Shortly all four of them are at the surface, near the window ledge where they left the boat.

Avis hangs onto a rock and turns to Solange.  "Forgive me for not recognizing your divinity, Lady."

Solange shrugs and climbs onto the ledge.

Avis turns slightly to also address Robin.  "How shall the people face this challenge?  Where shall we lead them?"

Solange also looks at Robin—the Isles are under Robin and Vere's sphere of influence, not hers, and she's happy to keep it that way.

Robin hears something, like a bird in the distance.  It says "Away, away..."  Perhaps she imagined it.

The girl cocks her head for a moment, listening to her imagination before blinking at Avis.  "Weeelll," she says scrambling up onto the ledge and out of the water, "I suppose we think about it first." Robin sounds amazed that *that* suggestion came out of *her* mouth. She looks to her sister and her beloved with a raised eyebrow.

Solange smiles at Robin's surprised expression. "I'm happy to offer opinions, but his is your bailiwick, not mine. I was just along for the ride."

"Fair enough." Robin nods.  Oh yeah, she understands people not wanting in on this toss.

Vere pulls himself up onto the ledge next to his beloved.  His eyes go to the eastern wall, where a word had been scratched into the stone not that long ago.  "Rebma," he says quietly.

"Isn't that where you think Huon went? Won't they be preparing for war, then?" Solange asks.

"That is a possibility," Vere acknowledges.  "And the reason I sent the Queen of Rebma a warning that Huon approached.  Rebma is not his ultimate target, however, merely a waystation along his way."  His eyes go to Avis.  "I think it must be for the new Lady of the Isles to determine where she wishes to lead her people.  We may make suggestions, but it is a true thing that we shall not be dwelling among the people, wherever they are led."
            He pauses, then adds.  "Avis, my sister, you must also consider how many of the people of this world you wish to lead away.  Those we leave behind are doomed."

"And if you want them all to end up in the same place."  Robin adds with a mischevious grin.

"I am a vessel of the will of the Goddess," says Avis.  "I pray for mercy rather than justice and ask that she deliver her people from doom.  Those who are chosen will be the chosen of the children of the Danu, and will be blessed amongst all the world."

"If you are to be the vessel of the will of the Goddess," Vere says with an unusual touch of asperity in his voice, "Then it is time you learn to begin deciding what Her will is without asking her mortal incarnations.  Having Robin and Solange to talk with physically is unlikely to ever be repeated.  Their mother told them to leave the Isles immediately, and I intend that they should do so."
            His eyes travel to Robin, then Solange, and then back to Robin.  "As soon as we have returned to Mother's base, I want Solange to take Lord Worth and the Kiss away.  Robin, you have your own task.  Before this day is out, I want you to take the dragons and their riders back home.  A world of dragons is a good base from which to begin once more your quest for a way to fight the Great Dragon."
            His gaze goes back to Avis.  "And we must go to the meeting with the Witch Queens and the rebels.  Now, you have the message of the Goddess that this world is doomed to give to them.  All whom you chose to save I will lead away, wherever you decide to take them."

Avis nods at this.  If she heard his first statements, she didn't respond or acknowledge them at all.

Solange looks back at Vere with softly amused surprise at his change of tone--perhaps his urgency comes from a sense of upcoming doom that she doesn't feel herself. She doesn't have a problem with the sudden show of authority, but her eyes flick to Avis, curious how she will take it in a place where the women are the ones that make the decisions.

Robin presses her lips together and nods.   Cause that's the way it is and anything else can wait for private time.

Avis looks from Vere to Robin and Solange.  "A test of my judgement in front of the goddesses.  I have two choices, I think.  I can either accept all who would be saved, and thus provide us with a greater people or I can accept those who have been the most faithful to the will of the goddess, which is to say her faithful peoples of the Isles.  If you can save for us fewer than all the faithful, then the decision is easy enough.  How much time is there to decide this?  How much time do these poor isles our home have left?"

Vere frowns slightly, and looks back into the slowly sinking temple. "If none of our family do anything else to damage the fabric of this reality, then I do not think the destruction is imminent.  But the longer we delay, the greater the chance of the world unravelling."  He looks to Robin and Solange for confirmation.

Solange gives him a supportive nod.

Robin tips a shoulder, the answer is yes-ish.  "The longer *we* are here," she gestures to herself, Solange and Vere, "and the more threats we react to, the worse it will get."  Her voice is matter-of-fact though not without regret.

"And how do we prevent this from happening again, in whatever new home you bring us to?"

A brief smile flits across Vere's lips.  "Find a way to keep the members of our family from fighting each other in the new world, and keep people such as the Chancellor from challenging them."  He becomes more serious.  "Or, failing that, move to a world that is firmly anchored to a source of reality.  Near Rebma, if not within it. Rebma's Pattern means that its reality cannot be destroyed, in the way that the Isles are being destroyed."

"What exactly happened here?" Solange asks, curious. Her gaze travels from Vere and settles on Robin.

"Here, here?" Robin nods to the flooded city.  "Or here, here?" She waves her arms in a wide circle indicating the whole world.
            "Heeeereee," Robin does the whole-world-circle gesture again.  "I was... being chased.  I had already been... c-captured once.  And if I
let them do that again, Solange, I would have taken the world down with me, right then and there.  I... It was bad... I... underground."  She shudders.
            "So after we escaped, I... pulled at the air, the weather, afraid.  Just tearing.  To throw them off our trail."  Her eyes wander off.  "Probably Jove showed up somewhere about then, 'cause a tug of war started."  Robin's green eyes dart back to Solange.  "We didn't know who we were pulling against.  And, I guess, both of us just assumed the worse."
            "Later, Jove did... something with Time? that probably affected the overall mess adversely." Robin sounds like she's not totally sure
what happened.  "At least, that's when I noticed that the rain had become Rain."
            "Here," she nods sadly at the flooded city, "Jovian... He was angry, protecting me, full of pride.  He... threw a lot of power at a
Prietess who was in the middle of a conjuring a weather effect.  What with things already being weak... sscccrrrriiiicchhh."  Robin makes a
tearing gesture with her hands.  She shrugs at Solange with a there-you-have-it expression.  In her eyes lurks the shadow of 'technical explanations will have to wait until the Norm is no longer with us.'

Solange winces and scrunches up her face. "Well..._theoretically_, if one tore with...power...then said power should also be the glue to fix it. I'm sure you've already tried this. What happened when you tried?"

Vere shakes his head slightly.  "Random examined this world with the Jewel of Judgement, and considered it so badly damaged that the best thing to do would be to avoid touching it for a few years to see if it recovered on its own.  But he did not sound hopefull."  He pauses, then continues, "Robin and I hoped he was in error.  But what we were told by Ysabeau leads me to pessimism."

"I've been doing some Peeking and some Listening.  To see if there was anything I could do.  I've never worked on this scale or in this direction before... but I was kinda hopin'."  she shrugs.
            "However, it wouldn't be easy.  And it wouldn't be safe.  And there's a... not inconsequential chance that it could turn out reeeealllly badly..." Robin scrunches her nose and sticks out her tongue.
            "But at the end of all things, it's Vere's world.  And he gets to decide."  She looks over at her love.

Vere shakes his head.  "If we attempt to repair the world and fail, we risk destroying it and every one of its inhabitants.  And while I love this world, the fact is that the Children of Danu did not originate here.  Our people were led here from some other world long ago.  That being so, I find the thought that it might be necessary to depart less distressing than it might be."

"I can see that." Robin allows.  "Besides, my motives aren't totally squeaky-clean with regards to... work on this world."

Solange sits back against the wall and lets Robin and Vere talk, her thoughts drifting elsewhere.

Vere nods.  "Indeed," he says.  "And it would be an easy thing for us to decide that we will make this attempt to save the world, knowing that if we fail we can flee the results of our failure.  It is not so for the inhabitants.  If we destroy this world in our arrogance, they all shall perish.  But if I lead them hence, they survive, even though they lose the world of their birth.  If we do nothing, then, according to Ysabeau, the world will perish on its own, and all its people.  I think the choice is clear."

Robin's smile is a little old and a little sad for her face as she kisses Vere quickly on the cheek.  "If it's clear to you, than it's clear.  LIke I said, you choose for this world and its peoples."
            "But Iiiiii... probably won't be staying in Calusa once I get the guys settled."  Her eyes look aside.  "That place was my father's answer to the dragon.  It didn't work and the results have maimed both a Prince of Amber and his son.  It was a good try though."  She admits with a fond smile.

Vere raises an eyebrow.  "There is a story there I should like to hear," he says.  "But enough for now.  We can discuss these matters once we are back on Martin's boat and on our way from here.  I should like us to be on our way now."

She looks at him.  "Yes.  Yes you should hear that story, Vere."  She says seriously.
            Then a smile darts across her lips and the sadness in her eyes flows away to be replaced by fondness and surety in her love.  "Though I suspect you'll figure it on your own pretty quick."
            "Okay, let's go." she adds standing up on the ledge and reaching for the raft - if it's still there.

Solange takes a seat in the raft. She picks up an oar, ready to row again.

Vere slips into the water next to the raft and begins to swim towards the Bonne Chance III, watching for any obstructions that might hinder or damage the raft and guiding them around them.

Robin sits down next to Solange and picks up the other oar.  It’s not exactly a foreign item in her hand, but she’s obviously not done a whole lot of rowing.
            After waiting for Avis to get aboard (presuming she does), Robin trusts the Priestess to keep her hearing off.
            “Solange?” she murmurs to her little sister, “Did you get what you need?  Is there anything I can help with?”

"Get what I need?" Solange repeats, then shrugs and looks away.  "Father warned me but I didn't listen. I idealized her in my head instead and thought that... Well, anyway, it's my own fault. And in the end it doesn't matter--she's dead." But it's apparent that it does matter. Solange is not a good liar.

A sad sympathetic smile lines Robin’s lips.  “I think I had it easier,” she tells the water so that Solange can listen.
            “Since I’m not like my father at aaaalllll, I grew up thinking that I was kind of like my mother.”  A snort ripples through her.  “Don’t know if any of that’s true now, buuuuuuttt... if I am anything like my mother, then no right thinking creature would EVER leave a child to be raised in my care.”

That elicits a smile from Solange.

Robin’s nose bunches up, her tongue sticks out and a rueful chuckle shakes her shoulders.  “I’ve always felt that I owed my mother thanks for that.  For choosing Julian to be my parent.”
            Those green eyes dart over to her sister.  “What could be better, Solange?  What in all this universe could possibly be better than being raised by the men who raised us?”

"I've had a great foster parent, yeah," Solange agrees, though her tone is still wistful.
            "Robin...what did you think about that talk of another sister?" she asks, changing the subject somewhat.

“Dunno.”  Robin sucks on a tooth in one side of her mouth, her accent sliding towards Arden.  “I’m tryin’ to decide if I should go out, find the poor bitch and warn her before somethin’ uglier than me takes a shot.  Oooorrrrr, should I leave the poor bastard alone reckoning that she might already know and want nothing to do with us.”
            Memories of Ossian and Reid’s trump conversation come back to her.  As well as a name the King mentioned.  “Meg?”  Was that it?  She shakes the thought away.
        “But mostly, I’m thinking it relieves a little of the breedin-count scare to know that Mom managed three before it killed her.... doesn’t relieve it much though.  And I’m still not ever going to do it.”  Her eyes narrow a little as they dart to Avis.  Hear that, Priestess-girl?

"That does change things. Before I knew there was a third, the pattern there suggested I would die with the first kid. Now... I dunno. Too much to think about right now.

“Exactly.”  Robin nods.  “That was my theory for myself too.  In fact, I told Vere that I’d rather live with him, than leave him to raise our child alone.”  A wry twist pulls at one side of her mouth.

"So who's Meg?" Solange asks.

“Dunno.”  Robin shrugs as she rows.  “The King mentioned that Huon was supposed to be messing with her instead of us.  And a while ago, I was talking with Ossian over those cards...” she wrinkles her nose again and shudders, “and he mentioned that he and Reid were off to snatch some poor here-to-unknown bastard into the family.  Soooo, I was thinking that those two incidents might be related, but...” she shrugs again, “I’m not the most central communicator in the family, so I’m really only guessing.”

"Hunh," Solange replies vaguely, processing the new information while she rows. "There's also Hannah. Have you met her yet? Vere has--she's a doctor and has been helping us with..."
            Solange cuts off abruptly, remembering that people in the Isles don't know about Gerard's legs.
            "...with a family matter. She also doesn't know who her Amber parent is." Solange pauses briefly, searching through her memory. "If I remember right, her mortal father raised her and it's her Amber mother that left. Heh. Sound familiar?"
            She stops rowing and turns to stare at Robin.

Robin immediately stops rowing as well, she’s done enough circling in her life not to want to practice it in boats.
            “Ummmm, memorial... maybe?  I can’t remember.  I wasn’t tracking well that day.”  Robin shrugs ruefully.  “Well, next time you see her ask about – what was it? – Iron Eye.  That’ll be a start... I guess.”  Robin looks somewhat... uncertain about it all.

"Right. I will," Solange replies distractedly. She starts rowing again, lost in her own thoughts.

“Could you let me know what you find out?”  Robin’s lips quirk again.  She knows she’s hard to get ahold of.  Taking up her oar she chugs away at the rowing, content to let her little sister think.