Yeah, Tara needs a little more experience in mecha flight. Pallav looks greener than his spark as I help him out of the left leg cockpit. But Cyrus looks okay. Cyrus seems like the kind of guy who is used to twisting his mind into a pretzel.
We go up to Daniel’s. Cyrus and Pallav look really intimidated by all the other guys. But that Templeton– he walks in like he owns the place.
Davy intercepts Tara. « Great! The next hatch is ready for you. » Doood. Even I know something about tact.
« You must be fucking kidding me, » snaps Tara. « You think I’m going to agree to that after what these guys have gone through? »
« It’s okay, » says Roan. « It’s really okay. » There’s a catch in his voice, and it looks like he’s tearing up. That’s okay?
Tara turns to him. « Roan… »
« It’s you, » he says. « That’s the missing piece of the puzzle. It doesn’t matter that I don’t understand anything, or that we were out in the wilderness on our own. Just seeing you makes so much sense that nothing else has to. »
« And that’s why the whorehouse scene is such a good idea, » Davy adds.
« Davy! I mean it. No more emanations until these guys get their achievements. »
« We can’t guarantee that, » says Dermot. « You know that these achievements are capricious. There’s a trick to a lot of them. When we went through it, we all did our best to complete them as quickly as possible, but it worked out much easier for some than for others. »
I see the surprise on Templeton’s face. Of course – he wasn’t told, and it never occurred to him that every emanation here had to complete one of these insane quest achievements.
« But you had a big advantage, Dermot, » says Tara. « You’d been alive for some time. You knew all the other emanations. You could at least help them. »
« I agree, » says Ailann. « It isn’t like we had a lot of prior experience with internal emanations, but we could’ve handled it better in so many ways. As for Templeton, Roan, Pallav and Cyrus, I suggest we put our heads together and figure out the easiest way for them to get their achievements. »
« Why don’t we convene in the Gold Lounge in an hour? » suggests Patrick. « We can relax there, have a few cocktails, and share our ideas. Let’s all take another look at the remaining achievements in the meantime. »
« If we’re having a party, there are a few things I need, » says Davy. « Hey, Cyrus, do me a favor. Go up to floor 105 of the Yggdrasil Tower. I’ve got a workshop there. Get the things in closet 45-B and bring them to the Gold Lounge. The Gold Lounge is right off the lobby of this building – you can’t miss it. »
Cyrus looks confused. Well, why not? He doesn’t know where the hell he’s going. Sometimes, I don’t get what Davy is thinking at all. Okay, here’s something I can actually do. « Hey, Cyrus, I gotta take these toads up to my flat anyways. Why don’t I just show you how to get to there? »
The trip up the hilift seems longer than usual. I’m no timekeeper, but it probably has to do with carrying a compost-ton of toads. I should go back to NEUranus and get a better terrarium. Then it’s back down and across the walkway to the Yggdrasil Tower.
« It’s really nice of you to help me. »
« No problem. I gotta admit, I’m a little curious. I’ve never been to Davy’s workshop before. Then again, I haven’t been in most of this tower. Then again, nobody’s been in most of this tower. »
Unlike his apartment, Davy’s workshop is normal, more or less. It’s just full of puppets. Mostly puppets of various types of penguins, but I recognize a bunch of different animals and plants I’d seen outside.
« Davy made these? » Cyrus asks. « Did he make everything in the whole pleroma? »
« Yeah, he probably did. » In the corner, I spot a very anatomically accurate puppet of a huge tigron. It’s got anatomically huge and pointy teeth. I poke at one. It’s sharp. « Makes you think, doesn’t it? I’ll bet there’s toads around here somewhere. »
« There’s closet 45-B next to that display of moths, » says Cyrus. The door has a sign on it which says “Historical Person Simulators.”
I open it. There are two figures, one male, one female. « Those are droids. The expensive kind. Let’s fire them up and see what they can do. »
A couple beeps, a click, and they start up, like people waking after a nap. The male looks around, noting us and gestures at his companion. « Might I presume to introduce to you Miss Jane Austin? There have been rumors of a ball hereabouts, and it would be a shame for her to miss it. »
The female responds, « Why Mr. Tesla, I would not be so forward as to invite ourselves. »
« Oh, you’re invited, » says Cyrus. « Davy sent us up here to get you. »
Aw, geez, it’s a quest achievement! And here I am, the guy who’s always got primo highweed. As they say, the pleroma provides. I pull a spliff out of my jacket pocket and take a toke. « I’m starting the party early. » I pass the joint to the Jane Austen droid. Cyrus looks at me like I’ve lost my nut.
Jane holds it delicately between her thumb and forefinger. « I’m not so certain that it’s proper for a lady. »
As the Domha’vei’s number one drug dealer, I make it a point never to use peer pressure to push product, but this is a freaking quest achievement. « The Matriarch smokes it all the time. »
« I suppose one must defer to the customs of the monarch, » she sighs, delicately drawing on the spliff. She passes it to Tesla, who is much more up for it. He takes a giant drag. He’d better leave some for Cyrus.
I smile at the kid encouragingly. He shrugs and takes a tiny puff.
The announcement says:
“Cyrus del Eden’d, Lord of the Ways and the Endless Road. 63rd to emanate, 59 in the color scale, resonates to 277. 1.776 meters tall, cock size 16.82 cm when erect, apparent age 33. Pathfinder, cartographer and tour guide. Totem is Virola elongata, the epená, fixed star is Alterf, the glance. Esoteric symbol is the Etruscan letter 
. Dessert is chai spiced funnel cake with smoked vanilla semifreddo and nau’gsh syrup. Function is analytic stabilization, proto-conscious tendency is imagination, designated Vision. Blazon is dark violet, the eagle particular to Cyrus of Persia, displayed and elevated, holding a virola fruit in both sets of talons, beneath a virola bud, or.”
« Whoa, that’s potent, » Cyrus says. « I can hear voices in my head. »
I can hear them too. I can hear Tarlach shouting, Davy set it up! Cyrus is trying to get his hyperspace legs – getting them faster than normal because he’s the kind of guy who can twist his mind into a pretzel.
Then he looks at me, all serious. « Chase, I can sense the fabric of the pleroma. There are places where that fabric is thin. There are holes. »
Holes?
That can’t be good, says Davy. Get your ass back here.
The droids follow us onto the hilift. I don’t know if they’re needed anymore, but it seems cruel to shove them back into that closet. By the time we arrive at Daniel’s room, it has erupted into activity.
« Maybe it happened during the telepathic attack, » Cüinn is saying. « Or maybe it happened as a result of the expansion of the pleroma when Ophion was added. I can formulate an experiment… »
« Wait, » says Tara. « Explain exactly what you mean by “holes in the pleroma.” »
« I suppose we should’ve predicted the possibility, » says Malachi. « We know of places where the pleroma contacts the universes outside of us. Ailann’s reflecting pool. The ocean beneath the cenote. »
« Then what’s the problem? »
« The portals we knew about are watched, » says Mickey. « We’d know if something came through them. In fact, something has come through them – all the sparks that you’ve found. But if we haven’t been paying attention to the other places… »
« You think something might’ve gotten in? »
« We don’t know, » says Mickey, « but it’s a possibility we can’t rule out. »
« But this is my point, » says Davy. « We’d never have known if it wasn’t for Cyrus. I told you we needed him! And I’ve been saying right along we need another hatch. Tarlach says we need a social engineer. We probably need something more important than that. »
Tara doesn’t look happy. « Is there any way you can find out if the pleroma has been invaded again? »
« Manan just went up to the Lotus Temple, » says Davy. « He can use the holoprojector to look at the entire pleroma. »
Four, chatburls Manan.
« Four? » repeats Tara.
Three of them are in regions of the map as yet uncharted. One is in the State of Being, near Celadon, the city Vassali visited.
« What color are they? » asks Malachi.
I can’t tell exactly, but three are green and one pink.
« The same colors as the ones we’ve picked up recently, » says Cüinn. « The solid hypothesis is that they’ve been getting in since we’ve been travelling through IndWorld space. That means we’d better do something about those holes. »
« We might be dumb enough to have allowed this to happen, but I don’t think that the Mover is, » says Malachi. « They’re probably sparks that we need. »
« Tara must approve any new additions, » says Whirljack.
« So let’s send Tara with Pallav, Roan, Templeton and the new hatch, » says Davy.
« Wouldn’t it make more sense for more experienced emanations to go? » asks Tara. « And I haven’t agreed to another hatch. »
« We’ve hypothesized that at least part of the nature of the achievements is to force us to explore the pleroma, » says Dermot. « This should be a relatively straightforward collection mission, and it will expose the hatchlings to opportunities. »
« I think an expert ought to accompany them, » says Tarlach. « A mentor. »
« I’ll do it, » says Marius. I know exactly what Marius means by that. He means: “I’m tagging along to protect Tara.”
« We’ll postpone the party in the Gold Lounge, » says Ailann. « Now about that hatch… »