

Within the vessel is Bravakh, an Earthbound Defiler. This monstrous slug can sense Aristarchus and Azazel, even concealed within the spirit realm. Worse, he knows their names. When Aristarchus emerges, he finds himself bound to the deck, unable to lift his feet, and Azazel is compelled to turn on his friends. Bravakh, slowly crawls out of the prow of the vessel, the dozens of mouths in his flesh laughing horribly. Aristarchus detonates one of the bombs, which, unbeknownst to him, damages Bravakh's reliquary and causes him to cry out in pain. In retaliation, the Earthbound summons a storm and the deck is lashed by lighting. Protected by his armour, Aristarchus shrugs off the attack, but the crew are less fortunate. Bravakh then vomits a stream of acid and fingers and eyeballs that starts to eat away at the Malefactor's metal hide. Lifting his enchanted pistol, Aristarchus fires shot after shot into the Earthbound.

Stepping from the spirit realm, Azazel charges towards Beltaracten, yelling at him to get off of the boat. Believing the Slayer is still on his side, Beltaracten detonates the remaining explosives. Azazel, however, has been dominated by Bravakh and he uses his powers to rot Beltaracten's flesh. Stunned, the Defiler is caught in the huge explosion as the boat goes up. The force of the explosion knocks Azazel back into the spirit realm and to safety.

Amid the wreckage of the exploding ship, Bravakh dissipates in a wave of ectoplasm as his reliquary sinks to the sea floor. John Ridley's blackened corpse bobs momentarily on the surface before following it, while Beltaracten's spirit is pulled back into the Abyss.

Sam and Candy are at Joseph's flat babysitting Jasmine. They are in the lounge when three monstrous humans kick the front door down. One has foliage growing out of his head and thorns sprouting where his eyes should be. The second has a vestigial second set of arms and carries a black-lacquered staff with silver hands at either end. There third is covered with striped fug. As he leans forward, claws sprout from his fingertips. Jasmine screams.

Sam/Ambriel reacts fastest, calling on her angelic aura. Devils were the leaders among angels and Ambriel was a general among Devils. She calls upon that authority to dominate the mutated thralls. However, the thralls were just a distraction because, when Ambriel turns around, Jasmine has disappeared. Ambriel starts to interrogate the three thralls, but their master is watching proceedings through their eyes. Suddenly, Ambriel and Hemanndu double over, wracked by pain as limbs distort and nerves fire at random. When they are in control of their bodies again, the thralls are gone.

Raphael telephones the police and asks them to look after the rescued children. This they do, but they also take Raphael to the police station with them to assist in their enquiries. The following morning, he is released, though he is followed. With Aristarchus's help, Raphael is able to lose his tail.

Once in Joseph's flat, Raphael scries for Jasmine. He learns that she is in the boot of a foreign yellow car being driven along a dirt track. Describing the car and the number plate, Azazel identifies it as Chinese. Aristarchus reaches deep within himself and is able to locate the path that was used to draw Jasmine away. He is eager to leave, but before they do, they summon Beltaracten, who takes a fireman as his host, and gather supplies. Then they leave London for Yunnan province in southwest China.

TWO

The six Fallen - Ambriel, Aristarchus, Azazel, Azariah, Beltaracten and Hemanndu - arrive outside a town still recovering from the effects of a devastating earthquake six months ago. Aristarchus, in his tormented aspect, remains on his path, at an angle to reality, while the others enter the village, stepping over the chickens scuttling about. Beltaracten takes a moment to shift his appearance so that he blends in with the locals. With the exception of Azazel and Beltaracten, they are greeted with suspicious glances. All of them are met with silence.

Ambriel spies a girl of nineteen sitting in a doorway and crying softly. She asks her what is wrong and learns that she has given up her baby. In exchange for $25, she has handed her daughter over a man called Wang who is taking her to a better life in Guangdong. In the village, she would likely starve, but in the more prosperous province she will go to a family that will love her and be able to provide for her. Ambriel learns that many of the villagers give up their children in this way, both to give them a better life and because they can make more for themselves selling children than chickens.

Raphael climbs the incline up to the monastery where he is greeted by one of the monks. They talk about the situation in the village, a situation exacerbated by the lack of decent contraception and sex education and by China's strict family planning laws. Raphael wants to help, but does not see how he can with the resources at his disposal. Saddened, he and the others set off in pursuit of the child smugglers, not least because one of their vehicles is a yellow car.

They find the yellow car in the stone forest of Shi-Lin. It has broken down and has been abandoned because of it. They find some of Jasmine's hair in the boot, but the girl herself is nowhere to be found.

A short distance away is a ramshackle hut and Ambriel hears crying coming from within. She creeps closer and peers through the window. Inside are two Chinese girls, one of eleven and one of eight, and a baby. The eight year-old is rocking the baby, trying to calm it, while the eleven year-old tries to feed it. It is clear to Ambriel that neither has any idea how to care for a baby. She introduces herself, using her powers to calm them. The girls are sisters, Sun Xue (the eldest) and Sun Jiang Li. The refer to the baby as Wei, which means precious. Wang and the others left the three of them in the hut when the car broken down. There wasn't room for all of them in the truck. The girls insist that Wang will come back for them. Ambriel explains that she and the others are looking for Wang and suggests that the girls come with her.

The group is heading for the railway station in Kunming, but to get there, they have to cross part of the rainforest of Xishuangbana. Golden monkeys swing through the trees, hooting to one another, and Hemanndu spies an Asian elephant, all but concealed within the dense undergrowth.

Sarisel's three mutated thralls choose this moment to attack. They look even more hideous than before and Sun Xue runs, though Sun Jiang Li stands her ground. Once again, Ambriel attempts to dominate them, but this time the thralls just laugh at her. Their master has made them more powerful than ever. Aristarchus steps off of his supernatural path, appearing behind the thralls, and attacks them with multiple sets of limbs. The staff-wielder parries while his comrade with grass for hair quickens the growth of the plants around him. Beltaracten and Aristarchus are soon enveloped by tangling vines. Dropping to all fours, Hemanndu shifts from her human aspect to sheep-form and calmly chews her way through the vines, freeing her companions. While Raphael looks after Wei, Ambriel runs after Sun Xue, using her gifts to calm her. Beltaracten becomes a creature of acid while the furry thrall tears a large chunk out of Aristarchus's armour.

The furry thralls next attack is blocked by Aristarchus, however, and Beltaracten swamps the thrall with the staff, his acid slowly eating away at him. Beltaracten also takes a moment to summon up a micro-storm, it's lighting striking the plant-manipulating thrall. Azazel springs from the shadows, channelling his decay power through his scythe and Hemanndu easily dodges and attack by the green-haired thrall. Aristarchus lashes out, releasing the rage built up by his fear for his daughter, and kills both the plant thrall and his furry colleague. Beltaracten shifts back to human form, letting the acid-burned corpse of the staff wielder flop unsupported to the ground.

Aristarchus examines the thrall's staff and identifies it as the Hands of Azag-Rhan, a minor Devourer weapon that boosts the wielders physical abilities. He gifts it to Hemanndu. Finally reaching Kunming, the travellers board a train bound for Guangzhou, the capital city of Gungdong province.

The train rattles away from Dian Chi Lake and follows the line of the Li River as it flows eastwards through Guangxi. Warm rain falls onto the roof of their carriage as they watch water buffalo pausing to drink and fisherman plying their trade away from the banks. Hemanndu feels it first, the tremor beneath her feet, subtly different to the vibration of the train. Then the tremor grows and more people notice it. Panic mounts. Aristarchus does not hesitate. In an instant, he is at the front of the train. An earthquake has hit, a small, localised one, but enough to damage the supports of the bridge enough to make the whole structure collapse. And the train is travelling too fast to stop in time.

Aristarchus focuses his will. In his former host, he was a builder, drawing upon Charlie's own inclinations. Now attached to Joseph, Aristarchus finds himself tending more and more towards the Lore of Paths. He reaches for that lore now, weaving a path where one is not, linking the two ends of the chasm and funnelling the entire train along his path. The effort almost breaks him, but triumph restores his sapped energies. The train is safe.

Arriving in Guangzhou, Raphael once more scries for Jasmine. He sees children being sold out of the back of a truck and, with Azazel's help, he is able to locate it. Aristarchus grabs Wang and transports his cohorts directly to jail while Azazel puts in an anonymous call to the police to round up the buyers and the children. Ambriel compels Wang to tell the truth and from him they learn that Jasmine has already been sold as part of a group bought by a Mr Lawrence. When Wang catches sight of Azazel in his apocalyptic form, however, he recoils in terror and suffers a fatal heart attack.

Visiting the docks, Raphael is able to learn that Mr Lawrence chartered a vessel to take him (and his cargo) to Hong Kong. Resigned to returning to where it all began, the Fallen, together with the children in their care, board a train to Shenzhen...