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Cailin and company are contemplating destroying Cataan. Cailin scans for Tate, and finds him in Cataan, trying to deal with a hole that the anti-dragons ate in his side.
[Savior of Chaos was going to Ferethyn to check in on the anti-dragons]
Cailin apologizes to Rainbow for the shivving incident by one of his House members -- the guy thought that he was attacking Ilk. Rainbow is amused at the idea, and decides to let him live to watch the show.
Cailin and company talk about destroying this shadow. The archivist will make a magic-attracting bibliomantic token, and Cailin will throw lots of magic at it.
Everybody will evacuate, except for Gauss, Beldin, Cailin, and the Archivist who will stay put with the Pattern and the Unicorn. Cailin sends the him with the Titania contact back, and he takes everything with him.
Across the Realms Lord channel, Melk has just said, "Listen closely." It's a very broad broadcast -- even Jean receives it.
There is, to the left of Cailin, a gathering of magical power. There is, to the right of him, a large mandala being inscribed. Behind him is Gauss. Left and behind is Beldin.
Cailin waffles. Gauss criticizes the plan, or lack thereof.
Tate completes the line, takes Gauss's hand, and disappears. Cailin follows suit.
Cailin asks, and Gauss states that a few large things flew past him, but no explosion. Rainbow and Snarsht are having a discussion with Darkstar. Apparently, Gauss is in Chaos.
Cailin is incoherent and tries to force Gauss through a gate into shadow. Gauss distracts Cailin by pointing out that one of his house members is potentially in trouble.
The Serpent's Apprentice notices that there are dead souls that have been screaming for quite some time, they are now no longer screaming, because they're going to their proper rest, through Gauss. He pins Gauss's soul into its body to keep it from getting away, and points incoming souls into the correct direction.
Shiryu and Suhuy have manifested themselves next to Serpent's Apprentice. All of Shiryu's apprentices are also gathering at this point in time. Gauss turns towards the collected people and says, "I need help."
Gauss says that he doesn't know what it was supposed to do, but it started shining madly and spinning when it hit the planet, and now it is heading towards him.
Cailin asks Rainbow and Snarsht for a lift out of this reality. They each grab one of the Cailins and throw them into the Sea of Chance.
Savior of Chaos goes and looks over the edge at the Sea of Chance, and notices that it is unchanging outside of Chaos. Ilk pokes Shiryu.
It feels to Cailin as if the Sea was cutting through him like hot filaments through an ice cube. The Cailins head in different direction. One of him becomes a comet over another piece of fruit and smacks into somebody's power source. He seems to be hanging on to a fairly tall, thin tower. The other Cailin is still flying through the Sea of Chance.
Savior of Chaos spots a big glowing wheel of fire heading towards him that is radiating both magic and bibliomancy. Ilk warns the assembled mases, and Rainbow responds, "He can't even build a bomb correctly."
Gauss says that he is beginning to have a problem. He's running out of space.
Ilk looks again. Cataan itself is gone -- it's just the mandala, Gauss, and lots of souls. The souls might be causing the stasis on the Sea. However, Serpent's Apprentice is already busy funneling souls through Gauss. Ilk pokes Princess Chandra, explains the situation, and asks for her help. She puts her paperwork aside and heads into the Sea of Chance.
The Cailin lost in the Sea spots a turtle and follows it. After a while, he reaches a place where the Sea becomes more static. After a while longer, he spots something that might be his mandala. He heads towards it. The turtle seems to be going at a slight angle to the mandala, such that Cailin would intercept the mandala after the turtle had passed it.
Ilk can see that Cailin is also headed towards the mandala, and will intercept it right next to the shores of Chaos. This is bad. Ilk explains to the assembled hordes. The Archivist states that it would be a bad thing. Rainbow hands Ilk a fun-go-bat. Ilk swats Cailin with the bat, knocking him back across the Sea.
Ilk has to decide between trying to deflect the mandala and probably failing, and rescuing Gauss. He grabs Gauss.
The mandala appears high in the sky over Chaos. Jean starts throwing a stream of saucers from Chaos at it, in an attempt to deflect it.
The first saucer to impact with the mandala explodes, along with the mandala, with Ilk's signature. Magic rains all over Chaos. Fredrick, seeing this explosion and Ilk's signature all over it, cries out, "See? I must kill him!" Fredrick pulls out another blade and goes after Rainbow again. Rainbow is just amused, turns into a butterfly, and flutters off. The Ilk tendrils nearby are confused.
Savior of Chaos notices a concussion wave going away from here in the Sea of Chance. Ilk pokes Shiryu and says, "Wave. Going off to deal -- back in a bit." Shiryu states that he'll deal with the local ones. Savior of Chaos and Serpent's Apprentice head into the Sea to stabilize the atoll. [Pharaban was also stabilizing the atoll]
Cailin is surfing the wave across the Sea. The rate of change is much greater behind him. He tries to stay ahead of it. The Cailin on the tower looks out of the other one's eyes, because it's more interesting. But after a while, there is only one set of eyes to see through.
Cailin on the tower fools around with shape-shifting, then the roc lands. There's a pain in his butt, and he notices a tiny guy with a spear beneath him. Cailin shifts back, and is delighted at his continued existence.
The Mages' Guild is considering naming a wing after Ilk.
Jean draws his mother aside to talk about Oberon. He draws a stick figure on the ground, then erases the head, and re-draws the head off to the side a bit.
Flora pulls out a stack of cards, writes a date on the top of it, and starts handing out the cards. Each of the cards is a dated invitation to a grand ball in Amber.
Flora says that she's too gleeful to tell Gerard. She suggests having Benedict tell Gerard. Jean responds that Benedict is gleeful, too.
Jean also tells Flora that Julian is dead again -- he just killed himself. Zack's not taking it very well. Apparently Benedict killed a different Julian.
Jean whales Flora to Vanir's Wrath to console Zack, after making a few preparations first.
The saucers that impacted on the mandala didn't leave ghosts behind.
There's a large worked stone needle behind Cailin. He goes off to investigate it. It seems to be growing out of the ground. It's made out of very small stones. Cailin goes to talk to the small guy, who claims, in Thari, that his name is Finn MacFinn.
Cailin explores, and finds the edge of the promontory. That's the Sea of Chance out there. Cailin argues with the native.
Cailin writes "Cailin was here" on the tower, and starts climbing. He encounters a mark made by a 6-fingered hand in the stone, and tries to remember who made that mark.
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