The team started feeling restless. They all reported dreaming of a building which Jaroslaw identified as being the Lincoln correctional facility next to central park. They visited and Jaroslaw determined there was a broken room in the prison yard somewhere that lead to the reef and cycled every twelve hours.

The team went into an adjacent building. While Brian talked to the receptionist about renting the 13th floor which was vacant, Jaroslaw and Jack slipped away and just took the lift up. They could see into the prison courtyard which faced onto central park over a twelve foot wall. The actual broken room location was not visible from their vantage point.

Brian spoke with Madeline who said she would try to get the team visitors access. A while later she called back having arranged the team to have access as members of the justice department to see the governor Chuck Schumer. While the team were talking to him Jack sensed that he was a nearsider. The team determined the broken room was in the corridor outside the laundry. There was one camera covering the exercise yard.

Jack confronted the governor. He admitted being monarch. Jack intimidated him and he admitted his role was simply to look after the room. The high council Intirrix about a week ago to the reef. He agreed to arrange for the team to have access at midnight when the room next cycled if Jack promised not to hurt him.

The transition was rough. The team found themselves in bright sunlight in a salt plain. To the north was a treeline and to the south was just more of the salt plain. The team suddenly got a vision of a log cabin by the trees with a figure in the doorway. The team started heading to the trees. They stopped briefly as Brian wanted to imagine they were by the cabin because he thought he could change reality on the reef. When nothing happened they continued. Jaroslaw finally spotted smoke from the cabins chimney in the woods and they made their way to the tree line. There was a flowing blackness around the trees. The team ran to the cabin. The blackness pursued but then retreated when they reached the cabin.

Brian knocked on the door. A man and woman answered. They were Abraham and Maya. They said they were looking after Sensi who had been shot by a monarch operative. Sensi had told them we were coming. Sensi was in bed in their spare room. Gideon healed him of his wounds.

Sensi said monarch had attacked the home of the exiles which was called the orb of worlds. From there the exiles could exert some control over the nearside. He believed their aim was to replace the exiles and control the convergence. He said the exiles grew artefacts called reality seeds which if consumed by someone of great enough depth would turn them into an exile. The orb of worlds was above the nearside and to get there the team had to get into the nearside and believe they could rise to it. Sensi said the portal he came through from the nearside was in the forest.

Sensi said the forest were filled with malvolents called Lacuna which were exiles who were evil. The team set out into the forest with Sensi and Abraham towards the portal. The team found their way to the portal without incident. The portal was a swirling red mist. Sensi warned it lead to the centre of the nearside which was unlike anything they would have experienced. When the team stepped through they appeared in a sea of fractal patterns.

Sensi said to follow him and rose into the air. The team concentrated and rise to follow him. Eventually a large sphere a mile in diameter with various openings above them. They landed in the structure and found there was gravity. The team were in a chamber. Lying on the floor were two monarch agents dressed in assault gear and a third figure which looked like a monk and Sensi identified as a caretaker.

Thirteen powerful nearsiders were detected in a group and other nearsiders were spread out throughout the orb. Three were nearby. The team crept up on them and dispatched them quickly. The team continued into a room that appeared to be a garden. Sensi pointed to some trees which had seeds which he identified as the reality seeds. Several were taken. Further on were another four nearsiders which were also quickly dispatched.

Beyond was a brightly lit room with the thirteen powerful nearsiders and five other nearsiders. The powerful nearsiders were in cocoons on the walls. The team opened fire on the other five, killing one and injuring another. Two returned fire at Brian, and the other two used meridian powers against Gideon and Jack. After several exchanges of fire all the monarch operatives were dead.

Sensi said he was the last exile and if there were not thirteen there would be consequences.

Jack started shooting at the cocoons. When they were all destroyed, Jack said he did not want to become an exile and disappeared. It turned out later that he had returned to Earth 1 with no memory of his past. Gideon, Brian and Jaroslaw took the seeds and turned into cocoons. When Brian and Jaroslaw emerged Sensi was present and there was the remains of a black cocoon but no sign of Gideon. Sensi said he had turned into a malvolent. Brian and Jaroslaw went on to help Sensi form the next divergence.