March 19

Heian has gone to find Solstice Ashdragon.

Tranq has returned and met us at Korro's Court.

Lady Afra asks us to come with her.

The palace has been stripped back to its bones. It looks like they're packing everything up to move. Ruben concludes they have moved on already and this is what is left. Afra confirms this, acknowledging this isn't their home, but she will take us there. She assures us it is on this plane. Zyrell protests, he doesn't want us to see.

Afra leads us to a teleportation circle, with 6 points on the edge, instructing us to stand on them. Nick Furry is visibly distressed. Ophion talks to him, tries to encourage him, understands he must be missing his friend Onai. Nick Furry is very scared, doesn't seem to trust anyone even Ophion, reluctantly comes along.

We teleport. We're deep in the jungle. The sky is torn, jagged edges, sickly green colour like the edges are infected, oozing, with nothing but blackness behind the tear.

It's very hot & humid, monsoonal, raining. Brazil nut tree circles, trees at least a hundred metres tall.

There's many structures, most of them partly buried, from an old civilisation, like a lot of architecture we've seen recently. Semudan maybe? A few hundred years old?

We come to a palace. It looks to be from the Emerald Empire of Gaoro Semudan, the empire before the current day Ruby Empire of Redin Semudan. It looks like a typical royal residence, rather than a personal one.

There's women dancing, covered head to toe in green paint.

Afra tells us they protected us when we were "disassembled". She focuses on Ruben, telling him she especially protected him and his incredible mind, that she loved his machine like mind, with all it's tick tock vibrations, and that she wishes she could just scoop it out. She is quite keen for us to see what they can do with the ink.

Zyrell & entourage arrive, coming out from a nearby building.

Green painted men join the women dancing.

The ink appears in the middle of the clearing. Ruben visibly perks up. Tranq immediately puts a hand on Ruben to steady him.

The ink looks different from before. It looks even more like circuitry, and there's beiges and purples.

Afra tells us "You didn't think you could teleport it, and you're right. But we can control it ... look!" She casts a teleport. The spell rips us from where we are, moves us and the ink, to the outskirts of what looks like an abandoned rundown Sosso city, and flattens it, easily a kilometre in every direction.

We understand it because the loa are riding Afra and Zyrell now - as intermediaries between gods and people, they have more control.

Ruben suspects the ink is folding reality.

We return to ourselves. Everyone else leaves us, except Afra. Tranq recognises this as a warning, but he's not sure who it is meant for.

We teleport back to Korro's Court. We can hear everyone running around, and we know we are not safe. We work out based on our timelines that those of us who were at the convocation are missing at least a week. We realise that's what Afra must've been referring to when she said they protected us when we were disassembled, we must've been held in suspended animation in The Spaces, but for what purpose we have not been told.

Mayb has an idea. She makes a dimension door and ask Ruben to step through it. He is initially hesitant but Mayb assures him he can trust her, and so Ruben steps through. For a moment there are two Rubens ... and then just as quickly, they are one again.

Tranq steps through. The same does not happen with him.

Mayb looks into Ruben's eyes, asks him how he feels. He says he feels normal. Mayb can see the ink inside him. Tranq realises the strange smell he's been noticing is the ink in Ruben.

Ruben cuts his finger and he bleeds as normal. Atala asks him to remove all his magical items, as she wants to detect magic on him. She finds it is all over him, strongest in his blood.

Ruben is asked to show his arm. His scars look to be healing, but the damage is worse than anyone else realised. His entire arm is damaged, with the scarring all over his upper arm and past his shoulder now.

The dimension door is still up. Mayb asks Ruben to go through it again. As he does, she sees and realises the ink is bonding with Ruben's system, becoming a part of him. There is nothing more we can do or work out at this stage so we move on.

Ruben & Mayb decide to head into town to see if they can find out more about the Leopard Orchids. Atala & Tranq follow at a discreet distance. Ophion & Kunoh remain behind, training and sparring. Nick Furry is back to his old self now and he lazes about nearby.