Amber, Day 1

Dear Diary,

Must tell you everything about my highly interesting day—well, maybe not so interesting. Prior to departure and after bidding my mother a long and emotional farewell, I took my place as Diplomatic Attaché to Lord Fisbun. My traveling companions are two gentlemen, also students to Fisbun. They go by the names of Puck and Tremere. I consider Puck to be a rather talkative fellow, and is quite likable. Tremere is a little on the quiet side, and he seems to have an air of true nobility about him, and I couldn’t tell why.

There was not a whole lot to take along by means of luggage—although I carry a deck of Trumps with me. I have seriously considered destroying Aunt Lucretia’s and my cousin Lucinda’s trump—but I won’t go there.

Amber is not at all like I thought It would be. The landscape and scenery is not too much unlike Chaos or Shadow Earth. A discernible difference is that here in Amber, we assume a human form. Shape shifting is something I do sorely need to practice!

We were met in Forest Arden and escorted to Castle Amber. Almost the entire Royal Family was there to meet us. There was King Random, who certainly did not look like a king. He seemed so—young, would probably be a word for it.

I’ll admit to being nervous when introduced—sweaty palms and a fear of falling flat on my face, but I remembered my lessons and did as I was told and I did well. Fisbun was actually impressed. You know you did well when Fisbun doesn’t say anything to you.

We were introduced to all the royals of Amber and their children. Lord Gerard presented his daughter, Victoria, and Lord Bleys presented his son, Jordan. Oh, I actually felt the little tingles go up and down my spine! He’s rather handsome, for an Amberite. When he took my hand in greeting, my heart was suddenly a flutter! But on the down side, I could tell that he could probably have cared less about being there. If anything, he was bored by all the proceedings as was everyone else. It was a chore to them, and it just as quickly turned into a chore to me. Lord Julian had quickly excused himself as did Lord Caine, who expressed wishes to return to his ship.

There was a glorious ball, and would have had fun—if I was ever asked to dance. I even was around Jordan, who was hanging out at the hors d’evoures table, hoping he would be gentlemanly enough to ask a lady to dance, but it never happened. But he did stick up for my honor when his father Bleys and a couple of lords had begun to tell dirty jokes in front of me, as if I were not there. Dinner was exquisite, yet uneventful. Lord Fisbun and King Random have retired to the music room to further discuss diplomatic matters.

Overall, I’m not all that impressed with Amber. I can feel the tenseness of the people and I feel unwanted. I don’t think that the Amberites want us here. King Random had mentioned earlier about our position here, and how being of pure lineage from Chaos was important to our positions as diplomats, and I became nervous. I wanted to discuss it with Lord Fisbun. I’m not sure if he knows about me and my so-called lineage. I shall speak to him about it in the morning.

Jaylena

Amber, Day 2

Dear Diary,

I have the worst, saddening news. Lord Fisbun has been murdered. I don’t know how it happened, and I don’t know what to do. I discovered him this morning, slain in his bed. My screams brought Lady Flora running. When she discovered my quandary, she suddenly became so callused and so insensitive! She acted as if it were a quite common occurrence and simply turned up her nose and walked away! I was appalled. But Lord Benedict took over to investigate the matter. He proclaimed that it had to be some kind of inside job, since the killer would have had to have gotten by Lord Julian and himself in order to pull off their dirty deed. I went with Jordan and Victoria to begin an investigation of our own. I didn’t have to call my associates from their breakfast, since lady Flora took care of that for me in her own way, from what I was told.

We began investigating. Long and tedious, I’d call it. We had a brief talk with King Random, who hit the roof at the news, but had no leads for us. We did a room to room search, but that proved futile, and even embarrassing as I tried to exert my shape shifting abilities, and didn’t do so well. Tremere would change into a blood hound to try and pick up a scent, and I tried shifting into an eagle, known for their sharp and keen eyesight. I hadn’t had enough practice at it, I guess, because when I tried to fly up to a rafter for a better vantage point, my wings decided not to work and I humiliatingly flopped around on the floor. Victoria thought I was dying. Jordan was quiet, however. I have never been so humiliated! Thankfully, Puck came to my rescue and picked me up, saving me from any more humiliation. I really have to work on my shape shifting abilities!

And then as if I hadn’t run myself ragged already, we found a trump—a quite powerful one—in the dungeon of Amber. Two of them, to be exact. These two are legendary! Puck had found and old coot named Dworkin when he went through one. When the rest of us followed, Dworkin was nowhere to be found. All we found was a pattern right outside his front door.

Our investigation of Fisbun’s death has proven fruitless here in Amber. I’ve already trumped Mother, letting her know that I am about to return. She knows to hide me from my aunt Lucretia, and has agreed to let me stay with her for a while. I almost can’t wait to go home.

Dear Diary,

Maybe coming home was not such a great idea after all. No, I don’t mean trouble in court with my aunt, who thankfully doesn’t know that I’ve been home. I’m meaning trouble of another kind. We hadn’t even left Forest Arden yet when we were attacked by a creature of Chaos. It was huge and ugly! Puck, Tremere and myself valiantly fought the beast, using our true Chaos forms. Victoria and Jordan also joined our fight, and Jordan got hurt. That made me mad! But we were the victorious ones in the end and even with the help of a new friend who goes by the name of Farrell, who just happens to be Julian’s son. Interesting. I wondered why he wasn’t at the castle before? Oh, well! He had joined out cause and is going to join his cousins in their quest.

Upon returning to Chaos, I was in for a few surprises. Tremere is King Merlin’s son—no one ever tells me these things! And in continuing our investigation, members from the Chaos House Baneray ambushes us. So not only do I have to worry about my relatives, who know by now that I’m back, but now I have an entire house of the court to contend with! A few Lords from Amber had shown up just in time to save us from them.

The only good news came the other night when Puck had a near-miss with being murdered in his own bed. We now know who Fisbun’s murderer is—Lord Caine of Amber!

In other news, King Random has asked Puck, Prince Tremere and myself back to Amber to take over the duties of Ambassador in Lord Fisbun’s stead. We have readily agreed and are headed back over to Amber as soon as possible.

One Month Later, Castle Amber

Dear Diary,

"Sigh!" It has been a long and uneventful month here in Amber. I speak to Mother once every so often, and I have done well in resisting the temptation to go abusing my diplomatic powers and go searching for my father. All I know is that he is an Amberite, which makes me a half-breed. I’m alright with this, I’d suppose. It’s not exactly a bad thing, but it’s not all that good, either. I was raised in Chaos, I have Chaos abilities, and I will stay true to my heritage. But I can’t help in being extremely curious. I can’t help but wonder what he could possibly be like? What if he were one of the Lords of the castle? How would they react? What if King Random were my father? I know that couldn’t be—could it? I wish Mother would just tell me! Then I wouldn’t have to deal with all the questions I ask myself all day. It almost seems like every man I meet that could be old enough to be my father, I start asking myself "Could that be him?" The suspense is killing me! But I did make a promise to Mother that I would not go looking!

In other matters of the heart, Jordan still has not even looked my way once! Just the other day, he and Victoria were practicing swordplay in the garden. I was there to watch, as was Farrel. Jordan had lost, and got a scratch on his arm. I knew that’s all it was, but I rushed to his side to see if I could be of any help, and all I got was the brush off! (Sigh) Lord Benedict is on to me, I guess, but it’s little I care! It ain’t pretty being me! The day was uneventful. I don’t think I do so well with affairs of the heart. I guess I get that from my mother—or maybe that’s father. One of these days, I’ll find out, I swear! But I have gained a new trump to add to my deck of Farrell. I’m seriously debating on whether or not to "lose" two trumps in particular—I’m never known to use them, since mother gave them to me. I would suppose they were hers at one time and she never used them either! I haven’t the slightest idea as to why my aunt and cousin dislike me so—maybe because of something Mother said or did, or because of my Father—let’s not go there!

Speaking of there, we’ve been invited to go to City of Amber. Lord Bleys wanted to meet with Jordan—spend some of that Father/son time, would be my guess, but he actually invited all of us. This shall prove to be interesting—maybe! Well, let’s find out, shall we?

Dear Diary,

A mysterious figure had shown up to the castle, known as Lord Corwin. This is where things began to get confusing for me. As it turns out, Lord Corwin is Prince Tremere’s grandfather! Go fig!

Had a great time in the City of Amber. I stopped in at fortune teller’s tent, just for the fun of it, but got some pretty spooky readings instead. Something about someone coming back from the dead, the serpent’s eye being the key, and that there is more to oblivion that meets the eye, and some other spooky stuff I’m sure I’m not remembering at this time. But when I had a private reading of my own, it wasn’t exactly news I would have liked to have heard, but half expected it—I have a wonderfully long life line, she said, but said she saw a break in it—whatever that’s supposed to mean—she seemed to be awfully troubled by the whole thing, but I wasn’t. She also said that my love line is very strong and deep, but not very long. She didn’t have much of an explanation for it. Oh, well!

Later in the day we stopped at Bloody Sam’s, where we were supposed to meet Lord Bleys, but he never showed. The only thing that showed was his pinkie, that was mailed to Jordan. (Spe-ew!) As it turned out, House Baneray was behind it, and we chased them over to Shadow Earth. I didn’t like that. I get bitchy when I travel by Logrus! Jordan had given me quite a scare when he attempted to trump his father and couldn’t get through. Something was blocking his call, causing pain. I’ve never seen that happen to anybody before. It just about scared the hell out of me, but I kept my head and composure and was concentrated at the task at hand. Bleys was being held prisoner in an absolutely huge house! It was creepy! But we had no problem in successful taking out three more members of the Baneray clan. Hopefully, they’ll stay quiet for a while and give us some peace! When we found Bleys, he was a mess! We had to fight a big ugly demon-thing to get out of there, and we had to blind the thing just to do it. Tremere successfully transported Bleys and himself out, and the rest of us had to fight our way out and meet them by the outer gate.

And just when things couldn’t possibly get worse, Jordan gets a trump call that reveals that King Random is missing! Pardon my Thari, but this sucks! We’ve high-tailed it for Amber already, and the Elder Amberites have been in that library for over an hour, discussing what is to be done about his disappearance. It has been determined that if Fiona couldn’t find him, then no one could! Surprisingly to me, Tremere has been asked to sit in on the meeting, seeing that Corwin is his grandfather. Puck is not here, so I am by myself, feeling very awkward and left out. The servants seem to eye me very suspiciously, making me quite self-conscious. I can hear voices get loud, but I can’t make out what’s being said.

Oh, I really do wish I was in there! I hate suspense! But with Random gone, there’s most likely going to be yet another war for the throne—I’m not stupid! There goes the neighborhood! And there goes my job! Puck will come back unemployed! Maybe this does not have to be a bad thing. Fisbun is gone, my job as ambassador is as good as gone, and I certainly can’t be bothered with holding my own in court back home. Watching my back every second with cousin Lucinda is a full-time profession, let me assure you. Aunt Lucretia would just love to get her grimy mitts on me! I am what stands in the way of her getting control of House Millithor, and then who knows what havoc she could wreak if she were turned loose in the main Court! But thankfully enough, I don’t have to worry about her for the moment. I do, however, have to worry about my current employment status.

Now that my job has become null and void, I have decided to just forget the promise I made to Mother and go searching for Father anyway. Mother, dear, please forgive me! I just hope you can understand, and that the temptation, I fear, is far too great. I probably don’t realize what I’m getting myself into, and I probably haven’t the faintest notion of what the consequences could be, and my logical self is practically screaming at me not to do it, but my heart is begging me. I feel as if it has something to do with my destiny, somehow.

Here goes nothing!