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Ilk is in the form of a crossbow bolt, about to be shot at Dworkin who is walking the Primal Pattern and possibly about to shift into Toram.
Meanwhile, in the grand courtroom of the castle one shadow removed, lots of people are waiting for Clarissa to awaken and dismiss court.
Neville sends his report on the poor behavior of his last mage and the power levels here back down the line, along with a request to have a competent mage ready to send back.
Ilk mentions to the group clustered around Clarissa's prone form that a Logrus blade apparently did a good job against manifestations of that white entity last time. Cassandra asks Ilk if she could wield one, and where she could acquire one. Ilk tells her that Caine and Raven each have Logrus blades.
Celeste continues to monitor her grandmother. Cassandra goes over towards Raven, giving him a chance to see her approach. They converse. Ilk and Osric discuss the odd sensations that those near Clarissa have been experiencing, focusing on Osric's sensation that the cloud is tapping his power source through him. Cailin wanders over, stopping about fifteen feet from Clarissa.
Cassandra - "I was hoping to borrow
your blade."
Raven - "I don't think that I'd be
willing to give it away to anyone. At least, to no one here."
Cassandra - "Would you be willing to
assist me?"
Raven - "That depends on how much it
is worth to you."
Cassandra - "They've trained you well."
Raven - "The Jolly Roger doesn't hang
over my ship for nothing."
[The Jolly Rancher?]
Cassandra - "It is my understanding
that your particular talents and your weapon could be of use in this
particular matter."
Raven - "Which matter?"
Cassandra glances at the cloud. Raven glances at Celeste.
Cassandra - "She still is queen in
Amber."
Raven - "Concessions can be
made... [Celeste] drops her problem with
my line..."
Raven inquires as to what benefit he would gain from his assistance.
Raven - "What is within your power to
offer? Access to a Pattern or something?"
Cassandra - "You wish to see a Pattern?"
Raven - "It is rumored that my father
attempted to, and failed to walk a Pattern."
Cassandra - "If you try to walk that
Pattern, you will die."
They discuss equitable prices for Raven's assistance. Cassandra offers her gratitude. "Your gratitude? You'll excuse me, but you're what - thirty-five? Forty?"
Cailin tries to determine if there is any interaction between the cloud and Osric. He doesn't see anything, and tells Osric as much. Osric generates a small crystalline sphere of his power and holds it in his hands. Cailin perceives a very powerful scintillating crystalline sphere. Ilk perceives a crystal ball. Neither of them see an interaction between the power and the cloud. Osric stops looking at the cloud, and doesn't feel the power drain any more.
Ilk asks if anyone has a trump of Zack - he has something that might be able to enhance the pink. Celeste pulls out her trump deck and trumps Zack. For just a moment, she gets the sensation of Benedict staring at her from the range of a few inches, and then the object of her trump was killed and the trump connection was broken. She gasps and drops the trump. The card shatters on impact with the ground.
Celeste stares at the fragments in horror. With some prompting, she tells them that Benedict just killed Zack, and they are both inside the trump block.
Ilk searches for Zack with the Logrus. Norton goes alive, then tries to shift into Zack. Norton achieves Zack. Ilk finds Zack's corpse momentarily, then his tendril is severed with a Logrus blade. Ilk throws a horde of tendrils at Zack, and they are all severed. Ilk tries to determine the location of Pattern weenies near Zack's corpse, but there is too much background Pattern in Rebma, due to the Pattern-scrawls on the foreheads of the residents. Ilk tosses a magical bug into a corner of the room.
For just a moment, Ilk gets an image of a room, with a table in the center of the room. On the table is the remains of an individual in Benedict's colors, who has been vivisected thoroughly enough to be unidentifiable. There is a Benedict in the room holding a sword. The Benedict in the room is waving the sword casually and cutting Ilk's tendrils while simultaneously menacing someone that looks like Auricle. The vivisection equipment leads Ilk to think that the next victim is Auricle. Then Ilk's tendrils and spells go down, as if someone just unracked a hard block.
Neville notices Ilk look queasy, and contemplates taking action, but decides against starting trouble.
Ilk displays his image to the group, while carefully shielding it from those outside the group. Celeste declares that she will try to acquire Zack's corpse. Zack in Norton insists that they save Auricle - he burst into the room, saw Benedict menacing his partner, and died before he could do anything. Celeste tries to teleport Auricle to the courtroom.
Ilk, worried that Benedict will come along with Auricle, makes a bee-line for Cassandra. Cassandra notices and excuses herself from Raven. Ilk pulls Cassandra aside and asks her how one would go about stopping Benedict. He explains the situation. She recommends her father, with some trepidation.
Ilk on grand tour unracks a ward and tells Corwin the situation in Amber. Corwin agrees to go to Amber and help out there.
Ilk in Amber acquires Celeste's trump of Jean by telling her that he needs to bring Corwin through to defend against the possibility of Benedict coming through her teleport. Ilk trumps Jean, and acquires contact with the Jean intellect, but cannot see through Jean's eyes - the sensory input from the uncountable many millions of Jeans is a bit more than Ilk is used to handling. Ilk congratulates Jean on passing Augral in number, and asks him to bring Corwin through. Sandy Jean touches Sandy Corwin and passes him to one of the Jean-demons in Amber. Ilk hands the trump back to Celeste.
Celeste notices that she has a Zack helping her pull Auricle out. She lets him assist.
Corwin looks at Norton and says, "I didn't know you were a shapeshifter - you've got my sword in you", looks at Caine, blinks at his sword, looks at Cassandra, and greets her. Corwin is annoyed to find out that the undead him is a pile of ruined flesh - his plan involved two of him and Cassandra. Zack in Norton offers to help. "No offense, Zack, but I need real backup. Like Cassandra, or Malachai..."
"Hey Ilk! Close your eyes or something. I'm going to pull a Pattern weenie." Ilk avoids looking in Corwin's direction through the Logrus. Corwin gestures in the air, opens a rift into the Void, shouts briefly, and then closes the rift. The Void opens again momentarily, and Ingold walks in.
Celeste notices that there is now a major power source in the room that she is in. It is not only sentient, but it is fountaining power. Ingold turns towards Ilk, and says, "Sorry, I can't do anything about it." Ilk very carefully avoids sending any tendrils anywhere near the Pattern fountain. Everyone who has walked the Pattern perceives what looks like a Pattern flickering on Ingold's flesh.
Cassandra is the only PC in the room who notices that Ingold is not fully in the room - he is both in the room and in the Void at the same time, and possibly in a third place as well. She suspects at or near the center of a Pattern for the third location.
Celeste thinks that she has Auricle. She's not sure - there seem to be three of her. She grabs all three.
Auricle arrives. There appears to be just one of her. "Ilk? This is just weird." Auricle collapses in a heap. Ilk checks Auricle's Pattern. Ilk is pretty sure that it's Auricle - she's got local Pattern. Celeste can tell that Auricle is emanating life force, but has difficulty finding life signs on the shapeshifter.
Ilk starts looking for Zack again. He finds it for brief flashes, as his tendrils are severed by a Pattern-blade. The severing is approaching up Faella-Bionin at a gallop. He tells those with him.
Celeste points to Auricle. "Hide her!" Zack in Norton opens a Faerie gate and shoves Auricle through. Zack realizes that he has never been able to open a Faerie gate from Amber before.
Ilk notices that when Zack's corpse leaves the water, the approach accelerates to engine speed, and relays that information. Ilk starts pushing up magical bugs over the castle to view Benedict's approach and displaying the results to the group. Each bug is only up for about seven or eight seconds before Benedict notices it, makes a throwing motion, and the bug is destroyed.
Celeste notices that the cloud above her grandmother is now inside an Osric shield. "What are you doing?" "Removing the conflict." As Osric gates the shadow out, there is an electric tingle down his spine, as if his life force was just over-clocked. Ilk looks at Osric for Gwen-taint, and finds none.
The power that is flowing into Clarissa is no longer being used in the conflict. Celeste tries to wake her grandmother. Clarissa sits up tiredly.
Clarissa - "Is there any more business
before the court?"
Celeste - "Well, we should discuss a few
things..."
Ilk - "Later."
Clarissa dismisses court. Zack in Norton mentions that Benedict is coming to kill everyone. "Oh, Benedict, I haven't had sex with him in ages." Clarissa disappears with the wave of a hand.
Jean can see Benedict as he rides up Kolvir. The beast that Benedict is on looks like a monster out of nightmare. It looks like a giant bunny to Jean.
Ilk asks Zack in Norton what should be done with the shadows and ambassadors - should they just be gated out into shadow somewhere? Zack in Norton agrees that they should be placed somewhere safe. Celeste goes over to Flora and tells her of the upcoming difficulty. Corwin, overhearing, looks at Norton and says, "But Zack's right there." Flora responds, "No, that's Norton." Flora announces that dinner is now being served in the main dining hall, and the vast majority of the people in the room start wandering out, including Neville and company, Caine, Raven, Random, [Cathryne? Ilk should have probably invited her and Bella, too]
Ilk decides that he will not be able to influence the upcoming battle and asks Tessa if she would like to come to House Cara with him. Tate overhears and asks to come along as well. Cailin decides not to stick around for the fireworks, either. Celeste joins in, in hopes of making her way to the Torturers Guild before the wrong Brand wins. Jean is invited to come along, but decides that Jean Prime will stay with his mother, and the demons in the room will just stay put - he's already in Chaos. Osric is invited to come along, but decides to stay and watch the fireworks, presumably from inside one of his shields.
Ilk tendri's out and goes to House Cara, taking Norton, Celeste, Tessa, Tate, and Cailin with him. After Ilk tendri's out, he can perceive an inert-looking residue of the cloud where the cloud used to be. He decides to tell someone about it, after he has left ground zero.
Zack, Celeste, and Cailin admire the scenery in Chaos. The Ilk from Amber remains tendri'd out, and takes over the tendri'd duties. Ilk at House Cara waves to the demons, and they wave back, calling out, "Hi, Ilk!" The new arrivals are filled in on the recent variation on the existing theme, but are not very reassured.
Ilk, Zack in Norton, and Norton chat. Norton suggests to Ilk that he could exchange pieces when he was tendri'd and communicate between the Ilks that way. Ilk says that he has already done that, and that it didn't help with communications.
Ilk suggests to Jean that they should try to damage one of his puppets and see if it hurts him. Jean agrees. Ilk starts pulling pieces off a demon. The mattress Jean puppeting it is still fine.
A few demon Jeans jump through the Trump gates around House Barimen. They find a nasty and icky place that is hostile to the demons' biology. Jean complains to Ilk that some of him fell through the trump gates, and that he wants them back. Ilk suggests that Jean talk to Celeste about the trump gates.
Ilk shows off his star-core powered boat, parked off the side of House Cara. Celeste is not very good with that.
["Just think of it as oil, just really young."]
Celeste - "You can't use that boat now,
not with Jean."
Jean - "Damn straight!"
[A discussion of processed cheese food product ensues.]
Ilk notices troops approaching from a number of minor houses, Barimen, and Arantantic. They're marching in good order along Ilk's roads, and are stopping at each checkpoint, telling the troops present that they are coming to support the Savior of Chaos. Zack in Norton and Celeste tease... err... congratulate Ilk on his new title.
The tendri'd Ilk checks out the approaching armies. They are indeed the forces that they claim to be. He sees the farthest army beset by a madman waving a sword. It's Benjamin. Words are exchanged, Benjamin decides that Ilk is a prophet of Cassandra, the combined force continues.
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