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Mandor has left to report to Silver Lyra and ask her to convene a meeting of the Council. The rest of the group is waiting in Hendrake.
The Ilk that is shaped as Suhuy goes to Suhuy's place and looks for Suhuy. He finds himself, is annoyed, and returns to Norton's place.
Jeans notices lots of activity around Chaos. Many are identifiable as Etiquette Guild members; some others he doesn't recognize.
Norton goes off to check on Faythe; Cailin, Ilk, and Norton chat in Norton's head. Faythe is asleep, and the penta-Jean is nearby. There is a polite knock at the door and Reginald enters. He says that there are people outside looking for all of them. Jean relays the message to Norton, and Norton rejoins the group.
Two members of the Etiquitte Guild enter, one with an apprentice badge. The apprentice bows to each person in the room; the journeyman corrects the bows with a baton. The real member gives a bow that is an amalgamation of the bows to each person, and mutters to the apprentice that he should hand out the scrolls. The scrolls are distributed. They are invitations to a Council meeting, happening now. A Jean in Frogallorian armor takes the invitation. Another Jean is invited as Swayville. The Jeans find the body with the ring, place him on a barca-Jean, and zip off. Norton is invited as Hendrake. Celeste was not invited; Jenoir asks her apprentice to come with her.
Norton conscripts some of his werewolves to carry the exhibits. After a brief discussion, another scroll is handed to Jean, and Jean is asked to hand it to Princess Chandra's apprentice. Jean trumps Augral, tries to push the scroll across the Barrier, fails, borrows a werewolf, hands him a scroll, pushes him across te Barrier to another Jean, takes the scroll, and pushes the werewolf back.
A Jean in Pearl gives Cassandra the invitation.
Jenoir offers to open a gate to the Council chambers. Jenoir's apprentice and Neville remove their helmets, and the group gates through.
The Corwin in Norton's hand is now holding a nasty little dagger. Norton can't really perceive it. It's the same weapon that Corwin had when he was in the Council chamber last time.
People are streaming past the group into the chambers.
Silver Lyra is present, Pharaban is present, Ferethyn is in his seat behind the throne. Princess Chandra walks into the room. Jean greets her, and is told that he is looking fuzzy. There is no seat for the Poisoners' Guild.
Princess Chandra seems amused at the idea of her apprentice leading an army against the horde of giant evil bunnies. Jean passes a note from Princess Chandra to Cassandra via a fish. Cassandra reads the note; Princess Chandra is asking after her current endeavors and offering an assistant. Cassandra writes a reply on the back and passes it back. Princess Chandra reads the note and smiles.
Princess Chandra tells Jean that she ran into someone who was concerned about him - is his room clean? Jean looks - his rooms are clean, and he's still in them. He tells this to Princess Chandra.
Mandor walks in, and nods to everyone, nodding to Norton several times.
Mandor says that he met Bronelle on the way in so he will need to take care of this very quickly. Mandor is turning colors as he talks.
Norton asks Mandor in him if he can help - Mandor says that Mandor is dying. Norton offers to help. Norton looks at the poison - Mandor has no shapeshifting in him, and he doesn't seem to be dying, because the poison was geared towards a shapeshifter.
Mandor goes and sits in one of the six chairs behind the throne, and gestures to "Suhuy" and Ilk to join him.
Neville approaches and presents the former Council of House Helgram to Silver Lyra. She says that they will be exiled to the Sea of Chance.
Norton sends a tendril forwards and starts working on Mandor. When the aid is noticed, Ilk is blamed.
Silver Lyra calls forth the conspirators who betrayed their former Council. Some of them were involved in the disappearance of the missing Houses, including Darbin, Jesby, and some others. "Unfortunately, due to the nature of the magic involved, they [the Houses] cannot be restored..."
Jenoir introduces Amaranth to the council as her apprentice.
Silver Lyra looks at Mandor, who nods, and then asks that if the Assassins' Guild would be willing to accept a challenge, then attacking someone at the door of the Council is unacceptable...
A contract on the head of the Minor Guild of Poisoners is accepted by Princess Chandra.
A field mouse runs into the chambers, runs up through Snarsht's place, leaps onto the table, and starts frantically taking notes.
People line up to swear fealty to Silver Lyra.
Norton goes off to swear loyalty to Silver Lyra. After doing so, he asks her if the ring would kill him. She says no; he puts it on and now knows the layout of his House. He can modify and redecorate the House at will, and knows exactly what tortures were performed on the prisoners. Upon learning of the tortures inflicted upon Malachai, Norton decides that shapeshifters are squicky, but gets over it in a few moments.
Jean asks his mother for an appropriate phrasing, then goes up to swear to Silver Lyra. She pats him on the head and tells him that being a head of House doesn't excuse him from any of his other responsibilities, and asks for an introduction to Jenoir's new apprentice.
"Vlad"'s oath is rejected - she refuses to accept someone who has pieces of him being held ransom.
Ilk is told that he should retrieve the ring from Vlad first before swearing, and that the Savior of Chaos, being one of the "big boys", doesn't need to swear. She taunts him for a while, then Ilk flees.
Some more people go up to swear, and then the council meeting ends.
Princess Chandra beckons to Jean, and one of him wanders over. A bodyguard appears briefly, hands a large case to Jean, and asks him if he would give this to Cassandra. A Jean sneaks up on a werewolf, trumps him actoss the room to the Jean with the case, who shoves the case into the wolf's hands, trumps it across the Barrier, takes the case, and then trumps the confused wolf back.
Jean - "Cassandra? Special delivery."
Cassandra - "From?"
Jean - "Princess Chandra."
Cassandra - "What is it?"
Jean - "I don't know, but I'm not
supposed to jostle it."
There's a sawing noise from the bottom of the box. Cassandra puts her hand beneath the box, and it starts bleeding. She looks, and sees a sharp knife cutting a hole through the bottom of the box. She opens the case, and sees a little flop-eared bunny holding a switchblade. Cassandra picks up the bunny by the ears. It starts sawing on her wrist. Cassandra disarms the bunny and they chat. The bunny says that it owed a favor to Princess Chandra.
Bun-bun is delighted to go after the Easter Bunny, and wants help going after Santa Claws in exchange. A fascinating discussion ensues. Cassandra tries to shake the bunny, but it doesn't shake well. The bunny starts gnawing on Cassandra's wrist. She tries to slap it on the nose, and it dodges. The bunny talks about Viagra; they consider introducing it to Random.
Cassandra puts the bunny down. It hops over to the box, reaches under a pillow, and pulls out a ferret. The ferret babbles, and is adjudged to be blonde.
Jean goes over to Jenoir and says that Silver Lyra wanted him to introduce her to Amaranth. Jenoir and Amaranth chat. The idea of heredity comes up. Amaranth works on a spell to track her parentage, and notices a minor vibration in Jean.
Jean and Amaranth go over to Silver Lyra, where Jean performs an introduction. Silver Lyra comments on a sense of order about Amaranth, and mentions a line of cosmetics in a backwards shadow.
Silver Lyra offers the possible protection of many forces aganst Amaranth's enemies, were she a member of this court. She accepts the carrot. Silver Lyra tells Amaranth that people tend to resent those who rise to power quickly.
Jean, hearing that, starts working on enhancing the defenses around Swayville and notices people building battlements and turrets around the house as if to attack. Jean yells at one of the attackers, who runs. Jean tries to talk to the guy, who in turn tries to scorch Jean and fails. Ten saucers with wave motion guns fry that one, leaving behind a small crater. Jean tells another attacker to go off and tell people not to attack him... and that one sticks a knife in Jean. Jean pulls out the knife. Jean mattresses perform death from above. These guys are highly skilled shapeshifters, making their brains difficult to catch and eat. Jean tries stealing boxes from mages, but they explode, destroying both the mage and the Jean, causing Jean to forget that taking mages' boxes causes explosions. Many explosions litter the landscape.
Jean vocally agrees with Silver Lyra, who seems annoyed that someone would dare attack her half brother.
Norton goes to the mouse and tells it that he would like to talk to Snarsht about fixing Masque.
Ilk and Norton join Jean in killing attackers. It looks like the only Houses being attacked are Jean's and Norton's. Ilk gets to play with his star core again, and Masque comes out to play.
[Note to self: Run from undead Pattern kitties]
Jean finishes off the attackers.
Ilk and Norton return to the Council chambers to ask Silver Lyra about the folks who helped disappear the houses.
Amaranth decides to accept quarters in Mandor's ways.
Amaranth and Mandor leave the Council chambers. Someone that Amaranth has seen around Princess Chandra appears, throws her and Mandor aside, and is immediately disintegrated. Barca-Jean goes into hover mode around Mandor and Amaranth.
Princess Chandra turns towards Silver Lyra and says that she would like to makes a statement to the King of Chaos. "All unauthorized assassinations and the people who arranged for them will be eradicated."
Norton and Ilk discuss various threats to the universe, including Gwen and Evil Benedict.
Jean sends a few of him to Amber, and they are instantly killed by Evil Benedict. Benedict is discussed in Chaos. Jean asks Dworkin about Benedict, and is told that Benedict can't be in the castle - he's dead. Jean tries throwing fish at Benedict, and is killed.
Flora claims to an affair in the past with Princess Chandra. Various questions about assassination are relayed to Flora via Jean.
Norton raises and interrogates two people that were trying to sneak into Hendrake and were caught by Reginald. They were from Houses Renir and Vandrin. Norton sends them back with a warning to their houses.
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