The problem with maintaining a diary when traveling across shadow is what exactly is a day? To anyone fixed to a given shadow it is the period of time for their world, sun, moon, or some such to complete one revolution, cycle, or similar. When shadow walking there is no fixed reference other than that of the time in Amber or the time in the Courts of Chaos or these days the time in Carnelian or the time in Elysium, but I think it will be many years if at all before people work to any reference other than Amber. For myself I'll use which ever I feel appropriate at the time and leave the reader to sort things out for themselves.
I completed my trump sketch of charity marginally quicker than i expected had about an to organise myself before 13th hour arrived alfred and sorcha were waiting for me although both are now more distant after the events in undershadow
I pulled Deirdre's trump from my deck, and initiated the call. I have now become accustomed to the lengthy time it takes her to answer so waited until she appeared before me. We could have discussed what we need to there and then but she said it would be rude on the others to do so, so I widened the contact into a gate and ushered the others through. I do wish Alfred would show more spine and stop acting like a 5 year old kid. Being cautious is one thing but he is beginning to drive me to despair.
It seems Charity returned from the Abyss shortly after we left, then decided to go and pay a visit to the Courts again via the Abyss. I hope she's ok.
Since she didn't appear to tell Deirdre much we had no choice but to go after her. We had three choices, travel by Deirdre/Logrus tendril, trump close to the Courts and hope we weren't mown down by either of the factions in the area, or trump my half-brother and hope he answered. The latter was about as risky as the second option. Although I knew of Merlin's existence I'd never met him, even on the fleeting visit to the Courts before this all kicked off. Having never met him I had no idea of his strengths, weaknesses, or how he'd react. Trust is a very precious thing in Amber. I'd also no idea if he'd answer. He was more than likely better aware of Brand's trump abilities than I was which should dictated that he refused the call.
Suffice to say he did take the call and depending on your point of view the consequences of him accepting the call were either good or bad.
I can now understand to some extent how Isla, Archibald, and Alfred felt when I rampaged through their minds - although Merlin was reasonably surgical and only took pertenant information to establish I was his half-sister, I was an Amberite, I wasn't trying to bring an army in to decimate the Courts, I had a whole stack of information on what was actually going on, and yes I had spent that night with Flora - although having that memory replayed was not something I would have wished revealed for public consumption. At least the transfer wasn't totally one way and I did gain a very brief overview of what had been happening at the Courts, an update on the location of our Father, and conformation that Charity was safe and well.
He had then pulled, Sorcha, Alfred, and myself, through to the Courts into a room of high ranking Chaosites. Only Mandor I recognized by name, although several of the others I recognized by sight from the Ball. There were one or two inactive Chaosites in the room but it seems that most of the Chaosites, who are not demon lords, who are not affected by the 13th Hour are Logrus Masters to some degree or other. This has given the Chaosites mini respites where situations could be retrieved and has saved their bacon on numerous occasions - to their minds they could have done with it being a more frequent occurrence.
Merlin did a brief round of introductions before I managed to engineer to have one of the more junior nobles, a attractive looking young man by the name of Hinkin Jesby, show us to guest quarters. Merlin's replay of my night with Flora had given me an itch that needed scratching and Hinkin looked just the right "man" to scratch it.
Hinkin led us though frozen corridors and past frozen soldiers, until we came to the guest wing. Pointing out the guest lounge and dining room he showed us to our rooms, although he did depart rather hastily after I suggested he come share a bath with me.
Whilst not quite to the standard of the guest rooms in Amber, although with the current state of the castle they are significantly better, the room was suitably comfortable and even had a separate bathroom with hot running water and a sunken bath.
Running the bath however had to wait until the 13th Hour ended. It was half full, and I was naked when there was a knocking at my door and Charity's voice. For some reason I grabbed a towel, wrapped it around me and answered the door.
Our conversation was brief, and I agreed to meet her in a guest lounge as soon as I'd finished. I said I'd bring the others as well as they were probably doing the same as me.
Well not quite - I was half hoping that Hinkin would return, but that turned out to be a vain hope. I'd wallowed for nearly an hour before giving up in frustration, having to make do with my fingers, as I hadn't put anything else in my pack- but then I'd not been thinking about sex when we'd left my condo all those weeks before. I dressed and then made my way to the lounge to find to others already there, along with a suitable array of refreshments. I settled for coffee with a shot of Saki, and a chocolate muffin.
The problem when people arrive at different times is that you end up going over the same information twice, although Charity only had to tell the story of how she'd emerged from the Abyss, been picked up by a roving patrol, and eventually brought before Merlin once. The rest of us had thoroughly discussed our respective jaunts to death by the time Mandor and Merlin arrived and then had to do it all over again, filling in back story that Merlin hadn't digested from the brain ream he did on me.
Alfred's questioning of Ygg appeared to be haphazard although the tree does seem to have given him some information. It seems we need to talk to its daughter, Drasil, the sapling given to my father and planted by the pattern at Carnelian.
Charity's news was slightly more revealing, it seems the Kraken, hubbub or something similar knows about the requirement for the chalice as it seems to have indicated that this is the only vessel that is suitable for collecting its blood and ink. How likely it is to donate these without a fight I don't know.
The upshot of all this is we're going to be staying at the Courts for several days whilst we wait for the next 13th Hour to occur. I'm then going to try and retrieve Allagahn from Shadow using the crude but passable trump sketch drawn by Charity. In the meantime Alfred is going to continue reading the Book of Selheim interspersed with basic Sorcery lessons from Mandor.
From my experiences finding Dworkin's ghost I've decided that learning some basic sorcery may be a good idea, at least then I'd have a chance of being able to close some of the elemental gates or possibly dispel some of the other spell effects. In between lessons I should be able to get through more of Deirdre's Conjuration exercises.
It's been another long week. Mandor's lessons are as tiring as Deidre's and I've made significant progress in both areas. Sorcery is both far more complex and far simpler than conjuration. How far I'm going to pursue either I'm not sure. I'd still like to find out about the Tattoo magic I found on Shadow Earth and I've formulated a plan in that regard - assuming we manage to sort this whole Rodian mess out.
With all that's been happening I've also been neglecting my other studies, although I have managed a few hours of meditation. If I get the chance I must create a trump of Sorcha. Whilst the ones I have of Charity, Alfred, and Allagahn are not up to Llewella's standard I have now got to the point I can produce durable trumps reasonably quickly.
With Brand on the loose we have been forced to wait for 13th Hour occurrences to use Trump to travel places or contact people. In this case our enforced week in the Courts has been so that we can attempt to retrieve Allagahn from where ever he is currently lurking.
It just goes to show that a few weeks under hostile conditions can make a big difference to a persons character and abilities.When they were dumped in my lap in the bunker both Allagahn and Alfred were complete loses. Alfred still hasn't really accepted who and what he really is but there appears now to be light at the end of the tunnel. Allagahn on the other hand, whilst still being an obnoxious pig-headed troll, has at least put some effort into developing useful skills to the point that he was able to perform the bulk of the donkey work on the Hellride from the Courts to Carnelian. With a little more practice he should have the basics cracked and be able to move onto something else.
His retrieval was not straight forward however, since he refused to accept the Trump call and then used the pattern against me. It was then necessary for me to enlist Alfred's assistance and force through the contact, although if he develops to his apparent potential he'll be able to keep us at bay without much difficulty even without any Trump skills.
Exactly where we go next depends upon what Drasil chooses to tell us and what Brand decides to do next. I'm beginning to think that a closer look at either of the Keeps is in order - we'll have to see what Merlin's scouts find.
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