Everyone floats for a moment, getting their bearings, then Kevin shouts. Walks All Paths, Reuben, Cab, and Kasee can see what the problem is - he's fallen through the Gauntlet into realspace. Walks All Paths and Cab work frantically to reach through the Gauntlet and pull Kevin back through, while Reuben heals him enough to keep him alive. The garou finally succeeds, and Kevin is all right, though terribly sunburned and gasping. The werewolf has everyone join hands, and spreading his wings (which he seems to have reacquired now that he's in the Umbra), they move toward the space station.
As they travel toward the space station, they stop suddenly. Eric and Walks All Paths say that there is a grid of satellites between them and the station, and Eric can see that they are in constant communication. Kasee looks toward the satellites with correspondence, and trips some sort of sensor. Looking up, Reuben says that a rocket has launched from the Earth's South Pole. As the rocket gets closer, it resolves into a matte-black space shuttle. Kasee looks inside and says that there are three Men in Black and a man in a silver suit. She's about to continue, when she disappears.
Eric looks at the shuttle and sees the same four men, but one of the Men in Black has a gun pointed at Kasee, who is sitting next to him looking frightened. The shuttle continues to move quickly toward the mages. Eric has everyone grasp hands, and, pulling kinetic energy from the shuttle, accelerates them in an attempt to go around the grid of satellites to the space station.
Back on the shuttle, Kasee is taken to a small room and is questioned by one of the Men in Black. He asks her what tradition she is, and what was she doing in space? Kasee being Kasee, he receives no useful answers.
Eric has formed a force bubble around the mages to prevent them from being seen. As they approach the web of satellites, suddenly a three-masted schooner appears, with the name S.E.S. ARGO on its hull. The ship comes about and opens fire on the shuttle with cannonballs. The shuttle returns fire on the ship with a laser cannon, burning a hole in one of the sails. The mages split up, with Reuben, Dog, and Kevin going to investigate the schooner, and the rest going to the shuttle to rescue Kasee. Reuben checks the two vessels: the shuttle is in realspace (although it has an Umbral shadow which is an exact duplicate of it), while the schooner is totally in the Umbra, but the Gauntlet is so thin here that even those who can't step sideways can move between the two.
As the group of mages approaches the shuttle, Walks All Paths shifts to crinos form and pulls out his sword. Timing his strike with the pulsing of the laser cannon, he jams his sword into the hole from which the laser fires. The next shot bounces off the now-misaligned lens and blows a hole in the side of the shuttle. The garou, flush with success, goes to the other side of the shuttle to take out the other laser cannon, but mistimes his strike and almost has his hand blown off.
Meanwhile, back on the schooner, Kevin and Reuben announce themselves as enemies of their enemies. When asked how they know who the schooner's enemies are, Kevin replies that they're the one's they're firing at. The captain of the ship introduces himself as Finnegan Raleigh. He asks if Reuben or Kevin have guns, and when Reuben says no, the captain gives him a musket. As they speak, a harpoon gun is rolled to the side of the schooner and fired, piercing the side of the shuttle. They draw the shuttle closer tot he schooner and throw lines out, preparing to board. The sailors swarm out over the lines, and Kevin follows, leaving Reuben and Dog behind. The sailors, upon reaching the shuttle, pull out daggers which glow brightly and plunge them into the hull piercing it. They begin to cut holes to get in.
And in the shuttle, Kasee, who has been quietly watched by one of the Men in Black, suddenly hears a klaxon go off, indicating that the hull integrity has been breached. The Man in Black stands up and leaves. Kasee tries to use correspondence to reach through the door and push the release button to open the door, but botches badly. The door opens, but a cat exactly like her (now dead) cat Hairball blocks the way. She tries to move around it, but it hisses and spits. She throws a crystal at it, and the crystal is absorbed and the cat grows in size.
Kevin follows the Sons of Ether into the shuttle and they quickly move to the cockpit, where they engage the Men in Black and the Void Engineer (the fellow in the silver jumpsuit) in a close-range firefight. There is a heart-stopping moment when Kevin shot goes wide and blows out the windshield, but the Men in Black tradition mages' version of reality wins out and they are not all killed in the explosive decompression. Kevin is shot at least four times during the shootout, which ends when one of the Sons of Ether finishes off the last Man in Black.
Eric and Cab have entered the shuttle and find Kasee, drawn by her screams for help. Kasee tries to teleport around the cat, succeeds, but then falls over unconscious. The cat immediately jumps onto her chest and sinks its claws in. Eric tries to get the cat off by shocking it with an exposed power cable, but succeeds only in sending Kasee into defibrillation. Fortunately, Kasee wakes long enough the restart her heart, then passes out again. Eric and Cab drag her to the airlock and open the hatch, but in a moment of vertigo induced by standing in a Technocracy vehicle and looking out into space, almost send themselves into the vacuum of space. Eric quickly throws up a force wall and they go back into the shuttle..
Having dispatched the Men in Black, Sons of Ether move back to check the rest of the ship. Kevin is left lying on the deck of the cockpit, alive, but with a seemingly unhealable hole in his chest. The Sons meet Cab and Eric who are surprised to recognize one of the Sons of Ether: it's Nathaniel! Cab asks where he disappeared to, and Nathaniel replies that he left a message on the toaster - didn't they answer it when it rang? Anyway, he was called to service in the Ether Marines, and will be on duty there for a while. They go back and collect Kevin and return to the Galleon, where Reuben, Renee, Walks All Paths, and Dog have been waiting.
Reuben asks Dog what exactly the thing on Kasee is, and Dog looks intently and replies, "Guilt.". Renee and Reuben try to heal Kevin, but all of the energy they pour into him is sucked right back out by the hole in his chest. They stabilize him and heal Kasee. The galleon has sailed around the net of Technocracy satellites and arrives at the space station, which on closer inspection looks like a Victorian train station. They are met at the entrance by Thea, an android, who graciously offers them rooms and medical attention. Thea then turns to Nathaniel and informs him that Kopp has been found, and he is needed on the Nautilis. Nathaniel says goodbye to the mages and leaves.
The party is shown to a suite of rooms and locked in. Kasee and Walks All Paths meditate while the rest of the group relaxes. Thea comes back with the carafe of hot cocoa Cab requested, then leaves the party to their sleep.
It isn't long before Kasee is jolted out of her trance screaming. It seems she had a vision of the cairn-raising ritual. Hairball was talking to her, noticeably upset that Kasee had done nothing to save her. Just before Silver reached her room, Kasee grabbed Hairball and bolted out the window. When she stopped running and looked behind her, the chantry exploded and she woke up. The up side of the vision was a real cat purring on her arm instead of a paradox manifestation embedded in her chest.
In the morning, Eric wakes up and meditates. Later, Renee explains Kasee's vision to Cab until she is interrupted by Kevin's screams. Renee rushes into his room, followed shortly by Thea. Kevin is even more upset when he sees Thea - he thinks we've been captured by the Technocracy. Renee eventually calms him down, and the party (except for Kevin) has breakfast.
After breakfast, the party is locked back in their suite. The wait is interrupted by a knock at the door. Renee opens it and greets Karlwerner Luftwelle III. He examines Kasee's bracelet, asking who gave it to her. After hearing the story, Karlwerner rings for Thea, to see if she can remove the bracelet. Thea is reluctant to proceed without someone around who can reattach Kasee's arm. Karlwerner decides to leave the bracelet to Professor Dubrius. He allows Thea to escort Walks All Paths and Renee about the station, then takes his leave.
Renee and Walks All Paths return from the foray with the news that the tendril leads into the Deep Umbra. Renee checks on Kevin and finds him sitting on the floor in the middle of a large blood stain. He had just finished a ritual using his own blood to heal himself.
At noon, there is another knock on the door. Eric answers it this time and Professor Dubrius enters the room. He examines the bracelet, then asks Kasee for the name of the Man In Black who gave it to her. The Professor seems to recognize Ravi's work, and refers to him as a gray man. He motions Eric over to look at the inscriptions, in Enochian, on the bracelet. There are two words, one is "power", the other "listen". The seam of the bracelet breaks power into two syllables - "self-death".
Deciding that killing Kasee while removing the bracelet is not the optimal solution, Eric and Professor Dubrius come up with the idea of erasing the inscription. Professor Dubrius rings for Thea and has her bring up his small doomsday device. The Professor informs Eric that he will have to remove the inscription, since the Professor understands it only because Eric is close.
The Professor convinces Kasee to stick her arm in the doomsday device, then Eric begins to work. Taking his time, he erases part of "listen", most of "power", then cuts the bracelet along the seam. It dissolves into a puddle at the bottom of the machine. Kasee's hand remains attached to the rest of her.
Cab and Reuben sit down and attempt to exchange quintessence so Reuben can heal Kasee's wounds. He succeeds, but Cab's avatar freaks out and she attacks him in a homicidal rage. Renee manages to pull her off and Kevin calms Cab down. Once she is calm again, she and Reuben agree not to try that again.
The group eats dinner, then spends time in the station library. After some reconnaissance, they find that the black tendril does indeed run through the station, and continues out into the Deep Umbra. Walks All Paths summons Owl, who, when asked how the garou can regain contact with Gaia, points enigmatically to the moon. The next morning, Walks All Paths tells the mages that they must go to the surface of the moon, then out into the Deep Umbra to follow the tendril. They agree.
Eric asks Thea if there are any ether ships available that they can use, and she says no, but the Technocracy shuttle is available - the Sons of Ether were just going to drop it back on Antarctica anyway. The mages board the shuttle, with Eric, in the guise of the void engineer who had flown it before, operating the AI computer. They launch toward the moon, but quickly realize that the entire surface is protected by a defense grid with a resolution of two feet by two feet. Eric considers, then tells the shuttle to veer off toward the Deep Umbra. Most of the mages agree with the idea, but the garou insists that he is only going along with the idea under protest.
As they head toward the Deep Umbra, the computer counts down until the cross the Horizon. Three seconds afterwards, the shuttle is in the midst of a grassy field. There is blue sky all around, and the atmosphere is exactly like that of Earth. They extend a stairway from the hatch and step outside to find an old man waiting for them. He introduces himself as Senmut, and says that he is there as a representative of the Oracles of Time to thank them.
Senmut tells them a long tale that explains where The Four came from, what the Prophecy means, and what the mages have done to prevent a disaster of unknown magnitude.
Senmut finishes talking to the mages, and walks to the back of the house and begins stirring something tarry and nasty looking on a stove. Reuben goes to speak with him and is ignored. He waves his hand in front of the oracle, who raises his hand to stir the pot and it passes through Reuben. He returns tot he front room, where the others have noticed that the walls are beginning to seem transparent. They decide it is time to go back to the ship.
As soon as the door closes, the plain around the ship dissolves, and they are back in space. Eric, Walks All Paths, and Renee go to the cockpit, while the others go to the crew lounge. Reuben bandages Kevin's broken ribs, and Kasee looks for her sword, which was taken away from her when she was first captured.
Suddenly, klaxons go off throughout the ship. The computer announces that they have entered an anomaly of unknown magnitude. Piece by piece, parts of the ship cease to function: the engines, the navigation system, the weapons system (which is jettisoned - the group hears an explosion behind them as the weapons detonate), and finally the computer itself. They are in free fall, until Eric seizes control of the shuttles kinetic energy and they slam to the floor. Eric starts to lose his grip, but finds that some other power has taken control of the ship, and they drift gently down to the planet surface. They seem to be landing on an island in the middle of a crescent-shaped bay, with lush jungles all around.
Walks All Paths opens the door, and after sniffing and scratching his head, announces with concern that they seem to be in what is called The Summer Country. Dog tells Reuben that they shouldn't be there - the werewolves will come and kill them all.
Eric opens the door, and they all descend the stairs from the shuttle. Waiting to greet them is a seven-foot tall snow leopard in Crinos form, holding a wicked-looking sword. Walks All Paths approaches her and greets her as an equal, and she shifts to human form - it's Nicole, whose soul the garou saved so long ago and started their quest into the far-flung reaches of the Umbra.
Nicole says that she is now a guardian of Gaia, and will remain in The Summer Country until her replacement comes. She warns that the garou's soul has been used by GrandMaw to hide and close the membrane [gauntlet] behind her. She also says that they can no longer follow the tendril - it doesn't exist any longer.
Walks All Paths asks how she can be defeated. Nicole answers obliquely: "The Malfeans and Infernals lied. They told us that blood matters, that it was forever. The truth is that your soul is your own. They can no more take your soul than they can take your shadow." Walks All Paths says, "In that case, I want my soul back NOW!"
The garou collapses. Renee and Reuben rush to his side, but can do nothing. Walks All Paths finds himself on a featureless plain, facing GrandMaw in the persona of Grandmother Thunderworm. Tendrils reach out from the Worm and grasp him, but he fights it. As the mages try to reach him mentally, they are suddenly pulled through into the Mindscape. Walks All Paths strikes at the Worm repeatedly, and while it's bleeding profusely, he is getting beaten senseless as well. Kasee, Renee, and Reuben offer up prayers to Gaia, which seems to help. Cab tries to use Dream to contact someone who has faced Grandmother Worm before, but only reaches someone whose father faced it - he had no clue what to do. Eric has a bright idea and asks Nicole what Grandmother Worm's true name is. Nicole tells him, but his mind rebels and forces the knowledge, as well as all recollection back to their arrival at the Summer Country, from his mind. Kevin is scared senseless of the worm for a time, but then comes to and deduces that since they are in a Mindscape, all damage is mental. He uses this knowledge to heal Walks All Paths somewhat, keeping him alive.
Walks All Paths is near death. Just as he takes a final blow from the worm, Gaia breaks through in his heart, with the aid of his prayers to her and the prayers of the mages. Grandmother Thunderworm looses a terrible cry, then fades first to two dimensions, then into the shadows. The group looks around, and they find themselves back in The Summer Country. Walks All Paths has his soul back, but he is not breathing and his heart is not beating. All of his damage is aggravated, and none of the healers in the group have quintessence to heal him. Reuben reaches directly into the node, grabs quintessence, and restarts the garou's heart, severely burning himself in the process.
The group rests for a several hours, with Renee healing Reuben, then the two of them healing Walks All Paths, Kevin, and Kasee. Walks All Paths is now healthy, but still unconscious. Cab uses the time to fill in Eric on what happened between the time that they landed in the Summer Country and they returned to the Summer Country. All this time Nicole stands guard, looking agitated but unmoving.
At moonrise, the colors of the place change radically from lush greens to subdued blues. Four wolves enter the clearing, as does an owl. The owl shifts to human form revealing himself to be Owl. He touches Walks All Paths on the forehead and the garou wakes. The garou, still in lupine form, greets Owl, then the other wolves. They howl, and a moot is called.
Owl begins the ritual, saying, "This is Walks All Paths. He stood at the creation of the cairn, guarded his ward well, redeemed the soul of the fallen…" He continues for some time reciting the garou's accomplishments. When he is finished, he says, "The garou comes to the Summer Country in good standing. Will anyone speak for or against him?"
Kevin steps forward and sings a beautiful song in praise of Walks All Paths. All nod in appreciation. One of the wolves shifts to human form and says, "Walks All Paths, stand before me."
Seeming to know the other garou, Walks All Paths shifts to human as well and approaches him, and issues a challenge that he may rise in rank. The other garou says, "I will ask you a question: How will Nicole leave us?"
Walks All Paths looks torn, and ponders for a few moments. Then he sighs, and says, "Nicole feels guilt and hate from her past, as she has told us. She must face a challenger who will absolve her of her guilt through the love of Gaia."
As he finishes, a black blur - a Black Fury, in fact - speeds across the clearing with a wicked blade and cuts Nicole in half, killing her on the spot. Some of the mages note that at the last moment, instead of defending herself, Nicole moved her sword to make the killing blow easier. The other wolves are unperturbed by the slaughter, and the older garou nods and says, "You have learned well. Walks All Paths, I call you adren."
The garou shift to lupine form and they howl a sad song for Nicole's departure. Her body dissolves into the ground, and their sadness turns to rejoicing, and the night is given over to playfulness and friendliness. During one of the breaks in the playing, Kevin and Walks All Paths tell the story of The Four, and how the mages helped and hindered them. The other garou nod, and the story is entered into The Silver Record.
When the moon reaches its zenith, the colors suddenly seem to fade, and the other wolves are now only wolves, and the owl flies into the trees. The mages note the lights of a city in the distance, and a plane flies overhead. Kasee checks correspondence and says that they are north of Durham, North Carolina. Cab checks the time and says that it is 2 AM on Friday, November 14, 1997. The mages are shocked - during what seemed like two weeks to them in the Umbra, over a year has passed on Earth.
Continued in Interlude 2: Picking Up the Pieces
© 1997 by Tom Brady, Beth Miller, and John Green