Jynx finds himself buried in paperwork associated with the railroad, and is trying to work on it when Eve interrupts him with a cry of murder – but she's just asking him if he thinks staging 'pretend' murders for passengers to solve on the train would be a good idea, and to announce that someone is waiting to see Jynx.

A strangely dressed calico Khatta girl greets Jynx when he comes to see who it is, and appears to know him. It takes some time before the black Khatta realizes she is Cleo, a childhood friend who moved to a new neighborhood when her family's business became more successful. Cleo is now a Chaos Mage (in training), following in the pawsteps of her aunt Fyiara, current Dean of the School of Chaos.

Cleo is visiting to study the way Titanians engineer machines for fault tolerence on the surface, and also asks Jynx if he'd like to visit Caroban to let some of the Chaos Mages study him. He thinks the 'Strange Attractor' stuff is really all just coincidence, until he tries flipping a coin, which turns out to be more difficult than it reasonably should be.