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Cailin reaches the Spiral. There is nobody there -- the castle is completely empty. He scans magically, but doesn't see any fresh signatures. He knows that he warned Erica about the marbles, so she wouldn't have touched them, but she's not around, either. He notices that his scrying is stopped at the edge of the kingdom.
Cailin scries to the edge of the kingdom. He can see the edge of the mountains. There's nothing beyond them. And it's getting kinda cold where he is standing. Actually, it's snowing on him.
Cailin goes down to take a look at the Spiral. He opens the door to the Spiral chamber, and snow comes pouring out. Cailin starts shoveling. He finds two unfamiliar corpsicles. Both of them are dressed in the classical magely robes and hats -- none of the Cobalt family members deigned to dress that way. It looks like the corpsicles were were plunged to very low temperatures, held there for a long time, and only then raised to normal snow temperatures. Their magical signatures are incorporated into the signature of the snow.
Cailin keeps looking, and reaches the Spiral.
Cailin takes the two corpsicles to the edge of the shadow, then returns to the Spiral and tries to zap all of the snow off the Spiral magically. It gets extremely cold.
[Absolut Cobalt]
Janus is leading Calla on a hellride through shadow towards Gil. A light starts blinking in Suhuy's ways, noting the arrow of Pattern heading towards Chaos. Suhuy goes off to check it out.
Gil is eating. The first thing that Calla gets to do upon her arrival is to dodge the table knife that Gil threw and Janus blocked in her direction.
Janus grins at Gil. "Ha, ha. You missed a good fight."
Calla and Janus join Gil in her meal. When they are done, they ask Jean for a training room that Amberites won't break. Jean isn't sure about that. Suhuy swaps out for Ilk and offers to construct a room out of neutronium. Details are determined, a room is constructed in that Black zone kingdom, and the three are pulled into it.
Janus pulls out a blindfold, wraps it around Gil's eyes, and says, "No cheating!" Calla goes after Gil. Calla's doing much better now that Gil is blindfolded. Occasionally Calla feels Janus behind her adjusting her stance or arm position
Ilk notices a large collection of Logrus approaching the box, in the form of Caine's sword. Ilk concentrates some tendrils in Caine's general location. Caine waves. Caine reaches the box, pulls his Pattern blade, and starts cutting.
About six hours into the workout, Janus turns Calla and Gil towards a wall, where they notice a blade cutting through it. Ilk vibrates Janus's shoe, telling him that it's Caine. Janus relaxes, but only slightly.
A section of the box falls outward and Caine walks in. "Hello Janus, Gil, stranger."
Calla thinks that Caine would be a nasty opponent, and that stone dagger at his hip gives her the willies. Calla notices that Gil is no longer blindfolded, but doesn't remember Gil ever touching it.
There is a faint noise heard from outside, and Caine looks at Gil and says, "Call your cat off if you don't want her dead." Gil just stares back at Caine and grins.
Caine looks at Janus and says, "I have a request and a requirement for you, good sir. Currently the head of my Guild is temporarily incapacitated, and I need a second. And as much as I don't trust you, I trust Chaosians even less."
Ilk sniffs audibly. Caine strokes his Logrus blade in a manner probably intended to be intimidating.
Janus looks at Caine and says, "Well, what does this entail?"
"You know, I never thought to ask that when I was volunteered for the job myself."
Caine: "I need to lead troops in shadow, and someone needs to defend Chaos... and I'd rather have an Amberite defending Chaos, which strikes my sense of humor..."
They negotiate back and forth for a while, and then Janus agrees, stating that he already has his two generals picked out.
Caine finishes. "Report for duty... Marial will probably want to have words with you." Calla thinks that Janus might have shuddered at that name. Caine turns and hellrides off into shadow. That light in Suhuy's ways goes off again. Ilk suspects that Caine is doing it just to annoy him.
The situation is discussed. Jean offers to show them to the troops that Caine was using to defend Amber. He leads them through a few ways and they arrive at the encampment. Janus deduces that Corwin handled most of the setup and training, with just a few later modifications by Caine. Janus locates the headquarters tent and enters, Calla and Gil following. Janus grabs the highest-ranking guy in the tent by his throat and asks, "Who is in charge here?"
"I am!" *crack*
"Who is in charge here?"
"You are!"
"Actually, they are... I'm just supervising." Janus gestures towards Calla and Gil.
Janus announces that he is going to take a nap. If Marial arrives, he is to be woken immediately. His seconds should examine the camp and make any appropriate changes.
Janus goes off to take a nap. He lies down on the bunk of the guy he killed, and surreptitiously pulls a knife out of his belly. Calla and Gil exit the tent and check out the camp.
The encampment is very well set up. Whenever Calla notices something that appears to be an error, more detailed study reveals that it was just too subtle for her to easily analyze.
A young girl, who clearly does not belong in the camp, comes skipping up to Calla. The people in the camp seem to be ignoring her.
"Hello?"
"Hi Calla! This is for you!" The little girl hands Calla a note and skips off.
The note says that she would like meet with Calla at her convenience. It is signed, "M".
Calla tries to follow the little girl, but she vanishes in mid-air at the end of a row of tents. Calla deduces that the girl must be yet another relative.
Gil and Calla reconvene at the command tent.
Janus is sitting there talking with a nicely dressed young lady.
Calla walks in to hear the words, "Careless and egotistical" being spoken. Marial seems to consider Janus's execution of the former commander to have been extremely wasteful.
Marial states that her liaison will be her apprentice, that little girl Call met earlier. There will probably be an attack, but it will probably not be directed at this location, so they must be prepared to move. They will take deployment orders only from the Realms Lords, herself, and her apprentice.
"If an Old Lord requests or requires anything of you, feel free to refer them to the Realms Lords and tell them to buzz off. There may be attempts for you to get involved in local politics - do not get involved under any circumstances."
Janus seems pleased at that idea.
When Calla asks how she could recognize the other Realms Lords, Marial wonders aloud if Ilk is present. The Savior of Chaos manifests, is introduced, and is pointed out as the most likely Realms Lords to contact them.
Jenoir turns up at Suhuy's ways and politely knocks at the door. The door is opened, and Jenoir bows to Suhuy's opening as appropriate from a Guild head to a Realms Lord. She is shown to a chamber.
"I assume that we are private?"
Suhuy makes it so, and materializes.
Ferethyn emerges, and states that the ring for House Moonlight is reading very oddly. Ferethyn asks for assistance in performing this research.
Suhuy searches shadow for Cailin, and doesn't find him, but does find that many Real places, including Ilk's promontory, are inaccessible to the Logrus. Actually, all of the Real places of which he is aware are inaccessible, save for Amber and Chaos.
Discussion occurs.
Ferethyn goes to his island in the Sea, apologizes for taking such interesting company away from Dworkin, and pulls Shiryu out. Shiryu is not pleased with the news, does a quick check, and says to any Realms Lords around that he must look into this.
A short span of time later, Cailin has a nasty tingling feeling in his whole body. Cailin tries to turn into a yeti and succeeds. Unfortunately, the location that he is trying to run from is inside him. The tingling has stopped. Cailin doesn't sense his gate nearby. He's not currently running. Cailin runs in a direction towards his gate. Everything is white around him. His gate isn't there. Cailin tries to run away from the Spiral. He knows that he's moving because he has gone through several walls by now. The white is too uniform -- he hasn't even seen dimming when he ran through the walls. Cailin holds a bibliomancy token up to his eye. There is a wrenching sensation inside him, and the thing that he was fearing is no longer inside him. Cailin looks for the door out of his house, and doesn't find it.
Cailin seems to be in an open area. The ground under his feet is uniform, it feels like sand or ash. The sounds reaching him are the sounds of his footsteps.
Cailin changes into human form. The weight of the corpsicle mages is now much more noticeable. The tingling sensation is back, but much less.
Cailin pulls out his only trump, the one of Tate. It feels cold. He concentrates on it. Tate answers. "Wow." "Don't worry about it - can you bring me through?" "So this is what it feels like to trump a blind person."
"Should I also bring through the two guys on your shoulders?"
"Yeah"
"What about the little man behind you?"
"Who?"
"Looks like Shiryu."
Cailin turns towards Shiryu, thanks him for saving him, and grovels at great length.
Tate points out to Cailin that his eyes are holes. Tate pushes Cailin into shadow. Cailin heals himself using his true name. He can see again, and that took a bunch of the power that he had stored up. It's not snowing.
Cailin trumps Tate back. Cailin fills Tate in on his recent discoveries regarding the snow.
Cailin returns to the place with the snow clouds. There are only three new clouds with his signature -- one for the scrying, one for the gate, and one for the final blast. The power in the cloud doesn't correspond to the power of the spell that triggered the cloud. He absorbs the signatures.
Cailin tries to open a gate to the world of the dead, and finds that he can't.
Cailin ponders his options, then goes home and sends a note to Jenoir stating that he found the source of the snow, was rescued by Shiryu, and could probably use her assistance.
Suhuy searches through shadow. All of the Real places that he knows of are inaccessible via Logrus. Ingold cannot be located. Zack is currently in his room in Amber Castle, relaxing after the battle in the garden. Ilk asks Janus if he has seen Ingold recently, and is filled in about Ingold's disappearance.
Ilk asks Jean to ask Verra if she is free to look into something. Jean replies that it should be possible to interrupt Verra soon.
Ilk looks for Pharaban, to try to find a more reliable witness. Pharaban is not present, and his ways feel empty.
Ilk has Jean fish over Hamster Oberon and Hamster Finndo. They are willing to come over to investigate, and want to spread the word that Hamster Llewella has been impregnated by her newest plaything.
Ilk tries to explain promontories and the structure of reality to the Hamsters. They don't really understand water, which makes the Sea even harder to explain. He mostly fails.
Hamster Oberon and Hamster Finndo start on opposite sides of Ilk's Home and walk towards the center. They meet in the middle, but they never left shadow, and never left Ilk's perceptions. The group tries again near Ingold's Pattern, and the hamsters again meet in shadow.
Ilk tries to open a shadow gate into Home. It's a massive expenditure of power. He pours the power in, and the gate opens. Unfortunately, Ilk cannot see through the gate.
The Serpent's apprentice is acquired to pass through the gate, on the assumption that he'll probably handle the Sea of Chance better than the others. He goes through. It's Home - he couldn't see through the gate due to his own wards. There's less elbow room here than before. The Sea is lapping at the edges of the promontory. Logrus doesn't cross the Sea well. He waves Serpent power over the Sea, and it lasts longer than anything else that he has tried. The Serpent's apprentice returns, and brings a a breeding population of his shifters along to guard this side of the gate, and eventually transform it into a version of the shadow that Home used to be.
Ilk goes to Suhuy's ways to ask for Jenoir's help in opening a gate to the promontory that formerly housed Ingold's Pattern.
Jenoir concentrates for a minute or two, and states that this is going to be a semi-permanent two-way gate. She shows Suhuy the linchpins to tear it down from each side, and says that Suhuy will have some limited control over what passes through the gate. The gate is opened. They see a familiar-looking grassy plain on the other side. Pharaban's presence is felt, but he is not visible.
Ilk offers Ferethyn the honor of the rescue. Ferethyn determines that contacting House heads is indeed his duty and passes through. Pharaban and Ferethyn talk are seen to talk, and then Pharaban pours through the gate.
Pharaban bows to Suhuy and Ilk from Head of House to Realms Lords. He thanks them for the rescue and states that his foolishness and pride resulted in him entering an untenable situation. They return the bow from Realms Lord to Pharaban. Pharaban volunteers the information that there was a noticeable moment of migration and he presumed that his powers were great enough that he could remain an observer and bring the information back afterwards, and then found himself to be trapped.
What he perceived was that as the last bits of power drained entirely from Ingold's Pattern, it set up some sort of pressure wave, perhaps repulsion, that started the promontory sliding. He felt the connection between himself and his home growing more tenuous. He figured that he could maintain his state and return with his observations, but he found himself without enough power to do so. The process was fairly quick, but not instantaneous, and he believes that if anyone decided immediately one way or the other they would have ended up on one side or the other, but if they were indecisive, they would have dropped into the Sea of Chance.
Ingold had disappeared before the last of his power had drained from his Pattern.
"I believe that if he is anywhere, he is among friends. There was a sense of familiarity at his disappearance, not to myself, but to him."
Buried at the place from which Ingold disappeared is that which Ilk wished investigated.
Ilk mentions that he has an idea as to where Ingold went, and that he has indirectly asked an initiate of that power to contact him as soon as she can be interrupted.
Pharaban says that he needs to rearrange his power for better accesses, due to his new insight into the nature of reality. He offers to share any positive information gained in the process.
Pharaban states that due to the feeling that there was a pressure wave, he would be surprised if any of the promontories are still reachable normally, except for the two end points. Ilk replies that all of the promontories seem to be missing from shadow, and explains the process of investigation.
Pharaban folds himself into the Logrus, then back out along the Logrus into Pharaban's ways.
Ilk manifests, for the sole purpose of being able to have a wry expression on his face. "Shiryu's going to be pissed."
There is a polite tap at Suhuy's ways. It's Shiryu. Suhuy causes their location to be noticeable, and Shiryu joins them. Shiryu looks at the gate and says that he wanted to say that the Sea of Chance was lapping higher or lower than usual, and that now the reason is apparent.
Suhuy has the room replay Pharaban's report for Shiryu. Ilk clarifies that he believes that Ingold may be in the Void.
Suhuy doesn't seem to care about the promontories being inaccessible -- he and his apprentices would have no problem traveling between his gardens. He may need to initiate more apprentices, and will be busier for a while, but the places should mostly be safe except for storms in the Sea.
Ilk asks Ferethyn to set up a gate to replace the temporary one between the place where Home used to be and Home. Ferethyn does so. The shadow where the promontory used to be is taken over by Ilk's shifters.
Shiryu departs, and takes the Savior of Chaos off with him, to teach him his method of traveling between gardens.
Serpent's Apprentice tells the hamsters of the successful results. Hamster Oberon asks for a favor in return - he's been trying to teach Hamster Finndo magic, but doesn't really know it himself. Ilk arranges for lessons with Ilaryn, the badger babe hanging out with (and teaching more advanced magic to) the Ilk in the hamster reality.
[When Ilk next talks to Osric, it will be determined that the first reboot of Fringe happened when the promontories started to move and the second reboot of Fringe happened when the promontories stopped moving.]
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