Two Illuminators ride to the Castle of the Sea, but only one rides home. The days that follow the death of His Radiance Corin Bellatrix, duly appointed Illuminator of the Church of Inner Light, are a span of madness. Her hand forced by the sudden departure of Corin's assistant, Dominic Giroux, Duchess Glorianna Touraine soon departs her home as well. The Illuminator and the duchess arrive at the Royal Capital on the same day, but while Glorianna rides to the Royal Council, Dominic goes before Reyhardi, Principal Light of the Church. Glorianna's request to meet with the Komaru, Sone, and Touraine members of the Royal Council is swiftly granted, and members of all three houses remain in seclusion for two solid days. Meanwhile, Dominic is busy. News of Corin's death stirs the Church faithful into a frenzy, and many gather outside the Council Palace to demand Glorianna's surrender or death. A Touraine is the first to emerge, but it is not Glorianna. One by one, the Touraine march out of the Council Palace, shaking their heads in shock and dismay -- all save Glorianna. The city trembles on the verge of riot as the outraged townsfolk throw stones and filth at the Touraine leaders. Then the hammer falls. As the shrieks and howls of the angry populace sound in the distance, Alessandro Komaru summons Lucien d'Aramis to his court. Before a pack of groggy and confused courtiers, Alessandro grants Lucien, the commoner who brought the Twilight Crux to Alessandro's side, the title of Royal Seneschal and orders him to use the army to prevent a repetition of the horror that began the Interregnum. With cannon and pistol, the Royal Army marches against the rioters. And then, a miracle occurs. Somehow, Lucien succeeds in dispersing the townsfolk without killing a single one. When the sun rises, the Royal Council assembles amidst a city still in shock from the near-disaster of the previous night. With the Crown Prince in attendance, the Royal Council moves quickly through its opening formalities before the Sone and Komaru delegates summon the Duchess of Touraine before the Council. In a precise five-minute oration, Glorianna Touraine declares that the Sone, Komaru, and Touraine families have come to accord in the matter of Crown Prince Alessandro's succession. With the support of a quorum of the Royal Council's members, the Duchess names the Princess Consort Presumptive: Kimiko Sone, Viscountess of Ishimoto. Wordlessly, Alessandro dissolves the Council meeting, leaving a wake of bewildered nobles behind him. The next days bring a flurry of activity across Komaru. The Royal Army patrols the streets continuously, dispersing crowds and suppressing those citizens whose disapproval of the Sone family leads them to violence against noble person or property. The Church of Inner Light wastes no time in petitioning the Crown Prince with evidence of Touraine crimes against their order. Alessandro is said to be utterly silent during Dominic Giroux's presentation, but at the end retires privately with Giroux and his escorts. An hour later, seven grim-faced Church Illuminators depart the palace and the Royal Capital itself, riding west at a horse-killing pace. The Illuminators are only the first group to leave the capital. Three days later, a contingent of Twilight Crux troops escort one of the order's leaders through the gates, past a Royal Army detachment that at first seems inclined to stop them. As the Crux forces leave, the first of several noble contingents departs for the capital. Within the week, Giroux's party of Illuminators arrives at the estate of Mica Touraine, Duke of Aoiyama, alongside a company of hand-picked Church infantry. In the dead of night, Giroux's troops force entry into the duke's chambers and try him on the spot as a heretic and traitor to the Light in the cause of Corin Bellatrix's murder. Finding him guilty, four Illuminators surround him and call upon the Light's Absolution. One Illuminator is called to the Light in the process, but the Church has made an example. The remaining Illuminators depart long before Mica's flesh is completely consumed by the Light. It is longer still before his screams end. Glorianna, in turn, is called before the Royal Council and the Crown Prince and denounced at length for her crimes against the Church. During the excoriation, Alessandro never once takes his eyes from the Duchess, and all of the Council can hear his unspoken words, "But for me, Glorianna, Mica's fate would be yours." At the end, Alessandro tersely banishes Glorianna from the Royal Capital for a year. By the time Glorianna leaves, the Bellatrix, Minamet, and Yuasa have all gathered outside the gates. In the Royal Council, their representatives endlessly argue against the marriage to a Sone, but Glorianna's efforts on Kimiko's behalf are wrought too perfectly. Even the Touraine, their own candidates snubbed by Glorianna in favor of a Sone, are caught by the specter of Verity Touraine's influence. Through the long, cold winter, Kimiko Sone's engagement to Alessandro holds fast. When spring comes at last, it brings no relief to the battered nobles of Komaru. From the east, three exhausted Minamet couriers bring terrible news. The serpents, as the Minamet call the desert nomads, have come again, but not merely to raid the eastern lands. Thousands of refugees have crossed the desert in the span of a few short weeks, accompanied by packs of vicious horsemen and veiled swordsmen. Lacking support from the rest of the kingdom, the Minamet have been forced back into their mighty fortresses. With the Minamet trapped, the human blight has crossed their lands, destroying peasant crops and villages wherever they pass. Even now, Bellatrix, Komaru, and Sone border guards have reported the beginnings of serpent incursions into their own lands. As news of the incursion spreads, the Royal Council dissolves itself, its members returning to their homes to make preparations for the year to come. Amidst the kingdom's frantic efforts, a few nobles seek to make their own arrangements on neutral ground: the Castle of the Sea. It is the year 208. A desert wind sweeps into Komaru, and there can be no doubt that it carries the stench of war. "Sirocco," the fourth episode of _From Light To Darkness_, will be held on Saturday, May 8, from 4:00 pm until about 8 pm at Dave Argent's house in Sunnyvale. Directions are forthcoming.