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Cailin, in Amber, examines his signature, the spells around Amber, and the snow.
Beldan transports Cailin to the start of the Pattern then trips him onto the Pattern. Cailin starts walking; Beldan takes the Wixer Express to the sea.
Ilk fishes Beldan out of the sea and returns him to the pavillion.
Ilk notices a mostly magical attack splash against the magic barriers around Amber.
Verra excuses herself from Ilk. An entire city is worshipping her simultaneously, and she just can't ignore that. She returns a bit later, and states that there are holes appearing in their city.
Ilk offers to keep her company during her investigation. Verra transports them both over the God Channel.
It's a city on a terraced hill, with a pyramid at the top of the hill and a graveyard between the pyramid and the city. It's a promontory in the Sea. There are holes, mostly in the graveyard, but speckled around.
Bandersnatch? Ask Norton. No bite holes, not a bandersnatch.
Anti-dragons? Tendrils in the area gone. Yup.
Holes working their way up the hill towards the pyramid.
Verra generates flour in the air, and they can see trails left through the flour. They seem to be travelling from the pyramid towards a pedestal, where they disappear.
Ilk decides that this looks like one of Toram's pyramids. Verra asks him to come up with an approach to destroy it that doesn't involve risking himself, so Ilk creates a Logrus artifact in the form of an atlatl to unbind and detonate the power source of the pyramid. That's fairly easy. He then creates forty-nine more. That's a lot harder.
Verra manifests herself in front of the priest for the first time. The priest changes his prayer mid-prayer. Verra tells the priest that since they disturbed her, she will need fifty of their best to solve the problem for themselves.
Ilk creates variable-Pattern sheaths to try to protect the atlatls, and variable-Pattern shields to give the sacrifices some degree of protection.
Two of them, by turning and bowing to Verra, expose their back-sides to being eaten. This inspires the others to move. About forty of them start charging up the hill. About ten of them start sneaking up towards the pyramid.
Ilk grabs Duncan's Pattern-net and tows it through Jean from Thelbane. Verra looks at him in horror. "Where did you get that!"
"From Thelbane... someone made it to hold anti-dragons there, but we never got around to deploying it."
"That's Pattern!"
"Ow!" Ilk hands the net to Verra.
"I can't hold that either!"
Ilk takes the net back. Verra has a set of worshippers take the net and spread it over the entire city then start drawing it towards the pyramid.
When the people are reaching the lowest-end of the graveyard with the net, two of the atlatl carriers return. They're carrying the empty atlatl launchers. There are no bites out of the carriers, and they both have their shields intact. They throw themselves down in a position of supplication in front of Verra.
"We failed you! We were not close enough to be consumed by the explosion in the center of the pyramid!"
Verra snuffs out their lives. "They apparently wanted that."
The people have now gotten the net up to the edge of the burial ground. They reach the goddess and proclaim that when they touch the pyramid with the net, the pyramid melts. Verra tells Ilk that the pyramid isn't actually hers. Verra tells them that the pyramid is melting because their prayers were not pure enough. This pyramid will have to be purified, and a new one should be built and consecrated with more pure prayers.
The net melts down the pyramid, down to the teeth and toenails. Ilk can see some remains of the variable Pattern shields and very few of the atlatl launchers. None of the atlatls survived, and none of the carriers remain.
Verra has everyone lie down and fills the entire air of the shadow with flour, after ensuring that Ilk's form doesn't need to breath. Nothing invisible is moving. Verra looks at Ilk. "I guess that's all of them." She checks to make sure that Ilk's form is not flammable then claps, igniting the air. Ilk mooches power from the flames.
Ilk tells Princess Chandra and Shiryu about the successful resolution of the problem. They suggest waiting for a solution to the problem of the full net to present itself.
Verra asks Ilk how he can return to this place, then has the priest with the Jean torc remain near the net to sanctify the ground on which the new pyramid will be built.
Ilk asks Pharaban if he knows where the anti-dragons were going, and Pharaban replies that he would be glad to trace their path once it is certain that none of them will be travelling in either direction along that path.
Cailin has reached the center of the Pattern. There is a folded handkerchief on the ground a bit off to the side. Cailin takes a look. On the outside of the handkerchief, it says, "If you can read this, you're too close." On the inside, it reads,
"Greetings, family member.
There is another of us out there. I have succeeded. I have walked the Pattern. If you do not recognize this handwriting, we have not met yet.
Signed, Grinning Fool."
In another hand, just below it, there is a postscript that says, "PS - he's a braggart." The second hand is more flowing than the first.
Cailin tries trumping people, but hits the trump block around Amber. Cailin trumps Darkstar using his own trump. He connects, Darkstar screams, and Cailin drops the contact.
Ilk, in Garnath, notices a mostly Logrus-based attack splash against the Logrus barriers around Amber.
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