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Ilk acquires a secure channel of communications with Jenoir and Andron and tells them of the anti-Logrus amulets. His signature being involved in the removal of Julian's nose is considered to be a possible motive on Julian's part. Ilk is advised to possibly lag back during the upcoming attack.
Ilk generates two Logrus-blades; one curdled out of Logrus energy, and one bladish item imbued with Logrus energy.
Neville trumps to his room in Amber. In his room, sitting on a flat surface, is a cut-glass crystal vase with a single red rose in it.
"Well, this is an annoying development."
Neville examines the rose. There is a rectangular spot on his dresser that is not quite as dusty as the area around it, and the vase is in the center of the rectangle.
The rectangle is precisely the same size as one of Neville's trumps, but it's not a place that he has a trump for. Neville uses the same size trump as his instructor, who is/was a shapeshifter, so it was probably done by his instructor or someone trained by his instructor. The rose is shadow, not Real, and so is the vase. The water is H2O, with blue coloring added.
Neville considers switching rooms. He moves the vase, and leaves a note on the square: "Thank you, whomever you are"
Neville heads down to the throne room to talk with Hamster Gerard. Nothing new to report. He acquires the list of petitioners, and then heads to his House.
Jean is in front of the moon, with the red-heads, in the room with Hamster Gerard, and generally scattered around. At one point, one of the delegations to Hamster Gerard had a little girl with them. She appears to be around ten or twelve, spent most of the time staring at Jean. She's not the child that followed Malachai around, and is not the child that Hamster Corwin was following. The meeting is busy and formal, so Jean never has the opportunity to approach her. The delegation was from the Golden Circle kingdom of Juri, and the girl answers to the name of Sasami.
Outside of Neville's house, there is a large litterbox. There is a path-way up the middle of the litterbox to the front door of the house. Neville is displeased.
Calla and Gil are ready to resume delivering invitations. Jean convinces them to go do Gerard next. However, he can't take the whale due to its non-organic dental work. Jean checks and realizes that the primal Jean there doesn't have any clothes, even though he had some when he left the Pattern.
Jean asks Cailin to open a gate to a place with one of his bodies. Cailin checks with Jenoir, remembers that he isn't a Guild member, and declines. Jean offers to fish Cailin into shadow, and Jenoir agrees. The fish remains as far away from Cailin as it can during the transit.
As Jean takes Calla and Gil out of Thelbane, the dragon on the roof drops a paw over the three of them. Jean requests a trump, trumps Gil, and pulls Calla and Gil out to where Cailin is. Gil falls over and goes ow. Calla grabs Gil at Jean's request. She falls over and goes ow. Jean trumps the two of them through to the him by Cailin. Jean drops the contact and says, "I forgot about that part!"
Cailin and Jean discuss why Calla and Gil are lying on the ground. "I trumped them." "Why did you do that?! You know better..."
Cailin conjures some smelling salts, wonders momentarily if they are going to explode, then waves them below Calla and Gil's noses. They remain unconscious.
Jean tries to explain the screaming-Gerard-spam place to Cailin.
Jean decides that he could close all of his eyes except for the one there, then realizes that homoculi-Cailin is small, and fishes him there.
Cailin notices a naked primal Jean. The wailing voice sounds a lot like Gerard, but it also sounds like there are other things wailing as well. Jean can't make out anything else. The yelling seems to permeate the shadow. Jean points to the rotting spam golem in the vague shape of a Gerard.
Jean - "It's Pattern-soaked, and being indeterminate meat, it might be easier for Gerard to heal."
Cailin looks for Gerard's signature. Cailin realizes that there is no magic native to here. There's not much magic on the other side of the gate, either. No magical signature. He tries to scan for essence, and fails. Cailin dumps some more power into the gate and ties it off.
Cailin fishes back to Shiryu's ways.
Ilk notices that a whole bunch of the Logrus alarms in House Xartys just went off. No obvious reason, no familiar signature.
The Savior of Chaos goes off to investigate, leaving the new Logrus artifacts with the Serpent's Apprentice in Shiryu's ways.
Cailin goes over to the "lady in waiting" and asks how one could go about revoking an engagement. Groveling, re-initiating, and a updated will is suggested.
Cailin - "We really need to talk to the dragons."
Ilk - "Why?"
Cailin explains that Bronelle was probably in contact with the eggs. Ilk thinks back, and remembers "Natasha" fondling the eggs. They discuss contacting the dragons. Eventually, Ilk gives in and Cailin sends a note to the dragons, telling them that he would like to her soon.
Jean fishes the note to the him under the dragon's paw. The dragon is ignoring him. Jean duct-tapes the note to a claw, and reports it to Cailin as "delivered, but not acknowledged"
Osric is told that one can gate magically to other promentories - it just takes a lot of power.
Jenoir is still busily hanging spells.
Calla reclaims the trump, and rants at Jean. He mixes up some of Corwin's hangover cures for them.
Hamster Gerard is currently holding one person up with one of his paws and sitting on someone else's head. Hamster Gerard reports that these two folks attempted to perform lese majeste. They may have had other agenda afterwards, but didn't get that far. Setting up crossbows pointed at the throne tipped their hands. They apparently didn't notice Hamster Gerard.
Neville takes off his glove and lifts the person who was just dumped on the ground onto his feet. While he has skin contact, he tries to ream his mind. The mind, unfortunately, is protected by a spell.
"So, you had some business with me."
The guy pulls a dagger and tries to stab Neville. Neville crushes his weapon arm with the gauntleted hand. He doesn't twitch. The guy stabs Neville with the shattered stump of his arm, and apparently feels the shock.
Neville contemplates keeping them as prisoners, and realizes that they would probably suicide first.
"Not if I can kill you first"
Neville contemplates trump traps and Pattern-stasis, then blucites them both.
Hamster Gerard kicks at one of the statues. It slides across the floor.
Neville asks for the statues to be placed in a closet somewhere. A racoon comes running over, looks at the statues, leaves, and returns with about thirty squirrels who rig ropes and start hauling it off.
Neville examines the crossbows. They're Real, and the bolts are very Real. They might even damage his armor. That dagger lying on the ground is also very Real, but the guard probably didn't have enough strength to punch through Neville's armor. Neville places the crossbows and dagger in an armory.
Neville tries to trump Cailin, and fails.
Snarsht wanders over to Cailin and extends one claw. Homoculai-Cailin climbs onto it. Snarsht walks over to Cailin's body on his other four paws (total number of paws still equals four), gently sets him down on the body. Cailin walks over to his body. There's a soft spot in the center of his forehead. He stands there and starts melting into his body. Cailin spots Snarsht swatting a cat aside that was preparing to pounce on him.
His body feels as if it was a little bit smaller than it used to be. He's around 70-75% power, down from about 80-85%.
Snarsht has coralled the Morganti kittens off into a corner.
Jenoir asks if people are ready to go.
Ilk conjures a Logrus etch-a-sketch and hands it to Jean.
Jenoir opens a gate out of Suhuy's ways into her lab. In Jenoir's lab there is very little evidence of the large gathering of Old Lords and Guild Heads that were here earlier. The only obvious evidence is that there is a very regular geometric section of her lab that is slightly depressed, where Querlon had settled for a while.
Jenoir gates the group from a lab through a holding station to Darkover. They don't hit Darkover; they hit Dimover. Ilk notices that the dirge has continued, and has gotten much louder. Osric also notices something - it sounds like the thing that called him to the Fringe ages ago.
Osric wonders if someone should take over this power, and why someone hasn't already done so.
It's not entirely the same. There is microbe-level life here now.
Cailin wonders if it will snow here. He casts, and looks up and around. No snow. For just a moment, a few little flakes of something drift downward. He glares at Jenoir. She grins at them. It's actually ash, not snow.
Cailin continues to look around. On the other side of that dune, Kieron's name is written in the sand. Cailin covers it up. Ilk checks for power, and finds a little. The beginnings of life, a little bit of magic...
Jean can also hear the dirge. He believes firmly that he isn't hearing it over the god channel.
Off on the very edge of the shadow, there are skid-marks in the sand, as if a large boat was shoaled here momentarily. The marks in the sand are strongly reminiscent of Dalkontyr.
Ilk speculates that perhaps Mikail can't answer the call - he's a necromancer, and this is a center of life power.
Ilk points out that they do know where they can get a life mage.
Ilk asks the Realms Lords and Pharaban for their opinions on the situation. Pharaban suggests that any power that does not have a keeper tends to sour and cause much difficulties.
Jean looks around for unlife and undeath. There are a lot of undead microbes over there. The only unalive thing here is Jean. Nobody else can see the microbes, let along that they're undead.
Calla tries to help Gil off the ground. Her pulse is very erratic. She points this out to Jean. Jean whales Felice to the grey zone. She looks over at Gil and places her hands on Gil. Gil shudders a bit and falls over. Felice falls over. The penta-Jean picks Felice up, puts her into the whale, and sends her back to Amber.
[Jean notes that he will tell Faythe about Felice the next time she asks]
Jean sends a vat of hangover cure to Amber for Felice.
Jean tells Gil and Calla about the shadow on the other side of the gate. Gil starts stripping. A truly impressive pile of weaponry accumulates on the ground in front of her.
Calla frets. Gil is self-confident. Gil agrees to wait while Calla goes for a second opinion.
Calla asks Jean if she can talk to Dworkin. Jean replies that Dworkin is talking to himself. No, not Hamster Dworkin -- another Dworkin, one that we rescued from the tower. Hamster Dworkin is busy. Andron is busy. Snarsht is busy. Qrelon is busy. Jean looks for Flora. Jean can't find her -- she's in House Moonlight, cleaning.
[Zorro has been handed an apron and a duster, and told that all poisons are evil and unjust!]
Calla finally gives up and starts stripping. Calla suggests flipping a Jean to determine if she will go in with Gil or stay here as backup. They discuss the difficulty of marking sides on a Jean-saucer, and drop the idea.
Gil salutes, and goes through the gate. She looks around, hears the screaming, sees the spam, shakes her head, sees Jean, waves at Jean, and steps back through. "No problem."
Gil and Calla go through the gate and look around. Gil's idea of a seance: "Yo! Gerard! Get your ass over here!"
Jean asks if he should bring one of the remaining life mages here. Ilk states that they should probably move the promentory first.
Jenoir suggests that someone might be able to walk back across the Sea of Chance, towing the promentory behind them.
Cailin contemplates moving grey spheres. It is three times as difficult to move as the ones for which he knows their name.
Cailin pulls out a vial. He argues with Jenoir about duplication of the substance. She suggests a series of histories to him regarding that involve qualifying as an Old Lord.
Jenoir suggests giving it to Andron.
Osric thinks about it. Andron points out that the properties inherent in a Pit Diver would go well with handling the Sea of Chance.
Osric wonders about steerage, and worries about setting an anchor. Andron says that he will project the directional into his mind.
Ilk pokes Shiryu with the plan. Shiryu fails to comment.
Osric isn't sure when Jenoir offers to tie the promentory to Osric, but agrees.
After significant effort on Osric's part, and Cailin's part (Jenoir is being used as a tap)
Osric asks Jenoir, "In those histories, does it just say, 'walk out of the Sea of Chance'" "Basically." Osric grumbles.
Ilk is just along for the ride. Verra has gone off somewhere and taken Darkstar with her.
Osric walks out of the Sea of Chance. Before he hitches the promentory, many members of his House are about, along with many members of the court. Several of the people of his House exclaim, "See! He is an Old Lord!" People note this fact and go on as normal.
Ilk embodies and walks off the promentory attempting to add to Osric's legend. It backfires. Ilk slaps his forehead and tendris out.
Cailin asks Jenoir, "So, does that mean that your equal in my reality wanted to make me an Old Lord?" "Yeah." "I guess that we weren't as good friends after all." Jenoir pats him on the shoulder.
Jean tells Faythe about Darkover's return. He shares with her the idea of powers and powers that balance, and his four-way balance between life, unlife, undeath, and dream.
"You're the greatest living life mage in this reality!"
"No, that would be my sister."
"You're the greatest living awake life mage in this reality!"
Ilk goes through the Faerie gate near House Cara. Titania is sitting at the grey spot partially in and partially out of Faerie, talking to a somewhat Dragaeran-looking individual.
"Queen Titania."
"Ilkandacian! What drags such a distinguished individual as yourself here on such a dismal day?"
"I hadn't realized that the day was dismal."
Ilk suggests his mission. Titania turns to the gentleman facing her and shoos him off. He grumps, and heads into the mist.
Ilk and Titania discuss the new balance, then Titania moves them to Arden to meet with the others.
Ilk is surprised at the Pattern, so tendri's out. The group heads to Amber.
Faythe, several Jeans, Titania, and Ilk meet. Titania states that a mutual friend suggested that Faythe wishes to become her balance. They agree that balance is a nicer term than opposite. Faythe says that she would like to be friends. Titania finds that interesting, and Faythe responds that she couldn't accept the position otherwise.
Faythe and Titania wander off alone. Ilk and Jean discuss promontories and balances.
[Note to Ilk - remind Cailin that he wants to talk to Titania]
[Note to Ilk - talk to Pharaban about the pedestals.]
[Note to Neville - contact Zack]
[Suhuy is in Cataan. Savior of Chaos is in Amber. Serpent's Apprentice is guarding Darkover with others. Yuri is investigating the Logrus alarms.]
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