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Martin, Mandor, Johnnie, and Jean are in the origin of the troops flooding into Pride's Folly. The troops have been stopped. Jean checks out the lab in Pride's Folly. It's completely empty -- no lab equipment, terminal, or air.
Neville is near the Primal Pattern fixing his armor.
Cailin has convinced the Old Lords to go back into Cataan. Sparrowhawk hasn't responded to Cailin's requests yet. Saruman has spotted the enemy.
Yuri notices that in Toram's ways, there is suddenly a blossoming of Logrus. Unfamiliar signature, doesn't appear to be happy. He goes over to take a look. The shadow is hard-blocked against almost everything, and it seems to have Shiryu's signature. Yuri notices the planets from Cataan, a logrus source beaten out of a logrus master, and something eating Logrus emanations. He sighs and goes off to look for Cailin.
Beldin, near the tendrils on House Cara, ask Ilk if an imposter just showed up. Ilk reassures Beldin that he has just concentrated more of his attention in this place.
Yuri swaps tendrils with Suhuy, then asks Cailin if he has been doing any redecorating recently -- it seems that part of their enemy has been relocated with the planets.
Cailin decides to check it out, and takes Beldin with him. Beldin shifts shadow as they go. He's not very skilled at it, at least in the beginning. One of the Ilks follows.
Osric asks for Neville. Cailin and Osric discuss finding him, then Jean points out that Neville is repairing his armor near the Primal Pattern.
Cailin has Saruman check for the approaching enemy, then illuminate it. Everyone can see it briefly, then the red goes away and the Saruman falls over. Cailin destroys that one and creates another five. They start to fight. Cailin stops them after three ...
[Two out of three Sarumans agree...]
It becomes blood red, and stays that way longer than it did last time. Saruman screams, and starts getting eaten - large chunks are falling out of it. One of the others has fainted; the third is gibbering.
Cailin's magical feed did not seem affected. Jean collects spare staves and starts talking with them. He's not sure how to start, and this place seems like a bad place to experiment.
Mystifer, the Old Lord, Head of Etiquette Guild, screams and gets eaten. Osric shields everyone who is still there, including Mystifer. Mystifer continues to be eaten even inside the shields. All of the Jeans who are not carrying staves scatter. Cailin tries to gate people out, but can't reach outside his bubble. Cailin and Osric argue for a while, then Osric opens Cailin's shield and Cailin opens a lot of gates to bring everyone to Toram's former lands.
Ferethyn shouts over the Old Lord channel that that which ate him in Cataan is now free in Chaos.
Ilk shouts at Cailin. The other Cailin yells about getting that out of here. Jean tractors Mystifer's bubble through the pie rift in Random's embassy. That entire reality starts being eaten.
Jean, in the other reality, tells Ilk the Logrus Master that they should evacuate the hamsterites. Ilk agrees. Jean tries to negotiate with Neville for Hamster Gerard's return.
Rose, Old Lord, Head of the Ambassadors' Guild, screams and there is a bite taken out of her. She's still inside her shield. Osric opens the shields.
Gauss, who is Old Lord, Head of Mathematicians Guild, starts multiplying.
Ilk shoves the Cailin with Beldin into shadow. "Off-site backup" Cailin grumbles, then asks Ilk to find Sparrowhawk. He can't find Harp or Sparrowhawk. [They both tokened out]
Osric checks for Mellor. Yup, there are Mellor on that planet over there. And Cailin is Fringeworthy.
Osric asks if the place can be cut off. Ilk chops the ways loose. Ferethyn reports that he can no longer feel the hunger. Ilk tells the others.
Cailin conjures a Radegast. He can't see the enemy.
Many of Gauss surround Rose. The next bite comes out of one of Gauss.
Ilk tows Cailin and Beldin to Moonlight, at Cailin's request. Cailin talks with a dragon at some length. The dragon refuses to negotiate until Cailin is no longer distracted. Beldin, Shannon, Duncan, and the dragon are gated to Cataan by Cailin after Ilk assembles them in shadow.
The dragon states that the Old Lords are being eaten by the opposite of dragons, and that it needs to talk to an ancestor. It coils upon itself, and on the second rotatation, it disappears. Ilk can see a huge surge of Serpent power to push through the barriers, and smooths the wards back over the hole.
Duncan goes over to heal Saruman.
Osric shifts into a fast form and heads towards the Mellor. It's a type I Mellor. There's a cave filled with them. Osric squashes them. In the center of the cave, there is a large egg, that Osric feels is Mellor. It's not his Fringe power -- it's very, very old. And there's a Fringe gate in the back of this cavern.
Osric checks out the Fringe gate -- he's not sure where he is. A portable terminal indicates that he's three out from the control center.
Osric opens an auditory gate and yells at Cailin. Two more type I Mellor pop out of the gate behind him. He goes back through the Fringe gate, calls a portable terminal up, and turns on the Fringe defenses. There are screams as many Mellor are fried.
Cailin tries to raise a shield of raw power around the mathematician. It's still taking bites out of him, but not affecting the shield.
Osric takes the egg onto the Fringe and places it in an isolation chamber in his control center.
Jean in the tree asks Ilk, "What is the opposite of dragons? That's what is eating the Old Lords."
Jean spots a unicorn in the Grove of the Unicorn, and starts to talk with him.
Ilk in the tree pokes Suhuy with that information, who heads to the Serpent's antechamber. Kalessain is in the Serpent's antechamber, bugling for attention, and Cailin's son Kieron is currently sneaking up on Kalessain to poke him. Suhuy coalesces as the Serpent's antechamber, and the presence of both Serpents is felt.
The Serpent and the winged Wyrm appear. Ilk bows to both of them appropriately, then they manifest to Kalessain, who also bows appropriately. There is a hint to his bow that sets him beneath the bow that Ilk was taught to give. It is as if he is the highest of his generation, which is a generation beneath Ilk -- the generation directly beneath the Serpent.
The comment is passed -- "That which is not us is devouring things." The Wyrm turns towards Ilk and says,
"This is what we started, should we go and finish it?"
Ilk explains that it has spread, at least in part, into a heavily warded grey zone shadow, and that for a time it may have been in Chaos as well, but not presently. The Serpent orders Ilk to investigate. Ilk bows in acknowledgment. The Serpent says that Ilk should take his sister with him. A few moments later, Princess Chandra appears, stating, "Summoned, I obey." She seems somewhat disturbed at the frequency with which she has been saying that recently.
Ilk is pointed out as knowing what needs to be done. Princess Chandra and Ilk discuss transportation, then Princess Chandra climbs into the dragon. Ilk disembodies and goes in after her. The dragon twists out with Serpent power.
Beldin has fixed the gibbering Sarumon with Pattern-magic.
The new Old Lord, Guido, says to Gauss that it would be interesting if he were to try to go in there and tempt it to eat him instead of Rose. There's something vaguely cat-like about Guido. Cailin is worried.
Guido joins Rose in the center of the Gauss-blob. Guido takes the next bite, and then there is a long pause.
Cailin - "Guido? Report!"
Guido - "Ouch... I didn't entirely expect it to get through my skin."
The dragon returns. Out of the mouth of the dragon pours another dragon, the one that has been identified as the Serpent's Apprentice. Cailin bows. Behind that one is Princess Chandra. Cailin bows again.
Cailin - "Heavy guns, Kalessain"
Kalessain - "As galling as it is to admit that, this was beyond me."
The Serpent's Apprentice can see where the enemy was eating the Logrus master, and can see that there are perhaps hundreds or thousands of them, tiny little things. They're eating the Logrus emanations as if it was cotton candy. The Logrus source is fighting back. There are five very large ones, in the form of amorphous blobs just floating around. One of the large blobs looks very sickly, and the others are sort of staring at the sickly one. Princess Chandra has casually moved between the large blobs and Cailin.
Ilk decides to try Pattern against them, and asks Beldin for a Pattern artifact. Duncan hands a knife over to Beldin. When Beldin draws it from its sheath, Ilk can see vast amounts of Pattern energy -- it's far more Patternish than Greyswandir. Ilk gives Beldin targeting coordinates, and Beldin pops it into the center of the sickly blob. The blob is now struggling to move, and seems to be stapled to the shadow. Ilk gives Beldin four more coordinates. Beldin borrows four more knives from Duncan and pops them to the center of the other four large blobs. All of the blobs are now pinned.
People waffle. Princess Chandra tells Gauss that he can stop that now. Gauss pours off of Rose and Guido.
Princess Chandra and Cailin indirectly discuss Cailin's new status as an Old Lord.
The Serpent's Apprentice can tell that the midges seem to be controlled by a single intelligence, but similar to Julian's troops, not Jean's bodies or Rainbow's butterflies.
Ilk upgrades the viewscreen to show all of the blobs. The large blobs are the size of MBTA busses.
People chat.
Ilk suggests that people might want to try to swat the pinned blobs with various powers to see what, if anything, works.
Princess Chandra taps the Serpent's apprentice on his shoulder and points out half of a midge at the edge of the shadow where the ways were. Ilk worries about some midges having escaped, and the Serpent's Apprentice asks Kalessain if he can see the enemy. Kalessain replies in broken Serpent tongue he can, but that only those dragons of similar age to himself could. Kalessain gives him some common name pointers to find others.
The Serpent's Apprentice determines that he should go himself to talk to the dragons, and tries to find a way out. The Serpent's Apprentice circles twice, in a manner similar to Kalessain, then brushes against Jean and pours through Jean to Chaos. Jean fails to notice.
The Serpent's Apprentice flies up to get a good view. The midges came out near House Moonlight. There are now many midge marbles. There are some midges still around, and they are analyzing the ones that have been marbled.
The Serpent's Apprentice acquires one of the indicated dragons and explains the situation. The dragon agrees to keep an eye on the situation, and to notify Ferethyn appropriately. The dragon is staring at House Moonlight. Ferethyn is notified accordingly.
Jean has been talking with the Unicorn. Jean explains that some bad things are attacking using the opposite of dragon, and that it is spilling over near Chaos. The Unicorn touches Jean with his horn, pours through Jean and appears in front of the Serpent's Apprentice. In Serpent tongue, it states, "Take me to your master." Jean seamlessly continues his conversation. The unicorn smiles when Jean mentions that Dworkin is now sane.
Ilk goes to the Serpent's Antechamber. He hears the tail end of a conversation where the Serpent is unsuccessfully trying to explain to Kieron that it is bad to sneak up on dragons. Ilk bows and tells the Serpent that the Unicorn has been told of the anti-dragon attacks, is now in Chaos, and wishes to talk.
"I will bestir myself", the Serpent responds.
The Serpent manifests over Chaos.
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