High above Babel, the sky is girded by the white start of the Procession, pure and bright. Beneath the heavens, torches burn orange and red, an angry mimicry of the stars above, carried by a procession of at least a hundred Eeee. They swarm in from the south towards the tall, stark tower of Babel's Guild Hall of Magic. As the first ranks of the Eeee close upon the tower, a stark, unearthly howl blasts over the city, echoing in the streets far below. Many of those at the forefront veer off, and the swarm mills in the air, disconcerted.

The leaders turn and scream to the other Eeee, their voices inaudible until the howl starts to fade, and even after, their words – "It's just a mage's trick!" – seem a feeble whispering in contrast to the angry howl.

Almost unseen, a single rakhtor wings its way to the tower, cloaked in shadow. It steers wide of the mob, but with a desperate speed that lets it gain distance on the slower, unmounted Eeee.

Rory looks down, and sees that – not surprisingly – there's no hope in getting to the tower in time to warn the occupants before the mob hits. After all … it's already here. Thus, his original plan has gone by the wayside, and he strains to try to think of something, anything he can do other than to just watch the ensuing violence. He finishes another chant to try to keep the Obfuscate going, then says, "I don't think standing up and begging them to please be nice is going to make them change their minds, is it? We'd better go for the tower, though, in case there's anyone stuck outside who might get caught up in the mess!" He tries to goad the rakhtor toward the main gate, which seems the most immediate way to reach the tower, even though it means cutting across the path of the mob. My Obfuscate isn't going to last long, like this, Rory thinks, but I'm really really short on ideas. I can't just watch." "Uhm, if you've got any ideas, ma'am … "

Tanieta shakes her head, soundlessly, clinging to the reins of the rakhtor. She seems numbed, almost hopeless. She turns the rakhtor's head to cut inwards, towards the landing platform. "Gusty's work," she says. It takes Rory a moment to remember the Gusty is the Guild's air mage.

The unicorn sighs, then says, "Don't worry, ma'am. I'll try not to do anything really stupid. I mean, if I could go down and do something heroic like standing up and making a speech, I'd do it, but, uh … they don't really know me, and if they did, they'd just know I was a mage, and probably squish me good. And I can't yell that loud anyway. And I haven't got wings if things get ugly – which they already are. Uhm … I know this is really cowardly, but seeing as we're both life mages – me sort of, anyway – we may only be useful in picking up the pieces afterward. I mean … oh, goodness, this is bad." He goes back to muttering incantations to try to keep the obfuscation going for as long as it can before it pops.

The surly crowd of Eeee is recovering from the initial shock of the howl. The ringleader throws something – a rock, probably – at the main doors, shouting something that Rory's ears can't catch. It thuds against the closed doors, but no one comes out, and no other motion moves to stop them. The mob spreads out, moving to assault the tower from different sides, though they still seem hesitant. The rakhtor touches down on the broad landing platform moments after the thrown rock hit the great doors. Tanieta scrambles off and bolts toward the little side door used by servants when the main one is shut.

Rory looks worriedly at his mount, and pats it as he gets down. "If anyone tries to hurt you, you fly off and just worry about yourself, okay?" he bids it, hoping dearly that somehow it can understand. "We'll … uhm … we'll manage for ourselves. I hope." He tries to rush after Tanieta, though his legs are considerably shorter.

Tanieta reaches the doorway first, and she pounds on it desperately. For a moment, Rory has a sudden feeling of dread that they're not going to be opened, and the two of them are going to be trapped out here, between the angry crowd and their target. A piece of debris sails past his head. Then the door is opened, and a red-robed mage beckons them inside. Twin globes of fire glow over his head, limning his body in orange-red light. Tanieta slip past him, and then, for no reason obvious to Rory, as the little unicorn reaches the entrance, the mage closes his eyes. Then the scene around him is thrown into sudden, stark relief, as if a lightning had just flashed somewhere at Rory's back.

The unicorn makes a squeak of alarm, and rushes on in, not desiring to look back to see just what happened. If it's important, Rory decides, someone will tell me… He lets out a stream of words, "There's a big mob coming and they were at the Wound and they're going to try to bring death to the mages, so we have to get everyone out and to safety because it's going to be really really ugly this time and I don't think anybody's gonna be able to stop it, so we'd better do something fast and I think maybe someone ought to shoo off the rakhtor so it doesn't stick around and get hurt out there, unless there's really no point in us staying and we should just leave right now and maybe take someone with us to safety!"

"We're not leaving, son," the fire mage says, with a calm that contrasts starkly with the boy's distress. "Not those of us who are left." A tall, gaunt Eeee whose white fur swirls with dyed-red patterns, he glances down at Tanieta and Rory, as if seeing them for the first time, and frowns. "You were better off clear of here." He stares at the door, now closed again, then squares his shoulders, and puts a hand on the knob.

Rory looks to Tanieta. "I don't want to be useless. Is there a message you need delivered? Someone sick to be carried out? Anything? I … I want to do something."

The mage pauses. "I'm not sure what the others need help with. Gusty's preparing an air blast, I expect. The flash we just saw was a triggered spell left by the scryer … he's already gone. Cyprian is down in the dining hall – it's pretty deep in, take a while for them to get there – with Kris. They're working on a combined ritual to scare the crowd – an illusion mixed with a mind spell of fear. Might work. If they have time." Something thuds against the main doors, then a rock thumps into one of the glass panes next to it – and rebounds.

Rory looks back out. "What do I need to do to make sure the rakhtor's safe? I don't know how to command it to just go on its own. Is it smart enough to just fly away?" He bites his lip. "I've only got one held spell, and it's just an Enhance Sense. About all I can do with that is see when they're coming a little better." He tries to stand up straight. "If you've somewhere for me to be, to be ready to tend to wounded, I'll do my best, sir."

Tanieta, like Rory, seems to be looking for someone to tell her what to do, lacking even the unicorn's ambition to run through possibilities. "Go down to the dining hall, then," the fire mage tells them. "Or out the south entrance. I think your rakhtor's already flown, Rory. Flash spooked it. The ones who fled went to West Park Tower. Any road … I'm going out there to get their attention." He turns the door knob.

"Wh-wh-what? You're going out … alone?!" the unicorn squeaks. "What are you going to do?"

"Distract them. Hold them off a little longer. Give the others time to finish," the fire mage answers.

The unicorn bites his lower lip. He rushes up and throws his arms around the fire mage's waist. "Please … please be careful, sir! They won't be nice to you. I don't want anyone to get hurt."

The older mage pats Rory's shoulder a little awkwardly. "Late for that, I'm afraid. Run along, now." Another few rocks soar into the windows, rebounding. (The earth mages must have reinforced the windows after the last riot.) "If I don't do this now, they'll be too wild for me to give them pause." He tries to pry the boy loose, ready to open the door again.

Rory lets go. "Can I please know your name, sir? I don't even know your name and you're going out in front of those angry people to help everyone." He backs away, and lifts a sleeved hand to cover his muzzle.

"Nuri bar Emmanuel," the Eeee answers. He opens the door, and steps outside, closing it behind him. Through the window in the door, Rory can see sparks fountain out from the mage's hands. "You've come to the guild for a mage!" he shouts. "Here I am! So tell me – who wants to be first?"

Rory can't hold back the tears now. "Oh … no, no, no, this isn't right! Tanieta, we can't just let him go out there. They'll kill him!" He looks back. "Do you think they'd listen to me? I mean, they think it was Envoy going around healing people, but … maybe they'd know it was me? I could try to tell them that we're trying to help … that we really don't want to hurt them… "

The life mage looks back at him. She has a look about her, like a rodent paralyzed by fear in the face of a diving hawk. She opens her mouth, but no sound comes out. Outside, Nuri sprays another shower of sparks in a semi-circle before me. "Who wants to be first?" he roars. Something thuds onto the platform near him, but apparently as riled-up as the Eeee have been, the sight of an actual spell-casting mage is still enough to give them pause.

Rory rushes over to the door. "I can't just stand and watch. I'm sorry … I'm sorry, Silhouette. I know I'm supposed to stick around and all … but I can't just let someone go out and get squished." He turns the knob on the door.

Another bit of debris lands near Nuri, as Rory opens the door. It spatters something – mud, perhaps – onto the red robes of the mage. "Is that a volunteer?" the tall Eeee shouts. He projects his voice well, echoing into the crowd. He raises one arm, fist glowing red with power, and points it in the direction the debris came from.

The unicorn tries to gather his courage, then dashes on out. I don't know what the right thing is to do, Rory thinks, but Corwyn wouldn't just do nothing. He conveniently blots out that Corwyn's 'doing something' might involve chasing down dragons. Things are complicated enough as it is. He invokes the last word of his held spell of Enhance Sense, so he can at least tell what he's facing – and since there's little else he thinks he can do with the spell at this point. He rushes out.

"Please! Everybody! Stop! This is wrong!" he screams in Babelite, at the top of his lungs.

With his sight improved, Rory can clearly discern that there's at least a dozen Eeee standing at the far end of the platform, some holding torches or knives, others with just planks or rocks in their hands. Still more circle in the air, warily. A voice Rory recognizes as the one exhorting them by the Temple to Rinala shouts, "Wrong is what your kind have done to us, mage!" He throws a rock at Rory, but it falls short, bouncing against the platform. "Wrong is the Wound!" Nuri's arm swings about, and the unicorn can guess that he's trying to target the mob leader.

"Nuri! Please, no! I'm all right!" he calls out to the fire mage, then jerks his head back to the leader. "You're right! The Wound is wrong! My friend, Skiree, died when the Boomer dropped! I grew up here in Babel! I have lots of friends who died here. The whole Guild Hall got destroyed. We suffered too!"

The Eeee pauses, his hand still held out. The flaming globes over his head dance and intertwine, as the ring leader steps to the front of the crowd. "Destroyed because of you! Confessed by one of your own number! Don't listen to their lies! Kill them!" He gestures with a wing and an arm for the mob to move forward.

Stirred, at least to some degree, by the inciter's agitation, the rioters advance again. More pieces of debris are hurled towards Nuri, one slapping against his leg. He flinches, but he holds his ground … and his fire, for now.

"Please, don't do it!" the unicorn cries out. "This man, right here, he's Nuri bar Emmanuel! He's one of YOU! MOST of us were born and grew up here right in Babel! This is our city, too! We wouldn't dream of harming it! We're trying to help put it back together – to heal people, to fix broken things, to help you find lost ones!"

The leader screeches, "More lies!" He charges forward, the mob behind him – just as a dozen or so Eeee swoop down from the sky, armed with swords and knives, and interpose themselves between the crowd and the two mages, brandishing their weapons.

"No," one of the newcomers says, "More truth." He holds his sword at ready, while the mob hesitates, looking startled by the sudden interruption.

"Please!" Rory cries out, not quite ready to relax and think that a few armed Eeee are going to hold off a mob. "If you have a problem with us, you can talk to us! We want to help you – so we'll listen! We'll even listen to you now – though it'd be awfully nice if you weren't trying to kill us, you know! I want to help! I know there are lots of other little girls like Skiree out there – my friend – and I want them to grow up to be happy, like Skiree should have. If there's a way we can help, please let us know – just trying to kill us won't help anything, please!"

"You /say you want to help, but – " the ring leader starts, but the same speaker as before, from among the new toughs, overrides him.

" – He does help. He saved my friend's life tonight. Just a street tough, no one that would matter to any mage, or any healer. But this mage saved him. He is fixing things. What are you doing?" The Eeee brandishes his blade.

The unicorn's jaw drops. He didn't imagine that anyone he helped would actually do something in response. He tries really hard to think of something worthwhile to say. Wow. He's a lot better at this than me! He looks back to the ring leader, to see if he has a snappy comeback for this one already.

The ring leader is sputtering, something about, "eradicating the evils that plague Babel" but he's clearly losing his edge, taken aback by the unexpected defenders.

The gang member goes on, "Eradicate evils? Then let's start with you." He points his blade at the other Eeee. "Or him. Or him. Or her." He walks the point of the blade down the front line of the mob. "Or … " He pauses " … me. We're the ones who have the problem. We're the ones who are tearing the city apart. They" He sweeps his blade back to include Rory and Nuri " – are trying to keep it together."

Rory dearly doesn't want to steal the gang member's steam while he's on a roll. He walks over to the fire mage, and reaches out to gently touch his sleeve, hoping it's a reassuring gesture. However, he gnaws his lip, still sweating bullets at the confrontation.

Some of those indicated snarl back, but others have the grace to look abashed. With others, it's not clear if they're re-thinking their position, or merely less eager to face a group of armed men and mages than they were to tear apart a simple building. The leader of the erstwhile mob tries to rally them, but his buzzwords of "Death" and "the Wound" sound forced.

"Who are you trying to help?" the gang member says, staring at him. "Who are you working for? Because it can't be Babel." Even the people who were following him, just minutes ago, start to look at the Eeee as if in a new light. With the crowd turning against him, the inciter shrinks away from the accusations, trying to meld back into the rapidly melting crowd he brought with him.

The unicorn looks back at the retreating inciter. As much as he's afraid of what this mob might do to the tower, and as much as he would like to see the inciter fly away in fear, he doesn't want to see things turn so "well" that he gets torn apart by the angry mob looking to vent its frustration. He just keeps holding onto the fire mage's sleeve, for his own assurance that there's someone at his side, as an attempt to let the mage know he's there.

Nuri, at last registering the boy's gesture, lowers his raised arm. He blinks a few times, startled by the way things have turned out. Some of the other armed Eeee the curiously eloquent gang member brought with him start forward, but their de facto leader raises his sword to halt them. "Let it go. There's been enough violence already. Just – go," he tells the mob. As if released, the crowd of Eeee – frustrated, regretful, or relieved – disperse. As the others are leaving, the Eeee turns to his fellows and dispatches some to scout the sides of the tower, for any remnants of the mob that "missed" the fact that the riot is over.

Rory just hugs the fire mage's arm tightly, still having trouble believing his eyes and ears.

Rory looks up at the fire mage, and whispers, "I'm so glad – I thought you were going to go out and die valiantly … but I'm a lot happier that you're still alive." He looks up at the gang members, his unlikely saviors. "THANK YOU!" he calls out after them, waving a free floppy sleeve. "I'll come by and visit your friend again! And … I'll bring him CANDY!"