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"So, who next?  Ariel?  Amber?  Parakile? I can't tell where they are or how they scattered. Wolfie, what do we do to save them all?" Wolfie just snorted. He obviously felt Parakile could take care of himself, and Amber could still draw on her nascent pyriad nature, while Ariel was human. Though when we found Ariel, we found Amber too, holding the gate and smiling a bit as we joined her. Parakile suddenly appeared, pulled back by the gate, covered in ichor, poison and blood, his bardiche barely missing me as he realized where he was. Just then Jean/John stepped through the gate, he had agreed to meet us after we had had some time to make arrangements so he wouldn't be running naked, or at least looking naked, through the streets. So, here he was, running against the clock before he looked naked again. Obviously we weren't going to have time to get him to the weavers before his current surcoat and such became invisible too. Guess he could do like Parakile and just cover himself in gore. Ick.  Bloody combat does things to your mind sometimes. Ick again. Parakile just smiled and said "Shalgathi, not well armored, weak poison, messy when cut in half." Amber suddenly relaxed.  "I've got the gate. The city is awake." I'd forgotten she had been a city spirit, but what kind of spirit could this place have?  Ninevah had gotten pretty ugly and sated on blood, what lurked here after all these years?  I blanched.   Amber saw the look on my face.  "I wasn't sure, but the city heart is still pure. I found it trapped and bound, long time slumbering, but willing to walk the paths. The evil that resided here so long did not corrupt it, but instead shunted it aside. Sea elves returning nourished it, though without the star shrine we reopened it could not have found a path out -- and would have dissipated and faded away like ancient mist once it was released, if it had. But the shrine gave it an opening. Now the gate is its home, and every enemy we slay gives it strength. Right now it can't do much but control the gate, but the sorcerer who set the magic on the gate to block it has been slain, so we can leave when we will, in the way we will, and I can see the city safely." Well, that was a change. I never knew city spirits could sleep. I only knew the ones in Ninevah and Babylon that had been corrupted. Even better, it knew the city, from the stars viewpoint and with the gate's magic. For a moment at least. Which meant that we suddenly knew where the Shalgathi were moving to the attack, and where the Queen's guards had decided to make their stand and where the Sea-elves, men and weavers had fled for refuge behind the guards. "Queen's guards?" Oh, the city to the south had sent help when the Shalgathi arose and attempted to take the city center.  All misrule had broken lose as sleeping horrors and creatures stirred.  Maybe we could make a difference, maybe we would just die with them. I told Amber to flee home, but I could not abandon those in the city to chaos and prepared myself to die with them. Wolfie stood with me, his faith in me frightening and reassuring at the same time. John looked stark naked, except for his sword. Parakile began to sing and then Michael was there with half a score of the Elachi. "Heard there was a party, and decided to join.  Hope no one minds terribly much." Suddenly we had enough for hope, especially as the gate would put us instantly to our enemies back, with total surprise, so I jumped, Wolfie following me, my hoping that KoreShira would find its way to me. Which is how we met the Queen's Champion as he held the center of the way against any who would challenge it.  Yes, he got trampled a little by the disorder we invoked when and as we broke them from behind and some fled in a stampede, but his men made a sally as they saw him go down and slaughtered those whose panic carried them over him. Ok, I've simplified things. I've also made it seem a lot more certain than it was. Not to mention, the Kjttha demonmaster had come from outside rather than being an early escape from where the prince was sealed, and we knew that others might come, more able to calls sorcery before we could overwhelm them hand to hand. We didn't know what would aid our enemies, though as the ground writhed with the tentacles of the Shalgathi, golems walked among them, and there were ancient horrors I would rather not remember, who could tell what else would surface. Yes, some paniced at first, and the Queen's Champion was knocked from his feet, but if his men and the others had not charged from the resort we would have been swallowed in the counter-attack and would have been lost. That is Thalia with the bladestorm running, fire underneath her.  As one of the Shidhe she has many looks, this one is part illusion too, but perhaps closer than her other look. That is Thalia with the Kjjtta prince, as the bladestorm unleashed, you can see she has dropped a lot of the illusion around her as she vaults out of the way. We barely made it. But telling the story as it really was sends a chill down my spine. We cheated death and worse that day, by the narrowest of margins and my duty almost led everyone to their deaths and devourments, their souls bound as restless ghosts to serve evil masters and their bones ground to make meal and bread, because I could not leave those others to face chaos and die alone. There is a reason blue lodge assassins stalk alone or in pairs. If we die, we lead few others to their dooms and we can let duty and ancient pledges carry us into the doomed frays that make us so feared by those who know that no justice can reach them unless the one carrying it is resigned to death. But being resigned to the death of others? I'm not sure I can do that. So there I was, caught up in shuddering reaction as the last of the Shalgathi brood-mothers fell and as the Queen's Guard let out a great cheer and the leader of the weavers gave John quite the eye up and down (not to mention, he drew a crowd of interested young women) and Wolfie grabbed me in his arms, kissed me square on the lips and tossed me into the sky. Reflex took over and I summersaulted and landed on my feet in front of him, right into another hug. Amber suddenly went from fire elemental to solid and grabbed Parakile, who got the hint, and from across the square Ariel blew Michael a kiss. Light sprang out and then Marie came through the gate, carrying a picnic basket and chatting with Tindalasse and Pork Chop. Boy did they give the scene a look.  Fire everywhere, blood, ichor, smoke and poison sludge, not to mention Jean/John looked stark naked. "Must have been quite the party" is all Tindalasse said. "So Jean, going to put your clothes back on?" Marie added.  Then she ran to him and Thalia was suddenly on the back of a Dreppnir, above the crowd with Tinda looking fierce and lightning crowding the sky above us. The weaver laughed and pulled and suddenly the illusion of nakedness was in her mandibles (did I just see them through the illusion she usually wears) and she was gone and John no longer looked quite so naked. Darn right clothed, what with full armor and more on him. He did blush, but the illusion was gone. Michael's party from home bade him farewell and we began to help clean up.  Amber said this would be a good place for those of her people from her city who wanted to breed (they have children by splitting sometimes, and they were due for that process -- which would put them out of the right number for the city, but if the excess came here, they would form a nucleus for the city's spirit to work with, restoring it more).  They needed a place that needed them, and she whispered and Pork Chop was off with the message. Suddenly, a courier burst through the gate. "Disaster and rebellion.  We are in dire need.  To arms my brothers!" and the Queen's Guard was gone. We owed them, and had to follow, though Tinda sent Thalia back on his Drepnir to summon aid.  I set Parakyle to gathering the Weavers and some caravan guards, Spindles and quaShitheth (Sea Elves), to go with us. Then we would go through the gate as well.

Os. I'll write more when I get time to breath,  but it is a war everywhere.

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