Sinead spends the majority of the interlude around the Sept, learning caern rituals and generally being a working member of the Sept.
She finds that Graeme is a bit reticient about some things that Sinead is being taught about - there's some things that she asked to keep on a need to know basis with the rest of the Sept. Its not that they aren't trusted, its just that no one is 100% sure that they mightn't just leave.
Graeme takes her to visit people. one guys "used to be a garou" "Wayne" He's missing a big chunk of skull, eye, jaw, etc. He doesnt' seem to be 100% tracking either. Graeme introduces Sinead as a sept member, and treats him with a bit of respect.
Couple months later, Cossack gets Sinead to come to the caern. "I need you to take someone somewhere". When Sinead arrives, there is an older woman there - white hair, wrinkled, somewhat bowed down by age. Cossack introduces Sinead to her and her to Sinead - her name is apparently "Mrs Stack". Mrs Stack would like to go to the beach (even though its nighttime). Sinead notes that Cossack is ... rattled - not something they see often. Mrs Stack says she wants to go St Kilda beach - she used to go there all the time. They start to talk about getting a car and Sinead's inability to drive, but Mrs Stack says that she would prefer to take a tram anyway.
Mrs Stack struggles to get up, leaning heavily on a stick. She has a lot of scars and Sinead suspects they are battlescars. Cossack says "Mother -" and she whacks him one with the stick. "You! took those titles off us, don't you dare. You " - Sinead - ", lets go"
Mrs Stack randomly talks about things on the way. "Never liked cars very much. Much preferred trams - like they were alive, big beasts rumbling along the tracks. The new ones are boring." "I miss the people too. The conductor, the ticket man. This is like plastic."
After a time
"It wasn't supposed to be you, you know. It was meant to be the
chinese girl"
"Kasumi? She's japanese."
"Whatever. Something you did changed things. Back last winter. And
now its you"
"I don't like it any more. It used to be ours, you know. A Gnawer
sort of place. Now its a glasswalker place. Shiny metal and
glass everywhere. The city has taken over from the people that
used to live here. I remember when it was all 8 storey buildings,
they seemed huge. No one lived here, but they all came in. Most of
its gone now, all the people moved further out, even from around
Collingwood and all. Less of us now too, spread very thin."
"Just because there's more people"
"And less of us too. People fight and die. And don't have their
own children. Like that Perry girl - no children of her own, and
now she's gone. " - pause - "You should"
"Die fighting or have kids"
"More kids. More garou. " - pause - " I think we got arrogant.
We thought it wasn't going to change
so we didn't have to change. I hate that he was right. "
"What would have happened to Marion's kids if she'd had some and
died fighting.?"
"Family would have raised them. Used to be there was an honour in
raising the kids of garou. Now, family's spread out everywhere,
lose contact"
"It was a decision though, to back away a bit, not be so intensively
with them. Not going to say the old way was better all the time. Sometimes
people took advantage. But now we've lost some of them.
"Not sure we'd have had this many Glasswalkers in the Sept back in
the day. The Cossack had a hand in that as well. ... Your pack has
a bunch of outsiders, doesn't it? Why didn't you join the others?
"Its comforting after being the oddball out to find somewhere
you fit in."
"That's how a pack should be. But you didn't join one of the
other Gnawer packs?"
"It was not like this in the old days - there were a couple of Glasswalkers who didn't fit with them. And the stargazers. But then we got arrogant"
She talks about the city as they travel down Swanston St, how it changed in her lifetime. They arrive near Luna Park, and it takes some time for Mrs Stack to get off and slowly walk toward the foreshore. Sinead can see she's getting frustrated with herself, especially when they hit the sand and the uneven ground.
Eventually "stop here". They sit and watch the ocean. There's a theurge moon, its calm and quiet. There are no people near by. She struggles up again, and says "you will stay here", and takes off her outer dress. "ok" "I dont' want to hear anything about me not being able to". She leaves the stick and walks very slowly across the sand to the water. There's no swell, and she seems to find it easier to swim. Out a bit further, and Sinead can just see her ducking under a couple of times as she heads out further. She ducks under again..... about 40s later, she hasn't come back up and Sinead starts to get edgy. Sinead stands and is about to shed clothes when she sees Mrs Stack break the surface.
As Mrs Stack wades back in, Sinead realises something is wrong. Mrs Stack is not struggling to walk as much. She's coming in at a reasonable walking speed. She looks... younger as she comes in. Sinead is a bit "What kind of sorcery is this??". Stack hits the sand and walks up. She looks late middle aged, a matron, not the tired octogenerian thaat went out.
"How's the water?" "As it was" "When" "Sixty years ago, when I made that promise. " She holds up her hand and Sinead can see lights through it - she realises that she is sitting next to a spirit, not someone physical. "Not an easy thing, to walk someone to the edge. I thank you for coming. It used to be the Stargazers that would do this for us, but we said no, after a time. We should not have done that. In return, you will take what the waters gave me " - she touches Sinead, who is suddenly awash with visions. It is like a strong trip - every single object and motion has meaning and she can see the consequences and correspondances of everything she does and can see.
Its at least 15 minutes of chaos before Sinead is able to deal with the sensory input. She is sitting alone on the beach with an old lady's dress and stick. There's every possibility that out in the water is bobbing an old lady. Sinead sighs and wades out into the bay, looking for a small dead lady in the dark. She manages to find her and drag her back to the beach, but that leaves her with a new problem, which she decides to share the love on. She calls Graeme who awkwardedly asks how things are. "What now?"
Graeme asks her to dedicate things and start heading back through the Umbra, and he'll send someone to meet her - don't come through the CBD. Sinead quietly dedicates Mrs Stack's cooling corpse ("you could try doing it in the water?" "I don't know what else is _in_ the water") on the shore and vanishes into the spirit world.
Ian Shatter-Glass meets her at the Botannical gardens and assists her on the way back to the caern. At the Sept, the bonegnawer elders, and a few of the Get of Pennington come and participate in a Rite for the Departed ritual. Christine and Nadine do not join in, but do maintain a respectful distance while the ritual is undertaken. The rite involves running through her name and such - she was Catherine Stack, she was Master of the Rite for aa time, and her garou name was "Wheel-breaker" - and she was a rank 4 theurge.
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