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The Ingold mob is whaled to somewhere in shadow. Cassandra ditches the group and head towards the barrier, riding Darhyse while shifting through shadow. Ingold awakes at one point, is fed, then falls unconscious again.
Darhyse hisses and starts becoming defensive. Cassandra dismounts, ties Ingold to Darhyse's back, and draws her sword. She is immediately attacked from six directions from mostly insubstantial things that seem to be trying to get to Ingold. She tries to weave a shield of Force, with little effect. She teleports to a different part of the shadow. About 30 seconds after she left, something resembling a meteorite destroys the area where she had been. The group leaves shadow. About three shadows farther, Darhyse's hackles rise again. She tries to trump Malachai, and fails. She trumps Darkstar, and is pulled through.
Ilk opens a shadow gate to just outside the Assassins' Guild. Cassandra looks through, and can see a gate to the other side of the Barrier inside the Savior of Chaos tape.
There is a screech and something that looks like harpies on ampaphetamines and with thyroid problems comes tearing out of the night. She ignites her saber and orders Darhyse inside. The harpies ignore her and attack the Guild-hall. She walks between them and enters the Guild. She leads Darhyse up to her rooms.
A few moments later there is a knock at her door. A guild-member tells Cassandra that her master wishes to see her regarding those who accompanied her arrival, and is in a bad mood. She settles Ingold in her rooms, and then heads to her master's chambers.
[Jean suggests to the Dancers' Guild that they recruit Cassandra's ex-bodyguards as a form of Assassins' Foreign Legion.]
Cassandra enters Princess Chandra's chambers and informs her on recent events. Princess Chandra asks for the others present to show up for farther information.
Cassandra trumps Ilk, and gets the Savior of Chaos. Asks for relay. Ilk relays. Cassandra contacts Lord Talos and asks for D'Rog's presence at the Assassins' Guild. Cassandra trumps Osric. Osric and Verra agree to come through. Osric is a bit queasy at passing a goddess through the trump. Cassandra introduces Osric and Verra to Princess Chandra. Princess Chandra has met Osric before, and knows Rainbow's younger sister. There is a knock on the door and a motley crew at the door is announced and invited inside. Princess Chandra nods to Pattern Suhuy who returns the nod. "I trust that he is your apprentice?" "Yes, he is." Ilk bows to Princess Chandra as apprentice to Old Lord to Old Lord.
The dryad starts out. Princess Chandra draws more information out of the vision through ...
She questions each in turn, looking for straightforward observations, not opinions. It is obvious that her conversation with Verra is on two different levels; there is some history there. She seems more relaxed, as if there was something humorous there.
"So... they still attack me and mine."
Princess Chandra asks Osric to transport a large number of her guild members to a variety of far-flung places. She won't ask him to bring the members through his transport center; just bring a token to a place, then heat it and she will send them directly there.
Osric is asked for his price, and asks for aid in concluding his deal with Verra.
Jean's singing voice is questioned. Princess Chandra gives him some doggerel. Ilk gets a look at it, and can see that is is an invocation using Bronelle's name. Jean receives permission to use the Verra choirs for this task.
Princess Chandra asks Cassandra to lead the team to assassinate a member of the Poisoners' Guild and widely parade and display the body parts. Cassandra accepts the contract on "Patty", and a healer will be provided for Ingold.
Cassandra heads off to deal with the slimy politician, and gives vent to the Dark Side that has had so little to do recently. He is well-defended, and has hired members of the Warriors' Guild to protect him. Cassandra picks up a small burn from one of his defensive spells, but is otherwise unharmed. Her backup team took out one person who was coming to visit with him, and took him alive for later questioning.
Two packages -- three vertebrae for Council, three for her.
When Cassandra returns, Princess Chandra is still negotiating (being nosy) with Verra and Osric. Du'Rog has not yet arrived. Darhyse bathes Cassandra, then Cassandra bathes.
Neville goes to Random's embassy to find Random in his role as an expert in drugs. He finds Martin, who trumps Random. Neville goes to the roof and waits for a naked Random to land. Neville asks Random to take a look at the drug, and cautions him that it's not just a shadow-drug.
Random asks Neville if they've met in shadow before - he reminds him of someone.
They decend to Random's lab. Random divides the drug into eight portions, digs up a giant lab rat named Fredrick, and tricks it into eating one of the samples. Fredrick melts into a puddle. Random mentions that Fredrick seemed to be a shapeshifter.
Random sets up a dose for chemical analysis.
Random tries to get Martin to take the drug and fails. He trumps Bill Roth, and acquires a prisoner. Random gets the guy to eat it. Melty colors. He reaches his hand towards the colors, and his hand elongates. They tell him that there is a princess nearby that will only kiss frogs, and he turns into a frog.
They decide to time the duration, and try to find a Real non-shapeshifter. Martin isn't that stupid. Cassandra is too dangerous. Velaria is non-trumpable. Raven is passed a dose, and is told that it would give his opponents in Barimen headaches.
Neville puts a hand on Random's shoulder, and can see that Raven has grown several extra arms, most of which are wielding swords or shields, and he's grown many extra mouths, all of which are drinking. The room is starting to look more and more like a tavern.
Random considers modifying the drug to remove the hallucenagen.
Raven is expanding.
They try to test the suggestability of people under the drug. "Hey Raven - you want to be green!" "Nah - green is a wimpy color. It's what you turn when you are seasick. Now _he_ wants to be seasick." And the guy that Raven points to turns green and starts throwing up.
Random passes Neville a trump.
Neville returns to that shadow. The newspapers are filled with reports of the drug.
Neville plays doctor and investigates the drug. People influenced by the drug seem able to rewrite others at range. He fixes a janitor with a trunk.
Cassandra contacts Lord Talos and informs him that his apprentice ... has been requested by Princess Chandra. A message has been left for Du'Rog once he is no longer engaged, and Cassandra and Lord Talos will be meeting for dinner tonight.
Jean, Pattern Suhuy, and his apprentice are hanging out in Princess Chandra's office. Cassandra announces success and completes the paperwork, then brings Jean to the teleport room.
Pattern Suhuy and his apprentice head to the lintel to talk to Shiryu.
Cassandra returns to her rooms and talks with Ingold, then changes for dinner.
Jean is teleported to near the pyramid in Toram's lands, and notices a long stream of bugs heading somewhere. A Dancer is sent to follow the bugs and investigate their destination. Jean unracks one of Ilk's spells and a giant wolf's head eats the guards that were attacking him.
Jean goes to the library where Flora was last seen, and notices signs of a struggle. He goes to tell REN about this. REN suggests that Amaranth might know where Flora is, and suggests that Caine might want to know that the bugs have started up again.
Jean tells Caine and Yuri that the bug pyramid has started up again. He can tell that someone has repaired the pyramid with duct tape and wood glue. Yuri suggests that Zack possibly sent them to Amber. Jean in Amber can now see an approaching line of glowing green bugs. The shapeshifter from the Dancers' Guild died when he hit a spot with too much order. Jean notices some of the demons that he took over in stasis near the pyramid.
Jean could walk from Amber to the lighthouse at Cabra across the blucite in the harbor.
Jean has Ilk cast a spell having the front-most bug continuously be the mouthpiece for Verra. After spending a while on that one, he casts a spell using Norton's signature on the pyramid to make the bugs buzz the ode to Bronwyn.
---EORun---
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