I'm just making a quick entry in case things go pear shaped in the Keep again. Fred's shaman are attempting to drive an Abyss gate into the Keep but appear to be having trouble. Where Charity got the image I'm not sure but I suspect Merlin gave it to her.
Well that little experiment failed miserably. Whilst the Shaman could anchor this end of the tunnel there was too much interference in the Keep to anchor the other end. I suppose if we'd tried somewhere else it would have worked but we're trying to avoid having to fight our way in again.
We're now off to Carnelian via Jithrikl. Whilst I was putting the sketch together Charity was creating another one of the courtyard here - I chose not to reveal the existence of my own courtyard trump. Alfred is now back with us and his ordeal doesn't seem to have done him any harm, although we have now lost the Book of Selheim - it was in his pack when he went primal and he didn't take it with him. That means its either in the Keep or Rodian has it. We're hoping it's the former. Allagahn has completed the modifications to his Gauss Rifle but we don't know if it works yet.
Where to begin, that is the question. I suppose by noting that I'm going to have to write this over several days as I still can't remain awake for more than a few hours at a time. I awoke in my room in the condo in Deirdre's tower believing at first that I was back home on Earth in my condo in San Antonio. I managed to struggle to the bathroom surprised at how physically weak I felt. It was only as I made my way to the kitchen and felt the waves of Logrus energy that my memory of where I really was was rekindled.
I must have fallen asleep in the chair on the balcony, for I was awoken by a gentle shaking. It was Deirdre checking up on me having realized that I had awoken from my month long coma That was a real shock, questions came flooding into my mind and I tried to ask them all at once. Deirdre said 'all in good time' and told me to go and have a bath whilst she sorted out some food. When she made it clear she wasn't going to say anything else until I complied, I had no choice but to do as she requested.
The problem was that the bath and the meal just resulted in me falling asleep again, and I awoke back in my room. When I returned to the balcony Deirdre was in Logrus form again, but by the time I reached the sofa, I felt the power surge that announced she had returned to human form. This time fortified by coffee I was able to learn something of what had transpired since my entry into the fount.
My entry and buffeting by the energy stream I had vague memories of.. After the Serpent had completed the ritual and the Phoenix had departed Charity had picked up my body and assured that I was still alive had trumped Deirdre, passing my body to her. The others had remained in the Keep and attempted to retrieve the Book of Selheim lost in an earlier foray. It hadn't gone well and they'd been forced to retreat believing Allagahn dead.
A situation had then developed at Ygg which required their input and had only been resolved by the timely arrival of my father with an army. I'll have to ask him when I see him if that's what he and the Serpent had been discussing in the Keep.
It seems they then made another, this time successful, assault on the Keep and retrieved the book. Rodian then initiated what appeared to be an assault on the castle here, but in reality turned out to be a ruse to cover the withdrawal of troops for another attempt on destroying Ygg .
In an attempt to stop him they decided to take a look at the Keep of the Thirteenth Hour, which resulted in Alfred going primal again and them all nearly getting killed.
After that things seem to have progressed more slowly the only other event of significance, and what a significant event, being the birth of Sorcha's son 24 days ago. I can't eblive how quick her pregnancy has been.
I must rest now as I can barely keep awake and seem to be hallucinating, at least when I think of the Keep of the Thirteenth Hour.
My body clock tells me I've slept for perhaps an hour and a half, that's Amber time, so about 12 hours have passed here. If I'm going to get my journal back on track then I'll have to neglect updates relating to events here for a while and come back to them later. As I've now completed a rough outline of everything that's happened I suppose I should return to the events following our trumping to Jithrikl.
We had arrived in the alley, Charity, the two abyss demons, Isla, Alfred, Allagahn and me, in pretty much that order. Allagahn had decided that he wanted to lead, which suited me, and I think Charity, at least she didn't seem inclined to argue with him. We were well into the tunnel walk, perhaps 15 minutes from the castle when Allagahn had us stop. He was paranoid about what would happen when a great gaggle of us waltzed into the underground tunnel, especially as we had two abyss demons with us, as it turns out he probably made our arrival worse - walking into a tunnel with a formed and prepared musket unit, supported by cannon, Benedict, and Rinaldo was not my idea of a quiet arrival. But thats what we got. If we'd just turned up we could have walked in without any difficulty but we had to endure Benedict's paranoid security checks - what did he think we were going to do invade the castle?
The others were impatient to get to the Keep so we headed directly to the Pattern room. Alfred noticed it first, which did surprise me a little, that Drasil appeared subtlety different. Once he pointed it out I could see that the main trunk had a swelling developing about 10m up, what this meant would have to wait for another time.
Charity took my self trump and walked to the center of the pattern, where used used it to call me. This enabled us to open a gate that the others could use to cross to the center of the Pattern - exactly what would have happened to the Abyss demons if they tried to walk the pattern I hate to think - they were obviously uncomfortable enough this close to it.
Once we'd all assembled, we linked up to Charity, to get the image of the Keep, and then all teleported there. We arrived in a large entrance hall. Immediately in front of us were a pair of ornate heavy iron bound doors. Whatever wood they were made from, the patterns and changing hues with in it added considerably to the effect of the decoration and bindings.
Behind us a double arch of slightly smaller proportions led to a cross corridor with a more familiar iron bound oak door at each end. If the layout were similar to the top floor then these would probably be guard rooms.
The floor of the hall looked like marble, and similar to Deirdre's tower it was decorated, with a pentagram and runic circle. The inscription seemed to imply it was just an anchor for a gate.
I was about to suggest checking the doors to see if they had any hidden spells or trump traps on them when Charity tried to push then open, When nothing happened I was both surprised and relieved. We then set about working out how exactly to open them.
I'll skip that part as its not really interesting, apart from the second or two when it appeared Charity was going to turn into Brand. Maybe he did more than she suspects before he threw her into the Abyss - if he implanted a Gaol then we could be in trouble in future. On the other hand maybe I'm just being paranoid, after all why would he plant a mechanism that allows his survival when he's pretty much in charge. From what little I know of him paranoia was not one of his failings.
Anyway, it seems he left a little present before he left. He Jewel locked the doors. To the others it just looked like a pattern lock, but then none of them have walked the True Pattern in Amber and thus don't have its imprint to compare against. I was about to say that we hadn't a hope in hell of breaking the lock or opening the door when I felt the sensation of an incoming trump call. As far as I know nobody has a trump of me - Charity gave the one I produced back. That doesn't mean that Mandor or Merlin or Llewella or possibly Fiona couldn't have produced one. I analyzed the call. Who ever it was didn't want to identify themselves. I terminated the call. A second later it was back, same low intensity, same lack of identification. I terminated the call again, only to have it reappear again. Whoever it was, was not only persistent but somehow familiar. Against everything Llewella taught me I set what defenses I could and accepted the call.
Once I accepted it I could tell that it posed no threat. The psyche was like that of a child's, immature and lacking coherence and discerpline, it was also close, very close. I examined it more closely. It appeared to be integrating itself into a trump object close by and wanted to talk, no it needed to tell me about the lock. As I examined it further a realization dawned on me - the trump object was my sword and the child psyche had similar characteristics to Brand's trump.
It wasn't the time or place to work out what, how, or who, or to try and deal with whatever the ramifications might be. I listened now or rather watched as it laid out the structure of the lock but it didn't know the pass lynch pins - those I would have to guess or force, this was not going to be easy, and we would have to break Brands psyche at each of the 3 lynch pins in the lock. I didn't know if we could do it but there was only one way to find out.
I spoke to the others and explained what needed doing. There would be only one shot at this and if we failed - well it wouldn't matter, I'd be dead and possibly some of the others as well. I removed my gloves and extended my hands. Each of the others grabbed a hand or wrist to establish physical contact and then I felt their minds link, Alfred and Isla both hesitated and hung back - this wasn't going to work.
I started building the pattern and the lock shimmered into view. I extended a tendril and started it towards the lock. As it closed I could feel the resistance mount. I signaled the others and drove it forwards as I felt the psychic push.
It hit the lock and fused - I couldn't have removed it if I'd wanted to. Then I saw why a huge psychic wave came crashing down and raced up the tunnel. I pulled power from the others frantically trying to stop it but it just kept coming. It was nearly on top of me when it stopped, almost as if it'd been kidney punched. I dug in and pushed, pulling power as fast as the others were pushing it. It started to retreat, faster and faster, until we crashed through the first lynch pin. Then I saw it, a second tendril pushed into the lock just below my own. Channeling the power flow from the others, I built a shield to hide the second tendril, then diverted the bulk of my attention towards it. A figure appeared, one I hadn't seen in the flesh for twenty years, and one I hadn't seen since my encounter with his ghost on the Carnelian Pattern it was my father. A second figure I didn't recognize materialized beside him.
I was instructed to stop wasting time and energy and get on with the job. I wasn't in a position to argue as we we're now approaching the second lynch pin.
The second and third were much like the first except I now knew what to expect and could buffer power into a shock cushion. Even so it was a close run thing and when the third linchpin collapsed and the lock sprang so did we. I can only speak for myself but I hadn't been that tired since walking the True Pattern for the first time.
By the time I'd recovered enough to think coherently Charity and Allagahn were both up and moving.. They both appeared to be waiting until we'd all recovered, which took another 3 or four minutes. Charity then walked over to the doors and pulled the right hand one open. A voice from beyond welcomed her to the Fount , and inquired what had taken so long. It then introduced its companion as Quatzoquatl, The Serpent. The voice had a familiar ring to it, one I hadn't heard since he'd tried to kill me on the Pattern in Carnelian, and before that since just before my 14th Birthday.
I walked over to the doors with the others. Charity was stood talking to two figures. The one on the left in the 18 Century Grenadiers Uniform with the Silver Rose motif was my father, the one on the right in the gaudy medieval style dress with the peacock feather collar therefore had to be the serpent. The Serpent was thanking my father for his assistance, and didn't he have somewhere else to be, and something to attend to. He said he did but he wanted to speak to me alone first.
I really didn't to know whether to laugh, cry, or beat him to a pulp for all he put me through. He started to walk across to the corner of the long gallery he was in. Not really in control I followed him. He stopped and turned, and waited for me. I was determined not to cry. "I have only a few minutes before I must be off" he began. I wanted to hit him. I tried, but it was undiscerplined, and he caught my wrist.
"I know you're upset, but this isn't the time or the place. This is harder for me than you could know. My leaving last time was not of my doing, and everything I do now I do because everything we live for is at stake. I cannot say more but what you are about to do means I may never see you again. It is the hardest thing for a parent to outlive his children and I have nearly lost my son once already. Please don't make this any harder by asking questions I cannot answer. Just give me a hug and a smile, and go and do what you must,"
I was too stunned to react. He hugged me and I smiled weakly through my helmet. He turned took two steps and was gone. I turned back tears trickling down my face. Alfred was waiting by the door, and the others were a good way down the hall. He wanted to know if he should lock the door or not. I nodded. He wanted to know how complex a spell he should do. I told him to just keep it simple. By the time he'd finished I had pulled myself together, enough to consider my fathers words "I may never see you again. I nearly lost my son", did he mean that there was a good chance I was going to die?
As we walked down the hall, these words played over and over in my head. I suddenly wanted to be else where, to be back in Los Angeles worrying about what technology to develop the next computer game on. The we reached the others, the Serpent was asking who the carrier was, Charity said Cordelia,. It turned to face me. "I need you to stand at the base of the steps, and stay there until I tell you to enter the fount" It steered me across the room and parked me by the stairs. I was too numb to care. I have found my father after all these years and he was to be taken away from me. He hadn't even said goodbye and all I'd tried to do was punish him for leaving me.. What did it matter if I died. I had nothing to live for.
I stood there in my despair dimly aware of a radiance growing about me. Bands of golden energy swept from floor to ceiling forming a sort of golden cage. Then a voice said "Climb the stairs and enter the Fount, Cordelia". and a second familiar one said "Come to me Cordelia. I will protect you as I have done since I have been with you. You will see your father again.". My feet moved yet I was not moving them. Up the stairs, one, two, three, ...,six,seven. I stood at the top. In front of me a column of light played. I could see fire, wind, water, snow, ice, rain, fog, dust. The voice spoke again. "To live, trust , and enter. To die, trust not, an I shall enter". I looked around. Everywhere was shimmering gold. I turned back and stepped.
What hit me I do not know but it completely winded me. As I fought for breath, I was thrown sideways and hit again, I fought for control but I was thrown again, and again, and again. At some point I lost consciousness. And then there he was. The Phoenix, as resplendent as when I'd last met him. "So we meet again only to depart. The time fast approaches when I shall be mortal again. I can feel the pull even now. A gift I will leave you, though you will be changed by it. To see your father again you must adapt to it. I thank you for your hospitality and must leave you now. One last thing, your sword has a role still to play. You will know when the time comes. I will see you again but not in this realm. Goodbye Cordelia". Then he left me.
I dreamed then of so many things, so many that I can't remember them all or in what order they came or if they came more than once. Then in a dream a familiar yet unfamiliar voice spoke. It asked me what I was doing here lying in this bed when there was work to do. "Work?" I asked "What work?".
"The work you started to put Rodian back in his prison. The work that only you can perform since only you can access the hiding place of the Jewels."
"What hiding place?"
"That you will have to determine yourself, which you cannot do lying in your bed. You have slept far too long already. Now wake up." It shouted the last phrase and I woke with a start.
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| Supporting Cast - Cordelia | The Keep of the Thirteenth Hour |