Alana's Journal

1^st April 2013

I'm back from my weekend of hiking and wild camping with Rory. Skinny dipping in freezing lochs is one thing, a hot bath is something else entirely.

As it's April Fools day I thought somebody was having a joke at my expense, until I examined the invite more thoroughly, and before I sat down to write you, and before Da told me he'd found it on the kitchen table when he got in on Friday night. He'd no idea of how it had got there as there were no signs of a break in.

The invite had been inside a sheet of folded parchment, the parchment folded so as to form an envelope, the corners sealed on the back with wax into which had been pressed some form of seal. Examining the seal I had found it to consist of a Phoenix displayed, with a Crown in the top right and a Rose in the bottom left. On the front, in inked Japanese style caligraphic script had been my name. There were no signs of any postmark or other indication that it had been through the postal or any other courier delivery system.

The invite inside was on heavy highgrade watermarked paper, in a mix of printed and hand written script.

"Alana MacFarlane you are here by invited as my personal guest to the Mizzurian Expo (May 2nd – 5th) and Grand Expo Ball (4th May 8:00pm)
As my personal guest you will be staying at my residence in Carnelian and all transfer to and from the Expo will be catered for.
I will be on hand to personally collect you at 12:20 pm on Monday 29th April.
Sincerely yours
Cordelia Chan
President and CEO Mizzurian Corporation
Please ensure you have this invitation with you on the day."

Other than the obvious, the first thing I noticed was that the paper on which the invite was written had been treated in some manner which made it feel a little more like plastic than paper. When I showed it to Kasamir he became really excited, "About time", was his comment which meant he had to then explain what he meant.

I shall have to do some serious reseach tomorrow mostly to verify some of the things Kasamir has said about Cordelia Chan, but for now I need some sleep, something I didn't get that much of over the weekend, which had sort of been the whole idea.

2^nd April 2013

Where do I start exactly?

Mizzurian? A huge multi-million dollar corporation, 67% owned by Cordelia Chan. A rags to riches games company that now owns a whole load of unrelated companies for reasons nobody appears to understand, and a Company that either is pulling the worlds biggest hoax, or is so far ahead of anything else in the world that they can't be from this world, which of course Cordelia Chan isn't according to Kasamir and I have no reason to doubt him after all he's shown me over the last few years.

Then there is Cordelia Chan herself. Other than a very obscure piece in Time magazine which doesn't really shed much light on who she is, there is nothing out there about her. In effect she's a modern Howard Hughs. Kasamir was more forth coming. She's an Amberite, the daughter of another Amberite called Tiberious, which makes her my cousin at least according to Kasamir. When she first arrived in the place he calls Amber, he was givin the job of keeping tabs on her, something he did until she acquired a dog which made his ability to do so un-noticed untenable. Whilst she was studious she seems to have been unremarkable, at least a far as he was concearned. However since the events that caused him to arrive here, that seems to have changed, and both her and her dog are now significantly different to when he was keeping tabs on her.

The question from this is why the sudden invite now given the apparent furory over the obtaining tickets to the Event? If Kasamir is correct and we're indeed cousins, making me somehow part of some nebulous trans-dimensional Royal Family, why now and not before. What has suddenly changed that causes a cousin I never knew I had to invite me to some event which to me represents a distraction from my exams and an expense I could do without. I don't think camo trousers and a t-shirt would cut it at such an event, and especially at this 'Ball' I'm expected to attend. Estate and Mountain Rescue functions appear to be on a different level to Kasamir's memory of such events, and I certainly can't afford a new dress with which to attend.

9^th April 2013

Today has been another strange day. A day of occurrances that cannot be coincidences and can only be in someway connected to me having received the invite, even if I can't for the life of me fathom how and why.

The odd occurrances started early, as did I, having decided to go into Oban to do some shopping. As I was getting ready to leave I received a cryptic message from Kasamir "We have a visitor, a shapeshifter with a very odd aura. It contains an element I do not recognise." When I looked at what he was seeing there was a large dog, maybe a wolf hound lying in the grass opposite the entrance to the center. The oddity was compounded by the fact that it had a sword on its back. Kasamir wanted to know if I wanted him to do anything about it. I thought for a while then said "No. lets see what they do. We need to know more about them." When I walked down the drive as if to go to the Bus Stop, I suddenly changed tack and ran towards the dog, which got up and bounded away. It definately had what looked like a Katana on its back, one which had an aura to it. I asked Kasamir to discretely keep an eye.

As I stood waiting for the bus Kasamir watched the dog as it covered the 2 miles back to where a Yammaha FZ1 with a custom paint job was parked. As I watched the dog turned back into the figure of a tall Asian girl with long black hair in red and black motorcycle leathers. Kasamir's comment at this point was interesting "She looks a bit like Princess Cordelia did when she first came to Amber". She them picked up the red motorcycle helmet which had a Tripple Ring motif on the side, like the one for the new online game Mizzurian were launching, from the handle bars and put it on. As she did so she remined me a little of the girl in the advert.

I catch the bus for Oban. After about a mile I notice that we're being followed by our  mysterious motorcyclist. When the bus stops at the next stop to take on passengers, she, rides past only to pull in about 500yds up the road and then fall in behind the bus once we start moving again. This happens twice more as the bus stops. After the third stop she disappears until we get to the bus station in Oban.

As I get off the bus I can see she's definately watching me, even with her visor down. Again as I sprinted towards her (you know what was I thinking),  she just drops the clutch on the bike and takes off in a screech of tyres and a cloud of smoke. Who ever she is she's good. I don't think I'd have been able to control a wheelie like that!

The rest of the day is quiet. I spend money I don't really have on a smart skirt, blouse, and jacket, then head home. Entering my room it's obvious somebody has been in here. The invite has been moved. This leaves the question as to exactly who is she. Yes she's an Amberite, at least according to Kasamir although that element of her aura that would mark her as human is different, and is the one he can't identify. Apart from being able to shapeshift, Kasamir also says she can use something called Trump not that I even understand what that is. It is also what marks the sword she carries as out of the ordinary.