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The invading force in Cataan realizes that something hostile is about to attack them, and dither. Jean confirms with Ilk in the tree that Ferethyn is the one who gave the orders.
People flee Cataan.
Neville hacks at the edge of the shrinking dragon-shaped hole in Cataan with Goliath. Cailin and Jeans are nearby; the Old Lords scatter. Osric shields himself. Sparrowhawk spots what Neville is about to do and tokens out at the last second. Cailin grabs the bibliomancy token, Yeti's out, and flees. Jean has given the Dancers' Guild a list of what those of him nearby are thinking.
Goliath has left Neville's hands and is sinking into the edge. In the back of Neville's mind is the thought that, "Oh, that might have been a good idea" when Goliath left his hands. Neville reaches for his trump of Goliath.
The back-blast has the Dancers' Guild reading back to Jean the list that he just gave them.
[Neville's armor goes on overload... he doesn't have his armor on. Neville is fucked.]
The last thing that Neville remembers is that he is reaching for a trump contact.
Cailin's fur is on fire.
Osric gets to see everything through his shield, which is blown backward a bit. It blossomed out and back in flame, and blasted Osric into shadow. Cataan is actively unraveling.
[Think of severing a cable under tension...]
Jean who are in Cataan far from ground zero chat with the settlers.
Cailin explores, and realizes that he was blown through shadow and doesn't know where he currently is, so he can't gate. Cailin tries to trump Neville, and fails. Not blocked, nonfunctional target.
Osric tries to gate back to Cataan, and fails -- the target isn't there, or has changed significantly.
Cailin trumps Flora, and gets through. He goes through into Chaos, then Yetis and heads out into the Grey Zone. He tries to gate back to shadow just this side of Cataan, but fails, as if the target has changed or is missing. The other side of the hole fails, the planets fails, as do other places inside Cataan.
[The dragons' howl happened about the same time as Goliath hitting the edge of the Cataan.]
Cailin searches around for a Jean, and finds one close to Flora. "Jean, give me a status report." "Report on what?"
Cailin -- "For anyone who asks... Neville is alive but not responding, and the King is missing."
Osric gates back to Chaos. It starts snowing. Osric and Cailin ask each other simultaneously if anyone else had survived. Osric and Cailin discuss the situation. Cailin's goal was to destroy Cataan, but the price of destroying Cataan was deemed too high at the time.
[Verra's estimated price: the firstborn of every Chaosian house]
Cailin and Osric go to Detroit(?) out in shadow to experiment.
Norton and Ilk chat in the area where Toram's lands used to be. The gang of four is whaled to Detroit. Ilk grabs the bucket of reality seeds, locks it away in Suhuy's ways in a room with a sign on the door, "Realms Lords Only; all others stay out!" then joins them.
Cailin sends a bird to fetch Sparrowhawk with a note telling him to go to Flora to find a Jean to get a lift to Cataan.
The insane Norton in Vanir's Wrath feels a tug towards a manor house. The Celeste in his head feels Julian's presence. He sends little things to spy on the house, and Julian's defenses squash the life out of them. Nothing is moving this close to the house. Norton has the hammer, and rants about sucking blood from both of his heads. The Ilk-head objects, but is overridden. Norton finds something living, embraces it, and sends it in. Julian's defenses don't notice it. Norton complains about not being able to change his shape and go undead, then he realizes that he's already undead and advances.
He sits at a window and spies on Julian. There is a tap on Norton's shoulder. It's Ferethyn. He leads Norton off around a corner where he can see Benedict, Benedict, and Princess Chandra waiting. Norton suggests trumping Julian and then whacking him over the head with his hammer. Benedict is doubtful. Norton has his head-Celeste trump Benedict to prove that she's still alive.
Norton migrates his copy of Dworkin's trump deck to his head, where the Ilk-head-person staples it to the viewscreen, then blindfolds the screaming guy to keep him from escaping. Celeste uses the trump. Benedict is puzzled, and states that perhaps that might not be such a bad idea after all.
Benedict explains that they aren't actually here to attack Julian, they're here to try to convince him to stop attacking and return to the family. They're going to walk up to the front door and ring the bell -- he won't expect that. Norton asks for tissue samples in case they're wrong. His offer is turned down -- misunderstood Benedict says that if it is his time, it is his time. Local Benedict doesn't think that he'll be wrong, and the still-hiding hamster Dworkin is seriously considering it.
Ilk goes to the edge of the hole to look for the missing Old Lords and Neville. He considers going fishing, but that would demote the Old Lords to demons, and that would piss them off. He considers jumping in, but that would give him away to the Old Lords that he was fishing out.
Some of the Old Lords have climbed out on their own. Ilk sends in tendrils for the others, pokes them, and indicates the way out. Many of those that were heading the wrong way are thankful.
Ilk finds Neville floating unconscious in the Sea, in the midst of a block that is changing much less slowly than the surrounding area. Ilk fishes him out, and then formally names him, to protect him from being smote by the Old Lords as a new Old Lord. Ilk picks something obscure, to make it hard for an attacker to guess.
Jean asks for and acquires Darkstar's trump of Rainbow. He fishes it to Cataan. Darkstar tries to convince Jean that it would be a bad idea, so Jean gives it to a settler. Nothing happens. Jean tries to convince Cailin to take it, and he does.
Cailin concentrates on Rainbow's trump. Jean stands nearby. Rainbow pours into Cailin's head. Cailin isn't sure who it is. Cailin complains to Jean, who bumps up against Cailin. Cailin finds himself losing control of his body.
Instead of a giant bird is a giant butterfly. Jean greets the butterfly. "Are you dead?" "No... that's dad to you."
Cailin gets a picture of his head. He just can't control his body
Jean formally greets his father and indicates that King Osric has demanded the presence of all Guild Heads. Rainbow states that although his business was not yet done, the summons is worth answering.
Cailin tries to convince Rainbow to let him conjure a new body. Rainbow does not seem to be pleased at having been trumped -- they'll discuss that later. "Jean - you tricked me!"
[People speculate that the punishment may be mitigated by the fact that Rainbow was probably dead and floating in Cataan before he was trumped]
Jean, elsewhere, does the happy dance that Rainbow is back.
Rainbow mentions to Jean that he isn't entirely back yet because he still needs to finish his business -- don't tell anyone that he is back yet, even Flora.
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