It was with relief that I finally reached the top of the tower. After my days of walking, the long climb up the stairs had been more than exhausting and I was glad to set myself down for a well-deserved rest. I must have rested for a whole three seconds before the tentacles appeared, interestingly enough they seemed to be carrying Allanon and Isocretes down. With a sigh, I forced myself back onto my feet and began the tortuous climb back down but luckily for me, Allanon had spied me and used fly to help me down before I had climbed down too far. It's strange, I thought, how he can fly without wings or engines and how my added weight didn't seem to affect his floating at all.
When we reached the ground - and I was glad to be back on something solid! I saw Isocretes was practising the pattern and seemed oblivious to my arrival. Allanon excitedly filled me in on all they had learnt to do with the pattern. Previously I had believed its only use was to allow me to travel through shadows but I had been quite mistaken. We can change the shape of the pattern to create a physical or magical defence, to locate objects, to scry and even to change the future by manipulating the probability of things to come.
As the boys practiced their newfound skills, I took a rest. This time I managed to stay resting for some time. I awoke when a tentacle plucked me up from the ground and drew me inside the tower where Deidre greeted me and populated the table with food. I had been so tired before that I hadn't realised how starved I felt. So I dug into the meal with gusto, pausing only twice: to glare at Allanon when he announced that I "smell" (having only just realised I was a maybe little unclean...) and to request from Deidre an imprint of the parameters of the shadow Amber after she had shown the other two the parameters of another shadow where an Amberite resided who she could not grab when she collected us all on that first day.
To get this imprint, we connected hands and I felt her in my mind, she showed me a scene of a grand castle upon a ledge inside a volcano by the sea. I'm sure this will be invaluable information as castle Amber holds a store of trump decks, perhaps one of these decks would include a trump of Dworkin and I can contact him through it.
Sorcha revealed that she is also interested in fixing the pattern and decided she would join our troupe; she seems polite and resourceful so I'm more than happy to travel with her. The rest of the team were discussing how to get back to Carnelian to report to Cordelia. Deidre offered to use her tentacles to take us near the place but she will only do it during the glitch which she believed will be the only time she can user he magics without Brand being aware of it.
Before I rest, I decided to tell Deidre of my master plan:
I awoke to a few body aches I had from the long travel here and headed to the main room. Breakfast wasn’t long gone so I must have slept for some time. I chatted to Sorcha who said that she believes going to Amber would be a good place to start; Dwarkin’s quarters are there and even though the family have fled Amber, it may be a good place to start. It’s a good idea, much better than sitting around here going nowhere.
I looked up at some movement to see Deidre bringing in Allanon and Cordelia, the former was probably out training again. I was pleased to see Cordelia, who looked quite recovered from her attack on the pattern and this saved us having to make the trip back to Carnelian which may well have meant crossing that terrible black road again…
Cordelia and Deidre exchanged pleasantries without being too pleasant. I truely believe that Deidre is who she tells us she is and that she is trying to help us albeit only because this serpent wishes it, however Cordelia still seems reluctant to believe this herself. She must have lived through some hard times to be so stubborn and untrustworthy, I hope that we can change that in time.
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| Hero of the Hour - Kohaku | The Keep of the Thirteenth Hour |