The group return to the living chambers of the cultists and explain to them that their leader is dead. Surprisingly, the cultists are more relieved than distraught that their leader is dead. One of the cultists, Pheobe, asks to go with the group into the vortex. She is another recent inductee, but unlike Shoam and Evanna, she pretended to be indoctrinated straight away. She has not been allowed to leave the chamber however, despite having fantastic skills, and is keen to explore. The group take her with them and follow the directions to the tranformation chamber. By this stage, the alien that has been growing in Busters mind takes control, and Buster becomes catatonic. They take Buster with them, but during a tense moment getting through a difficult chamber, he goes missing and is unable to be found. They make their way to the chamber that Aeredomos gave instructions. In this chamber they find a pool of strange liquid in which, when they are fully immersed they come out fully armoured in a heat-resistant flexible ceramic-like synth. They all armour up, but not before Nes has found a crystal which when touched turns his skin gold and restores Kel to slightly taller than his old height. They then head back to the vortex chamber and jump through the swirling portal. They find themselves in a large empty chamber. The walls themselves are radiating heat and in places the walls are buckled and the ceiling collapsed. They hear the sounds of strained metal vibrating through the massive structure they find themselves in. Kel can hear Aeraedomos in his head, but the communication is jumbled - he cannot make out anything of consequence. They decide to find their way to the matter manipulator as quickly as possible and head down a long corridor past shielded windows. Heat and light are streaming in through the windows and they find a control panel designed to close additional external shielding. Kel activates it, but the entire structure starts to shudder along with a painful metallic grinding sound. More sections of ceiling start falling away and parts of the floor. Then suddenly gravity reduces to a negligible amount and the group are forced to push themselves through the corridors. Lights start flashing red and and alarm starts sounding throughout the complex. The party come across some sort of guardian that attacks them on sight but Kel defeats it by putting it temporarily in stasis. They then find themselves in a control room where they are able to communicate with Aeridomos. He give directions to get to the matter manipulator and they make it there with only a few more complications along the way. Kel is then able to control the extremely complex device and rebuilds the station from the inside out. They are able to then stay in the station for another day while they recover, and the matter manipulator is used to remove Nes' parasite on his back and to remove Chips Beaver tail. Buster also teleports in partway through the next day. He is still totally catatonic, but his garments have been ripped away on one side, he is covered in blood and open wounds and all his equipment is missing. Kel is able to heal him (mind and body) using the device and then creates a number of items of equipment as well as a small one-use matter manipulator that they can take with them. They then return to the Narthex with Aeridomos' thanks. There are a number of loose ends: They have control of a massive structure that shifts from place to place. However at this stage they do not know how to control where it goes. If they leave the Narthex, they are a long way away from Civilisation They have not reunited Shoame with his sister Evanna They still are affected by the malfunctioning teleport device from the floating city They have agreed (some time ago) to return to Mulan to report to Dracogen, providing him with interesting numenera to study.
