Cagliostro and Caelin are inside a highly defended lab, along with a small number of conscious people and a large number of unconscious people. The conscious people include: Natasha, the first demon from the bottle, and a later demon from the bottle who is restraining a crazed/indoctrinated demon. The crazed demon is wrestled to the bottle, leaving one demon on the outside. Caelin is trying to search for Slate's family using the fuzzy description so far. This is not working so well, so Cagliostro suggests mapping the entire environment. Caelin scries forward: this room, another room, rock, more rock, rock, rock, and then the edge of the planet about ten minutes later. Dirt, grass, atmosphere, etc. Behind (12, 6): This room, deep open cave, waterfall, rock, rock, more rock, rock, another cave system, a bunch of underground colonists living in some kind of tight environment (and straining their life support systems), rock, more rock, mantle, dirt, plants. Right (12, 3): Edge of the room, blocked. Left (12,9): Another room with a bunch of people screaming and shouting and trying to hack their way through solid rock to the room we're in. Then a stairwell, then rock, more rock, etc. Caelin burns his way through the 12, 6 block: he sees magma. And he notices that the spell wall protecting this room from the magma goes down when he burns through it. He replaces the wall, but notices that it takes some effort to maintain the gate. Caelin estimates that it would take the people at 12, 9 about half an hour to burn through the wall, if left unmolested. They are using conventional methods, like drills. Cagliostro opens a one-way gate into the next room. A large number of the people seem to be on a coffee break. There is an argument about whether the contract covers this, since the oxygen supply should have been exhausted by now. Cagliostro saturates the room with knockout gas. Mr. Weasel notices that other people are keeling over, mumbles to himself, and vanishes. Cagiostro checks with Caelin and discovers that the "no-teleport" block only covers the central lab. Cagliostro creates a gas mask, dons it, and modifies his gate to make it two-way and steps through. Most of the workers are unconscious, but some are being menaced by their now-uncontrolled gas-powered machines. Cagliostro causes the fuel to go away. The machines stop abruptly. There is one person still fighting on the edge of consciousness, standing in the corner, with his coffee cup over his mouth. Cagliostro ignores the coffee person and goes over to trace the gate/teleport. Cagliostro returns to the lab, briefs Caelin on the trace, and opens a one-way gate to the coordinates. It seems to be a gate room - lots of people scurrying around, popping into and out of existence, lots of people with wands and armaments and the like. The location is not familiar to anyone in the area, including the demon. Cagliostro can tell that "there" is part of the same mystic realm, but not where in the mystic realm 'there' is. There is more activity 'in' than 'out'. Most of the 'out' are things being trans-shipped: things going 'in' one gate and 'out' another - bulk foodstuffs, machinery, etc. Cagliostro asks Caelin to scry the other side of this gate, without letting them know. He decides to tie off a spell to keep the magma up. After Caelin ties off the spell, he lets his concentraiton drop - and finds that the magma almost instantly dissolves the spell. Back to plan A: keep it up with willpower. There is a disruption of air, and eight individuals in business suits appear in the room with the unconscious bodies. Cagliostro calls out: "Natasha? Bureaucrats." She arrives. The bureaucrats enter the room and complain about tampering with union business and trespassing on a union operation. Cagliostro blames Mr. Weasel for the whole thing. The union arbitrators politely Cagliostro notices that the arbitrators are not particularly breathing (in much the same way that Slate was not particularly breathing). Cagliostro steps through into the other room and checks with Slate - one of the arbitrators looks like his cousin Jimmy. Cagliostro and Slate step back through and talk with Jimmy and the lead arbitrator. (Jimmy thought that Slate was dead.) Slate tells Jimmy his sad tale of woe. Slavery of sentients is also against the code, so it looks like Cagliostro will be asked to testify. They are very apologetic about this, especially since they have a box that tells them Cagliostro isn't local to their set of planets. The other non-local individual they encountered was... Mikail. Caelin notices that the pressure on his ward has increased fourfold. He tries to figure out where it's coming from - searching for magical signatures reveals multiple inactive spells and some guy trying to swim through the magma and maintain the ward. Caelin drains the magical signatures that aren't him or magma swimmer. One of the signatures, when drains, ends up teleporting someone else into the magma. They crisp. Caelin feels bad, briefly. Cagliostro asks the union arbitrators about the sight on the other side of the gate to where Mr. Weasel fled. They identify it as Connection Point 3.3, one of the major transit points. They offer Cagliostro a tour, which he accepts. One reaches into his pocket and pulls out a communicator. Another suited member (sans clipboard) arrives. He is introduced as a guide and the Union's eyes and ears. The guide introduces himself as Darren. Darren provides transportation to CP3.3, in the form of a stick with little bits that twists and slides. Natasha steps to Cagliostro just as the teleportation starts. Cagliostro can tell she's holding a Trump for Caelin. There is a transition, and the rest of them are in a side chamber. The guide produces two cards, which he asks them to affix to their clothing. The cards read: "UNION DIGNITARY. UNION BUSINESS. REALLY, YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW." The tour begins: the Gate Union maintains the gates, and although they seem to be honest and efficient they have not joined the Union of Unions. The gate union was started by someone who claimed to be a member of the "Ways and Means Committee". There is a myth that he's still alive. They consider their civilization cross-dimensional, but Cagliostro doesn't think the gates have enough oomph to make it into another mystic realm. --- Elsewhere, the tendrils that Ilk left behind to watch Auricle and Dworkin are being tugged by the Gargoyle. Ilk looks - they're on a slow Patternwalk (Royal Way style). The group includes Auricle, Dworkin, and two of Zack's Rangers. Ilk tries to subtly greet the Gargyle, and is vocoded in return. Auricle asks: "Ilk! What's a Wixer?" Ilk explains that Wixer was designed to prevent Dworkin from damaging the primal pattern when he was "less than himself". Later versions were improved to defend against other enemies of Amber. Ilk checks with Jean in the tree - the Wixer backup is okay, and in storage. The Wixer primary is okay as well, but is now no longer near Kolvir, having gone surfing post-Pattern draw. Ilk finds Wixer - all modules are operating at or above capacity. At the moment, Wixer is enjoying a lovely rainstorm at the top of a cliff. Ilk asks Auricle about Wixer, and Auricle asks Ilk to bring Wixer to where they are, since when they reach Kolvir will be the right time to approach Kolvir (and not before). Ilk asks Jean to bring Wixer to them - but Jean has one control and one gauge. The control is an override ("stop doing that!") and the gauge shows how recently the Toram-sucker was used. Ilk appears in front of Wixer, bows, and brings Wixer to Auricle and Dworkin. Auricle tries to shapeshift herself into entire an entire Wixer, so Wixer provides the module spec. --- Cagliostro's tour continues, and moves on to an Agriculural Union market (but not the Agricultural Union planet itself). Cagliostro notices that the magical gates are a bit strange - more similar to a way (a connection between two places, nailed down) than it is a magical gate. On the agricultural world, a vaguely familiar gentleman approaches Cagliostro and greets him in Arabic. They chat briefly, offer each other assistance in what they're doing, and continue on their ways. --- Elsewhere, a list of "Enemies to the Pattern" is started, with "Gwen the Bitch" at the top of the list, and "Oberon" as the second name. Other names: "The former former head of the mage's guild" "Llewella" ---- Back in the lab, the pressure behind the magma is four times what it was before, sixteen times what it was originally. This is now requiring active concentration. Caelin looks around - the demon and Slate are there. Neither one has any way to contact Cagliostro (if the demons did, they wouldn't have been imprisoned and tortured). Caelin conjures flaming letters that can be read in both hemisphers - "CAELIN NEEDS TO GET IN TOUCH WITH YOU NOW". (Cagliostro and Natasha are on another planet, and do not see it.) Caelin searches for Natasha, and it takes him half an hour to find that she's not on planet. He discards the idea of moving stars around, and decides to just create seeker birds. On another planet, Cagliostro and Natasha notice two of Caelin's birds approach. The birds alight, and inform them "Caelin needs your help yesterday". They wrap up the tour, and get a quick lift back to the union room. (The stick opens a magical gate, so Cagliostro has the chance to see that both his origin and destination point were wrong.) Caelin lets Cagliostro know that there's a problem with the wall of magma. Cagliostro wards against the magma. Caelin examines the ward, and sucks the power out of it. The magma increases fourfold again (to 64x). The magma swimmer is crushed under the weight. Cagliostro comes up with a plan that -should- work. It involves gating the magma out into space, perhaps a hundred planetary diameters. Cagliostro's warfare suggests the need for a backup plan. Natasha steps through the gate, sans axe. Cagliostro closes the gates to Durog and the union reps. Cagliostro suggests that Caelin push back. Caelin does. There is a seismic groan. Caelin scries - there is now a crack in the planet, the width of the grand canyon, spewing lava. Cagliostro re-opens the gate into the next room - there is a message scrawled on the wall: "DEATH TO UNION REPS". The people in the room have their throats cut, and two of the business suited men have their throats cut. (Neither one is Jimmy or the head arbitrator). Cagliostro checks for a magical gate - there are about eight, overlapping. If he had a day, he might be able to take them back. There's another fourfold increase - if there are a couple more increases, Caelin will be hard pressed to hold things back.