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People head back towards Darkover.
Osric has received a briefing on the state of Chaos from Mandor.
People discuss the state of Gwen's place and the reality engine.
In Darkover, there is one big tower and two little towers. The little towers are models -- the two Dworkins seem to be making changes on the little towers before committing them to the full-sized tower.
The Mikail song is begun by Jean, but he stops again.
The objects in stasis that were recovered from the Healers' Guild are brought into a room in Faythe's tower that Faythe and the Dworkins don't remember having made.
Cailin, Jean, Ilk, Faythe, and Titania head to the temple surrounded by soul-eating grass and spot Norton busily trying to embrace a blade of grass. Faythe calls out, "Norton!" Norton looks up, starts to head towards them, looks down, spots the grass between them, then says, "Wait here!" and heads back into the temple.
After a while, Norton doesn't return. Ilk checks the border and fails to find a Norton. He creates a ways, and Jean goes through. Others follow. There is a tuna-sized, mis-shapen fish lying on its side near the center of the temple. "Norton?" The fish flops.
Jean tries to talk to the fish. The fish gasps. Ilk conjures a fish tank and some water around the fish. Jean tries to chat with the fish again.
Jean fishes Boba-frog from his house to the center of the soul-eating grass to serve as a translator. Jean introduces the Faythe to the Frog of Judgment. Jean asks the frog what it wants, and is told, "Lily pad" and "Flies". Ilk conjures a lily pad, and Jean fishes in some flies in zip-lock baggies to keep the trump fish from eating them. The fish gives Jean a hurt look.
The Frog of Judgment talks to the fish. Norton jumped into the fish a while ago, and the fish expected Norton to come out the other side.
Ilk goes outside to pull in some Jeans to watch the outside of the grass. Norton arrives at about the same time as Ilk. They chat briefly, then go through the ways. Faythe throws herself into Norton's arms. Their reunion is passionate and skillful. Titania takes notes.
Norton rants. Ilk tries to damp the Logrus-insanity.
Ilk points out the strands of power flowing into the blue crystal in the center of the temple. Faythe comments on them. The lines are so powerful that Cailin can see them without even raising his magical sight.
Titania pokes at the matrix crystal. "Well, nothing I can do about this."
Faythe puts a hand, then two hands, then her entire weight against the crystal. It doesn't move.
Ilk pulls in a velvet-colored diamond pry bar. Faythe fails to lift the pry bar. Jean picks it up.
Titania reaches up, gently grabs Faythe by the small of the back and lifts her down from the pry bar, grabs the pry bar, and pulls down. The crystal rolls over one facet.
Cailin notices that bad things are happening on the far sides of the lines and points it out. Faythe is horrified. Titania pushes the crystal back. The lines reconvene on the crystal, and new destruction dies out.
The lines were mostly raw magic. Cailin reaches out and intercepts a line. He now has some power.
They decide that Cailin should gather up the many, many strands of power and then move them to the new location of the crystal. Titania walks up to Cailin and puts her hand on his shoulder. She volunteers to help him perceive multiple places at one time.
Cailin gathers up many threads of power. His power level doesn't go up very far.
Jean heads towards the crystal. Norton goes over to it and tries to lift it with all of his might. He fails, repeatedly. Jean goes over and tractors it with three saucers.
Faythe and Norton pick up the fish tank.
Ilk brings everyone but Cailin and Titania to Darkover.
Cailin and Titania talk while holding the lines of power.
Jean and Ilk arrange the matrix crystal on a pedestal in the tower. Ilk notices that the matrix crystal is draining power from him. He connects a Logrus tendril to the matrix crystal and sends the other end to Cailin, highlighting the end near Cailin with blinking magical lights. Cailin hands an easy magical tendril to the Logrus tendril. Both tendrils are gone, and Faythe determines that a magical tendril is flowing into the crystal. Ilk throws Cailin a few hundred tendrils. Cailin starts relocating the threads of magic.
New tendrils show up, and Cailin builds a self-sustaining spell to store new magical threads and forward them to the next arriving Logrus tendril.
Ilk brings Titania to Darkover and Cailin to Cataan.
Cailin sees a flying wedge of magical signatures flying towards Cataan. He slurps them, and his power level goes up from ten to fifteen percent. He goes looking for his signature and Ilk's signature.
Norton, Titania, Faythe, and Jean are talking about the four-way balance.
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