Alright I've been pretty busy as of late but I now have a bit of time to post.
..And I am coming up with nothing.
My friend has been writing a book and what I gave to him as an advice after reading his book is that he should make his characters likable and a bit stereotypical. I loved the book and I thought it was fantastic but if there was a weak point, it would be that the characters didn't have very distinguishable personalities. You could use Aspienigga as a source of inspiration. That guy rocked hard and he also had a very defined personality. Spatial mind is a good character too.
Your story could have at least the following characters: The antagonist (Lycan?), the jester (Aspienigga?), the sage, the coward and the friend. If I was writing a book I would emphasis the part of the antagonist that is the opposite of the protagonist. When I'm reading a book I also like it if the characters have some motive for what they do. One of the things I rarely see in a book that I would like to see more is lack of heroics and human error. I hate it when the protagonist gets tortured and he's just giving comments like "Haha, try harder!". In reality it would be more like "AAAH PLEASE STOP PLEEEASE! ILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING! SOB SOB" But that's just my opinion.
Having said that, I want to give a few ideas for the story. We all have different interpretations and different likings on this forum and I don't want to force my own interpretations on you, which is why I try not to be too specific. I love books that forces one to think. That's why I would like it if at some point in the story there was some twist that have been building up for a longer while. Pulling one off without making the reader think it's one of those deus ex machina twists is hard, though.
I would still like to emphasize that the build up is extremely important. Playing on the reader's intelligence and misleading the reader, all the while giving hints of the ultimate outcome is something that, in my opinion, requires a lot of planning. One doesn't have to come up with everything on the get-go, though. You could start writing the story and fix some parts here and there later on when you have a more firm idea of what will happen. Note that this is just my view on the matter and you don't need to follow any of my suggestions.
Now as for how characters meet. Should you choose to include the sage in your story, I would suggest he be the first one your character meets. Or at least the first major character. That way it is much easier to get the story started. Of course the sage can't be in the story forever nor should she help at every turn. The protagonist should learn to walk on her own two feet at some point. Anyway, introducing the sage that knows more about the Smoke and Mirrors would help the story get started in the way that your protagonist doesn't have to figure everything out by herself.
If you want something more specific; get spatial to send letters to the protagonist. Make it something like "SQUAD DELTA HERE, Come fast! We need help defeating the astral elephants. I have injected some of my royal blood in your veins and it will soon consume your soul. Your puny mind cannot understand this message. You have one hour." Then the sage comes in, riding a hippo. He says "Come with me if you want to live". Then Silk climbs up onto the hippo and says "This day is a fine day for some white wine".
They drink the white wine and converse for a long while (less than an hour) and at some point Silkthread remembers the message, hands the letter to the sage and asks "What is this?". The sage looks baffled, then starts smiling. "ITS ME MOTHERFUCKER". The sage pushes silkthread off the hippo and rides towards sunset, all the while humming "Enter Ganondorf" from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time.
Silkthread realizes that this was the meaning of that message. It had been a trick to get her to ride the hippo.
