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Calla is comforting Wyndham. Calla asks Jean to ask someone in Chaos what she should do with the army -- Wyndham needs someone to fight.
Jean asks Silver Lyra what should be done about the army. He is sent off to ask Marial, who is fighting. Silver Lyra reminds him to go check again. Jean tries a Rover form. The fourth iteration makes it to the battlefield; the sixth makes it to within Marial's visual range. After about thirty-five iterations, he makes it to Marial.
"Jean - what's up?"
"I have no idea."
Jean goes off to ask his mom why he wanted to talk to Marial. She knows, and hands him a note. Jean resumes the progress.
Calla remembers Ilk's existence, and asks him to ask Marial where she and the army should be. Ilk goes to Marial. There is a lot of Pattern being washed all over the battle. Ilk mostly avoids it, and asks Marial where she would like the army. Marial describes; Ilk relays to Calla and Wyndham.
Wyndham whines about not winning her first battle. Calla tries to find something heroic for her to do. Jean helps. The army is pulled to Chaos.
Ilk tries to help, but Marial's plan is so good that whenever he tries to blast a Pattern-saturated area, it's already gone.
Calla is pressed. Janus and Gil join her. At several points, she gets to see Janus go full out. It's very impressive. Occasionally, she gets to see Caine go full out. It's even more impressive. The battle is frightening, but Calla survives -- Marial doesn't push her beyond her capabilities, although her orders occasionally don't make sense until after their execution.
After the army arrives, Marial spends most of her time comforting Wyndham and ignoring the direct fighting.
There is a small squad of folks detailed to defend Jean. One of them goes over and asks him if he is relaying information to the King. Jean turns to Ilk and asks for a viewscreen. Ilk raises a viewscreen for the King.
The battle ends. The Chaosian troops lost around 2%, the invading troops are all dead. There is a small contingent of the invaders that took off into shadow that Wyndam has been tasked with killing. Ilk is sent off to keep an eye on Wyndham. He leaves a few tendrils discreetly on her, and others on each of the fugitives.
Silver Lyra thanks Ilk for his assistance in the viewscreen, and tells Jean to notify appropriate folks that the battle was over.
Jean asks Caine who these invaders are. He doesn't know, but says that these folks remind him of some that he trained in shadow some time ago. Calla displays her ignorance of ways Amberite to Caine. Caine digs at her with remarkable gentility.
Caine asks Calla if she would like to regather the army. Calla considers disturbing Marial, then looks around for her father. He's off a ways tending to the wounded. Caine is delighted, and walks over to Janus and announces that Calla is deferring to authority, and that he should stop healing the troops - they're only shadow.
"You always were cruel and heartless, weren't you?"
Caine grins. They discuss improving the breed.
Wyndham makes brilliant battle plans with a couple of false assumption, such as "no plan survives first contact with the enemy intact". The enemy does not do what she expects. She gets upset, writes a whole new plan, does some damage, they don't do what she expects, and repeat. Once they are all dead, she writes up a trip report, leaving out a number of the iterations.
Silver Lyra turns to the gathered group and asks them for a status report. Cailin acquires her attention.
Cailin mentions "the consortium", and is asked for an explanation. He has tracked the snow to its shadow of origin. Cailin gives the story. It's a bit confused. Erasing the signature in the magic-tracking shadow also erases the spell that generated the signature. Cobalt is mentioned. Silver Lyra expresses interest in interviewing the family.
Silver Lyra asks Snarsht to go fix Natasha.
[Snarsht buried the imposter in shadow next to the Dworkin-bell. He's not done with it yet. He's not done with Norton yet, either. Norton thinks that he's a vampire because he dug himself out of the ground]
Snarsht shifts into a large cat, orders Cailin to mount, takes a single leap, and lands in front of the Healers' Guild. The doors are flung open and healers file out, including the Guild Head. Many people bow to Cailin and Snarsht.
[Guildmaster to House-Head riding on Guildmaster]
Natasha is brought out, Snarsht licks her, and Cailin feels a draining sensation. Snarsht scoops up Natasha, lowers a shoulder for Cailin, and leaps back to the King.
Snarsht places Natasha at the King's feet, turns back into a kitten, and leaps onto Neville's head. Snarsht curls up on top of the Pattern armor, in the center of the Crown of Amber.
Cailin wakes Natasha with smelling salts and tries to fill her in. He then pulls her to her feet and introduces her to the King. The King is talking with Neville, so Cailin continues to fill Natasha in.
Ilk goes to check out the Houses that are under attack, starting with House Cara.
House Cara is no longer under attack. Apparently, a bunch of the Sidhe warriors who were available to be summoned by Ted for Zack have been camped outside of Cara, and repelled the attackers when they were promised an attempt to find them something that can get them drunk. They have found something that the Sidhe can drink, but it only tastes like water. The effort has resulted in a number of House members actually sobering up in order to more accurately mix drinks.
Ilk heads to House Chanicut.
The King turns to Jean and says that a meeting of the Council of Houses is in order. She asks him if he or Amaranth's father would call the Council for her -- she doesn't want to. Jean asks Mandor. Mandor understands why she wouldn't want to call the meeting -- if the King called it, then it would be an emergency session and they would have to declare war and replace the King.
Cailin's ring suddenly flashes an image of Thelbane in his head, along with a sky color.
Silver Lyra wants all of her advisors present -- all of the Heads and Seconds of all of the approved Guilds.
Calla and Gil have stabilized all of the savable troops and offed those who wouldn't recover. Calla wonders if she should ask Marial what to do. Marial is reading Wyndham's report and talking with Wyndham. Marial summons Calla.
Marial asks Calla which one of them will be in charge of the army. Marial would like to take Caine with her. She would like to have her apprentice shadow Caine, to learn appropriate behaviors. Janus wanted to be in charge of training, and to leave Calla and Gil in charge of the army. Calla says that they had an incident with the Poisoners' Guild -- shifter virus, and Ilk dropped a mountain on it. Someone stopped by claiming to be the Head of House Timbal and tried to get the army to move, but Ilk said that he was just a rogue member of the Warriors' Guild.
Marial says that she has a job for Calla. Calla is to go to the Assassins' Guild and to report that the Poisoners' Guild has attacked Marial's army, and to ask them if they would like to take precedent, or if Marial should investigate personally.
Marial heads to her ways. Calla asks Jean for a briefing and a lift.
Calla enters, and is asked for proof that she bears a message from Marial. She goes out and whines to Jean. Jean goes in and introduces her to the desk clerk as a general of Marial's army. Calla relays the message, and is told that she would have to talk to their Guildmaster. The clerk extends his hand to Calla and magically transports them somewhere.
Cailin sees a magical gate opening next to him. There is no snow. He points it out to the King, who advises that he draw a weapon. Cailin draws a sword. Natasha puts a hand on his shoulder and takes the sword.
An assassin, in full Sith regimentals, steps through with Calla. The assassin hands Natasha back her sword and bows to the King. The assassin says that his Guildmaster will be joining them there momentarily, and walks back through the gate.
A few heartbeats later, Natasha turns around, says, "Princess Chandra! It's so good to see you!" and hugs her. Cailin becomes aware of Princess Chandra's presence. Princess Chandra pats Natasha on the head.
Jean tells Princess Chandra that Calla is a general of Marial's army and has a message from Marial. Calla says that it's Guild business. Princess Chandra places her arm around Calla. Calla notices that Princess Chandra moves as if she could kill Calla with a casual thought.
Ilk notices a flexing of Serpent power. Princess Chandra and Calla disappear and reappear in a room in the Assassins' Guild. She points at various apparently inanimate objects and orders them out of the room.
Calla relays Marial's message, and gives more details. Princess Chandra turns down Marial's offer, and says that she will consult Ilk for further details on the poison. Calla tells Princess Chandra that the army is encamped on House Timbal lands. Someone shows Calla a way out.
Calla mounts on a barca-Jean and realizes that she doesn't know where Marial is. Jean takes her to Marial's ways. She can't see ecto-Suhuy, but waves to ecto-Ilk.
"Have we met?"
Ecto-Ilk explains that there are several people who answer to the name of Ilkandacian. She must have met the Savior of Chaos. He demonstrates the difference by waving an ectoplasmic arm through her.
Calla finds Marial in a kitchen, cooking. Marial looks at Calla and says, "What do you want?"
"I'm returning your message."
"No, to eat. I'm making lunch."
"Something that doesn't crawl."
Marial places a plate covered with a chunk of steaming meat in front of Calla. Calla tells Marial that Princess Chandra claimed priority.
Calla tries to get Jean to pass a correction to Princess Chandra - they're encamped at the flat spot, not Timbal's lands. Marial doesn't want her to correct Princess Chandra -- having Princess Chandra go and look for the army on Timbal lands would be quite instructive.
Jean conveys Calla back to the army. Gil is giving knife instruction to new recruits who just showed up. They said that Marial sent them. Calla, who just came from Marial, panics and starts calling out for Ilk. No response. She calls out for Jean, who calls out for Ilk.
Ilk checks with Marial, who says that she didn't send any new troops. They should be considered expendable.
Gil's next exercise involves a knife exchange that might result in the practicer getting cut. A quarter of them cut themselves with the knives that they brought and don't get back up again. Gil and Calla are bemused, and contemplate poisons.
Ilk informs Princess Chandra about the latest poisonings on his way back to House Chanicut. She decides to get involved personally, and asks Ilk to keep an eye out for Bronelle's power for her.
Ilk and Princess Chandra head back to the flat spot.
Cailin asks Jean to ask Ilk to tell Kieron that his mother is back. Jean tells Ilk; Ilk tells Serpent's Apprentice, who talks to Kieron. Kieron doesn't like getting hurt - it hurts. He's planning on talking to the Princess about that - she never gets hurt.
Cailin points out the King to his son. Kieron says that Princess Chandra told him how to bow to the King. Kieron bows to the King as from a high-ranked member of the Assassins' Guild.
The King advises to Cailin that he not correct Princess Chandra's teachings.
The King and Natasha walk off and chat inside a shimmering sphere.
"I'm going to talk to the nice spider-man over there."
Cailin doesn't see anyone. "What nice spider man?"
"Ph...ph...pharyban. He gave me a riddle and I think I have the answer."
"Okay. Just stay within sight."
Kieron walks about six feet away from Cailin and starts talking to something that Cailin can't see in a language he's never heard before.
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