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Neville has a meeting coming up with the two guys that were investigating the weird drug supposedly originating with the Shifters Guild. Neville is wearing a Jean torc, and there are probably a few Dancers around spying on the affair.
Neville and the two guys chat. They aren't very happy about him having used the drug, and claim that it is the property of the Shifters' Guild.
Jean fills in Rainbow on the situation, and he comes in discreetly for a look.
The two guys claim that they're going to have to kill Neville in order to keep the knowledge hidden. There are a number of stifled chuckles from the area.
When Neville points out that he might have told other people, the guys say that they're going to have to kill him and then find out what he knows. The causality problems with that statement is pointed out.
Neville notices a gathering of power around him.
"Jean? What are you doing?"
"Just watch."
Neville turns towards the two fools.
"Do you have any relatives who might be worried about your disappearance?"
There is a brief ripple, reality changes for a moment, and everything around Neville assumes their base form, with the exception of Jean. The shadow around him gets a lot more stark and less lush, and for some reason, things get more ordered for a few moments. They two things facing Neville end up in their base form, and look a lot like hellmaids from Hendrake.
"Oh, I thought that all of you people were dead."
The hellmaids attack him immediately. Neville freezes them in place with the reality engine.
Jean buds into the left one. They are the connection to the drug for Dara. They're not related to the shifters guild, and are trying to find out what Neville knows about the drug. They're actually hooked up with the Poisoners' Guild, but Dara thinks that they're linked with the Shapeshifters' Guild. Their plans for the drug are unclear - these two aren't very high in the Guild hierarchy.
Jean tells Neville not to zap the left one. Neville tweaks reality around the right one, and thinks that he succeeds in forcing her to only tell the truth.
Jean realizes that this one has all of the self-destruct mechanisms, and after consultation with Rainbow, asks Neville to stasis that body until he can get it fixed.
Norton is in a cell with Flora.
Norton's trumps are not cold. Norton tries to have the Celeste in his head draw a new one. A silvery line comes out of Norton's fingertip. Celeste curses - nothing. It's in the nature of the place.
Flora tries shadow-walking, and fails.
There is no door.
Norton contacts what is left of the plants. All that they know is that every now and then a female is hung on the wall to rape.
Norton chats with the Ilk in his head. Logrus and Pattern don't work, and the place is actively hostile to magic. Mandor fainted when they arrived; Ilk pulled in all of their tendrils.
Norton creates a new species for the sole purpose of sacrificing it to Verra in an effort to attract her attention. The ritual is long and involved.
"Are there any more Hendrakes alive?"
"Yes."
"Where are they?"
"Elsewhere."
It comes out that the other members of Hendrake are going to be decending upon them momentarily.
The Jean that budded into the Hellmaid has the feeling that a crude form of Ilk's Logrus nuke is incoming. Jean tells Savior of Chaos and fishes him in. Ilk ties the Logrus threads onto each other, then pulls the people behind the Logrus threads into a stasis field generated by Neville.
Jean reports to Silver Lyra; she notifies the Torturers' Guild. Several members and their equipment are whaled into the shadow.
The torturers set up and start working. Ilk fishes back. Neville goes off to talk to Silver Lyra, and decides not to go after Dara until after hearing back from the torturers.
Cassandra is walking through shadow picking up Sith troops. After the sixth or so challenge, they fall into line.
Cailin and Natasha are building House Moonlight. They go to Cassandra's encampment and are confronted by Sith, who demand that Cailin put on regimentals. He refuses and argues with them for a while, and is then escorted to Cassandra and announced as a spy. Cassandra is scornful for a while, then dismisses the Sith. Natasha steps out from behind one of them as they leave and says, "How clumsy."
Cailin reluctantly admits that he is ready to begin his training. Natasha asks if Cassandra has a place for her in the army, and if she can keep Cailin as a pet. "Tempting."
Cassandra has them tested. Cailin needs a lot of work; Natasha is fairly good. Cailin's singing sword is better than he. Their training begins.
Cassandra's bunch of bloodthirsty, power hungry, individualistic Sith are actually starting to shape into an army.
[It is mentioned that the reason the Jean trees have Ilk signature is because insane Norton scraped Ilk, the screaming guy, and the wheel into the original tree.... so Lir and Ilk are now hanging out in the tree. Countless game-crossing jokes ensure.]
Jean tells Silver Lyra about the duplication and current situation of the Nortons.
"Jean? You lost one of the seventeen Houses. ... Who would show up if I called council?"
"Faythe, probably."
"Isn't she King in Amber?"
"Then her sister Felice... or maybe Brendhyn...."
"The other answer to your question is that Snarsht is on top of his house."
"So Snarsht might be Head of House. That's not something that I wanted to contemplate."
Jean tells Silver Lyra that Benedict is missing. She is not pleased.
"and at the time I was freaking out because of Marial..."
"Marial!..."
"No - Marial is okay. We just had to tell her that she sent Benedict on a mission and that he is lost."
Jean tells Silver Lyra that Shiryu and Jenoir are tracking the rifts.
Norton vibrates Benedict to find him. He's over that way about 300 yards, fighting for his life. Norton feeds Benedict power.
Norton slaps a plant up against the wall and accelerates their growth. The wall shatters.
There is a big room with a series of chambers around the wall. There are about 300 of them.
Norton and Flora walk over to Benedict's chamber and shatter the wall. The things that were attacking Benedict are kinda nasty, but once Norton hands him Greyswandir he does much better.
When Benedict looks at Flora she blushes. Norton realizes that Flora is naked and makes some clothing.
Benedict explains what happened to him, the short form, and says that his stone sword of office vanished when his chamber clicked.
Benedict suggests that they destroy the other chambers to see if anyone followed them. Three chambers over, Jean in the hampster ball is found.
A bit of waffling occurs, and then a Jean saucer flies through the window in Ferethyn's meeting room into the chamber room, and says that they can go back that way.
Marial is informed of the situation and decides that an invasion would be in order.
Benedict describes his desired weapons to Jean. Savior of Chaos starts throwing raw organic matter through the window to Norton.
The environment is described to Marial via Jean.
Jean tells Snarsht that Norton is fine and that he'll be back as soon as he's done invading that universe. He plans to tell his fiance once she wakes up.
Snarsht: "My apprentice is invading a universe alone. I'd best go help." Jean: "I only have a whale." Snarsht: "The fish will do just fine.
Snarsht leaps off the roof, and without seeming to change size, fits within the fish. Snarst comes out of the fish, kitten-size. He rubs up against Flora's legs, looks at Benedict, and then jumps onto Norton's head, kneads a few times, and settles down.
Norton decides to test his ring. It works. "Renfield, hi. I'm in another reality; just checking to see if we have cell coverage here."
Jean tells Benedict that the stone sword went to Corwin.
Jean whales in an etiquette guild member. The group walks the tower again, and various people look at the sacrifice.
Ilk asks Jean if he could tell Verra that they don't really need her to come through... and Verra materializes. People chat.
The whale has crushed the rest of the chambers. They look around. There is another incoming rift in the next notch over from the input rift though which demons are now arriving at a high rate of speed.
Snarsht hops off Norton's head and goes to play with the demons. Even Benedict decides that he can't watch.
Norton tries to go undead to vamp some demons. He fails. "I can't die here!" Snarsht gives him a look. Flora pats him on the head.
Norton goes through the window and arrives in Ferethyn's meeting room, along with a demon that Snarsht tossed to him. Norton chats with Ilk, who eventually manages to shoo him out of the room, but not until after Ferethyn pokes his head in, complains about the ring going incommunicado, and gives Norton a homing beacon.
Norton goes into shadow, vamps the demon, and goes back through. The vampire demons start spreading and chasing down the other demons.
The information that shapeshifting doesn't work there, only beastmastery, is relayed to Silver Lyra.
Norton talks with the Etiquette Guild member about conquest and other things. Norton drafts a proclamation stating that all of the members of House Hendrake should report in immediately. The etiquette guild member joins Norton's full-time staff. Norton's lack of a House Second is deemed to be a bad thing, and Brendhyn is considered to be the most appropriate.
The appropriateness of the situation as a mass sacrifice is discussed with Verra. Verra concentrates for a bit, and decides that the place is called Vanir's Wrath. The place extends for quite a ways, but they are deeply underground. Verra points out a hollow behind that wall. The hampsterball bangs against the wall in vain, then Norton throws his giant mistletoe against the wall. The wall fails quickly.
"I don't think they took plants into consideration when they designed it."
They go out into the larger world. The etiquette guild member conjures appropriate insignia.
Somehow Norton's house arms have changed slightly to incorporate a hint of cat.
Jean sends through tanks. Benedict asks for only one. Jean isn't sure whether to be complimented or insulted.
[battery low - shutting down. Help, anyone?]
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