View source for Ripples on the Pond

{{Chapter 
| title              =  Ripples on the Pond
| image              =  
| caption            =  
| chronicle          =  Beneath Cold Boughs
| story              =  
| chapterno          =  7
| prev               =  At the Court of the Rose and Cross
| next               =  The Fire and the Fury
}}
Diana and Jane have a quiet week while Morris recuperates, but peace and quiet can only last a short while before breaking.
==What Happened==
A week passes with little incident, Jane and Diana finding their lives a little quieter with Morris contained in a hospital bed. Diana found her days were taken up with the day to day necessities of office work, further research into Lockham and arranging the hiring of some actual administrative staff so that she would not have to do the grunt work herself. Temps would do, but she interviewed each and every candidate, belittling and crushing their spirits in delicious shows of subtle corporate power. Those who broke would do as admin drones, and one who stood up to her, that one would be their manager. The pyramid must grow.

[[File:WoodRunes.jpg|''Woten''|thumbnail|200px|right]]Meanwhile Jane spent the week looking into information about the Willoughbys online and found only a sliver of new information. The brief entries on wikipedia and local history sites that told of the family's history in broad strokes - puritans from England that did well enough that their family estate became a nucleus for the town of Willowgate, and that they perished almost to a man when Willowgate and Blackmouth were burned by the British in 1814. Along with that, she found mention of an archaeological oddity - a piece of wood engraved with runes was found while renovating a site in Ormwood close to the freeway. There was a brief flurry about the possibility that the vikings had settled deeper into North America than previously believed, but analysis proved such ideas wrong as it was at most a couple of centuries old and written in Anglo-Saxon futhorc rather than Norse futhark. ''[[What_is_Known_(BCB)#The_Willoughbys|More info]]''.

On Saturday, finally able to get away from work, Jane decided take a walk in [[Ashton Park]] and go looking for faces familiar from her experience in [[Moth Park]]. She avoided little clusters of students chatting amongst themselves, the families taking advantage of a break in the recent rainy weather, and the hawkers and chuggers trying to drum up support for whatever little agenda they had, and found someone familiar under a tree. A lean, rangy man sait under a tree, long coat tucked under himself to keep dry as he listened to music and ignored the world. He was one of them, Jane was sure of it, even though he wore a different skin than in the vision. They talked around the subject for a while before Elias lead them to a secluded spot to talk more openly where they were soon joined by Rose. The brute, the monster, the aggressor from the vision. She needled them by telling how her ''friend'' would never be the same because of what they did, enjoying Rose's evident guilt and ignoring any attempt to explain the other side of the story. As tempers rose Jane opened a Pathway through the hedgerows surrounding them, mockingly evaded Rose's futile attempts to grab her and laughed off Elias' knife before snapping the Pathway shut and leaving the two to fume in impotent rage.

Morris w. Big Jimmy and the boys, info and a warning about the Aryan Legion.
Diana meeting Mel. Tales and secrets. The ambush
==People Appearing (in order of appearance)==
* '''[[Jimmy Martin|'Big' Jimmy Martin]]'''(''First Appearance'') - Head of the Martin Gang, old friend of Morris. Concerned for this friend gettign tangled up with the Aryan Legion.
* '''[[Sean and Connor McFee]]''' (''First Appearances'') - Two of Jimmy's guys, fresh from the old country.
* '''[[Elias]]''' and '''[[Rose]]''' (''First Appearances'') - Werewolves. Reacted poorly to Jane's trollish attempts to stir them about what happened to [[Krystal Garner]].
* Price - Protected Diana from ambush at cost to himself
* '''Men in a van''' - Gunned down Diana and Price as they left the Condor offices.

==Locations==
* '''[[Stanton General Hospital]]''' - A sterile suburban hospital where Morris spent most of a week recovering from being shot. 
* '''[[Turk's]]''' - Bar in [[Ormwood]] frequented by the Martin Gang.
* '''[[Aston Park]]''' - Pleasant inner city park north of the river.
* '''[[Condor Acquisitions]]''' - Mel met with Diana over lunch and discussed strategies.
==Notes==
* The punk who shot Morris was part of a cell of the Aryan Legion calling themselves Jackson's Horsemen.
* Diana was affected by an Anathema that revealed a weak point.

[[Category:Beneath Cold Boughs]][[Category:Session Records]]