Megan had said that the Church had not kept the news of "Fate's Great Overture" secret, so there was no fear of it leaking. Shade was likewise not worried that the Elders' actions would betray Megan's friends. Only after watching Elder Harald hurry away did he pretend to be concerned and ask Claire:
"Have Megan and Audrey not arrived yet?"
The platinum blonde-haired girl smiled and asked in return:
"Are you that worried about them?"
"If you were late, I'd be worried too."
"You certainly know how to talk. They haven't arrived yet, but they left a letter with the Council saying that after leaving Green Lake, they discovered they'd forgotten to turn off the gas stove, so they temporarily turned back. They'll definitely arrive this morning.
What a strange excuse. But Megan and Audrey have always been strange, and compared with the Speaker's obviously bad temper lately, they're actually quite normal."
She then added:
"Last night, the town received word that an item suspected to be an 'Infinite Snake' had been discovered in the City of Time Wheels. It has now been contained by the Church."
"What kind of item?"
"Apparently, it was a five-foot square block of ice. Someone who made a living recovering corpses from the sea found it, and the ice kept emitting a temperature roughly equal to hot tea. The finder hauled the ice ashore and sold it at a high price to a local merchant. When the merchant intended to transport it as a rare item to the East Coast of Kasonlik, dockworkers greedy for the reporting reward reported him.
It was winter. Yet such a large block of ice, sealed inside a crate, was astonishingly hot. It would have been difficult for the dockworkers not to notice something was wrong."
"It still hasn't