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Cailin turns to the dragon. "Wait - you'll need directions to Thelbane." Cailin tries to convince the dragon that he won't be able to reach Thelbane - dragons aren't the most powerful thing around there. Cailin's efforts convince the dragon to bring reinforcements. Hundreds of dragons land and line up to help.
Jean, overhearing this, turns towards Caine in Thelbane. "Your majesty... about the dragons... it sounds like a couple of minutes of dragons are about to come through."
Cailin changes his mind and tells the dragon that they cannot find Thelbane, and that they cannot win. The dragon is self-confident. "Reality exists in the minds of dragons." Cailin is skeptical.
The dragon claims that Segroget could erase a true name from existence such that it could not be spoken any more.
Neville went up to find the room with the painting. He finds it still hermetically sealed with his seal. He contemplates breaking the seal, and decides to ask Jean for a flunky. To his great amazement, there are no Jeans nearby. He decides to leave the room until later.
Neville heads towards Gwen's main lab. He encounters Jean, Calla, and the mage, who are returning from the lab with the cages of animals. Neville asks for a door-opening flunky, and the mage agrees to go help. Jean follows the mage, to keep Neville from killing him off.
The mage incants for a while, then clears the area. Jean follows the mage, at his advice. There is an eight or ten second pause, then there is a blast of rolling thunder and a cloud of billowing smoke. A titanic black scaly demon appears, bellows loudly, looks around, strides over to the door, tears it off the hinges, and disappears.
Jean and the mage continue heading back towards Calla.
Neville enters the room. The room is carpeted with corpses. This is definitely more than were here the last time Neville saw this room. The corpses appear to have been killed in a massive battle. Neville speculates that they fled from a battle through a one-way gate and died here.
The painting is not bloody or smudged. There are bloody hand prints leading up to the painting, but no blood on the painting itself.
Neville tries to figure out how to close the door again - the demon crumpled it on one corner.
Ilk asks Shiryu about the moon. It moves through the inside of the dome, and there is a connection between it and Oberon.
A large goose starts flying up towards the group. There is a large spot of Pattern on its back. It's Hamster Corwin. Ilk throws a voder down there and briefly fills him in.
Cailin tells his mages not to attempt to stop the dragons. Cailin asks Jean to update Caine on the dragons heading towards Thelbane. Caine directs Jean to not give them directions if they ask.
Cailin asks Jean to ask Caine for further instructions. There's still a substantial force of dragons in the shadow.
Jean - "So - he's outclassed and out-gunned. What's up?" Caine - "I'm a little busy here planning my escape. He's on his own."
Jean asks Hamster Osric for availability for consultation to Cailin. He replies in the affirmative. Jean points Osric at Cailin, and mentions that the local Caine is busy plotting his own escape.
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