In some respects being in Carnelian is better than Deirdre's Tower or the Courts, simply because the 13th Hour occurs more frequently here. Well, not exactly the Amber time between occurrences is the same its just the time rate of this shadow is slower so less days elapse between occurrences.
By the time we'd arrived from the Courts we had barely a day to wait before the next occurrence, which is just as well as neither Allagahn nor Charity seemed inclined to go take a look at either of the Keeps just yet.
What they did seem to want to do was alert Brand to our intentions, albeit indirectly by scrying for objects he carried or for Tar-Rodian. They have at least come up with one sensible suggestion which is why Allagahn and I are currently sitting in a wooded clearing a few mikes from Jithrikl.
We had ridden out here so we could enjoy the delights of the 13th Hour, something we couldn't do inside the castle at Carnelian and something it would be dangerous to do in the immediate vicinity. Actually we had ridden out here so I could use my trumps to contact either or both of Coral and my Father during the 13th Hour. Neither has been successful. Coral's Trump appears to be somewhere in a state of being jammed and being warm enough to indicate she may be dead. The scrying reading I did seems to confirm the latter although its not 100% reliable. My father on the other hand doesn't seem to be answering calls - although since he's disconnecting the call he's at least alive and doing something.
We're now waiting for the 13th Hour to end before starting back. Allagahn has this perverse notion that sitting still during the 13th Hour makes some sort of difference as to whether we're attacked or not.
It seems Charity has been scrying for Brand's Sword Werewendle again. She's definitely looking for trouble although so far she hasn't found it. This is good news in two respects Brand hasn't been able to snare her and we know he's not currently at the Keep or the 13th Hour. We're now making preparations to go and find Coral. Using the Carnelian Pattern and her psychic signature from my Trump we should be able to locate her - unless she can use the Jewel in some fashion to block us.
Well we found her, at least we located both bits of her. The pattern took us to the basement of an Edwardian Manor house in a distant shadow. It was quite dark when we arrived, save for a light patch that indicated some sort of door way. My suit just about functioned and I was able to use the helmet light until the others lit some lanterns. It was a grizzly scene. A headless corpse lay collapsed against a cot along the far wall. Dried blood on the bed clothes and floor indicated it had been there for several days. According to Charity the spray pattern of the blood indicates that the head was severed whilst she was alive and standing upright. Residual emanations from power usage indicate that the Jewel of Judgment and probably the Jewel of Justice were used there. There was also the signature of something else, which may be Abyss powers - I'm not familiar enough with treading them to know for sure- around what used to be the door. What is equally interesting is that Sorcery was used there despite the fact that the shadow has been altered to make magic non-functional. In addition the shadow had been altered to make Trump and the Pattern of Amber non-functional. After a thorough search of the basement we had proceeded to search the remained of the house.Apart from some nice furniture there was nothing of any great significance. The hidden safe in the library contained the usual collection of personal items, gems, negotiable coins, and Coral's will. The will was interesting not for the fact that she left everything to her son, Radix, but that it named Merlin as his father, Mandor as his guardian and my father as Executor and Trustee. I pocketed the will and reset the safe without informing the others of what I had found.
I had been in the process of mentally cataloging the library when Alfred and Charity appeared with a request that I examine the shadow to find a way out as according to them it was blocked to Trump, magic, and Pattern. Since I'd seen Charity use the pattern earlier I knew this was not the case. Since Charity only had the Carnelian imprint I decided to try the True Pattern. This proved to be a massive mistake. I had barely mentally set foot on it when my head exploded and it was barely all I could do to remain conscious let alone upright. It took several minutes for my head to clear enough for me to open my eyes and sit up. Charity and Alfred were hovering nervously. I assured them I was ok, despite the maniacle road drill currently trying to get out of my skull.
Several more minutes passed before I could think straight. I tried the pattern again, this time using the Carnelian imprint. I was difficult to walk it but there were no other adverse side effects. Once complete I extended the lens and examined the parameters of this shadow more closely.
It was at this point I learnt that somebody had done a great deal of molding to this shadow. It was indeed blocked to pattern but only to Amber's Pattern. It was also blocked to Trump and Logrus, and magic had been switched off completely, although at one time it had worked here. There were also a number of changes to the laws of physics to bring them into line with Ambers, mainly to prevent any form of explosive device from functioning here.
Alfred and Charity had drifted off to return to doing whatever it was they were doing and I set about trying to alter the parameters of the shadow to make it easier to shadowwalk with the Carnelian pattern. It was hard going - the residual power left here, probably from the Jewel of Judgment, was still significant.
I had reached a point where I needed a break when Alfred appeared shouting that we had company in the form of a mob of villagers. Choosing to vacate the premises rather than fight them we exited via the ballroom steps and raced across the gardens into an area of hedges. Once we were out of sight I started shadowwalking. On top of everything else I was not in a fit state to travel far and the power of the Jewel still fought me. We walked through half a dozen shadows before it began to ease. A few dozen more and I brought us to a halt.
The others wanted to do some more investigating, actually they wanted me to do some more, but I doubted I could actually find out what they wanted. I certainly couldn't do it without some rest. I retraced our steps through the maze angling for a shadow as close to Coral's as I could get where the owner had left unexpectedly and we would pass for cousins.
Even so it took a little persuasion for them to let us stay here. After a light meal I retired leaving the others to continue their discussions mainly to write this and also to get some much needed sleep. Charity and Allagahn seem to have a knack for generating wild goose chases at present. I had suspected that attempting to search for signs of shadow passage in Coral's home shadow would be futile and so it was. Not only had a significant amount of time passed since the arrival/departure of whatever forces had assailed her but I had manipulated the parameters of the shadow and left a bloody great wake as I hauled us out of there. Still I found the trace of something but there was insufficient detail to be able to draw any significant conclusion, save that it in all probability is was likely to be neither Pattern nor Logrus.
Whilst I failed to determine anything significant using Pattern, Charity was able to using the Abyss as a focus. Whilst she was not forth coming on how she was able to do it, the Abyss can also be used in a similar fashion to the Pattern to examine the nature of shadow, people, and objects. It also seems that an Abyss power can be used to travel between shadows using something called a gate. It was this that I must have detected for she indicated that an Abyss gate had been used in the near vicinity.
Whilst we'd been searching shadow it seems that Alfred had been searching this reflection of Coral's Manor house and had found the safe but couldn't open it. Charity decided to oblige. I remained where I was and used a little probability manipulation to remove the clauses naming Merlin as Radix's father and my father as Trustee. They returned pleased with their prize. Charity had also extracted a sizable portion of cash, half to pay the servants their back pay, and half to keep them going for a few months.
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| Supporting Cast - Cordelia | The Keep of the Thirteenth Hour |