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History
When Matthew was fourteen, the phones started talking to him. This was the start of Matthew's sorcerous tendencies, a dangerous thing for the untrained - but luckily for him, before he could end up assigned to a care home, the sorcerer Robert Bakker takes him in as his apprentice. He studies under Bakker until he's 24, after which he travels to other cities to see what magic is life in other places. When he returns to London, he ends up finding an apprentice of his own, Dana Mikeda.
But when Bakker grew ill, he asked Matthew to summon the Blue Electric Angels - the spirits of the telephone wire - for him in order to use their life to prolong his own. Matthew refuses, leaving after a heated argument. And as he walks by the river later, a shadow with Bakker's face attacks him. Before Matthew dies, he manages to crawl to a telephone booth and with his last dying breath the angels pull Matthew into the wire, consciousness and body, leaving behind only Matthew's clothes and his blood.
A Madness of Angels
Two years later, Matthew wakes up in old apartment - now belonging to someone else - with his brown eyes now blue and the Blue Electric Angels sharing his body. He soon finds that all his all friends are dead, and many in the magical community think that the Tower - Bakker's organisation of magical interests is to blame. On top of that, Hunger, the shadow with Bakker's face, still stalks him. While confirming that Hunger is indeed Bakker's shadow, and that Bakker was responsible for his death, Matthew reluctantly ends up working with a collection of various magical groups and Oda, assassin for a fanatic anti-magic religious group who only agrees not to kill Matthew because she views the Tower as worse. In the end, they bring down the Tower and Matthew kills Bakker, although not before Hunger kills Matthew's former apprentice Dana.
The Midnight Mayor
While trying to track a lost teenager, Matthew receives a mysterious attack through the telephones that leaves him with an odd mark on his right palm. He's soon accused of murdering the Midnight Mayor, who died at the exact same time that Matthew was attacked. It's discovered that the former Midnight Mayor was really killed by an entity known as the Death of Cities, and that he'd decided to saddle Matthew with the job upon his death. Matthew is very much not happy with this, particularly as it now means that he has to somehow deal with the Death of Cities. It's soon determined by Matthew and the Aldermen - the organisation that surrounds the office of the Midnight Mayor - that the Death of Cities must have been summoned unwittingly by an untrained sorcerer, and that the only way to stop him is to kill the summoner. While agreeing initially, Matthew refuses to kill the summoner - a sorceress named Penny Ngwenya. Instead, he gets Penny to stop her summoning of the Death of Cities by finding and giving her stolen hat back to her.
The Neon Court
While teaching Penny, now Matthew's new apprentice, Matthew is unexpectedly summoned into a burning people by, of all people, the magic hating Oda. He helps Oda escape, but it turns out that at the burning building a war between the Neon Court and the Tribe begun. While trying to figure out how to stop a war, something else is going wrong with London - the Sun isn't rising, and Oda is turns out is being inhabited by an entity known as Blackout. She became Blackout when she discovered that the Order that she had fought for had lied to her: they had told her that her younger sister JG was dead, and only told the truth when it turned out that JG had developed magic, and they wanted Oda to prove her loyalty to the cause by killing her. On top of this, they spun a false prophecy about JG being a "chosen one" to the Tribe and the Neon Court, sparking the war over her. With Blackout threatening to warp all of London out of existence, things come to a head and the leaders of the Neon Court and Tribe, and JG, are killed. Matthew manages to find Oda and convince her to let Blackout go, but Oda - having been mortally wounded long ago - cannot survive without Blackout.
The Minority Council
When a woman Matthew met, Meera, goes missing, Matthew finds that the ones who took her are the dusthouses - drug dealers who sell the magical and very much not safe 'fairy dust'. Furious that he didn't know about him, and after managing to track Meera down only to see her die from the drug, Matthew decides that he's simply going to destroy them all. Despite the fact that the Aldermen generally all hate Matthew, one of them - Templeman - appears to be on his side, offering his help in bringing down the dusthouses and the 'Fairy Godmother' that runs them. But it turns out that Templeman has his own agendas, being part of the Minority Council - a small group of Alderman created when Matthew became Midnight Mayor. Because Matthew wasn't an Alderman, they decided that the Council was necessary to see the Big Picture. But more than this, Templeman has been running his own experiments with Dust - and when Matthew realises this he has Penny and her friend Nabeela kidnapped, while injecting Matthew with fairy dust and sending him to the dusthouses to try and force him into killing the Fairy Godmother for him. Matthew brings down the dusthouse, but doesn't kill the Godmother - and after Penny escapes he instead uses embues the heart of the calidae with fairy dust, creating a being that will eat all dust and thus destroy all the dust, everywhere.
Stray Souls
Spirits in London have been disappearing, and when one of the city's major spirits - Greydawn, Out Lady of 4am - goes missing Matthew needs a shaman to figure out what's happening. As the only one in town is a goblin no one gets along with, he tracks down Sharon Li, who while new to her powers has at least not offended all the city's major powers. While she investigates, he tries to manage the demonic Hound Greydawn left behind. Sharon, along with her tribe - Magicals Anonymous, a support group for the magically inclined - find that a wendigo that's made itself CEO of a banking corporation is responsible, and that Greydawn has been transformed into the apparently normal Mrs Rafaat by a summoning spell gone wrong. Matthew helps Magicals Anonymous launch an attack on the banker's building, in order to reverse the summoning and bring back Greydawn.
The Glass God
When a deadly magical artifact is stolen, the thief prevents Matthew's involvement by taking him out of the question entirely - by pulling Matthew's consciousness out and into the telephone network. Unfortunately, this leaves behind the Angels, who are completely unable to deal with being in a human body on their own. Eventually Sharon is able to take the Angels into the dream walk to sleep, but the longer Matthew is stuck in the phone lines, the more chance there is of his mind breaking up entirely. Eventually Sharon is able to get Matthew's consciousness back, by bringing the phone that was used to pull Matthew's mind out to the Angels, and then drag him back to help deal with the ex-wizard who stole it in the first place. Matthew is pretty lost as to what's going on, but still manages to turn the tide of the battle anyway.
But when Bakker grew ill, he asked Matthew to summon the Blue Electric Angels - the spirits of the telephone wire - for him in order to use their life to prolong his own. Matthew refuses, leaving after a heated argument. And as he walks by the river later, a shadow with Bakker's face attacks him. Before Matthew dies, he manages to crawl to a telephone booth and with his last dying breath the angels pull Matthew into the wire, consciousness and body, leaving behind only Matthew's clothes and his blood.
A Madness of Angels
Two years later, Matthew wakes up in old apartment - now belonging to someone else - with his brown eyes now blue and the Blue Electric Angels sharing his body. He soon finds that all his all friends are dead, and many in the magical community think that the Tower - Bakker's organisation of magical interests is to blame. On top of that, Hunger, the shadow with Bakker's face, still stalks him. While confirming that Hunger is indeed Bakker's shadow, and that Bakker was responsible for his death, Matthew reluctantly ends up working with a collection of various magical groups and Oda, assassin for a fanatic anti-magic religious group who only agrees not to kill Matthew because she views the Tower as worse. In the end, they bring down the Tower and Matthew kills Bakker, although not before Hunger kills Matthew's former apprentice Dana.
The Midnight Mayor
While trying to track a lost teenager, Matthew receives a mysterious attack through the telephones that leaves him with an odd mark on his right palm. He's soon accused of murdering the Midnight Mayor, who died at the exact same time that Matthew was attacked. It's discovered that the former Midnight Mayor was really killed by an entity known as the Death of Cities, and that he'd decided to saddle Matthew with the job upon his death. Matthew is very much not happy with this, particularly as it now means that he has to somehow deal with the Death of Cities. It's soon determined by Matthew and the Aldermen - the organisation that surrounds the office of the Midnight Mayor - that the Death of Cities must have been summoned unwittingly by an untrained sorcerer, and that the only way to stop him is to kill the summoner. While agreeing initially, Matthew refuses to kill the summoner - a sorceress named Penny Ngwenya. Instead, he gets Penny to stop her summoning of the Death of Cities by finding and giving her stolen hat back to her.
The Neon Court
While teaching Penny, now Matthew's new apprentice, Matthew is unexpectedly summoned into a burning people by, of all people, the magic hating Oda. He helps Oda escape, but it turns out that at the burning building a war between the Neon Court and the Tribe begun. While trying to figure out how to stop a war, something else is going wrong with London - the Sun isn't rising, and Oda is turns out is being inhabited by an entity known as Blackout. She became Blackout when she discovered that the Order that she had fought for had lied to her: they had told her that her younger sister JG was dead, and only told the truth when it turned out that JG had developed magic, and they wanted Oda to prove her loyalty to the cause by killing her. On top of this, they spun a false prophecy about JG being a "chosen one" to the Tribe and the Neon Court, sparking the war over her. With Blackout threatening to warp all of London out of existence, things come to a head and the leaders of the Neon Court and Tribe, and JG, are killed. Matthew manages to find Oda and convince her to let Blackout go, but Oda - having been mortally wounded long ago - cannot survive without Blackout.
The Minority Council
When a woman Matthew met, Meera, goes missing, Matthew finds that the ones who took her are the dusthouses - drug dealers who sell the magical and very much not safe 'fairy dust'. Furious that he didn't know about him, and after managing to track Meera down only to see her die from the drug, Matthew decides that he's simply going to destroy them all. Despite the fact that the Aldermen generally all hate Matthew, one of them - Templeman - appears to be on his side, offering his help in bringing down the dusthouses and the 'Fairy Godmother' that runs them. But it turns out that Templeman has his own agendas, being part of the Minority Council - a small group of Alderman created when Matthew became Midnight Mayor. Because Matthew wasn't an Alderman, they decided that the Council was necessary to see the Big Picture. But more than this, Templeman has been running his own experiments with Dust - and when Matthew realises this he has Penny and her friend Nabeela kidnapped, while injecting Matthew with fairy dust and sending him to the dusthouses to try and force him into killing the Fairy Godmother for him. Matthew brings down the dusthouse, but doesn't kill the Godmother - and after Penny escapes he instead uses embues the heart of the calidae with fairy dust, creating a being that will eat all dust and thus destroy all the dust, everywhere.
Stray Souls
Spirits in London have been disappearing, and when one of the city's major spirits - Greydawn, Out Lady of 4am - goes missing Matthew needs a shaman to figure out what's happening. As the only one in town is a goblin no one gets along with, he tracks down Sharon Li, who while new to her powers has at least not offended all the city's major powers. While she investigates, he tries to manage the demonic Hound Greydawn left behind. Sharon, along with her tribe - Magicals Anonymous, a support group for the magically inclined - find that a wendigo that's made itself CEO of a banking corporation is responsible, and that Greydawn has been transformed into the apparently normal Mrs Rafaat by a summoning spell gone wrong. Matthew helps Magicals Anonymous launch an attack on the banker's building, in order to reverse the summoning and bring back Greydawn.
The Glass God
When a deadly magical artifact is stolen, the thief prevents Matthew's involvement by taking him out of the question entirely - by pulling Matthew's consciousness out and into the telephone network. Unfortunately, this leaves behind the Angels, who are completely unable to deal with being in a human body on their own. Eventually Sharon is able to take the Angels into the dream walk to sleep, but the longer Matthew is stuck in the phone lines, the more chance there is of his mind breaking up entirely. Eventually Sharon is able to get Matthew's consciousness back, by bringing the phone that was used to pull Matthew's mind out to the Angels, and then drag him back to help deal with the ex-wizard who stole it in the first place. Matthew is pretty lost as to what's going on, but still manages to turn the tide of the battle anyway.