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Julian attacked Misunderstood Benedict after his bluff was called. Misunderstood Benedict just ignored the attack and was unmoved by it.
NATO losses in the Atlantic are determined to be caused by a giant primodeal squid. The squid is being antagonized by a silvery submarine, which is driven off, leaking blood as it goes. Cagliostro's demons are sent off to identify the blood, and return with a hero who has sworn vendetta on the ...
The advanced student that Ilk sent off to track the vibration throughout shadow returns, with news that the Logrus vibrations seem to be emanating from above shadow, as if something was outside or just hanging on to the edge of shadow.
Ilk goes out into the Sea of Chance and searches for the source of the vibrations. Out here, he can determine a direction, and eventually finds a being smeared across the edge of reality. When that being notices him, it stops screaming, calls out, "Help!", and extends a Logrus tendril to Ilk. Ilk takes it and tows the being back onto a promontory.
He doesn't recognize the guy, and invites in Pharaban to try an ID.
Pharaban says that he believes that this is one of his missing children. It is determined to be an un-named demon, and Pharaban names him. Pharaban mentions that his new demon is very powerful and very grateful to him, and states that when both are ready, he would appreciate being taught.
Pharaban asks leave to study the method of vibrating all of reality with Logrus.
Ilk asks Pharaban about the pedestals. Envision a bed of needles with a piece of meat across the top of it. A number of the needles would penetrate the meat to the same depth. From the meat's point of view, the needles are individual and distinct. From the needle's point of view, each needle is part of a whole.
Those apparently using them for transport or communications are probably using the fact that they are connected to push some other power through it, like connecting the edge of a magical spell to one of the needle points.
In shadow, Jean notices an upsurge in the Cult of Cassandra as a subset of worship of Verra. Jean tells Verra, who is amused.
The fishing expedition has turned up something that cursed in Thari. Princess Chandra brought the creature upstairs; Jean acquires Hamster Flora to help with the interrogation.
The creature tries to eat Flora twice and fails, then sulks. Flora starts performing an elaborate tea service, which at least gets the creature's interest.
Flora explains to it that it can have some tea, as long as it's polite. She starts teaching him elementary politeness. They chat politely. The only thing this creature had seen was a big mage that stuffed him into that small cramped place, and it describes Toram. It really doesn't like Toram. It is told that they want to kill Toram again, and it volunteers to help.
It was conjured from the Sea and lived in a small space inside a pyramid. One day it got hungry and started eating bugs, and ate more and more of them until Toram stuffed him into the cramped space.
Ecto-Ilk goes to check it out, but can't determine anything conclusive. It is very allergic to variable Pattern.
The dragon is now large enough to eat the city.
Cailin, Beldin, and Hubert stay behind to deal with the socks and the possibility of using a back-channel from Cailin to attack Toram.
The dragon reaches out a long tongue, scoops up the city, and pulls it in.
Ilk sails into the Sea and towards Darkover. Part-way there, he spots a ship.
The city is left on the site with the 'X' and the sewage pipes.
Faythe explains her desired imports, and Ilk sends Jeans to candidate locations. Jean sets up recruiting offices. After the first little bit, about 3/4 of the new recruits have died. Many of those in the city have taken up dignified farming in order to survive, and they're trying to figure out how to get their equipment to work. Jean tries to improve his recruiting techniques. Worship to Verra increases in Darkover. Jean reminds them that they are in Faythe's domain, and worship to Faythe picks up. Faythe occasionally answers their prayers, unlike Verra.
The division between Darkover and the overworld starts to solidify.
Serpent's apprentice goes looking for the boat again. He occasionally catches glimpes of it, but can't narrow it down.
When he doesn't see it much any more, he's in unfamiliar territory. He looks for somewhere familiar, and finds an unfamiliar promontory. He emerges. A wyrm uncoils from around the promontory and tenatively offers, "Mine." The wyrm seems placated when Ilk states that he's just passing through. Ilk asks if most promontories have wyrms, and it responds that most wyrms have promontories - he's growing one himself. Ilk checks, and finds an accretion. The wyrm is more serpentish than dragonish, but it's also tiny.
Ilk swims for a while, then pops into the Serpent's Antechamber. Kieron is there, and goes to explore the city on his back. There is a commotion, then a few explosions. Kieron climbs back down. "I broke your city - they said that I was too big and invading and I said I had your permission and they said you were just a myth and they attacked me and now they are gone. Ilk checks - his accretion problem is gone.
Ilk checks the hamsterites for taint -- all but Hamster Dworkin and Hamster Flora are there, and they aren't tainted. Hamster Caine isn't all there - he's about .8 Caine. Maybe he won't be finished until he walks the Logrus.
When Ilk thinks about going fishing, he remembers the beasts that went missing. He goes looking for Snarsht. That takes time.
Ilk considers joining Ferro in the bottle to release him, but decides that ending up in a bottle filled with Patterns could be bad. Ilk throws a note into Ferro's bottle. "Get rid of the damn Patterns!"
Suhuy swaps off to look for Snarsht, and ecto-Ilk and the Serpent's Apprentice go off to join Ferethyn and consider using variable Pattern against the anti-dragons.
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