Charity's Diary

There and back again

I stood at the centre of the pattern, the coruscating arc winding its way outwards fencing me off from my colleagues standing at the rim. Beside me were Allaghan and Alfred. Sorcha didn't want to walk the pattern, but I knew she wanted to join us on our trip. I had a sudden flash of inspiration that she might be able to join us by the use of trump, and was most startled when this was accompanied by a real "flash" as Allaghan decided to use the pattern to go somewhere else entirely.

He obviously had "issues" of his own to deal with - probably to do with his family. No matter. I sensed that our impending trip would call for subtlety and patience rather than brute force. So, I turned my attention to Sorcha. Having confirmed that she did indeed want to join us, I warned her that I was going to initiate trump contact. Like soft putty, her mind opened up before my mental probe, and I dragged her through the trump portal. Onwards we went - to Deirdre's Tower of Elysium - to answers and the problems they brought.

Once there, we soon discovered she had been given the first half of the book of Selheim, by Dworkin himself. Unfortunately she had almost immediately given it to Cordelia, who had trumped there while we were onboard ship, en route to Carnelian, some time earlier. But almost as soon as we had been told this, Cordelia turned up. She was surprisingly helpful, considering the nature of our parting - perhaps I misjudged her.

After a forgettable discussion, we went to find Dworkin in something called "Undershadow" - which was like shadow, only undefined / mutable. Access was through a sorcerous incantation inscribed on the top of the jewel which glowed at the peak of the tower. It took all our mental strength (funnelled through Alfred ) to incant the ritual, but it was ultimately quite successful.

It was only then, once in the darkness of undershadow, that I noticed a feather in Cordelia's aura. This, I guessed was a by-product of her incident with Corwin's pattern-ghost and the Phoenix (Abner). We made slow, tedious progress, passing nothing except two way-markers, upon which, or some inexplicable reason, I placed a bloody handprint. Perhaps I hoped that we might come about full circle. There was a shadowy village in the distance which we studiously ignored! Finally we were at our destination, a twisted, dark castle. After walking the streets of this empty citadel, filled with peculiar parodies of reality we came to a hall, within which a small dark shadowy creature leapt about in a maniacal fashion, knocking us back when we attempted to approach a still figure sat on a throne at the end of the hall. Making a connection between undershadow and her dream/vision, I suggested Cordelia went forward. Luckily for us (as we were becoming more and more bruised in our attempts) she was granted access. The corpse from the throne became Dworkin, and arose and after a hesitant conversation allowed us to have the second part of book. He was, admittedly, quite verbose for a dead person. He said he'd died at the hands / claws of Tiamat the dragon, which in hindsight, explained blood at base of Deirdre's tower, and presumably left there as he visited her. To be brief, we returned to the tower. Dworkin was happy to remain and browse through shadow. He said that death wasn't the end, but that if we died in undershadow, it would be!

Back at Deirdre's tower we began to read extracts from both parts of the book, which eventually gave us the clue to repair the pattern and bind Rodian. It wasn't an easy read. The details of the book, I will not refer to even here, but the result of the information we gained caused our separation again.

I entered the abyss to speak with the power there and receive guidance. It told me that I needed the Chalice and Sword of Ygatheran to extract the blood in order to complete the re-binding ritual. This was backed by what I remembered from the book.

Meanwhile the others went to Ygg to ask it (cos of it's name, of course) where the chalice and sword were. It (metaphorically) pointed them in the direction of Drassil, the branch which had been planted by Corwin at Carnelian, a long time ago.

After a brief return to Deirdre (and learning that it would be an age before we could meet up again) I returned to the abyss, from which I went to the Courts of Chaos to fill them in on the situation. It was, typically, not the most friendly of reception, especially as they were still recovering from the war with the black road creatures, and the fact that I had just emerged from (nearly) the same place!.

Chaperoned by Duke Saywall to the Courts King, Merlin, he at least saw sense, though everyone else seemed a bit cagey about the whole affair. From there, we went to Carnelian to speak to Drasil. It was less then helpful, so we diverted our energies to find the sword and chalice, equally to no avail, through using the pattern to scrye, I could confirm that it wasn't in the Keep of the Thirteenth hour - it was lucky I had closely examined the trump portrait in Deirdre's tower. I also confirmed, around that time, that I had been kept prisoner in the dungeon at Castle Amber when I was being interrogated by Brand.

The others, having popped outside Castle Carnelian to trump Coral (while the 13th hour was in effect), returned with the knowledge that her trump indicated she was dead. Though alive, Corwin simply didn't want to answer Cordelia's trump call. We were beginning to feel a little despondent and confused. We believed we had all the information we needed to succeed, but lacked that spark, that initiative to decide on a course of action.

We had several problems.

We needed the Chalice and Blade of Ygatheran to gather the goods from the manifestations of the major powers, but they were supposedly in the Keep of the 13th hour (a bit dangerous - possibly too dangerous). We also needed the Jewel of judgement. But that was in Coral's eye, and she couldn't be found. We may have been able to reach her through Corwin, but that wasn't an easy route, what with the 13th hour and all.

Finally, we decided to check up on Coral, and walked to the centre of the Pattern again, and used it, through Cordy's trump of Coral, to travel there instantly. We didn't like what we saw, nor did we like the nature of the shadow we were in! She was dead; her head and jewel removed and extracted (in that order!), and we were pretty much stuck there. In a times twenty shadow, where trump didn't work and various other things too. I had my suspicions (or rather I hoped) that it was all a ruse, to throw everyone of her scent. But as we investigated it was becoming more and more irrefutable that Brand had got the final jewel, and was returning to the Keep to try and release Rodian.

Things were getting tricky.

Again!