The gray mists brush across the stone tile of the circle that once was framed by seven archways, and now only adjoins two. They split and combine, disperse and then coalesce, forming a whirlwind that picks up the silty gray sand as it goes, then spins in place, widening … then abruptly breaking up and vanishing. In the place of the whirlwind, there now stands a winged ki'rin Exile.

The breeze plays teasingly with the Aeolun's mane. Once again, the rules have changed, as long ago, it was only an unfelt wind that stirred the mists. As the wind shifts, it brings with it sounds of laughter and music from Inala's mountain. The fickle wind does not remain there long, however, opting to shift once more and bring a sample of Sunala's mount – a faint echo of a tolling bell, and a murmur of chanting voices.

Upon seeing Blakat's archway closed, Envoy lets out a sigh of relief. She hadn't been sure that she could beat the Goddess' final challenge in the real world. The addition of the tower to the mountains, however, makes her relief short-lived. Looking up, she checks to see if Morpheus' cell has moved.

Envoy finds that the incongruous link to Morpheus' prison is still there, once she specifically looks for it.

With a flapping of her wings and a leap upwards, she heads for the entrance – and prepares for the switch in perspective that will accompany her entry.

By now, it's become almost routine. Up becomes down, down becomes up, and Envoy finds herself once more inside a cavernous crystal chamber, in the center of which is the prone and giant form of Morpheus, both living creature and wounded statue. Around the room are the places where once stood seven goddesses, though there are only two now. One of them is Inala, holding the crystal heart of Morpheus. The other is Sunala. Only two cables remain.

Envoy makes her way to across the giant's chest to a familiar crystal near his gaping wound, and presses her horn to it. "Morpheus, can you hear me?"

"Yes," comes Morpheus' belabored voice, and the perspective shifts. Morpheus is no longer a giant, but rather a normal-sized being – half Khatta, half Eeee, yet not really either – lying on a slab of stone, and the two remaining statues are merely life-sized. "Thank you … again."

A smile flickers across Envoy's muzzle, but then she says, "There is a tower of stone and crystal between Sunala and Inala now that I hadn't noticed before. Is this a sign that the ritual is nearly complete?"

Morpheus nods slightly. "It may well complete … within a sphere … two at the most."

Envoy chews on her lower lip. "Are you feeling any stronger? Can you resist the ritual at all yet?" she asks, trying not to sound worried.

"Stronger … yes," Morpheus whispers, "but not strong … enough … to end this … myself."

"Who is the greater drain," Envoy asks, "Inala or Sunala?"

"Inala," Morpheus says without hesitation. "She is … the greater. Sunala … her hold varies."

Envoy nods, thinking that Sunala would be weaker when the Sea of Souls is absent. "Can you tell me anything of the stone and crystal tower?"

"They are creating … another entity," Morpheus says. "I … can sense a growing presence … there. It … is not being formed … like the others. It … draws from the others. If the others … were not taken out … of the ritual … it would be stronger … but Inala's completeness … feeds it all the more. I do not think … Inala will … survive … the completion of this ritual."

"So they are creating a new god to take the power of the others," Envoy mutters. "Morpheus," she asks, "can you still manipulate the crystal near the sites where the ritual is performed?"

"Perhaps," Morpheus whispers. "… but it is not something … to test … lightly. They … are very anxious … They realize that their hold … on me … is tenuous at best … just as it is on … all things … in this ritual."

Envoy nods and asks, "I thought that if you could make the crystal resonate and produce a sound, it would be enough to make them risk performing their rituals away from it where they might be detected. And some frequencies could cause them discomfort or worse if the amplitude is high enough. Other mages might even be able to find them by following the sounds."

Morpheus winces. "You do not realize … what they can do to me. I … I experience pain. 'Pain' seems too weak … a word … to describe it. … I have come to know … many ways … of dying … slowly. If I were to do such a thing … they would find ways … to break me. It is not … something … I could keep up."

"Never mind then," Envoy says, placing her hand on his forehead. "Do you think Inala can feel this new creation drawing power from her yet?"

"I'm sure she can," Morpheus hisses. "But she is too lost in her ways … to realize … the truth. It would be … too … unpleasant."

"What about Rephath?" the Aeolun asks. "Can you sense her at all, or whether power is being drawn from her as well?"

"I sense … nothing of her," Morpheus whispers. "I do not know … if she is still … there at all."

"I don't know how to destroy Inala," Envoy admits. "The parts of me that she had the greatest influence over are missing or damaged now, so I don't even know if she can affect me like she did before, or if she would try to kill me. But I can't let her be absorbed, because I don't know what information she's taken from my database."

Morpheus is silent a while, and then he says, "I do not know what … path you could take … puzzles you might solve … things you might do. Here … the rules are vague … subject to change … subject to whim … subject to whomever has the strongest will … If there is a way … you will not find it … You will need to make it."

"If I could reach that tower, do you think there might be a way to divert the energy being focused there back to you?" Envoy asks, a thoughtful look on her face.

"She is still … a creation of myth. Even if she is independent," Morpheus coughs, "she wills herself to be Inala. … If … there is anything to be done with her … anything to have power over her … it must lie within … the myths … that she looks to … for her identity." He then pauses, mulling over Envoy's question.

"If you were … a Chaos Mage … it might be possible," Morpheus says, "but they have … Chaos Mages … as well. They have … been at this … for many years. It would take … more than just … one intruder … to make it all … fall apart."

"That is why," Morpheus says, "I have tried … finding weaknesses here. A ritual … of this magnitude … is beyond anyone's … full comprehension. The very nature … of a major ritual … is that … there are mysteries. None will know … exactly how it works … until it completes. There is no way … to cover all the holes … to protect from every unknown quantity."

"Least of all," Morpheus adds, "in something as vague … as variable … as dreams."

"I should try to find a way to the tower then, just in case," Envoy says, and begins to review the myths and stories she's read regarding Inala, looking for any that dealt with her actually being killed or imprisoned. "I still have hope that Sunala can be brought down in the waking world, if the walking Srinala is located."

Morpheus nods weakly. "She sleeps now."

"I will try to find a way to the tower then, before challenging Inala," Envoy declares. "Is there anything I can do for you before I go?"

Morpheus smiles faintly. "The mere asking … is more than enough."

Envoy smiles back, and then pulls away from the God of Dreams.

The scene shifts, and Envoy is back in the room with the prone statue of Morpheus, and the idols of Inala and Sunala.

Spreading her wings, Envoy flies up/down back to the Crossroads, and starts looking for a path that might be found between the arches of Inala and Sunala.

As she looks, at first, the idea seems preposterous. There are two archways, and they are right next to each other. Why would there be a space between them? Where should such a path go?

"The tower is between the mountains," Envoy tells herself, as she bends down to inspect the cracks and small spaces between the stones of the archways. "Everything else is accessible from the Crossroads, so there should be some way to reach that tower. Otherwise … I'll have to try and open a way from Paradise, perhaps?"

At first, it seems to occur to Envoy that, really, there should just be a single column between the two archways … but as the idea has already entered her head of a way between the archways, that notion doesn't keep a strong hold on her. The area between the columns seems vague, hazy, as if it's not meant to be focused on … a flaw in the scene … a spot on a painting that was missed … it seems to resist Envoy's efforts to force definition on it by the mere act of focusing on it.

After a few moments of trying to focus on the blind spot, Envoy tries closing her eyes and reaching out to where it ought to be.

Envoy's hand, fully extended, fails to touch anything solid. She feels a chill breeze brush across her muzzle, sweeping through Sunala's archway.

She takes a step forward, following her hand and using the direction of the breeze to tell her which way not to turn. She doesn't feel up to a visit to Sunala's realm while the Sea of Souls is in place.

There's a bit of uncomfortable uncertainty as Envoy steps forward, but at the very least, she does not encounter a wall, and it does not seem that she is walking into the breeze. The breeze fades away, however, as if Sunala has realized that Envoy might actually get any benefit of it and were determined not to give her any more freebies.

Envoy takes a few more steps, until she's sure she has covered enough space to be on the other side of the archways, then opens her eyes.

Somehow, Envoy has walked far away from the crossroads, and now stands in the middle of a triangle formed by the tower (which is in front of her), and the two mountains (which are behind her, and to each flank). The tower seems a copy of the Tower of Babel, only all the more grand, for it does not have buildings crowding all around it to hide its true size.

"Big," the Aeolun comments, and starts walking towards the towers base. "There are no myths for this, though … so will there be challenges?" She considers simply attempting to fly to the top of the tower, but decides to check for paths leading up or into it first.

A long, spiraling path works its way around the tower, the circuit considerably longer toward the bottom, where the base is wider, and tightening (relatively speaking) as it goes up toward the top.

Deciding the path is there for a reason, Envoy steps onto it and starts walking the spiral towards the distant peak.

Envoy's trek takes her around and around the tower, though it's hard to make a connection between her progress and any actual distance walked, and time passing. Her ears fill with the high-pitched cricks of … a chibix up ahead.

Approaching with a bit more caution now, Envoy makes her way towards the sound of the chibix, wondering why such a creature would be here.

As Envoy works her way around, she can see that alongside the stone path, there is a little alcove cut into the stone … a guard post, it seems, with some shelter from the elements (if there should be any to be concerned about). A skeleton of a guard in skedat armor is slumped inside the guard post, and upon his skull sits a little purple-shelled chibix, chirruping and burring contentedly, evidencing no notice of Envoy just yet.

Finally, Envoy stands before the alcove. "Hello there," she says to the chibix, while keeping an eye on the skeleton, should the former guard forget that he is dead.

The chibix chirrups, "When Dronnel walked from Babel to Saskanar, I was his companion all the day. I was long before him, then little beside him, only half of the way. Then I was a little behind him, then farther still, then not at all to stay. Then I was back gain, his faithful companion. What is my name, can you say?"

Envoy blinks at this. "You must be his shadow then, since you only appeared during the day, and changed lengths as the sun moved from dawn to dusk."

The chibix chirrups merrily at Envoy.

"I suppose I get to continue then?" Envoy asks the chibix, but starts walking along the path again without waiting for an answer.

The chibix makes no move to stop Envoy. Neither does the skeletal guard.

It does not take long, however, before Envoy hears an ominous buzzing up ahead. It sounds like … a horrib.

Moving cautiously again, and suspecting another test, Envoy watches for the horrib. She doesn't want to get too close this time, just to be safe.

As Envoy moves closer, she can see another guard box, and just outside of it hovers a buzzing horrib. It looks like it has been sheltering inside the guard box, but something has agitated it. It is an especially large horrib, its shell marked by many scars and scrapes, and every one of its eyes has been gouged out. If this was a feature of some Babelite myth, it, alas, wasn't in any of the myths Envoy found the time to read.

"Hello," Envoy calls out, while keeping about ten feet away from the horrib.

The horrib buzzes angrily, responding to Envoy's sound. Envoy doesn't recall reading anything to indicate that horribs actually had ears – or that they do not – but it appears that here, this one most certainly has a sense of hearing, as it turns to face Envoy, its barbed tail lifting up from a slack position to point its glistening spike in the general direction of the Exile.

Envoy half-spreads her wings in case she has to out-fly the creature, and asks, "Do you have a challenge for me?"

The horrib buzzes toward Envoy, pincers out and snapping menacingly. Unlike the chibix, it doesn't offer a riddle.

Perhaps the challenge is just to get past, Envoy thinks. She turns around, and hurries back down the path to theprevious guard post. "Maybe that armor will fit me," she says to herself.

The horrib buzzes along all the way. When the chibix catches sight of the horrib, it lets out a loud, Eeee-like shriek, as it flaps away. The horrib stops momentarily, shuddering and flailing around blindly, striking stone, giving Envoy time to slip on into the guard post. The pieces of armor are on a skeleton, making it not all that difficult to remove them, as there is only bone and some withered tissue that they're fit upon, and thus more than enough slack. It looks like, if the horrib will give Envoy the time to do so, she could manage to protect her shoulders and torso by donning the armor, but it's not a complete suit.

Envoy struggles to get the bits of armor on over her robes,and also looks for a long wing bone that might serve as a weapon.

By the time Envoy gets the bits of armor onto her robes, and grabs a conveniently fallen wing bone, the horrib is almost right outside of the guard box. If she waits a moment more, she'll be trapped in here, and it looks like the horrib would have no difficulty sticking any of its claws or its stinger inside the guard box after her.

Envoy tries to disorient the beast with one of her screeches, so that she can hopefully slip past it to the higher part of the path.

The tactic works like a charm – even better than it did for the chibix. The horrib thrashes and shudders violently at the shriek, smashing into the stone wall a couple of times in its haste to rise up and out of the immediate "blast" of Envoy's voice. As a result, it looks like the way is open for Envoy to rush past before the creature recovers.

Running past the creature, Envoy turns and tries to stab it from behind with the bone she found, hoping it can pierce the tough shell.

*snap* No, it doesn't. The horrib spins around to face Envoy.

Envoy backpedals, and tries to slap the horrib back against the wall of the tower with her left wing while screeching at it again.

It doesn't seem that her wing by itself would be terribly impressive, but her screech seems to have just as potent an effect as it did before. She disorients the bug, causing it to thrash violently, and by knocking it against the wall, its close proximity practically guarantees that all its flailing will bring it violently into contact with stone.

Envoy aims what's left of the bone in a swing towards the monster's wings, hoping to disable them, and also cocking her own wing back out of the way before the thrashing claws get caught in the feathers.

The bone pierces one of the membranes, and catches there. As Envoy leaps back, the horrib thrashes about so violently that, with the bone caught in its wing, it manages to tear the membranes apart on its own, and then crashes violently against the pathway, doing even more damage to its wings … them tumbling off the edge. It buzzes angrily, spinning in a tight spiral, then bounces again and again off of the tower, disappearing into the gray mists that obscure the base far below.

Envoy shudders a bit, and starts back up the pathway. She decides to keep the bits of armor on, figuring the challenges are going to keep getting more dangerous.

Upward Envoy travels, and about the time that there should be another guard box … she notices that the tower is passing through a very dark cloud. Up ahead, where there should be a guard box, the way is completely obscured by thick fog, making it impossible to make out what is there. Envoy can make out faint sounds of … machinery? Something wooden, powered by who-knows-what, spinning around.

She pauses to think things through before continuing. "An Eeee could use echo-location to see through the fog," she reasons. "So maybe that is part of the challenge, to get around whatever is there without depending on vision." She steps cautiously into the fog, to see just how bad visibility is.

The visibility immediately drops starkly off to the point where Envoy can't see the tip of her own muzzle, far worse than any cloud in the real world would likely be – except, perhaps, in a Forbidden Zone, or thanks to the machinations of an air mage.

Envoy takes a step back, and tries to blow the fog out of her way by fanning her wings.

The fog stirs a little at the edges, but the effect upon the fog as a whole is less than impressive.

Stepping back again, Envoy starts to sing an enchantment to place on the stone path in an attempt to make it glow through the fog.

It takes some time … but after a bit, the stone begins to glow faintly … and then more brightly as Envoy continues to sing. There is an element of resistance here, and Envoy senses that if she does not continually sustain the spell with her singing, it will snap out immediately.

Envoy starts to follow the glowing path, keeping a watch for anything that obstructs the glow – an object on the path, for example – while keeping up her song.

As Envoy moves along, she can spot a shadow. It takes a moment and some effort on her part to make out what it might be … but it's a pole rising from the path, with arms radiating outward, with nasty-looking blades at the end of each arm, spinning about. It seems there are others as well. So long as she is careful, it looks like it is possible to navigate around these deadly obstacles … but blundering into them would not only result in considerable injury from the impact alone, but quite likely send her maimed body hurtling off the edge of the walkway.

Moving slowly so that she doesn't have to divide her attention too much between the blades and maintaining the spell, Envoy begins to inch her way around the devices, ducking underneath the blades when she can, but usually going around them.

Fortune is with Envoy for the moment, for she doesn't happen to blunder into any blades on the way past. She manages to maintain her spell long enough to get out of the fog … and onto a clear section of the path again. It looks like there's quite a distance to go yet…

Envoy pauses to catch her breath and rest her throat for a moment, then continues on along the path. Again, she wonders about the challenges. "Maybe they aren't trying to create a new god, just imbue the power of a god into a person."

Envoy's journey continues on … and on … and on. Every round-about point, she encounters another guard box, and not a one of them has an ordinary guard. Rather, it is some sort of beast, or a trap, or maybe only something engraved in stone. Some obstacles consist of simple riddles … all the more simple for anyone who has the least bit of familiarity with Babelite culture, and who can understand Babelite. Envoy, though she doesn't know the full body of Babelite myth (and what single living person does?) is better off than the average outsider, and her limited knowledge suffices.

A number of the other tests seem to be crafted in such a way that the average Eeee can easily deal with the challenge presented, whereas members of other species might fail. Still, there are still fundamental flaws in the setup: In particular, the tests don't account for the possibility that the contestant might be a mage, or generally resourceful.

After enough tests that most would have lost count of them (but Envoy, with her perfect memory, is quite certain that she's been through a total of forty-five) Envoy comes about … and can see the distinctive form of a Plaguebringer parked on the walkway.

Envoy hmms, and approaches the bio-weapon slowly. She's pretty certain the average Babelite, even if they got this far, would not know how to pilot a Plaguebringer – and any non-Babelite would certainly not have the knowledge.

The Plaguebringer makes no movement in response to Envoy's movement at all. It fully blocks the path, and it does not appear that it would be possible to continue, save to climb over it. However, it appears that the path does not continue beyond this point. Any Eeee with wings, of course, could simply fly up, and could have evaded just about all of these tests. But these challenges are strange that way.

"You must be the means for getting to whatever is next," Envoy tells the giant bug, as she approaches. Once she reaches the creature's head, she starts to search for some way to get inside of it.

A sense of deja vu strikes Envoy. Some of the features of the bug's design look similar to some of the structures she saw inside the "Avatar" ship, as the aspect of Dragon. It looks as if there is a spot she can grasp to open the hatch and gain access.

Envoy tries to open the hatch, and hopes the controls on the inside won't be too different from those she remembers from the hybrid ship Inala created from her memories… even though she never actually piloted the Avatar.

Sure enough, it slides open. The controls look fairly exotic, but they don't appear to be designed expressly to confuse the pilot. If she can't figure them out initially, she should be able to work things out … and odds are, there's not a protrusion sticking out for the random individual to slap as a "self destruct" device.

Envoy studies the controls while she settles into the cabin, and tries to logically place things. As bomb-carriers, it wouldn't make sense for the weapons release to be too close to hand, nor for other seldom used controls. She decides the flight controls would be the ones clustered near the center, where the pilot could handle them without having to look away too often. She selects the largest looking control near the center, and gives it an experimental nudge.

The largest control is something like a "joy stick", and with a bit of experimentation, she's able to get the Plaguebringer to spring to life. It takes off, and while it seems to threaten to bash itself against the wall a couple of times, Envoy is quick enough to learn from her mistakes, and in short order has the thing more or less under control … at the very least, to roughly go the direction she wants, not necessarily to perform acrobatics or fine, surgical maneuvers. And there are still many controls she's not sure about, and would probably be best not to randomly prod at.

Envoy does what she can to get the Plaguebringer to gain altitude, while looking for some sort of landing area further up the side of the tower.

The Plaguebringer soars upward, making considerably more progress than walking would, and even more than an Eeee's wings could hope to. At last, she reaches the top, where the tower abruptly ends in a flat plaza with a shrine of some sort built in the center. Guarding the shrine is a colossal statue of an Eeee … though it is very strangely stylized, and looks very mechanical in nature.

Envoy guides the bug-craft down towards the shrine, trying to land it somewhere in front of the statue. She isn't quite sure what to make of the odd figure, other than deciding it probably isn't a depiction of Dronnel's armor.

Envoy makes a fairly bouncy landing, but the bio-technical nature of the bug is that it does a good part of the landing itself.

Once the Plaguebringer seems settled, the Aeolun reopens the hatch and climbs out. She watches the statue suspiciously as she walks towards the shrine.

It seems that Envoy has good reason to be suspicious. The statue's right "hand" glows faintly from three round nozzles, and a few other points on the giant glow as well. It moves slightly, turning its featureless, visored face to regard Envoy, and it points the abbreviated glowing "hand" at her. "By whose authority do you enter the Tower?"

The voice reverberates, so loud as to make it laughable should Envoy pretend that she did not hear the query.

Envoy freezes in place at the sound and motion, realizing the statue is actually some sort of Titan. She tries to think up a reasonable answer. After all, who would have authority here? Not any of the Sisters, and not Morpheus. The mages responsible for it all are still unknown. Should she lie and claim the authority of the High Princess? Of the Sabaoth? With so many unknowns, she says, "By my own, as Envoy of Lothrhyn." When in doubt, tell the truth.

The Titan stands there, looking down on Envoy for a long and uncomfortable moment, and then, it steps back. "You may enter," it says, strangely enough. The glittering spectacle of the shrine lies before Envoy, with a flight of stairs leading up to a raised area, and a pair of tall and thin doors, each one three stories tall, leading into the sanctuary within. It is fairly impressive for a mere "shrine", yet that's the description that seems to come to mind, in comparison to the absurd proportions of the Tower itself.

Envoy forces herself to walk calmly to the base of the stairs, and then on up to the huge doors. She tries to push one of them open.

The doors swing open, revealing a sheer drop-off immediately beyond. It would seem that, from this point on, there is no choice but to employ one's wings.

Beating her wings, Envoy flies onward into the shrine.

Inside, it seems that the shrine is really nothing more than an entrance into the body of the Tower itself. And down below, the Tower is surprisingly hollow. Although the Tower seemed to be fashioned of solid stone on the outside, here there is the impression that it is fashioned entirely of translucent crystal, glittering with sunlight refracting through its myriad ripples. Of special import, however, is that there is a single large item filling the inside of the tower: a colossal statue of unreasoning proportions, of a regal female Eeee.

Envoy spirals down into the tower, until she can get a good look at the statue's face to see if it might be a depiction of the High Princess or not.

With all certainty, Envoy realizes that she is gazing at the very visage of the High Princess. And at that moment, the eyes open, glowing with inner light, and focus on Envoy. In a split instant, Envoy is keenly aware that her presence has been most assuredly detected, and whatever veils and fogs might have previously obscured the fact from the Royal Babelite Mages or any other observer of just what dreamers might be doing here … she is filled with absolute certainty that her presence, as Envoy of Lothrhyn, is known at this very moment. And those who know … are not pleased.

The light intensifies, rising to a blinding brilliance … so bright that even closing her eyes cannot shut out the glare.

Envoy reflexively throws an arm across her eyes, and tucks in her wings as she tries to drop down out of the statue's gaze …

And then …

Envoy awakens to find herself reflexively raising an arm to shield her eyes from the bright and obtrusive glare of the sun, as it is refracted through the glittering panes that compose the center of the ceiling in the chamber that serves as a luxurious guest suite during her stay at the Mages' Guild. Could it be? It must be noon already … and she hasn't been abducted by the Yodhblakat yet! They will no doubt be displeased at missing the opportunity.

Wanting to know just how much time she's lost, Envoy gets up off of the bed, and puts on her robes quickly. She rushes to the room's door, deciding to find Gusty and letting him know, without a doubt, that the High Princess is at the center of the mages' ritual.

To the best Envoy can tell, it's just a little past noon. As she rushes about, and asks directions, she at last finds Gusty out on one of the balconies, engaged in a ritual. From a quick perusal, it appears that he's trying to exchange the daily "news" with some distant air mages.

Envoy weighs the risks of interrupting the ritual, especially since it's one that could be very useful at the moment, so instead she stands where Gusty will notice her, and wears a rather desperate expression. On top of that, she keeps looking away to see if anyone is about to dive-bomb the balcony.

There don't appear to immediately be any bats with drawn swords about to fall upon the balcony, but – and maybe this is just paranoia – it seems as if there are several places from which, on neighboring buildings, there might be someone watching from the shadows.

Don't appear too paranoid! urges the shade of Dragon in Envoy's mind, and she tries to appear calm. At least the parts of her that aren't facing Gusty try to appear calm.

After some time, a little cloud descends from the sky, and hovers in front of Gusty. It starts forming runes. Gusty tosses some powders into the air, and a wind tousles them about. The powder spreads about, making a bit of a mess on the ground, most of it collects onto sheets of parchment in fairly precise arrangements … forming letters. The whole process happens fairly quickly, and it looks like this is how some of the mail arrives. (No wonder just about everybody who writes to Envoy uses the same stationery… )

At long last, the spell finishes, as the little cloud dissipates. Gusty finishes chanting, and starts cleaning up errant powders with a brush he pulls out, and a little wooden dustpan. Then, abruptly he starts, as he notices Envoy. "Wuh? How long've you been standing there?"

Envoy twitches. "Long enough. We need to go inside, and once you've set up a soundproofing spell I'll tell you why we may be under attack soon."

"Attack?!" Gusty repeats, and he hurriedly scoops up the parchments and most of the remnants of his supplies, though he skips the more thorough cleaning up that routine would normally dictate. He half-ushers, half-pushes Envoy back inside, and ducks into a side-chamber, then pulls Envoy in with him, and closes the door. He starts chanting, employing a minor-spell seal on the door (as the walls themselves should mostly suffice – Who better to create rooms for privacy against Eeee ears than Eeee architects?) and then he turns to Envoy. "Now … what's brewing?"

Envoy takes a breath, and says, "I found out the ultimate goal of the Dream ritual: it's all to turn the High Princess into a living goddess, and they may succeed in just a sphere if we can't stop them. And … they know what I and the other dreamers have been up to in there, and why all but Sunala and Inala have vanished. I may not be able to reach Morpheus again after this either. But the High Princess is definitely at the heart of it all."

Gusty's jaw drops. "Well … that's … that's pretty severe. I … I suppose we'd better get a report to someone … er … important. Who can do something about it."

"Like whom?" Envoy asks. "The Temple? It gets worse, too: if they succeed then Inala will be absorbed into the High Princess, and Inala was able to access a lot of my memories. With all that magic available, and the information from my database, they could produce advanced Plaguebringers or maybe even combat versions of myself."

Gusty blinks. "Wait a minute. You mean, you're telling me that you know how to make combat versions of yourself, and advanced Plaguebringers?"

"I was created by First Ones level technology," the Aeolun says, almost apologetically. "The information is stored in my memory, it just didn't have any use before this. But with the sort of power they could manifest, the Babelites might be able to overcome some of the obstacles or develop hybrid versions that will work here."

"Oh," Gusty says. "Heh. A pity I don't understand the half of this. But then, if I did, I suppose I'd have a much better paying job. All right … any suggestions, since you're the one bringin' the news?"

"Drop a boomer on the Tower of Babel," Envoy suggests. "Flood it, burn it, grind it under with a glacier. Anything to disrupt the rituals. Get every chaos mage on the planet to produce the ultimate Dispel ritual. They know we're going to try something now."

Gusty sighs. "Drop a boomer, eh? Don't say that one too loud. I suppose we probably need to get a message to Caroban, then … but if what you say is true, odds are they'd expect that, and anything I send can be intercepted by an air mage who is determined enough, and who doesn't care if I find out that he intercepted it."

"How secure is the Guild Hall?" Envoy asks. "Do we have the same rights as an Embassy would, so that attacking us here would be an act of war? Who here do you suspect of being a spy?" After a moment, she adds, "Should I try to get the Yodhblakat to help us?"

"Yup, attacking here would be pretty much an act of war. Not that Caroban is much in the business of waging war right now," Gusty says, blanching at the notion. "As for spies … Goodness. Just about anyone might be one. We're in Babel, for winds' sakes. And … " He does a double-take. "Get the Yodhblakat to help us? What, by relievin' us of every valuable in the building, and trashing it before the Babelites can? Mage Envoy, I'm thinking we need to get hold of someone in Caroban. You're talking about serious things here, and … uh … the sort of thing that I don't think we'd have any proof of, save if someone can conjure up a spell that can lend us a hand."

Envoy nods. "How about this then; you try to contact Caroban as usual and get the message through… just keep sending it every hour or so until you get a reply. Or maybe even if you get a reply, since that could be forged. The Yodhbarada may also be able to get a message through… I don't see any reason in not telling them everything at this point. I might have someone in the Yodhsunala that could keep tabs on the High Princess, but I don't know how to contact her discretely yet. I don't know if I should risk leaving the Guild Hall at all … but I'm probably at as much risk inside as outside."

Gusty snaps his fingers. "Oh yeah. Those Yodhblakat've been snooping around. Looking for to snatch you up again, I imagine." He pulls out some scratch parchment, and starts taking notes of magic circles … evidently working out different ways of getting a secure message to Caroban.

Envoy hmms. "Do you think I should stay with them? At … Blakat's Temple? I don't have to worry about the Goddess herself anymore, and it may be safer for me than here at the Guild Hall."

The wolf mage looks sickened at the notion of answering that question. "I suppose … in a very weird way, you just might be right. I guess they're awfully fond of you right now, storms know why. I mean, not to knock you or anything. Just no telling what motivates those girls."

"It'll give me access to the Yodhbarada too, since they come to watch the Blakatball games," Envoy muses, and gets an odd look in her eye. "Maybe I can get them to raid the Tower of Babel, if I can convince them that the mages are hiding treasure down in the crystal labyrinths."

Gusty slaps himself on the forehead. "Yeah. You can send them on a suicide mission, as a distraction while you come up with a real plan. Mage Envoy, the Tower of Babel is tightly guarded. It's where those Plaguebringers came out of when the Sabaoth went loony. And odds are it's got a lot more surprises in there, too, and they don't just leave it there untended for any and all to go barging in. Not even Yodhblakat, I'd say. Especially not. Remember, there's no law that says you have to let the Yodhblakat come in and trash your place. If you can defend yourself, you've a right to. Just don't expect someone to get them for you, if they got what's yours and got away."

"I know, but I'm feeling desperate, and the Yodhbarada just might know of a secret way into the Tower that really is still secret," the Aeolun says, slumping against the wall. "My only other options are to attack from within the Dream Realm, and that means defeating Sunala and Inala both before the ritual can be completed."

Gusty raises an eyebrow. "Okay, I'm a bit dusty on the details. That means you've gotten all the others whooped, right? Anyway … hey, be careful about dealing with the Yodhbarada. The Yodhblakat may like you for giving them a new game, but I don't know if you can count on all these other priestesses to act like they owe you favors and want to give you goodies for free. Odds are, if you ask something of them, they'll want something in return. And not just the satisfaction of a job well done, if'n you catch my drift."

"It's in their interests to help us now, I think," Envoy says. "I just have to let them know it. I'll worry about payment after the ritual is broken."

Gusty rubs his head. "All right, all right. You know a lot more about this than I do, so I'll dub you the expert. Now, what exactly do you want me to do here to be helpful, other than just telling Caroban to drop a boomer on the Tower of Babel?"

Envoy grins and nearly laughs. "Just let them know what's going on. They aren't going to tell us their plans anyway, for obvious reasons, but you should try to get the Guild Hall ready for a siege. Send home anyone that can be spared."

Gusty rubs his head more fiercely. "I'll try, Mage Envoy, I'll try. I don't myself have that sort of authority. But I'll see whose ear I can get, and see what can be done. When you say there's trouble, I say there's trouble, and hopefully I can convince the right people of that. That it for now, then? I get the feeling I'd best hop to it."

Envoy nods. "I probably won't be back tonight, and I don't know if I'll be able to contact you once I leave with the Yodhblakat. You probably shouldn't expect to hear from me."

Gusty sighs. "Oh joy. Listen … take care of yourself, okay? This is stormy enough without you sounding all fatalistic on me."

Envoy gives the Jupani mage a hug. "Don't worry, I'm very hard to kill and should be enough of a distraction to the mages so that they won't notice whatever it is the College tries. I promise not to raise any armies or attack the Tower though. I'll keep my subversive activities confined to the Dream Realm, if they aren't able to block me from it."

The wolf mage gives Envoy an awkward pat on the back. "All right. Whew. I'm sure glad you're on our side. Any road, I'm going to get on this now. I have some messages to deliver, and it'd be a grand opportunity for me to ask around while I'm at it. Fair winds, Envoy."

"Good luck to you too, Gusty. You're our only realistic hope of warning Caroban after all," the Aeolun says.

The Air Mage nods, checks his parchments, then cracks open the door. He looks both ways, then slips out, heading on his mail route through the Guild Hall.

Envoy waits a few moments before slipping out herself, and then heads for the main entrance, where presumably she'll be kidnapped by some irate Yodhblakat. To herself, she thinks, The Temple always warned me not to stir up trouble. Would they really mind though if I just did it here in Babel?