Cathal's Journal

29^th April 2013

So today is or was the 29th April. At least it was when I was collected although whether that is true of where I am now is another issue.

The invite I'd been sent said I would be collected. It didn't actually say how. I'd assumed not knowing any differently that it would be by car. That was not to be the case. At the appointed hour a trump gate had formed. How I knew it was a trump gate I have no idea, although it might have been burried in the engram my mother left me. Anyway, out of the gate steps Cordelia Chan, a little older than her Time magazine picture but recognizable all the same. Why she was armed with a Katana I have no idea.  Her greeting was afferable enough even if it did take me a few seconds to recover from the manner of her arrival. She inquired as to whether or not I was ready, and having gathered my rucksack and holdal I said I was. She then proceeded to form another trump gate which she ushered me through.

And so it was I arrived here, at her Mansion, where ever here actually is. Upon arrival I was introduced to her houshold staff Hou-Jin, a wilely looking oriental gentleman of later middle age who is her butler come steward and from his looks more besides, Choi Lee, another oriental, female this time, possibly in her mid twenties, who is her PA, and several others from which I was to select a "Personal Assistant" for the duration of my stay. They all appeared pleasant enough but I was struck by the cuteness of Caitlin so picked her.

Cordelia then gave me a quick tour of the Mansion, whilst Caitlin took my bags to my room. The Mansion is certainly impressive, especially the roof top swimming pools, it appears Cordelia has her own private pool above what appears to be, at least on the upper floors, her private wing. Tour over she escorted me to my room, Beryl, on the first floor, before excusing herself as she had somebody else to collect. Exactly how many people has she invited? I suppose I shall find out at the meeting in about 10  minutes. In the meantime I'm going to explore a little more of the technology that exists in my room.

04 Jux 45

So I'm going to use the local date for this update. It's shortly after 4:30am local time and about 20 minutes after we finished to meeting. It didn't get of to an auspicious start. One of the invitees, didn't turn up as requested and reminded, so Cordelia went and fetched her. This is where things got interesting. Both her, sorry I'm not brilliant with names but I'm sure I'll learn everyone's over the next day or two, and a couple of the others, including the other oriental, are of the opinion that if we've not been kidnapped its almost the closest thing to it.."The King demands your attendance or else". Maybe so so I have my own agenda and reasons for coming so I don't feel the same way.

The 10 of us on Cordelia's invite list are all, according to her, and given I know who my father is, I have no reason to doubt her, cousins, sons or daughters of her father's bothers, sisters, half-brothers, and half-sisters. Her father is Tiberius for the record. The validation of this will occur in a little over 48 hours when we will all be required, and she made it very clear we have no choice in this, to walk the Pattern. There was almost no concealment of the threat that if we used it to go anywhere other than back to our rooms here she would come looking for us but not with the intent of retrieving us alive. I am as yet unsure exactly how to interpret this as it doesn't sort of ring true with everything else she explained, nor with what I learnt from my conversation with Kasamir.

Now he's an interesting character, an intelligent telepathic Saker falcon created by the Pattern and thrown across shadow when the repair of the Pattern after the Rodian war failed. He's hitched himself to Natalia, a brunette from Poland studying geology at the Ostrzyca Proboszczowicka Research Institute, where ever that is. Anyway he's run into Cordelia in the past, well he was sent to spy on her for a while, at least until she gained some form of intelligent dog, although a different breed to the one the Japanese girl has.

Anyway I digress, after Cordelia retrieved the girl and started to explain stuff, some of which I already knew but a lot of new stuff I wasn't aware of, some of which does shed some light on a few things that were lurking in the periphery of my mothers engram, things which I don't believe she intended to gift me, an argument developed between the girl, spoilt rich brat, and one of the others. It ended with her speaking a strange word to him which stopped him dead. Cordelia intervened and put a stop to things at this point. I get the impression she knew exactly what she did but didn't explain. In fact that's one impression I do get, she's not telling us everything, the question is why?

04 Jux 45

Another entry this time at the end of what turned out to be a very busy day. After completing my last entry I spent some time getting to grips with the VR AI system. It seems years ahead of anything I've heard of, not that I keep up to date on such things. After a slight embarrassment over the means of inputting my body measurements into the system, I was able to order a whole new wardrobe of made to measure clothing, everything from the best outdoor exploration clothing, through everyday jeans and t-shirts, to a bespoke tuxedo for the ball in  10 days time, local time that is.

After I'd finished playing with the AI system, I took a brief look at the game Mizzurian is launching but it holds no real interest, I joined the others for breakfast. The trouble making spoilt brat was obviously sulking but as a result of a number of comments at the morning meeting Cordelia had obviously changed her plans and offered us an opportunity to broaden our horizons. All we had to do was be in the library at 4pm. The consensus amongst most of the others at breakfast was that they needed to get some sleep. Why? Allowing for the change in time rate most of us had been awake for 12 hours so where was the need to sleep. I chose instead to explore the immediate surrounds of the mansion instead.

Lunch was an interesting affair and not at all what I was expecting, indeed I was actually surprised at how good it was. Perhaps I need to change my outlook in regards to oriental cuisine. The main outcome of lunch, driven by somebody who claims to be an experienced soldier was that we should go and explore the medieval town. That was the aim but he failed to follow the basic directions given by the waitress, and we all, except the brat who faced with a long steep descent  down the cliff turned back, ended up in what is a town very much under construction. Again the nature of the town obviously reflects the tastes and culture of our host. It's a really strange mix of what appears to be traditional and very modern architecture, but somehow it seems to work.

Most of us made it to the library in time for 4pm, some shortly ahead of Cordelia's arrival, which was heralded by the arrival of the largest dog I have every seen, larger even than Natsuki's Arden hound Choki. Casamir's comment was that it had grown considerably since the last time he encountered it. Cordelia then proceeded to explain that she needed to open to a trump gate which for all of us would be taxing so would we all pass through as quickly as possible.

The gate led us to with largest castle I have even either encountered or seen pictures of, even larger perhaps than the fictional castle in the Lord of the Rings. We were greeted by what I would guess is a woman in her late twenties or early thirties who was obviously used to rule. That said there appeared to be genuine affection between her and Cordelia, as if they had shared considerable hardship together. Cordelia then introduce her as Queen Madison, the ruler of the realm we were in, Elysium. There must have been some sort of exchange between them that we missed as she headed back to the hall, accompanied by Cordelia's dog, leaving us standing about.Cordelia was obviously waiting for something.

That something appeared a couple of minutes later. From out of the huge tower to our left came thick blue-grey/black/purple tentacles. Cordelia just stood there. Some of the others tried to run. Casamir shrieked "Logrus" and flew off in the direction Madison had gone. The tentacles grabbed each one of us, not hard just sufficiently strongly to hold us firmly. We were then hoisted into the air and drawn towards the tower. Cordelia neither moved nor resisted. She'd experienced this before. I can only assume this is what the exchange had been about. This had obviously been a calculated move aimed at the brat, given that she'd been the one who'd questioned everything she'd said about reality at the morning meeting. I wasn't sure that it was the right reaction.

We approached the walls through which the tentacles emerged at high speed. I braced for impact  but no impact came and we passed through as if they didn't exist. Inside was a huge writhing mass, constrained inside some sort of magic circle, from which the tentacles emerged. The tentacles gently deposited us on the floor and retreated into the mass, which then proceeded to shrink before transforming into a woman with log black hair wearing a very stunning ornate vibrant green dress. The brat and a couple to the others retreated against the very solid walls. Transformation over Cordelia walks over to her and they hug. Again there is obvious warmth in their greeting. Cordelia is completely comfortable in this environment. Cordelia introduces the woman as Agneta, the Living Logrus, the woman who was dragged into the Abyss by her brother Raif at the end of the Patternfall war. This wasn't learnt off-the-bat but during an hour of questions and answers where she was very open on a huge number of things, a number of which have a direct impact on my future aspirations, and in particular these devastating storms that are rampaging through shadow and as a consequence of their action render travel to a number of shadows including Amber itself and the Courts of Chaos impossible. The other impact is that she is also a Logrus, like that which exists in the Courts, but unlike the one at the Courts she herself determines who is suitable to attempt to meld with the writing mass in an attempt to gain power similar to but of a different ilk to that of the Pattern. As far as she is concerned any who have sufficiently mastered shapeshifting may attempt the meld irrespective of their heritage. It was an interesting corollary to Cordelia's statements that unlike some of her (former?) Aunts and Uncles she has no issues with Chaosians and will judge them as she finds them.

Audience over, Agneta transformed back into the Logrus and returned us to the bailey of the castle. We then made our way into the Great Hall, where goodbyes were exchanged and livestock rounded up. Cordelia then drew her trump card again and we returned to the Mansion.

Dinner was interesting only in that the brat got drunk and made a fool of herself. When is she going to realize that she displays the same level of arrogance that she accuses Cordelia of displaying? If she can't accept the reality of what she experiences that what hope does she have for the future? She's not seen one of the three of us who are shapeshifters in our Chaosian forms yet.

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