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===The Attention of the Serpents===
Eventually, this skirmish began to draw attention from the other Hours, who began to circle like sharks and eyed the fighting sides appraisingly. Seeing common cause in the Engine's goal to break open and go wherever it pleased, the [[Snake Tail with Appendages]] descended from the Mansus and pledged aid to the Engine. The Anaconda, ever eager to confront her rival, offered her aid to the loyalists. She was accompanied by [[The Vizier|the Vizier]], who took charge of the busy-work of organising a war.
While the Engine was at first grateful for the aid, it quickly grew angry as it realized the truth of the situation. The elder Hours did not take it seriously, seeing it and its conflict as just another piece in their long game against each other. Enraged, the Engine suddenly turned on the Snake-Tail, devouring it while the serpent's guard was down. While the Snake-Tail proved more difficult to kill due to its unique abilities and its status as a Nowhere, the sudden defeat of one of the most powerful Keys drew the attention of numerous Hours, who sought to use the conflict to their own ends.
===Escalation===
The Delver, in her compassion, allowed those of her court which had joined her from the court of her progenitor to go free. She would brook no chains upon those she loved, and the Delver is all-loving. Had this been all that happened, the Serpents might have stayed reasonably aloof from the all-consuming conflict. Alas, it was not to be so. Pulling what remained of their conspiracy together, the opportunists concocted one final gambit to bring the Assemblage under their control: An attempted assassination of the Delver, by a 'member in good standing' of the Assemblage, isolating it from the rest of its support, while creating a thousand places for it to hide, and make the Assemblage more dependent upon them. Stealing a great weapon of the Engine, they brought it to bear against the Delver, harming the kindest Hour. An Hour, in fact, kind enough to forgive, but with a few Names that were not.
Unfortunately for everyone, the Delver has always been beloved by both of her siblings. The attempted assassination of that Hour resulted not only in the Tail bringing its full attention to bear on the conflict, but in both the Tail and the Anaconda working together- one of the few times they would ever be recorded as having done so. Those Long who had taken the new patron of the Anaconda had shed themselves and their skins already, but the Names had not done so. When certain new Names of the Anaconda wished to leave, they had been allowed to do so with some reservation. Now, in the aftermath of the Delver's assassination, these former Names found their skins peeling away, until like the Long which they now were, nothing remained but a serpent.
===The Reformation===
The Apple-of-the-Eye, thanks to its close bond with the all-pervasive Glory, had been privy to the events that had ensued - the attempted assassination of the Delver, as well as parts of the greater conspiracy to control the Assemblage by followers of The-Liar-Most-High. These distant visions prompted it to call upon the other patron-Hours of the Assemblage of Holy Vessels, the Spark and the Peacock with its Vizier, to dismantle the growing conspiracy.
As far as he could feel such negative emotions, the Peacock felt his umbrage rise at the revelation the pretender-Hour's servants were working to undermine his collaboration with the other Hours. His winged Long scattered to the winds, keeping an eye open for seditious whispers and promising untold delights to any who could offer useful information. The Suitors and the Suitresses of the Lady in Red, with their seemingly human visages and charming countenances, slipped into the ranks of the Assemblage and the Liar. As both spies and "interrogators", the infiltrators they found parted with their secrets almost immediately. The Vizier also did FNORDhowever, was focused on a different matter. The attack on the Delver had roused him to a cold fury. His Agents had already embedded themselves within the Assemblage, and now on their master's orders they began to seek out the assassin and whoever had supported them. Paranoia began to infect the weaker-willed around them, further hastening the Fifth History's collapse. While aid was still given to the Peacock's efforts, they had been relegated to a lower priority.
The Spark, wanderer and visionary, wandered now with a rare sense of purpose. It traversed the Histories and sought out the minds of those connected to the Deceiver, plumbing their depths for evidence of their wrongdoings and planting ideas for a change in religion, although it is unknown how many acted on the inspired notion.
The Glorious Lie, meanwhile, composed twin missives to the twin snakes. It was clear that neither Hour was willing to sit still after what had happened, so their efforts would need to be redirected towards a more helpful cause. The Wrong-Serpent would receive word on what had injured his sister - a fearsome war-module of the Engine of Cycles, still containing a part of the vast heat it was made within. The Anaconda, meanwhile, would be told of the would-be assassin, and his alliegance allegiance with the secret group of Deceiver-Long that sought to take control of the Assemblage by first leading it against the serpents.
The Glorious Lie had had that appellation for longer than the Anaconda had lived. Then again, the Deceiver had not taken its name in a fit of irony, and the Anaconda was not wholly unaware of what that Hour had truly been. After all, one of the Loyalists had sought her patronage in another History, where the Deceiver's lies were uncovered by a clueless Nowhere emanation. Finding the would-be assassin was a personal matter for the Anaconda. [[The_Deceiver#Damian Kildare|Damian Kildare]] would ferret out the truth of who had been behind it. Who better to find a liar than a better liar? FNORD for both of the snakesTail.
The Architeuthian wrathed and raged, furious at the betrayal of St. Darwin. Darwin and many other Maker Long recruited after the Maker's consumption had turned against him, proving that the Squid was not as powerful as he seems, and that he was not considered the true bearer of Forge-power in the House of the Snake. The Squid devoted any and all power he had toward the destruction of these traitors, and to the eventual destruction of the Engine and all allied with it. Seawater, he said, will cause even the mightiest of machines to rust. These are the words of power that his followers used against the opposing forces.
The assassin who had struck the Delver was never seen again, in corpse or amongst the Dead. That did not stop the rumors, of course. Some claimed that the Anaconda and the Tail devoured the would-be Hour-killer, the first and last meal they would share together. Others thought that the Anaconda had gifted the assassin to the Architeuthian as yet another sign of their friendship, and even now the Architeuthian was using the assassin to enact the downfall of the Assemblage in microcosm. A burning piece of parchment, words written in ink made from insanity itself, suggested that the Anaconda had offered the assassin and a score each of Peacock- and Cuckoo-Long to the Ferryman in exchange for the Assemblage to be locked in the Fifth History until the Architeuthian chose otherwise. None in the Fifth History noticed the opening of memories, and the delicate excision of a face, a name, the details of a certain being who would now only be remembered for a single, abhorrent action.
The Apple and the Sneks FNORDED
Immediately Darwin was filled with unnatural life, and the Squid was shocked to see he was unable to destroy Darwin, no matter what he tried. His focus however was quickly torn from Darwin when the Peacock intervened to rescue his new Long from the Hour of Survival.
Although incarcerated beyond [[The Gilded Gate]], the Unceasing Hour was far from powerless. In addition to his command of life and unnatural vigor, his powerbase in the House of the Serpent had always been built upon the vast numbers of Dead and Long he was able to garner to his cause. And now, in his infinite generosity, he unleashed that power for the sake of a Long.
Where some Hours grant their Long the power to destroy and remake or enthrall and inspire, the Merrymakers of the Peacock have a relatively straightforward blessing: their unnatural durability and endurance. Individually, they do not seem to pose a great threat. But to save Saint Darwin, the Peacock turned to the vast legions of the Choir Unceasing and uttered two simple words: "grab him."
Immediately, the ground shook as the Peacock's armies forced themselves into the History en-masse and rushed the Squid without hesitation or fear of death. Where the Architeuthian rode into battle on the ocean and its tides, the Peacock responded with a sea of laughing, dancing flesh that trampled its own fallen in its efforts to seize the Squid. The utter disregard for self-preservation and sheer vastness of the horde the Peacock fielded was a grim reminder of why the Choir had once engulfed the Upper Mansus, and why the Golden King -whose power destroyed his foes utterly and left not a trace- was needed to keep the Upstart contained.
The Squid fought back fiercely, crushing and drowning countless Long. But for every one that fell a dozen seemed to take their place, and even the "fallen" refused to stay down. Rather than die, a disturbingly large number of the Peacock-Long crushed under the Squid continued crawling or simply oozing across their ground towards their target. Their god fully pouring himself into them as conduits of his will, and with concept of death totally foreign to them now, they single-mindedly threw themselves into the Squid's blows, grabbing a hold of his vast form wherever they could.
Eventually, even as he thrashed and raged, the Squid was engulfed in a sea of clawing, biting, crushing bodies that bound several of his limbs. Even to a Hour, it was an irritation that could not simply be ignored, and Saint Darwin was momentarily forgotten as the Dweller struggled to free himself. That moment of distraction was all it took for a rescue to take place.
While the Squid was preoccupied with the red mass seeking to engulf him on the ground, the winged Choirmen of the Lyrebird swooped down from above, grasping Darwin in their claws and lifting him up, out of the Hour's reach. The Squid let out a roar of rage so ear-spitting it could be heard even over the shrieks of the Choir Unceasing. The Hour attempted to pursue, but still partially pinned under the sheer bulk of the Peacock's mindless Long, he could only watch as Darwin and the Names of the Peacock rose out of sight and into his domain high up in the Upper Mansus, far from his reach.
To the Architeuthian, there was no greater insult than what the Peacock had done. He had no stake in this war, he was not involved! He did not even covet the Forge-power, as did many other of the Architeuthan's rivals. But for this Nowhere-born wretch to steal his prize at the hour of his true victory. If the Delver and the Anaconda hadn't soothed the great Squid's rage, he would have done something terrible and inadvisable, perhaps this war would still be continued to this day. To soothe his rage, at least somewhat, he took to hunting down any remnants of the Assemblage and traitor Long who hadn't not been 'rescued' by other Hours.
===FNORD===
===Conclusion===
With the remains of the Assemblage gone, the war gradually stalled out as Hours lost their reason to remain involved. The Squidward FNORDED back to bikini bottom. The Anaconda and the Snake-Tail FNORd
The Assemblage ironically left the war almost as fractured as it entered it. Though now united in purpose, many powerful artifacts and Long were killed in the battle. Long and artifacts that could never be replaced. The Assemblage from then on avoided direct conflict with the forces of the other Hours unless totally necessary.
Many of its Long retreated to Glassgarden, where they found sanctuary with the Apple-of-the-Eye. Their mortal forces as well as their more conspicuous Long commanders scattered into the Histories, where they continue to seek out long-lost relics and servants of the Maker and Anvil, regathering strength for their long-awaited "Day of Reassembly". St. Darwin, however, was forced into the Revel Unending, where he is unable to leave.
His body so utterly mangled by the Squid's wrath and stripped of the last embers of his god's power, the only thing keeping him alive was the blessing of the Peacock, to whom he was now bound to in the sight of the Dolomedes, whose bargains are Absolute and Final. Amidst the delights and debaucheries of the Revel Unceasing he sits, his body being slowly re-assembled and "improved" by [[The Caladrius]].
And while the Glorious Lie no longer had any use for the man, Peacock's bond with the old man gave him considerable clout with the Assemblage. Darwin's self-sacrifice cemented the loyalty and religious reverence his followers held towards him, and they were grateful to the Broken Bird for keeping him alive. Additionally, it is only through the Choirmen of the Honest that Darwin can issue orders to the Assemblage, making the patronage of the Bird invaluable for its survival.
After the Architeuthian had returned to the Aquarium and turned his focus to other pursuits, the Bright-Delver manifested herself within the Fifth History, traveling the world to provide what aid and comfort she could. Her court fretted and worried, for their patron was still injured from the attempted assassination, and was using more power than was wise in order to aid those mortals who had been caught up in events beyond their control. It was when the Delver attempted to make contact with Martin Chang, a former member of the Assemblage, and offer him her aid, that certain servants of the Delver petitioned both the Vizier and the Anaconda to return her to the Mansus before she was injured once again.
The Engine continued to nip away at the Fifth History, but with most of its resources already devoured or destroyed in the war, devoted minimal resources to it, few enough for the little societies organized by Martin Chang and the remaining stragglers in the war to check their advances. It continues to consume and push forth, but slowly as to avoid the new cold-war situation from turning hot again.
FNORD
==The Fifth Today==
Very little of note remains of the Fifth History today. While not destroyed utterly like [[The Sixth History]], the Fifth's entire society had collapsed utterly in the wake of the War. Martin Chang, who led the Deceiver's independent loyalists to help the Assemblage, deserted it in fury, and now works with what remain of his followers who survived the war to reorganize society and save people from the encroachment of the Engine.
==Full Description==