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Malachai wakes up next to Serena. They're in a private room in Cobalt's infirmary. He bathes, then starts catching up on his journal while snacking on some finger food acquired from the nearby party.
Damia is in the woods being comforted by Damien, the resident ghost. She hears Bast go hurling by, making arrangements for her job to be covered for a while. Eventually Damia calms down enough to fill Damien in on her situation.
Celeste wakes up. She sees Malachai and Serena curled up with each other. She sees Hadrian comforting Lily in a corner. She tries to trump Faythe, and gets nothing - the same nothing that she got earlier when trying to trump Brandt. She starts working on a trump sketch of Brand, but starts falling asleep again.
Celeste pulls out the small bottle that Titania gave her. She concentrates on it like a trump; nothing happens. She opens the bottle. It smells wonderful. She puts a drop on one finger, corks the bottle, and touches the drop to her tongue. She falls instantly asleep.
Celeste is standing in a grey space, and Titania arrives. Celeste asks if she entered Faerie again if she would still have the boon of free passage, and Titania says that could be bargained for. Celeste asks if the one she was speaking with was a part of Titania's realm. Titania acts ignorant until she says his name, then responds. "A piece of my realm, he began. But he is quite real now." Titania says that he apparently has a piece of her in him. Celeste mentions that Zack said that he was quite real, and Titania replies that she trusts Zack's judgment in many matters, as he is a Prince of her realm. And has free passage.
Celeste asks what Zack's price was for his passage, and Titania replies that he swore an oath of fealty to her.
Celeste asks what she would need to have repeated free access to visit that one she met on her earlier visit. "You seek to become royalty?" After some semantic quibbling, Celeste responds.
"I seek to join your court."
Titania invites Celeste to visit her realm, to study her court and how it operates before joining. Celeste says that she needs to find her missing children first. Titania replies, "You could keep your children safe here." Especially since Clarissa seems to be failing in her duties.
Titania mentions that her invitation itself is the gateway, as otherwise the invitation would not be very effective.
Celeste bows to Titania. A small bird flutters from Titania's shoulder and lands in Celeste's hand as she rises. It is an invitation, written in moonlight on cobwebs. Celeste says that she should leave, to look for her children.
Celeste wakes up remembering nothing but a blurred, silly dream about the Queen of Faerie and an invitation. But sitting on the table next to her is an invitation, written in moonlight on cobwebs. Celeste folds it up, wraps it in a scarf, and puts it in her trump case. When the scarf touches the invitation, it glimmers.
The portrait of Brand is smiling more broadly than when it was drawn, and it still seems to be winking at her. Celeste folds the trump sketch up and puts it in yet another pouch.
Celeste tries to contact Clarissa over the god channels, and connects with Verra. Verra states that her estimate of Celeste's attempt was a few seconds off, and mentions a conversation held over the channels earlier regarding how Celeste uses them as her own private network. A girl named Thessaly was defending her, claiming that she was just ignorant. They chat.
Verra tells Celeste that her worshipers offer her their undying loyalty, as well as sacrifices of their children, their children's children, entire villages, shadows populated by their offspring, and so on. And they track down and kill people that have gained her ire, such as backsliding worshipers. Celeste whimpers a lot during the conversation.
"Barlan bet that you'd end up in my bed before the day is out."
Celeste flees the god channels, and tries Clarissa's trump. She hits a very strong, very well-held trump block. It's as strong as one of Clarissa's, but it's not - Clarissa leaves holes for Celeste. Celeste tries to reach for Clarissa through her matrix crystal. She gets a double echo back, but no Clarissa.
Celeste memorizes the infirmary for use as a future teleport location, and teleports home. She finds herself in a familiar tower. It's short. She can't reach much of anywhere from here, except for maybe the kitchen. She heads downstairs and finds mandrake roots scurrying around in the kitchen. She asks them where they came from, and they indicate a spot where the knapsack was lying. Celeste tries to figure out a way back from the mandrakes, but they claim to be stuck as well.
Celeste focuses on the tower's matrix crystal and tries to contact the infirmary in Cobalt. She connects to a rude field hospital in Chaos. She sees a guy getting his leg sewn back on. She looks down to the spot of ground beneath her, and sees the bug again.
Celeste goes down her list of trumps, trying many of them. Most fail. Her trump of Clarissa connects to herself. She gets a strange echo from Brand. Flora's trump connects to a shriveled woman carrying swaddling clothes, and Celeste hastily drops the contact.
She acquires some aphrodisiac tea and biscuits from the mandrake roots and goes back upstairs.
Ilk, Norton, Osric, Andron, and Jenoir are heading back towards sanctuary. Ilk pulls out the butterfly given to him by Rainbow, but all that is left is a mummified husk. They swing by Suhuy's work room to pick up Clarissa.
Ilk pops into Suhuy's work room and back out again quickly, noticing a half-naked Clarissa, smeared with grease, with one of Suhuy's devices spread in pieces around her. Ilk tells the others that all seems to be well, and that he'll be back in a bit. Ilk returns to the work room, entering out of sight of Clarissa, and starts walking loudly towards her. She's still naked. Ilk turns his back. "Ilk? Is that you?" "Yes" "Can you give me a hand putting this back together?"
Clarissa is still naked and grease-smeared. Her still-clean clothing is neatly folded on a nearby table. Ilk joins her in looking at the apparatus. It was once inside a cabinet, but is now spread all over the table. Ilk realizes that there is probably more order in the strewn pieces than there was in the original device, and that reassembling it may be almost impossible.
Ilk asks Clarissa if she could accurately simulate the enemy's magical signature. "Sure - what for?" He tries to convince her that it would be easier to make it look like the device was damaged in the fight rather than spending a few centuries trying to fix it. "It shouldn't take that long." "There is a war going on outside." "Men. They take the fun out of everything. Could you hand me a towel?"
Ilk conjures a towel and hands it to Clarissa. She starts wiping the grease off her skin. Ilk tries to clean up after the depredations of the battle and Clarissa, and discovers several drops of Toram's blood near the place where he was standing. Ilk scoops them up into a sample jar.
Ilk and and a fully dressed Clarissa exit the laboratory.
The mob heads to the sanctuary.
Ilk pushes the group through, Andron and Jenoir first, then Norton, then Osric, then Clarissa, then himself.
When Norton goes through, he sees that Imagio has joined Andron and Jenoir, and that the rest of those present are giving the three of them some space. Snarsht is not there, and Mandor is looking somewhat chewed over. Norton notices that the toothmarks are not only in Mandor, but part of him, and would stay with him if he shifted.
Norton goes over to chat with Mandor. Osric comes through, and joins Mandor and Norton. They chat. Mandor tells them that he was the one elected to tell Snarsht that they really didn't think that now was a good time for him to leave. He left anyway, taking the two cocoons with him.
Clarissa comes through, walks directly over to Imagio, starts greeting him as an old friend. They walk off together and disappear behind a heat shimmer.
Ilk arrives. There are lots of missing things, including Clarissa, Snarsht, and the cocoons. Ilk joins Mandor, Norton, and Osric. They chat.
Malachai gets a trump call. It's Corwin. "Jolly good fight here." Corwin says that they're besieging the castle of the upstart kid who kidnaped Serena. They ping-pong back and forth with trump contacts and time differentials, then Malachai heads off in search of Damia by way of Alia.
Malachai acquires assurances from Alia that Serena will be well treated and that Tazik's eyes will be dealt with. He decides not to interrupt Bucephalus in affairs of the heart, and writes a note for Serena, a second note for Damia addressed to "Damia, aka Her Majesty Queen Paulette of Amber", and a third for Celeste. He gives the three notes to Alia, and then trumps Corwin.
Corwin pulls him through. They're in a strange shadow. It's dark - visibility cuts off sharply after a few feet. All of the people present are sitting around and concentrating on a glowing ball, except for Derek and Corwin. The plan: Derek is going to make a distraction in the front, and Corwin and Malachai are going to invade through the back.
Malachai follows Corwin through the darkness to the back of the castle. There is a loud crunching sound out front. Corwin gives Malachai a boost - about eighty feet up the wall. He grabs onto the face of the wall, and climbs until he reaches the top. Corwin trumps him and comes through.
They split up in order to do more damage. Malachai runs into and chops up several zombies. He continues to wander and puree zombies for some time.
Lazy walks into Cassandra's room and curls up at her feet. Cassandra communicates with Lazy. He gives her the image of a little girl hanging onto Malachai. Lazy gets up and starts walking off, and leads Cassandra through shadow. Lazy leads Cassandra to a silvery ring underground. Lazy goes up the ramp and disappears. Cassandra falls off the other side of the ramp. "Lazy!" Lazy comes back through. Cassandra demonstrates falling off the ramp, to Lazy's amusement. Cassandra complains that she needs to talk to Malachai.
Malachai has been dicing zombies for some time, and playing with killing them in many different ways. Suddenly, Malachai feels something grabbing at the scruff of his neck. He tries to kill it, and fails. He finds himself sitting on a grassy place next to Trialla, within sight of Oberon's pavilion.
Trialla takes Lazy and Malachai into her mouth. She takes a few steps forward, and then lets them out. Lazy, still holding Malachai by the scruff of the neck, takes a few steps through shadow and ends up next to Cassandra.
Malachai and Cassandra chat. Lazy walks back into shadow, sending one word into Malachai's mind as he leaves: "Tag."
Cassandra doesn't know how to leave Pearl without walking Corwin's Pattern, and isn't sure if being frozen in her current pre-adolescent form would be a good idea or not. She isn't sure if she wants to bother with not being an adolescent. They talk about adolescence and adulthood.
Both Cassandra and Malachai hear the slightest of clicks coming from across the warehouse, sounding like steel on leather. Cassandra draws an axe and starts walking towards the noise silently. Malachai can't hear her as she moves, and follows. They pitch their conversations to make it sound like they haven't moved.
There is a moment's pause, and then four thrown weapons are actively converging on Cassandra's location. One of them would have to go through Malachai to reach Cassandra.
Cassandra puts up a force shield, which slows them down slightly. One shatters on the flat of Cassandra's axe, one is deflected and circles, one missed and is coming around for another pass, and one is being parried by Malachai.
The projectiles appear to be cylindrical tubes with large sharp spikes on the front. The spikes glisten.
Cassandra switches her axe to one hand and activates her dark saber with the other. There is a crackle, and a pillar of power reaches up from the weapon. She tries to whack the projectiles with the saber.
Malachai has disabled the one attacking him and Cassandra has smashed one with her saber. Cassandra reaches out to the mind of the last thing, and discovers that it is mechanical. She crosses its circuits, and it falls to the ground.
They look behind the box. There was a being behind the box, and it seems to have bugged out at the same time that the things were launched. They track it out of the building. Malachai notices that the assassin Logrus-shifted out. They complain to each other about that.
There is a slight tremor to the ground. Cassandra calls Atalanta, who zips up. Cassandra grabs onto Atalanta's tail and Malachai grabs onto Cassandra. "Atalanta, tower. Now." They blur off, and stop on top of a tower, next to Lazy.
Cassandra hears a mew from the tower room beneath her, and swings in through the window. Gypsy is in her basket, surrounded by about fifty kittens. None of them are Sha'um. Malachai joins her.
Malachai: "Maybe she can start collecting Chaos Assassins."
Cassandra: "So they can be in my bedroom. Bad idea!"
Gypsy wanders off and disappears.
Malachai and Cassandra chat.
There is the sound of rapid male footsteps on the stairs heading up. They're Janus-weight. Janus walks in. They tell him that there are assassins in Pearl. He is displeased.
Cassandra trumps her tutor, and her tutor says that she caught one of the assassins, and is torturing him for information.
Cassandra and Malachai decide to try to return to Malachai's fight. Cassandra trumps Colin and invites him to come with her. Colin comes through the contact. Malachai doesn't recognize Colin.
[Cassandra and Malachai -- a target rich environment]
"So, when do we leave?" Colin and Janus both look at Cassandra. Cassandra contacts Lazy. Lazy floats down through the roof, and lands next to them. Lazy has another hunter-seeker probe trapped beneath his paw. Lazy looks at the kittens and they stop mewing, suddenly full.
Lazy takes Cassandra, Malachai, Colin, and Janus to the edge of Corwin's Pattern.
Ilk and Norton establish a Logrus communications channel with Mandor and discuss the blood samples. Mandor releases three of his balls which start spiraling around a point in Ilk's torso, warding the jar. Mandor says that he doesn't know anything about any plans that might be going on - he was only admitted to this place on the basis of the company he was in at the time, that being Snarsht. Ilk heads over to tell Andron and Jenoir about the blood.
Celeste notices that a mandrake root is cleaning the tower's matrix crystal with a rag, and that the cloth is getting sparkly. Celeste chases the root off and puts all of the sparkles back. It takes a while.
The mandrakes give Celeste a broom. She refuses to sweep, until she notices a dust-bunny in the corner. It wiggles its ears at her. She sweeps. A dust-pig forms out of the the new pile, and it wanders off. Celeste continues sweeping, and puts the final pile in the trash.
There is a knock at the door. She opens it. There's a scared-looking little girl out there, standing on the overworld. She has pig-tails and a missing tooth. She looks seven or eight. "What are you?" "An experiment. Can I come in?" "Whose experiment are you?" "She who dreams." "Do you have a name?" "I don't know. What is a name?"
Celeste looks at the little girl. She appears to be an overworld construct. Celeste determines that she must have been created by the bug, and so they head down to visit. The little girl disappears when Celeste leaves the overworld.
Celeste and the bug talk. Celeste makes the image of a dust bunny. The bug does something to the image and pulls out a dust bunny. The dust bunny hops off into the Sea of Chance. A stream of butterflies comes out where the dust bunny went in, and start flitting around Celeste. They try it again, and a tree comes out and plants its roots. They continue to toss dust bunnies into the Sea. Sometimes something comes out; usually nothing does.
Andron appears to have constructed a barrier of pure thought around the doll. Norton asks him what the doll is. "What doll?" The subject is dropped.
Andron clears his throat and prepares to speak. "Dearly beloved! ... yes, Ilkandacian?" Ilk shows Andron the jar of Toram blood. Andron gestures at Jenoir. Ilk shows the jar to Jenoir. She puts out a hand, and the jar leaves Ilk's hand and appears in her hand.
Andron speaks up again. "Dearly beloved. You may have wondered why we are gathered here today. We are here to consecrate the elevation from Guild Second to Guild Master." Jenoir does not look pleased at the promotion.
Andron asks Norton if he can do Chanicut; Norton does so.
There is a slight rending noise, and Snarsht is back, along with Merlin, Bella, the head of the Healers Guild, the head of the Bards Guild, and the head of the Etiquette Guild.
Imagio comes back with the head of House Pharaban, who hasn't been seen in centuries. Pharaban looks like a primordial spider, and reeks of old, powerful, anti-entropic magic.
Ilk shifts to acquire formal garb. Snarsht fixes Mandor's toothmarks in passing.
Then Shiryu shows up. And Dworkin shows up. Dworkin is wearing his formal jester outfit, and smells only slightly of a brewery.
Ilk approaches Dworkin and avoids getting himself getting killed. "Do I know you?" "Maybe." "You were the one playing with that nasty stuff in the castle!" "No, I was cleaning that stuff up." "Oh, so you're a chimney sweep?" "You could call me that." Ilk tells Dworkin that Rainbow and his new apprentice are lost, having last been seen in Suhuy's work room, and asks him if he could find them. Dworkin bops off, walking through the wall.
Dworkin comes back with a large jar. The jar looks like it was exuded from Pattern, and is filled with a murky liquid. Ilk and Norton offer the jar to Snarsht, mentioning that it contains Rainbow and an apprentice. Snarsht takes the jar, chews it up, and swallows it. He goes to the corner, scrapes at the floor until it is sand, and passes Rainbow and REN. They're not doing very well at all.
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