Let's go back, at long last, to Daniel, whom we last saw in Chronicles 3.
Daniel's house after the first part of its makeover was complete. Motoki had given the walls a treatment of Shaker shingles, and rebuilt and slightly enlarged the roof. A pesky alien came to inspect it too.
He gave it grade ‡.
Dan dropped in to see Betty Newbie-Daily, who lived next door with Jules Daily.. "I hope our work on the house hasn't caused you any inconvenience."
"No, not at all. Jules and I were just saying how well it's all gone. Your house looks really great."
He didn't stay long and left wondering under his breath why every female he met seemed to want to flirt with him. Betty heard him and laughed.
"Maybe it's because you can drive. Unlike most of the taxi drivers hereabouts."
Dan got his promotion to Campaign Intern. To celebrate, he thought he would go and explore some parts of the town he didn't know. Karl Marx, his coworker, recommended the Church of the Interdimensional Engineer.
It looked fairly church-ish at first.
The mixologist there - they had a bar! was very attractive. Like many a shy person, Daniel was far more outgoing when he was drunk, and she in turn was friendly; she told him her name was Doris Wheatley, and gave him her number.
He had a look around the church. That drink - what HAD she put in it? - had left him feeling quite giddy.
Later, he remembered that he discovered some kind of squid sculpture, and found himself riding on it.
Standing atop the squid, shouting "I'm King of the World!" and then falling down flat on his face.
Laughing giddily, staggering off to a circular device in the corner. What was that?
Once it stopped, he noticed the tendrils on the wall - they seemed to be still moving. Were they tendrils? Then he remembered where he had seen those things before. They weren't tendrils but tentacles! And he had seen them in a dream... some time recently. How strange. Of course they were not moving, he was just dizzy. That drink... he must ask Doris what was in it.
Of course, she and the bar had disappeared.
He decided discretion was the better part of valour, and set off to look for a taxi home.
Dan's maid was cleaning her teeth at the kitchen sink as he set off to work the next morning. Hm. She was complaining of feeling sick as well... maybe it was time to get a new maid.
But it was a good day! That very day, he finally obtained a post as City Council Member!
At the weekend, down in his basement, which he had worked with Motoki to clear out, he found an old book. Dusty but still quite readable, it was the journal of a merchant, one Pierre Harubin, in the 19th Century. In it, Pierre had recorded his voyages and his business deals, and mentioned a fish sculpture. He knew the owner of his house had been someone called Frederick H. Could it have been Harubin? Could Harubin's father or grandfather have been the merchant? Near the back of the book was a page detailing salary payments. Among other names, a Boris Wheatley was mentioned as a Shipwright. That name rang a bell... Where had he come across that name before?