AEHU/Plot/Plot Sketch Chapter 8
"Voice of the Flame"
- Late at night Queen Zeal totally flips out, tearing down Zeal Palace's decorations and demanding to see the Object that claimed her husband's life after she wakes everyone up. Dr. Melchior having discovered that Dreamstone could touch the Object without vaporizing, the Gurus have transported it to Kajar for continued study.
- Schala follows Queen Zeal to Kajar Labs, where the Gurus tirelessly study the Object, constantly making new discoveries. The queen lunges for the Object as if to strike it in anger and she's barely held back by Demeria and Derben (Demeria proving yet again that Dalton is unfit for his position, since he didn't react quickly). Suddenly Queen Zeal seems to hear her husband's voice emanating from the Object, and though nobody else can hear it the Gurus are eager to listen in on Queen Zeal's one-sided conversation.
- Piecing together what Queen Zeal said to the Object, the Gurus determine that a consciousness inhabits it, that this consciousness controls the release of the Object's energy, and that the consciousness is playing a game with them: "Find a way to approach me without getting vaporized, then we'll talk about this whole energy thing."
- Melchior begins constructing the Mammon Machine out of purified Dreamstone as a buffer to absorb the Object's destructive Annihilation Energy.
- A few days later Schala purchases a birthday gift for Guru Bekkler's 76th and boards the Blackbird, where she meets Demeria also on her way to the guru's sky island laboratory to check up on Derben. Bekkler is impressed by Schala's ability to think of others despite her own sorrow, and informs Demeria that Derben's been missing from the security detail lately. Bekkler hasn't reported the absence because he figures Derben's taking the king's death especially hard, having been one of the king's confidantes.
- Reporting to Zeal Palace, Schala finds that her mother is painting up a storm, apparently working through her grief. The latest work is a horrific mess: a spiked bulbuous shape unlike any known creature. Seith is busy covering up for Queen Zeal's odd behavior. Dalton requests Schala's services as translator to facilitate the Earthbound weapons handover Derben had arranged earlier. Demeria wants to go along because she doesn't trust Dalton's ability as a guard and Schala painstakingly convinces Dalton to let Demeria tag along.
- In Algetty, Dalton manages to insult Po'hjol (Po'hjol doesn't need a translator, for one thing) but secures an oath that the weapons being handed over are all the Earthbound possess.
- Suddenly there's great commotion outside Algetty and everyone rushes outside to witness a Lavos Spawn and its attendant creatures seizing Earthbound civilians and dragging them into the Lavos Spawn's subterranean burrow. Both Dalton and Demeria are against immediate intervention (the Lavos Spawn seems to be keeping to itself after the initial attack) and would rather call for reinforcements before investigating. Then Grishe arrives on the scene with a bazooka and goes after the Lavos Spawn, proving that Po'hjol had lied to Dalton earlier. Schala takes advantage of this situation to convince Dalton and Demeria to go into the Lavos Spawn's burrow; if Dalton wants to prove that Po'hjol was lying, he'll need evidence of that. Dalton joins Schala and Demeria as guest.
- Inside the Lavos Spawn's burrow, Schala & co. subdue the Lavos Spawn but are unable to destroy it. They recover an unconscious Grishe; the other captured Earthbound have already perished.
- Dalton confronts Po'hjol with Grishe's recovered weapon and has Po'hjol arrested when he refuses to disclose the location of the weapons cache.
- Schala & co. arrive at Zeal Palace to report the previous doings and Schala notices that the Queen's painting looks exactly like the creature they fought on the surface. The Gurus suspect there may be a connection between the Lavos Spawn and the Object, which may have driven Queen Zeal subconsciously to paint the creature. Bekkler receives permission to capture the Lavos Spawn for scientific study.
- Demeria wants to find Derben since he was the last to speak with Po'hjol. She has a hunch Derben might be in Shikar.
- Schala and Demeria head to Shikar and find that Derben is in a private audience with the Shikar's Governor General Lakshya. While they wait they mill about, meeting Jaya and Demeria explaining that Shikar has great sentimental value because Demeria and Derben spent a lot of time with King Zeal there when they were teenagers. Seeing the famed Shikar Instrumentalists together here for the first time was an especially memorable experience.
- Schala and Demeria catch up with Derben. Demeria and Derben argue over the propriety of revealing the Earthbound weapons cache. Derben asks Schala what she would do, and Schala expresses her discomfort with making decisions that will determine the course of other people's lives. Demeria points out that Po'hjol could very likely be suffering torture while Derben's playing games, and this truth surprises Schala. She insists on visiting Po'hjol to see if Zealian security really tortures captives.
- Schala & co. board the Blackbird for Zeal, but it is re-routed to collect the dormant Lavos Spawn on the surface. The stop provides some time for thematic discussion. Schala overhears Demeria and Derben mull over their mutual loneliness after King Zeal's death and the possibility of reviving their relationship decades after breaking up; they both decide against it.
- Schala & co. lack clearance to enter Zeal's prison but after some tactical espionage action they're able to access a room containing a video feed of Po'hjol's ongoing interrogation. Despite some really ruthless torture under Dalton's supervision, he refuses to give up the location of the Earthbound weapons cache. Derben agrees to fess up to Queen Zeal so they can put an end to this.
- Back at Zeal Palace, Melchior announces that his Mammon Machine is finished. While Demeria argues with Queen Zeal about using the Object, Seith makes an offhand comment about Zeal no longer "needing" the Earthbound once the Object solves Zeal's energy crisis, and this unsettles Derben. He walks out without disclosing the location of the Earthbound weapons cache. Demeria catches up with him and he explains that if the Object is brought online, the Earthbound may lose all Zealian protection - or worse. The two of them thus agree that the Object cannot be exploited, while Schala broods on the costs and benefits.
- Schala & co. head for Kajar with Queen Zeal, Seith, and the Gurus. Bekkler conducts a live animal demonstration of the Mammon Machine's ability to keep the Object's Annihilation Energy at bay. Seith suggests that whoever approaches the Object must certainly be a Creojeanne, but just then Queen Zeal falters. Demeria and Derben warn that Queen Zeal's condition could be a result of some unforeseen radiation sickness or other effect from the Object. Dalton, in his authority as Seneschal, instructs Bekkler to conduct further tests and thus the first human connection experiment is delayed.
- While Queen Zeal is in recovery Schala finds that she can exploit some humanitarian provision of Zealian law to meet with Po'hjol now that he's no longer in the interrogation chamber. They have some thematic conversation.
- Meanwhile, Bekkler has used the downtime to conduct an experiment in exposing the dormant Lavos Spawn to the Mammon Machine with fantastic and dangerous results! Various alien creatures have come into being, some horrible hybrids of the Lavos Spawn's attendant creatures with the faces of their Earthbound captives. Schala meets up with Demeria and Derben to destroy the creatures running amok through Kajar Labs.
- Bekkler nonchalantly continues his experiments, proclaiming that the creatures were brought into existence via Anti-Annihilation Energy coaxed out of the Object by its contact with the Lavos Spawn. The other Gurus and Melchior eagerly study Bekkler's findings.
- In a private conversation with a recovering Queen Zeal, Schala is convinced of the Object's importance and agrees to make contact with the consciousness inside it. The deciding factor is that King Zeal wanted to exploit the Object to remove Zeal's need for Earthbound slave labor.