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Jean whales Cailin and Sparrowhawk back to Chaos. Cailin has the mage who stole power from him earlier gate him to House Moonlight. They enter the house, where the baby dragon is gnawing on a chair leg. Cailin yells at the dragon, who starts gnawing on Cailin's leg. Amusement ensues; Cailin and Sparrowhawk head into Zorro's lair and acquire bits of cattle from the adjacent grey zone to feed the baby dragon.
Sparrowhawk notices a large scaly tail hanging past a window; Cailin and Sparrowhawk exit the house to talk with the dragon, who is curled up on top of House Moonlight.
There is an eulogy being prepared somewhere for the Serpent's brother by the Serpent's apprentice. A large, discomforting sensation runs over them both. The Serpent says that it is not the death wave of his brother. Ilk is sent forth to check it out.
Sitting at an indeterminate point in Chaos is Pharaban. He is intently looking for Suhuy with his power. He perceives some essence that might possibly resemble Ilk, Suhuy, or the Serpent's Apprentice, and vibrates in his general direction, "Logrus antechamber important."
The Serpent's Apprentice goes to the antechamber to the Logrus. It is obvious that something is walking the Logrus, and whatever it is has Pattern-signatures all over it. It's local Pattern, but Ilk isn't certain who is doing it. Ilk cannot detect a pre-existing Logrus signature. The Logrus is not happy -- it reached for Suhuy to complain, but couldn't find him, so reached out to Pharaban and got him.
Ilk returns to the Serpent's antechamber and reports -- Pharaban is looking for Suhuy, who is missing, because a Pattern-weenie is walking the Logrus and the Logrus is not happy about this. The Serpent glares at Ilk about the missing Suhuy, sighs deeply, and uncoils himself directly onto the Logrus.
Ilk goes down to look, and finds someone battling the Serpent, and not immediately collapsing. He speculates that it might be Julian, using the anti-Logrus amulets. He looks for mages to help against the amulets -- Cailin, Amaranth, and the guy who fixed the moon come to mind.
Ilk talks to Cailin and Sparrowhawk and pulls Cailin through. The dragon pours down Ilk's tendril, spots the Serpent, and settles down in a corner to await the Serpent's whim. Sparrowhawk screams a lot until Ilk returns him.
Ilk materializes an eye with a lid on the end of a Logrus tendril in front of Cailin's trump of Cailin. Cailin take the trump call; it's Ilk. Ilk shows Cailin the battle. Cailin can feel the pain through Ilk's perceptions, and makes it go away. Ilk can feel a haze of something lashing at him.
Something else is drawn forth, that feels even more dangerous. Cailin tries to yank at it. That was Bibliomancy. Ilk tries to shield himself and Cailin from the explosion. There is now a hole in the Logrus. Cailin is perceiving a rash of pain. The Logrus is currently lashing out at anyone that has ever walked it with pain and agony.
Pharaban gives Ilk an image of reaching in and re-connecting across the hole in the Logrus, becoming a living bridge until the Logrus heals. Ilk could probably do it, but it would take all of him, and he would stay there until it healed. Ilk accepts Pharaban's offer, hoping to convince the Serpent to return the Suhuy who trained him to fix the hole.
Pharaban squares his shoulders and pours himself into the hole between the Logrus. Cailin can tell that the tide of anguish is receding.
There is the barest hint of the memory of bibliomantic power still there. Cailin doesn't know how to track that, but he knows someone who does. Ilk reaches out for the formerly-undead Cailin and pulls him in. Cailin drops magic-sight and touches undead Cailin.
Undead Cailin says that he can't track it directly, but that with some study he may be able to re-create the token so they can go there. Ilk pulls in a piece of something durable, and undead Cailin starts marking on the durable thing with a grease pencil. The lines sink into the durable stuff.
Undead Cailin points out that connecting those four lines will activate the token. Once it becomes an active token, it is possible to know where it is. Don't activate it until ready to go through, because it might alert the person on the other side.
Ilk takes a note back from the squirrel in Amber indicating that the mage is ready and willing to go; Ilk writes a new note back indicating that the matter has been ... resolved.
Ilk drops the trump contact to Cailin and sends Cailin and the archivist back to the gathering of Old Lords. When the trump contact drops, Cailin feels his perception of the Logrus reverse -- it is now something horribly nasty and powerful that could destroy him on a whim. Cailin creates peril-sensitive sunglasses.
Ilk returns to the Serpent's antechamber. The Serpent tells him too keep things calm for the next while -- he's settling down for a nap. Ilk asks for the Suhuy who trained him back, to help fix the Logrus. The Serpent pushes him, and closes its eyes.
Ilk finds himself immediately in front of a familiar Logrus -- it's the broken one that his Suhuy was sent off to fix. He panics briefly, then realizes that he can swim. Suhuy's favorite chair is over to the side, and his favorite drink is on the chair's arm.
Cailin takes off his peril-sensitive sunglasses and looks around. He can sense that Logrus anguish in many of the Old Lords here. He puts the sunglasses back on. Beldan walks back into the group, leaking Pattern. It's been a long walk back from Amber. He reports that there is something guarding the Pattern -- he snuck onto it after King Eric walked it. Jean is impressed, and checks to make sure that Officer Wixer is on line.
Cailin asks Ilk to give that dragon in that place that message. The Ilk near the gathering has no idea what he's talking about, but looks for a dragon and finds one in the antechamber to the Logrus, desperately trying to pull Serpent power out of nothing. Ilk pulls it into Chaos proper; it shakes itself and flies off.
Ilk points out the new token to the king and others assembled. Benedict scoops up the token, "for safe keeping", then goes off to consult with his progenitor. Marial wanders over to Benedict, whispers something in his ear, returns to the group, hands Cailin the token, and sits back down.
Ilk reports on the recent happenings over the Realms Lords channel. Marial is appropriately horrified, and Melk manifests for a moment and decides that this probably determines that they need to find Suhuy and Ferethyn more quickly rather than less quickly. One of Shiryu's apprentices is sent off to find Shiryu.
Jean sees Benedict walk up to Dworkin and bow. Dworkin is still insane, so Jean fishes him to Ferethyn's place, then the badger reality, then back. Benedict starts over.
Various people discuss the possibilities of chastising Julian. Misunderstood Benedict wants to "show him the light" instead of killing him; other people agree.
Cailin feels a shift in the weight of his clothing. He puts his hand into his pocket, and finds a bottle. He pulls it out. It bears a label, "In case of emergency, break glass." and is filled with a black liquid.
"Ilk? Is this yours?"
"Nope." Ilk looks -- the bottle is filled with Serpent power. "Don't lose that."
Cailin examines the bottle further, and determines that the handwriting on the bottle is his own. Cailin asks the archivist if he did that. "Nope." Cailin starts looking for Tate, but Ilk interjects, "I wouldn't wave that around too much if I were you."
"Why not?"
"You shouldn't spoil the surprise."
Cailin grumbles at length.
There is another shift in Cailin's clothing. He looks - it's a note, in his handwriting. "Don't sweat it." He glares at the note, and it melts into a silver dagger.
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