Never leave the Arrow alone. That is a rule, young one, that you should learn and follow. Their task is noble and important, but in their rush to fulfill their tasks, at times they may forget the things that we espouse. For example, the it was discovered that there was something taking children and eating them. We did not know who or what it was. Some sources - spirits if my source is to be believed - said that the thing taking the children was "one of us". This could mean a mage, or even a human. Another source stated that what was taking the children was once mortal but is now a spirit. (No, I do not know if such a thing is possible.) Regardless of what the thing is, the Arrow had discovered where a child was kidnapped. She was taken in a park and dragged into the Spirit Realm. They were, in typical Arrow fashion, ready to enter the Spirit Realm then and there - in a public park where there were potential sleeper witnesses. "Gun ho" is the term you young people are using today, yes? Fortunately, with a gentle reminder, a safer place was found. (For the record, the wooded areas in and around the city are usually free of Sleepers. It is a good thing Hamilton is known as the Forest City.)
I have no first hand knowledge about what happened in the Spirit Realm, because sometimes one must stand guard at a door - if only to keep people who shouldn't walk through from walking through. I was, however, told that they found this thing's layer, as well as partially eaten bodies of children. It is my hope that we find who or whatever is doing this quickly!
They had also found something in the thing's layer: a doorway that leads into what is possibly the Oppression. Apparently, entering such a place would be very bad. Two people entered - one fully and one with just his arm. In both cases, they came out without any skin.
This oppression requires much investigation. I do not know if it helps the Veil or not, but it is a bit of a pain. When the opportunity came up to potentially learn more about the Oppression, I took it.
It is always odd when one meets a spirit. I will fully admit, I am not versed in the ways of spirits, though I know a few basic bits of information. The one whom I met - Who Walks Between - seemed almost human. As I understand things, it (spirits do not have genders, so terms such as he or she are irrelevant, no matter what the spirit happens to look like) is one who is in charge of the relationships between things, and possibly the boarders of things as well. It informed us that there was a very little link between our group, the Seerers and the Oppression. It also informed us that others who belong to our five-star club have this knowledge. It would be more than willing to trade the information with me, but was decent enough to give me the choice between finding out on my own, or owing it a significant favor. While I am sure I could have gotten out of the deal, it is never wise to take such favors unless absolutely necessary.
Speaking of deals, when one is dealing with a ghost, be sure one can control the ghost. A member of our order, I am sorry to say, said something to a ghost - one of the children who was killed by whatever is taking them into the Spirit realm - which caused the ghost to react violently. The ghost caused things to fly around. Strictly speaking, this is both a breach of the veil and not a breach of the veil. It was the ghost that caused things flying around. But it was a mage who said one word - Stop - with hand motions to emphasize the order. The ghost child did stop. And the entire thing was caught on video tape, which someone had to bargain with to obtain and which I later saw. Only because of the actions and the film would I consider this a breach.
Other spirits are much easier to deal with. There was a teenager, who somehow came into possession of a fetish. A fetish, if you do not know, is an object that a spirit lives in. This particular fetish was for cars and speed. The teenager, as a result, did nothing but drive quickly up and down the expressway. Once the fetish was removed from the teenager, he was fine. In and of itself, this fetish was not dangerous, but it the situation that the teenager found himself in as a result of being exposed to that fetish was dangerous. My instincts was to destroy this; not because of the nature of the Spirit - indeed, I would rather have the Spirit be in something else than be destroyed - but because the Spirit's home was in a compact disk filled with loud, Natzi sounding music that was found in, of all things, a flee market with a reputation for distributing mysterious objects! I do not know where that disk is now - someone who knew much about spirits took it and he was one of our politicians.
It was everything I could do to control my anger and curse the child for spouting such filth! Thankfully, I did not do so, as that teenager was a victim in this situation. Let my experience be a lesson for you: we bring to our society our past experiences, hopes, dreams and beliefs. These experiences can either cloud our judgements or make us see things for what they truly are. The police officer who caught up to the teenager said he remembered what it was like to be that young, and let him off with a warning. May that man be blessed by the Almighty for his mercy. Another police officer may not have done so if he or she did not have the experience of driving a powerful automobile. Someone was taking steel to build robots. But were they robots, or golams? And if they were golams, were they made in the traditional way, with the word for Life written on their forehead, or another way? As I told a young mystigog earlier tonight, "It is important to stick to the narrow path and be good" regardless of one's past experiences and beliefs. I believe I was shaking my cane at her at the time, to emphasize the point. That is an old man's prerogative.
And it is a young person's prerogative to ask questions. You may be surprised at what comes about. For example, a very lively discussion about when, under the Lex, it is legal to kill another person - be it a sleeper, sleep walker or awakened individual. Although one can get into difficulty when asking certain questions - or by obtaining certain answers - asking can offer a small amount of protection. Among humans, sometimes ignorance is an excuse. Among ghosts or spirits, ignorance is never an excuse.
