Chapter 56

***This article contains spoilers.***

## Highlights

* Rachel is going to start research into helping people, such as curing incurable diseases.
* Psi-detector recordings of everyone at Genthalas prove that the strength of their psychic links is positively correlated with how close they are to each other.
* Matriarch Aradrea Ghilwen conspires with other House Matriarchs to assassinate Matriarch Edraele Valaden with the help of a Valaden engineer.

## Summary

Faye offers to stand watch overnight.

John suggests Rachel start research into helping people, such as curing incurable diseases.

From when Alyssa defeated Progenitor John, freeing John from the abyss, John and Alyssa both remember each other reaching out first. (Chapter 53).

Rachel cautioned John that he probably can’t count on Progenitor John saving the day any more, like he did against the pirate cyborg, the Drakkar, or the Fulmanax. Just like John was able to reach out to Alyssa while he was asleep, Progenitor John was able to take control while he was in a weakened condition. If he's locked away now, it's likely John's on his own.

Rachel doesn't think think it’s over between John and Progenitor John. Until John resolves things between them permanently, he won't be able to unlock his full potential. A substantial part of John's mind is dedicated to locking Progenitor John away in his prison.

As Irillith was on the bridge with Calara looking into the Dragon March traitor, the drifting spots in her peripheral vision had appeared again.

Calara spars with John, now able to achieve the same zen-like state as him.

Alyssa fingers Irillith's anus, while Irillith imagines it's John having anal sex with her for the first time.

Rachel shows the psi-detector recordings of everyone at Genthalas. The connection looks a lot stronger than the last recording. The lines coming from the Maliri engineers are week. They come to the conclusion that the closer they become with each other, the more the strength of their psychic links ramp up as well.

When John saw the brilliant glowing figure sanding next to him, John realizes she's the radiant girl from his dreams.

The energy flowing from the rest of them to Alyssa is much more powerful. Rachel's hypothesis is when John re-established his connection with Alyssa, he modified the link to remove the compulsion to obey him. That element of absolute control took up a significant bandwidth of the connection, and with that gone, it meant the whole link could be devoted purely to psychic energy. On top of that, Alyssa seems to have established the same kind of link with him, which is completely unheard of among Progenitors.

Irillith also had an impressive aura for a non-psychic.

The links with the assassins are stronger than the with the engineers, despite them all only getting one load. Since the assassins each had a larger shade, connection strength is likely related to volume ingested.

When Irillith and Calara stepped out of the grav-tube, Irillith cried out, holding her hands over her eyes, seeming to black out,

Aradrea Ghilwen met with Matriarchs from other Houses on the homeworld of House Ghilwen (Rank #8), after they agreed to her urgent plea for a meeting. Among the Matriarchs were House Aeberos (#4), and House Naestina (#5), who were allies who brought House Kayden (#15) low, dropping them from #3. Yunaliss Aeberos, Tinefain Naestina, and Shaedra Loraleth (#2) also attended.

A Maliri engineer with white hair from House Valaden tells them Edrael is vulnerable. She equiped a Terran's ship with Maliri weapons in exchange for Trankaran tech, and is personally overseeing the work on Genthalas Shipyard herself. But the engineer has a plan to destroy House Valaden. She just needs at least two assassins from each House Matriarch to take out Edraele. She'll be able to supply their agents with access codes and schedules, making it easy for them to strike.

The Matriarchs agree. Edraele must die.