It's been several days now since my last entry, and as we are now back at the Courts an update is probably in order.
With nothing further to be gained at the house we had left, heading first to collect some horses, and then onwards towards to Courts. The 13H had been several days away, local time, so we decided we might as well make some progress rather than sitting waiting.
We had arrived back in the Courts to find Merlin and Mandor particularly busy, although they were not inclined to tell us what they were doing. Rather than wait for an update they walked with us back to our apartments and we filled them in on the situation.
Merlin was not best pleased to find Brand had killed Coral and even less pleased with the news that her son had been kidnapped. The look he gave Mandor was most revealing, especially when Alfred announced that Mandor had been named guardian in her will. When he said he'd take care of finding Radix, Merlin dragged him away for some form of discussion. I got the distinct impression something had happened between Merlin and Coral, and that the pregnancy was something of a shock. It is going to be interesting when I produce the will.
Although Coral's death has given us a lot to think about and discuss we appear to be in something of a hiatus again.
From the information we currently have available it is clear that Brand is operating to his own plan and we have no idea as to the timescales under which he is operating. It is also clear that none of us wishes to take him on directly. Allagahn still fails to grasp some fundamental concepts. Whilst it is true that any of us could find a shadow and gather a great army - getting it to where it could be used intact was another matter entirely. Whilst we could theoretically assault either the Keep of the Four Winds or the Keep of the Thirteenth Hour, doing so at the present time would be pointless - we needed to know where Brand is and what he is doing for there to be any strategic benefit.
What this really means is that we can only attempt those things which are within our power to achieve such as summoning the Unicorn and possibly the summoning the Phoenix. The latter, without the relevant sections of the Book of Selheim requires the Serpent and his memory of the ritual used last time being sufficiently good for him to recite it again. Since the only person we know who has contact with the Serpent is Deirdre this necessitates going to see her.
At any other time we would have just pulled her trump and gone there but with Brand about we can only use trump during 13H occurrence. This either means waiting for the next occurrence which is a little over 6 days away or hellriding to Elysium. Elysium, however, is 8 Amber days Hellride from here. It makes more sense therefore for us to stay here and wait out the 6 days local time in productive endevour.
Charity has already left deciding that she can get there via the Abyss in sufficient time. Allagahn has decided that reading the Book of Selheim may be a useful way to spend some time, and Alfred has managed to persuade Mandor to find him a Rune Master. My own inquiries indicate that whilst there are a few Rune Masters here use of Tattoo magic here is unknown. I've therefore decided that confronting Merlin with the will and getting Hinkin into bed are my tasks for this week. Hinkin has been remarkably resistant to my advances so far as as far as I know he's not married or engaged.
Well I've finally managed to confront Merlin with the will. His initial reaction was that it was a fake, something I'd fabricated, and it took me some time to persuade him otherwise. Actually it took me some time to persuade him to look at it using pattern sight and verify that it had a Jewel imprint and therefore couldn't be a fake and that I couldn't have fabricated it. Once he was forced to acknowledge that it was real he was forced to tell the whole story of how the Pattern "arranged" a liaison between him a Coral without either of them knowing much about it, and that she became pregnant as a result. What was more interesting was that when she subsequently walked the Pattern her pregnancy was not terminated. This also to me indicates that other Pattern based methods of avoiding or terminating a pregnancy also failed; I have discovered that apart from actually walking the pattern, manipulate probability can be used to greatly reduce the chance of becoming pregnant in the first place. I also think it may be possible to use one of the physical manifestations of the pattern to terminate a pregnancy if walking the pattern itself is not possible.
But I digress. It appears that Coral's reaction to the incident was pretty much the same as Merlin's although in her view he raped her, and hence her desire to have as little to do with him as possible. Despite Mandor being his brother, she had no aversion to his help, although Merlin is of the opinion that Mandor helped her in some other way.
What happens to the lines of succession in the future is an interesting question as Radix has primary succession claim to the Throne of the Courts, and as much a claim as the rest of us to the Throne of Amber.
After our discussion I decided to make an effort in relation to the other task I'd set myself having spent most of the last three days creating trumps of Sorcha and myself.
When I started I had only expected to get the trump of Sorcha done but had surprised myself with the speed of its creation and therefore had decided to produce the second trump. Having in did mean that I had the option of giving it to Charity if the need arose.
Apart from hunting Hinkin,I now had a further decision to make. I could either produce additional trumps of Alfred and Allagahn and give them to Charity, as she was the only one of the others that could use them, or I could return to my Sorcery or Conjuration studies, or I could spend 3 days exercising and meditating in an attempt to restore some balance. The problem with the first option was that it would require all of my concentration and rule out hunting Hinkin. The second option would impinge too greatly, whilst the proximity of the Black Road meant that the Chi of the area was highly negative and not very conducive for meditation.I therefore chose to do nothing other than explore the Royal Palace, or the accessible parts of it anyway. It was the only thing I achieved. I didn't get Hinkin into bed but I did find out why he wasn't interested in me - apart from the fact that I wasn't demonic. I'm the wrong gender.
He did enlighten me as to which of his contemporaries had set themselves the challenge to be the first to get me into bed and also of the exaggerated rumors of my exploits in the stables in Amber that had been circulating for sometime.
He also complimented me on my body and requested that I put my clothes back on and stop doing what I was doing as it didn't do me any favours to demean myself in that manner. The problem was that I had made my itch worse and he still chose not to help when I said I'd have to go and alleviate it on my own then. I wasn't going to give one of his contemporaries the satisfaction of being first - I picked my own sleeping partners on my terms.
When the 13H arrived I was actually in a good mood and had beaten my itch into temporary suppression once more. I'd managed to get my armour cleaned although it was getting to be in need of some remedial attention, which was something that was going to have to wait until I could get back to Shiftsville.
The others assembled in our now familiar meeting place, of which I'm going to have to create a trump. I'll have to create a Trump of it. Once the world turned grey I pulled Deirdre's card and waited for her to answer. It didn't take too long and I widened the link and sent the others through before following myself.
We were all surprised to find that Charity had not yet arrived and we were therefore forced to wait for her. At least we got a chance to discuss things with Deirdre at length, and come to a consensus that Summoning the Unicorn next, whilst she summons the serpent to ask about the Phoenix Summoning ritual, is the best plan on which to proceed. Given Charity's absence we had no choice but to wait until the next 13H giving us another 5 days (local time) of down time.
With space so much more limited here and with the others present I found it sufficiently difficult to get a clear trump image that I abandoned that task after a few hours. I chose in the end to return to my Conjuration lessons - something I had been neglecting over the last couple of weeks. By the time Charity turned up I had managed to conjure not only a reasonably comfortable chair, but a basic Katana, rudimentary
Charitys reappearance sparked a rehash of the "what to do next/Summon the Unicorn" debate, leading in the end to the same conclusions, although we modified the plan slightly.
Since we were planning on trumping to the grove during the 13H Charity would not be able to go with us unless someone carried her, since as soon as she left the tower she would freeze - this does pose the question as to what effect,if any, this would have on her porter. It was therefore logical that she remained in the tower and opened the trump gate. Rather than use a card we chose to use the Amber trump on the wall. This also gave us the ability to determine what if anything would be waiting for us.
Whilst the picture initially remained clear as the 13H arrived as soon as she invoked the gate we spotted movement - 6 demons, larger than any we had seen before closed on the gate. Allagahn jumped through, narrowly avoiding the 3 closest and drawing them away from the gate itself. I followed, with Sorcha close on my heals, but was forced to roll to avoid the charge of two others - Sorcha was not so lucky. As I regained my feet and moved to attack they stood their ground and blocked my sword blows. I changed tactics, feinted a blow, waited for the block then grabbed the arm and rolled backwards. Despite its weight advantage it sailed over my head as I regained my footing. By this time Alfred had appeared, and was being pummeled by the last demon. I saw Sorcha skewered by her demon, which promptly keeled over, her sword sticking out its chest. I moved in on mine turning it as Allagahn swept in, killing it in one blow. Unfortunately the three he had distracted followed him in and I was forced the frantically block blows. I stopped most of them.
Sorcha's arrival enabled me to throw one of the three, although she took another blow for her efforts. I noticed that Alfred had gone down and that Allagahn appeared to have dispatched another one, leaving just these three. As the one I'd thrown got to its feet I moved in on the other two. Sorcha sacrificed herself again, and I threw its companion. Allagahn circled round and dispatched it before it could rise properly. I flicked my sword back into my hand and moved in on the last one.
We had fought for less than 3 minutes. Six of them lay dead, Alfred was unconscious, although none of his wounds looked life threatening, Sorcha was conscious, although had she not been a shape shifter I suspect she'd be dead, Allagahn had gained two nasty gashes in his armour through which blood flowed although it looked like the armour had taken the worst of the damage, and I had at least a dozen rents in the armour, with corresponding deep cuts below.
I extracted the last vial of coagulating gel and applied it to my wounds. It would at least stop the bleeding, numb the pain, and kill any bacteria. I also noted that the gate was gone although it reappeared by the time I'd finished coating my wounds.
Allagahn gingerly picked up Alfred and disappeared. Sorcha appeared to be in some form of trance, and the outflow of blood from her wounds was greatly reduced. They also appeared slightly less intense. As I watched the blood flow ceased and the wounds slowly began to close and knit back together. 15 minutes later they had all but gone, as had the pools of blood, which Sorcha appeared to absorb into her body.
Allagahn reappeared, his armour slightly less rent than previously and white showing through what remained of the holes. It appears Charity bandaged him up and was in the process of doing the same to Alfred. Allagahn didn't think he'd be back in time to supervise the ritual and handed me the book of Selheim. I went to confer with Sorcha. We agreed to defer the start of the ritual until after the 13H ended in case its cessation had any form of damaging disruptive effect.
I had expected Allagahn do now do something sensible, after all he claims to be a great military general, but he just stood in the grove looking about aimlessly. I stowed the book and began a slow spiral out from the grove. Given its significance I suspected it would be being watched by Brand's troops. I wasn't wrong although they were further out than I expected them to be and I barely reached them before the 13H ended.
At least I was on more familiar ground with these, having fought them in the castle. I managed to dispatch two before I heard the chimes of the clock, and had time to incapacitate a third before the others responded. Even with three of them it wasn't a difficult fight, despite my previous wounds. Allagahn appeared as the last one hit the ground. I suggested he might like to find out if we had any more company.
I made my way back to the grove. Sorcha was walking about looking at the stones that marked the groves edge, trying to determine which stone was which. From what I'd read of the ritual, I suspected that would become clear once she'd completed the first part. Alfred was also back although he could barely move and didn't look particularly alert. He still tried to berate me for wandering off with the book. Given his state of health I ignored him - the fight had obviously addled what little brains he possessed.
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| Supporting Cast - Cordelia | The Keep of the Thirteenth Hour |