Charity's Diary

Patterns, Permutations, and Procrastinations.

This interminable journey is becoming intolerable. Curse Allaghan for his sword hunting. Curse Alfred for his ineffectualness. Curse Sorcha for relying on the mundanes. We should be better than this! We are the stuff of reality. We are the spawn of pattern and chaos; we should not act like the flotsam of shadow and rely on trinkets and effects to help us reach our goal!

Alfred continues to fail to prove his worthiness of the title Prince of Amber. Our passage continues its crawl mostly due to his ongoing injuries from the Rodian creatures.

Their continuing reliance on my knowledge and skills is, I'm sure, as irritating to them as it is to myself. This, unfortunately will continue to the inner sanctum of Castle Amber, our first port of call, to try and determine some shred of a clue as to the story (and any meat still clinging to it) of the Monk Selheim, his book, and the Seals which had been broken, etc. etc.

My desire to walk the pattern of Tir Na Nog'th may be misplaced, but I am restless in my impotence during the thirteenth hour. Why should I remain still and ineffectual? Should my Abyssal Taint really be the cause of my malcontent with that hour of peril? Will the ghost pattern accept me, and what will happen when I set foot on its path? I am running out of options.

Sorcha, I am still unsure of. Her motives are shady and her past unspoken of. She is certainly of some use to our quest, as she has skill and knowledge of the "arts", but her arrival on the scene; naked and battered is so unlike our own, strikes me as questionable, and ill-explained.

And finally: Allaghan. Is he truly as one-dimensional as he really seems? I hope so, as this would mean his future is certain.

Now we four are one, perhaps some headway and clearance can be made. We have a potential new plan which does not include me, as they hope to wander the castle during the thirteenth hour, hopefully unseen. I will help as best I can. It would be unseemly and dangerous to do otherwise. In their absence I might visit the ghost pattern (but I may be spotted if I travel by air) and it is a long way.

I suppose I may as well investigate the sea caves, mermaid-style I think. Someone out there is trying the same thing we are. That could pose a problem as our plans might clash. I might suggest it to the "team". They may relish a bit of extra firepower should the plan go pear-shaped.

Speaking of pear-shaped - my colleagues seem to have a penchant to leaving rented domiciles in ruins. Twice so far have our hotel rooms been trashed! They do seem to be following Sorcha (and Alfred?) could it be her sword (which though I haven't examined it fully, it certainly does seem to emanate a great deal of power).

And speaking of shapes in general, I must start trying to attempt that trick Cordelia (I wonder how she is?) did with her armour. Changing shadow items to suit one's surroundings seems invaluable when crossing the infinite plains of shadow. Venture, my horse, has proven quite invaluable, but really could do with "tweaking". I shall devote some personal time to this matter.

If only the others would stop asking me stupid questions.

Maybe I should start lying more.