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Neville leaves the mob outside Castle Amber via the Jean transport system and arrives on Gwen's front lawn. It's kinda ragged - corpses, shattered statue bits, and so on.
Neville has the reality engine transport him into the room where the Crafters' Guild is working. There are no crafters present, but there are several holes in the walls and a few scorch marks on the floor. He heads to the terminal, and notices a glowing translucent blue box around the terminal. He drops a piece of debris onto the box. The bit of debris is utterly destroyed upon contact, and a blinky light goes off on the visor of his Frogdallorian armor. Bad air.
Neville checks out the room where the old conflict occurred. There are scorch marks around, and the door knob is warmer than the rest of the door. Neville builds a half-cylinder around the door, knocks, and opens the door. The doorknob is mushy in his hand, and the entire room beyond the door is on fire. Gates the flames out to vacuum. The room is down to bare rock; the painting is gone.
Neville leaves the room, summons a Dancer, and has it report. A force came through, fought the crafters, and took two prisoners. The rest of the crafters got away. Someone without a nose came through into the room with the painting, set the fire, met with the troops, was annoyed when he found out about two prisoners, did something in the room with the terminal room, then led the force off down into the bowels of the mountain.
Neville chats with Benedict via Jean, then acquires Cassandra and her army of Sith, who head down into the mountain after Julian.
Titania sends a leaf bug off to acquire an invitation from Zack.
The bug reaches Zack, Zack opens a Faerie gate, and Titania is there. He delivers the invitation to the meeting of powers, apologizes for the delay, and they return to Arden.
The bug ends up on Zack's shoulder, much to Zack's consternation. The rangers are told not to squish any talking bugs, but to bring them to him.
Cailin acquires a gate from Andron to Arden, and encounters Zack and the bug. They chat.
The bug gets into an argument with a hedgehog, and the bug pulls in his big brother, a six foot tall leaf bug. Hampster Oberon rips a leg off the big bug, which then backs down.
Natasha and Cailin head across shadow towards the Spiral.
The Serpent's apprentice returns to the place where the Serpent was. The Serpent isn't there, but Princess Chandra is. She bows to him. It is a bow between family members, from a ranked member of a family to a non-ranked member of a family. Ilk contemplates the bow, realizes the implication, and returns the converse of the bow. Princess Chandra seems pleased. She greets him in the name of her brother. She says that there are many things that have never passed these walls for many years. She does not command or even request his silence.
[Hampster Oberon and Jean playing Yahtzee with the Jewel of Judgment]
Ilk states that he has no interest in spreading certain information.
"Not the information so much as the reactions."
Ilk realizes that she is referring to the familial references.
Ilk considers solidifying, but it seems wrong to do so here.
Princess Chandra leaves, and somewhere in the existence (distance?) Ilk can hear a baby's cry.
The Serpent's apprentice leaves and enters Thelbane; Savior of Chaos goes to look for Pharaban.
While Ilk is in Thelbane, there is a slight disturbance outside in the general council chambers, the upshot of which is that a formal protest is lodged by House Moonlight against House Barimen.
An Ilk goes off to request a personal audience with Princess Chandra. She is not available, so Ilk meets with Guild Second Tirellian. They chat, and Ilk escorts a member of the Guild back to Thelbane. The Guild member disappears, and Ilk returns to Thelbane to watch.
A member of House Barimen is brought in to receive the notification of the formal protest. At which point in time the member of House Moonlight pulls out a dagger which has the markings of the Assassins' Guild on it and throws it at the member of House Barimen and a very interesting magical discharge happens. It sinks home. For all intensive purposes, it looks like the attack originated with Barimen and struck and destroyed the House Moonlight member. However, Ilk can tell that the draw of power was from the House Moonlight member, not the House Barimen member. The magic was pulled from a nearby magical well.
The Etiquette guild members turn to House Barimen and say that although the attack on him was unjustified, the return attack was also unjustified. The House Barimen member protests his innocence, and the Etiquette Guild member says that it will be for the council to decide. The House Barimen member removes the dagger from his body and looks generally unwell. Ilk notices that from one of the shadowed corners of the room there is a small bit of power leaving Thelbane, probably from the Guild member.
Ilk leaves a viewscreen behind, looped, displaying his observations of the scene, including a note with the comments on the not-House member, suicide attack, etc.
The House Barimen member falls over dead before reaching his House, someone steps out of a nearby ways, the corpse disappears, and the newcomer assumes his form.
Ilk sends a note to Tirellian, and is asked if he can slow the guy down a bit. Ilk contacts Melk, who collapses within Thelbane. Ilk runs the annoted replay, and Melk decides that it is worth slowing the guy down. Melk stretches forth his power and the intruder's steps seem to get a whole lot slower. Melk says that he will pay some personal attention to this, as Ilk thinks that it is important.
Ilk writes back to Tirellian, "Taken care of." The Ilk in the area can realize that there are two teams from the Assassins Guild getting close.
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