I can't keep writing everything is strange just because it's different to what I'm used to. Strange has to be something I can't explain like why this inn exists just over a mile from the world Tree, why it seems to be prosperous, and how the inn keeper knew we were Amberites, and knew Cordelia by name; despite the fact she swears this is only the second time she's been here..
What I'm doing here I'm not exactly sure, other than it was an excuse to get out of my mothers tower. This little excursion is really for Alfred, so that he can talk to the tree, Ygg. If either of us had know it was going to take so long we'd have sent him on his own.
We'd arrived here this morning and Alfred had gone and hugged the tree, like most forms of mind liking it needs physical contact. Anyway four hours later he was still hugging the tree, oblivious to anything going on about him. Cordelia was obviously a frustrated as I was, and when she said she knew of an inn not far away where we could get a hot meal, a comfy chair, and a hot bath, I jumped at the chance, although I did feel guilty about abandoning Alfrred later. At least I didn't laugh at him when he stormed into the inn in a major strop 3 hours after dark.
He apparently hasn't learnt a lot from the tree and wants to go back in the morning to continue talking to it. What happens after that we haven't exactly decided. Anything involving trump will have to wait until the next 13th Hour which is about 5 days away local time. Anything else and we an Shadowwalk or Hellride there - apparently.. Both of these things you can do with the pattern but not with the Logrus. Since it seems Chaosites, dwellers at the Courts of Chaos, frequent the inn there must be otherways of crosing Shadow. I shall have to ask my mother about it.
I'll use the Elysium date for this entry since that appears to be what my body clock is set to, despite the fact that the day here is not actually over yet. Alfred has spent most of the day talking to Ygg, but either he's not asking the right questions, or he's not interpreting its answers correctly, for what he's told us its told him doesn't make any sense. As he wants to talk to it some more we're going to stay here until the next 13th Hour.
Cordelia has locked herself in her room again and is drawing some more trumps. What she's drawing I haven't a clue as she's very secretive about it. It also seems to be a very time consuming activity for not a great deal of benefit.
With both of them occupied I have time free to pursue the studies I started in my mothers tower. I have at last managed to expel the pieces of wood I previously absorbed and have managed to pull items from various places that are not native to this shadow.
All these date systems are becoming confusing. We are now resting in the Courts of Chaos, waiting for its ruler, Merlin, who is a cousin of ours, to come and talk to us. What is equally as confusing is that he is Cordelia's half brother.
Getting here was also something of a trek. When the 13th Hour occurred Cordelia took out a trump of Charity which didn't look the same as the other cards in her deck- it was thinner and had a different symbol on the reverse. Perhaps this is what she was drawing. Anyway, Charity failed to respond to the call. Cordelia was of the opinion that the call wasn't getting through, so she tried my mother. My mother answered and we all gated through to her tower.
After a brief exchange, it seems Charity came back and finding us gone went to the Courts of Chaos., Cordelia took out a trump of Merlin, again this is different to the standard set in that it has a Manticore rather than a Unicorn on the back, and called him. She didn't know f he would answer of what would happen if he did - up until a hour a go she hadn't met him.
Anyway it appears he answered, and after several minutes, she opened a gate which took us to the Courts. I thought as I stepepd past her into the gate there were tears running down her face. She also won't say what happened during the call. We arrived in some kind of planning room. Arrayed around a large table which contained a moving model of the courts were about a dozen, Chaosites, some human looking and some completely demonic. A few frozen figures lurked about the edge.
Merlin performed a brief set of introductions, and Cordelia then deftly manipulated the situation to get one of the handsome junior nobles to escort us to the guest suite. She even removed her helmet and loosened her armour so she could flirt with him better. She continued flirting outrageously with him as he guided us through the palace, showed us the guest dining and rest room, and then showed Alfred and I our rooms. Somehow she ensured we were dropped of first leaving him to show her to her room alone. If I was reading his reactions correctly he didn't seem at all interested in her.
When Cordelia appeared in the rest are some two hours later, she wasn't dressed in her armour as usual but instead was dressed in trousers, a tailored jacket, one of her decorated T-shirts, and a pair of riding boots. She had obviously been in the bath. Like me she carried her sword, although hers is significantly different in appearance to mine. Whilst mine has a short hilt, with counter weight, quillons, and a broad blade, hers has a narrow parallel slightly curved blade, with a much longer hilt capable of taking a double handed grasp. It has no quillons. It is also about 2 inches longer in blade length than mine making it about 7 inches longer overall.
With her arrival we set to discussing our respective fishing expeditions, although Charity's appears to have been far more productive than ours. It seems the Kraken is well aware of the requirements of the ritual, and of the need for the Chalice of Yggotharan, but Charity doesn't know how cooperative he/it will be when it comes time to collect its blood and ink. We then made the decision to remain here until the next 13th Hour, so that Alfred and Charity could study the Book of Selheim for more clues. Cordelia would then retrieve Allagahn, forcibly if necessary, and we would then go to Carnelian to talk to the tree which grows there. According to Ygg its daughter, Drasil, and has some role to play - at least thats what Alfred thinks after all those hours of conversation he had. Personally I think he's got roots growing in his brain, but its a plan.
Having decided all this Merlin, and his (half?) brother Mandor arrived, and we had to go over everything form the beginning again. Merlin seemed to have a great deal of detail knowledge about what we had done and kept asking for explanations of why we had done certain things, almost as if he was trying to fill in the parts of our journey that Cordelia hadn't been present for. Had he done to her what she had done to Alfred? It may explain why she had been crying.
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