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Neville was trying to come up with an excuse to know his crony in order to justify a meeting with Dara.
Darkstar was in his realm with lots of observers. He's fading things in and out of reality.
Neville trumps an old friend who is apparently in bad light back in Chaos and asks if he has a trump of Dara. He hasn't heard of Dara. The guy tries his father, and gets back to him with the message that there are no pre-existing trumps of her, and a suggestion that he not sleep with her because she can cloud the minds of those she sleeps with.
Darkstar has the trump area looking exactly as Jean reported it, and steps in and out while tweaking it slightly. Once it is determined to be exact, Darkstar announces that he will now modify it slightly in order to attempt to rescue Flora before she was kidnapped.
Suhuy points out to Shiryu that Melk might want to know about what is going on here; Shiryu suggests that Suhuy contact him. Suhuy anchors himself and reaches out for Melk; he finds him instantly, as if Melk was all around and he just collapsed the waveform. Melk is shown what is going on, walks up to Darkstar, and places a hand on his shoulder. They both disappear.
A few moments later, Darkstar comes back looking something discomforted. "Well, I won't try that again, but at least I got the information."
The power level of the six individuals who grabbed her was most impressive; they were using a power source of which I had no knowledge; they took her somewhere into the Sea of Chance.
Jean sends a message to his father.
Darkstar looks at Jean and says, "I wish that you hadn't done that here." He disappears.
The shadow collapses back on itself leaving everyone standing on a grassy plain with the remains of what looks like what was once a Pattern drawn upon it.
Rainbow appears in front of Jean.
Only the Realms Lords present notice that Darkstar didn't go anywhere - he trumped the entire party elsewhere very subtly.
Cailin mentions to Princess Chandra that his potion would have come in very handy at this point.
Princess Chandra turns to the Realms Lords and suggests that since Ferethyn is currently the preeminant expert on the Sea of Chance, perhaps they should fetch him.
Shiryu gestures. Ferethyn's apprentice appears, bows to everyone appropriately, and says, "What need have you of my master?"
Jean says that six people grabbed his mother out of the Dancers' Guild and took her into the Sea of Chance, and that Ferethyn is the current expert on the Sea.
Princess Chandra points out that if these people could penetrate into the heart of a Guild hall and steal away one of its most prized inhabitants without even being noticed, that it spells poorly for the Guilds, and possibly Chaos as a whole.
The apprentice bows, says, "I will return with my master momentarily", and disappears. Ferethyn, Melk, and Marial show up.
Ferethyn says in such a way that only the Realms Lords can hear, "We should sit and discuss this." Ilk and Suhuy nod. Ferethyn says, "We should have the guild masters watch this until we get back," and casually summons the Guildmaster of the Mages Guild. Jenoir appears, looking discomfited. Shiryu summons the head of the Creationists Guild. Marial asks Suhuy to pull in Benedict and Suhuy does so. Ilk sends a note to Andron asking him to stand in his place when the Realms Lords go off to discuss something, and Suhuy asks Gentleman Suhuy to stand in for him.
Suhuy noticed that as he pulled in Benedict, Marial moved slightly such that the first thing that he saw was her face.
Ferethyn gates the Realms Lords present to his Realm. When the Realms Lords pop out, the head of the Philosophers Guild appears.
Jean fills in the recently acquired Guild heads why they were all summoned here.
Pattern Suhuy's apprentice studies the lime on the grass that vaguely looks like a Pattern, and determines the lime to be marsipan.
Jean says that this place is not relevant, and Jenoir offers to take this group somewhere where they cannot be overheard. Rainbow looks discomfited at that thought, but goes through the gate she created.
They are now in a complex magical lab.
Andron immediately goes to his accustomed perch. Rainbow is looking around, fascinated. Benedict takes up an advantageous position. Marial takes up a more advantageous position. Benedict looks discomfited.
Cailin notices something on a bar that looks like his bottle. He raises an eyebrow. Jenoir looks at him.
Ilaryn sits down on a conveniently located chair that might not have been there before.
Andron stands up again and starts passing around tea and cakes. Jenoir asks, "So. What information do we actually have?" Jean fills them in.
Jean fishes Ilk to the inner library of the Dancers' Guild. Rainbow and Jenoir look surprised. Princess Chandra looks amused.
Jean shakes the fish and Ilk pours out. He spots definite traces of the power, along with a nexus that was probably the gate. He returns to Jenoir's place via the fish.
Jenoir looks crestfallen.
Jean looks at the spot. He goes through the rift. There are six very large robot-looking things closing on his position. He plays with them for a while, and then explores a bit.
Jean asks Ilk if he has a spell to wipe robotic minds. Ilk defers to the heads of the Mages and Psionicists guilds, who are both present.
Andron takes Jean's hand, enters his mind, and squishes some robots. He determines that they are independent in their programming and not truly complex.
Jean circles the planet. It's all a war zone, and it's fairly small.
Andron places a hand on Quelron, who prints out a stack of schematics and hands them to Jean. Jean starts reprogramming the robot factories. When the robot brains are completed, Jean finds them to suit him admirably. One of the robot Jeans finds another rift, goes through it, dies, and Jean forgets about it. A bit later, three robot Jeans find it simultaneously, one disappears and forgets about it, but the other two don't forget. Jean tells the others.
Jean creates a bug on something and throws it through the rift. The bug makes it through. There is a bunch of magical things that he doesn't understand. It's a 3x3x3 room with some metal parts scattered in it.
Jean asks Ilk for a flight spell. Jenoir is bemused. Ilk racks flight spells in Jean, who unracks them and finds that they don't work. Andron mentions that the place had very little magical energy.
Jean fishes the back end of the bug to the room, after
Jenoir suggests that Benedict would be the best person to go through and return with information.
Quelron pauses and spits out a knife in the perfect direction for Benedict to catch it.
Jean acquires a sphere of much space from Jenoir, fishes the whale into it. Benedict enters the sphere, pats the whale on the nose, enters the whale. Jean whales Benedict to outside the space.
Benedict crawls through the space.
Benedict shows up on the screen for a millisecond or two, and then the bug goes dead. The fuse on the bug was tripped.
Jean throws a second one through. It is maybe on for a shake. Andron puts a hand on Jean's shoulder, and Jean throws a third bug through. It disappears, and they recieve some information. The space is filled, possibly by Benedict, and whatever is there is having problems.
Jean says that Benedict seems to be having some difficulties, and asks if they should get him out. Quelron pops two more knives. They head in Jean's direction. Jean fishes them to outside the rift, and lobs them through to Benedict. The bug goes dead immediately.
Andron looks annoyed. "All right. Benedict might be a lost cause, but he should at least keep them busy for a while."
Jean asks if they should trump Benedict. Rainbow looks at Jean with a really unhappy look on his face.
Jean passes some Logrus alarms through the rift. They don't go off there.
Jean asks Quelron for an indestructable hampster ball. Andron puts a hand on Quelron and tells Jean that the homoculi Jean should stand on Quelron. Jean says that he can't move himself. Jenoir sighs, says that they're already breached, and summons a Jean.
A hampster ball accretes around the Jean. Jean reaches up and plays with the pipes. One escretes water; the other escretes protein paste. Jenoir gestures and sends the hampster Jean to the Dancers Guild. The ball zips through the rift, across the planet, and through the rift.
The cube is empty. No blood; no machine parts either. Jean pops a bug inside the ball. It is almost immediately drained with power. Jean lost all of his inertia when he went through the rift. Jenoir comments that the spells set there is probably different now. Ilk wonders if the cube is the same one that was there before.