Kohbran’s Vanishing Cabinet is Epsilon’s Masterplan. It is a story with quite a lot of elements to it. The first is Julia’s introduction to Chrístõ’s father and to Penne Dúre, his doppelganger, who wears a crown to set the two apart.

One of the most important sequences in the early part of the story is the one where Julia meets Valena. I originally intended that she would be standoffish and rude to Julia, seeing her as an inferior Human. But even before I started to write that part I changed my mind. Instead Valena is kind to Julia and only wonders vaguely whether a half-blood marrying another foreigner would be a good idea.

The next important sequence is the one that has Chrístõ visiting the same nursery late that night and spending time with his half-brother. Now, I have already established the history that he and Garrick never got on, mainly because he refused to let him close. But this sequence reveals that Chrístõ does have a soft spot for the child. He just won’t let anyone see it.

The sequence with Penne dying was written long before the rest of the story. I always intended that Penne would lose his Time Lord lives in some way, and an Artron chamber was the thing to do it with. Chrístõ holding his hand while he underwent the regenerations one after the other was always a feature. But one thing I changed. I WAS going to make him look different at the end. But I was a bit worried about how the people of Adano-Ambrado would take their king changing his face, to say nothing of explaining it to Cirena. And in any case I thought there was still mileage in the doppelganger idea, so he reverts back to looking like Chrístõ.

Meanwhile, Epsilon gets away, leaving Kohb to take the blame.