Chapter Eight. Incursion

Walden pushes through the critical incursion saturating School House, noting Old Faithful’s dominance and the absence of rival higher demons. Lost in warped architecture, she follows the sound of abuse into a bygone office, banishes an imp-echo, and encounters the ghost of 1926 Headmaster Rodney Merringham. Marking her path with an enchanted owl brooch, she persuades the looping ghost to guide her toward the tower.

At Nikki’s door, a modern incursion ward—clearly Nikki’s work, powered by Mathias—holds weakly. A separate demonic barrier excludes “those who do not belong.” Walden leverages her employment authority as magical contract to unravel it and enters, recharging Nikki’s ward while demonic fog thickens.

Inside, space stretches impossibly. Walden discovers a large, competent triple summoning array whose outer circles have failed; the innermost pentagram has become a sucking void dragging Nikki in while Mathias collapses. Walden shoves Nikki clear and steps into the maw, deploying precise, tradition-honed command magic to force the void shut and restore the floor.

Holding layered shields and perception webs, Walden directs Nikki to steady Mathias through a panic attack while Old Faithful probes her defenses from multiple angles. She then leads both students along her brooch’s beacon through shifting historical and modern spaces, noting lesser demons’ disappearance and the looming two-hour collapse deadline.

They break back into the present-day kitchen. There, a figure toys with Walden’s brooch and greets her—Old Faithful manifest, radiating power, speaking in the voice of a boy dead twenty years—revealing awareness and intent as the immediate threat.