The grand celebration at the castle continues with fireworks and other festivities. Isabelle is watching from a balcony when she suddenly senses a presence behind her. As she casually turns around, feigning no suspicion, she sees a figure standing in the doorway — Bleys! She is delighted to see her father. (Add detail about the tattoo.)
Gerhardt finds out that Cassandra comes to the Grove of the Unicorn (?) almost every day and goes into a trance. He is approached by a guard and summoned to the throne room, where he finds Silas and Jericho.
Fiona and Random are talking on the far side of the room using some type of military code. Something ominous is going on. Jericho and Silas share their intel with Gerhardt. Between them they are able to decipher most of it.
Random and Fiona have been studying the Sorcerer Kings as they took them down. The two develop a WMD of sorts and plan to unleash the Abyss back on the Sorcerer Kings. At present, this is a complete victory for Amber. Silas gets the distinct impression that Fiona is unhappy — even worried — about the direction things are heading.
Silas finds the steward, Ian, and catches up on the situation around the castle. Ian suggests that Silas talk to the Oberon up in the tower and get his own impression of him.
* ISABELLE MAKES A TRUMP OF IAN *
Because of his upcoming trial in the Fae realm, Silas secures the counsel of Bill Roth. Silas divulges all the details of the Summer Court Massacre, and they agree to meet for a formal meeting in about a week.
The group assembles on a new mission to go to the land of the giants to retrieve the Heart of Winter from the giant Loknir. The new security system on the USS Minnow detects an intrusion in his cabin. He goes to check on it and finds that his door has been picked and the safe was opened. The code cipher is missing!
Silas calls for an immediate dive underwater. The crew rushes everyone down below. Isabelle grabs her work in progress off the easel. Isabelle psychically searches for any Trumps activated for travel on the ship and finds one down in the hold. She tries to stall the contact, but the best she can do is keep the contact open.
Silas, Jericho and Natasha run down to the hold to confront the thief. They see the shimmering rainbow remains of the Trump contact. Jericho dive through and sees that the figure he's chasing is the youngest son of Duke Quael of a minor house in Chaos. He is riding a multi-winged dragon towards a black castle in the distance. Jericho shifts into demon form and takes chase.
Natasha puts on her ring so she can keep in touch with Isabelle and follows after Jericho.
Jericho begins to catch up to the fiend, pushing himself hard. The boy throws something like a ball of fireflies and they disperse towards Jericho. He ignores them and uses his crossbow to launch a bolt into the dragon's haunch. It slows down and falls lower to the ground.
Suddenly the "fireflies" attack Jericho. He manages to destroy most of them, but a few strike him with a deep, sharp, intense pain that radiates outward. He powers through the pain and takes down the boy. He trumps Gerhardt in hopes to pull them both back to Amber.
Gerhardt answers a trump call, and it's Dworkin. He pulls Gerhardt through to his cave. Gerhardt receives another trump call. This one is Jericho, who tosses his captive through and comes through, surprised to see Dworkin on the other end. Dworkin is fuming and stomps on the boy's head, popping it like a pimple.
"You are setting this in action that cannot be undone. You will not be happy with the outcome. I'm not ready for him. Nobody is," Dworkin warned Gerhardt. "Do one thing for me. When he calls in your debt, tell me BEFORE you do anything." He turns to Jericho. "How badly do you want your father back? Talk to Cassandra before you make any hard choices about that. Don't do it unless you are finished establishing yourself and have a family you can count on."
He continues, talking to both of them again. "They are breaking through. You're not ready for them. I'm hurting. It's going to be here very soon." His hand begins to drip like wax. He moves very slowly, still holding Gerhardt by the neck.
Jericho trumps Isabelle and asks her to help him and Gerhardt, who is trying to determine if it would help to bring Dworkin with them. For a brief moment, Gerhardt sees into Dworkin's mind. There is a Pattern reaching out in all directions, but the outer edges of it are being smashed. As it crumbles, it pains Dworkin immensely.
(The remainder was hand-written and will be transcribed shortly.)