Jani searches the city until she finds the mysterious woman’s shop, which she saw in a vision while making the map. The woman is named Céleste, and she is Alastair’s sister. A long time ago, she stumbled into the Société des Suminaires, which operated as a secret shelter for magical people. Being a powerful suminaire herself, she found a place there and convinced the société to let her brother come with her. Céleste reveals to Jani that Alastair is not in fact a suminaire.

Alastair felt powerless and ostracized amongst the suminaires until he met Nicole, a very weak suminaire who later renamed herself Madame des Rêves. Together, they learned to use an artéfact that Jani noticed several times in the hotel, a hand mirror that can transfer magic from one suminaire to another. They used it to steal power from other suminaires and turned the other suminaires into birds and kept them in the aviary. Over time, Alastair and Nicole took over the société and corrupted the contracts that kept suminaires safe. Since the stolen magic is only temporary, they have been collecting and draining suminaires’ magic for decades, using the hotel as a front to hunt suminaires down all over the world.