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Jean realizes that that the guards they killed earlier were guarding a door. Jean and Calla head to the door, then Calla tries to convince their mage that he can look undetectably through the door. The mage fails to be convinced. Calla fails to believe the mage. Jean tries to get Calla to just open the door. Calla waffles at great length. Finally, Neville arrives.
Neville knows this door. It's the door to the long staircase down. Calla whines and wants to stay behind. Neville gets bored and opens the door. It opens. What a surprise.
Neville leads from behind. They head towards the command center. About a quarter of the way down, they spot some icky fluids on the wall. Some of the smears might have been bodies - possibly the creationists? Neville points out the bodies. Calla is horrified.
Neville points out that he kept getting distracted whenever he thought about cleaning this place up. He then realizes that he was distracted _every_ time that he thought about it. He ponders the consequences.
Jean decides that a couple of splattered Creationists is not newsworthy, so doesn't bother telling the head of the Creationists guild. Neville notices that the fluid is fairly fresh -- it's still fluid -- it hasn't congealed yet. About eleven steps past the fluid is a foot, still in one of Julian's boots. Recently severed, but the blood has congealed.
They continue, and eventually reach the hole in the wall.
Calla realizes just before they pass through the illusion that someone is pointing a crossbow at them. She says, "down!" and hits the ground. Neville discovers four crossbow bolts friction-welded to his armor. Calla tells Jean and the mage to get back. Unfortunately, the mage currently looks like a pincushion.
Neville charges through the illusion. There are eight people in there. Neville throws one back at Calla. "Here's one for you." Calla grumbles. Jean considers budding into the mage, and decides that he won't be able to save him. Two more people fire crossbow bolts into Neville's armor. He breaks their arms, then breaks the arms of the others. He breaks the legs of everyone that tries to run. Some of them actually resist for a bit. Jean tries to smack brains, but doesn't have much luck.
Jean asks Amaranth for another mage. Amaranth rings a bell. Someone comes in. She visibly panics and says, "Quick, man! Get in the fish!" The mage dives into the fish. Amaranth calms down again.
Jean pulls the guy out of the fish on the other side. Jean tells the mage to mind-wipe Calla's prisoner. The guy tries to kill the mage; Calla stops him. Jean buds into the freshly-wiped guy.
Calla steps through the illusion, and is deprived of all sensory input. Neville pokes his head through, chats, and pulls her through. Calla screams and drags Neville back out into the hallway.
Jean sends the Julian-minion-Jean through and can't see anything. He steps back out. Jean borrows Neville's helmet, and can see through the helmet's read-outs. He takes the helmet back off, and can't see. He steps back through, and returns the helmet to Neville.
Neville goes back through, and finds out that one of the soldiers is missing. There is one door there. Neville pushes at it, but it doesn't open - it seems to be barred.
The mage asks Neville to ask Jean for his book of magic. The book eventually arrives. Jean ends up whaling the book to an upper chamber and tractoring it down.
Jean determines that the hostages are probably dead; they resisted when the guards tried to transport them at their sergeant's orders. Each of them knows of a different transport device.
Jean talks to Qrelon about the splattered creationist(s). Qrelon spits out a note to the Assassins' Guild to open negotiations for a contract. Jean tells him that Benedict killed Julian, but is all angsty about it. Qrelon decides to send Benedict a thank-you note in a thousand years.
Qrelon sends a note to Ilk via Jean stating that it appears that there is an unorganized organization attacking members of his Guild in Chaos. He would like the organization either registered or destroyed.
Ilk asks Shiryu if the hole in the dome should be patched. Shiryu states that the hole should not be, and that the effects of the hole should be studied first.
Ilk tells Shiryu of the old story about Caine, Gerard, and the rock. Shiryu is annoyed at Janus for nominating Caine for King, and goes off to talk with him.
There is a large hissing sound from the other side of the illusion, and the mage comes running out. "Well, that sort of worked." The mage is on fire. Neville activates his fire extinguishers.
Neville charges. The area is charred. There is one corpse who was apparently leaning against the door at the time when it went down. Neville announces that the coast is clear.
They head down towards the lab. The mage announces that magic doesn't work, and stays behind.
The lab is trashed. Neville wanders off to play. Calla doesn't recognize anything. Neville successfully logs into the reality engine.
Calla notices that something hostile-looking is slowly coalescing behind Neville. Neville and Jean haven't noticed yet.
Calla heads towards it and tries to get Neville's attention. Neville ignores her.
Neville has control of the engine from here, but can't get a remote login working. He tries to eliminate the pictures, and finds it very difficult. He stops and maps them. Over one hundred are transport devices; he's not sure where they go.
New relevant entries: Julian is still alive. All of the accessible information on Dara has been erased.
Neville notices that there is something different about the space behind him than there was before. Neville checks with the computer - he apparently set off one of the computer's defenses, which is now trying to destroy him.
Neville complains. Jean tells Qrelon. Qrelon considers inducting the machine.
Neville uses the reality engine to transport all of them, including the new Jeans, to the surface. Neville flees. Jean arranges the broken guys on hills. Jean tells Neville of the hole in the dome and whales the group to Amber.
Cailin is talking with Princess Chandra about the dragons. He seems to think that he can kill them; Princess Chandra says that dragons are rather hard to kill. Princess Chandra questions him.
Princess Chandra tells Cailin that the chance is that dragons are related to the Serpent. The Serpent is that which all of Chaos flows from and returns to.
Princess Chandra shows up before the Serpent's Apprentice in the Serpent's antechamber, mere moments after she left. She bows to Ilk as a member of family and nods to Kieron. She tells Ilk about Cailin and the dragons. There might be a possibility to embarrass Caine.
Princess Chandra returns to her office. The situation is explained. She tells Ilk to investigate the dragons, but she'll come along just in case. Princess Chandra suggests that Cailin not watch from too close -- it might be dangerous under the circumstances.
Jean has determined that although a dragon's gullet doesn't make a saucer stop working, it's really boring in there.
[All things will pass in time, even Jean]
The largest dragon local to the Assassins' Guild is sitting on a nice warm rock next to a large cat. They're chatting. Approach. Snarsht pauses and introduces Princess Chandra and Ilk to the dragon, and introduces Wide Wing in return. Ilk coalesces a shell and greets the dragon, from a Realms Lord to one that Snarsht considers worthy of conversation. The dragon responds with a muscle ripple that covers its entire body.
Ilk chats with the dragon for a while, but doesn't get anywhere. The dragon notices and comments on the two observers, but it is decided not to invite them in. Ilk gives up, and signals exasperation to Princess Chandra.
Princess Chandra points out that they might have interests that lie in somewhat different areas from the one who originally owned those lands. They determine to discuss later.
[Ret-con - see next week]
Dragon resumes hunt. Ilk bows to Snarsht in apology for interrupting his conversation. Snarsht goes lizard and grins.
Ilk spreads out to watch the hunt, setting off all of the Logrus alarms in the progress. He plays music on the alarms, and records the symphony for later playback.
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