DRAFT Run Log for 980303 Present: Andrew - Osric Tia - Cassandra, Damia Dave R - Malachai Dave K - Ilk, logging Sam - Jean Lori - Celeste Ken - Norton --------------------------------- Still Freeing Flora Osric has looped around and returned to Flora's chambers. He spots the young Deirdre, and asks her to find the ghost of Suhuy and translate for him. She wanders around and then pokes her head into the hallway. "He's not around. Must have wandered off." Deirdre asks Osric if he can do anything about Theraat, who is curled up in a corner. Osric examines her and discovers that she is not dead, but dreaming. Osric continues zapping the manacles binding Flora to the table with Fringe energy. Deirdre: "Do you always look like a bug?" Osric: "No... why?" Deirdre: "I don't think that bugs should smoke." Osric shifts into his dragonish form. Night begins to fall. Osric has freed both of Flora's arms, and part of one of her legs. He thinks that it will take him another couple of hours to finish at this rate. Another Flora wanders back into the room, and is delighted to find that Theraat is finally asleep. She complains about the persistence of her self-appointed bodyguard, and tells Osric that they're both waiting for a lift back to their own Amber from Zack. Osric - "Yeah, that's right; Deirdre here comes from yet another Amber." Deirdre - "And I'm never going back." Osric had conjured a lower-level Fringe crystal to examine Flora's bonds. It goes off, indicating that Deirdre is fringe-worthy. The Flora on the table is fringe-worthy, but the other Flora is not, and Theraat is not. When Osric examines the bonds, the crystal goes dead. He gives it to Deirdre, who is impressed. "No one who wasn't a relative ever gave me something before." ------------------------------- "Oh Great Woman of Misery" Celeste has given up on Faythe and is leading Brand through Faerie towards Darkstar. At least, she is actively trying to go to Darkstar. They meander. GM: "The sun continues to set and sets the world on fire." Celeste: "We leave." They approach a castle made entirely from glass, and surrounded with thorns. Celeste wants a path through the thorns, but none conveniently appear in front of her. She approaches the thorns, which reach out towards her, hungering for her blood. She steps back, walks around the castle, and discovers that the thorns only block access to the front of the castle. However, she cannot see any doors into the castle, just a number of people frozen in mid-torture, suspended within the castle. Celeste conjures a ladder, and they climb to the top of the wall. It feels like stone underfoot, not glass. They start to walk down a stairway along the inside of the wall. The castle is vaguely familiar - there are a large number of similarities between this construct and Amber castle. Brand points out that he is standing where, from the outside, they saw someone impaled on a spike. He can't see the guy that was being torn apart by wild dogs, either, and speculates that perhaps the tortured beings were just images in the glass. As they explore, the area looks more and more like the area around the castle. From the inside, they can see an Arden-ish looking forest and a Kolvir-ish looking mountain. One corridor in particular stands out; it leads directly to Oberon's bedchambers. They enter Oberon's personal quarters. Brand opens a cabinet, pulls out a false bottom, and discovers a trump desk. He looks at it, replaces it, and closes the cabinet. When Brand tells Celeste that the trump deck looked normal, she is startled - trumps in Faerie normally look like either Ivy or Zack - and tries to pull out the trump deck. She fails to open the false bottom. Brand re-acquires the deck; Celeste notices him maneuver at least six contact points in an order and pattern she couldn't quite follow. It looks like a significantly abnormal trump deck to Celeste. Julian is in diapers, Flora is en flagrante with Eric on one trump, Benedict and Corwin are arm in arm on another, Brand's trump shows him sitting on the throne with Oberon's crown on his head, Deirdre and Caine are en flagrante, and there are no trumps of Random or Gerard. Llewella, Bleys, and Fiona are shown clustered around a fireside. On the back of every single trump is the same pattern that is on Brand's favorite rug. The trumps are not cold. Celeste asks, "These look fine to you?" "They look exactly like the ones I left there." They decide to put the trumps back and leave the room. Celeste has almost left through the only visible exit from the room when Brand stands on Oberon's bed, pops off a panel in the ceiling, and climbs through it. Celeste follows, and discovers that she is in a slide. Brand has gained a considerable head start. At one point she slides through what feels almost like stone, and then she is standing on the stairs leading to the Pattern room, most of the way down. They examine the way back up the stairs, and discover that the stairwell is blocked with glass. They head down the stairwell. When they reach the bottom, there are only two doors off the corridor when Celeste expects many. One is definitely the Pattern room. She pulls the key off its usual hook and opens the door. It's a Pattern. Not quite her Pattern, but a Pattern nonetheless. Brand walks over and starts walking back and forth across it. Celeste - "That's not supposed to be safe, is it?" Brand - "It's supposed to get you killed!" Celeste and Brand talk as Brand plays with the Pattern. "You mean you still haven't walked it? You've been carrying this stubbornness thing a bit far, haven't you?" "He's still alive." "He's not here, is he?" Brand encourages Celeste to walk along the Pattern, just so she can say that she walked one. He suggests that she should walk it backwards, and he'll draw a painting of it and leave it in Bleys's quarters. Celeste is amused. Celeste goes over and steps on the Pattern at the beginning. No sparks, no whirlpool, no surge of power, nothing. Brand comes up behind her and grabs her foot. "Now you're on it, now you're not!" "Hey!" "I was wondering if you would think of that!" Fade to black. [It's going to look like a pair of snails crawled across the Pattern!] -------------------------- Stuff Happens in (and near) Tir Cassandra is about to put her foot down on the first step to Tir. Malachai is at the foot of the stairs, holding Cassandra's trump. Norton is standing next to Malachai, and preparing to follow Cassandra. Random and Martin went back to the castle after Random was patched up. Prospero stayed at the pass to supervise the cleanup and to examine the strategic and tactical ramifications of traveling through rock. Coming into view are Snarsht, Norton, and Ilk. Snarsht looks at Norton, and then Snarsht looks at Norton, and then he sighs and rests his head on his paws. "You're both Real", Snarsht implies to Norton, "and you're both more Real than you were before." He reaches a paw out and slashes across the belly of one of the Nortons, leaving a long, thin, deep cut behind. "Ow!" "You didn't both go ow - that's good." Norton tries to shift away the damage, and has difficulty doing so. Snarsht tells Norton that there are traces left from the thing that possessed them. Norton mentions that he ran into Rainbow's son recently. Jean waves from both Nortons. "Hi!" "I don't know how it happened." Snarsht practically sighs, "How many, exactly, do you have in there?" Norton lists the contents of both of his heads. Snarsht indicates Tir. "What is that?" "It's a place called Tir." "What lives there?" "I don't know." "Let's find out." Snarsht bounds up the stairs like a lesser cat running up a rope. Norton, Norton, and Ilk follow Snarsht, and a shambling Corwin zombie follows one of the Nortons. Malachai is left alone at the foot of the stairs. He trumps Cassandra. "Hello." There is a small burst of static over the trump, and Malachai loses the connection. Malachai is getting a trump call, and takes it. He receives one brief word, and an impression. The word is "help", and the impression is Bleys. Not an unmistakable impression, just an impression. Malachai trumps Cassandra. It's blocked. Cassandra is getting a trump call. It's Corwin. The Corwin in Norton, that is. Norton doesn't notice anything. Corwin expresses surprise that this actually worked, and tells Cassandra that he can see the blades. "If you focus your eyes on the area around the garden, you can see them." Malachai tries Bleys's trump and hits the trump block around Amber. He goes back to trying Cassandra. Cassandra is getting a trump call. It's Malachai. "You all right? I lost the contact." "Corwin." "Which Corwin?" "How am I supposed to know?" Cassandra reaches out for Darhyse and gets a brief contact, near Tir's Pattern. The group reaches the top of the stairwell, and spots a Dworkin. It's a flesh and blood Dworkin, and the Ilks can tell that it has the local Pattern. He's shaking his finger at the group. "Stop that!" Norton replies, "Stop what?" "My castle! Get out!" "Of course it's your castle!" "Get out!" Snarsht is looking contemptuously at Dworkin and places one paw carefully over Dworkin's head. "Don't even think about it, kitty-kat! You wanna be a violin?" Snarsht lowers his paw, which goes "tink" near the top of Dworkin's head. Snarsht leans, and his paw descends slightly. [The immovable object and the irresistible force have met] Dworkin raves about Tir being for ghosts, not real people. He attempts various incants at various people, but they fail as his arms collide with the paw resting on his head. Nortons shift into mist form. "Better!" Dworkin looks at Snarsht and Ilk. Ilk tries to shift into mist, and ends up in the form of many tiny Logrus tendrils. Hey, look - no Pattern in the walls up here! Ilk spreads out, and hides a chunk of himself behind Snarsht. Cassandra walks past Dworkin and Snarsht. Dworkin raves at her. "You're filthy!" Cassandra retorts, "You're insane." "How can you tell?" "Your shoes don't match!" Dworkin looks down at his feet. Snarsht's paw descends suddenly, and Dworkin spluts through the floor. Malachai can see Dworkin dropping down from Tir. Dworkin looks back up at Tir and calls out, "Damn shoes!" He hits the hill and leaves a hole behind. Malachai sends the image to Cassandra. There are a number of ghosts visible in Tir. Cassandra heads towards the gardens, where she sees a couple of things when the walls are appropriately aligned. Ilk sends a bundle of tendrils along with her. Norton works on budding an extra Corwin. Jean tries to help, but ends up just budding an extra Jean inside one of the Nortons. Cassandra reaches out towards Darhyse. There is another flash down near the Pattern, and she can see what appears to be two shining blades in the gardens. She approaches them. Ilk notices a number of Logrus tendrils circling around the blades and heading for Cassandra. Ilk dodges Cassandra out of the path of the tendrils. Cassandra feels herself being yanked around and complains. Ilk conjures notes explaining the situation to Cassandra, ("Not Pattern blades - trap, being attacked by many Logrus tendrils") who discusses the situation with Malachai over the trump contact and with Ilk out loud. It is decided that regrouping with the other Nortons is the best plan of action. Cassandra, moving at high speed, approaches the rest. Norton pipes up, "Hey - I didn't know you could fly!" Malachai notices a cloud moving very quickly across the moon, covering it, but Tir is still there. Ilk notices that the Pattern just went away, and the rest watch the ghosts disappear. Ilk points the lack of Pattern out to Cassandra, who relays to Malachai. The cloud fades, and the Pattern reappears, along with all of the Tir ghosts. Ilk tracks back the tendrils. The tendrils are coming from a boat in the harbor. Norton looks down at the boat. It's black, cloaked, and muffled, and there are compartments beneath the waterline where the tendrils are coming from. Ilk and the Nortons fetch the boat and all of its contents, including some of the water it was resting in and the fish swimming around in that water. Malachai sees what appears to be a large black torpedo launch itself from the harbor towards Tir. He tells Cassandra, who tells the others. Ilk asks Norton to tell Snarsht about the rapidly arriving attackers. Snarsht licks his lips. Norton tries to push the extra Jean into a fish. Jean resists, holding out for something cool, like another giant. They peel the boat open, and a massive magical attack is launched at them. Ilks in Nortons raise shields, and Ilk in Logrus shreds the incoming magical energy. Norton makes mage-eating fish from sea-swimming fish, Ilks drop shields, and fish multiply. Cassandra starts running back towards the Pattern, and is yanked backwards again by Ilk, who explains that the attacks are directed at her, and that she should really stay here where they can block the attacks. The fight goes on in Tir. The two mages become very busy and quite dead, leaving behind four Logrus attackers. Norton tries to freeze one of them with shifting, shifts away its lungs, then dominates it and orders it to attack one of its companions. Jean tries to make a break for it into one of the Logrus users by hijacking a tendril and slamming it into his intended body. Both Jeans try to push one of them through but fail, so they ask Corwin for help. Corwin does something, and the Logrus user bursts into flames. Ilk pulls the last attacker's heart out of its chest, dangles the heart in front of its face, reverses it, then sticks it back into his chest and welds it in place, backwards. The two that are attacking each other turn out to be evenly matched, and mutual. ---------------------------- That Looks Interesting... Flora turns to Osric and says, "I believe there's something wrong." They converse, and she asks Osric and the other Flora to go take a look out a window. They do so, and see a torpedo heading towards a ghostly city in the sky, from which there seem to be flashes of light and darkness emanating. The Flora that came with Osric says, "Oh, my. You'll excuse me?", steps out the window, and starts walking through the air towards Tir. Osric goes back to the other Flora, who gives Osric a short explanation about Tir in response to his report. Flora asks Osric to fly with her off to Tir. He agrees, places the table on his back again, and heads towards the roof. The table is just too large to fir out the window. As Osric scuttles along, something drops in front of him. He steps backwards and puts a shield up. Osric hears Rainbow's voice. "Ow, quit it!" Rainbow turns into the left half of a flying beast, supporting the table, and invites Osric to take the right half. Osric complains that he doesn't know how to merge into one body with another shifter, so Rainbow shifts into the complete beasty and invites Osric to look him up at his guild - he can learn how to do all kinds of interesting shifting there. Osric flies alongside Flora and keeps zapping at the bonds as they go. ----------------------------- Dead Men Tell Fascinating Tales Corwin tries to help Jean shift into one of the corpses. Norton grabs the soul of one of the dead attackers and sticks it into the body with a reversed heart. Suddenly, the second Jean in one of Norton's heads leaps from Norton's head, waves goodbye, and jumps into the body that Norton just reanimated. The body comes back to life, and Jean reaches into the chest of his new host and is tries to put the heart back the right way. Norton tries to question the soul and notices that it is gone - Jean is there now. The Nortons try to kick the Jeans out of their heads. Jean plays tag with Norton in Norton's head. Norton decides that Jean is the reason that he hasn't been able to go undead recently. Jean tries to distract Norton with information from the head of the attacker he just possessed. Norton ignores it, but the Ilk in Norton takes notes. Jean mentions being based at a pyramid that Ilk is fairly certain is in Toram's lands. Ilk takes advantage of Norton's distraction to fill Snarsht in on Jean's information using the language of the shifters. Snarsht has gotten Norton's attention. Norton stops chasing Jean. "Where are the other souls?" "Around." "Interrogate them." Norton complains about the lack of available bodies due to Jean's hijacking of the sole body in decent shape. Snarsht opens his mouth, bites off one of his nails, and spits it out. Norton shifts it into a five-headed hydra body and puts the other five souls into it. "Uh... Snarsht? Can you tell me how to get Rainbow's son out of my head?" "Later." The two outermost heads start babbling about fish. Norton shifts the three middle heads into fish-heads, much to the horror of the babblers. [The GM is a liar] Jean notices the remnants of Logrus and memories of a very unusual Logrus-derived madness - it's a compulsion to follow orders. Jean is horrified at the concept. Norton interrogates the hydra. He pulls out two happy helmets. Jean chips in with information and smart alecky comments. "We take orders from the savior." They describe a standard larger-than-life godlike being. Norton dominates one of the fish heads and receives the Logrus-madness in return. The Ilk in that Norton kicks out the madness, which breaks the dominate link. They ask about the circumstances of their arrival to the place with this Logrus. They are told that the evil one lived inside the gate. He was killed by the Savior, which closed the gate. All of them came through the gate, and their numbers were endless. They were given their orders at the pyramid near the bugs. Cassandra heads off towards the Pattern and Darhyse. Ilk sends a bundle of tendrils along with her. Ilk notices that Snarsht is keeping a massive SEP field up over the interrogation. His tendrils that went with Cassandra can't see anything when they look backwards. "What did the evil one look like?" The captive describes Suhuy. Ilk disbelieves. Norton tries to wall off a section of his mind to keep it apart from the others. Mandor is curious. Norton is doing absolutely nothing there. The Ilk in the Norton with Corwin notices that his escape pod is missing, and has been missing since Corwin whacked the Logrus mage. Norton and Ilk snipe at each other about Suhuy's intentions. The attackers' orders were given by the savior, at the pyramid, under the bugs, and they were supposed to kill this individual. Corwin is described. Corwin thinks that there is one group and at least one backup group going after each of them. That makes the most tactical sense. Ilk and Norton ask them if they have to follow orders from anyone. They say that they only have to follow the most powerful, and that is the one that killed the evil one. They were promised that after a while, they won't have to follow orders any more. They seem to be accepting death as a release, as if they weren't allowed to die before. Ilk suggests that after the interrogation, Norton could use the hydra as raw material for healing Corwin - what could be better than the claw of an Old Lord? The Corwin simulacrum is enthusiastic. [I only have a tiny portion of the interrogation here - anyone care to chip in with more information?] [At some point during the interrogation, one of the heads noticed that the mages were completely cracked, and the two with the helmets are drooling, and decided to cooperate. Anyone remember exactly when that happened?] [At some point in this segment or during the battle, Ilk noticed two approaching Pattern sources, one moving at a walking pace, one moving more quickly, and prepared a magical escape spell. Anyone remember exactly when that happened?] ------------------------------- Intersections in Tir and Faerie Celeste and Brand have finished ... covering the Pattern. They leave the Pattern room. Brand opens the other door from the hallway, and says "uh-oh". "What?" "It's Dworkin's study." They decide not to enter, despite the presence of a couch. They continue down the hallway, which dead-ends near a door. They open the door. It looks as if there is a red-haired woman chained inside while looking through the door. Brand points out that she looks like Mom. Grandma. Whatever. [Bedside note: Hi, Dad. I'm amazed that you never broke anything so fragile.] Celeste conjures suction cups and starts heading back up the glass slide. Brand complains about his conjuration not working here, and Celeste makes him a set, too. They arrive in Oberon's bedroom. It's still empty. Brand points out that he couldn't see Celeste from the slide when she was inside the room. Brand pops out into the hallway, comes back, and says, "You try it". She does so, and sees Oberon and Clarissa in bed. Celeste returns to find Brand looking vaguely guilty. He says that he found something he left for Oberon. She nags him until he pulls back the covers, to reveal a hollow in the mattress in which is resting a teddy bear dressed in Brand's colors that was clearly sewed by someone inept at sewing. Brand says that he gave it to Oberon. Oberon said that he would keep it with him always, and even said where he would keep it, but Brand never had a chance to check. There is a tear in the corner of Brand's eye. Brand says that they should go sleep somewhere else. "I don't think I could do that to dad." They get into the corridor outside the room, and there is the impression of a very large cat sitting there. They maneuver for a better look. They see a Corwin, two Nortons, a five-headed thing on the floor, and a big cat. "It kinda looks like a corpse." "It's moving." "It would, around Norton." Brand tries to figure out what Norton is. "Animal, vegetable, or mineral?" "Norton." "Family?" "Oh, god - I hope not!" "Which means he probably is." Celeste asks Brand about Snarsht. "What's the giant Sha'um?" "That's an old lord. Savvy old lord?" "What's a savvy old lord?" "It's a Chaosian thing. He's the one they're all frightened of. And Norton is chatting with it." The inner heads on the five-headed thing look like fish. Brand - "I believe Dworkin also falls under the category of old lord, just not a very scary one." They decide that their choices are between annoying the old lord and dealing with Clarissa, in Faerie, after Celeste has just sold her soul to Titania. Brand - "Maybe annoying the old lord is our best choice." Celeste - "I thought that I would never say that." Celeste - "Being dead around Norton is bad." Brand - "He likes dead things?" Celeste - "You shoulda seen the pig." Brand - "I don't want to know." Celeste - "An animated, dead pig." Brand and Celeste try to sneak past the group. Norton and company notice that the Celeste Tir-ghost is approaching them, along with a Brand Tir-ghost. The Corwin in Norton's brain tells him that Greyswandir will let him talk to the ghosts. Norton draws Greyswandir. Celeste notices Norton become real. She freaks out, with great calm and reserve. Norton tells Celeste that Corwin was at the Spiral when it blew up. Celeste is horrified, and asks who else. Norton names some names. "Carlton, Thessaly, Damia, Damia's baby, Bast. I animated her... she'll get better." "Animated? Damia? Animated? Damia?" "It was either that or let her soul go who knows where." "Columbine and Lily blew up, too." "They did something with the baby." Norton turns and points Greyswandir at Brand. Ilk in Norton notices that this Brand has the local Pattern. Corwin advises Norton. "That's Brand. Kill it. That's Brand. Kill it. Kill it now. That's Brand." Corwin pipes up in Norton's head. "Ask her what she's doing with him." Norton relays. "Talking." Corwin notices that she's lying. "Ask her why her clothing is disheveled." "Do I have to? Is it important to our quest?" "You look disheveled. Have you been having any difficulties?" "Oh, I fell down a chute-thing." Corwin nods. "Very glib, very quick." Ilk Logrus-searches for Celeste. He finds the Tir ghost that they have been talking to. Celeste is getting a trump call. It's Norton. And Corwin, Jean, Mandor, and Ilk. She slams her thoughts shut, locks the box, puts the box in a safe, locks the safe, puts the safe in a vault, and locks that too. They chat. Celeste conducts her half of the conversation out loud for Brand's benefit. Norton tells Celeste that Darkstar isn't in Faerie. "He was doing so well... and then there was a surge of trump-ish energy, and he and all of us blew up." ... "If I was involved, it was a terrible mistake..." "Uncle Corwin, I'm so sorry...." Celeste agrees that she owes Corwin. "By the way, it's so good to see you in certain company." Jean asks about Paprika. Corwin tells him that Paprika is known as Rivka on this side of reality. Celeste isn't sure who Rivka is. Corwin helps out some more. "You might want to ask your companion... apparently the two of you are related. To her." "Oh, you don't know her? She's one of your older aunts." Nobody is certain exactly how much older Rivka is. Norton sums a pair of small integers and recognizes Brand. "Hey - that's the guy you wanted me to shift into once!" Ilk tries to shush Norton in his head, and promises to tell Norton about Brand later. "As far as I know, she was just sleeping with Mikail for a bit. There was some rumor that she was Mikail's daughter, or aunt, or something." "Any relation to K'rin?" Jean tries to find out who K'rin is, and is snubbed. Jean in the other head asks that Norton who K'rin is. "Someone I have to kill. Or at least torture for a few centuries." Norton to Celeste: "You duplicated me... so in a way, you're my mom." Celeste disavows any and all responsibility for Norton's existence and actions subsequent to same. Corwin reminds Celeste about Benedict's declaration, and gives her the lists. Fiona, Bleys, Llewella, Celeste, Julian, Cathryne, Cassandra: missing, to be killed Gerard, Velaria, Merlin: presumed dead Celeste puts out her hand, and Brand takes it. Brand joins the trump contact, and there is Pattern washing over the Ilk. Mandor puts his hand on the Ilk's shoulder, and the Pattern is lessened somewhat. Ilk yells to Norton, "Break the contact! Break the contact!" There is a Brand in Norton with them. Ilk locks down his mind. Mandor is passing Ilk through the hole he drilled through into the empty area in Norton's head. Painted on the inside of the walled off area in Mandor's hand is, "I know this is empty, now." As Ilk passes through, he tells Jean to tell the others that Brand is back. Norton drops the trump contact. The Brand leaves Norton's head, and Mandor starts funneling Ilk back out. Jean tells the people in the other Norton that Brand is back. The Ilk in the Norton that was talking with Celeste searches for new traces of Pattern or hints of Brand, and finds none. Celeste bumps into the semi-solid form of Snarsht while backing away from Norton, who is still pointing Greyswandir at her. Snarsht is completely blocking the hallway, from Celeste and Brand's point of view. Celeste - "Can you ask him to move?" Norton - "No! He almost ripped me in half just to see if I'd bleed!" Celeste grabs Brand and flees with him into the hallway. Norton and company can still see them talking in the corner of the room. Celeste - "That's Norton." Brand - "Now I can see why it is so complex. What's that about the Corwin in his head?" ------------------- Celeste Joins Norton's Head People Norton has received enough of an impression of Celeste over the trump contact to try to add her to the group. Celeste gains consciousness. She isn't entirely sure what is going on. She was just in trump contact. It's a very limited Celeste, just the part that was outside the box. Celeste - "Have you added me to your collection?" Norton - "I get lonely sometimes." Celeste whimpers a bit. Celeste - "Can I leave?" Norton - "Well, after you teach me to be a good trump artist, you can leave." Celeste - "Deal." The Corwin comes over to the Celeste and offers her a cup of something steaming. He claims that it is klava. She drinks it, and is relaxed slightly, but otherwise unaffected. Norton asks Celeste if she wants to have her own room. Ilk gestures to get her attention, and mouths, "You don't want to do that". Celeste declines the offer. Norton grows suspicious that the people in his head are talking behind his back. ---------------------- Alleviating Brand's Ignorance of his Crimes Celeste questions Brand. The last thing he remembers before seeing her in the tavern in Faerie was going to visit her. Celeste tells Brand that there are about five years missing from his memory. Brand doesn't remember much between those two events... he was tracking assassins, then fell, and woke up in a party. Celeste tries to explain to him that he must have had a long episode. Brand tries to reassure Celeste about people knowing about them. "Oh, yeah. if you know the things I know, you wouldn't worry about Benedict. Did you ever visit the Spiral? Didn't you notice that some of them resemble us? Benedict visited there when he was young. They have pictures of him - they even have a statue of part of his anatomy. And they interbreed like flies." "Bleys had hunting parties out." "For us?" "For anyone breaking Oberon's law." "Bleys couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel." Brand explains to Celeste that Bleys wouldn't consider taking any action against her, because she is the apple of his eye. Celeste tries to convince Brand that he fell into the Abyss after being shot by Caine. Celeste offers to tell Brand a long story. Brand suggests that they should leave Faerie and find someplace secure first. He says that he's been assuming that they've been eavesdropped upon all along. A cornerstone pipes up, "Awwh, you figured it out." Celeste is horrified. ------------------------------ In Norton's Head Ilk in Norton's head has made a leather barcalounger and is surreptitiously modifying it to add some features of an escape pod. Celeste asks him to make one for her, and he does so. She notices that he is modifying it with force of will, not any power. She modifies her barcalounger to taste, and Ilk notices that she does it more easily than he was. She makes a small chair for Jean, and hands him a popsicle [More mind candy!] Celeste creates a sketch pad and pencil and starts drawing. She finds that she cannot sketch Jean - it starts turning into crayon. Mandor's portrait comes out very well. The eyes of the Ilk portrait are shifting and crawling. Norton is making a backup brain, and trying to set up a Jean filter. He notices that Mandor has already left a note there for him. ---------------------------- A Private Conversation? Celeste opens a magical channel to Brand. Brand tells her that someone is certainly listening in on it here. Celeste tries to reach Brand with a matrix channel. It fails, for the obvious reasons. Celeste invokes the privilege of royalty for privacy. Titania's face slowly solidifies over her shoulder. "Yes, dear?" Celeste requests a brief exception. Titania suggests that they try an intermediary area. "You can reach me on the god channel. Beware of the lion. He's somewhat egotistical, and will promise you things he cannot deliver." Titania warns Celeste not to touch the walls. Celeste and Brand are now in a a grey area with a picnic table. Celeste prepares to fill Brand in on his attempt to destroy the universe. --EORun--