To Adda it was like a journey through hell. Never before had he felt so confined, so enclosed in this box built by lunatics to contain lunatics; he longed to be in the open Air where he could see what the Star was doing. He reached Pall Mall. The great vertical avenue was full of noise and light; people and cars swarmed over each other, Speakers blaring. Shop-fronts had been smashed open, and men and women were hastening through the crowds with arms full of goods — clothes, jewelry. Above his head, at the top of the Mall — the uppermost Upside — the golden light of the Palace Garden filtered down through the miniature bushes and ponds, as peaceful and opulent as ever. But now lines of guards fenced off the grounds of the Palace from any citizen who thought that might be a good direction to flee.

Adda, close to the center of the Mall now, felt an absurd impulse to laugh. Guards. Looters... What did these people hope to achieve? What did they think was happening to the world around them? It would be a triumph if their precious City survived this disaster intact enough for the looters to find an opportunity to flaunt their ill-gotten wealth.

As if in response to his thought, the City lurched.

The Mall — the huge vertical shaft of light and people around him — leaned to the right. He flailed at the Air, scrabbling for balance. The street had shifted with shocking suddenness. There was an immense groan; he heard wood splintering, clearwood cracking, a high-pitched scream which must be the sound of a Corestuff rib failing.

People rained through the Air.

Helpless, they didn't even look human — they were like inanimate things, carvings of wood, perhaps. Their bodies hailed against shop-fronts and structural pillars; the Mall echoed with screams, with small, sickening crunches.

A woman slammed against Adda's rib-cage, knocking away his breath once more. She clung to him with desperate strength, as if she thought he might somehow save her from all this. She must have been as old as Adda himself. She wore a rich, heavy robe which was now torn open, revealing a nude torso swathed in fat, her loose dugs dangling; her hair was a tangled mess of blue-dyed strands with yellow roots. "What's happening? Oh, what's happening?"

He pulled the woman away from his body, disengaging her as kindly as he could. "It's a Glitch. Do you understand? The Magfield must be shifting — distorted by the charged material erupting from the Quantum Sea. The City is trying to find a new, stable..."

He stopped. Her eyes were fixed on his face, but she wasn't listening to a word.

He pulled her robe closed and tied it shut. Then he half-dragged her across the Mall and left her clinging to a pillar before a shop-front. Perhaps she'd recover her wits, find her way to her home. If not, there was little Adda could do for her.