Player: Jessie
Rank: Dame (Rank 1)
Religion: Jewish
Email: leah_brandage@albion.chaosdeathfish.com

Dame Leah is a Doctor and researcher at Lanik College, Oxford. She is the eldest child and heir of the renowned playwrights and Royalist speechwriters Dame Rebecca and Sir William Brandage, although most of the lands she should have inherited from her parents are buried deep under the waters of Somerset, and there are rumours of Daemonic activity around the family home. Dame Leah spends most of her time at the University, where she teaches an occasional course in linguistic and Kabbalistic theory.

Dame Leah is a devout Jew and regularly attends the Temple associated with Lanik College, acting as Shaliach Tzibur for the congregation.

Dame Leah is in her late thirties, but neither of the twins seem to have visibly aged a day since they turned twenty-five.

Doctor at Oxford University (Rank 3)
Shaliach Tzibur in the Kabal of Yehudim (Rank 2)

Section 1. For the second part, see David Brandage.

Extracts from the notes of Mary Ixquich-Levi, Chief Researcher at the Faculty of Hostile Archaeology, Hereford College, Oxford

“…excavations of the old Rosicrucian headquarters, supposedly completely destroyed in the mid-1700s in the 'Winchester Incident'. Reports so far are positive, and though a great deal of the work has involved sorting through broken, useless or decayed material, several interesting items have come to light. Sadly I fear that several of the best-preserved items never had any aetheric provenance at all; the hermetically sealed box I am currently using as a paperweight, while quite beautiful, has registered absolutely zero on every scan we have so far attempted. Indeed, several of the other Faculties have gone so far as to express surprise at its complete absence of any signature whatsoever; it is generally assumed that even rubble and dust from such high-saturation digs will at least strike a blip on the scanners, but this, apparently, is as mundane as it is possible to be…”

“…largely a fruitless exercise. Some components which the Faculty of Arcana might include in their 'Clockwork, Steam, Aether: Mechanisms Through The Ages' exhibition next month if Durham docks in time, but nothing of any great value. Justifying this expedition to the Board will not be easy, though I suppose I can use the old excuse of the Faculty of Divination's rather slapdash predictions – after all, I was respectfully informed that I would find something of 'great and terrible import' in that ruin. However, at this stage, I'm tempted to suggest that the oracles and seers are getting so bored of casting charts for the safety of the government and the latest news from the Mars colony that they'll see 'great and terrible import' in my next cup of cocoa…

Finding myself using the Dreamcatcher a little more often recently; been having these oddly vivid nightmares, and they're starting to disturb my sleep – I'd rather a slightly restless and empty night than waking up six or seven times thinking about that damn paperweight. I suppose I'm just projecting the stress, as my mesmerist would say, but…”

“…want to test out their new Theurgic accelerator. I know that Phelps is just doing me a favour; I'm stuck in a dead-end post at a dead-end faculty and this is likely to be the last of these things I attend for some time if I don't get out of it. Still, should be a nice opportunity to shake hands, smile, lie through my teeth and watch who's headhunting. He's even asked me to bring that damn paperweight along after I mentioned it at the conference the other day – apparently they want to throw something neutral into the accelerator as a test case, and the box has become something of a running joke. I don't see the harm in it; at the least, it might stop me filling up the Dreamcatcher so often – I'll have to take it down to Cochitta's again to have it drained…”

“…absolutely incredible. Never expected a result like this. Thankfully that crazy fellow from Cain's somehow managed to convince anyone that it was some inherent property of the damn paperweight, not the accelerator itself, which caused the effect – which means that I have full access, and a decent say in who gets to poke it, how and when. The thing's sitting in Containment 1 as I write – they had to wheel it back in on a hover-gurney. There's a drone in there taking exact measurements now, but I estimate it's something in the order of four feet wide and deep and six feet high. Actually, it looks rather creepy sitting in there – almost like a coffin.

Don't think I need to worry about dreams tonight – too excited to sleep. The readings coming off that thing are absolutely off the scale – we've had several Ambassadors demanding the thing be removed from proximity to their Embassies, “community leaders” are already drafting their complaints, and there was a man in here earlier tonight who I'm absolutely sure was from either Special Circumstances or the Drakes, asking a great many awkward questions about the containment facilities. A lesser academic might quail at attention from the security services - as far as I'm concerned, all that means is that we're doing something right…”