Amanda Melody's Journal

While I helped Avalon to understand about Amber and Shadows, Audney trumped me. Someone had put a trump card under my door! I very much wanted to see where that trump would lead. Avalon decided to come with me back to Amber, then the three of us went through the trump. The image on the Trump showed a lush forest. We stepped into a wasteland. A man by the name of Urza met us there. He wasn’t surprised at all to see us. A woman named Sara had just left him. She had told him to expect visitors. She had been teaching him a new magic. This became very important a little bit later. From his cryptic responses, we gathered that he himself had destroyed the lush forest, to kill his brother, who had become his enemy. As we were talking to him, a flying craft called an ornathopter was shot down. We all went to investigate. A huge, hideous creature confronted Urza. It said that it was after revenge for the death of “one of the Blood.” I wondered if it was refering to Urza’s brother. Urza shot a fireball at it, and it made a hole appear in its own chest, and the fireball flew through without hurting him. Then Urza cast another spell. Shackles appeared on the creature, then it exploded into a gooey mess. We went to Urza’s tent and talked about what had happened in his land. He didn’t know about Amber and Shadows either, but he seemed to understand very easily when I explained.

A messenger came running up, telling him that the very land itself had risen up and crushed an outpost. The moving land was on its way towards the main body of Urza’s army! I tried to lead his army into another shadow, but the way was blocked. Urza used the spell the Sara had taught him. A portal appeared, and we jumped through it. We were the only ones to escape the ravening land. His entire army was destroyed.

The portal led to a solid wooden door. When I knocked on it, some guy opened a peephole and asked us if we knew the password. I deferred, since it was his spell that brought us there. When Urza told him no, he got very confused, and closed the peephole. Then he came back and told us that the “Boss” would come for us shortly. A pleasant man named Joseph Carlino invited us in. He clearly ran the place. As we explained the situation to him, a group of cybernetic creatures appeared and attacked a man in the street. They were bipedal humanoids, thought not human. The cyborgs had one mechanical arm that looked like a huge syringe. The man fought them off valiantly. Another man jumped out of a third story window to him the first man! It all happened really fast. When I looked at the man who seamed to be giving the cyborgs orders, I realized that it was my cousin Merlin, with a cybernetic arm and one cybernetic eye! I called to him, and when he looked at me, he turned and ran off. His cyborgs followed him. The man they attacked, named Mitsuyo, was okay except for one cut that bled profusely. The one that jumped three stories into the fight was Alderac. We took care of Mitsuyo’s wound and made introduction all around. Not a one of them knew about Shadows. So I decided to take them to Mitsuyo’s home as a demonstration. It turned out that Don Carlino could pattern walk! As I was shifting shadow, he was shifting it back. That’s when I began to wonder if the all of my new friends were relatives.

Alderac had found a shadow path to Mitsuyo’s home shadow. He’s from a middle-ages style shadow, so Mitsuyo’s modern shadow-earth style shadow confused him no end. A strange woman directed him to a fighting competition. There, Mitsuyo and Alderac met to fight. Before their fight even got started, a bunch of cyborgs like the ones we saw in Mobland (Don Carlino’s shadow), but they had claws instead of syringes. Julian then showed up, brushed off the cyborgs, gave them a trump to the door to Mobland and told them to use it. So they did. They hadn’t been in Mobland very long before the rest of us showed up.

From Neo-Japan (Mitsuyo’s shadow) I tried to trump a bunch of people. Daddy’s trump didn’t even get cold. Uncle Corwin’s was warm, like it usually is. Merlin’s didn’t get cold either. I tried Aunt Flora next. She usually knows what’s going on. She said she didn’t know what was going on. Buy, in true Aunt Flora fashion, just before breaking contact, she asked me to ask Avalon how she liked the dress! Now, my this time, I had already found out from Avalon that the very nice dress she was wearing was the other gift that came with the trump card. I began to wonder in earnest if this wasn’t all some plot to bring together a bunch cousins. I trumped Fiona next. She seemed very hurried, but took the time to tell that she didn’t know what was going on either, and to confirm that Mitsuyo, Alderac and Avalon all had pattern potential. She had to go before she could check Urza. I was already pretty sure about Don Carlino.

Mitsuyo was kind enough to order food for us, which was very good. Alderac and Avalon had a hard time with the chopsticks, but both did pretty well, given that they’d never eaten with sticks before. Before we finished eating, Daddy trumped me. I never thought I would see Daddy so badly hurt. He was barely able to maintain the trump contact. He wasn’t able to take me through the trump he was so weak. I tried to make arrangements to get everyone to their home shadows, but they all decided to come with me. I trumped to Amber and ran to the infirmary with everyone in tow.

In the infirmary Random is in bandages, daddy is unconscious, Benedict is in surgery and there is someone covered in a sheet. I was so upset, I forgot about the folks with me. Once I remembered then, I had servants arrange for rooms for them. Random explained that they heard about some trouble in shadow. He, daddy, Benedict and Martin went to investigate. Not even Benedict saw the ambush coming. Martin died and Cain brought his body back. The rest limped back to Amber. Benedict would probably keep his leg, and Daddy would recover soon. I had never even imagined him so injured. I told Random all about what I had been doing. He was not at all amused by what he heard about Flora. He sent me and me friends to bring her to Amber.

Flora wasn’t happy about having to return to Amber immediately, but she came anyway. As soon as we arrived at the castle, me friends returned to their rooms, and I visited daddy in the infirmary. I turned on the cute to get him to take some food, and then I left him so he could rest. It’s nice to be able to take care of daddy sometimes.

I decided to ride through Arden, to try to calm myself. I let Audney know where I was going, then left. I lost myself in thinking about what had happened to my relations. I couldn’t stop thinking about Martin. While I knew we were mortal, I had never had to confront it before. Without realizing it, I shifted to a shadow of Arden. In this shadow, a sniper took a shot at me. Lela took the first bullet, which would have killed me had it hit. The second grazed my shoulder. We ran like a steam train for the castle. Before we got there, we both started to feel drugged. I trumped us both to the castle, and fell into the guard’s arms. I explained to them what had happened, in case I passed out completely before getting to the infirmary. Unsurprisingly, they took me to a part of the infirmary away from daddy. The bullet was laced with mercury – the medics had to clean it out of our wounds. Lela would recover, but would have to stay in the infirmary for a few days. I left once I was cleaned up.

Once I was up and around, I went to check on daddy. As I walked in I heard Random order “keep him unconscious until that dog is out of the infirmary.” Probably a good idea. After what had happened to me, daddy wouldn’t want me left alone, so wouldn’t stay in bed and rest. When I next spoke to Audney, she insisted that I not leave the castle without her. I don’t know if she was more afraid of my getting hurt, or of daddy being mad at her if I got hurt. She must look up to daddy very much to be so sensitive to disappointing him.

Later that evening, I began discussing chess with Alderac. During that conversation, I received a trump call. When I opened to it, before I even knew who it was, I was shot in the other shoulder and the contact ended. So, back to the infirmary I went. In addition to the pain of the wound, I felt a run of pain for a moment, which stopped. This was because the bullet was laced with deadly nightshade. I began to wonder if someone was using me as an experimental subject. After leaving the infirmary, I had dinner then retired for the night.

In the morning, Random summoned Avalon and me. He told her that Eric, one of my uncles who died before I was born, was her father. Flora, out of concern for her, arranged for her to be raised away from Amber. Random suggested that Flora wanted a way to challenge Martin’s claim to the throne when the time came. I couldn’t understand why Flora would do such a thing, but I didn’t ask about it then. Avalon almost fainted when she found out that, with Martin dead, she now had the strongest claim to the throne. She wants it about as much as snaked in her bra.

Hoping to at least keep her from being ill, I took her to breakfast, which we had with my new friends. Later in the morning, I spoke to Random again, giving him any details he didn’t already know about what had happened to me. That’s when he told me that there is more going on than he had time to explain. He also explained why Flora hates him. Apparently, just be cause he left her house a mess after a poker game. That seemed pretty petty to me, but Aunt Flora can be a bit oversensitive. I also asked if I could see Alderac home. He had no other way to get there. He told me he’d get back to me on that.

When I left Random, I visited daddy. I knew he’d be unconscious, but I wanted to see him anyway. I was used to daddy being unavailable at times – he has important things to do. But him being this injured was hard to deal with. While I was there, I chatted a bit with Benedict. He knew Beladin, Alderac’s shadow, and asked us to relay greetings to her king. When I felt a trump contact, he joined me and I accepted it and grabbed the person on the other end. Random was quite gracious about it, and accepted my apologies immediately. He had decided that my taking Alderac home would be fine, so long as the rest of my friends went with me. We all got together and left.

The walk (Avalon wouldn’t get on a horse) was a pleasant one. The arrival at Beladin was not. It had been ravaged by artillery fire. The High Priest told us about the attack before he died. He was the only one we found alive. The king’s occult advisor as been exsanguinated, and his blood poured out like dirty dishwater. We helped Alderac bury his king, gave him some time to mourn, and then returned to Amber. While in Amber, a servant brings Don Joseph one of Uncle Cain’s daggers. Julian had told Random that Cain would have wanted him to have it, so Random had a servant bring it to him.

After all the days excitement, I was tired. I checked in on daddy, then went to my room, via the library. I picked up a book on mathematics and studied to relax. Avalon visited me there. She mentioned that Aunt Flora hoped that she would learn from me. So I gave her a lesson in her family tree.

Episode two
After talking about the family with Avalon, I had dinner then went to bed.

At dawn, I awoke and dressed for the funeral, all in black and veiled. Random sent each of us a pendant to wear. It was a silver Unicorn, rampant, with a picture of Martin between her hooves.

We were seated in the chapel by age, with empty seats for those not in attendance, whether by death or otherwise.

Row 1
Cloaked, hunchbacked man
Empty
Empty
Empty
Benedict
Empty
Empty
Empty

Row 2
Fiona
Bleys
Empty
Daddy
Julian
Empty

Row 3
Empty
Empty
Empty
Amanda
Avalon
Don Joseph
Mitsuyo
Alderac

Row 4
Empty
Empty
Empty
Empty
Empty
Empty
Empty
Empty

Urza was seated to the right of the chapel door, and Audney to the left.

When the music stopped, I expected Random to rise and begin the service. Instead, the cloaked man did. During the service, Corwin came in and seated himself to the right of Benedict. The man running the service nodded to him without interrupting the proceedings. That had to be Dworkin. I wasn’t completely sure he existed.

Then Random stepped forward, and removed his pendant. The elders did as well, so the younger folks followed their lead. Random spoke a few words, put the pendants in the coffin, closed it, and began a hymn. All the elders save Dworkin sang with him. I had never heard it before.

Random, daddy, Uncle Benedict and Uncle Corwin carried the coffin out, and everyone else followed in age order. They pushed the coffin out to sea. It floated out then Benedict shot it with a flaming arrow. I felt like the arrow struck my own heart. All my sorrow and hurt confusion poured out through my sobs. Alderac and Don Joseph tried to comfort me. By the time I had calmed, all my elders but Corwin and Julian were walking back to the castle. Don Joseph had walked up a nearby hill.

Don Joseph cried out as the dagger he had been given stabbed him of its own volition. We ran to his assistance. Alderac struck it away while I trumped Don Joseph and myself back to the castle gate. Guards escorted us to the infirmary. He had no external mark, save blood seeping through his skin. But he had all the internal signs of a stab wound. While there I checked in on Lela, who was bored but recovering nicely. Then I walked out to meet the returning funeral party.

By then, daddy’s arm had healed, and uncle Benedict was walking with a cane. I told daddy that I was fine, despite what had happened, then told him what had happened. Audney must have been more touch by the funeral than I realized. She looked a little ill on the way back to the castle. Daddy was not happy about Julian’s apparent role in recent events. He had Audney walk us back to the castle. Once there, Avalon trumped me. She spoke to uncle Corwin before he left. I was just a touch disappointed that I hadn’t been able to spend any time with him. She relayed that he wanted Don Joseph to avoid anything related to Cain.

Back in the castle, my friends and I gathered. They let me know what happened with the dagger. It continued to fight mightily after Don Joseph and I left. When uncle Corwin slashed it with Greyswandir, it split and burst into flames. Clearly it was an artifact of chaos. As we walked by the throne room, I overheard daddy shouting “…the hell she will!” When I looked into the room, I saw several guards sprawled across the floor, and daddy holding Random up off the floor. When he noticed me, he set Uncle Random down, brushed him off a bit, and told me that they had been discussing football. He claimed that he was giving a demonstration. I gave him a hug, and told him to please be careful. I didn’t want him to reopen his wounds, and I generally tried to calm him down. Uncle Random seemed pleased for the assistance. Then daddy sent me out, so I went. We all went to get breakfast.

Not long after, Random summoned Audney. Before we finished, we heard daddy storm to his room. When Audney returned, she let us know that Random wants us to look for my attacker. Before we left, we collected Don Joseph and Lela, and visited Uncle Benedict. Uncle Benedict demonstrated guns to Alderac and Urza with live dummies. Then I took everyone to discworld, where Urza conjured armor for all of us, and we taught Avalon to ride. She wasn’t happy about it, but she learned it well.

We spent the day riding. When we returned we found the Urza had had a visitor. Despite my control of Discworld, I couldn’t see what had happened during the visit. Urza got from his visitor (some one/thing called Yavimah) a pendant that looked like Audney’s. I probed Urza’s mind beyond his visions – he had told us everything we thought was important.

Audney explained that her pendant would allow her to lead us through shadow. My attacker would be able to sense us coming if we shadow-walked in the usual way. So we mounted up and followed Audney toward my attacker.

The pendant stopped working just outside a forest beside a vineyard. Lela smelled large predators. This gave us a bit of warning before the large gorilla-like creatures attacked us. We were holding out reasonably well, until of the creatures got a clear shot at me. I thought I was doomed, until a sword swept in front of me, cleaving the creature’s arm in twain. My rescuer introduced himself as Prince James and welcomed us to Holliren. We accepted his invitation to lunch at his castle.

Prince James’ crest is a gauntlet-clad hand holding a wineglass. Lunch is an elaborate affair, followed by entertainment. Since Alderac didn’t seem comfortable with having us staying in Prince James’s castle, he invited us to stay in a cottage on his land. Prince James showed himself to be as courteous in company as he was valorous in battle. He was a perfectly attentive and gentlemanly. Once Prince James had escorted us to the cottage, Alderac spent a few minutes speaking to him. Neither of them was happy afterward.

After Prince James left us, I summoned a bird to come to me when I was in the same shadow as my attacker. I also cast the Trumps to gain insight into why we’re here. Most of the cast made no sense, but in the reason position, daddy’s card was inverted. To pass the time that day, several of us went out riding. It’s a lovely, peaceful land. When we returned at dusk, we found that Prince James had sent a lovely dinner for us, and a note for me. He asked me to meet him personally, at a time and place of my choosing. So I arranged to meet him at his castle that night.

I spent a lovely evening with him. His kisses were sweeter than wine. He held me, and kissed me, and professed his love. He had even begun a portrait of me. I returned to the cottage in a happy haze. I don’t think Alderac was very happy, but I was too distracted to really pay attention.

The next day, James provided a lovely breakfast. I sent a note to him, letting him know that I needed to move on, but that, if I could, I would return to him. I included a lock of my hair.

As we followed Audney, she seemed to grow weaker by the second. I tried to give her some of my strength, but it hurt her more than it helped. My bird returned to me when we found ourselves in a golf course. Groundskeepers directed us to a nearby hotel. We got a room there, so that Audney could rest.

There, Urza got into a great deal of trouble, we had to carry him out naked with a bullet hole in his ankle. We got out just before the police got there. We take off to another hotel, where Urza heals himself. Then I heard just enough to believe that Don Joseph was going to kill Random. So I raised a stink, he had a cow, and we dragged him to Amber unconscious. It turns out that I was precipitous, he was being framed, apparently by Fiona. Unicorn knows why. I ended up trumping just about everyone. Then Don Joseph dug through Avalon’s mind to find out who her visitor was, to no avail.

Episode the Next
Leaving Urza casting some sorcery in his bathroom, I retired to Audney’s room. I fell asleep thinking of James. In the middle of the night I woke up to Audney’s shouting something that sounded like “Lane!” from Urza’s room. Then things got really confusing. I ran in to find Audney in her battle form – yes, boys and girls, Audney is a shape shifter. I recognized her by her face and voice – and Urza holding a sword in a body lying on the groups. Here’s what happened. Audney walked in on Urza in a sword fight with some guy, who she recognized as her beloved, Lane. Her entrance distracted him just enough to allow Urza to run him through. She, too upset to think, shifted into her battle form. That’s when I walked in. Poor Audney! She found part of her past in time to loose it. Urza claimed that Lane had attacked him. The sink confirmed Urza’s story. Lane called Urza the Brother Slayer and attacked. Yes, I meant the sink. Urza had turned it into a sentient scrying pool. It was also able to show me my attacker. He had wild, unkempt brown hair and beard, was very thin, very fanatical eyes. He wore 20th century fatigues with the sniper-rifle/crossbow hanging on his belt. He was in a house in this shadow, but had already left the shadow. It looked like shadow walking, but not being there, I couldn’t be certain. Since there was little to be done with my attacker no longer in the shadow, and Audney in to state to pursue him, I brought her back to her room. Urza somehow burned Lane’s body and later gave Audney and urn of his ashes. I stayed in Audney’s room to and sleep, mercifully, came quickly. I shudder to think what Audney must have dreamed.

The next morning I ordered a large breakfast, and had all the others brought to me room. I let everyone know what we’d learned about the attacker. Once we’d all eaten, we went to his house. It was at 246 Elm St. in the suburbs. It was a badly maintained ranch-style house. The neighborhood was shabby, but this place was the pits. Psychically I found that there was a power source in the center of the house – definitely not Pattern, I couldn’t tell what. While nominally locked, the door fell under Alderac’s foot. The house was a total wreck. It looked like human-sized rats had been nesting there, and somewhat smelled the same way. In one room a set of Trump were scattered over a table. This same room held lots of crossbow bolts and rifle ammunition. The trumps made up a standard set short brand and mine. When I psychically examined the spot from which he left this shadow I could detect traces of pattern manipulation. He had probably pattern walked away. All the interior doors are unlocked or open, save for one. This one was a steel security door with 6 separate bolts. Don Joseph worked on picking the locks for a time, to no avail. Then Audney tried. She triggered a poisoned needle, which jabbed the shape-shifted finger she was using in the lock. Her hand began to shape-shift wildly. I immediately grabbed her to ‘walk toward the antidote. Avalon came with as well.

The uncontrollable shifting crept up her arm as we ‘walked. Eventually we came to a cold lava path to a huge goth castle. Black clouds raced across a green sky. A strange, foreboding creature guarded the entrance. I told it that we came seeking aid. It took one look at Audney’s wildly shifting arm, seemed to recognize it as “The cancer” and told up that he would take us to his mistress. His mistress was a thin, pale, gorgeous, redhead. She had a large man take Audney to be seen to. She introduced herself as Lina Bariman. She totally creeped me out. She was pleased to see that the “sundered kin” again traveled together. I should have known that she’d be able to spot a pattern initiate. She also recognized Audney’s pendant as the insignia of house Falstaff – one of the royal houses of Chaos. Apparently, since Merlin has disappeared, Audney is rather close to the throne of Chaos. After talking to her briefly, she left us, so I filled Avalon in while we waited for Audney. I tried to trump the others, but the castle was shielded against it. Audney was brought back to us about a half-hour later by a man with three arms. She was right as rain, thank the Unicorn. So we left the castle.

When Avalon tried to trump Urza, she nearly got her brain melted. So we just ‘walked back. The boys had made found quite a lot while we were gone. Turns out it wasn’t just a steel door – it was a solid steel room. When they finally broke in they found out that this guy had a systematic plan for poisoning Amberites. He even had a notebook of different poisons, including their lethality and their “chance of corruption,” whatever that means. The notebook was in an ancient variety of French, so I might have been mistaken. There were also bunches of animals from Arden, including one of uncle Julian’s hell hounds. Apparently, he experimented on them before moving to human trials. Urza had cataloged the contents of the lab, including a dartboard with an acid-dampened trump of Brand over the bulls-eye.

Once I knew what they’d found, I trumped uncle Random. The connection was very easy, and at startlingly high power. It was hard to keep in contained. Urza and I brought him up to date. He let us know that the attack on them before was from a different source. He asked me to apprehend this guy alive if at all possible. He also told me that, while Cain claims that Corwin’s the one who tore him up, Corwin claims to have done no such thing. When Urza left the contact, I let him know about the side-trip. They already knew that Audney came from Chaos! Next I trumped Julian, to let him know about the animals. He had us send them all through to him, then spoke to Alderac privately before ending the contact. It was quite a “Noah’s Trump.” Alderac let us know that Julian wants him to bring him Peter's head.

We figured that Trump was the best way to nab this guy. To I gave Avalon all my mental images of him, and she did up a trump sketch. She expected it to take a couple hours, but it hardly took 45 minutes to complete. We forced the contact on him, pacified him, pulled him through and knocked him out. Then Don Joseph and I scoured his mind.

This guy was nutty as a fruitcake. He’d been severely tortured, possibly by Brand. His only coherent thought was "I have to stop him, I have to beat him at his own game," repeated over and over. He's a very very powerful Pattern initiate. Apparently Brand forced him through the Pattern. He'd been taking animals from Arden for years to experiment on. He also had a notebook in his pocket, written in the same ancient version of french as the other. It was full of poisons and notes on effects on Amberites - Lethality and Chance of Corruption. No chance of Corruption was above %40. There was no correlation between the lethality and chance of Corruption. He had a drivers license in the name of Peter Jackson. There are the signs of many spells having been cast on him in the past.

The effort of sorting through his mind wore both of us out. So we found relatively clean places and slept. When we woke up, the trump sketch had turned into a Trump Card with a strange back - a gold chalice on a black background. And Avalon's been able to make a whole lot of Trumps. When Peter woke up, he looked around, and as soon as he clapped eyes of Avalon's red hair he started screaming bloody murder. As soon as she left the room, he was fine. He spoke only that ancient french dialect. He said that "He" needs the pure blood, so to oppose him, Peter is trying to kill or corrupt Amberites. By corrupt, he means to destroy their Pattern potential. When Peter managed to shadow walk without moving, we decided he couldn't be allowed to remain concious, and kept him asleep. Then I trumped Uncle Random. Although Julian had said that he told Random about the attempt to frame Don Joseph, Random knew nothing about it. Random asked me to not let on that I knew this yet. He also asked me to keep Peter as far as possible from Amber - his powers would decrease with the increased distance from the Pattern.

First things first - I 'walked to a bomb to use to blow up Peter's house. But when we investigated, it appeared psychicly that the Trump Room hadn't so much blown up as Trumped away. Avalon would see a faint image of a gold chalice on a black background - like the back of the Trump of Peter. That was just too creepy. I've never even heard of such a device, let alone see it before.

To translate the notebooks, since Peter wasn't any help, we 'walked to the best dictionary for that language. I should have known that it would belong to a relative. But Flora did loan it to me, so we took it to a pleasant shadow to work on the notebooks. Peter woke up unexpectedly. He spoke with Alderac just long enough to get annoyed and drop him into the ground. Don Joseph and Avalon had to shadow walk to get him back.

After some study, Urza was able to speak to Peter in his own language. He worked at convincing him to try a different method. It wasn't clear if that worked. He did find out that the gold chalice on black was Brand's device. A black armored person first captured Peter. And a "pretty winged lady" was the one who suggested corrupting Amber blood to him. When Urza asked him about her, he drew the Pattern and we all appeared in a dining room. A lovely winged pregnant woman seemed to be expecting us. Her name was Serra. Turned out that Alderac had a very good reason for being suprised. In Holerin he bedded what he thought was a peasant. It was Serra. He's not dealing well with being a father. For some reason, Alderac started to hyperventilate. Serra summoned food for us. She described herself as a friend. She suspects that Brand must have built the Trump Room. She tells us that Urza is in the line for the throne of Chaos! There are only 12 people between him and the throne - she's keeping a running countdown. Merlin is one of those twelve. Urza is from House Marlene, whose house symbol is a spiked mace crushing a feline skull. According to Serra, no one knows who Audney's parents are. Turns out that we were all beyond Chaos, on "the dark side of the Abyss." Well, Peter was as far as he could get from the Pattern.

Given where I now was, I had to check in. So I borrowed Avalon's trump of herself, and went to Uncle Cain, so I could actually reach Amber with a trump. Daddy was with Random, so I was able to talk to them both. Daddy wasn't thrilled that I was in Chaos, but understood that it was needed. Random suggested I leave Peter in Chaos, but let Julian and Alderac think that he had been killed - they gave me a Peter look-alike for Alderac to axe. So I collected the bunch of them, let Alderac do the deed and 'walked to Arden. Julian met us, and put Peter's head on a spike. From there we returned to Amber

Daddy was very concerned about Prince James. He felt that I had not behaved in a sufficiently lady-like fashion. He asked me to put off talking to Prince James until he had a chance to think about it. From there I went and help Bleys and Fiona clean up the library. Someone had torn it up looking for something. I also gave them the trumps from Peter's house. When I caught up with Audney, she let me know that she is no longer a servant. But she will remain my companion, Yay! Daddy would still like her to keep an eye on me:) After a chat with Alderac, we go out to go shopping.

When we got into Amber city, we met Alderac again. Julian had taken him on a two year fast time tour of shadow. He wanted his son to know what's going on more often. Before we got to any shops, Avalon trumped us. She was falling down drunk. Without even meaning to, she told us that Eric and Flora are her parents. She begged us not to tell anyone that, especially not that her father is still alive. In all the excitement, I haven't even had time to decide what to do with that information.

Episode the Next
michael Trumps us all to Serra's Realm. We found ourselves on a terrace, Radient was there. Radient was standing guard over Serra and Tiferi, who were speaking by the railing. Radient leads us to them. As we approach, Tiferi says "It's time, they're here," and they turn to us. Urza goes with Tiferi to retreive the Chalice, Serra stayed there with us. Serra gave a telescope to Alderac, and bid him look below. He reported seeing masses of Phyrexians led by Deidre, as well as Weir, surrounding the Cathedral. He couldn't see Brand or Dworkin. I asked Serra if she could change the shadow to make it inimical to the Phyrexians or the Weir. She responded that, when the Phyrexians first came, she felt control of the shadow wrested from her. That's when I remembered that I had the might/meek stone. It contains the power of Trump and Abyss. It would distract Michael and Morgan from their purpose. While discussing the situation, Fiona trumped me. I brought her through. She had heard about Bleys, knew that Brand was near me, and wanted to kill him. I let her know the situation. She expected that many, many Serrans would die, and hopefully that would give Urza time to get the Chalice before Brand gets to it. About then, Urza Trumped me. He wanted to know if the shadow was still secure before he began to opened the locks to the Chalice. We let him know the situation. Fiona estimated the we could give him no more than 15 minutes then we would have to go somewhere else, drag Dworkin to us, and have Michael and Morgan rebuild his mind. Avalon took a trum of her from Audney for Urza leaped through a trump contact to Avalon. urza trumped back, bleeding with a sword in his gut - he took stone from me, said Mishra was back. he passed the chalice to the brothers we all took fiona's hand to help drag dworkin through a trump "huh?!? what??" was all he could say before getting dragged into the room We saw a blue arua around michael, dark aura around morgan, hold chalice between then, each grabb one side of dworkin's head - dworkin starts screaming, followed by michael and morgan, then only two voices are screaming. then the aura shatters like a ball of glass dworkin's body and some other fall to the ground- i rush to them. Then the Cathedral jerked to the side - it was under attack. The Chalice still there, by the bodies we trumped to discworld with dworkin and the man. They're alive, but unconcious. fiona says that it worked. Man eventually wakes. he speaks with two voices at the same time. they've both lost touch with their powers. I change the time flow so that as little time as possible passes in other places. Lane helps Urza heal. then audney drags Urza to the side. Michael/morgan head to bed - they need rest. Lane followed suit. Mishra had gotten through a few of Urza's locks when he got there. Avalon looks shell shocked at this point, and Audney looks sick. Urza now carries a scar on one cheek. Fiona took Dworkin back to his cave. She'll get in touch with Daddy and family. they will protect amber and the jewel of judgement. We should protect the other jewel. Those still awake, feast then sleep. Near the end of the meal, mishra trumped me, threw a bag through, and closed contact. he had a scar on one cheek, right eye was solid, surrounded by black scales. the bag contained Serra's head. Urza showed me that Mishra had a cybernetic arm and eye, before urza knocked the cybernetic eye away to reveal the scales. Urza also showed us the fight between them. Mishra is clearly working with Brand. This puts Urza beyond his capacity. he stumbled off to bed before falling down where he stood. Before retiring, try to trump James, get the strange, flickering "Trying to trump Chaos" sensation. In the AM, try to trump Daddy, he's blocking it. We discuss plans, then decide to see what Franklin can suggest. Alderac thinks it's just fine to fight the phyrexians in Hollerin. Urza spells us there. Franklin shows up the a huge metal frog. We all climb in via the tongue. Turns out we're not in Hollerin, but another, all water shadow. Franklin lives in huge seashell. He didn't know that James wasn't in Hollerin. We all drink milkshakes and talk. Franklin blocked entry to the shadow via trump, pattern, logrus or sorcery. Don Joseph had to be let back in - no one had noticed that he had left. While there, discover that the Thran metal grows over time. Urza, Audney and Franklin went to the lab in the huge Clamshell. I discussed bringing James the and Dragoons here, Audney will come with me, Franklin can let us in. Michael and Morgan argue before coming back in. they can boot Michael out with the might/meek stone - he may be able to go into the stone. t/he/y taek the stone from Urza, then ask for the real one. Excpect that DJ has it. come quickly to his corpse in the shadow, hacked to pieces, probably like Mishra. Alderac gets Audney, and we 'walk to the stone. audney isn't coming - Amanda 'walks with Avalon, alderac, lane and m/m. takes more effort than usual. come to a shadow full of reddish light. Mishra, deidre, and a cloaked figure block out way to Brand inscribing a pattern. I take out my weapon, and charge at Brand Alderac calls the cloaked figure DJ, and Mishra says "He chose to side with the winners." Dj grabs for me, I duck under him and get to the pattern. I'm going to have to either walk the pattern, or run across it. I throw a dagger at him - it's deflected in mid air. I start to walk the pattern, cut myself and bleed behind me. the first veil is much stronger than that in the patter I know. DJ is directing my blood off the pattern. Past the first veil, i try to cut the backs of my legs, but the blade heats the caturizes the wounds. I drop the blade, and rake my legs with my nails, tearing open the scars and bleeding like a bitch behind me. Avalon starts to walk the pattern, and as she does so, she remakes the broken parts. The chalice now floats on it's own, glowing red. it's burned m/m hands terribly. Alderac, taking advantage of DJ's concentration, stabs him then takes his head. Audney was fighting deleh, who turned into things then disappeared when DJ died. Audney knocked Avalon off the pattern, but took her place. Mishra and urza were fighting. Misra tried to kill Urza the way Urza tried to kill him. Urza keeps him from doing it, the Misra portal's away. Audney is now walking the pattern, bleeding behind her. Urza's bolt of energy splashes brand's head, spraying blood and destroying the pattern out from under our feet. A Phoenix tries to fly to Dedrie's body, but is being pulled toward the chalice in Avalon's hand. Urza grabs one ankle, and I grab the other to help her pull it in. We all join in, and suck him into the chalice. m/m takes the chalice, michael screams, the body becomes morgan's as the chalice becomes pure white. michael's outline surrounds the chalice. "it has become clear to me that my father cannot be killed. he was wrong, but he is my father. for love of him, i shall be his jailer, as morgan was mine." the outline dissappears, and a now ivory chalice falls to the ground. Avalon and morgan both fall over from the stress. Lane helps me heal, leaving only a scar on my left arm. I feel quite drained at this point. then corwin showed up, then buried Dedrie. he then walks off after offering us his trump of amber. Random, gerrard and Caine walking in, Random says DJ was his son. Julian had already figured out about the Xbow thing. pick up chalice and blah random. he suggests it go to fiona, The living cousins trump back to Amber. bring the chalice to fiona in bleys' room. She's there crying, looking at a photo of her, bleys and brand at Coney Island in its heyday, they look very very young. blah her, she drops chalice into box of other things she's cleaning out of the room. leave her and look for daddy. Gerrard, caine and Random are just past the grove of the unicorn, daddy moving stones over a fresh grave. we leave Random for a time, and get to spend time together without there being a crisis. come evening, I try to trump james, it's the same as usual. Audney and Urza have wandered off. Avalon doesn't have a unicorn trump of audney, and the chalice trumps no longer work. I check with Daddy about walking in shadow. he's with flora, random, and - they suddenly seem to realize that Amanda out of Amber is a good idea. then I head for the shadow that Caine had been in. At that point, we took a break for Stephen to make a new character, and the rest of us to make advancement lists:) I got the first two on mine, psyche increase and trump artistry, whoot! As soon as I get back to Amber, I'm going to ask Avalon to teach me Trump Artistry. 1.5 days have passed in Amber. Avalon needs about 1/2 day more to finish a trump, then she's happy to teach me. I return to my room to bathe and change clothes. I leave word with the servants that I would like to see him when he's available. he, flora and random were talking late into the night, and it's only mid-morning right now. while in the bath, hear james at the door. As I open the door, daddy comes around the corner. when I dress and come out, they're not there, just a note from daddy instructing me to stay there. I slam the door, and stomp around the room, occasionally punching/kicking walls. Eventually I calm down, dry off and dress properly, in a nice but simple dress. I sit at my dressing table, reading about advanced mathmatics. 1/2 hour later, hear the real story about mom. go check on Audney Avalon trumps me, and I go to her shadow. Morgan enjoys ordering his double around. in about a month, learn trump artistry. for training, make trump of Avalon. find out she's preggers. return to amber - 10 mins have passed. then go to caine's shadow - he shows me a different shadow to use, so as not to annoy him. Trump James, he confirms daddy's story, although he regrets it. He explains how you have to live if you live in Chaos. Given his choice, he would return to Hollerin. collect trumpmaking suppllies, then trump back to amber - a couple hours had passed. just as i get back, Avalon trumps, and brings me through to meet mikaela. Then Audney trumps and comes through. When morgan goes to change mikaela, bring the ladies up to speed on Daddy and James. Flora trumps Avalon while we're there. Random wants all the cousins to come to Amber to speak to him. Alderac trumps me, and brings Audney and I through. Lane there, but not invited. Daddy talking to Random - leave message that I want to speak to Daddy when he's free. all go to a meeting room - flora w/shopping bags, daddy, julian, and random are already there. we all enter and sit. get ordered to not worry about Amber for a while As the meeting broke up, I got an ethics lesson from my father and a couple uncles - it wasn't exactly what I was hoping to hear. go see vialle - she suggest keeping relationship a secret - if go to new york, send her regards to bill roth. After leaving her, make a trump of each of the cousins, lane and morgan, then crank out full sets for everyone. Full set that I can make includes: Dworkin Findo Benedict Fiona Gerrard Julian Amanda Avalon Alderac Urza Lane Morgan Flora Audney Random Caine Corwin Eric My deck includes james' trump, the shadow Caine showed me, Dominaria and Franklin. Urza's deck includes Franklin and dominarea as well. We all go to Avalon's shadow, Flora is redecorating. then we all have brunch, courtesy Flora, Urza isn't there. audney and Avalon go off to talk. Lane and Alderac go off to spar. I trump Urza then go talk to him. I tried the Dominaria trump, and no connection. Lane and Alderac trump through next. plan to leave for Shadow Earth as soon as Audney joins us. Audney and Avalon Trump through and we head for the city where bill roth lives on shadow earth. we arrive at Grand Central Station. see a man that looks like corwin - trot to him calling "corwin?" he freezes, then says "Shit!" and runs off. his name is Gawaine. he leads us to Bill Roth, we introduce ourselves and talk. Eventually Gawaine shows us around NY, until about 3am. we get four suites - Lane chases after Gawaine as we go to our rooms. The next morning, take full advantage of the facilities, and call Flora for fashion advice. Lunch with everyone else, Gawaine shows up. I trumped to the shadow Caine showed me. I've decided to call it Cephas. From there I Trumped James, and he came to me. I explained that he might be able to avoid Daddy's death sentance if he can find a way to be useful to Amber. He wasn't exactly thrilled at the suggestion. I lost my temper at that. Here I am, wracking my brains to find a way to be with him, and all he can do is make snide remarks. Of course, he apologized immediately. Having to stay in Chaos is doing him absolutely no good. He told me that things were very strange in Chaos right now. For about 3 weeks there were joint Marlene-Fallstaff partols, then they suddenly stopped. The matriarch of house Marlene hadn't been seen for about 6 months. And a sniper with a souped up rifle had killed several guards, and a logrus master. That sounded just like Peter Jackson. He decided to come with me to a shadow blocked to Patternwalking while I made the Trump. He needed time away from Chaos, and I'm happy for any time I get to spend with him. We 'walked to Franklin's shadow. He was more than happy to block Patternwalking again. The place reeked of death and Calimari. Apparently, the cephalids had rebelled, and his "boil" spell worked waaaay to well. He lent us a small vehicle to go to the surface so I could make a trumps. spend 4 relative days making PJ trump, talking, snuggling. after about 2 days, daddy trumps, then alderac trumps, telling me about finding a huge stock of pink powder. I go through to them, and we decide what to do. I plan to go after information, Gawaine, Audney and I 'walk information - dock offices. italian doing paperwork - electronically scrambled voice ordered a specific ship to be waiting, no lights, to take a passenger and X tons cargo, everyone involved paid a lot of money to keep silent. payment exchanged on the boat - probably a man, wore a scarf over face, all in black. didn't hear the voice. going to walk to source of information about where this shipment is going, when a car stops us. old man and his 3 buds aren't there psychically. old man is Don Bruce. get winged before getting completely away walk to where the boats are going - find motorboat with Urza and Alderac - there was a shootout and they lost the boat. Audney and I walked to the boat, full of pirates. No explosives work there. Everything is psychically not there - not even the shadow. Alderac questions a crewmen - he only knows that the capatain's name is Barrows, and that they're supposed to leave the cargo here. find a place to watch the cargo w/o being seen. A man in a sailboat shows up, and begins to pick up the dropped cargo. I walked to him, and began to question him. Alderac pulled his sword, avalon had to put him back on his feet. lane and Alderac fight Can't trump daddy, blocked from trumping Cephas, can't trump James either. Trump to Discworld, still can't trump Daddy, but can trump Random. talk to him, then return to Audney, regroup, move stuff to Antarctica, discuss leaving Jonathan Smee, decide to take him with us. go to Urza's tower. Lane gets trumped by his leige - returns to Chaos. Daddy has uprooted the tower of Delsinora. Audney flys me and her to Chaos, using her Dragon form. get James to the tower, return to chaos, send james with Audney back to chaos, talk to daddy, tell Alderac that I do indeed want to be alone, and walk off into shadow, caring not a whit where I go. see the visions, am left sobbing in a field, where Audney finds me. I tell her about what I saw. She comforts me, the I 'walk to my father. Audney's Dragon form: Shimmering red dragon, with gold edging each scale. Her golden eyes see all that passes below her as she flys through shadow. Her Talons are gold, with a delicate tracery of red. Over her eyes shines the crest of her house, in gold over red scales. No one suffering a direct attack from her will doubt what house they face, although they may not know it for long. If allowed close enough, you may notice a marking on a talon on her right claw. It is a slim silver band. 'walk to daddy, show him what I saw, cry with him a lot he forgives James, and asks his forgivenes for the unforgiveabel, 'walk away, trump through to Audney, talk to Alderac, who after talking to a beladin advisor has chosen to not hate James, to trust my judgement, Audney takes me to James in Chaos, she and he agree that I shouldn't stay, go back to Urza's tower, Avalon and Audney dissappear, tell Alderac why Daddy no longer trying to Kill James. boxes disappearing, hellride to it, hear a highpitched "eep" sense something strange, then it melts away. boxes keep dissapearing, even getting pulled out of my grasp. jump of the long-tongued chameleon's back with Gawaine, try to grab it around the neck and strangle it. It finally stops, falling down. pen it in Urza's shadow, it coughs up the boxes, then catches fire and is immediately ashes. We decide to cast the bait again With Gawaine as a box, and Audney in a box. send note to Corwin on a dove of my desire with a sample of the pink powder and copies of the labels of the other chemicals with it. In the note I ask him to please let me know if it is jeweler's rouge, or a precursor to it. Send boxes back to antarctica, penguin's carry them to the shore, a giant squid brings the boxes underwater and puts them into a sub. the boxes are carried to a giant mushroom by silent smurfs. Can't see into it. Try to trump Audney, but she blocks it. trump to Amber, caine is in the throne room. See random, let him know what's going on. Deidre might have been able to suprise benedict with Brand's help. Trump back through avalon, smurfs begin loading sealed boxes onto squirrel-drawn carts. They took them to the waterfront, where they were put onto ski behind a seaserpent. that brings the boxes to another shore, each box gets loaded onto a wild goose, which fly off. the geese drop the boxes onto caine's beach. They bind Audney, hook her to a sea turtle. That's when I trump to amber, and run to Vialle's room. Random suggests we watch it personally, he would do his best to distract Caine. Call game when we get to Caine's Island.

Episode the Next
get trump from urza, very weak, shadow per him, shadow is collapsing. to his reconing, it dissappeared before we got to the bungalow. nothing interesting, the ammo boxes are there. Avalon opens one, bullets spill out. they contain pink powder. per urza, shadow's name was "Argoyle." Urza suggests that the shadow is now in a different place. Trump James, weak contact. Speak briefly then break contact. While trumping james, a membrane ate them, all but the one in Avalon's hands. Trump Urza again, blah him, he lets me know that the shadow suddenly reappeared. Avalon Trumps Benedict to give him the box of ammo. He takes it and closes the contact. 'walk to the final destination of the bullets - 246 elm street. only wreckage of a house left. There's a room sized space free of evidence of explosion. boxes of ammo bubble up in the space where the trump room was. I sit on the boxes while we talk. suggest finishing a trump of pete....peteyboy. I almost forgot that alderac think's PJ is dead. trump to discworld, finish trump in very fast time, then trump Avalon.

Delah introduces Jacob and Erin. Jacob looks a lot like Alderac, and Eric strongly resembles Delah. talk a bit - erin finds Gawaine in the woods. Trump Audney, it's blocked. Trump Random while Peter brings in nice chairs. have peter reinstate trumps, Audney still blocked, go through to Random.

crispy fried person

spot of black light hurts my brain a LOT Delah and kids dissappear. Strange tendrils try to grab the boxes, I jump on them and invoke trump defense. As a tendril wraps my head, it becomes harder to concentrate. My thoughts become more and more insane. first feel distress then, if I can't have it, neither will they. At least I managed to keep the ammunition away from whoever wanted it in the first place. A new tendril comes through and and lights the boxes on fire. they explode and we fly all over the place. I loose conciousness before I feel the pain of it. I find myself in a state similar to a very, very bad trip. think a full pattern initiate assaying the Logrus. It's about that bad. the pattern burns it's way into my mind, forcing order by focusing all my attention on pain. after more pain than should exist in the universe, I regain a bit of conciousness. Then I fall into blessed sleep. About midmorning I woke up. What a strange dream! lane was in ICU, and Audney very upset. She needed to get in touch with Barimore. Avalon and I go with her. close chaos, trump james and he brings us through. Audney tries to run to help, james calls for assistance. 3arm shows up. I go to cephas, trump urza. if lane comes off life support, he dies. 3arm needs permission to make a house call. She and 3arm see lady bariman, and get permission, inexchange for her remembering what they did. 3 arm goes through. I have avalon try to get Audney to sit down. he came back to talk to audney. The poison was almost worn off, will be gone soon. because of his weak state, if he hadn't been sspoisoned, she would have killed him. "Lane owes his life to the poison." Audney falls over in horror. Avalon had to bring me through. I let her know what 3 arm said, the find a way to sit with a comforting hand on James and Audney. when audney got herself together, we returned to the tower. Gawaine speculated about Caine's culpability. then fiona trumped urza. mandor sent the logrus tendrils, because he was trying to keep the ammo out of the wrong hands. per fiona, the trouble comes from either marlene, falstaff or gobash. Amanda laid down to rest where she could hear what was going on.

talked to audney a while. decide to try to find her lost memories, but they just weren't in her mind. I described what happened to her, and she thinks it was her primal form. we chatted some more, then Urza came in and introduced his wife, Kayla bin Krugg, and a student of his, Tawnos. After the 4 of us chat, Franklin wandered in with a mini steel franklin. He returned to his shadow, to clean up the rest of the dead fish. then Urza and Kayla went to "Take a nap." I sketched in the infirmay while Tawnos and Audney discussed their different sorceries.

lane wakes - bad, bad news. Audney hits the ceiling. And her ring would only work for her betrothed. She's tempted to see if it's connected to anyone.

when i finally got Audney in from the balcony, we met Alderac and Jacob. they went to practice with the sword.

Alderac trumped me about his son, from Beladin. We all came back together. Urza took Alderac aside to talk about being a father. He didn't think it would help. Jacob chatted with me and Amanda until they came back. then Alderac took jacob to train with the sword. When they came back, jacob was covered in sweat, and probaly in pain. Alderac wouldn't notice if he pushed the boy too hard, and the child probably wouldn't admit to being pushed to hard. So I set him up a bath to help soothe his sore muscles. the I retired to the infirmary to lie down and sketch. I wanted to be close to Lane, in case he needs anything. And this it was a quiet place from where I could probably trump to James without too much notice. I trump to Cephas, then have a trump conversation with him. I hear about the death sentence for any Amberites caught in chaos right now, I decide to not go to James right then. We share news, and chat about pleasant things for a while, before I return to Urza's tower. I went to the main room, where Tawnos and Alderac were. After a while, Gawaine appeared in a flash of blue light. He said that he had met the Thran, which got Tawnos' and Urza's attention real quick.

apparently Franklin had supposed that the Thran would have been Dragons. Alderac decided to walk to the Thran. We had to walk away from the Abyss. Urza, Alderac, Jacob and Gawaine and I trump to Cephas, and go to the Abyss. There we meet up with Avalon and Audney. Gawaine decides to try Rappelling into the abyss.

Episode the Next
we were watching Gawaine rappel into the abyss. after about 3.5 hours, there's only about 100 feet rope left. Suddenly, it all plays out too fast for us to catch it. Before we have time to try to trump him, we hear a horrible sound, like reality ripping open. Behind us, a black circle opens and Gawaine walks through, looking as though he were destruction itself. Audney said "I have to check on Lane!" and turned to go. I grabbed her, shouted "I'll help," and went with her. She shifted to dragon form, picked me up and we took off. As we got to the tower, several technicians were working on a badly damaged Ornithopter. Tawnos and Mishra were in the infirmary watching over a badly hurt Mishra. He had barely gotten there in the ornithopter. He asked for help before passing out. He had taken 20 silver bullets, all of which left pink powder burns. While we were finding out what had happened bring gawaine to morgan in an empty shadow, bring avalon out, she trumps home, I trump audney to let her know what had just happened, and then walk to where Mishra got shot. can see phyrxia, choose to not walk in. walk to O2, then trump audney, let htem know where I was. Mishra woke, phyrexia no longer under his control. took discussion to conference room, to let lane and Mishra rest. plan to walk to phyrexian, then checked on folks in the infirmary, make urza twitch, trump dad and James if possible, then head to bed. James will be able to return to hollerin soon. he'll contact me. 2:30 am, awoke to Avalon's trump. She was very upset, and wanted me to 'walk her to the shadow where Morgan took Gawaine. I had her bring me through. She told me why as we 'walked. Morgan's twin dissappeared, and she was the only one in her shadow who remembered him. This reminded her of an abyss power Morgan had told her about. From then, we hellrode to the shadow. It was completely empty. So we hellrode toward Morgan himself. found ourself at the tower, Morgan in the infirmary. His only injury is a burn on the back of his neck. He was asleep when I got up there. But he had no psyche. He was breathing, but psychically examining him was like psychically examing a table. Avalon discovered the same thing through the trumps. She then insisted that someone walk her to Gawaine. We found him sitting in a pit. Something happened during his training, he's not clear on what. Avalon is not happy, but doesn't try to kill him. Yet. Ever since the accident, everything around him breaks. He was in a pit because the stone broke beneath him. I talked to him for a little while, letting him know that I wasn't trying to break his balls. Then I left him, so he could try to train enough to control his powers. I 'walked a little way away, then trumped Audney. She was blocking the contact. She probably didn't want her conversation with Avalon to be interupted. So I headed for Urza's tower. When I get there, Urza didn't know where a and a were. They appeared on the screens being led by Brand. Brand returned morgan's mind, then turned to complete "the rest of the bargain (with Avalon)." I followed him out, and we spoke. He's decided that remaking the universe must be impossible, since he couldn't do it on either occasion of trying. He also told me that he brought Bleys back from the dead, because he was able to harvest his soul via trump. The he went to find Gawaine. I guess Avalon released Brand in exchange for restoring Morgan, and whatever he was going to do with Gawaine. In a while Gawaine returned to the tower alone. Urza made preparations for an emergency powerdown. Gawaine now has control of his power - Brand force fed it into his brain. I took him to bed, then checked on the folks in the infirmary. Kayla and Mishra were together, he had made many wonderful toys to please and amuse her. He was smooth as fine silk, and Kayla was only discomforted at my notice of them for a moment. Then I checked on Morgan, who was with Avalon in a lounge. She wasn't willing to talk about what had happened. then I checked on Lane. He was concious and recovering. Audney had neither slept nor eaten. So I brought her a tray, and kept them company while she ate. It wouldn't do either of them any good for her to get sick. While we chatted, Urza and Kayla spoke, then left together. It wasn't a completely happy conversation. She thought about leaving Mishra's toys behind, but took them with her anyway. After a while, Alderac and Jacob come in, and want to teach us bone dance. It was a great game! He'd never seen an Amberite do it. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. During the game, Jacob seemed to be actually happy. After the game, the happiness seemed to disappear, as though closed behind a door. So I suggested, and Jacob assented, to cookies and milk. Audney was going to go back to Lane, but I had her take a snack with her. I may not be able to make her sleep, but she's going to eat if I can help it. She took a plate with her up to Lane. Once I'd had a bite, I headed into shadow to find appropriate protective gear for visiting Phyrexia. I got back to Urza's tower just in time to hear Falstaff disown Audney! I followed Audney and Lane back into the infirmary, where I told Audney about my plan to go to Phyrexia. Eventually, I, Audney and Urza go, while Jacob watches through a Logrus Lens. Phyrexia was occupied by house Gobash. They were having a loud party in the center of the shadow. There were about 200 of them, all real. The gate stood open, with a deactivated army, ready to stand at attention to show respect for someone. We found a place to hide and watch. bathed and changed, then went to speak to Random. After returning to my room, I found out that Avalong and Morgan were there, looking for me. They wanted to get married, and hoped that I would lead them to a "wedding shadow." I suggested they marry in Amber, and wrote a note to Random. Since Flora intercepted my note to Random, she decided that Random would do the ceremony, and she would plan the reception. Then I returned to my room to make a trump of Gawaine. The next day, I was pulled into preparing for Avalon and Morgan's wedding. At one point I saw Avalon carrying Brand began helping, then Corwin, still silent and avoiding Brand, then Daddy came in, in the white robe and grey sash of a group of pacifists from the Golden Circle. I hugged and greeted him before I even noticed. He had spent a lot of time in the monastary. By the day of the wedding, everyone had arrived. Just before the ceremony, Dworkin walked in decked out in full Chaos regalia. Behind him are about 20 members of house Barimore. James is with them, in the back. He comes to me, hugs me, then notices Daddy. There was a moment of tension, then Daddy put out his hand to James. Without a moment of hesitation, James took his hand. I beamed with happiness. "Gawaine," was the first word Corwin spoke. He had thought him dead. After crushing his son to him, they spoke for a while. Mishra came in with Ashnod on his arm. Both Tawnos and Kayla twitched. Flora greeted them. She had helped him find her. Then the ceremony started. Brand stood as the best man. Avalon's entrance made the whole room gasp. Flora had gone so far as to not outshine her. Brand had to nudge him to make him close his mouth. The ceremony was short buy lovely. The reception was just perfect. Bley introduced the wedding dance. Random on drums, Corwin on bass, Bleys on lead guitar, then Fiona invoked Martin's alto saxe. After Morgan and Avalon had danced for a while, folks pushed Brand and Flora onto the floor. The the married couples joined them, then the dance floor filled. James drew me onto the dancefloor. He was a lovely dancer! Then I danced with my father, and then with Alderac. I danced with James the most, though. During the set, Eric came to dance with Flora. At one point I overheard Eric say to Random, "IF I wanted the throne, we'll talk about it later. Today my daughter's getting married." James had to leave with the Bariman folks. They might give him a measure of protection from those who would try to collect on old family debts. Before he left, Daddy said to him, "Be well," and James responded, "And you, too Gerrard." Then I took my father's arm as I watched James leave. For the last dance, Random plays Martin's alto saxe. The next morning, the servants are still cleaning up. Brand had fallen into a depression. He'd be taking Morgan and Avalon to a shadow of his devising as soon as he felt better. I spent the day visiting with my father, and any of my aunts and uncles who are up to it. While gathered together for a meal, Urza got a trump from Franklin, that broke off before he could pull him through. Audney flies Urza to Franklin, I relayed the message from Audney to Lane, left a note for my father, and left with Mishra, Ashnod, Gawaine, Avalon, Alderac, and Morgan followed them in an ornithopter. When we got there, Audney and Urza were pulling Franklin out of a smoking frog. Ashnod shot bolts of energy from her rod, Mishra sank the subs with his nullrod, and I increased the probability of the weapons backfiring, and increased the probability that Franklin was well and healthy. About then, Alderac jumped out of the 'thopter, and shadowshifted away. After Franklin was put in the ornithopter, one of the subs surfaces, and appeared to throw Alderac overboard. Then Gawaine jumped over, and into a black hole that appeared where Alderac was thrown. Then the black hole dissappeared. After a little while, Alderac trumped me from the edge of the Abyss. He was there with Gawaine. I brought them through to the 'thopter. Urza decided to return to Dominaria. I shifted us to the Argive Capital city. I found brush to hide the 'thopter, while Ashnod and Mishra collapsed it. Franklin had been taking a little elf girl for a ride in his frog. Then she seemed to trump away and 3 subs attacked. According to Alderac, the men on the sub had the same accent as the men on the sub that carried the jeweler's rouge ammo. In Dominaria, we got a tour of the Tawnos Institute. Throughout the tour, Kayla was looking sideways at Mishra, Ashnod was looking sideways at Tawnos, Tawnos was just being hungover and miserable, and Mishra was offering running commentrary on Urza's dry explanation. Eventually Audney, Gawaine and I trumped to Discworld. I changed the time stream so that very little time passed outside Discworld. Since Gawaine wanted to practice his abyss power, so I asked him to practice in another shadow, which he did. I pretty much left Lane and Audney to themselves. With my time, I make a trump of Gawaine, and a set of modern trumps for Gawaine. I also made a card to leave in Hollerin for James to find. Just in case he couldn't contact me before he got back, I want him to be reminded of me.

Episode the Next
I took the card to Hollerin, and left it on the throne next to James'. As I walked out of his castle Daddy trumped me. He said he had a task for me, so I had him bring me through. He told me that he had an obligation that he wasn't sure that he would be able to fulfill. I immediately told him that I would do it. He seemed pleased that I was so willing to help him, even not knowing what would be required. Then he showed me a blade, a heavy rapier with markings similar to those on Greyswandir. It's called Sami'ne, and it's a Pattern blade, like Greyswandir. Daddy told me that it's one of the 15 pattern blades that Oberon gave to his children. Oberon told them that they could either weild them or not, but they should always protect them. They should never fall into the hands of the denizens of Chaos. Daddy felt that, since he is currently committed to complete pacificism, he could no longer be sure of protecting it. So he passed its protection on to me. After spending a little time with Daddy, I trumped back to Discworld, where the time differential was still about 5 minutes Amber to 1 month Discworld time. I found another sword of the same size and weight. Then I gathered practice gear, a good lunch, and went to find Lane. He was floating in a pool under a waterfall. He was happy to spar with me. Lane is good. But his training was very differnt from mine. He was trained, well, expendably. His moves would be effective, but put him at great risk. He's basically very capable of "taking one for the team," even if that "one" would be fatal. gawaine trumped through, practiced with him, he lets me know that his father has asked him to track down another pattern sword, doesn't know it's name, it's a broadsword, made of dark metal, dark to the point of looking like wrought iron. He suggested Jacob, but I nixed that idea. Urza might be able to help. Over the course of the day, Urza, Alderac, Jacob and Avalon came to Discworld. We let them know what was happening. We decided to 'walk towards information about the sword, once we'd all had some sleep. sleep, have breakfast, then Audney leads us through shadow - her new armor allows her to do so, without the typical "noise" of pattern-based 'walking. get to a blue cliff with a 10 foot tall tunnel into it. There are 7 tunnels off to the sides. It doesn't seem to be anything special from psychic examination. Urza discovered that for a stretch, there is only atmosphere about a foot off the ground. Everyone but Audney, Kayla and Urza had to crawl. Those three had some magical armor that protected them. The first side tunnel, on the left, was too hot for even the armor to survive. Farther down, on the left, there is a ramp which seems to go to the top. As we climbed it, the negative and positive space switched, essentially putting us in a new maze. What was the space we walked through is now solid, and we are walking on what was the empty space above the walls. This was just one of the traps in the maze. There were some dangers that only Gawaine was able to detect. We worked through the maze until Kayla was too tired to go on. So we stopped and rested. As far as Urza could tell, we were, somehow, moved. The next morning, Urza wasn't sure that he could figure this out. But Alderac thought he could. Before too long, my head was spinning, and I just gave up. But Alderac led us well. We didn't hit any traps or dangers at all. He's good. GhostWheel went nuts, we get trump-pushed and are falling into glass shards, urza opens a portal to his tower and we hit the ground hard. Gawaine has sucking chest wounds, and Kayla was also hit. The powder burns are pink. Random didn't respond to trump, Daddy did, I told him what had happened, and he told me that the sword sounded like Deidre's, called Naliswand. Alderac, Jacob, Avalon and I follow Audney through shadow to non-GhostWheel info on Naliswand. We walked for days, then we reached the primal pattern. Faced the wyvern, then saw Dworkin. "it is the shattered self upon which the eye bled to form all and nothing. and at the end the eye shall be reclaimed and the shadow self shattered." "you can't use the pattern to find something older than the pattern." both said by Dworkin, in reference to the pattern swords. Audney, Avalon, and I 'walk towards michael. We get to Arden, and stop. Avalon trumped Brand to find Michael. We all went through, she talked to him in the Chalice. Audney flys us through shadow to the child of the sword - went to the primal pattern. gathered at the fountain of power, jacob ran off with the sword. I trumped James. He had only just gotten my note, and was touched. He shooed out the beuracrats, and brought me to him. He said that Chaos was not longer completely closed to Amberites, but Amberites would be watched like a hawk. He didn't know if Delah was in Chaos or not. I loved being with him. while there he told me that he's now a member in good standing of house Bariman. He also told me the line to the throne of Chaos. It stands thusly: 1. lina of barimen 2. despil of salwall 3. jurt of salwall 4. mishra of falstaff* audney was here b/4 being exiled* 5. urza of marlene* audney will be here if taken into marlene 6. gilva of hendrake 7. malik of gobash 8. jacob of marlene* 9. erin of marlene* those with * are Dayla's children. while I was in Hollerin, the rest of the bunch had gone to Chaos, to house Marlene. Lane and Audney might become members of the house. According to Erin, Jacob hadn't returned. Avalon and I trumped to Cephas to try to find them. 'walk to jacob, 'walk to controller of sword, both lead to the gates of Chaos. Alderac brought us back to the house. We all went before Lord Marlene, aka Osric. He congratulated Avalon on her wedding, and spoke to Urza and Audney. She asked to speak to her mother, but she had already gone to their rooms. Osric had us stay over as his guests, had his serpentine sevant lead us to rooms. spoke to Audney about the succession and her situation. went to dw to find lane, bungalow ransacked, lane gone. couldn't 'walk to him. went back to audney, she went to speak to her sister, Erin. I went back to my room morgan and michaela missing, james missing, head priest of beladin missing, franklin, tawnos, barrin, and tiferi missing, mishra in chaos, 'walk to information about the location of the missing people. get to the thran I get advanced trump - by a miracle, I didn't go into bad stuff. make the machine, bring it to GW, fend him off, at 45 seconds, michaela hooked to machine, Avalon and I pour everything in us into trumping her away from the machine. at 2 seconds, just as Audney realized that what she was doing would kill the baby, we trumped her, the machine went, GW powered down, we heard michaela cry and Avalon and I fainted. I woke up in James' arms. Gawaine trumped all of us to Amber, James carried me to the infirmary, I didn't let go of his hand, so he sat next to me. Avalon and I both look like we've been through a long famine - we burned all the energy our amberite bodies could produce. Morgan stayed by Avalon, who did not let go of her baby. Whenever I was concious, I told James about what had happened. He saw all that happened at GW. While he carried me in, I asked him to put me down, claiming I could walk. he said I could walk later. go to chaos to catch Jacob, James' chaos form is a green, regen-ing gorilla-like thing, like those we encountered when we first were in Hollerin. per osric, falstaff behind Jacob's actions. Huge number going out after them, osric tells me to use my pattern sword. James is going for kills, so I do as well. When the first gout of flame rises from my first victim, a path opens up before me - they seem hesitant to face a pattern sword. I run into the house to find Jacob. Jacob was tied to a rail on a balcony. We got to him just after Audney did. She flew him to safety just before a Harpy-looking creature attacked, weilding Naliswand. The harpy stabs alderac, flames gout out, I stab her in the back, she begins to catch fire, Gawaine takes the pattern sword and cuts off her head. I put out the flaming alderac At Osric's behest, I bring Findo's pattern blade to amber. return to chaos, end up in house marlene. there will be no celebration over the destruction of house falstaff, but will celebrate lane and audney's wedding!! get audney ready for wedding, suhey officiates, "man and wife," however, came from the head of the serpent statue. While my aunts and uncles debated who got to say 'it' first, I ran up to the happy couple, kissed each on the cheek and whispered to them "May the Unicorn bless you." As a body, my relations gave me a dirty look. Then, in unison, they all shouted "May the Unicorn bless you!" much to the chagrin of the Chaos Lords. Daddy sent the happy couple to Minch's for a weeks's honeymoon.

Episode the Next
James and I returned to Hollerin after the wedding. He still had much to do there. I was more ornamental than useful, but I was glad to be at least that for him. After a couple weeks, I got a Trump from Random. He felt that it was time for me to get more diplomatic experience, so had me join him for some rather tense Golden Circle negotiations. It was really very interesting how much one can say with very few words, and how little you can say with many words. I couldn't trump James while there. The Kaferians strongly object to the use of Trump. By the third day, we seemed to be coming to a positive conclusion. The next meeting was a nominally informal one, held outside picnic style. While the Kashferian interior minister was casually making a critical point, Alderac sudden 'walked up. He interupted the conversation to ask me what had happened. He looked half crazed and sounded like he'd just seen me dragged off by wolves. When I explained that I'd been here for the last few days, and was about to take him off to the side to explain what he'd interupted, he shouted out, "NO! The damn bitch got me again!" I immediately 'walked him away from there. It turns out that someone who looked like me trumped to him, claiming that James has mistreated them. Alderac took her in, and she seduced him. The next morning she had dissappeared, apparently kidnapped. Alderac even confronted James, threatening his life if he had mistreated me. I Trumped James, to let him know that I was fine. Alderac heartily apologized, and James accepted his apology. He also let me know that he would soon me crowned King of Beladin, and invited me to the coronation. Alderac then left, still horrified at how he'd been deceived. I returned to Kashfa. The negotiations ended well, despite Alderac'c contribution.

Once the issues in Kashfa were settled, and I had discussed my lessons with my elders, I returned to Hollerin. Before we went to Beladin for the coronation, Alderac Trumped to warn me that the people of Beladin now think I'm a demon. Apparently Amanda Primes presence was known about, and the people decided that she was a succubus! Not exactly the reputation I would expect to have anywhere. To avoid difficulty, we trump directly to Alderac, and he explained that I'm not a demon to the people close to him. The coronation was lovely. He nearly fell over when Deylah, Jacob and Eric showed up. Jacob wore armor. Erin didn't looked thrilled to be there. Oddly enough, Erin wanted to talk to me in private. Jacob had told her that he felt I was trustworthy, and she didn't know who else to talk to. She's pregnant, but she doesn't know how, especially since she's still a virgin - physically. She's hated how Deylah's manipulated her and her siblings, and she would not subject her child to that. She wanted me help to keep this from her mother. Wow. Of course I would help her, the only question was how? We decided that the best thing would be for her to stay with Audney for a while. It wouldn't be at all strange for Audney to turn up with a baby. Erin returned home with her mother, and James and I left as early as possible. 'walked to Baby's father - Alderac 'walked to clue to how Erin got pregnant without knowing about it - ended up at Fiona and Mandor's apartment, and talked to them over breakfast. Most likely, Erin had shapeshifted into me, and my personality took over - ack! I trumped Audney just as she was leaving Minch's. I went to them, and brought them up to date on Alderac's peccadillo. Then Lane left to report in. So I brought Audney to Discworld for "girltalk." Actually, to tell her of her halfsister's problem. Erin came to DW, gathered entire group, including Morgan, Michaela, Jacob, and James. Jacob insisted that he had to walk to pattern to be able to help us. I contacted Fiona, who made sure the he lived through the proces. Bottom line, we all wanted to stop Deylah's machinations. But we couldn't decide how best to proceed. We talked for quite a while. Eventually, Erin went to bed.

Episode the Next Avalon and family, w/ Audney, go back to her shadow to work on trump possibilities. Alderac is still sure we should kill her. Death is not the answer to everything! I kissed James on the cheeck, and went into another room to work on touch or glance activated trumps, and trump traps. James came in after a while, wondering if Alderac had ever accomplished anything without bloodshed. I spoke to him for a while about my ideas, then set to work to make a basic trump trap. The instant activation was the part giving my trouble, so I put off worrying about that until I was sure I could make the trap in the first place. With breaks for affection, taking care of Erin, sleep and food, I spent the next four days working on it. the cover image is of a garden, goes to a white padded room. works well, and in abyss, cannot trump the captive out point out to Erin that the ultimate goal is to make a trump trap that immediately triggers, not allowing time for the captive to avoid the contact. spend another 4 days making the second test trump, this one to a pocket shadow in which logrus, pattern, trump, or any kind of sorcery don't work, and beings must be in their normal form. Time would pass half as quickly as in DiscWorld. On the morning of the third day, I found Erin asleep in Gawaine's arms on the porch. Apparently she was out there upset the previous night, and cried herself to sleep on him. Maybe she's found someone to lean on? During lunch, talk to Tower for a while. It is sentient. Than I go back to work on the trump trap. Alderac couldn't get out, James could with primal chaos, although it was really hard for him to do it. He released primal chaos, destroying the pocket shadow. When he did, his trump got hot. As Gawaine trumps him back, the trump trap shatters. James looked like he's been through the wringer. He was okay, just tired. Most likely, Deylah would be able to release primal chaos, too. So the next version will have to be a primal plane, as well. Except for James' "Ace in the hole," James wouldn't be able to get out. He was exhausted, so I tucked him into bed, then returned to the common room. After speaking to everyone else for a bit, discussing the needed changes in the next trump, I started for my room. Almost without knowing that I did, I stopped outside James' door. I didn't want to be away from him, even to sleep. So I crawled into his bed with him. He was so tired, he didn't seem to notice. I almost fainted when my nightgown touched his bare skin. That would explain why I hadn't noticed any of his nightclothes - he doesn't wear them. I can't describe how lovely it felt to sleep next to him. I woke up with his arms around me. I wasn't sure if I wanted James to wake up before I left or not. But I did know that I had a lot of work ahead of me. So I squirmed out of bed without waking him and went to have breakfast. I don't think I completly stopped blushing all morning. James came down about half way through breakfast. I was hard to concentrate on my food once he was there - I couldn't stop thinking about how his body felt against me. Gawaine and Erin apparently spent the night under the stars - they didn't come in for breakfast. Thankfully, Alderac didn't seem to be upset by this. Jacob helped him make a stone fairy ring, and he summoned Abyssal fairies to entertain Erin. I'm glad she feels comfortable with him. I wonder if she is a comforted by his arms as I am by James'? Oh, my, just thinking about being in James' arms fills me with feelings I don't know how to describe. I don't know if I'm pleased or dissappointed that I must concentrate on making trumps, rather than exploring my growing feelings for James. After breakfast, I went to work on trump trap gamma. This would be the same as beta, but a pattern primal plan. James nor Alderac could get out of it. And, I couldn't detect that it was a trump trap and not a normal trap. So, after a good nights sleep, I get to work to try to make a touch activated trump. It takes a week of work to get what I think will be a functional touch-activated trump of Discworld. during this week, I've been sleeping with James. The trump works well, but sets up a recursive trump loop once in DiscWorld. this happens through anything, but Alderac realizes that if it's in a large envelope, can hand it to someone, like Deylah. dreams, dream warning about Minch, try to make a trump sketch of her, but fail. Wake up to Erin fixing a huge breakfast. Gawaine got zapped trying to attune the trump to the abyss. He wants to try just dropping a trump into the abyss, to see how that works. After discussion over breakfast, Jacob storms off upset. I hellride after him, we talk for a while, then I return to DW. James, Alderac and I began sword practice. James is clearly the best of us, although either of them could beat me one handed. During the sparring, Audney, Avalon and her family trumped through. We gathered everyone together to bring them up to date. Alderac left to check on Jacob, and came back without him. When he described the conversation to us, Audney went into shadow after Jacob. After a short while, Audney and Jacob came back. She and Alderac started talking, and were about to get into quite a fight. Erin suggested a picnic, and everyone decided to join her. When Audney came out to join us, Alderac walked off into shadow. While playing with Michaela, I started thinking about having my own baby. Then I thought about how I would do that, and blushed so much everyone noticed. Absolutely everyone had to make some sort of comment! But that's okay, it was all in good fun, and it seemed to help Jacob feel more a part of the group. After a while, Jacob followed Alderac. They came back together, and Alderac apologized find out that Audney has hired Minch to get proof that Deylah was the cause of the fall of Fallstaff. I got to work on the trump trap ring, having others sleep for me. It's like the others, but with a 1 to 1 time differential. After 4 days, Avalon has made more normal rings, and I've made the trump trap ring. I managed to suck the sleep out of everyone by the time I was done. Then I and James retired for a good night's sleep while Alderac and everyone prepares for the ceremony in which Alderac will name Jacob his heir. should we trust the message in my dream is the question I ask the trumps. very hazy, only major arcana - in the related to the who is Oberon's card. Gawaine brings Erin to his "safe place," then we all go to Beladin for the ceremony. James and I are assigned quarters together. I wear an outfit that lets me hide my pattern sword under it. Alderac has a cow that Osric is in attendance. Osric was at fault, takes the trump trap ring and splits. can't trump, to far, can't trump from cephas, blocked, trump Audney, bring her through, she flys to chaos, then we follow. Audney kills Osric, but before he dies, he looks totally suprised, like he doesn't know what's going on. Deylah used high compelling to bring James out of his primal form, then audney carried lane and I carried James to the House Barimen medical building. Lena Barimen and Minch both made nice with Daylah - something stinks here, and I'm sure it starts with Daylah. Once James is feeling better, we decide to return home. Trump to Cephas with James and Audney, she trumps to Amber, we trump to DiskWorld for the night. Trump Alderac, trump Audney, bring her through give her my trump of Cephas, so she can return to Chaos. Before she leaves, we try to trump erin, Gawaine draws us through, Erin delivers a baby girl, Samantha. I go back to DW, to spend the night with James, with the time diff such that only an hour will pass in Avalon's shadow. When James wakes, we go to visit samantha. per Alderac's request, bring Erin and jacob to speak to him. that didn't go well. Morgan tells Avalon about my comment about starting a family - i fling napkin at his head, and we all end up bantering back and forth. Avalon and Erin reccomend motherhood. Morgan reccomends making them :) speak to alderac by trump, then chat w/Corwin, Gawaine and Erin. Eventually go to room w/James wake up to trump from Audney, bring her and lane through, she's made another deal with Minch!!!! Go play w/babies to cheer them up. tell avalon why she's so down. Michael comes in. I leave w/James to hellride to a new body for Michael. When james asked if he could come with I said "oh, oh, break my heart," sarcastically and he responded "Not in this lifetime." then we got horse-type beasties from Avalon, she temporarily dropped the barriers to pattern, and we began to hellride towards an appropriate body for Michael. pause to speak to alderac, then take off again. go into increasingly high tech shadows, change to a car, go to michael looking coma patient. Trump Morgan, james keeps the body alive long enough for us to be brought through, michael inhabits it. Alderac was already there, and once the other women join us, Alderac speaks to all of us. spend a few days in avalon's shadow. James proposed!!