Corey really threw himself into Garou life once he was 'rescued'. It was definately the thing for him. However, after joining a pack, he found that it wasn't all fighting the Wyrm and being able to do what you want. He was leader for a time (who wouldn't want to be a pack leader!) but found that rather than being able to lead his pack into combat as a great general, they were getting mixed up in situations that require a certain amount of diplomacy - not exactly his forte.
He was feeling a bit lost and didn't object when Abby challenged him for leadership. Corey went and chatted to Nadine, who suggested that he couldn't really lead others until he was quite sure of who he was himself. Sure, he knew he was Garou, and he knew about humans, but what about the Glasswalker side of his life? Or the spirit side? She suggested that he might want to go for a wander in the Umbra and see what turned up. Often spiritual crises have a very real result in the spirit realms, and things can be worked out if you approach them in the right frame of mind.
Corey decided to go for it. He contacted Abby and said he would be unavailable for a few days for personal reasons and then headed out into the Umbra.
Wandering around for a while, eventually the Umbral mists closed in. Corey kept wandering, alert for danger. After a time of travel and many adventures, he found the MoonPath he was on opened out into a Lunae (a crossroads). However as he stepped out into the Lunae, it expanded out suddenly and dropped away in a stomach clenching fashion. Corey now found himself on a flat, hot plain. A short distance away a stone circle stands, made of round, red boulders piled up. He heads that way on the grounds that there's not much else to see. As he approaches, he can see that there are three beings sitting in the circle, with their backs to the central pillar. One is an old aboriginal woman; the second is a bunyip crinos; the third is a male thylacine. Corey says "Wotcha". The woman says "We will have been always going to wait for you to come." Corey blinks. The crinos says "You will have been standing in danger of losing yourselves." The thylacine says "I have been going to see you running along with the night in your hands. You are have going to have killed the moon." Corey doesn't look too impressed with any of these procalamations.
The woman jestures to her left and says that Corey must travel this way. He looks a bit doubtful but starts to move along that direction. She seems to float along without moving, always facing him and always with her back to the pillar, and keeps pointing to the left. Corey keeps watching and as he does one circle, the oppressive heat starts to fade, and the sky seems to be dimmer. The woman becomes to crinos form, but continues to point. Another circuit, and the heat has faded further, and the crinos becomes the thylacine. The thylacine continues to point and then suddenly stops at the mouth of a large fissure heading downwards. "This is your path". Corey figures this is how spirit quests are meant to go, so he heads on down, in lupus form. As he descends, it gets cooler. The fissure becomes a worked corridor and comes out into a long chamber. Torches burn in holders, scattering firelight across the chamber. Corey walks forward a bit and sees someone lying on a slab, fully clothed. He checks them out - its an older guy, a bit scarred up, and fairly certainly dead. The corridor stretches onwards, full of other bodies, none of them decayed, some old, some young, all of them dead, but also waiting.
After a number of cross corridors, the passage bends and heads up, entering a chamber with many archways leading out of it. In the middle of the chamber is another stone slab, with no body on it, and the aboriginal woman behind it. She jestures at the slab and once Corey gets closer he can see that a spearhead is laying on top of it. Once he gets really close to it, he can see that its not a spearhead after all, but a knife designed for crinos hands. He suspects it is a klaive of some sort. "You will have always been coming here. It, too, was waiting." A little leery about the "kill the moon" comment, Corey cautiously picks up the knife. He can feel the spirit inside stirring sleepily, and against his better judgement, he attunes to it. Drawn for an eternal instant into the world of the spirit in the knife, he knows that its name is Wyrmfoe and that it exists to kill things of the wyrm. When Corey comes back to himself, the woman is gone, as are all but one of the doors.
Feeling resigned to following the one true path, he heads out of the door and into a forest. It is cool, but not cold. The forest is Europeany, not Australian. He walks along for a while, but feels that he's getting lost. Looking about, Corey can see a really small figure staring at him, hanging from upside down the branch. He says hello. The figure says hello. Introductions are made, and it seems that Corey is talking to Grocht. He asks if Grocht knows his way through the forest, which Grocht apparently does. After a bit of bargaining, Corey messes about and amused Grocht enough to encourage Grocht to guide him through the forest. Grocht is disturbingly spiderlike, and unlike any other spirit that Corey has seen. Grocht leads Corey to a road that cuts through the forest like a knife. To the right is a large moon, just on the horizon. To the left is a dimmer sun. Grocht says to go left, so Corey heads that way. As he goes along, the surroundings get more and more wintery, although still beautiful in a cold and frozen way.
Over time, the moon gets bigger, it gets colder and a dark castle appears. The gardens around the castle are extensive, and seem to have been crafted specifically for winter. As Corey approaches, the drawbridge lowers and he walks across. Looking down he can see frozen fish in the icy moat. On the otherside of the drawbridge is a considerable amount of activity. Knights in armor move about, some on horseback. A welcoming party stands and greets Corey on behalf of Princess Marianna. The lead figure introduces himself as Umture and says that they are honoured to have a warrior of the Garou join them. Corey is conducted through the rather luxurious castle to a warm waiting room. Eventually a young, beautiful woman enters the room, dressed in a dark blue gown. She is equisiately beautiful and Corey is a bit awed. She asks Corey what he is doing here and of news of the outside world. It becomes clear that she is trapped in the castle due to her nature, which is that of the fae - she can no longer move in the mortal realms, and longs for news of that place.
Corey spends several days here as a guest of Princess Marianna. He tells her of his pack's adventures and other stuff that he knows, and she listens avidly. He is allowed to watch her knights practice combatting one another and has long walks with Marianna (who appears to get younger each day until she is only slightly older than Corey). Eventually though, Corey says he must leave and the princess and a contingient of knights ride with Corey to the edge of her realm. As he wanders off, waving goodbye, it occurs to him that he really doesn't want to tell anyone about anything to do with Marianna or that he was even there. He'll just tell them about the burial chamber and the knife.
Corey goes on to have many adventures and meets a number of spirits of the city. He is also approached by a Cockroach spirit, who feels that he hasn't been taking enough care of himself, and that it should look out for him. Eventually feeling a bit more himself, Corey makes it back to the Cemetary late on Sunday evening. He tells the Sept Elders of his many exciting adventures.
Corey borrows Cole's car and heads out to Rippling Waters. Cole's stereo rocks!. When he gets there, its after dark, and the people at the Ranger's shelter tell him that Bret isn't there, but they could ring if he'd like. Bret hears Corey's short form "I need advice about something I've done that involves the Fianna", and Bret says he should come over. Corey gets a map and drives around the crater to Bret's family farm. Bret is waiting on the doorstep and suggests they go for a walk.
Corey basically brain-dumps out the whole messy story, the original version that he knew, and then what they found out in the Atrocity Realm. Bret sucks his teeth a bit at the "and we think he was a Fianna kinfolk" bit and walks in quiet. Corey says that he wants to say sorry, and Bret thinks that he will be looking for the Garou of the Sept of Tumbling Silver, which is a Fianna sept in the Wollemi National Park, near Mt Hargreaves (where the events happened). Bret says that they will probably ask him to perform a symbolic service for the Sept, maybe 2 weeks or so worth, but that given the circumstances, it will probably not be held against him. In addition, Bret suggests that having a Fianna garou come with him and make introductions, say his packleader, wouldn't go astray either - although Bret hints that Cole wouldn't be a good idea to take with them.
Bret offers space for Corey to crash in over night, and he gets fed up and chatted to about things that have been happening (Dancers!) in Melbourne. In the morning he heads back to Sleeping Lore and speaks to Cossack, who doesn't seem too fazed about heading up there. He frowns a bit and would prefer that they went as a pack if its not just Corey going there.
Corey speaks to Abby and explains the situation, where he's been and what he is going to do. Abby agrees to come along, and suggests asking Freya too. She doesn't want to take the others on the grounds that they might make trouble. They go off to tell the rest of the pack.
Corey is bored while Bob and Abby are summoning Merlin and wanders away a bit. When he comes back Bob, Abby, Freya and Cole are chatting to Merlin about Polly and such and ignore his contribution. Merlin says he doesn't know about the girl and so takes off. Corey suspiciously follows. Merlin flies to where Polly might be and circles several times. Corey peeks and finds that she's not there - in fact investigation says that she is inside, having a hot chocolate. Corey returns and is further ignored. Figuring that this is par for the course, he heads off. Cossack passes him, heading back to the others without batting an eyelid. Odd, thinks Corey, but continues on. Emma and Nadine also walk past, taking to each other, and bump Corey heavily to one side. Typical, thinks the growingly annoyed Corey. He tries to find Barnesy, but even his familiar spirit is ignoring him. That's the last straw and Corey flies into a frenzy -
the becoming I beat my machine it's a part of me it's inside of me I'm stuck in this dream it's changing me i am becoming the me the you know he had some second thoughts he's covered with scabs he is broken and sore the me that you know he doesn't come around much that part of me isn't here anymore all pain disappears it's the nature of of my circuitry drowns out all i hear no escape from this my new consciousness the me that you know he used to have feelings but the blood has stopped pumping and he's left to decay the me that you know is now made up of wires and even when i'm right with you i'm so far away i can try to get away but i've strapped myself in i can try to scratch away the sound in my ears i can see it killing away all of my bad parts i don't want to listen but it's all to clear hiding backwards inside of me i feel so unafraid annie, hold a little tighter i might just slip away it wont give up it wants me dead and goddamn this noise inside my head