Solari: Episode 10 – Prelude Part 3

Chi Tanka is dying. She has jammed a stylus into Tesser Parsons's throat, used his body as a meat shield, and been stabbed and shot by the black-masked figures who have taken over her birthday party. As she flickers in and out of consciousness on the floor of Telegen's lobby, her best friend Ayasa throws herself over her, and Chi dies smelling bubblegum and blood. This is not the end of the story—it is the moment around which everything else in this episode revolves: the question of what it costs to break free from a cage, and whether the price is worth paying.

The Revolt at Telegen

The episode opens at Ayasa's semi-monthly birthday party, a decadent masquerade held in the lower floors of Telegen. Chi arrives fashionably late, wearing a shimmering domino mask and gauzy fabric, and finds the party populated by figures in black soapstone animal masks and short black linen skirts. When Chi notices that every one of these masked figures has artfully knocked their drink away before taking a shot, she slaps Ayasa's glass out of her hand—it explodes into bubblegum-scented liquid. Using a magic bracelet that turns red to signal danger, Chi pulls Ayasa aside and learns that the masked figures claimed to be with the Minovo Company, but Ayasa never hired them. "There's something terribly wrong," Chi says. "You need to shut this down."