1. Hannah has noticed that her Amber family is very obsessed with bloodlines and genealogy. She doesn't have a parent who acknowledges her. What does she make of her position in the family and how the lack of a parent changes it?

It is good in that it gives her no association with bad things. Brennan always seems like he's got something to prove. Ossian takes a lot of crap for being Brand's student. She doesn't have any of that. At worst, she'll end up getting associated with Gerard, she figures, and she just can't see how that'd hurt her. It lets her be a little more of her own woman, she hopes. On the other hand, there is no one to go to for help, really. She's going to be dependant on the kindness of strangers for everything until she can either get set up with a practice or do this Patternwalking so she can control her world-walking. That's uncomfortable at best. At worst...

Amoung the tribes she'd find someone to adopt her. That's how her father became Omaha - the chief adopted him. No one has a vested interest in protecting her, and she's realizing really fast she needs protection. Some cousin got stabbed by one of these older ones. This Corwin person got his eyes burned out. There may be a few ways to get that protection, but some of them she won't consider. She can see the ways of her people don't all translate here. Maybe someone will offer to make her a ward, but she wants to be considered her own person, not a child. She really is lost as to what to do about it. Just get by, she supposes.

Of course, Hannah does have a parent that acknowledges her – her father. She does not care what these people think of legitimacy or linage - she had their pride in what she knew of hers before she ever arrived here. In the end, she is a woman raised with all the rights and responsibilities of a princess. She has watched death wash over her tribe more than once in the way of disease - she's seen what happened to her Ponca cousins when they were forced to leave their ancestral lands. She hasn't ever felt particularly safe since she was old enough to understand. Amber, and this family, is only disconcerting in that she has not yet been able to fully evaluate the threat and understand it.

2. If Hannah finds that following the unicorn was a one-way trip, what will she miss most about her home shadow? What will she miss least? Is there anything from Amber she would like to take home?

Hannah has a relationship with that land - and it's spirit. When she couldn't stop people from dying, when she couldn't get her husband to stay, when everything else was going wrong the land spirit was still there, had always been, and would always be. If she could never go back, that's what she'd miss the most, and there'd be a period of mourning for it. The people, the songs, the spring, it's all tied together in that. All her ancestors... her people. Her people, who are the walking moving talking spirit of the land.

Of course, it's frustrating being the doctor to a people who are busy losing their identity. There's so much hopelessness. It's a fight to get people to try. It's a fight to get people to just listen. She won't miss writing letters to the Bureau, never getting an answer, or just the excuses, she won't miss the racism, on both sides. But more than anything she'll not miss watching the faces of the young men every year during hunting season, knowing they're no longer allowed to hunt the buffalo.

So far, she'd be happy to take home Random's drums for her brother to play with. Actually, I think she'd take the fire labyrinth. Maybe it's not in Amber, but that's what she'd like.

3. What does Hannah think the consequences will be if she is unable to cure Gerard?

For her: It depends on if people decide it's her job to do so. Could be dangerous for her not to. I don't think the 'kids' would go after her, although they might decide to hate her if she declares him unfixable, and takes his side against them about 'high-technology solutions'. The older ones, his siblings, are obviously more dangerous, and although no one has made any threats yet, she's certainly slightly worried about it. She'd be unhappy, of course, if she couldn't cure him. It's also mean treating a chronic condition involving what is likely to be accelerating pain with drugs the patient likely repeatedly develops a high tolerance for.

For Vere: He doesn't get to get married, unless someone can talk some sense into him.

For Gerard: Presuming the kids didn't pressure him into doing something extreme, it would probably eventually lead to his death. You can't live forever under that kind of stress. Hundreds of years, maybe, but not forever. Either the drugs stop working and the pain is incredible and slowly drives him insane or to suicide, or the drugs keep working but they eat at his internal organs. Amputation would probably be unavoidable, and in fact, the wisest course, but that's not going to fix his pelvis. He'd never be able to walk the Pattern or travel again. He'd be a big bear in a small cage. Then there is that whole issue with his wife.

But perhaps more realistically, we've got Vere and Solange putting all kinds of 'get better' pressure on him. If Hannah says there is no way to fix this so you can walk the Pattern or travel in Shadow, he may very well take Solange's crazy nano-fix, if it will work in Amber or Xanadu, just so Vere will get married and Solange will get her life back. That still leaves a big bear in a small cage. But it's better to be walking in the cage than not, I suppose. It might also be a short term fix. Hannah has a limited tolerance for technology. She'd trust her magic first.

For the Kingdom, wherever that may be: Crazy Gerard is not a good Gerard. They're going to lose his capacity to make clear and helpful judgment calls while they find new pain meds and get him switched over. If he's incurable, they'd lose that long term to the pain fog or drug side-effects. Losing Gerard is not good. Crazy Gerard is probably worse.

4. In their relationship to the physical and spiritual worlds, how are her Amber relatives like and unlike her tribe and the white people of her homeland?

She's surprised that the Amber relatives do seem to be in tune with magic, which implies a better understanding of the spiritual world to Hannah, but it may be that they simply do magic differently - in a 'technical' way. They honor the Unicorn properly, even to the point of calling her their grandmother, so that's wonderful. Physically, she thinks the technology level may be holding back their progress and destruction of resources, but they do seem to fight as if they own the land. She considers that a problem, and a danger to her, because she'll serve the land, and the land never likes it when people start fighting over it.

Although they seem to be about to abandon the land. She can't imagine, really can't ~ she wants to go home so badly, deep down, to make sure they're alright. It's like leaving a child behind, for her.

These relatives can, of course, travel worlds. She doesn't think they often, if ever, do that through themselves - at least, she's seen no evidence of it. To her that seems like a disconnect. So while they travel physical worlds, perhaps they do not explore the spiritual side. At least, that's how it seems right now. She would love to learn differently.

The white people, who she could often walk amoung, hear what they had to say when they thought they were only with their own kind, she doesn't equate the family too much with them. Lucas's apparent ownership of his wife, yes, that will remind her, but more or less she now counts the relatives as a cousin tribe. She would like to find her place amoung them and see what they say when they think they're only with their own kind.

5. Pick any three Amber relatives Hannah has met. What does she find interesting about them? What does she find uninteresting about them?

(They're all interesting!)

Ossian - Hannah really likes Ossian. He's an artist, and to her art is an expression of nature, no matter what it's form. In that he must be quiet and thinking and connecting. He also seems unafraid to do whatever *he* thinks he should be doing, whatever appearances make those things look like. She has no idea what he sees in Lucas, but she's not thinking to terribly hard about that.

Martin - his reaction to Solace reminds her of her father. That intensity he seems to have even when he's being light. She's very interested in freeing him up from his defensive stance (that's how she sees it.) Plus, there is that whole 'son of the King dressed like a farmer' part. Frank sometimes dressed like a farmer - when he was farming. Not when he was doing *anything* else. So that has her very curious. Is it a rejection of rank, or something else?

Lucas - Hannah wants to pigeon-hole him more than she's ever wanted to stereotype anyone, but still, she's too smart to make him quite fit the peg. She doesn't *like* him, but she can't quite hate him. He seems to love his wife, even though he's a weapon against her and seems to be making only the slightest effort to avoid hurting her. Hope seems too healthy to be a neglected child, and she would be a neglected child if Lucas were nothing but a self-centered French Mignon (which Mel tells me in slang means spoiled pleasure brat.) He's interesting, anyway.

6. List up to ten quirks Hannah has.

1 - She hates words that combine complex concepts into a single derogatory word or phrase. Since she believes words can have power, she tries to avoid saying them.

2 - She always wakes up facing the east. It's part of a morning ritual in her household and she has *never* not done it. She has moved beds around at times to accomplish this. There a quite a few little rituals worked into, everything. It's part of how she worships.

3 - She hates wearing shoes that aren't some sort of lined leather. She can do it, and ignore it, but first chance she gets they're coming off. Given no restrictions, she'd wear nothing but pretty-beaded moccasins all the time.