I was going to write that it was becoming quite crowded in the tower, but that is only true in relation to things as they stood a week or so ago, before first Kohaku arrived, left, and then returned, and then Isocrates arrived, and then Allanon arrived., and before the infamous Cordelia arrived this evening. In reality I believe she actually arrived at the tower earlier this afternoon, but that it wasn't until my mother collected Allanon for the evening meal that she became aware of Cordelia's presence and was therefore able to retrieve her from outside the tower.
The result of that retrieval was something I'd here to never witnessed in my mother, as she and Cordelia locked horns over whether my mother was exactly who she said she was. Perhaps this has given me completely the wrong impression of her, especially in light of my mothers reaction. Are all Amberite's this distrustful of one another?
After the initial confrontation and with a standoff in progress, my mother suggested that Cordelia meet the rest of us, well principally myself and Damon, as the others had been sent to her by my mother previously, and she had then taken them to Carnelian. This introduction did at least serve to temporarily defuse the situation.
Her greeting to me was polite and diplomatic, but she appeared to dismiss Damon almost as soon as she met him. I believe they are from similar shadows so perhaps her judgment is based upon previous experience, I don't yet have sufficient information to say for sure.
Over dinner conversation moved to the way ahead. Cordelia made it quite clear that she reserves judgment upon a large number of the things my mother said, although she agrees that as the black road is back that the Pattern in Amber has been damaged. Irrespective of anything else this means that going to Amber is a priority so that an assessment can be made of how bad the damage is. One point that was raised was that if Brand is responsible for all the current trouble, and his goal is to rule all of shadow, does he need a viable Pattern to accomplish this and if he does, does he already have a plan in place to fix the Pattern, assuming of course that he broke it.
If going to Amber is the next step then it does further another aim, that of attempting to find Dworkin, who Cordelia also said was impossible to find unless he wants to be found. She also said that she knew of a back way into his workshop, one that it may be possible to use in case it is guarded. She didn't elucidate further.
Isocrates suggested at about this point that he felt he could contribute little to such an undertaking without a considerable improvement in his ability to use Pattern. Cordelia suggested that the best way to gain such an understanding was on the job but he didn't seem to think so. There then followed a discussion on how time flows across different shadows, and ended with him asking my mother if she could transport him to a shadow where time flowed even faster than it did here. She said she could but would only do so during one of the shadow glitches or time incursions as Cordelia calls them. The next one being in 3 days.
Cordelia was interested in this for two reasons, firstly it might save time in reaching Amber and secondly because if Brand was indeed unaware of these incursions as my mother thinks is the case, then it would be safe to use Trump to contact people and traverse shadow if they functioned during such incursions as Brand would be unaware of such activity. She then asked my mother if she could actually transport us directly to Amber, to which she thought she could, and if not certainly to within the Golden Circle. She then asked about the "Velvet Rest" whatever that may be. My mother responded by asking "In Tullbranich" to which Cordelia responded "Yes". Allanon then asked about this place, and Cordelia responded by saying that the "Family" had a number of assets in a number of Shadows and this was one of them. When pushed on exactly what sort of establishment it was she said it was and "Inn" but there was a significant undertone to that comment. If I read that undertone correctly then it is not a simple ale house nor an establishment where one rests when traveling.
So it was decided that we would wait until the next incursion and my mother would then transport us to this inn and we would travel on to Amber from there.
Given that she would be now be staying here for several days, she asked what the accommodation arrangements were. I said there were rooms in the tower and that she was welcome to use any that were currently unoccupied. She then asked if they were furnished, and did they have a shower. I asked what a shower was. Cordelia smiled, but my mother failed to suppress a shallow laughing fit. "It's a device that you can stand under that dispenses water that you can adjust the temperature of say as to clean yourself" was Cordelia's response. I still didn't understand. My mother said she'd put one in one of the rooms. Cordelia then asked if she could do power as well. She said she could. I asked what this power was.. Cordelia said "Electricity". It still didn't make any sense. She suggested I come and see.
So my mother converted one room to what she called late 20th Century Earth with and ensuite shower and power, and Cordelia and I made our way up to it. It was much different to anything I was familiar with. The "shower" was certainly an interesting development in personal hygiene.. I'm not sure how the technology could be applied in Phehemony but it is certainly a convenient way of cleaning oneself.
Showing me the "power" was a different matter however. She took a strange rectangular case from her pack, and then a second small box which had strings she called "wires" attached to it. One of these wires she plugged into the rectangular box. She then took a third box from which she took a strange object she called a "plug" and attached it to the end of the other wire. She then pushed this into a strange shaped hole in the wall. She then placed her fingers along the edge of the large rectangular box, which she called a portable computer, and cause it to fold apart. The lower part had a strange bank of square protrusions, which she called "keys", whilst the upper section held a strange frame which proceeded to light up and display pictures and writing. She called this a screen. She said that whilst this computer was able to store this power, it was only able to store a few hours worth, and that it then require plugging back into a power source to recharge. I asked what this computer did .. she said it's just a tool for storing and recalling information, producing documents and pictures, and in the right environment talking to people a long way away. But that didn't apply here, all she wanted to do was to update her journal.
Okay, so I haven't written anything for a couple of days as there's not really been a lot to write about, and I've been practicing molding my clothes into my body when I change form and finally had the confidence late yesterday evening to attempt it with my armour. I was most relieved when I succeeded and even more relieved when I manged to separate it back out without damaging it.
Cordelia has spent the last two days in her room, and we didn't get a chance to talk any further until a few hours ago. I had initially gone to her room on that first morning when she hadn't appeared for breakfast. When I asked my mother where she was she said in her room, but she's busy drawing a trump. There wasn't a great deal of a point in asking my mother how she knew.. this is her tower after all. Instead I asked her if she thought Cordelia would appreciate breakfast. My mother had said probably, but then warned me not to break Cordelia's concentration otherwise the trump she was working on would be ruined and she'd have to start again.
I'd taken the tray to her room and knocked on the door. As expected there'd been no answer and I'd gone in. Cordelia was sitting, a small easel resting on her lap, drawing. She barely glance up, as I put the tray down. As I turned to leave she said thank you.
I repeated the process for both lunch and the evening meal, each time finding that the previous offering had been consumed. I was also able to get a look at the sketches. One was of Kohaku, and the other a figure in a military uniform I didn't recognise. What does occur to me is that it's a lot of effort to create these trumps, and I hope that effort is worthwhile.
So until I can find a better reference date I'm going to use the date in the shadow where my mother reside and where her tower is. This does mean things are going to appear a little disjointed as time is running very much faster where she is than where we currently are. Exactly where here is I'm not 100% sure, other than it took my mother nearly half of the incursion time to transport us here, so I suspect we're quite a long way from her shadow.
According to Cordelia, who obviously deems herself superior to us as we've not seen her since we boarded the ship, we're a few days hellride from Amber, and will be sailing on the morning tide. Since we arrived here, as far as the local time is concerned, in the late afternoon, this effectively means a further 12 hour delay in getting to Amber. Given that my mother had said she could transport us directly there I don't understand why Cordelia opted to come here first.
So we have nearly completed what for us is the first days sailing, and the storm that arose after we left port, abated during the first incursion, then increased in intensity for a period of hours, has abated again. Like the others I have chosen to remain below decks in our "segregated" accommodation, an area screened from the rest of the crew by a number of sails hung from beams.
I did chance an examination of shadow at one point when the storm was particularly rough, but whether it was the pitching of the ship or the manner in which it appear to be rapidly fluctuating that made me feel queasy I do not know, but I'm not tempted to repeat the experiment in a hurry.
So there have been two incursions today, the second being worthy of comment in so far as one of my mother's tentacles dropped off Isocrates, although it was nearly 3/4 of the way through before he appeared. I barely managed a few seconds of conversation with my mother before the tentacle retreated. She indicated that if we continued on our current course then Amber wasn't our destination, but a place called Kasfa. I kept this information to myself. If this is the case then what is Cordelia up to and why wasn't she upfront about it?
So things got very interesting today and Cordelia finally came clean about our destination, although she was somewhat brusque in her methodology.
The incursion had been over for several hours before she appeared, following an encounter with Kohaku had gone on deck as the storm appeared to have completely abated. She appeared, Cordelia that is, dressed in a knee length dress of intricate pattern that clung to her body like wet linen. The patterning was bright and vivid and the whole dress had a sheen about it. She also had a pair of shoe on which appeared to be made from the same material and were decorated to match the dress. Whilst she carried her sword she had cleverly concealed it so that it was not immediately obvious that she carried it.
Her goal was to warn us that the place we were going was potentially exceedingly dangerous, especially it were discovered we were from Amber. As such under no circumstances were we to go on deck after we docked, no matter what occurred. Allanon asked if he could go with her. She appeared to consider this for a few moments before saying "No", rather bluntly. There appeared to be a lot she wasn't telling us, but no one chose to challenge her.
After we docked, there was a short commotion, and then things went quiet for a long while, before everything broke loose again, except this time there was a mass response from the crew. I think it is fair to say that we were ejected rather than left, as there was no ceremony in our leaving, rope were cut rather than untied and the gang plank was dropped into the dock rather than being withdrawn; probably to prevent the militia racing down the dockside from boarding the ship.
It then appeared we were to be stopped by another ship, this one of a much more military persuasion, until it's mast broke; a little too conveniently to be a coincidence.
Once we'd cleared the harbour, and Cordelia had got her breath back, and cooled down, it appears that she barely made it back on-board ahead of the militia, she explained a little, that Kasfa had closed it boarders, especially to Amber, in response to the death of it's king, it's queen going missing, and the royal steward being grievously wounded. Exactly why they reacted in this manner, especially when it appears the perpetrators of all these acts are connected to our current quest I have no idea. It seems eminently illogical unless there is some form of old political situation I am unaware of.
No are not yet at the end of a local day, but in the next half an hour or so we shall be departing this ship to make landfall in Amber. Exactly what sort of reception we are expecting is unknown, although if Cordelia is correct, and the fleet we witnessed burning on the horizon was that belonging to Amber, the bulk of any hostile force should be a hundred miles or so to the west of our current location. The plan, in so far as there is one, is based upon Allanon being able to use his magic to enable Cordelia, Kohaku, and himself to "fly" and therefore descend from the plateau above the castle into the castle. From my perspective, flying is not an issue, although I find it presumptuous of Cordelia to assume that I have a form that can fly.
Isocrates, due according to his reasoning of being an academic and not a soldier has chosen to head towards Ashan by land rather than accompany us, and Cordelia has managed to convince him to take Damon with him, who undoubtedly would have been a major hindrance to us.
The rest of us will hike around the base of Kolvir, then make the ascent to the plateau above the castle. From there we will descend into the castle, sneak into Dworkin's workshop, retrieve the book, sneak out again, and pick the ship up in Ashan in 10 days. This has about as much chance of working as outlined as using a sieve to fill a cauldron with water. If we make it into the castle without encountering any resistance I shall be very much surprised.
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