A Matter of Towers

The stable master walks back in with a boy. "Tell the Princes, lad."

"Yes, sir. My Lords, the steward says that your guest went down to the city for the celebration and hasn't returned."

Merlin looks at Raven, then at Conner. "I thought we were picking up a prisoner."

"No, he was a guest." Raven shakes her head. "Or whatever you call somebody that's got information we might need after we volunteered 'em to come with us, but that ain't done anything wrong." She eyes the boy. "So where would you have gotten off to, lad, if you were a guest up here and went down to a party like that?"

"Sir?" the boy says, sizing up the group. "I'd either be at the music or down dockside, looking to see what was coming in."

The stable master nods. "It's a growing town, and there's a lot of people here for the festivities, if your boy is man-sized, there's plenty of trouble of the 'wine, women, and song' variety. Likely he's sleeping it off like half the city."

Merlin looks troubled. "Finding a particular young man in the city below might not be easy."

"No, it wouldn't be. And I'm the only three of us that knows what we're looking for, which ain't gonna help." Raven shakes her head. "What do you think - " and that's clearly to both Conner and Merlin, "ride by what's left of the party, see if I can see him, and in case we don't, have someone let us know when he turns up here? Ain't perfect, and I'd rather have him along - and we gotta get him home to Gateway at some point - but I'm not so sure this is the night to try and comb the city for him, either."

Merlin looks at Raven. "If we do wish to find the boy, Martin says that there are generally two approaches to finding someone in a city. You either ask the watch or your ask the people the watch are watching. We need to speak with either the Lord Mayor or with Raven's mother."

"Or we can take advantage of other abilities." Conner comments while twirling a lock of his red hair around one finger. "Let's find a quiet place and try a quick experiment. Thank you for your assistance, gentlemen." Conner offers the stable master and the boy a nod.

If amenable Conner leads Merlin and Raven into the castle until they find the nearest empty room. "Raven, am I correct that you have a decent mental image of the boy we are looking for?"

Raven is more than amenable to plans that don't involve having a conversation with her mother this evening. "Aye, I think so," she answers. "He was around us for a bit. Why?"

Conner reaches around behind him and pulls out an ornate looking hand mirror. "This is the Eye of Rebma. It can be used to look for far away people and places." Conner offers it to Raven. "Picture him in your mind and concentrate and you should see where he is."

Raven takes it, if with something of a skeptical look on her face, and does as suggested.

The Eye of Rebma swirls for a moment and focuses in on two boys, crawling through a cave or tunnel. They are caked in mud and grinning madly. Philippe the Mouse is behind another boy, whom Raven is pretty sure is Max. Philippe puts his hand in front of his candle and Raven can effectively see nothing but his fingers, glowing from the candle behind them.

Raven says several things about young boys, trouble, and doing things they've already been told not to do that probably would be better suited for another sailor's ears than for anyone polite's, but she's more exasperated than angry. "If that's where I think it is," she says without looking away, "and I bet it is, because it looks like he's with Max and that one's looking to be at least as stubborn as me, they're in the caves in the cliffside. Ain't enough light to see much beyond that, though."

Conner nods from where he is looking over her shoulder. "How badly do we need this boy again?" He asks. "Assuming the answer is pretty badly, we are back to plan A. Let's check with the city watch to see if they were spotted heading in that direction. We can try the mirror later to see if we can narrow down the search any."

Raven frowns. "I can tell you the foretelling he gave us, but that ain't gonna help if you've got questions past what we thought to ask. And he's friendly with the mage Harper, so we probably ought to bring him home with us." She pauses, and then says wryly, "But we ain't getting in there the way those two did. Might do better finding out where those caves come out."

Merlin frowns. "If he can tell the future, does he not know we are looking for him?"

"My experience with clairvoyants is limited to Cambina and based on that, the visions of the future come sporadically and are often incomplete." Conner sighs. "I do not believe the cave systems have been explored enough to guess at where they might be headed." Conner replies. "Though I have it on good authority that some of them lead under the Castle and possibly link up to the route to the Pattern Chamber." Conner sighs deeper. "I do hope that is not the thought in Max's mind."

"Well, I know he didn't get ideas about getting revenge for his father's death from Ma," Raven says dryly. "Pretty much living proof that vendettas ain't something she cared to teach about. You figure a kid with outsized ideas like that and a father that was one of us ain't going to look for something exciting and grown-up like the Pattern, if there's half a chance he knows about it?" She hands the mirror back to Connor. "Start at the thing itself and work backwards until we find something sound like a plan?"

Merlin looks at the two naval men and especially keenly at the mirror. "We can do that, although I suspect it will involve the King, since the Pattern is in the Castle.

"Or we can split up. If we should both find your brother and follow our mission to Gateway, if we can."

Raven shakes her head. "Pretty sure nobody's supposed to wander off alone, and I can't come up with a way we're splitting the three of us up without doing that. I'm thinking either we're going to have to go after them and hope nobody that's likely to give us orders notices, or we're going to have to leave word that one of the folks staying behind should give us a call when those two show up."

Merlin nods. "It seems unsafe to be alone. That may also be true for your brother. Whom do we wish to discuss him and his new crawling acquaintance with?"

"Let's go after the Lost Boys then." Conner sighs. "I'll take the city guards over Scarlett right now. Getting her riled up over Max being missing is something I'd like to avoid."

Raven snorts. "I was thinking somebody that could call one of us and get Phillipe passed over, not Ma. Let's go."

Merlin nods. "I expect that Father will leave soon, and I do not expect Martin to be highly available, so perhaps Paige or Marius? Paige at least has the ability to care for children."

Merlin asks the stable master for a quill, paper, and a writing surface, and writes a note to be delivered to the Lord Mayor.

While the man is fetching that, Raven lets Conner and Merlin know what Phillippe had to say, including his premonition of death if they entered the underground catacombs.

Merlin's note for the Lord Mayor assumes he can find Paige, or Marius, or someone to contact them if Phillippe is found. A stablehand is assigned to take the message and a horse down to the town. She scrambles away with the paper.

"That should be there within the hour, My Lords. Is there aught else? Do you need horses?"

Merlin brings out a sketch of Gateway. "I made this some time ago, while traveling with Father. Once we are there, we can return on another trump, but if this one fails, it will take me a few days to re-create it. It will take us through to the base of the gate." He frowns. "If you are ready?"

Merlin holds the trump in his left hand and reaches out with his right for one of his cousins to take his hand.

Raven will take the offered hand and in turn offer one to Conner.

Merlin steps through and pulls his cousins behind him, disappearing and reappearing in a coruscating rainbow of bright light.

After it's clear they are through, Merlin drops Raven's hand and shades his eyes. The tower that the mages raised is now a pit, and several flying mages patrol over it. There doesn't seem to be any resistance, but the town seems like it is in shock. The normal sounds of commerce and people living their lives are absent.

Well, at least it's not under active assault right now. That is, if Raven is honest with herself, rather better than she was expecting.

"Weyland and one of the mages we were after had a bit of a fight over there," she offers dryly, gesturing in the direction of what was the tower. "If I had to guess, we'll find whoever's in charge right now off towards the water - that's where the last one was holed up."

And assuming no dissenting opinions, that's the direction she'll lead, with a weather eye out for Harper or anyone that looks like they're in charge. And Weyland.

Merlin agrees and seems somewhat shocked himself at the condition of the city. "It was always so busy when I was here before."

Conner nods and frowns at the destruction and the silence.

Soon after they start moving, a flying mage swoops down towards them and wants to know who they are and where they're going. He remains about 2 feet off the ground, and wants to know where Weyland is.

"I'd love to know the answer to that myself," Raven answers, coming to a stop and crossing her arms. "Seeing as how he was here when I left. Raven, Conner, Merlin." She jerks her head to indicate the other two as she says their names. "Here to talk to mage Harper about all of this mess. And you are?"

"People not staying still seems to be a recurring theme of this trip." Conner murmurs to Merlin. "I don't suppose we could be lucky enough to learn the zombie hoard wandered off too."

The mage looks uncertain, and follows the precedent of uncertain people everywhere and passes the uncertainty upwards. "I'll take you to Councillor Harper." He starts floating in the direction of the college. "I saw your Archimage, Weyland, do something and the zombies all seemed to be acting in slow motion. What I don't know and what we want to know is 'what did he do?', 'how did he do it?', and 'will it stop while we're in the midst of the cleanup?'

"But he's nowhere to be found."

Conner frowns slightly. "Well I don't know about finding Weyland, but Merlin and I are trained in a similar tradition of sorcery. We can likely answer some of your unknowns if we can see the effect."

"How long ago did he do that?" Raven asks.

The mage squints at the sun. "Near a ten-day, Captain. There's a locked room in the catacombs that we can't magically scry through. If Harper and the Chancellor permit, we can take you to see it. We haven't seen a moving zombie in days, but no one will be comfortable until we get into that sanctum."

"Aye, I wouldn't be either," Raven agrees.

"Well then, let's hurry to the Chancellor then." Conner nods and strides a little faster.

The mage leads the way to the Collegium. It seems to be in need of repair, but if there was debris, it's mostly cleared away.

Merlin nods to a woman in robes. He whispers, unsuccessfully, "That's Chancellor Marta."

Marta turns her head at the sound of her name. "Welcome back! Is all well with Amber?"

Conner strides forward all smiles. "Chancellor Marta. It seems an age since we last met. Seems it was well that I got to tour the Collegium before these recent troubles." Conner looks properly concerned at the damage that is evident. "The Pattern realms are well with Xanadu as its shining star on a hill." Conner lies smoothly. "Our chief concern is what has transpired here. The Crown has reassigned Prince Jerod and my sister Brita to other duties so we have been dispatched to deal with the last Triumvir. It would seem it has been a longer time for you that we expected. Please, what has happened since? Our escort speaks of a slowed enemy and a warded vault."

"And that Weyland is missing," Raven can't help but add.

Marta smiles, although it seems forced. "My best understanding is that Weyland was unable to stay for as long as your Lordships had hoped, and took it upon himself to resolve the matter, or perhaps put it into a state that he felt he could leave.

"We do not know what he did, it defies our magical analysis and resists our magical dismissals. I suspect that is intentional, if he's bottled up the last Triumvir. The zombies that were not in the vault seem to have been cut off from their motive power and are slowing and falling over.

"Our main concern is if we trust this state to last. Trust is not our strength."

It would be easy to assume that Chancellor Marta was not fond of liminal states, nor of Weyland.

"We may be able to shed some light on the issue of Weyland's magics." Conner replies easily. "Merlin and I are trained in a similar tradition of Sorcery and might have more success analyzing his working. With your permission, we'd like to see this vault."

Marta nods. "Let me change out of my robe of office and we can go directly."

"You don't happen to have any sort of guess if there's more of those things outside the vault than in it or not, do you?" Raven asks Marta.

Marta grins, this time for real. "Only the vaguest guess. Assuming that the vault has no extra-dimensional exits, the enclosed space cannot hold more than a few hundred of the walking dead."

Raven snorts. "Didn't figure anyone'd crawled in there and counted 'em. Vague's fine. And outside? About the same, more, less?"

Marta steps inside and speaks louder. She's changing while speaking.

"Oh, many more, but they're out of energy, or something. The damaged ones seemed to have fallen back to dead, and the others just aren't a threat anymore.

She pauses, and her next comment is slightly muffled by her robes coming over her head. "Our hesitation about opening the vault is that it may reactivate the ones outside, if they suddenly get reconnected to their power source. We'd hate to be caught flat-footed. Ideally, we'll enclose it before we open the inner dome."

"A mass pyre for the currently dormant dead might be more expedient." Conner muses. "While we're taking tally of things, what has become of the Weir troops that Prince Jerod brought with him?"

Marta comes out, dressed for entering a crypt. She nods. "As we find them, but it's generally easier for us to burn them with sorcerous fire.

"As to the Weir, a quarter of them went to fetch their ship, and should be arriving shortly. The rest are below, guarding the vault."

Raven nods at that. "We ready to go take a look, then?"

Marta, now in her working robes, leads the way to the catacombs, taking a different entrance on the Collegium's grounds rather than the great gaping hole that used to be a tower in the center of Gateway's main city.

She has magical lights that dart ahead of her and choose which passage to light based on her gaze. She treats them as light hunting dogs, whistling for them when they seem to get distracted.

After a walk of no more than a half mile, there is light ahead. Soon it's clear that the catacombs could be entered from above, but only via ropes or flying.

Another quarter mile or so and everyone reaches an open ante-chamber, which has roughly a dozen of Jerod's weir in it. Some resting, some at attention, all aware of the approaching party.

"My Lords," says a redheaded weir, "we expected the prince." He's not the largest, but Raven always thought he was the smartest. His name, she remembers, is Reynart.

"Aye, well, our trip back didn't go quite the way we thought," Raven answers. "Prince Jerod was asked to deal with an emergency by the Crown," and if she means Martin by 'the Crown,' well, that's because apparently the actual King and Queen aren't fit for duty right now, "but he'll be checking in after that's taken care of. That going to be a problem?"

Reynart looks serious. His Thari is good, but it's clearly not his first language. "Not at all, Madame Captain. We will continue to follow his orders independently. We have not tried to breach the door in a tenday, but if you wish us to, we will try."

Conner just manages to both not say anything or look at Raven at Reynart's choice of honorific.

"Good to hear," Raven answers. "But I think you'll find you've got your ranks messed up there. It's Captain." And it's a very mild response, except for the part where she deliberately looks Reynart straight in the eyes when she says it, her own eyes narrowed just slightly in what is only just barely not a challenging stare.

Reynard nods. "Of course, Captain. I sometimes confuse my thari when I speak quickly."

He wasn't speaking quickly.

Marta says to him "I would rather try to open it sorcerously, my dear, and have your people at the ready in case something comes out."

As Raven has taken the lead, Conner remains silent. He examines the Weir without being obvious about it. Conner has only heard stories about them and takes advantage of the opportunity to study them.

The Weir are a fierce fighting race from shadow, known to the Amber Navy from their association with Prince (and King) Eric and for being the scene of Bellum's greatest defeats. They are Isolated, clannish, and have a hereditary nobility who are half human and half wolf. Regular people in their shadow are generally serfs and workers, although highly skilled ones have some privileges. They are supposedly cursed, although by whom and for what transgression is not generally known.

"We should definitely examine the wards upon the door before entering." Conner concurs. "Through here is it?" Conner continues walking the direction they were headed before pausing here. Conner opens his Third Eye and examines the magical energies active in this room so he has a comparison when they reach the vault.

Raven trails along behind the mages, listening and keeping an eye out for anything of more mundane concern.

It's not magic. At all. Which is why the Gatwegans can't break the magic. It's an insanely complicated looping shadow-path that prevents anyone from actually reaching the door, sort of an applied Xeno's paradox.

It will be easy for any pattern user to break.

Merlin thinks that's intentional. Weyland left it locked against everyone but Amberites and probably particularly the people who were here with him. Merlin thinks this was both kind and nasty of him at once.

Conner admires the skill shown in the creation of this lock. "Well, it is easy to see why your magicians have not been successful. It is not sorcery that has this place walled off." He explains for the benefit of Raven, Marta and the Weir. "I can remove the barrier easily enough but I would like to see what we are getting into if I do. Merlin, will you assist me here?" Conner draws forth the Eye of Rebma and in collaboration with Merlin attempts to scry into the chamber beyond without disturbing what Weyland has put in place. After all, it should be a simple working of Space but when the space is not simple, Conner wishes to take nothing for granted.

Raven continues to keep an eye out, mostly for more mundane things, but also for anything that the others might be too absorbed in the scrying to notice happening.

Raven continues to watch, and notices only that the Weir get more attentive when Conner begins his magical activities. She thinks it would be a bad day to be anything coming out of that room at this moment.

Merlin joins Conner and offers his magical expertise. He inspects the Eye with his third eye and tells Conner when he is ready. Conner looks into the Eye and sees an empty vault, but he notices that things aren't quite right. The style of the carvings doesn't match the other side of the door. It's like there are multiple shadow-paths all nearly atop each other and a slight variance will send you to a different one.

Merlin's eyes are closed, but his third eye is open. "I see it as well, Cousin. I think we will have to peel these paths off carefully to reveal the actual contents of the room."

"Then we must be careful." Conner murmurs back. "There is a structure and a movement to the magical energies of Gateway. We can let that be our touchstone as we work to the find the real vault among the shadows." As things have waited for a tenday, Conner does not feel rushed and is prepared to take a watch sifting through this if they must. "You all might want to get comfortable. This may take a little while."

As they work, Conner smiles suddenly. "This reminds me of the first time I tried to peel away the skin of an onion. Stain it with iodine and place it beneath a special lens and it too reveals cells formerly hidden."

Merlin nods. "Father used an onion to explain about real and less-real realities. I believe they are similar."

Marta summons a small bird and puts a message in its talons. The bird flies away. "I've sent for refreshment. It has been a long day."

"Anything we need to keep an eye out for with that long day?" Raven asks. "Besides the three of us showing up, of course."

Conner and Merlin work diligently, taking breaks as needed, removing layer after layer of paths, smoothing out natural lines. It's like untying a knot. It would be easiest to cut it, but it's a challenging logic puzzle to undo without breaking the real world.

After some hours, including rest breaks and refreshments, Merlin looks up. "I believe we have completed the task. Shall we open the door and see what comes out? I suspect it will either lead to a fight or an anti-climax."

Raven snorts at that. "Lots of things end that way. Thought we were going to look inside first before throwing open the door and seeing what wakes up?"

Conner nods. "Now that we are down to a single image, we shall attempt to do just that." Assuming Merlin concurs, Conner concentrates upon the Eye once more and attempts to scry the room beyond.

It's... unpleasant inside. There's blood everywhere and parts of bodies stacked on other parts of bodies. Nothing is moving. There's a little cleared area, but it's not obvious why. The only intact body is lying next to it, her arm reaching into it.

Merlin looks as well and says, "We may be too late to fight." Some of the Weir look disappointed at the news.

"Piles and piles of bodies mostly dismembered." Conner confirmed. "If we were not going after a necromancer I would be reassured. As it is," Conner returns the Eye to the pocket of his coat and draws forth Halosydne, "we'd best be prepared for anything." Conner smiles at the Weir. "Please open the door for us."

Raven joins them at the door. "And someone make sure the folks keeping an eye out for more walking dead know, if you haven't already? Ain't fair to leave them in the dark."

Marta nods. "They will be informed."

Reynart stands to ope the door, but a larger Weir pushes past him and grabs the door. He pulls it hard enough to splinter it, clearly enjoying the opportunity to do something.

The Mirror didn't make it clear how much of the room was covered in blood. It is everywhere -- the walls, the ceiling, the torch sconces, and most especially the tombs are coated with it.

It looks like the zombies just lost structural integrity, violently.

In the center of the room is the one intact body, lying on the floor. She seems quite dead.

"That," Raven says dryly, with a sidelong glance at both Conner and Merlin, "ain't just 'mostly dismembered.' So what blew up in here? And is that the mage we're looking for?"

"It did not look this bad in the mirror." Conner murmurs as he surveys the room in horrified fascination. He scans the room with this Third Eye for any clue of what happened here. "As for the identity of the one intact body, I've never met the mage we're after."

Merlin agrees. "It was not that different though. The blood was not visible. I suspect it was a trick of how it rebuilt the image from the darkened room."

To Conner's Third Eye, the room is quite normal. His cousins burn with the fire of the Pattern, The Weir and Marta are bright spots of life, and otherwise, it's an unassuming stone room. The corpse and corpse parts are not visible at all.

Marta says "Give me a moment, I'll turn her over. But those are her robes." The mage is indeed dead, and face down. She has written something in the blood with her finger.

"F R E"

"You need a hand with turning her over?" Raven asks. She starts picking her way through the gore in that direction.

Marta looks at Raven. "Certainly. I will lift her and you can turn her over." Marta acts immediately and the body lifts off the ground, levitated by the Chancellor of the Collegia Arcanum.

If Raven wants, she can turn over the body. Even levitating 3 feet above the bloody stonework, it looks... fragile. Like the robe is more substantial than the person within it.

Raven will do so, with all the caution due to a fragile body that might or might not be as dead or undead as its former minions. In other words, a lot, although she doesn't linger over the task either.

If she's undead, she's playing possum. She's mummified, or at least preserved in a way that didn't happen in the last two weeks.

"Dexamene," says Marta. She looks upset. "It looks like he got them all. Let's hope he's done with vengeance."

"If there's anyone else that helped hurt Marius, they'd best hope he doesn't know about it." Raven shakes her head and squats down to look at the floor. "You got any idea what she was writing here?"

"It's not a spell, at least not a known one. Could be what it seems. She was very different after she came back from the Black Circles War, and perhaps she was possessed."

"We need to find Weyland and negotiate a peace treaty with him."

She looks around the crypt. "We'll have to do something about this, as well."

"I got the idea that the only folks he was interested in was the ones who were involved with what happened to our cousin. Can't say we weren't pretty interested in that ourselves." Raven turns to look at Marta, looking politely curious. "And I'm not hearing a whole lot of 'oh no, they were the only ones involved' in 'we need a peace treaty.' Something you wanna say?"

"Personally? No. Nor for the Collegeum. But the city has many people who chose to cooperate rather than die. I don't have to agree with them to sympathize with their choices. Shall we blame the harbormaster? The longshoremen? The orders came from the top and a protest would have been a death sentence.

"The Collegeum survived by being too strong to take without provocation and too canny to offer an excuse. I need to rebuild this country, and I need the mages to be looking forward, not over their shoulders."

Raven nods. "Aye, I know a thing or two about obeying orders and where blame gets put. But we both know I had to ask anyway." She shrugs and lets the topic go for now. "So what makes you think she might've been possessed?"

The older woman nods. "I suspected before we came in here, because she didn't have those powers when she was my student, and at the time, she didn't want to subjugate everyone to the black road madness.

"But the real evidence is the state of the body. When a possessing spirt is being destroyed, it draws on the host in such a way as to drain it of energies, which leaves the body like this. You've heard the legend of powerful wizards, preserved beyond death in their wizened corporeal bodies? They're effectively possessing their own bodies at the moment of death."

Marta examines the body again, looking at the red smears on the finger that had been writing on the floor.

"It's much the same thing."

"You think the same thing might've happened to the other two? The possessing part, that is."

Marta nods, absentmindedly. "No reason to assume otherwise. I'd say the cure is worse than the disease, that's only true for the victims. For the realm, the cure seems to be ... proportionate."

Raven shrugs. "Didn't know 'em, before or after, so I'll take your word for that. You lot know where she dug up the army of the dead?" She pauses for half a beat and then snorts and adds dryly, "I mean, besides from their graves. They all from down here?"

"Down here, plus any who fell in battle. One of the more difficult issues during the fighting last week was seeing our friends rise again as our enemies.

"Indeed, it's hard to say who our enemies even were..."

Raven stares at her for a moment, trying not to look entirely incredulous. "Call me crazy," she finally says, completely deadpan, "but I'd say it was probably the ones trying to kill you. Pretty sure you would have mentioned them handing out hugs and flowers, otherwise."

Marta nods, but it's clear she didn't mean what Raven understood. "Do we blame the arrow, the bow, or the archer? What I am concerned about is finding the 'why' or 'who' behind the attacks on our civilization, and so far every level I can find has been controlled. I want the controller."

"We talking one level," Raven points at a convenient detached body chunk, "two level," and at Dexamene, "and then somebody over 'em? Or was there more depth to this controlling thing?" She pauses, and then shrugs and offers up a wry smile. "Don't mean to grill you, but we didn't exactly study 'em the way you lot had a chance to."

Marta smiles. "Do not worry, I'm in favor of questioning my conclusions. I am still an academic at heart.

"The triumvirate wasn't like the zombies. They had more control and were capable of reason, foresight, and the use of their wits. But if they were not acting of their own will, then whose? That's all I know, and I want to keep peeling the onion."

Raven nods, relieved she's not being too obnoxious. There are more questions to ask, after all. "And it seems like control instead of being forced to it by blackmail or something, I'm guessing, or you would have said. Is there anything left of where she was living that might give some kind of clue what happened? Or was it part of what got taken out during the battle?"

Marta nods at her guesses. "There was a tower above us. We called it 'The Tower of Magic'. Two score generations of Mages built and strengthened it. It survived a dozen wars and has been our seat of government since we first had a government. Now it's 'The Crater of Magic'."

She looks at the Wier in the anteroom. They manage to find something else to look at. "We have a lot of work ahead of us."

"I knew it was a tower," Raven says, nodding. "Saw it both times I was here before, though one of those was a ways off while on the run, and the other was in the middle of the battle. Just wasn't sure if she or the one that was killed on the tower lived there or not. Only so many rooms in most ancient towers, after all, and not everybody keeps all their secrets in one place." She looks around at the room again and sighs. "Right. Stowing that idea for now. Anything else you mage-y types can turn up in here, or are we ready to go somewhere less... sticky?"

"By all means," Marta says, sounding quite ready to leave, "let us return to less sanguinary quarters. Would you like a magical cleansing? Some people prefer to remove bloodstains themselves for personal reasons, but I can clean us up reasonably easily."

"Wearing blood around for a while longer ain't exactly my idea of a good time," Raven answers dryly. "So if you don't mind."

Raven is thoughtful on the walk back to Marta's office - and she does prefer to walk, thanks; had enough flying during the battle - but it's only once they're back and in private that she says what's on her mind.

"Look, what are you hoping to get out of a peace treaty with Weyland? Not the part about your people needing to be sure he's not going to murder them - I get that. What are you wanting out of him with this? Just sign a piece of paper that says, 'I promise not to blow up any more of Gateway?'"

Marta looks pained, but doesn't disagree with Raven. "That would be a start. Or some help reconstructing and restoring our trade, but honestly, just not getting stomped to teach us a lesson would be favorable."

She pauses. "Why, do you think I'd do better dealing with you to get him to make that promise?"

She doesn't sound opposed to making a deal with Xanadu, if it will stop the bleeding.

"Given some of what's happened, I'm pretty sure you're going to have to deal with us eventually anyway," Raven says dryly. "But I won't claim to be a diplomat on our behalf. What I am is someone that has an idea where to start looking for him and a need to do it anyway, since he's got something we need to bring back." Or someone, as the case may be, but this seems like maybe not the time and place to explain the whole statue issue. "And since I'm going to have to do that..."

"We may as well intercede on your behalf." Conner finishes. "After all, it was on that basis that the first expedition from Xanadu arrived here and so far we have been convinced that sweeping away the usurpers will return things to the status quo. I suspect a few favorable trade deals in Xanadu's favor could almost make us forget this." Conner smiles thinly. "However, what I would really like to see is all information you have on what happened to Marius while he was held prisoner here and access to all of the Triumvirate's former holdings to see what light that might shed on the matter."

"The mantle of Amber sits well on Xanadahvian shoulders. I am sure you are aware that any such records would have been held in the tower whose crater we just left. We will have to see what magics we can apply to recreate them. If you were moon riders, this would be quite simple."

Raven snorts and shakes her head. "Sorry, left our moon rider outfits in Xanadu. Why, you see them much here?"

Conner chuckles and waits to hear the answer to Raven's question. The mention of the Moonriders was likely a coincidence but Conner never did trust those.

Magda shakes her head. "Rarely. They do not wish to share their time magic with us. I personally encountered them in Borel, decades before this war. They are a fey people, and I do not mean that in a positive way. Gateway belongs at the intersection of the extremes of Amber and Rebma, making profits for all three."

"Never heard of them around Gateway before, but things could have changed. Seeing as how you've had people possessed by things from Chaos and an army of undead, which I hadn't heard were popular 'round here before either," Raven says. Which is really her way of not-saying that it had better just be a coincidence that there were Moonriders in Xanadu and now, two hours and ten days later, there's mention of them by someone in Gateway.

"How did you end up in the domain of Duke Borel?" Conner asks. "I would have thought that well off your usual travel paths."

"Rescue mission. One of my students got into trouble and Borel was willing to keep her alive in Chaos but asked that we come retrieve her. I was not the Dean yet at that time, and Oberon was still regnant in Amber.

"Unsurprisingly, it involved the Klybesians."

"Most things seem to these days." Conner remarks. "The audience waits in anticipation, Chancellor. Let's have the full story."

"Aye," Raven agrees.

"I'll try to do the story justice, but it was over a century ago. One of my students, who was actually from Amber, heard rumors about a competition called 'The Race to Madness', about as far from here as she could go. She was a promising young magician and no one believed she'd get to the place, which was further from Amber than Amber is from here. A year and a day after she left, we heard that she had reached the place, and was trapped by ... things.

"My predecessor as Chancellor sent to the Klybesians for information, which is their stock-in-trade. She agreed to their terms and they told her that Count Madoc had already rescued Flagon but that she must be retrieved from the demesne of Duke Borel. I led that mission, which is both where I first saw the Brass Legion and where I first saw Moonriders. The Duke was polite, out of deference to his brother, I think, but it was entirely unnerving."

"What kind of story did this Flagon have to tell?" Raven asks, curious.

"A cautionary one, and not as clearly as she could've told it before she crossed into Chaos. It's a dangerous race, and she used her magical skills to give herself a chance against the Count, who was the sponsor and who usually won.

"No one knows what prompted her to try to turn back halfway around the tree, but the magic making the path safe to traverse didn't make it safe to reverse. She was able to keep herself alive, but not extract herself. She talked of affines and teaching magic to rocks, and Thari lessons in exchange for tureens of air.

"You can visit her if you want. She has a room in the library where she stays." Magda looks sad. "She never managed to resume her studies, but we felt responsible for her."

"Aye, understandable. Something we should probably save for later, though," Raven says. "You were saying, about the Moonriders?"

"Yes, I saw them. I'm pretty sure I was meant to see them, which means that someone paid the Klybesians to show us the Legion fighting the Moonriders. The Legion is everything the Moonriders are not: strong, slow, numerous, resistant to magic, highly disciplined, not very creative. That particular battle had been going on for five-or-six years. Longer, subjectively, for some of the combatants. It was not pretty, and by this point it was more a matter of honor rather than victory. Which means the Moonriders were looking for a way to withdraw without losing face. The negotiations took hours rather than days, and mostly because the Legion needed to find someone who could negotiate.

"I highly recommend watching them fight, for the same reasons I recommend watching emuraptors hunt."

"Ain't see the emuraptors hunt. Ridden one, though." Raven snorts and shakes her head. "You think that battle's still going on, or was it pretty much solved when you were there?"

She's just going to leave that whole 'watching Moonriders fight' idea alone right now. There's a whole other discussion on that subject that should definitely happen some other time, without Gatewegian bystanders.

"Oh, they were fighting over possession of our lostling, so I know it's over. But I do not doubt that they have fought since and will again. One of the ways to sharpen a blade is to press it against another." She makes unnecessary knife-sharpening motions with her hands, in case one or both of them hadn't seen a knife sharpened before.

"Do you refer to the Brass Legion?" Conner asks. "And since you mentioned it, why do you suggest watching an emuraptor hunt?"

"The very same. Hell's private army, they call them. When they fight, there's always a strange stream of bodies floating away and trudging back."

She stares out at a student in the quad. "And hunting emuraptors are a study in grace, efficiency, and murderous elegance. The lessons are quite useful for an academic."

"You said you think somebody paid to be sure you saw 'em fight," Raven says. "Just because of who showed it to you, or is there more to that?"

"It's speculative, but not unreasonable. The Klybesians did more than the minimum we paid them for, therefore someone else must have paid them for the rest. Who and why? That I don't know. I've never been willing to pay the price to ask." Marta shakes her head at the student. "I don't know how the students do it. A week ago we were at war, and she's lost in her studies as if the world hadn't intruded upon her."

"I suspect what is inside the books is easier to cope with than what is without." Conner replies. "Well the Moonriders are not the only ones versed in time magics. Conner comments. "If I were willing to try and restore your Tower, would I have your backing and any supplies I deem needed for the attempt?"

Raven glances between Conner and Marta, but doesn't interrupt.

Marta thinks this over. "Building a tower is, in Gateway, a masterwork of a powerful magician. Building a tower for others is an overtly political statement. Some would want to select you as our leader if you did this thing. Others might want to assassinate you.

"The Collegium could back you, on three conditions. One, the tower is turned over to the Collegium. Two, supplies will be reasonable for the creation of a tower. And three, Weyland doesn't come back uninvited."

"The first I agree to with the proviso that a suite of rooms and laboratory space are put aside for my use when I am present in Gateway." Conner begins. "The second is agreed to without condition. The third is contingent upon the will of a powerful Lord of Chaos. I promise only that I will take on the task and bring all of my powers of persuasion to have him agree to those terms. The restoration of the Tower will aid in that attempt. The more information I have about what happened to Marius, the better I will be able to direct his attentions." Conner sniffs. "In addition, I will happily remove from the ranks of Gateway's magician class anyone stupid enough to consider the assassination of one of my bloodline after recent events. Anyone who could miss a warning the size of Prince Jerod and Weyland is someone you could do without."

Raven snorts in amusement at that.

"Spoken like a true master magician. I shall summon a scribe to record the details. I agree, and the Faculty Senate will ratify my agreement as soon as I drag them into conclave."