Sapphire:Sessions:20140524

In the 'gear room', Trace calls Malcolm's name twice. After the second time, the guardian of the manor phases in slowly. Trace explains, "We ran into a circle of mages who are opposing us. The leader is named Rinaldo Canana. We have encountered them in five different places. They may be a threat to the manor. I request to see the books in the secret rooms, or at least their titles." Malcolm looks briefly at the map Trace shows him, then moves nearer to the gear, which spins faster. A crystal ball appears. Malcolm announces, "I will speak to you within a week," then goes into an adjacent room. The door shuts, Trace hears indistinct words, and a glow appears around the doorframe.

Chalker, Rory, and Striker explore more gates. One of them leads to a bedroom in Derakor.

Trace tries again to get the control word for the magic knife.

Mid-afternoon, Rory determines that the two-bedroom suite they have entered through yet another gate is located underground on the "time island." The main room of the suite contains a control console, not as intricate as the one they'd seen before in the tower. The desk drawers have been pulled open and emptied except for a torn scrap of parchment. The bedrooms are disarrayed as though someone had packed up and left hurriedly. Rory copies down the runes on the control panel.

There are crystal slots arranged in different sections of the console. Those on the right side appear to have been more frequently used. Rory inserts a crystal which begins to glow, and the right-hand section lights up. "System operational. To whom do you wish to speak?" Chalker says, "Danilon." "Senior or Junior?" After a moment's thought, Chalker replies "Junior." The crystal's glow intensifies. "Danilon Junior is not responding." "Last known location?" "Residence is his manor at Ribotera Cliffs." "Do we have communication with the palace in Sapphire?" "That array appears to be down. Correction - there is a faint return from the artifact, but no being is operating it." "What is the time?" "Unable to determine." "What is the nearest transportation vehicle?" "I do not understand." At Rory's prompting, Chalker requests "nearest active communication nodes, limit ten." After about a minute, the console responds, "I find none within five hundred miles." "Nearest active one outside five hundred miles?" "There are over two thousand nodes in the comm array. Checking all of them will take about twenty-four hours." "Diagnostic of comm array?" "As expected." The console can, in an emergency, contact the owners of the suite, but it is not permitted to give that information to 'unidentified operators,' and Chalker doesn't agree to undergo a "deep scan verification."

Meanwhile, Rory has plugged a crystal into the upper left console section, and the walls begin to glow. He tries stepping through the gate, and the defensive glow intensifies.

Chalker asks one final question, "Is this comm node being scanned?" "No." He says politely, "Thank you for your help," but gets no response to this pleasantry. Peering inside the console, he notes a number of carved stones, crystals, and intricate magic items. Beneath the one panel that did not react when a crystal was plugged in, the workings are obviously burned out. Rory unplugs all the crystals.

From one of the bedrooms, Chalker takes a handful of stones and a picture frame. Returning to the manor, he gives these items to Trace. The frame has an activation phrase carved on its base, and when the phrase is spoken, an illusory picture appears of a man, woman, and three children. The stones, when held for more than five seconds, cause other pictures to appear.

That night, Chalker finds Mensep, Jax, and Roo standing sentinel over him. He asks Jax, "How's the plan going?" Jax: "I am walking the balance between Mother and Father. She is dilly-dallying with the Dark Lord's plan. Father is still neutral, however." "You seem down." "I am; the plan is not going well." "Is there such a thing as a Third Chosen?" Jax explains briefly that the First Chosen are the creators, the Second Chosen are their designates, the 'doers,' and the Third Chosen include the children of the First as well as certain elves who have been elevated to that level.

Chalker: "I want to talk to Envy. I hear she wants to do me harm." Jax: "Only as she is aligned with the Lord of Darkness." Chalker: He should just let it go. That was a long time ago."

In the morning Chalker tells the others, "I might get to talk to Envy before she eats me." He invites Trace to come gate-hopping with Rory and him, but Trace replies that someone needs to stay back in the manor. "You can poke your head through; I'll be around."

Mid-afternoon, Chalker places the final crystal in a new gate, and sand begins trickling through it. As he steps through, a woman's screams are heard. He is on a beach, and in the waters nearby is a ship that flies no flag. The gate is propped semi-upright on a sand dune, and there are several men with their backs to the gate.