Following preparations in the camp and probably more practice torpedo-bombing runs than were strictly necessary, the force sets out.
            In a sky heavy with cold, fat raindrops, there is a rush of air and suddenly there are dragons. And the rain is blocked as they blot out the gray sky over a part of the fleet and there is nothing but the sound of rain splattering the water until the rocks reach the ships. Many are hit and those that are not near to sinking have damage of their own to deal with. The strike has crippled a good part of the fleet.
            From the harbormouth a great dragon's roar erupts and a crack like a cannonade erupts as the lighthouse is toppled by L'tarn's strike. L'tarn has come in from seaward and continues over the fleet. Manarth is belching fire and several of the ships that were missed now have fires in their rigging. Only the rain prevents the spread of the fire within the fleet.

* * *

M'corli says "They've started the attack. We seem to have them by surprise. OK, they say that flying women are attacking them. That's our cue, right?" The water rushes through the waterways below them as they stand and drip on the ledge that they've been told is under the temple.

"Right" says Siege. He leads the three to the top of a stair and pulls on it. It doesn't budge.

"One side, Siege."  Robin says with a warm grin, though her face is still showing the paleness from the underground and wet trek.
            Carefully placing her gull companions down on the stairs, the Ranger checks to make sure that both Siege and M'corli have the atlatls and spears she's equipped them with.  Given that the inside crew isn't going to have the back-up of tons of fire breathing dragon, she makes sure that her companions are as armed as she could get them.
            Assuming the Siege steps aside, Robin braces herself and gets a grip on the (stair? door? grate?) that the warleader was trying to budge.  Robin takes a couple of breaths and then starts slowly applying the strength that is the heritage of Oberon's blood in a steady building pressure.

With a crack loud enough to be heard by the dragonriders above, Robin breaks the lock. They hear shouts and see three men running at them. M'Corli looks at Robin, briefly, as if awaiting her permission to charge in. Siege, never one to let an opportunity pass, is rushing at them, yelling.
            Behind the three men you see perhaps a half dozen more. At least one of them seems to be running away.

Robin grins and winks, "Move out, greenrider.  They'll never know what hit 'em."  The Ranger's green eyes flicker wildly as she throws herself into the corridor.  Mr. Running-Away-Guy gets an atlatl spearlet hucked at his back as soon as Robin has clearance for her arm. 

Clang! It hits the ceiling and then the floor, but nothing else. The spear spends the rest of the combat considering how it has wasted it's life and determines to be a chartered accountant in the next, because of their reputation for wooden-ness.

Oh, and one of these kind charging gentlemen donates his sword to the cause, after his neck is broken.

He flinches, you do not. You are armed, and once armed, you quickly dispose of four of them terminally.

M'Corli is getting a sword off the victim who seems to be keeping his spear. Siege has two of them covered and another down at his feet.
            They went down quickly, but they managed to delay you from getting the final one disposed of.

Robin grins at M'Corli and gestures for him to watch one direction of the corridor.  Her manic green eyes watch the other.  P0ursing her lips, the Ranger calls her two grumpy friends to her, fully expecting them to be even more grumpy with the low hops and walks the corridor will bring.
            "Ask your questions fast, Siege.  I don't want to hang around."

"I just have two questions, gentlemen. Is Avis down here? And is my grandmother?"

The two guards eyes go wide and one of them looks to the end of the hall.

"That would be yes. M'Corli, if you don't mind, tie these two up and throw them in a cell."
    "They'll have another torture room down here. At the end of the hall."

He seems to be waiting on your orders.

Robin rolls her eyes to M'Corli.  "Alright.  Tie them up.  And then watch the exit, please."  She shakes her head with a rueful chuckle and looks over to Siege with glinting eyes.
             "Okay, let's go see what trap your grandmother has set up."  With a flash of white teeth, the Ranger starts pelting down the hall.  If this happens to pass by the spearlet contemplating its role in life, she'll scoop it up on the fly.

The spearlet finds itself in your hands, and silently rejoices at this second chance.

Siege runs with you and shortly after M'Corli's footsteps can be heard slapping behind you. The hallway is not too long and ends in a stairway going up and a door to the left. The door is wooden and light leaks through it. 
            The stairway is filled with some kind of black smoke. Or something.

Robin eyes the black smoke-or-something with evident suspicion.  She whistles a little more firmly, oh bird-buddies - let's get tail feathers up here.
             She takes a deep breath of the clean, fresh, healthy dungeon air.  And holds it.
             Robin's plan is simple.  Door to 'torture room' open, charge in, kill everything that's not Vianis or Avis, knock out Vianis, cut loose Avis, see if there's a grate to escape through like the other torture room.  Anything crops up, Robin figures she'll wing it.

The door splinters under her heavy boot and they rush in shortly after the resounding crack! Her compatriots are right behind her, and all of them are yelling as they run.
            The room is large and better appointed than the room in the other tower.
            At the far end is a desk, where Vianis sits, sipping a beverage from a china cup. Next to her is a woman with a bag over her head.
            Robin rushes up, intending to knock her unconscious, but finds herself slowing as she approaches, as if she is running in mud, or perhaps treacle. Up to her chest in it. She is making no progress at all.

"If you stop fighting it, you may sit down." Vianis says archly, gesturing to chairs and another table nearby. "I believe we had not finished our discussion when you so unfortunately declined my further hospitality last night."

A dark chuckle ripples through Robin's frame. "Men. You can tell them and tell them." She shakes her head ruefully.
            The Ranger stops pushing forward and glances over at the table and chairs, looking for the trap doors above and below. She looks back to Vianis and smiles.
            And snaps the redemption-seeking spearlet she's carrying right at the Chancellor's chest.

The spear snaps out of Robin's grasp and flies across the room, stopping in mid-air about where they all had been previously fighting the barrier. It hangs incongruously in the air a few feet from the chancellor, it neither falls nor continues.
            This takes the wind out of the sails of Siege and M'Corli.

Whereas, by the chuckle coming from the daughter of Julian, she finds the results both humorous and fascinating. Robin nods in admiration as though an expectation had been confirmed.

Vianis puts down her teacup and stands. She drags Avis' chair (and Avis with it) into the path of the stationary spear.
             "Yes, that's what I needed. A threat. Thank you, dear. It would be very bad if you managed to defeat my barrier."
             "Siege, please serve tea for everyone."

Robin's chuckle turns into a snicker. "You've got nice style, I'll admit that, Vianis." She grins. "Unfortunately the quandry here implies that I want to spare Avis more than I want to kill you. Whhhiiich I have not decided on yet."
            "However," she holds up a hand to Siege, asking him to hold off the shock for a moment. "I'm willing to be civilized -- briefly -- if you are, Chancellor. First thing is no more orders. I'm just lousy at taking orders." She smiles friendlily to Vianis.

"You must be related to Prince Vere. You and he share a sense of reality widely at variance with what you could observe. It would even be an admirable trait if you were acting to create it, rather than just expecting the universe to conform to your expectations. Still, I think that Gerard would have told the Lady if he'd had a daughter, so you must be Julian's child.
            She smiles back. You could cut glass with her smile.

Robin's return smile is bright and chipper.

"So, dear. Your demon allies are in retreat above my city, you can't get through my magic barrier to me, Avis will die by your hand if I drop my spell, and your tea is getting cold. Are you ready to answer my questions?"

"Deep Green!  You seriously think I would even consider drinking something poured at your command?"  Robin laughs in amazement.  "I mean, isn't that how we met?"  Her white teeth flash in grin.
             Then the Ranger's green eyes drift away across the chamber in thought.  "Hmmmmm.  You know, I... don't seem to be in a diplomatic mood, so I'll just cut to the chase."
             She looks back to Vianis.  "I'm not answering your questions.  I don't care if Avis lives or dies.  My demon buddies over the city are playing nice for right now -- get 'em pissed and it'll get real toasty out there.  And if I don't get my things back, I'll bring your city, your people and your island down around your ears.  Honestly, I don't care whether you hand my things back to me.  Or I search for them through the rubble of what was once Mothersport.  You see, Chancellor, I am not an honorable warrior-type.
            "Aaannnnd..."  Robin holds up a finger, "if you think that offing me will make things better?"  That smile gets absolutely malicious, "Really, for the sake of your world, reconsider it."

"I wouldn't dream of casually killing you. It would take six months just to finish the preparatory ceremonies."

Robin purses her lips and nods thoughtfully.

"But yes, practicalities. I am glad you aren't, as you put it, 'the honorable warrior-type', like my grandchild or the stripling next to you. I can negotiate with practical women."

M'Corli stiffens a bit, but it is hard to deny that he looks very young.

Siege says "We don't even know that that's Avis!"

Those green eyes roll but the Ranger decides not to say anything.

Vianis shrugs and removes the hood from the woman. She seems alert and angry and stares at the spear for a moment before blinking and looking around the room. Vianis touches her lips and Robin gets the impression that something happened.
             "So, let us negotiate. You may be able to damage us, but I don't think you can do so unscathed. And you allies might not be so keen to murder the many innocent people who live in this town. Especially if it cost them some of their demons.
            "I could give this to you, but you must give me something of value in return. I shall take Siege and Avis, and you shall have the card. Your demons shall go to the Lady's main encampment and drop rocks on their defenses in exchange for my ships that you have burned."

A chuckle shakes Robin's frame.  "Oh, good.  You can at least change thermals in the face of a cliff.  You had me worried there for a moment, Chancellor."  She grins.
             "Yeah, my current allies might be a little shy on the genocide angle," the girl shrugs.  "What can I say?  I was in a hurry.  Next ones won't be so weak."
             "As far as my possessions, you will return what you have stolen to me.  The loss of your fleet you can write off as the regrettable consequence of trying to bottle a hurricane.  Siege's position is not open to negotiation.  And Avis?  I wouldn't push me on that.  I kinda like your grandson.  Soooo..." that cute button-nose wrinkles.
            "Last time, Chancellor.  You lost when you put me in that hole.  I'm willing to be reasonable.  But I'm not negotiating here."  Robin smiles politely.
            The Ranger uses her eye-rolling and her eyes-wandering-around-the-room time to take a very thorough stock of the place she is in. Specifically she is looking for the witch-queen(s) she is pretty sure is lurking within eye-sight. Eye holes in the walls, roof or floor? Possibly. Lurking in a dark corner or invisible? Ears and nose may tell what eyes do not.

No dark corner or obvious eyeholes.
            There is something odd about how the smoke curls around the candle on the table that makes you think something isn't right over there.  On the other hand, it's a pretty smoky candle. M'corli has that faraway look J'rim gets when he's talking to his dragon. Surprisingly, so does Siege.

Vianis holds the card near the lamp on her table and looks closely at it.
             "If I thought you could get through the wall, I'd've already placed this card in the flame. You would have made a great priestess, you know. Even I can detect the magical potential that you have inherited. A pity it was your uncle who returned, not your father. He clearly inherited the better part of Rilga's divine nature."

The mention of the card burning sends a flare of anger driven by fear through the girl.  And a snarl twists her lips.
            "Wall?"  Robin cocks her head and stares off into a corner thoughtfully.  Her own eyes unfocus for a moment and the Ranger stands perfectly still.  With a hunter's ears, she listens - for Avis' breath, for the crackle of the candle flame, for the echo of Vianis' movements off the stone walls.  With a forest creature's senses, she reaches for the heat of how many humans within the room?  How many heartbeats, how much air?
            Is it a wall?.... Or a window.
            And just what is sneaking up on them from behind while Vianis fancy dances in front to hold their attention?

It separates them, Robin doesn't smell Vianis or Avis and the air moves as if there is a barrier. She looks at Avis and notice that her lips are moving slightly and her eyes are very dark and very large and...reflective. In the reflection Robin sees herself, her two companions, and a white-robed woman behind them, exactly where a woman would have to be standing to make the candle flame move as Robin recalls it moving. Avis blinks and her eyes go back to normal, and she nods, minutely.

"Hunh?"  Robin looks back to Vianis, confusion showing in her emerald eyes.  "What in the Green Hells are you talking about?"  The Ranger throws up her hands in exasperation.
            Not accidentally bringing her captured sword up and forward in a fast violent forward arc that continues back over her shoulder.  The blade is released to shoot behind the girl in a lethal line aimed directly at the chest of something that would cause candle smoke to waiver in a certain way.

The throw is clean and strong and unexpected and Robin hears the sounds she'd expect to hear: the sound of metal hitting flesh, the grunt of a woman being hit by a sword, a heavy thump.
            Robin feels a rush of air and sees the spear continue it's interrupted course.

At the same time, Robin throws herself forward, arm reaching out.  She figures she can't stop the spearlet, but maybe she can slap the butt or something so that it will spin and hit Avis lengthwise instead of pointy bit first.

She reaches, throwing herself full out, heedless of where she'll land, stretching hopelessly for the butt.  It is a heroic effort and she manages, against even her expectations, to brush it with her fingertips.
            As she falls to the ground, she watches it continue on a slightly altered trajectory towards Avis. Robin hears rather than sees the witch-queen and Siege struggling behind her.
            She hits the ground, her shoulder absorbing the impact. Her eyes close involuntarily on impact and open a split-second later.
            She quickly absorbs the scene.
            M'corli has rushed Vianis and is grappling with her.
            The table has been knocked aside and the lamp has been knocked over.
            Avis has been hit with the spear in her side. Apparently Robin deflected it just enough to keep her from being killed.
            From behind her, Robin hears a piercing woman's scream which cuts off abruptly.

Robin rolls to a crouch and springs over the desk to Vianis and M'corli like a stooping hawk.  She'll take both down if she needs to, but she intends to bear Vianis to the ground.  And introduce the Chancellor's head to the flagstones flooring of the dungeon rather firmly.  Not enough to break open, mind you, but with definite authority.

Vianis throws her hands out and M'corli staggers back, interfering with Robin's leap. Robin and M'corli crash down onto the table. It cannot stand the strain and breaks under the weight of the two fighters immediately. The good news is the spilled, burning lamp-oil is no longer spreading across the table. It doesn't do enough damage to hurt Robin noticeably, and M'corli is busy screaming and holding his hands over his eyes.
            Robin hears a cry of rage as Siege throws the short sword as if it were a spear. It goes over her head and through Vianis, hitting the back wall in the darkness.
            Robin smells fire more than she sees it.
            And Vianis is either invisible to her senses, or gone.

"Dung!"  Robin rolls over to M'corli.  "Hang on, dragonrider.  Antrith!  Can you hear me?"  The Ranger only has an observed understanding of the telepathic connection but she's hoping. "C'mon, M'corli.  Let me see.  Don't grind that stuff in!"
            Robin gently but firmly reaches for M'corli's hands.

Robin receives no response from the dragon. M'corli is in pain, and screaming.

"Siege!  How's Avis?"  She commands as an aside.

"Alive" says an unfamiliar alto voice.

"Hit her arm." says Siege.

A snort of graveyard humor bursts forth from Robin.  "Right.  Her arm."

The room is suddenly lit with a wan blue glow coming from Avis's palm. She comes over and touches it to M'corli's forehead and he stops screaming.
            "I disconnected him from the pain. I can't keep that going."

Siege says "I have some water."

"Toss it here."  The Ranger holds out her hand in Seige's direction, while still concentrating on getting M'corli to lower his hands.  She fully expects the erstwhile commander of the Brotherhood of the Stag to be able to land a canteen therein without her help.

Avis looks pale, as if she is spending resources that she doesn't have to spare.

"Thank you, Lady."  Robin's murmur to Avis is sincerely grateful for all of its quietness.  "I'll be as quick as I can.  In the meantime, you wouldn't happen to be able to find a certain playing card amidst the wreckage I just vacated, would you?"

"Siege" she says. Robin thinks she may be near limits.

"I have it." says the familiar masculine voice.

Robin's plan with the injured dragonrider is to, firstly, get his hands away from his eyes and do a quick inspection of the damage.

Unspecified medical things happen.

Robin shoots quick glances, when she can spare them, toward the splintered door and the spot where the grate was in the other tower.

Nothing in the doorway. She can see the black roilingness is still in the stairwell.

"Up!" says M'corli. "Antrith says we have to come out so she can take us away from the hurricane." He sounds, if it is possible, worse than Avis.

"Dung!" Robin mutters under her breath as she quickly ties off the bandages over M'Corli's eyes.
            Quickly she scoops the dragonrider into a one-armed carry.  "Okay, Lady.  I've got him.  You can release him now."

M'corli cries out, but quickly stifles it. He's in a great deal of pain.

The ranger waits for a second to control any convulsions or other disturbances from the green rider.  And checks to make sure that Seige has charge of the failing Avis.  Then she heads for the splintered door rapidly, scooping her sword out of the erstwhile priestess on the way.
            Along the way, she lets her rage ignite the blue fire of the Pattern along her nerves - a freak wind, caused by new opening to the sewers and the strange waterflows therein, caused by the rain.  Blowing upward and outward.  Through the tunnels, and - hopefully - sweeping the stairwell clear of its odd atmosphere.

It doesn't seem to affect the atmosphere in the stairwell. Something is not right with the stuff of shadows, but Robin can't tell what immediately.

As the Ranger approaches the steps, she eyes the black smoke with deep suspicion.  After all, the last time she charged into weird black smoke... well, she's still not sure she came out of it.
            Nevertheless, after checking in with Siege and Avis, the Ranger takes a deep breath and plunges up the stairwell at full speed, carrying the injured M'corli with her.

The foursome climbs the stairs in the roiling smoke, two by two. It stings eyes and throats and everyone emerges into the temple gasping and coughing.  Siege and Robin look for trouble but none springs immediately to the fore.
            Inside, the place is made of three long rows of arched stone. There are mosaic-like windows of heavy leaded glass throughout the building; the ones on the right gleam a hellish blue from the constant lattice of lighting across the upper sky and Robin can hear a pounding rain on the roof, windows and doors. Very heavy, perhaps moreso than Robin expected, based on her efforts earlier this evening, err "now but before."
            A breeze wafts through the building, causing the candles to flicker. Their light is pure; they must have been made of the best beeswax. Some of the candles are burnt almost completely down, but others are tall, and can only have been lit very recently. Not all of them are the same size, and there is no indication of how long they might burn.
            On the dais, at almost the far end of the building, there is a large stone block that might once have been carefully placed, but now is cast aside and broken. Beneath it there is a stairway, leading down. The candles nearest the stairway are also flickering.

Robin gasps as though she's been gut-punched, and her grip tightens on the unfortunate M'corli convulsively.  The girl's face sheets white in the flickering candle-light.  Her green eyes are wide and staring, the whites showing around the edges, like a startling falcon.
            "Uhh..." a quick flick of her tongue and a swallow against the hoarseness.  "Is this your guys' Temple?"  Her voice is not steady, not steady at all.

"No." says Siege.

"They changed it." says Avis.

They sound very unhappy, not unlike rain-soaked gulls.

Avis walks up to Robin and holds out a card.

"Thank you." The girl murmurs, somewhat shamefacedly.  Robin glances at the card quickly, hoping that if Vianis was stupid enough to bait the trap with the real Avis, she was doubly stupid enough to add the real Trump as well.

Cold and hard, the way some describe her father--those who are not allowed inside his armored protection, those who do not know him. She feels the whisper-touch of contact and unless she tear her eyes away right now, she'll be in contact with him in another breath...

Green eyes close as tears leak from under blonde lashes. Robin wants her father, so *very* much, it's as though her heart were clutching and cramping.
            But she won't call to him from her.  From this place, that Vianis has set up as a trap for the men of her line.
            Though she knows her father is more than a match for any shadow spider, still - stubborn pride etches its way across a face filled with longing - she won't call him to the trap.  She won't.

M'corli moans in pain. The windows on one side light up in crazy red patterns, as if the sky were on fire.

"Okay."  The Ranger gets her shakiness under control with a quick head shake.  "We've got to get the three of you out of here."  She turns briskly toward the doors she knows are at her back, sweeping M'corli up into her arms.  Long strides carry her to whatever hell awaits her three companions outside.  So different from the hell that awaits herself below.
            "Listen, Siege.  See if you can get the guys to give you and Avis a lift back to Methrin, okay?  And... Lady?"  Green eyes turn toward the Commander.
             "There's a certain green-eyed cave goblin of Siege's acquaintance who really needs to get his butt out of your world as quickly as he can.  I... I'd take it as a personal favor if you could see to that."  The flat line of Robin's lips indicate just how much she enjoys handing out debts like that, but also how important it is to her that Jovian leave this place.

"I am your servant." She says. Robin suspects that that is a stock  'priestess-addressing-a-goddess' statement.
            The building begins shaking and red flashes cross the sky.

"Fine, good.  Stay a living servant then."  Robin answers shortly, delivering a mighty kick to the door, hoping it will get them outside as opposed to bringing the lintel down on them all.

The door kicks open with a satisfying crack and swings outward only to be slammed against the outer wall by the rising gale outside. Robin doesn't recall summoning this kind of weather, but maybe it's a ripple effect from the on-again/off-again storm-making.
            She blinks at the lashing rain that is coming in and are about to act when the wall at the end of the temple collapses, burying the altar under a hail of massive stone blocks. Over the rain she hears the triumphal bugle of a dragon.

Robin blinks at the pile of stones rumbling to a stop over her... what? Destiny?  History?  For a moment, the Ranger gapes in disbelief.  But the bugle shakes her out of it.

Siege and Avis are perhaps more stunned. Shocked and/or shaken would be your snap diagnosis.

"Antrith?  Antrith?!?"  She bellows out over the gale.  "Dung, this is just what I get!"
            Robin shelters M'corli within her arms and checks to make sure that Siege and Avis are alright in the violently upscaled weather.  Blinking the rain out of her eyes, she checks around the courtyard - for landing room for the green and any archers or fallen priestesses that might be in the area.

The green is already on the ground - she's roughly half the size of Jovian's bronze, probably under 80'. A bit like finding a Coast Guard cutter on the lawn, but still.... The brown who was tearing at the buttress that just came down is closer to the bronze's size and has, in all probability, gotten the hell out of the way.
            Observing from above, Jovian lets out a breath he didn't think he'd been holding.

M'corli is moving towards Antrith and Antrith is, like a sentient self-mobile Coast Guard Cutter, moving into the rubble towards M'corli.
            Siege and Avis aren't moving. Robin suspects it isn't the dragon or the rain.

For a moment, Robin's attention bobbles as the dragonrider leaves her arms.  But a quick smile indicates her belief that Antrith is probably the best medicine M'corli could have at this moment.
            Siege and Avis, though... that's a concern.
            "Guys?"  A gentle wap to Siege's shoulder.  "We need to move now.  We'll figure out what to do about that later."  The Ranger waves a negligent sword in the rubble's direction.
            A sympathetic smile is sent to the Danu through the unnatural howling hurricane, against the backdrop of enormous demons... err, dragons crawling through the central square of their city, from the midst of the ruins of their most sacred Temple.  Yeah, the smile says, ouch.  But let's get out of here to ouch about it at leisure, K?

Siege grabs Avis' (uninjured) arm and starts moving forward towards the dragon. Avis is remarkably not as concerned with the dragon as with the temple.

Robin doesn't hear all of it, even with her senses, but she would swear that Avis said something like "her tomb" to Siege.

Nope.  Not gonna think about.  Robin assures herself that, though she is naturally the center of any universe containing herself, the 'her' Avis is referring to had better be someone else.  Granny Rilga or somebody.

Maybe she can ask someone later. No one will be disturbing it here for a while...
            Avis is not any less white, just more mobile. It's sort of a walking shock.

M'corli is standing touching Antrith on the rubble. "Climb aboard. Four is a lot for a green, especially in this rain, so we won't be going very far." M'corli seems better, although he has not moved the dirty bandage from his eyes.

This mouthful from a man who was previously given just to groans and gritted teeth brings a smile from Robin.  And she clambers quickly up the green hide with a chirpy "Nice timing, Antrith.  Thank you."

Once the Ranger is secure, she aids anyone else who needs aid to get into position.  As she settles herself and her companions, Robin finds her spirit growing lighter.  Her smile in the storm is not her usual wild grin, but a small sweet smile of growing contentment.
She is on the wrong side of the rocks!  It wasn't her intention... but she hasn't spent a lifetime descending a stairway into darkness.  She has been casually assaulted by one of her rat-bastard relatives.  And - best of all - she hasn't been crushed or buried alive.  This time.
            Robin realizes that her grasp on what's Real or not may be a little... slippery.  But - she's on the wrong side of the rocks!  Yay!
            A happy croon slips past the young girl's lips.

The coordinates Jovian gives are for the mustering point whence the wings timed it to the battle, for a time tick a full five minutes after they left linear time. It's more margin of error than he probably needs, he knows, but with the Pattern-induced instabilities that have been lashed about this morning, he wants the breathing space.

Antrith rises, and the watching riders feel her strain as she lifts with four people aboard in the rain. She does not get very high before the low wings, Maranth and Hoshith and Antrith blink out of existence.
            The not-being of riding the dragon between places is like a cold shock for the wet people and Robin counts heartbeats that are almost too surprised to race.

Black
Blacker
Blackest...