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Ilk and Jean are playing with the person who has been controlling and destroying Jean-saucers. Their target starts breaking out of the variable-Pattern manacles, and Ilk is annoyed. He also seems to have started to gain power from the attacks. Ilk speculates about the identity of the strange Amberite -- only Oberon, who is still missing, might feasibly have that much power.
Jean chats with Titania about powers, and experiments reveal that Jean ghosts die screaming if they try to enter Faerie. Jean decides not to keep his scale in Faerie.
Jean, in House Swayville, calls out to Melk. Melk greets Jean as the "God of Information", and tells Jean that he cannot keep delaying assuming his mantle. Jean is displeased. Jean asks Melk for help in slowing down Oberon so that Dworkin can have a long chat with him later and somewhere else. Melk agrees to take a look at the target, confirmed it was Oberon, apologized, and said that he would try and do something to help but that if he succeeded, Dworkin would owe him a favor.
Jean comments that Dworkin seems to have a tendency to have children who do terrible things to the universe, so he should be used to that by now. When told that Dworkin is currently at the Spiral, fishing for Ingold, Melk tells Jean that Ingold was beyond Dworkin's reach, and stated that the time has not yet come when Ingold would be findable.
Melk coalesces next to a Jean in the shadow next to Oberon. Ilk bows to Melk. The target pulls out a Pattern-hammer; Ilk recognizes it as Uber-Merlin's. Ilk decides to avoid the hammer, and warns Melk of the hammer over the Realms Lord channel. Melk vanishes.
There is a momentary pause, and then Melk is back in House Swayville, and apologizes for not being able to help resolve the situation.
Jean warns Neville that the person that was trying to kill him seems to be Oberon... and that they've found one of the missing Amberites. Neville is not pleased.
Jean warns Verra. She seems delighted at the idea of going smacking, and pleased at the idea of consoling Ilk.
Ilk updates Suhuy and Princess Chandra, and mentions that Ferro would come in handy right about now. Ilk realizes that his Suhuy has left to resume fixing the broken Logrus, and sends a note via Jean to Dworkin.
Dworkin asks Jean to tell Flora and Benedict. Jean leaves a message for Flora with Gauss, and eventually finds Benedict walking through Vanir's Wrath with Norton. Benedict advises telling the Amberites that there is a rogue Amberite going around and killing Amberites, waiting for them to react and build their armies, and only then telling them that it is Oberon.
Jean does so. Reactions:
Jean whales in a whiteboard to brief Zack, then looks at the blue smears blocking his writing and whales it back out again. Jean gives Zack the high-level summary of Julian Dworkinetics, Spam Gerard, the former head of the Mages' Guild, the cancellation of the impending apocalypse, and so on. Zack is staggering.
Jean relays Zack's offer to help with Julian. Hamster Dworkin says that Jean should feel free to invite him by. Jean issues the invitation and whales Zack to Vanir's Wrath. After being warned about the trapped door, Zack bellows, "Dad? Can I come in?"
Julian shouts back, "I'm not going to be taken in by such a simple ruse. No matter who you are, go away!"
Zack turns to Jean. "Oh, well, so much for that." Zack and Jean argue about etiquette. Hamster Dworkin is still in the doorway. Zack prepares a note.
The two Ilks in the area are currently lying low, dodging Mijolnir, and occasionally throwing things at Oberon.
Ilk decides to start conjuring copies of Flora and Eric's baby and throwing them at Oberon.
Jean declares, "I don't want conjured undead babies passing through me", so Norton is passed through Jean back from Vanir's Wrath to animate the babies.
Shannon, Beldin, Duncan, Hubert, Fredrick and Caralaethian have clustered around Cailin in a defensive formation. Cailin trumps Darkstar and asks for assistance. Suddenly, there is a Unicorn with a Pattern attached heading towards him over the Trump contact. Cailin points the Unicorn towards the enemy.
Snarsht leaps through the contact, sits down, and starts licking a paw. Hubert is now praying fervently. Snarsht stretches extravagantly, yawns to show off his teeth, and a stream of butterflies pours out of his mouth.
The butterflies coalesce into Rainbow who mutters, "I hate Trump." Snarsht gives Rainbow an inscrutable grin, says, "Hunting", and bounds off towards the castle. Rainbow replies, "Isn't that how this all got started in the first place?" and bounces off after him.
Fredrick takes a bead on Rainbow's back. Cailin tries to stop him. Fredrick replies, "I must destroy the Great Evil!" Cailin responds, "No, that's an ally." Fredrick fires anyway. Rainbow doesn't appear to notice the arrow sticking out of his back. Fredrick lines up for another shot. Cailin turns into a yeti and grabs Fredrick. About that time, the magical attack begins.
Hubert has stuck his sword into Fredrick for daring to assault the friend of the Great God and is drawing another weapon. Cailin steps between the two of them and pulls the blade out of Fredrick. Cailin feels weakened by the touch of the blade. It's not trying to eat his soul, it's just hungry.
"Hubert! What is that!"
"It's a vengeance blade."
Hubert and Fredrick's sidekick get into a pissing match. It goes something along these lines: "I notice you're not jumping in to defend your friend." "No, I like to live."
Cailin trumps Fredrick to Darkstar and draws his singing sword to fight off the vengeance blade. The singing sword smacks the crap out of the vengeance blade, sending it off into emptiness.
[Cailin may have also been in trump contact with Beldin the whole time that he was in trump contact with Darkstar.]
Hubert is cursing at Cailin. Cailin tries to get Hubert to call off the vengeance blade. Hubert doesn't want to risk offending "The Great Ilkandacian".
The stronghold is having difficulty. One: It has the Unicorn waving a Pattern in its center. Two: It has Rainbow attacking its left flank. Three: It has Snarsht attacking its right flank.
Beldin wakes up. "How are things going?"
Cailin - "Which Pattern is that?"
Beldin - "Looks like Tir's to me."
Cailin - "We'll deal with that later."
...
Cailin - "Fredrick accidentally attacked Rainbow..."
Beldin - "And where's his corpse?"
Cailin continues to explain. Beldin de-conjures the vengeance blade.
A magical signature is forming above the stronghold.
Both Snarsht and Rainbow immediately launch themselves at the signature. From somewhere off to Cailin's left is a familiar female voice. It's Flora calling out, "Catch, dear." Cailin reflexively holds out his arms, and something goes whizzing over his head towards Rainbow.
Toram looks at Cailin from the cloud, and suddenly the barrier in Cailin's mind goes down. Cailin now has full access to his magic... and so does Toram.
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