A loud "clunk" is heard, and lights begin to flicker as mercury vapor lamps come on. All of the acolytes who were frozen in place stand up (even the one whose back Reuben broke), brush themselves off, and walk out through the webs, now revealed to be low-power laser beams. The darkness in the archway which appeared when the room was severed from reality is really a black curtain. Looking up, the walls can be seen as stage sets. When all of the actors have left, and the mages and garou are the only ones left, an eerie silence fills the room. They walk out through the archway...

...into a room that resembles the library in "Masterpiece Theater." Cab walks into the empty room behind them and follows them into the library. The old man is sitting in the chair where they left him; he looks somewhat bemused. "That wasn't how I remembered it at all." Reuben asks him what happens next. The old man replies, "The final act, unless you have any questions."

The group opts to defer their questions until later. The Old Man gives Cab a key and points to six doors. Eric looks at the doors with entropy and sees that only two have any great fate attached to them. Opening the first one, he sees a battlefield, muskets, cannons, and people running by. It looks like a peasant revolt. Opening the other door, he sees six people sitting around a table in a tent. They are speaking French (in which Reuben is fluent), discussing battle plans and possibly flanking the Prussians. Gunfire and cannonfire can be heard in the background here, too.

The group chooses to go through the first door. They walk though and find themselves in a setting nothing like what they had seen looking through the door. They are on a battlefield, but off to the side on a hill. They see a besieged city across the valley, and a series of tents down the hill from the city that appears to be the command center for the attacking army. Eric looks and reports that one of the tents is a huge vortex of prime energy, sucking it in and expelling it as entropy. Kevin mentally scans the guards and determines that the French are attacking the Spanish. Cab checks the time, and determines that it is 2:13 PM on August 23, 1809.

Walks All Paths and Cab do a recon in the Umbra and hear voices from the tent speaking a language of demons. Kasee expands her awareness and determines that there are only two people in the tent. One is a short man who looks like the paintings she has seen of Napoleon. The other is a small, black-haired girl who they saw in Kevin's song-induced vision in Porthos' office - she is the Fourth.

The group retreats back over the ridge and makes a small camp. Everyone except Reuben sleeps. They wake again 10 PM and spend an few hours fishing and cooking a meal. Unable to come up with a better plan, they decide to "wing it." Approaching the tent at around 1:30 AM, Renee puts one guard to sleep, then helps Reuben put the other to sleep. No one is awake now to see them enter the tent.

Going in, they see a sizable tent, with a man asleep on a bed to the right, and a small girl sitting in a chair watching them on the left. Reuben makes sure the man doesn't wake up (it's not hard - he's drunk as a skunk). The girl looks at them and says that she's been waiting for them.

The mages and garou introduce themselves, and the girl leads them out of the tent into a vineyard, away from Napoleon's camp. The girl asks if Mary sent them, and introduces herself as Morgan. She recognizes them suddenly, saying that they are the ones who are doing the play. She also says that she's done with Napoleon; her next move is to find someone named Philippe in the city and help him.

Morgan says that the man in the fancy library is Mary, and that he/she has been directing the play with a very sick sense of humor. She then answers several questions from the party. The Soul Eater is a poor translation - it's just a staff (like the ones they've seen) that binds people together. She stresses that everything they have been doing is real - if they change history, it will affect the future. She also says this may not be a bad thing. She criticizes Porthos for taking Crystal to Doissestep and involving her in their internal politics. She turns to a small pool of water and shows the group images of worlds that could have been. If Porthos had not gotten Crystal, magic would have been a commonplace thing. She shows them an image of Raleigh, only there are flying carpets instead of airplanes flying by.

If they had survived their encounter with Porthos, they would have gone with him and served as advisors, and Eric would have become head of the Order of Hermes. She shows them the halls of Doissestep, teeming with life instead of the dead place they saw previously.

Finally, she explains that the mages are a ripple in the timestream - they affect things in ways they cannot comprehend. The important thing is that things change, that they not necessarily follow the script, as the had in the play The Dollhouse. Then she claims that this is their last big scene, and without any sizable changes, all of the destinies point toward the guy they lost. No, not Daedelus, but Nathaniel. In answer to a final question, she says that there are five of them, The Four plus the Lost. The Lost is created by the first, whom she has not met. In fact, it was created during a time ripple, and there is only one time ripple, and that's the mages. She pauses, lost in thought.

Kevin hears her mention three versions of the prophecy: Porthos', Caryn's, and Ravenswing's. He tries to recreate the song that he catalyzed in Porthos' office using the voices of Kasee, Cab, Renee, and Walks All Paths. After much preparation, they begin, and sing flawlessly for an hour. At the end of the performance, Morgan is crying and all of the participants pass out.

As they wake up, Cab is looking intently at the tattoo on Reuben's wrist. She then turns her head as if listening to something behind her. She determines that whatever is on Reuben's wrist, it has a mind of some sort.

It is decided that they must enter the city and help Morgan find Filipe, the man Morgan seeks now that she is through with Napoleon. After discussing how to enter the city, they split into two groups: Reuben, Dog, Kasee, Cab, and Walks All Paths will enter the city in the Umbra, and Kevin, Eric, Morgan, and Renee will go by foot, hidden by an invisibility effect Eric will create. They split, but as they enter the Umbra, Kasee and Cab have to dodge a hole that opens near them as cross near the entropy vortex that is Morgan. A spectre emerges, but the garou faces it down. It backs away and is caught in the vortex. First it grows bigger, then with a heartwrenching wail it tears itself apart. The hole from which it emerged closes, leaving a twisted scar in the ground.

Meanwhile, Eric is guiding the others toward the city. As they walk, he notices his effect is slowly weakening, a by-product of having an entropy vortex within the range of the effect. As the invisibility falls apart, the guards around the city see them and begin to fire. The garou, peeking from the Umbra, sees that they are in trouble and steps sideways. He starts to attack and frenzies. After wiping out more than ten men in as many seconds, roars. All of the other soldiers run. The werewolf's frenzy drops suddenly, and he feels that life force is being drained from him. The others step sideways back out of the Umbra and rejoin the garou, Eric, and Renee.

Kevin and Morgan have gone ahead into the city, and locate an empty house on the perimeter. They are puzzling how to enter when the others catch up with them. Cab steps sideways near Mary, and is hit by a spectre. She falls back sideways into the house, only to see that the door is booby-trapped with a barrel of gunpowder and a crude lighting mechanism. As she shouts a warning, they here a ghostly wail as the spectre is destroyed in the Umbra, and the door bursts into flame.

Cab, desperate to get out of the house, tries to jump through the window, but bounces off. Reuben breaks the window for her, and she escapes. Everyone else runs from the house, but Eric stays trying to contain the blaze. Just as he has it - the door explodes right in front of him. Reuben runs back and picks him up, and also picks up Cab, who has fallen unconscious from her spectral injuries. They run to a quiet alley. Hide under a manure cart, and tell Kasee, Kevin, and Morgan to keep watch. Renee and Reuben perform a quick triage and heal Eric and Cab of all normal wounds. While they are discussing how to deal with Cab's spectral injuries, she wakes up and assures them that she's fine and that she must talk to Morgan immediately.

Renee brings Morgan from the mouth of the alley. Cab asks Morgan what they need to next, and they talk about the philosophies of destiny. The garou, now rather unintelligent, starts to wander out of the alley; Renee sprints out, brings him back, and Kevin persuades him to sleep. Reuben and Dog sit down for a quiet talk while Kevin meditates. Kasee sneaks away and steals some clothes hanging out to dry. She's chased and gets momentarily lost, but finds her way back to the group.

Cab sits down next to Reuben and, pretending to sleep, contacts the being around Reuben's wrist. After they talk for a bit, Kevin joins in as well. The beings says it is "the part that is most human." It doesn't say the part of what. After some thought, it decides its name is Billy. It also states that it wrote the prophecy, and that he helped the mages in the group create the earth, the Umbra, and everything else. It states that it is the little brother to The Four.

By now, Kevin has included Reuben in the conversation, and Billy brings in Renee and Kasee. Reuben asks if it is Billy's duty to bind The Four together. He says that that was Morgan's idea at the beginning of time. Pressed for exactly when the beginning of time was, he says that it was when Kasee ripped the calendar. Realization dawns. Kevin asks if the play is still going on. Billy says that it's not the original play, but the sequel. When Kevin presses for who can help them, Billy says that if he has paper, he can write a new scene. Kevin immediately pulls out paper and starts writing. When he is done, he puts down his pen and looks up. Morgan, who has been standing at the mouth of the alley, whirls around, mouth agape, then she slowly starts to smile. The light around the group starts to fade, and they are in blackness.

The Dollhouse, a Play in Two Acts
9:54 PM, August 24

The mages perform the play flawlessly. When they are done, there is applause from the back of the auditorium. Cab brings up the house lights, and there are five children sitting in the back row, four girls, all around eight years old, and one boy of the same age or a little younger. They recognize Mary and Morgan, and assume the others are Crystal, Billy, and the unnamed First. The children ask when the next act will be. When Kevin says it hasn't been written yet, they say they're going to go get cookies in the meantime. Billy looks sad. When asked why, he says that he didn't get to play his part and be the hero. Renee tries to console him. Kasee asks if the play should have ended on January first. Crystal replies that time is meaningless now. The children walk to the back of the auditorium and open the door. It is pitch black outside - there is nothing there. They step through the door and disappear.

The mages fall to discussing what they need to do next, with Reuben arguing that they should end the third act exactly where the first act begins, but Kevin saying that the problem is in the balance of forces that has been constructed. Cab checks her time sense and says that the time is now: three minutes. As they talk, Kasee goes back onstage and changes the time to midnight, December 31. She then opens the door and sees only a single star outside. She waits as the mages further discuss their next step, then walks out the door into the nothingness.

Eric sees her go, and draws the attention of the rest of the group. After much testing and trying, Eric, Walks All Paths, and Kevin step out the door. They find themselves drifting in what could be space, but there's air and they don't freeze to death. The only thing in the entire blackness all around them is the single star, which appears to be slowly growing.

Cab, Renee, Reuben, and Dog all hold hands and step through the door, only to land in Reuben's room back in the Chantry. They are baffled. Reuben looks out the window to see people passing on the street, but sees no life patterns in them, and there is no prime energy to be found in whatever place they are in. He asks Dog where they are, and his familiar replies that they are home, isn't that where they wanted to be? The mages realize this is only a construct, which Dog confirms. They open the bedroom door to see a familiar blackness outside, with a single star only. Dog explains that whatever they desire, will be. Reuben says that they want to go to the star; they once again hold hands and step outside. Within a step, they are at the star, which is the size of a quarter and floating about a yard in front of them.

Meanwhile, after floating a bit, Kevin and Eric meet up. Eric propels them toward the star. The garou has gone into a spin, as has Kasee, who is also drifting in the nothingness, but they both somehow aim themselves toward the star as well. As Kevin, Eric, Kasee, and Walks All Paths near the star, they hear the sound of children laughing, and suddenly they are in a room with the Four girls and Billy. Reuben says that it would be a good thing if they shrank to be in proper proportion with the star, and the star appears to expand and expand...and suddenly they too are in the room with the others.

It appears that a tea party is going on. One wall of the room is clear, and it is apparent that what they were looking at is now much bigger than a star. Morgan begins to explain:

What they are looking at is the universe, newly reborn. Kevin notices that he can hear a song similar to that which contained the prophecy, but it has many, many more voices. Morgan says that what he hears are the avatars of the universe, now joined and made whole. The quest for Ascension is meaningless in this place, since, with all powers in balance, all the avatars can be considered Ascended. The children say that this will probably be a boring universe, but they will keep themselves busy by blowing up planets with firecrackers.

Kevin and Reuben try to explain that the universe we left still had unascended souls in it, and that they still needed out help. The children are interested, but offer no help. Reuben decides that a door back to the theater would be a good thing to have around, and when he looks, there is a door leading back to the theater. The mages and the garou file back inside.

After the group performs the first act of the play over again, the lights fade. They are in darkness, then points of light begin to appear above, below, and all around them. They become disoriented as gravity ceases. Looking up, they can see Earth, and the moon is below them. They realize that they are near a space station. A black tendril leads to the space station.

Continued in Chapter Two, Part Five: Over The River and Through the Woods....

© 1997 by Tom Brady and Beth Miller