This is a strange place. Real here is apparently what you make it although the tower is real in some sense of the word. Alfred says we can get back using the same ritual, although given the effort it took us to get here, and the effect it had on him and Cordelia I'm not so sure we can return.
Getting off the tower we had to do on trust. After Charity had flown off and Alfred had "climbed" down, and Cordelia had jumped off. I had to trust what she'd explained to me to do and do the same. It is apparently what Alfred did, which is to imagine a ladder running down the side of the crystal, believe it is real and then climb down it. It is all very well telling somebody what to do and quite another doing it yourself.
Still I'm here down on the ground or whatever this is. I am now waiting whilst Cordelia and Charity figure out how we get to where we're going. Cordelia says she can feel where it is and I'll have to trust her on that score. Oh there is something else. When we arrived here, a feather, about 3 feet long, a mix of golden reds and oranges appeared in her hand. She says that she once chased this feather in a dream after her father beheaded her whilst walking the pattern in Carnelian. Apparently the Phoenix had dropped it when he flew off. She is either a very imaginative liar or has a malady of the brain.
We are now resting having traveled. I cannot say all day or for a number of hours or some distance as those concepts don't appear to have any meaning here. Cordelia, Charity, and Alfred worked out that to move here requires only the power of the mind. You simply desire to move in a given direction and you move in that direction. Charity and Cordelia both likened it to Shadowwalking, something that, Alfred and I aren't familiar with. As a result we have been mentally towed by Charity who in turn had been towed by Cordelia, who seems to be the most experienced Shadowwalker amongst us.
We are resting by an obelisk, the only other object we have seen on our travels. It is covered in strange runes, which Alfred has been trying in vain to copy down. There is strange magic at work here for the symbols cannot be physically reproduced by rubbing over them with charcoal, nor written to a piece of parchment.
It is now the end of our second period of traveling and we are resting again. Alfred has given up trying to copy the symbols on the obelisks and has instead started to read the book of Selheim. He appears to be having a great deal of trouble with it, as he is not progressing through its pages very quickly. He also doesn't seem to be able to produce a copy of its text although he has been able to relate the story it contains to us. It appears to be the writings of a madman.
Apart form the obelisk we have encountered another object, what appears to be a town some distance away. We chose not to investigate it although Alfred wanted to.
We are now back at the first obelisk and resting before we attempt the tower. I don't know about the others but each time we wake from a rest I do not feel as refreshed as the time I did before. Today we encountered things that have caused me to reevaluate Cordelia's statements. Perhaps she is in some fashion relating the truth, but I am still skeptical.
We left the obelisk and proceeded onwards, Cordelia insisting that we were nearing our destination. After some time another town, if I can call it that came into view and we appeared to be making our way towards it. I have seen some of the strange caves that a proportion of my kingdom choose to call home and this town bore some resemblances to them. I was definitely not what most people would consider normal architecture.
We entered the town and made our way to a building in its center. There we were admitted to a Great Hall in which stood a throne upon which a body rested. Charity and Alfred attempted to examine the body, but were attacked by some form of demonic imp. After many attempts they gave up and suggested Cordelia try. I suspect she may have been waiting for this because she strode forward as if she knew she would not be attacked and touched the body on the throne. As she did so a figure materialized next to her and appeared to solidify. It then welcomed us to its house, removed the remaining portion of the book of Selheim from the body and gave it to Cordelia. The body then crumpled to dust.
Charity also seemed to know this figure for she asked it questions about trump and returning here. It warned us that if we died here we would truly be dead, but gave her a trump all the same. We then left.
The strain of leading had obviously got to Cordelia as she didn't want to lead anymore. Charity said she'd lead if Cordelia could act as the tow rope as she had done. Cordelia said she could do this. Immediately she made mental contact I could tell there was a vast difference between her and Charity. Her mind appeared honed, like a good sword, and there were no extraneous thoughts of speculations emanating from her. In fact I could read nothing except the wash coming from Alfred. Then that vanished, and I perceived an extension of Cordelia's mind wrapped around Alfred's. I then felt her turn in my direction. "Probing another mind uninvited is generally not considered etiquette, neither is psychic babbling when in mind to mind contact. Persist in your current actions and I will do something about it."
Not wishing to provoke her I apologized if I'd caused offense, but what had she done to Alfred. She said I hadn't caused offense just that I needed to learn to control my thoughts better. As for Alfred he had tried to break away after being told to control himself and that she had stopped him. He had then thrown a tantrum like a small child that had had its toys taken away, and she had therefore locked him inside his own mind where he could rant ti his hearts content without annoying anybody else. She would let him out when we stopped to rest. And no it wouldn't harm him but may teach him a lesson.
I was shocked at the clinical coldness of what she had done, rather than that it was possible. My initial reaction was to pull away, but I caught myself just in time and resisted the urge. I could feel her hovering close by and suspected that she would do to me what she had done to Alfred. I changed tack and asked her if there was any way to resist the sort of thing she had done to Alfred. Her reply was enlightening, if the mind is strong enough then it cannot be controlled. Initiating a mind control can be difficult if the subject is unwilling, but taking trump calls without knowing how to channel the call and entering into the sort of psychic linkup we were currently using voided that level of defense. I returned to my own private world of thought.
I cannot believe three days have elapsed since my mother placed us on the roof of her tower. We are all glad to be back, although the return trip was far more tiring than the outward one. I'm not sure I could eat another thing, and despite being exhausted wanted to make this entry before retiring. My mother was rather impatient on our return wanting to know everything that happened but all we wanted was something to drink and eat. We did tell our story but only once we'd started on the meal.
What Alfred has read so far tells how our reality
was
created from nothing by the Serpent, and how he, the Kraken, and the
Phoenix played as children. It also tells of the arrival of the Unicorn
and how the Serpent caught it talking to Dworkin, and how Rodian was
born as a result of the loss of its eye. It also tells how Rodian grew
and his children were born and how he was imprisoned by the action of
the four of them. Apart from using their own blood, and an
element representing their nature, strangely the Phoenix is represented
by a feather, they required a bowl and blade made from the flesh of
Yggotharan. Cordelia and Alfred both think this is the world tree which
stands in the middle of shadow. Alfred wants to go there but Cordelia
says he'll have to wait until the next 13th Hour which is in two days.
She can then take him by trump.
After
the discussion following
Charity's session with the book she left to go and talk with the
Kraken, who is master of the abyss. I'm not exactly sure of
the
in's and
out's of all this but it seems she sacrificed herself so that Cordelia
could get the queen out of Amber. She was then captured and
interrogated
by Brand. When she refused to work for him he threw her into the
Abyss . The Kraken then made a deal with her and she has been
working
for him since. Perhaps this has some bearing on why she freezes.
Cordelia
spent the early part of the day conjuring bits of wood, vegetables, and
rock, with occasional instruction from my mother. Following
our
discussions she has decided she needs to work on a trump and
has
shut herself away in her room in the condo, as she calls it.
Apparently it will take her two days to draw and she can't be disturbed
during that time.
This has left me at something of a loose end .
I hadn't realized how tedious it is actually having nothing to do. It's not like at home where there is something I could always do like finding a book to read, or something to sew, or go and join the Huscarls and spend a few hours practicing. Here there is there is literally nothing unless we create it or bring it with us.
After several hours of sitting about my mother suggested that practicing to use or developing my powers might be a good use of my time. I asked her what she meant. She asked if I could use a Logrus tendril to retrieve and object from the same room, same shadow, or any shadow where it might exist, or if I could use one as a combat weapon. I had to admit I didn't. She then asked if I could increase or decrease by body mass by absorbing or expelling matter or if I could grow armour and hardened claws or talons. I said I couldn't. She suggested that I go and learn.
I've therefore spent a very frustrating day, trying to retrieve bits of wood and flabby vegetables from various places about the chamber and then trying to alter their cellular structure to be compatible with my own so that I can integrate them into my body. All I've got to do now is work out how to expel the one or two I successfully managed to absorb.
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