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Theraat, Cathryn, Zack, and a Benedict are standing outside a cabin in the middle of some woods, waiting for Flora to finish her bath.
Theraat and Cathryn discuss the nature of shadow, and the nature of Realities.
Zack tells Benedict that he left a friend in Faerie, and would like his help in getting back to rescue her. Benedict tells Zack to wait at least until Flora's bath is done.
"He keeps the Logrus, which is why I am confused that he did not mention it" -- Cathryn, to Theraat
Zack tries to talk politely to Cathryn; she snaps at him. "Cathryn Dear" is not an acceptible form of address, apparently.
Theraat claims that her father isn't this Vail person, but Entil'za.
Zack says something to Theraat in Minbari, to her great delight. He claims that he wasn't aware that the title, Entil'za, was still around. He tells her that he was in a war that could have been in the analogue of her shadow, a long time ago. He claims to have been in the last Shadow War. His Minbari accent is about 2,000 years out of date.
Cathryn apparently decides that Zack would have more success explaining Reality to Theraat than she is having, and asks, "Would you please explain to her about the Pattern?" Zack is self-denigrating in reply, and Cathryn scoffs.
Zack tries to explain the nature of shadow, and the nature of multiple realities to Theraat. Theraat is still clueless. Benedict looks up, says "She's completely cracked"
Zack is only explaining the Amber-centric point of view, and justifies it to Cathryn as "a good starting point". Cathryn then starts explaining the simple version of the Chaos-centric point of view. There was Chaos, then a number of Old Lords came out of the Sea of Chance and formed the Courts of Chaos on an island in the Sea. One Old Lord went to another island in the Sea and drew the Pattern there, creating shadow.
"Who was cracked. Totally cracked," Benedict breaks in. "No disagreement here..."
"When was the Logrus drawn?" Benedict asks Cathryn. "I don't know..."
Theraat asks, "What is this Pattern thing- a rite of passage ordeal?" Cathryn tries to explain that it is more than that, that it gives one access to Power. "Anyone not decended of Dworkin..." "The cracked one?", Theraat interrupts. "Totally cracked", Benedict and Cathryn respond in in unison. "Is insanity hereditary?" "Yes." They hand Theraat crayons.
Cathryn starts working down the family tree, starting with Dworkin and Oberon. "King Oberon," Benedict breaks in. "I'm getting to that part."
Theraat asks why Dworkin didn't make a mate before a child. The unicorn is mentioned, and Benedict states that they (Dworkin and the Unicorn) were both male.
Theraat and Zack briefly discuss Zack's ranger training, as it possibly influenced her ranger training, much to Cathryn's disgust. "In some realities, Arden was protected by Zacharias's father, Julian, who is one of Oberon's children."
Theraat asks if the structure of all realities are similar, with an Amber on one end and a Chaos on the other.
Cathryn claims that there are multiple, sorta-overlayed Amber-things.
Cathryn mentions that multiple other Real places exist, and there are other poles of power. "So, Amber and Chaos are expendable," Theraat concludes. "I don't believe that the shadow betweeen Amber and Chaos would survive the wipeout of either," replies Benedict.
Theraat asks Benedict about the layout of shadow and the other poles of power. "While everything is between all of the sets of poles, not all of the poles encompass everything" "Are there an infinite number of poles?" "No, I don't believe they're infinite, but I don't have a comprehensive list"
Benedict apparently killed off his teacher of cosmology because Oberon told him to do so. Having someone with that level of knowledge of the other poles in the family made Oberon nervous.
Theraat realizes that (this) Benedict and Flora are from her reality, whereas Zack and Cathryn are not.
Theraat asks Benedict what succession method his family used. "It's complicated." Also, Vail probably wouldn't want her exposed to family politics.
Cathryn mentions "So, now that you've walked that Pattern, you can move between these shadows." "How?" "I don't know - I use the Logrus as the source of my energy" "Is it better or worse than the Pattern?" "Different," Zack interjects.
Theraat says that it would be best to then acquire both; Cathryn says that it's not possible, it's a heredity thing. What about Dworkin? Benedict says that Dworkin never walked the Logrus. Apparently Dworkin did something to thin out the Chaos blood in his decendents, making it difficult for them to handle the Logrus. Breeding programs... Zack says that there's required reading concerning it. According to rumor, Oberon helped plan Corwin's pairing with Dara to produce Merlin, someone capable of acquiring both Pattern and Logrus.
"Would it be a bad thing for me to ask if there are other powers associated with other poles?" Theraat asks. "Yes," replies Benedict.
Cathryn: "I, on the other hand, could have access to both powers if I
chose to do so."
Zack: "You could?"
Cathryn: "You don't know? I'm Random's daughter."
Zack laughs and apologizes for ragging on Random, and says that he's been trading jibes with Random for thousands of years, and nothing personal was meant by them.
Zack: "Congratulations!"
Cathryn: "Congratulations? For what?"
Zack digs the hole deeper, implying that being a Dutchess of Amber is more important than being the Heir to House Jesby, and then trying to conditionalize and rationalize his previous statements. Zack explains that he thought that he was insulting his family, not hers.
A pause.
Cathryn: "Explain to her how to use the Pattern to move through shadow"
Benedict says that her father might not have wanted her to learn to use that.
Benedict: "... and even I hesitate to cross him"
Zack: "Her father sounds like a rather formidable sort"
Benedict: "Her father can accurately look into the future..."
They discuss that he might have sent her to walk the Pattern now, because her chances to do so in the future could be few and far between. In response, Theraat asks what her family's expected lifespan is. Benedict: "We are an uncommonly well-preserved bunch" -- "Your life expectancy, barring accident, should not be too much of a concern" Benedict expresses confidence in Vail's ability to protect Theraat from malice.
Theraat expresses that she should then mistrust Zack and Cathryn, then. "Welcome to the family," says Zack. "That is why your father left the family," mentions Benedict. Benedict expresses his complete trustworthiness due to his lack of ulterior motive, and Cathryn tells Theraat that Benedict is known as the best warrior and tactician in the family. Hero worship kicks in...
They chat.
Cathryn whips out her trump of Stormy and tries it. It feels like the connection stops before it started.
Benedict tells Zack to wait on the Faerie gate until after Flora has left her bath.
It's getting dark.
Cathryn: "Faerie is another source of power... "
Theraat: "Then I shouldn't know anything about it"
Zack explains the rules of Faerie, in brief. "If you eat or drink anything in Faerie, or accept a gift in Faerie, you belong to the person who gave it to you." "A good universal rule in Faerie, especially if you aren't familiar with it, try not to interact with anything in it." "Try not to interact with anything from Faerie, because the native of Faerie tend to have a strange idea of what the implications of those interactions are." Benedict says that the rules have changed somewhat since Llewella took over Faerie about 600 years ago.
Benedict advises Theraat to not tell anyone that she is a member of the family, unless your father tells you otherwise.
Dusk happens.
Cathryn goes inside the cabin to look for Flora. She's not there, and the tub isn't there, either. Zack comes in as well. Cathyn brings up the Logrus carefully. She has no problems with the Logrus. Looks around... hundreds of trails through here. It's not the Logrus that she is familiar with, but it's not trying to eat her yet. Zack gets an unusual sensation - it feels like someone is using the Logrus here. Zack leaves the hut.
Benedict looks around, pulls out a small needle-like object, flicks it in his hand, and then it disappears.
Zack suggests trumping Flora, Benedict advises him to wait. Theraat considers walking over to where the tub was, Benedict tells her to wait. Benedict picks up a handful of sand and throws it at the area; some of the sand hits the far wall, and some of it heads down some of the shadow ways.
Cathryn suggests trumping Flora, and Benedict warns her that Flora could be being held by hostile forces that could be expecting a trump contact. Cathryn reaches out with a Logrus tendril tenatively, looking for Flora. The Logrus doesn't eat her, and the tendril heads in the direction of Court.
Benedict advises that he will lead down the path, Zack will follow, then Cathryn, then Theraat watching the rear. "Anyone can follow a Logrus trail... you just have to have the knack", Benedict says as he takes a step and disappears.
Zack follows. Benedict is standing on the back of a demon. There are lots of demons, covered in lava up to their waists, and there is a bruised demon in front of Benedict. Cathryn takes Theraat's hand and they follow. The group progresses down the trail, following Benedict.
They stop in a large mouth-like cave, and Benedict says that the next step will undoubtedly lead them into an adverse situation.
Cathryn reaches out a tendril for Flora; it bounces off something magic-based in the next place over. "Oh, that's no good. It's magic-based." Zack volunteers to check out the situation; Benedict agrees to let him lead.
Cathryn pulls out her trump of Stormy. It fails to contact, and suddenly she feels powerful. Very powerful. Extremely powerful. The grump grows warm.
Zack prepares his magical defenses and has his tonfu and Morganti ready to draw. He steps through along the trail, and his magical defenses impact with something containing lots of magical energy. A massive voice bellows, "Who goes!" "I do." "You will die!" "Why?" "You are not the one!" Zack discusses the matter briefly with the voice, and the thing starts crushing at his defenses. Zack tries to squirm his way out of the situation, and his defenses get crushed even more. It feels like solid weight in addition to magical energy. Zack tries to tap the power around him and starts getting a headache due to the Logrus-based nature of the power, but manages to use that to counter the increasing pressure by drawing upon his enemy's own power.
Zack tries to retreat back along the line. There is a tremor on the path, and Zack is now sitting on top of a fairly large tree. "Is anyone here?" No response. Zack prepares to fly off the tree, and discovers that magic doesn't work here.
Cathryn mentions to Benedict that Zack did something and sends a tendril through again. There's a small bother in her way, and she pushes through it easily, snuffing its life in the process. Benedict leads them through.
They're in a laboratory that looks somewhat smashed, as if a casual hand had brushed through it. There is no sign of Zack or Flora, and the trail leads on. Benedict draws a map of where the trail leads and hangs it on the wall, in case Zack returns. They continue, and they're in a meeting room. A familiar meeting room. Like one that the Ettiquite Guild might set up. There is no one else in the room, but lots of bugs, viewing areas, and passages out.
Cathryn explains to Benedict that this looks like a meeting room set up by the Ettiquite guild in Chaos. Benedict asks if they are being watched; of course. He asks Cathryn to wipe the bugs; and she uses some of the newfound power to do so. They leave the room, and remark on a corpse leaning on the outside of the door. Benedict blames the corpse on Zack.
Benedict is disturbed by Zack's absence and asks Cathryn to find him; she sends out a tendril and locates him. She then tries to use the Logrus to pull Zack to them.
As Zack is taking out Benedict's trump, he gets an odd sensation, as if someone is opening a magical gate who doesn't know what they're doing, then something kicks him hard from behind, through the gate. It looked like a combination of trump and magic.
Cathryn reached out with the Logrus to fetch him, and he squirted out of her grasp and appeared in front of her.
Zack notices that the hallway looks like one in House Cara that he remembers killing someone in. Zack asks Cathryn if he recognizes this area; it looks like House Cara. Benedict asks Zack how he is familiar with Chaos; he mentions that he was sort-of adopted by one of the Chaos Houses for conduct becoming a Chaosian.
Benedict tells Theraat to lower her level of trust for the Zack and Cathryn.
Cathryn sends out a tendril looking for Flora; it goes straight down to where the dungeons would be, if House Cara had dungeons, which (ours) (overtly) (being a gentle and peace-loving House) does not.
They chat, and then Cathryn tries to fetch Flora as she did Zack. She is disoriented briefly, then a rainbow effect occurs around her and she disappears.
Cathryn is standing in front of Flora, who is dissected and pinned to a wall by several thousand bands of magic. She's still alive - at least, her lungs are visibly expanding and contracting. Her spleen and liver are on that table over there. Cathryn reaches up to Zack with the Logrus, and finds it blocked. She tries shifting gaseous and going through the ceiling, and finds shapeshifting blocked, too.
She tries to use this newfound power to burn through the Logrus blocks, and she ends up sitting in the entry hall that she was in right before she walked the Logrus. There's no Suhuy there, but there are a couple of demons that look like they want to have her for lunch.
They others notice Cathryn's absence, and Zack suggests that she might have gone to Flora. Benedict suggests that either there is merely more to this plot, or that she has encountered something beyond her abilities. Benedict considers the ramifications of the situation, then leads them off, taking a couple of steps through shadow. He seems to have shifted directly to the other side of the Abyss. They're on some dark and brooding hills. Benedict sends Theraat to lean against that rock, and Zack to look over the edge and warn him if anything comes up or down. There is lots of old, malevolent magic here that doesn't like outsiders.
Benedict draws a circle on the ground, draws a trump, talks for a while, pulls another trump, talks for a while, puts it away, pulls out another trump, and starts concentrating on it.He gets a confused look, sighs, and puts it away. The wall behind Theraat bulges. "Movement." "Time to leave."
He takes a few steps, and they're at Ygg. "Impressive short cut", comments Zack. "It's not normally this easy."
"I believe we are left with an assault in force", announces Benedict. He says that he is leaving to gather forces that are loyal to him, and him alone. He rejects Zack's idea that he acquire some troops as well. They follow a few steps, and they're at a place with lots of troops. They appear to be identical to those tall, white, heavily armored troops that Julian used during his invasion of Amber. Benedict says something to the troops in a language that Zack and Theraat don't recognize, and two of them reach down and place Theraat and Zack on their heads, which appear to be highly defensible locations.
They hellride following Benedict, and it's a nasty hellride. When it ends, they're standing in a dank, dark dungeon. About fifty guards are charging them, launching lots of poison-type attacks as they go. The troops ignore the melee attacks, take the ranged attacks on their backs, and when they touch the Chaosians, the Chaosians burst into flames. Zack feels extremely discomfited, and one of the Logrus-users screams and falls over. Benedict grins.
It must be a kinder, gentler, wimpier Logrus here. Named Bob.
The troops wander down the hall, smashing in each door and looking in, not spotting Flora, and moving on.
They hear a voice saying, "It's about time!" It sounds like Oberon. The troops keep going. Benedict tells Theraat to watch his back - it might be a trap. He pokes his head in, says, "Nope," and pulls his head back out.
Zack pokes his head in, feels faintly nauseous, and sees what looks like Oberon chained to a wall, along with hundreds of tiny people ripping small pieces of flesh off of him. Zack exits quickly.
They reach Flora's door - Benedict has gone in. Zack and Theraat go in. There are a few guards in the room, and the rest are guarding the door.
Cathryn reaches for Zack's trump, it's cold, she's reaching out for the connect.
Zack's getting a trump call. "Benedict?" He warns Benedict that he's getting a trump contact, so be prepared.
The trump connects, and Cathryn feels something ganwing on her legs. "Quick, pull me through!"
The background gives Zack a terrible headache, it's filled with things. One of them is in contact with his mind, and it's very hungry. He gets a sensation like it's gnawing on his leg.
Cathryn trumps out just as one of the demons claws at her back.
Zack is attacking Cathryn's knees. Cathryn joins in. Benedict is watching from a distance. "I wonder if it's an ally or an enemy?" Theraat also watches from a distance.
Zack conjures food, and the demon stops gnawing on Cathryn and starts gnawing on the food. Cathryn chops the demon into pieces, and each piece is a tiny mouth. Zack stops feeding the pieces, and they start eating Cathryn and Zack again. Zack starts whacking at the pieces with the Morganti, and the pieces pop and burst into flames. The Morganti is becoming disgusted at the lack of nutrition that the demon-bits provide. Cathryn goes gaseous, and they stop gnawing on her. They gnaw on Benedict's soldiers instead, and then burst into flames and melt.
When the pieces are all dead, Cathryn goes solid and explains briefly how she got into that situation. Zack conjures an adamantium mayo jar and traps the last mouth in it. "This is magic based - she's here," Cathryn says, dragging Zack into the room. Flora is bound by a net of magic, some of which is binding the organs that are no longer in her body to her body, and keeping her alive.
Zack tells Benedict that this magic is way beyond him; it could take him hours to analyze it all. Benedict says that magic isn't his forte, so Zack should start working. Theraat tries to get Zack to conjure organs and just hook them in, and Cathryn explains that isn't an option.
Cathryn messes around with her newfound power. Benedict sits outside the cell, watching his troops squish the local Chaosians, and occasionally giving orders. Theraat tries to watch Benedict and learn from his orders, but learns more from watching the troops fight.
Cathryn tries to take Stormy's trump and use the power to force a connection. She gets a surge of power, the trump goes warm again, and she gets the feeling of a collar-like sensation around her neck.
Cathryn tries to reach out and go somewhere... she's there, without using the Logrus. She tries to go back, and she's standing on the north side of the Abyss. She tries to go across Realities. She pictures the entranceway to her house Jesby... *bamf* she's standing outside something that looks like the entryway to her House Jesby. There's a nice star-studded sky above, waving grass,... This is not her House. She thinks about her House in relation to her Courts, and she's standing above a table, and there's a decent 6 dimensional model of her Courts there. She thinks about her Random. *bamf* There's this guy sitting on a throne wearing a crown. There's one eye tracking on her, and one eye tracking on something else in the room. She tries to specify her Random more closely, and nothing happens. Cathryn leaves with style. She's on the far side of the Abyss. She shifts to a flying form and heads over the Abyss. There are lots of friendly, smiling demons down there wearing collars of flowers and waving at her. She's feeling a steady, slight pressure towards the Logrus. A "hey, if you have the time, stop on by," kinda feeling. Cathryn shifts into a gaseous form and heads towards House Cara. She reaches the reception room, and it's filled with old magazines, and there are some depressed-like people leafing through them. She *bamf*s down into the dungeon. As she arrives, she's aware of a blade at her throat. It's Benedict. The pressure at her throat lets up.
Joe the Abyss -- He'll never amount to anything, always in the
hole...
Stormy, the drug
Theraat notices that Benedict put the sword there a full two and a half seconds before Cathryn appeared.
It's been four and a half, maybe five hours. Zack's beginning to make sense out of what the spell is.
At one point, Benedict asks Theraat to open her pike between those two. She does, and they are pushed into spiked weapons that his troops are holding out.
Cathryn goes to chat with the chained Oberon, who claims that he was betrayed by all three of his redheaded children. He claims that he can see the Pattern pulsing in her, that she has not walked it yet, but has that potential.
Cathryn: "You know, you don't sound like any Oberon I've met"
Oberon: "There is only one Oberon"
Cathryn: "That's what you think, buddy"
...
Cathryn: "Well, you've got time"
Cathryn starts explaining the multiple-Amber shtick to the Oberon.
Zack thinks that he can start fixing Flora up a bit, unwrapping the spell enough for her to be moved. That should take another hour, hour and a half. He says to Benedict that in another hour and a half, he should be able to move her. Where? They discuss moving her. Benedict decides to move her to Amber.
Cathryn's Oberon is asking some pretty insightful questions. He seems completely nonplussed by the things gnawing his flesh off. Cathryn goes to tell Benedict that there is an Oberon in the next room. Benedict insists that it isn't the real Oberon, and that the real Oberon would die rather than exist in that situation.
Ilkandacian, after discovering that the power tap leading to the badger that challenged him to a duel leads cross-shadow, teleports to the blue crystal shadow. He points out the location of the far end of the tap to Ilaryn, and asks her to cast some bugs into that area, since she tends to be more subtle than he. She casts the bugs, and he filters the signal and plays circuit breaker. That shadow is very similar to the badger shadow, with the only major differences being that it is more heavily populated, the birds are normal birds, not over-aggressive magical-munching eagles, and the inhabitants of that shadow don't even have a hint of another shape. That shadow has even more local magical power, and the natives use magic for everything down to sweeping the floors. Their target is resting in a hibernation burrow, shaped like a normal inhabitant of that shadow. Ilk's not sure quite how he was disguised - it might have been through some form of shapeshifting, but could have been just a mundane physical disguise.
Ilkandacian considers interdicting the shadow, but that would take several weeks to accomplish, and he doubts that he has more than a day or two before they attack again. He considers melting down the shadow with Primal Chaos, but that would involve lots of Logrus power, which just might result in him going *pop* as multiple Logrus play tug of war with his mind. The natives use enough magical power, and there are enough of them, that a simple magical assault would probably fail and a magical infiltration would be detected. This leaves tracking down the spores and trying to find other accomplices, or mind-reaming the known badger.
After some study of the area, llk realizes that searching for the killer spores magically would involve travelling physically to that shadow and then poking around, and would alert every local mage to his presence. With great reluctance, he decides that the only way to counter this problem is through using the Logrus. Ilkandacian warns Ilaryn that he will soon be doing something that might turn on him. He asks her to hold a shadow gate open to the badger shadow, and to kick him through it at the first sign of discomfort or terror. Since the Logrus doesn't work in that shadow, and the last time that a Logrum tried to eat him, he had a few moments in which to drop it, he should hopefully survive the attempt. Ilk glances at Ilaryn and is promptly kicked through into the badger shadow. When he returns, she asks him to demonstrate what distress looks like on this shape; she's not used to human body language. Ilkandacian demonstrates, stands next to the shadow gate, then tenatively raises his Logrus-sight.
No boom.
After a few seconds, Ilk begins to relax, and looks around, not mostly-blind for the first time in months. Ilaryn is Real, as are the badger shadows. The badger shadow is Primal, and the invading shadow is on a foothill, with the same degree of Reality as a Golden or Black Circle shadow. Ilkandacian spends a few minutes just looking at everything in the vicinity, enjoying the returned presence of the Logrus and mentally mapping out the layout of the nearby shadows.
Ilkandacian then warns Ilaryn that he is about to attempt something else that might turn on him, and manifests a Logrus tendril. It's there, and it doesn't try to bite him, but it feels thick, stiff, and clumsy, very unlike the tendrils that he is used to manipulating. He carefully extends the tendril across this local shadow - still nothing. He reaches across into the target shadow - still nothing. He sets that tendril to finding spores, and it starts clumsily tracing circles of increasing size, centered on the known badger. He finds a concentration of spores in a lab that is shielded against magical location, and kicks a magical bug into it. It's filled with spores, which are being generated magically. The lab is sealed off from the rest of the burrow, and contains a number of tech items, including several sealed boxes, in addition to the magical effects generating the spores. The boxes don't seem to have an inside.
Ilaryn warns Ilk that their target is no longer in his burrow. Ilk generates a second tendril and sends it out to find and grab that badger. The badger is sending out magical pulses. Ilk notices that the lab is cleaning up the spores by way of one of the technological devices, and starts draining the power from that device. The lab is also sending out magical signals, presumably some sort of distress call. Oops.
Ilkandacian decides to prevent the badger from causing any more trouble, and shields it. It surprises him by shattering his shield using an artifact and continuing to send off the magical pulses. The artifact appears to be a ring, which the badger is wearing as a bracelet. Ilk, very tenatively manifests an itty-bitty third tendril, with no adverse effects. He carefully extends it out a few feet, a few miles, then over to the target shadow, where he uses it to remove the artifact from the badger, taking part of the badger's hand along with it. He shields the badger again, and it pounds magically on the wards, but cannot penetrate them. The badger is not bleeding heavily, so shouldn't escape via death any time soon, and since it's being held by magical shields and a Logrus tendril, it should be ignorable for a bit. Ilk drains the badger magically via the link, and quickly uncovers a powerful magical surge -- the badger seems to have connected to a cross-shadow source. However, it still can't break through the shields, so Ilk ignores it, absorbing the power it throws at the shields, and ignoring the contamination it throws into that power.
He performs a quick surface analysis of the artifact, which is firmly held in place by a Logrus tendril. It looks like it was manufactured in the Courts of Chaos; it bears the marks of the Psionicists' Guild and the Mages' Guild. It uses the Logrus to find power, and has a hook planted in that badger's mind.
Ilkandacian notices that there are another ten machines cleaning up the lab now, and he breaks them by grabbing one with the third tendril and smashing it into the others, but it's too late -- the spores have all been cleaned up. He examines the lab for other changes, and notices that all of the boxes are missing from the lab. He breaks the spell preventing the lab from being located magically, so he can remove his third tendril from the lab without losing track of it, then sends it out looking for the boxes. He finds them -- they're in heavily warded places from which they would be difficult to extract, and almost impossibly for Ilk to extract without causing some damage to their surroundings. Ilk places a note on each box, saying "Danger: Do Not Open", and then adds a spell such that if the box is touched, it will send out a signal that Ilk will be able to detect and backtrack.
Finally, he decides that the only real step left is to mind-ream the badger. First, he grabs another badger and pulls it over to the blue crystal shadow, incidentally killing it in transit. He and Ilaryn examine the corpse, which Ilk magically dissects and studies. He then shifts to that shape, and starts mind-reaming the target badger. The badger is filled with grand plans and schemes, with a raw lust for power overriding everything else. The driving motive to conquer, sterilize, and colonize the next shadow over is being imposed by the artifact. This badger is the leader of a cell of twelve, and he knows those beneath him as well as his direct superior, who belongs to a council of twelve, with each council member connected to a leader of a group of twelve. One hundred and fifty-six badgers to deal with. This could become tedious. The subject believes that he is the only one that knows the whereabouts of the spore lab, and believes that there are twenty-four rings, one for each group leader and one for each council member.
Ilk Logrus-searches for more spores in that shadow, and almost finds something that is close, but fails to connect. He retunes to search on that, and locks in on it -- it's a technological factory producing a chemical substance that would have a psychodelic effect on badgers, but this one seems tailored for their kind of badger, not the Primal's kind of badger. This factory is also not connected to a burrow, and is protected against magical locating. He finds no spores in the Primal shadow.
Ilk removes the artifact's hook from the badger's brain and replaces it with raw power-lust, modifies the badger's memories so he thinks that he was dreamwalking during a nightmare, has Ilaryn reconnect and fix the badger's hand that was shredded when the ring was ripped off, tells it not to check in on the lab for a while, and drops it back off in the hibernation burrow, with orders to remain asleep for a good long time.
He considers just mind-reaming the twenty-four leaders and killing the rest, but Ilaryn protests about the poor innocent wives and children, the ones who love the nasty-bads. Sigh. This shadow's ethical standards are far too high for someone who grew up in the Courts. Or a royal Amberite as well, probably.
Ilk considers putting up a teleport block to prevent the specified individuals from leaving the shadow. Unfortunately, it would take about thirty minutes per target badger, which, although feasible for thirteen badgers, is not a good option for one hundred and fifty-six.
Ilk examines the boxes once again. Possibly, opening one could lead to the stuff of the shadow falling into the nothingness inside the box, disrupting the shadow and causing a shadow-storm.
Ilk starts preparing to intern the artifact somewhere safe and mind-ream the known council member. He looks at the artifact, and it is extending Logrus tendrils out across shadow, and Ilk cannot tell what triggered the tendrils or where they are going.
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