Log Nineteen
At the beginning of the session:
Jessica was in Corwin's Amber, having just been beaten up by Corwin for suggesting that William was the product of an incestuous relationship between himself and Dierdre. Aneirin was just completing the last steps of Corwin's Pattern, preparatory to finding his father. Bronwyn and Moradin were recuperating together. Of the Elders, Hazard had her mind on other stuff, because she was still bothered by her dreams of the future, and they were bleak. Fiona and Julian were plotting minor intrigues together, Benedict was off in Shadow, killing things for fun, and contemplating marrying Hazard. Gerard was seemingly trying to drink himself to death, with Lord Rein as company, and Flora was thinking about whether pink was this year's brown.
Quotes from the session.
"Always be sincere, whether you mean it or not." Hazard
"Work is never finished, only abandoned." Hazard
"Don't get him upset. He's feeling good right now." Benedict's doctor
"That's because he was feeling Hazard five minutes ago" William
"I have an excuse. I'm pregnant. You have no excuse for being a cowardly bastard." Bronwyn to Corwin
APOLOGY COUNT1, from Corwin to Jessica.
Jessica's begging that Corwin should come back made no appreciable impression on Corwin, who prefered to listen to his own daughter, Midnight, and stay where he was. For a while, Midnight and Corwin were led a fine dance by each other through Shadow, until arriving back at his Amber, Corwin found his son, Aneirin, waiting for him, bearing the same sort of generally gloomy portents that Jessica had given him. Corwin had to back down and apologise, officially, at least, to Jessica. Corwin agreed to vacate the Pattern, and brought his daughter Midnight along, but had to leave his wife Lorraine behind. He assumed he would be able to get back.
They returned to find that hardly any time had passed since they had left. Hazard pitched up for a moment to say hi, and teleported them back to the castle. She then Trumped Brand who borrowed the Jewel of Judgement from her and erased Corwin's Pattern.
Corwin, who knew what was happening, but could not stop it, ws rather peeved, and decided that as he was back here, he might as well rule here instead of his Amber. Random was still missing, presumed very missing indeed, so he could declare himself Regent. At this point, life gets complicated. It is known that Julian gave his support to Bronwyn and Aneirin, as he hated Corwin but didn't mind the youth, and Bron was the official heir, with Random missing. Bronwyn was in fact more interested in the males in the castle, from Josh the doctor upwards, but mainly with Moradin. Fiona was behind Aneirin as cowardly, Bronwyn as trainable, Hazard as intelligent, and William as Dierdre's, and possibly official, if not legitimate.
The night that Corwin got back, Bronwyn got rather drunk, and was showing off to her heroine, Hazard. Corwin made some nasty remark, and Bronwyn insulted him, for which he challenged her to a duel. As she had no second, Benedict offered to stand as such. Moradin started keeping book, and Aneirin was the only one to put a bet on for Bronwyn. Hazard had in fact dreamed about this happening - the destruction of the second Pattern had in fact made her second sight worse, until visions were with her almost constantly. She had been the one to tell Benedict to stand up for Bronwyn, and he had agreed for his darling niece, who would have done it herself otherwise and been seriously hurt. That night, Hazard gave Bronwyn more to drink than was good for her, and Bronnie accidently got thrown down a flight of stairs, breaking her arm in two places, and thus avoiding the duel.
The duel was in the morning and the meeting in the evening of the next day, and everyone was in the castle. Then, to add spice to things another heir pitched up. A girl, but older than Bronwyn, and definitely Random's. Her name was Fauna. She was brought into the castle late that night by Moradin, sent out by his big sister, whom he adores and obeys in all things. He picked her up and brought her back, and Fiona helped her through the Pattern that very night.
Meantime, something was rotten in the state of Denmark, so as to speak. William, the mad prince of Amber, was wondering where his alter ego had gone, and did it really matter that when he had been seeking for an astral cord to jump into the Abyss he had created his own nemesis? He had been having a late-night discussion with Benedict, Hazard, and Bleys, about the duel and what would happen on the morrow. He staggered out rather drunk, and met Gerard. He left his uncle and crawled towards his room, falling asleep on the stairs.
William dreamed. He dreamed he stood on a great cold plain, the colour of skin, and around him things he could not see or feel fought. He took out his Trump cards to try and escape, and when he brushed a speck off the one of him, which was looking more and more like Carrion every minute, something huge swept down from the sky and killed him. He woke sweating and screaming, and did not go back to sleep that night.
Hazard dreamed. Hazard saw the future again and again, in violent technicolour watching her own death, and watching the darkness come. She woke sweating also, but what can you do when the nightmares still come, and you are awake?
When William woke in the morning, he went out to the Courtyard to watch the duel, and by an amazing piece of timing, managed to get Corwin to tell him Benedict was a cripple, and the people would never have him as king, at the exact moment when Benedict came over to ask if the duel was really necessary. As a consequence of this, Benedict thrashed Corwin for a while, and took off his right hand at the same point Benedict's was missing. When Corwin tried to rush him from behind, he lost an eye as well.
At the end of the session, Corwin, thinking of vengeance, called the family together for the meeting. When called: Midnight was in floods of tears, Hazard was embroiled in another nightmare, William was smirking, having forgotten that Corwin was actually his father, Jessica was talking to Flora, and preening herself, and generally hoping for the throne, Fauna was talking about trees with Julian. Benedict was thinking about whether Corwin was really suitable. Gerard was getting drunk. Bronwyn was in the infirmary, Moradin had made a mint and Aneirin had made a profit, and Josh, the doctor, was trying not to respond to Bronwyn's flirting. He was not called to the meeting, but he does enter into the story later, so I put him in for continuity.
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