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Malachai takes a potshot at Julian; the bullet reverses course and heads back at him. He dodges.
Ilkandacian is Logrus-pulling towards Zack, staying a few hundred feet above the ground, when all of his spells unrack. *BOOM*. Luckilly for everything within a mile or two of ground zero, most of the truly nasty spells are grounded by his also-unracked protectives. However, the entire squad that he ordered to come with him to Zack's aid are either very dead or blasted through shadow, the sun is blotted out of the sky, some of Julian's troops are teleported Home, and an invisible, paralyzed, and sleeping Ilkandacian plummets to the ground.
When everything goes dark, Zack's spells flicker and he is showered with room-temperature liquid metal. His flight spell fails, and he hits the ground from fifteen or twenty feet in the air. Zack and Malachai see a pure white halo spring up around Julian's head.
Cathryn tries to grab Julian's heart and twist it, but fails to reach into Julian with the Logrus. She then tries to trip Julian with a Logrus tendril with a similar lack of success.
Zack and Malachai see twelve more glowing Julian heads appear. All of the heads appear to be staring back at their observer. Malachai receives a trump call from Ingold, who offers to do something about the light.
Cathryn tries throwing rocks at Julian with the Logrus; the rocks reverse course as they approach him.
Zack brings up defensive spells and raises Faerie-sight, to compensate for the darkness. He starts flying again.
The ground starts glowing. Corwin and Darhyse are nowhere to be seen.
Stormy had started taking apart the siege engines when everything went dark, thirteen glowing things appeared, and the ground started glowing. Stormy finishes his spell, and lightning bolts start lancing out of the sky and blasting the siege engines, causing him some power feedback.
Zack is snatched by a net and dragged to the ground. Zack pulls his Morganti dagger and starts cutting through the net, and a piece of a siege engine flies through the air intersecting his former position. The dagger doesn't want to cut the net, it wants to cut the guys poking at Zack with swords. Zack offers it an all-you-can-eat buffet afterwards if it will pay attention to the net, but it continues trying to eat at Julian's, so Zack forces it to cut the net.
The forces around Cathryn start screaming in agony. She glances around, and sees that they are shifting out of control. The Sidhe warriors are fine, but the shapeshifters are melting. Cathryn sends out a Logrus tendril and tries to stabilize one of them, fails, receives feedback, starts destabilizing herself, and retreats to the next shadow to recover.
Cassandra's forces start getting beaten back, because more enemy troops are being redirected to the left flank. She gets a tap on the back of her mind.
Ilkandacian is still out.
Malachai tries to trump Corwin and gets a bad headache.
Zack has finished cutting through the net, and decides to stay on the ground and do some damage. He starts fighting the troops around him, wielding tonfu and Morganti.
The siege engines are down, and Stormy studies the situation. The ground is glowing due to a spell cast from the castle works. The glowing heads are Julian heads, due to a rather interesting spell cast by Julian. The darkness is due to a big powerful mage getting unracked. There are lightning strikes all over the place at clumps of Julian's troops, probably being directed by Oberon. Stormy opens a shutter into a pocket shadow, and pulls out a shield and a Krill.
Cassandra receives a trump call from Colin, who has a weapons delivery from Tazik. She pulls Colin through, and he starts wandering around the battlefield pulling swords from something in his pocket and handing them to the troops. These swords can actually penetrate the enemy's hide; her troops start doing better.
Malachai loads the bullets marked 'A' into his gun.
Cathryn is beginning to stabilize, and gets the feeling that someone is staring at her. She turns around, and sees someone that looks like Bleys, but with a chin, at arms-length from her. He's Real.
They chat.
Bleys: "Do you want help? You're about to
fall apart! I can just poke you here, and here, and here (pointing to
places that aren't on her body) and you'll fall apart!"
Cathryn: "So, how come you're not joining
the festivities?"
Bleys: "They don't need any help"
Cassandra asks Bleys about Mikail; is he out of reach?
Cassandra asks Bleys if he was responsible for the assassination attempt on Jesby. He dodges the question briefly and then denies any knowledge of the incident.
Bleys decides to sit back and watch Cathryn try to control her shapeshifting, telling her that if she needs any help, all she needs to do is ask for it.
Cathryn shifts another shadow over to avoid Bleys, and he takes a step and follows.
Cathryn: "Is there something that you
want?"
Bleys: "I'll just watch."
Cathryn: "Why the chin?"
Bleys: "After a certain amount of teasing,..."
Cathryn is only barely holding her ground.
Bleys starts humming tunelessly, breaking her concentration. Cathryn puts up a ward of silence, but the humming continues.
"Bleys, you're an asshole!"
Bleys states that he wants to watch Julian's defeat of the family member who just humiliated him, and claims that his investigation wouldn't be complete if he didn't watch and report on it.
Cathryn reaches into a pocket and breaks the coin that Clarissa gave her, and tries to hold on to her form.
Clarissa arrives.
Malachai has finished reloading with the 'A' bullets, and assesses the current situation. He can tell where Zack is due to the knot of dying troops. The sailors are losing slowly and steadily. Corwin is nowhere to be seen, Gerard is at the hospital, and both flanks of the battle are out of view. Malachai goes to personally reinforce the center, and directs some messengers to get him some battle reports.
Malachai trumps Caine for reinforcements.
Zack tries to disengage and fly towards Julian again, this time at a greater height. He feels a slight brush, as if something winged passed by an inch or so above him.
Cassandra tries to trump Malachai, and is blocked.
Malachai contacts Caine, requests reinforcements, and starts bringing them through one by one.
Zack's Morganti dagger is being effective against the enemy. They're tough and good, but Zack is better. His Faerie life-sense sight doesn't like what the Morganti dagger is doing, so he drops the Faerie sight and tries to keep pushing towards Julian.
Cassandra heads back into the fighting. The left flank is starting to slowly win now.
Malachai has received no news from the right flank, but is receiving regular messages from the left flank.
Stormy arrives at the field hospital, and discovers that he can easily help most of the sailors, but the others are too Real for him to effect. Gerard wants Stormy to take his place in the hospital so he can head out and join into the fun.
Stormy looks for Julian and sees a wall of sorcery around him. Stormy offers to trump Gerard directly to Julian, inside his outer shields, and Gerard accepts. Stormy hands him a dagger, telling him that it is a shield drill in case Julian has another shield hidden inside the first. *Pop*
Zack notices Gerard appear next to Julian, and hears a strangled curse from Gerard as he is hit from behind by a large black shadow. A smaller black shadow tumbles from the back of the large shadow -- it's Corwin.
Julian's reaction is not visible. Darhyse seems immobile; it appears that she ran into something hard, which is why Gerard was hit and Corwin tumbled.
Cathryn recovers control and becomes aware of her surroundings. She's sitting on a stone couch/bench, and there are four grey spheres at its foot. Clarissa is lying back and staring at the ceiling.
Cathryn apologizes for having troubled Clarissa, and then explains the incidents that led up to her call for help. Clarissa responds, "Some people never learn manners. Oh, well. Serves him right, then. So, does this mean that you're ready?" "For what?" "To go into the Sea of Chance to locate my wayward son."
Clarissa states that she has found a suitable conveyance, capable of carrying five or six people. Cathryn responds that she will have to gather her advisors beforehand. Clarissa asks if one of them is going to be that gentleman that was with her before, that Ilkandacian fellow. "Yes - I need to return to Amber to fetch him, he's in the middle of the battle." "Battle?" "Julian is invading Amber again".
Clarissa tells Cathryn that due to changes she had to make to her in order to bring her here, she cannot leave for a hundred years or so, because it will take that long for the changes to wear off. However, only about 10 minutes will pass in Amber during that time.
She had Shuggoth Syndrome - very fatal, few known cures. Cathryn is not pleased at the prospect of spending a century here, even if very little time will pass elsewhere.
Malachai hears a spine tingling yammer start up, apparently coming from several directions at once. He loses the trump contact with Caine, and the battle pauses briefly, then continues once more as the sound dies out. About 25 sailors had been pulled through before the contact was broken.
Cassandra hears the noise walking up and down her spine; it sounds like a really unpleased cat. She can't tell who it is from - it appears to be several voices coming from the center of the battle, and makes her hackles rise. It carries the emotion of a cold steel blade grating through granite.
Cassandra trumps Malachai, and they discuss what is going on. Malachai gives Cassandra a play-by-play of what is happening in the center of the battle. Corwin has turned towards Darhyse, and is kneeling beside her, and Gerard has punched Julian's horse, causing it to fall on Julian.
Zack is making slow progress towards Julian. Malachai, watching the knot of death around Zack head towards Julian, estimates that it will take him about fifteen minutes to arrive. Zack cobbles together a farspeech spell to carry his voice back to Malachai, saying "Giving up, attack at will."
Stormy continues watching the knot surrounding Julian, and throws a rapid permanent disenchant level seven on his armor -- which only effects the outermost layer out of many.
Cassandra's troops weren't performing well while she was fighting defensively and talking with Malachai, so she drops the Trump contact and resumes leading her troops.
Malachai is getting annoyed, so charges on Bucephalus, intent on killing some nasties on with Galantine. He smashes into the group attacking Zack, and the sailors follow after him, charging the enemy.
A long, thin spider-esque creature (Aramek) comes up from among the sailors and starts stepping through the nasties. Its legs chop through the nasties, impaling them.
Cathryn is very bored. There isn't much to do or study here, and the Logrus doesn't work.
Julian is no longer in evidence; he's now lying under his horse.
Zack notices that the cluster of enemy in his path is facing away from him, so he oggs them.
Ilkandacian has a brief moment of lucidity. Everything is in black and white. Before he can do anything, something sharp and edged comes down through his center.
The resistance in front of Cassandra's troops has melted away; the foe is retreating. She trumps Malachai to ask for orders, and he replies, "Kill them!"
Stormy notices that his shield-drill dagger is about 4 inches away from Julian, hanging in mid-air. Gerard is pounding on it and Julian, using Julian's horse as a bludgeon.
Sir Erik trumps Malachai to say that the enemy is retreating; Malachai tells him to kill them. The pursuing troops discover that the enemy is harder to take down from the rear - they're armored like turtles.
Zack continues working his way towards Julian.
After one hundred years, Cathryn can finally leave Clarissa's shadow and returns to the battle. She discovers that all of the shapeshifters are now puddles, a glowing blue sphere is located where Cara was standing, and Ilkandacian is missing. She heads towards the sphere and searches for Ilk with the Logrus, but overloads, finding bits of him all over the field of battle. The Sidhe are still fighting well.
Ilkandacian regains consciousness briefly, and acquires a bug-eye view from below the battlefield before everything fades back to black.
Malachai is slowing down; the enemy is paying attention to him now.
Stormy starts shifting and heads towards the battle, keeping an eye on Julian. He sees Arielle and Logan heading towards the battlefield. Arielle, who was convinced by Logan to visit the head of the hospital before expending energy healing people, points to Stormy. Stormy acquires mental contact with Arielle, and tells her to talk to the current head of the hospital. Stormy finishes shifting into a Sand Gorgon, and Logan jumps onto his back. Stormy hands Logan a sharpening stone and tells him that it will help. Logan tries it, grins, and tucks it away in a pouch, as Stormy starts accelerating towards Julian.
Malachai follows in Stormy's wake, and Zack follows Malachai and Stormy. Ilkandacian sees the parade from below, realizes that he has to be unconscious and imagining that, and consequently blacks out again.
Cathryn notices that the blue sphere has stopped growing; it seems to have stabilized at about three and a half humans in diameter. She ensures that Bleys isn't around to "help" it, and resumes ripping hearts out with the Logrus.
Stormy sees three very large cats and one extremely large cat decending on Julian.
Cassandra feels something furry brushing against the backs of her knees. It's Gypsy, holding a gun-like thing. She tests it on one of the enemy, and it works! Cassandra starts wading through the enemy, blowing them away with the gun.
Stormy stops suddenly to avoid running into the furry wall. Logan falls off Stormy, and converts the fall into a flip onto the back of one of the cats. In order to avoid hitting the Sand Gorgon, Malachai plows into a group of enemy troops. Bucephalus loses his footing and rolls. Zack sees the above, and heads into the hairball.
Stormy, Trump-looking through the mound of fur, sees Gerard staring down one of the cats, nose to nose. The second cat has torn Julian's horse in half, the third has picked up an unmoving black lump, presumably Darhyse, and the last and largest has her teeth locked into Julian's armor. Corwin is lying motionless, with a magical tinge around him. Stormy lines up to slam Julian with his piledriver-like arms, and starts growing to match Trialla's height.
Malachai has acquired several perforations and is using his fists because there is no room for him to swing Galantine. He starts moving towards Bucephalus.
As Zack flies up, he sees the wall of cats and Logan climbing up a cat.
Cathryn continues ripping hearts out.
Stormy is batting Julian in the head each time that Trialla throws him into the air.
A cat head with its teeth locked onto Julian erupts out of the hairball. Logan slashes at Julian, who is almost completely helpless. Zack tries to push Logan out of the way.
Malachai reaches the point where he can either recover his feet or roll towards Bucephalus, and starts rolling towards Bucephalus.
Ilkandacian has another flash of consciousness. It's a blue-tinged awareness, and from his fish-eyed view from the rear of the battle, he can't see his cousin or his troops. The Sidhe are still fighting on, and he sees a pile of fur in the center of the battle. Cathryn is ripping hearts out with the Logrus. He receives a feeling of panic, generated by an outside source but sharing his point of view -- HELP! Ilk sends what little power he has available towards the consciousness that he believes to be his cousin.
After Cassandra's 28th shot, the firing pin clicks on an empty chamber. She pulls her sword and resumes the slaughter.
After Stormy's third bash, there's a large dent in Julian's head. Sensing that Julian's lifesigns are growing faint, Stormy redirects his attack to the nearby soldiers.
Zack managed to push Logan off balance, such that his first swing missed, and his second took off the back of Julian's armor. Logan falls off the cat, and Zack continues heading up. From here he can tell that Trialla's teeth are sunk into Julian, not just his armor, since the only thing holding Julian into his armor is Trialla's teeth. Zack tries to open a Faerie gate at the edge of Trialla's swing.
Stormy has smashed enough of the nearby troops for Malachai to be able to see Bucephalus. Bucephalus has a polearm sticking out of his withers, and is holding an arm which is holding a sword in his mouth, and is swinging the sword and arm at the attacking soldiers. He's doing surprisingly well. Towards Julian, Malachai can only see a wall of fur. Malachai heads towards Bucephalus, who rears, trying to throw Logan, who is now using him as a footstool. Logan is not thrown.
Cassandra has worked her way forward enough to see the cat pile now. Stormy starts working a spell on Corwin, trying to counter whatever Julian cast on him earlier.
With a blare of trumpets and a few waved signal flags, the two flanks decide to unite and meet in the middle. Both flanks charge.
The Sha'um break and run in four directions. One has Gerard plastered to its face, one is holding Corwin gently in its mouth, one is holding Darhyse gently in its mouth, and Trialla is holding Julian not-so-gently in her mouth.
Julian is fading fast. Zack's Faerie gate opens, far behind the cats and Julian. Stormy throws some life energy at Corwin.
Cassandra yells, "Gerard, let go!" Gerard replies, "I will win!" Cassandra retorts with, "You will die!", and Gerard flips the cat twice. "Leave my cats alone!" "It attacked me! I will win!"
Stormy unravels the spell on Corwin, who falls into a healing sleep.
Zack tries to parallel the cat holding Julian.
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