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Neville has had an announcement posted throughout his House stating his discovery of the existence of contracts out on many members of the House that will be executed if they are politically disruptive.
Cailin, Neville, and Darkstar are in the magic-tracking place, discussing the situation. There is nothing here but clouds.
Neville shows the trump that he got off the spidery guy to Darkstar. Darkstar says that it's a trump of the Abyss. It looks like somebody took a standard trump of the Abyss and drew another, non-trumpish, picture on top. The picture on top was in a different hand from the original trump. Darkstar and Neville are coy about identities in each others directions.
Neville tells Darkstar and Cailin of Random and Martin's troubles, and of the threats by someone claiming to be House Timbal. Cailin tells Neville about the coalition trying to destroy a number of House Heads, including Moonlight, Helgram, and Cara, among others.
Neville tells Darkstar of the cheater who used trumps in a duel recently. Darkstar replies that the trumps sound like those built by current members of House Barimen. Neville and Cailin tell Darkstar of Dworkin's current state and location, and that Jean invited/summoned them to Ferethyn's realm.
Somewhere in shadow, Jean has a feeling as if someone is tapping its fingers across his trump. Jean resolves, once again, to have Dworkin teach him how to block trump contacts.
Cailin asks Darkstar to trump Random for him. Neville says that he tried and failed. Neville tries to scum a standard deck, but Darkstar claims to only have bits and pieces of one.
Neville tells those present about House Norton being flattened.
Darkstar gets worried about Llewella and trumps out. Cailin drains a few signatures. A few moments later, Cailin notices an incoming trump contact. Neville advises him to not take it. Cailin asks Neville to join him in the contact with a sword. Neville removes a glove, draws a normal blade, and places his hand on Cailin's shoulder. Cailin takes the contact. It's Darkstar. Both of them are now completely drenched.
Cailin - "What, are you in Rebma?"
Darkstar - "Not any more!"
Darkstar dries himself off. The water is behaving oddly.
Llewella might be there - Darkstar didn't stay around long enough to find out. Darkstar had a horde of stuff safely tucked aside there; it's not there any more. Her soldiers are stirred up and are doing things.
Darkstar tries to trump Random. "Nope, I think that you'll need Norton for this one."
Darkstar refuses to trump Llewella, but passes a Neville a trump. Neville contemplates revoking her banishment and plans his defenses, then decides not to trump her.
Darkstar trumps Martin. He chats with her, then Cailin takes the card. Cailin and Martin chat. Cailin discovers that Ilk is near Martin, and is told that Kieron is "in a safe place", and that undead Cailin is scattered between House Moonlight and the Assassins' Guild.
Neville pulls all of his magic-eating knives to him. They wrench themselves from his grasp and shatter across the shadow. Darkstar ducks instantly. Neville thinks that he might want to consider ducking. Cailin looks at the pretty blades chase clouds.
Neville warns Cailin to leave - the daggers eat magic. Cailin bibliomancy-tokens out.
Cailin arrives at House Moonlight. There is no snow. There is a dead dragon on the roof of House Moonlight. It's hot - hard to breath hot. The heat that Cailin passes through is hot enough to light his yeti-fur on fire. The fire is surrounding the outside of the barrier that Princess Chandra placed around his House.
The yeti drops and rolls. The flame extinguishes.
Cailin trumps Neville. They chat. Neville tries to recall his blades, and fails.
Deep in Jean's soul, he has a sensation of "Help me". He concentrates on the feeling. It's Verra.
Jean looks around for power. He's going to need fudge-sicle power. He shops around the Paths of the Dead, but can't find any real gods there.
Jean, in the Dancers' Guild, tells his dad that Verra is in trouble. Rainbow goes off in search of fudge-sicles, and leaves Jean in charge of the Guild. Jean's had practice at this.
Jean closes all eyes but this one and thinks at Verra, "Be at peace. Help is on the way."
Rainbow arrives at the fudge-sicle city, extends his aura, and orders the fudge-sicles to die for him. They all explode simultaneously. Rainbow turns to Jean, follows the connection within Jean to Verra, and then Verra and Rainbow are not within Jean.
Neville trumps his knives. He receives the equivalent of blood-lust - they're in magic lust. There is no conscious thought present. He determines that he'll have to wait.
Neville tells Cailin that the clouds aren't disappearing. They chat.
Neville tries to track the blades by Pattern-searching this shadow. The Pattern tells him that nothing exists in this shadow outside the reach of his arms.
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