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The solars emerged from the sewer and set out to reconnect with Grant's ninja assassin lizards. They noticed the sky was unusually dark – an ominous sign – but nothing they could do about it yet. In short order Grant was ordained as the new boss of the ninja assassin lizards, and they were dispatched to the Basilica to start cleaning the place up and getting it back in usable order.
Once that was done, the group headed back to the Inn/bar thing to see if they could get into contact with Shadow. A note was dispatched and the group decided they'd wait no longer than the next day midday, before they had to get moving and getting other things accomplished.
A few hours after the note was sent, Berrel showed up bearing a new shirt and ill news.
He was now a Sidereal. But this was not dwelt on for long. Malfeas had invaded heaven. Apparently the gates had not been sealed from the heaven side. Whyyyy? That seems to indicate quite a significant lack of foresight. In the ensuing fight, Hani perished, along with a lot of others. Most importantly, Luna perished defending the apparatus thing that Lytek used to clean exalted souls… oh, and Lytek was dead, and no one knew how to do what he did. This did have the benefit of waking the 5 elemental dragons who would stand in our corner when the battle was met.
So anyways, in the ensuing fight, Lytek dispatched all cleaned souls that he'd had waiting in the queue as a last ditch effort to save them from falling into Infernal hands. Malfeas's forces were now occupying the half of the apparati that the souls returned to, while the forces of creation held the device that cleans the souls. The fact that anyone besides the forces of creation were occupying anything in heaven was just so completely unheard of that Isha couldn't even hardly comprehend it.
Berrel did not know what the death of Luna meant for the Lunars. Isha wondered if Shadow would show. And if he did, whether he would be affected by it.
The solars expressed their need to move armies from this area of the world to the citadel, and if that was still possible given the state of things. He said that was doable, and agreed to wait with the group until Shadow showed up or the timer ran out in waiting for him.
Eventually, late that evening, Shadow did show.
He sat with them, and they explained what had happened. He didn't seem any weaker for Luna being gone, but said something about a fog in his head.
Well, it was good the Lunars could still function without Luna. Apparently the meeting of the Lunars was still on.
They discussed the moving of the armies. They would gather Shadow's and the ninja assassin lizards and in two days a Sidereal would come and fly them all to the Citadel. The meeting was adjourned.
And so, it was. The armies were moved. The solars returned to nexus to meet with the representative from Lookshy.
The solars talked to him, and he needed proof. Berrel had told them that the 5 dragons would appear when needed to bring Lookshy on board. But this was not that time. Instead, they ended up showing him the Citadel so that he would write his letter of recommendation, fine, no big. They'd schedule the big meeting with Lookshy after they were done gathering all the armies.
Next was a meeting with PVoW. This did not go so well. Isha had been hoping for a more eager response, the wanting of for revenge for the destruction of Thorns. But as he implied to them, she was not willing to give anyone from hell or the underworld any ground in creation for their support. If they were not willing to join in for revenge, then she was willing to let them sit this one out or act on their own.
He left with the task of talking to his boss but Isha didn't think anything would come of it. Well, whatever. On to more important things.
They decided to tackle Rath's library of gizmos…. that was floating on a cloud above the imperial island. Fun.
They went to pick up Alabaster Abyssal-boi from Isha's manse to see if he could help them get to the imperial island without notice via the labyrinth, but he was adamant about not setting foot in the place because his boss or whatever would be able to get him. Fine, whatever. They moved him to the flying Citadel and gave the Sidereals running it the run-down on who he was and such.
From there they set off on the tornado and simply kept it high, high in the sky.
Crossing the border into the imperial island was somewhat anticlimactic. They did get a glimpse of the fortifications, but Isha didn't know how well they were manned. It was good to take note, though. They had to spend a single night on the imperial island out in the wilderness before they finally found the cloud that housed the solar deliberative magic school midday the next day.
Some air dragons were hanging out on the floating school. The solars just walked by them and didn't bother them. They stopped frolicking but didn't bother the Solars. Good for them. Rath managed to unlock the front door, and it opened to reveal an orichalcum golem blocking the way. Rath said the structure was basically on lockdown and that they'd have to get to the control room to shut the defenses off… and he knew where it was, but they'd basically have to carve their way through dudes to get to it.
Well, time to roll up the sleeves and dive in.
Grant basically took care of the dude in the doorway. They zoomed in and had Rath hurriedly show them the way to the stairs. Up they went with loud footsteps behind them. Isha took up the rear as the others pressed forward to the control room. At the doorway to floor 3, they were forced to engage 3 guys. Isha hung back to delay the ones on their tail.
Isha intervened after a moment when the tailing guys were not yet engaged, and was able to give Grant and Wrath the breathing room they needed to finish their group off. As they ran through the door, Isha lept back to the landing to delay the tailers who'd just come up to their level. Some tried to bypass her. She attacked whoever was next to her then leapt in front of those who'd managed to slip by to engage them again. Eventually they stopped trying to catch up to the others and simply fought Isha in the hallway. It seemed to take Rath and Grant a while to hit the big red button, but eventually they managed to get there. The red alert seemed to be off once Isha defeated the last of the group of four that was on her and followed them the rest of the way down the hall.
A another golem lay in pieces in the control room and Grant looked a bit sickly but everyone seemed generally okay.
Rath was flipping through a book excitedly – apparently he now had a spell that could enable people to cast magical spells at a circle one level higher than they were normally qualified to, using some ritual that converted hearthstones into some trinket or other. Interesting, and potentially quite useful.
Time to get this ship in order and get it headed back (covertly) toward the citadel.