AEHU/Plot/Plot Sketch Chapter 20
"Though the Heavens Fall"
- Grishe arrives in Shikar to great fanfare and Shikar instrumentalists put on a show in his honor until Dalton swoops in with a Nanashi troop and cordons off the area. Dalton explains to Schala that he's been suspicious of Lakshya's apparently dragging his feet on the building overhaul project after so eagerly signing off on the material delivery in "Devil's Sleight." Dalton suspects Lakshya is using the materials for something else illegally and Lakshya panics. A full-blown battle breaks out as Lakshya's subordinates cover his retreat. Demeria and Dalton head after Lakshya, leaving Schala and Grishe with Melchior and Beck.
- Lakshya orders his soldiers to go straight for Schala in an effort to secure a bargaining chip, and therefore Schala and Grishe are forced into the fray. Separated from everyone else in the battle, they encounter Jaya, who defends Schala from her own Shikari fellows. Accused of being a turncoat, Jaya reaffirms her utter loyalty to Zeal and swears to lay down her life to protect the princess. Schala asks Jaya to lead them to Lakshya and she does so.
- Schala & co. and Dalton and Demeria converge on Lakshya in a warehouse where a finished Cassio sits. They're astonished at the mobile weapons platform fashioned out of metal and dreamstone, and Lakshya tries a bluff that fails once Schala & co. realize Cassio has no power source. Lakshya and his entourage attack Schala in a last-ditch effort at survival, and Cassio watches on silently while Jaya murders Lakshya. Dalton is touched and immediately promotes Jaya into the Nanashi, fulfilling her long-running dream of making something other than a musician out of herself. Jaya is assigned to be Schala's personal bodyguard. Dalton then seizes Cassio, thankful he didn't find out what it was capable of once activated.
- Shortly after Dalton has instituted police rule over Shikar and loaded Cassio onto the Blackbird, Po'hjol and an Earthbound force armed with their bazookas spring out of the cargo hold and hijack the aeroplane. Derben is at Po'hjol's side. Dalton accuses Po'hjol of taking the first offensive action in what is liable to become a devastating war, but Po'hjol announces that Zeal is the first with blood on their hands; he forces Dalton to speak with a lieutenant manning the security detail of Zeal's main Dreamstone Quarry, and Schala & co. discover that Earthbound were killed in an incident there a few hours ago. It is still unclear what exactly transpired in the Dreamstone Quarry but Po'hjol takes it as proof of Zealian aggression.
- Once the Blackbird is airborne Po'hjol delivers a lengthy declaration of war to Zeal via radio, likening Zeal's actions over the centuries to theft of Earthbound trust, dignity, etc. Po'hjol says the Earthbound have tolerated all this, but they will not tolerate their blood being spilled. Thus Zeal can expect swift retribution, and he ends with the disturbing message: "Let justice be done, though the heavens fall."
- Po'hjol places the captured Zealians under arrest in the Blackbird, but Schala & co. make it out thanks to the freedom of movement Grishe and his children enjoy. Po'hjol becomes irate when he discovers Grishe's actions but Grishe counters that Po'hjol is flying off the handle without investigating exactly what transpired in the Dreamstone Quarry, or who is to blame. Po'hjol accuses Grishe of being tainted by his newfound fame in Zeal.
- The Blackbird lands and Derben holds off Schala & co. long enough for Cassio to be unloaded and drug out of sight. He is wounded in the process but manages to escape, apologizing and enigmatically promosing to do his part to try to get the situation under control.
- Schala & co. accompany Dalton to the Dreamstone Quarry to find out what happened there. Word is that the inexperienced Lasher squad assigned to secure the mine became afraid of escalating Earthbound actions, such as rioting and throwing stones, etc. The Lashers attacked to disperse the crowd far outnumbering them and admit to killing several Earthbound in the incident. There were no Zealian casualties, but Dalton notes this trend isn't likely to continue. Demeria reveals to Dalton that Derben knows the location of Po'hjol's weapons cache, which may or may not have been accessed yet. In any case, the weapons represent a strategic liability and Dalton focuses on locating and capturing Derben, leaving the Lasher troop to continue its duties in the abandoned mine.
- Grishe is disgusted by the truth of the matter and takes his children back to Algetty. Dalton tasks Schala with bringing him back because his magic ability could prove devastating if turned on Zeal. In Algetty Po'hjol is distributing weapons and interviewing the lieutenant he had tasked with seizing the rest of them. Po'hjol asks the lieutenant if the weapons had been used on Zealians at the Dreamstone Quarry, and the lieutenant responds negatively; Po'hjol is emboldened by the notion that Zeal truly did strike first and that he has the moral high ground. Po'hjol notes that not all the weapons have been recovered and plans to make a dash for the rest; Derben tries to talk him out of it but to no avail. Po'hjol believes that Zeal is at a huge strategic disadvantage because it needs Earthbound labor to begin again soon. Surely Zeal will sue for peace before long, and much needed reforms will finally be set in motion.
- Po'hjol oversees the institution of martial law in Algetty and catches Grishe hiding away his younglings amongst the residents. Po'hjol has Grishe imprisoned on grounds of untrustworthiness and Schala & co. retrieve him, but are unable to find his younglings again. Grishe decides it's probably best to leave them in the crowd for now so that they won't receive his pariah status.
- Dalton finds Schala and bears an urgent message: as an emergency measure, she must return to Kajar so that the mechanisms keeping the sky islands afloat can switch to power extracted from the Object for the duration of the coming conflict. Demeria objects because Schala's been through a lot today and just went through a connection test this morning, but Schala agrees to go ahead with it anyway; Po'hjol seems to be willing to literally let the heavens fall.
- Schala embarks on another Frozen Flame trial and this time the consciousness relentlessly breaks down her will by reminding her that it's already shown her the incident at the Dreamstone Quarry long ago, and that her dream will ultimately shatter. Melchior, who observes Schala's vital statistics on a monitor as always, notes a precipitous drop in her heart rate and blood pressure, but he is unsure of the effects of forcibly separating her from the Mammon Machine. Grishe asks in broken Zealian language if he can approach the Flame since he's already touched it once, and Jaya jumps to Schala's side in an attempt to stop the experiment. Both enter the world the consciousness reside in, quickly find Schala, and help her finish her trial. The consciousness greets Jaya with a sense of friendly familiarity and is so amused at this turn of events that it declares itself tamed for the foreseeable future. But it does so with mysterious laughter...
- Seith convinces Queen Zeal to announce that her kingdom no longer requires Earthbound-generated power to quell any fear Po'hjol's ominous message has wrought. While Schala recovers under Beck's and Queen Zeal's care in Zeal Palace, Kajar Labs suddenly bursts into flames. Demeria leads the other player characters to Kajar and their ventures in subdoing beasts driven out of Kajar's botanical garden exhibits are interspersed with Schala's conversations with Beck about dreams. Within earshot of Queen Zeal, Beck describes a Glass Rose ornament his mother had always wanted as a child, but it shattered in her hands as soon as she saved up enough money to purchase it; Schala fears that her dream of Earthbound/Enlightened reconciliation is like the Glass Rose. Beck swears to do all in his power to help Schala reach her dream; helping Masa achieve his dream briefly was the most beautiful experience in his life, though he admits dancing with her came a close second.
- Schala's and Beck's tender moment is interrupted by frantic alerts of intruders in the Sun Palace now. Demeria returns with the others from Kajar Labs without having found any human culprits in the fire, and they realize that the fire was a mere diversion. Schala & co. reason that Po'hjol somehow accessed a skyway leading to the Sun Palace and made a mad dash for the waning Sun Stone. As for how Po'hjol could have discovered the secret skyway leading to the Sun Palace, the answer is obvious: Derben.
- At the Sun Palace Schala & co. fight Po'hjol's armed Earthbound revolutionaries and Heckran beasts they've managed to drag up from the surface. Po'hjol siezes the Sun Stone and the party battles Derben again; Derben explains that with the Mammon Machine operational, the Earthbound are liable to be wiped out entirely; there is no chance for a settlement unless the Earthbound have a deterrent of some kind. While Zeal no longer really needs the Sun Stone's power, its theft represents a major strategic liability and Seith has ample grounds for committing Derben to execution on Mt. Woe. Seith forces Queen Zeal to sign the order.
- At Zeal Palace Schala and Demeria hatch a plan for rescuing Derben. Meanwhile Seith prepares a statement for Queen Zeal to read over radio or some other communication device: the fire at Kajar Labs was merely caused by a Nu well-known among Kajar scientists for its pranks, and furthermore the Earthbound rebellion has been wiped clean by wondrous bioweapons (the incident at the Sun Palace is left out entirely). Queen Zeal is astonished that Seith is telling her to lie in an attempt to keep the people calm when all of Zeal should be preparing for war. When She refuses to cow her people with a lie, Seith has guards restrict her movement to the palace and summons some other well-known personality to deliver the message. Schala & co. approach Queen Zeal with a request to reverse the execution order for Derben on grounds that only he knows where the Earthbound weapons cache is, and this could still save lives since Po'hjol hasn't removed them all yet. Queen Zeal agrees, even if just to spite her uncle. Meanwhile, the Zealian populace surreally celebrates a victory that never happened.
- Schala & co. climb to the summit of Mt. Woe and present the Queen's reversal order to confused executioners. They release Derben, but not before Giga Gaia activates, and they have to pound it into submission. Derben finally reveals the Earthbound weapons cache location -- Po'hjol's bazookas lie within hidden recesses deep in the Dreamstone Quarry. He and Demeria immediately head there through Algetty while Schala and the others head back to Zeal Palace via the Ganymede so Schala can rest again.
- At Zeal Palace a huge argument erupts between Seith and Queen Zeal over the order to free Derben; Seith invokes a royal provision whereby the conservator can temporarily rule in national emergencies when the monarchs are indisposed, and declares Queen Zeal unfit for decisionmaking. Seith enters a strategy session with Dalton and reveals that the monsters on Bekkler's old sky island lab are now militarily functional. Aias, Korrus, and Valna, scientists who've been working on Bekkler's island night and day since Beck was locked out, have managed to complete his work and present Dalton with his first Golems.
- Locked out of the strategy session, Queen Zeal holds her own: she gathers the gurus and asks for their assessment of Cassio. Melchior says that the Sunstone will suffice as a power source for the device and they should expect to face it on the battlefield. The other gurus suppose that neither magic nor energy blasts will cut it against Cassio's dreamstone-reinforced armor, but Melchior proposes that an impact weapon made of charged dreamstone might just put enough of a chink in Cassio's armor that it will become vulnerable to further attack. Queen Zeal favors the plan and charges Melchior with producing the proposed weapon. She also wants him to fashion a key of some sort that will allow only the bearer to activate the Mammon Machine, so that she could have an ace up her sleeve if Seith intends to crown himself king permanently. Melchior likes to observe dreamstone specimens personally, so Schala & co. offer to take him to the Dreamstone Quarry. As they leave Queen Zeal detains Beck for a private discussion. Queen Zeal reveals that she knows he is - or was - Norstein Bekkler, and she appreciates his realization that she's going to blackmail him into revealing the secret by which he made himself young. Korrus, Aias, and Valna arrive to collect a keycode from Beck that will unlock some of the records they've been unable to access, then Queen Zeal gives Beck leave to transport Melchior to the Dreamstone Quarry.