The story begins in Rome. It is the Warrens’ last day in that city, and Kate is in bed reflecting on that. She is used to moving. During the first part of the chapter (or possibly the whole thing), Kate’s first person point of view provides exposition on magic, her parents, and NGW Ltd. In her world, magic as the rest of the world views it is a thing of the past. “Superstitious nonsense.” Norris, Green, and Warren have delved into magic, utilizing it as a tool, a weapon, and energy source. Despite this, most of the world has no idea magic is real. It is governments, dictators, and wealthy corporations that require NGW Ltd.‘s services. They make enough from these commissions to fund their research, which is the firm’s primary focus.

 

  The next day, Kate and her parents are on a plane to America. Virginia, to be exact. They move to Carlisle, Virginia, into an old plantation house sitting on about sixty acres. It’s been unoccupied for quite some time, being previously owned by the descendants of the original owner. Kate learns from her father, who heard it from the realtor, that there are some other small buildings scattered about the property, although most of them were on land that had been sold earlier. Chief among the buildings is an abandoned church. Kate feels some mild curiosity and decides to go looking for it later.

  She spends the next two days roaming around the house and unpacking. Then, on the Monday after the Warrens arrive, school begins.

            Carlisle, Virginia is a small town, population-wise, filled mostly with families on large former-plantations like the Warrens, or farmers. It is near the new housing development Schuyler’s Field. All in all, it’s one of the wealthier areas in the state, and that is reflected in Carlisle High School.

 

 Upon starting at CHS, Kate immediately notices the sterile, “American” feel to the place. Most of the kids at the school have known each other for a year or longer, since the development is mostly finished. Her day is a bit surreal, but she does attract attention on account of her travels. In a “Bella Swan” way, she is invited out to the coffee shop near the school. When she gets home, her parents tell her about their research over dinner, the way they have since she could understand what they were speaking of. 

 

 Her parents are ecstatic. The area has enough magical “hot spots” to keep them busy for years. The reason behind this quite mystifies them, but they are more than happy to discover it. That day they’d been “poking around” some fields just outside of Carlisle proper that had a very interesting energy signal. They planned to spend a few days investigating the area.

 The week passes in much the same manner. Then, on Saturday, after turning down a trip to the mall, Kate remembers her desire to search for the abandoned church. She’d slept in, so her parents had gone back to the field without her. She is bored, and has nothing better to do, so she decides to take a hike around the property and search for the church.

 

 The next morning, she turns down a chance to explore the field with her parents. She goes on another hike, this time in the opposite direction of the previous one, and sets off in search of the church. She searches for a while.

 

  At last she finds it, standing in a heavily overgrown clearing. It’s weathered and clearly old, but has withstood time remarkably well. The church is small, made of wood, and was formerly white. She walks inside, and sees the typical abandoned church. Dust covers everything; some of the windows are broken; the pulpit still stands, faded and worn. There are a few odds and ends scattered about, mostly tattered bits of cloth and the like, although there is a forgotten hymnal near the baptismal pool. Kate walks past the pool and into the back room where people would have dried off and changed. There isn’t much in here, just a few cobwebs. Behind this room is a narrow hallway. The pastor’s office is directly across from the room. A steep staircase extends to the floor above.

  She walks into the office first. There isn’t any furniture in it, and she turns to leave when something catches her eye. On the east wall, just under the window, something is poking out. She goes closer to investigate. It’s a small leather pouch, which has been shoved into a hole between the window sill and the wall. It takes a bit of pulling, but Kate wriggles the pouch out of the hole.