The second act begins to wind down as the "Unidentified Black Ship" enters the Cadavus system. They land at Draketh Point, which is the main starport on the planet. Upon stepping into the city proper, they see that the Festival of the 4 Cups is in full-swing, celebrating the triumph of humanity over the stars, and the arrival and coming return of the Prophet Zebulon.
When they set down, Kantarra voices her wishes to go to the Brother Battle monastery at Draketh Point. The group goes with her, though they wait outside. Gavin and Vashki are approached by a tall, slender noblewoman of hispanic descent dressed in a rich, flowing yellow gown. She introduces herself as Dutchess Maqueda Grenera Juandaastas, and says it was she that hired Vashki to watch over Gavin. She goes on to explain that her son and only heir to the family throne, Aden, is ill with a very strange sickness. The family has spared no expense at finding cures for him, but thusfar everything from theurgy to science has failed. She was hoping Gavin would agree to search for a cure, so she hired Vashki to guard him in case of attack. The Dutchess claims her family has few, if any enemies, though the attack on Genin Vance on Kordeth proves that someone is trying to sabotage her efforts to find a cure. Gavin agrees and he and Vashki are paid several thousand firebirds in advance. After all this, Vashki trots off to find her contacts in the Purgers' Guild to see if anything interesting is happening on-planet. Her contacts tell her nothing useful, save that there was recently a revolution on Kordeth - something she already knew.
Meanwhile, Kantarra leaves the monastery, saying something about there being a Chorali performance at Tholumiyelos Cathedral tomorrow night, and that she'd like to attend. The others agree, especially Eruj, who seems to have been talking more at length with Kantarra of late on the ship.
Marduk, Gavin, and Don Roberto all decide it would be good to relax a bit, so they head into town and stop at a local tavern. Drinking heavily (yeah, there's a new one), they talk amongst themselves, not really paying any attention to the fact that Gavin is getting pretty tanked-up. Somewhere before midnight, Gavin decides he HAS to be in the Zarumel Dead Sea because the artifact is obviously there. The others decide they've had enough and decide to fly over there.
The Dead Sea is a large basin with a few spires jutting way into the sky, almost as if crafted by the hands of the Pancreator itself. Upon landing at Zarumel, Gavin steps out, walks a little ways, and randomly begins digging, constantly muttering to himself in a drunken stupor ("Zarumelllll!").
He digs for a while and the others watch him. Several hours and several feet of dirt later, he sobers up a bit and decides it would be a good idea to get some sleep.
The next day they all decide to go back into town in hopes of finding some clues as to where they should look for the artifact piece they're after. While in town they run into the lady Sir Cassidy Anne Hawkwood - an acqaintance from the fight at the mansion back on Madoc. She has become a Questing Knight and is looking for an entourage - all she has thusfar is a dervish