Rajar, who had not joined the magical dragonewt travel, rode on Vengeance towards the ziggurats of the city, with Joquill Greenleaf riding one of Varanis’ horses. Entirely failing to comprehend how difficult a ride it was he persuaded Vengeance up to the top of one of the ziggurats, where a large, winged dragonewt was burning a smaller one. They managed a miscommunication in which Rajar almost offered Vengeance up for sacrifice, but from where he was, at least he could see where the others were. He managed not to persuade the winged entity to sacrifice his friends either, by leaving rather than trying to communicate more. Riding down was rather awkward, and he decided not to try that again. When he finally got to where his friends were, on foot, they were gazing at what seemed to be a model of the city. Berra was very excited by it, explaining that she had broken her arm by pushing herself. Valseena very gently stroked the tiny model of Suuraki, and was horrified to find that it pushed him over. She healed the damage this did to him, but did not stop his enthusiasm for it.
While Varanis and Xenofos tried to remind the group that they had work to do, Suuraki elected to do more experimentation, with Berra watching, already primed to be broken more. He put a tiny bit of stone in the model. This resulted in a wind that blew everyone backwards from where the stone would have been, but no giant rock appearing.
Varanis asked the dragonewt with them if he would take her to see her clutchmate. He held out his hand to her and she to him and then he licked her. Puzzled, she returned the greeting. Then he briskly led them off to find Mirava. As they walked, a carved stone eye on a rock opened to watch their passing, unnerving Xenofos. They passed pools of water and Berra dipped her finger in, only to have it sucked on by what was presumably a dragonewt. When a scaled hand reached from beneath the surface, she politely nibbled on one of its fingers. Eyes emerged from all around the pools, disturbing the stillness of the water, though nothing more of the creatures was seen.
They were taken, eventually, to an impressive building. When they called for entry, a man’s voice said, “Enter.” Xenofos recognised it as belonging to Fazzur, and identified him. They went in. It seemed to be a throne room for the Inhuman King, with Fazzur and Mirava Saiciae both on lesser thrones a few steps up. Fazzur stood to greet them, but Mirava put a hand lightly on his arm, and he sat down again. She stood up instead, and offered them food.
Varanis stormed up, courtesy seemingly left behind. Urgently, she signaled Mirava, using the old family hand sign for trouble. Fazzur moved to rise, but Mirava put a restraining hand on his arm. He subsided back into his chair and allowed the Earth Priestess to take the lead. When her sister informed her that there was no trouble, the Vingan demanded that Mirava couldn’t possibly be considering marrying that Lunar scum. And she learned that she was too late. She had failed to stop the marriage. Mirava tried to offer her sister food and hospitality, but the enraged Vingan refused.
Before things could become too heated, Mirava invited Fazzur to leave so women could talk, and to send in a guard. There was a moment in which they tried wills against each other, and then, amazingly, he did, though a Lunar guard of the Yanafal Tarnils cult stepped into the room. She and Berra eyed each other assessingly. While Varanis raged, throwing around accusations of betrayal and reminding Mirava of all those lost to Lunar hands, the Earth Priestess smiled knowingly and reminded her sister that there is always another way. Again, food was offered and though the Vingan ate nothing, Rajar (and the others?) partook. For a moment it looked as though Varanis’ temper might explode; Mirava quelled her, instantly, snuffing out the emergent magical storm. As Varanis reeled mentally, Berra took over the shouting. Mirava failed to quell her, and Varanis rallied to protect her people. In the background, the Praxians began to talk among themselves, wondering when the fighting would kick off. Rajar started to stretch. Their conversation was interrupted by the guard, who informed them in Lunar-accented Praxian that there was to be no fighting.
Eventually, Mirava’s plan was made clear. Although she had acted on her own, she believed that Grandmother would support her. She intended to be Queen of Tarsh and as Fazzur’s queen and priestess, she would govern him. She would be the true power in their marriage, and as such would ensure peace between the peoples of Dragon Pass. Varanis needed time to process and called for a pause. She stormed out to find a tall structure to climb, followed by Berra and Xenofos.
Rajar made an attempt to exit by way of the door that Fazzur had used, but was firmly redirected by the guard, who said that Fazzur should have privacy. Rajar pointed out there was no privacy from the duty of Storm Bull, and was told to find Chaos where he was. He could not. He went in search of the others, but rapidly became lost in the city.
Suuraki and Valseena decided to go find the model again. Suuraki wanted to understand it better and had some ideas about things he would try. As they studied the model, they spotted Varanis climbing one of the dragonewt ziggurats. Suuraki grew concerned as he watched the top of the ziggurat seemingly shift into a blasted landscape. Rapidly, he and Valseena worked out a plan to intervene. He tied a rope around his waist, gave her the other end and then jumped into the model itself. He vanished instantly, leaving Valseena clutching a charred piece of rope. She frantically searched the model and spotted him on the pyramid with Varanis. Deciding that she’d prefer to go on foot, she made for the ziggurat the long way.
Suuraki, for his part, landed on the last remaining steps between Varanis and the top of the ziggurat. Berra, Xenofos, and Varanis were all relieved when they realised it was Suuraki and not an assassin. He did his best to explain what he’d seen from the distance and rather than turning back, Varanis climbed the last few stairs to face what she decided was the Aroka HeroQuest. She vanished at the top and there was much swearing from those left behind. Berra and Xenofos followed her instantly.
Valseena arrived at a remarkable pace, once again demonstrating the oddity of the dragonewt city. Suuraki explained to her what had happened, and they decided to follow together. They clasped hands, so as not to lose each other in transit and stepped onto the top of the ziggurat, vanishing into the Hero Plane.
As Varanis entered a landscape wracked with drought, she called on Orlanth and Vinga to help her face Aroka, the dragon. She leapt into the sky, to fly about his head, attacking with her sword. The fight went on for some time, with neither opponent seemingly able to harm the other.
Rajar, climbing a ziggurat to look for his friends, found himself in Prax, with the green behind him, and a terrible wasteland before, with Chaos hanging there. He checked he was right, giving himself a migraine, and then cast all of his magic, and lowered his horns in a charge. He and the Devil fought all over Prax, but he could not wrestle it under the falling block. In fact, it wrestled him under there. In one last great act of rage, Rajar managed to pull the devil down with him, and they were both crushed. He fell out of the Hero Plane badly injured and unconscious.
Berra found herself next to Dormal… that is, someone she recognised as Eurmal, her brother’s friend. They went together to find a thing, which was new, and Berra took it. There was someone else there, Grandfather Life, so Humakt… Berra suggested that she hold this end of the sword and Grandfather Life let her use it. This went strangely, as he did not get back up again, and a bit of him separated off and went away. Berra decided that she could not trust other people with the power. However, two new people approached, whom Berra recognised as Yanafal Tarnils and… Yanafal Tarnils, in one case, taking the shape of the Lunar guard. They fought, and Berra was able to prevent Yanafal Tarnils from using her power, but not from getting away with a differently-shaped Death.
Xenofos found himself walking into a library-styled wrestling arena, where a beautiful woman - surprisingly like Berra, but with long hair and no armour or indeed clothes - challenged him to wrestle. He recognised Knowledge, wife and love of Lhankor Mhy, but refused to wrestle her, instead asking her to let him know where Varanis was. Knowledge asked him if he did not want to embrace her, but led him that way, and opened the door. Outside, Varanis was fighting a dragon; Xenofos found he could not move forwards, and whimpered in the doorway as she flew about.
Suuraki found himself in Prax, where it was cold and barren, with many herd-beasts around him. He was just waiting for the last to arrive. Valseena found herself making friends with two-legged beasts, and then being plagued by horrible bitey things, many of which she had to get past to go ask the two-legged things for help. She arrived at Suuraki’s Covenant, and was able to understand from the inner knowledge of her cult that she could sacrifice herself so that other might live; she did this, rather than struggling to win a ballot. Suuraki held the ballot and announced who would eat, and who would be eaten.
As Varanis continued her assault from above, Xenofos found his courage and charged to attack the dragon from below. From her vantage point, Varanis saw Xenofos as Elmal, the Loyal Thane, wielding his spear. Eventually, the Vingan understood that they could not break through the dragon’s scales and the only way to kill it was from the inside. To Xenofos’ horror, she flew into the monster’s mouth and was swallowed, only to burst from its mouth again in a shower of blood and gore, pulling Heler free. The skies opened and the parched earth was bathed in rain and blood and mead and the love of Orlanth and Heler. The drought broke, and Daga was chased from the land.
Valseena and Suuraki arrived back on the top of the ziggurat, to see a bleeding, broken Rajar. Valseena healed him. Berra and the lunar guard appeared again, with Berra shouting a lot and looking for people to fight; as she calmed down, or as she noticed there were other people present, the lunar said she meant no offence, but it was a religious obligation; Berra said that if all had been done with honour there could be no offense. There was some silent swearing once the guard had left, however, some of it in the woman’s direction.
At the bottom of the ziggurat, Joquill Greenleaf was waiting for them. He was in blossom. Suuraki told him no women were in danger, and he set off to go back to his forest. Berra had advice about what Varanis should ask from Mirava and Fazzur, which the Vingan listened to intently. Still blue from being Orlanth, she set off to talk to her sister, in hope that the gods would aid her.
When they were shown in to see Mirava again, Fazzur was still absent. Varanis laid out her demands. Fazzur must agree to keep his armies out of Sartar unless Kallyr invited him in. Fazzur and Mirava should make promises of friendship to Sartar and they would need to back her bid to marry the Feathered Horse Queen. Varanis wanted Fazzur to bend the knee to the Prince, but was informed that this was unlikely. Mirava said it would be unwise to try to make Fazzur swear to anything, but she was sure he would be sensible. Berra told Varanis this was probably the best they were getting. In return, Varanis reluctantly agreed to ask her Prince about backing Fazzur’s bid to be King of Tarsh by letting Esrolian support through, and possibly to support him against the Lunar Empire. She carefully made no promises.
Negotiations having been settled as much as possible, Mirava reminded Varanis that she was due in Nochet. Berra Divined on the subject of the negotiations, to find out if Eril had orders, but could find no answer.
Varanis, Xenofos, and all the others, travelled to Nochet, arriving in the city to hear rumours of a huge wedding. They hurried, and arrived at the Saiciae palazzo just in time to witness the wedding, only to discover that the couple getting married were not Mellia and Venlar. Instead, there was a man of the Cinder Fox tribe, and an Ernaldan healer, neither of quite the same rank as Mellia and Venlar, but both of high respectability.
Meanwhile, it seemed that Venlar had had bad news about the marriage - Jengharl told him, right at the last minute, that Silor would not countenance a marriage to someone related to Fazzur, and so Venlar could not get married. Naturally, Venlar decided to steal Mellia away. She was in her room, late at night, when she heard a tapping at her window. It was her beloved. He begged her to flee with him, explaining that while his family would have to cut him off from them because of Mirava and Fazzur, he loved her and would always love her and would she marry him anyway?
He had made arrangements for horses and a friendly guard at the city gates to facilitate their flight. Of course, she agreed, and they detoured via the Earth Temple to have an actual ceremony.. When they reached the gate, the guard was not who they expected. Instead, it was Serzeen, who confirmed that Mellia was leaving of her own free will. Mellia said that Venlar was under her protection; Serzeen threatened to wound him to make that real, but Venlar declared his heart was wounded when he was not with her. Serzeen made a few threats about insults to Grandmother, coupled with a suggestion that Venlar should grow a beard. She let them pass. Some time later, Mellia found a note in her pocket, inviting her to attend a wedding in Nochet. Although she thought it might be wisest to make a clean break of it, the healer allowed herself to be persuaded to accept the invitation from Grandmother, as Venlar interpreted the note to say all was fine. The couple holed up safely for a few days, before slipping back into Nochet to attend their own wedding in polite secrecy. Thus, they were able to meet the returning cousins.
