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Caine's fleet has sailed into Amber City's harbor with no resistance from the Manato who have been blockading the port for six or seven months. The sailors who have stuck in Amber City for all of this time are running out of money, and are very annoyed when Caine's fleet sails in - with no vacancies for new crew members. Riots break out when Caine's sailors land ashore.
Aramek leaves the docks and heads to a bar. There is only one person alive in the bar, and it isn't the bartender. Each of the corpses has a neatly slit throat. Aramek decides that the only person alive in the bar has claim to the rum, so he asks the guy if he can buy some rum. The guy looks at him and says, "You're not one of mine; you're not one of Gerard's" and then ignores him, so Aramek fetches his own rum from behind the bar.
Zack receives a trump call from Malachai, who tells him that there is a riot in Amber City which has apparently been caused by Caine's troops, and that his aid in stopping it would be appreciated.
Zack excuses himself from Ilkandacian and Morrolan, with whom he is conversing, walks around the corner, and trumps to Castle Amber. There he borrows a firearm from one of the guards and heads toward the riots. He considers using magic to change the weather or pull water from the harbor to put out the fires, but Amber is too Real for that to succeed.
Aramek is attacked by a guy with a pike, and shifts his staff into a sword while blocking the pike, chopping its head off. He waits a moment for his attacker to realize what just happened, then kills him. Aramek continues to hang out and watch that lone guy in the bar.
Rivka is hiding in Amber city as a mangy puppy, sees Aramek's maneuver, and is splattered with blood by it. She continues dodging trouble, regretting that she can't join in the fun because she's in hiding.
Zack creates an illusion of hail in order to stop the fighting, but the sailors ignore the illusion and keep fighting.
Aramek observers that about three-quarters of the rioters are wearing light colors with a patch on the shoulder that displays Oberon's seal with a wavy border over a stylized ship. The man drinking alone is wearing a black, blousy silk shirt, and black straight pantaloons. Aramek shifts his clothing to match the former.
Zack levels his gun, and yells "Stop!" at a charging sailor. The sailor continues to charge, so Zack blows him away. Everyone nearby sees the nifty explosion and breaks off from their current engagements to charge Zack in order to acquire that neat weapon. Zack flees into the air, and proceeds to dodge thrown pikes, bits of his previous target's head, and other debris. Zack orders the sailors to stop fighting again, in the name of Duke Zacharias of Amber , and some of them do stop fighting. Zack calls one of them to him, but he dies immediately because he dropped his guard when he stopped fighting. Zack then proceeds to collect a gang around him with orders to not fight amongst each other, and to only fight others when attacked, and starts working his way towards Caine.
Cassandra is pent in the center of Corwin's pattern, eating pastries. She is trumped by Corwin, who asks for reinforcements.
"How many should I bring?" "They're Caine's troops." "I'll bring all of them."
Cassandra gathers her troops, there is a large explosion, and they're all in a plain near Oberon's pavillion on the other side of the Barrier. Cassandra is then trumped again by Corwin, and they start bringing the troops through to Amber.
Aramek is standing outside the tavern and sees Zack's gang. He notices that anyone attacking Zack is swatted aside casually, yet without too much overkill. Aramek keeps an eye on Zack. Zack heads towards the tavern, which Aramek thinks means that Zack is heading towards him.
Cassandra is pulled through to Corwin's cenotaph at the end of her column of troops. She sends out seven scouts to check out the situation, and only two return. "It's bad. It's really bad." Cassandra and Corwin send in the army, with orders to encircle the riot and then start working their way inwards.
Zack spots Aramek, and thinks that Aramek must be a high-ranking officer in Caine's forces because the rioters aren't disturbing him. Aramek salutes Zack, and then slams him in the face, hard. Zack hurts. Somewhat less than the time when he fell three hundred feet from a flying thing, and far less than when either Gerard or Caine hit him, but it hurts. Zack tries to break Aramek's arms, and the battle is begun. They start pounding on each other, and soon discover that they're both fairly close in skill. Some of Zack's gang try to break up the fight or take advantage of the fight to take out one of them, but everyone interfering is flattened almost absent-mindedly by one of the two combatants. Aramek switches his staff into a blade in an attempt to cut one of Zack's billy clubs in half, but the club fails to be cut. They continue pounding on each other, and eventually people stop trying to interfere.
Corwin arrives on the scene and calls,
Corwin: "Zack - finish him off and come on!" Zack: "I'm enjoying it too much!" Corwin: "Are you aware that you're standing in and almost completely encircled with fire?" Zack: "I'll get marshmallows!" Corwin: "Fine, I'll do something about it!" Zack: "No no no! I've almost got him!" Corwin: "No time left!"
Aramek, believing that Zack has acquired reinforcements, starts trying to retreat, then remembers Caine, and tries not to retreat into him. Zack sees Caine stand up, grab a keg, and head towards them.
Caine: "Corwin! Good of you to make it! Care for some rum?" Caine expresses interest in hiring Aramek, and Caine and Corwin decide to break the fight up and move it somewhere safe. Aramek panics and starts shadow-walking away. Zack follows, until he is tapped on the shoulder by Corwin who says "Enough". Aramek feels a tap on his shoulder from behind, turns, and notices an embroidered leather glove drifting towards his face, just before everything goes black.
Caine walks back with Aramek's unconscious body slung over a shoulder. "I'm going to hire him! Do you care?" Zack: "Yeah, he's good..."
Caine and Corwin chat. Apparently Caine wanted to use the riots to select a crew, between the new crew that his daughter selected for him and the old crewmembers who were stranded in Amber. The fires were unintentional, but Caine appears indifferent, saying that "they'll build it again. They always do."
Cassandra trumps Malachai and fills him in on their progress with the riots, and they talk briefly about coordinating their forces' strategies. Malachai is at the docks now - the fleet is a full bow's shot away from shore.
Zack gets a strange feeling, not a trump contact, but more like a dream state. It's Titania. "You seem to be having some problems." They chat briefly, and she says that she is going to send a "friend who is good at defending things" to him.
Stormy chats with Titania all afternoon, reminiscing about memories that he never had. Titania mentions that Zack is an adopted Prince of Faerie, and Ivy is an adopted Princess of Faerie. She refers to Zack as Wry, and claims to always know where he is. She says that he could use some help now, so Faerie gates Stormy through to Amber.
Once Stormy arrives in Amber, he eats the fire that is consuming the tavern they are standing in. Stormy then introduces himself to Wry, recognizes Corwin, and proceeds to talk with Corwin about his previous visit to Amber.
Stormy draws Turvalen, his sword, and sends him out to eat the rest of the fire, which brings a howl of disgust from Rivka.
Stormy claims that he is very good at teaching things to do things. As an example, he states that he made Turvalen.
Stormy is introduced to Caine. When Caine admits to having started the riot, Stormy tries to trump gate Caine over the side of Remba and fails.
Stormy's description: ~5'10", looks elfish, white 8 pointed star on forehead, amber, cat-slit eyes. Wearing several rings, pale grey robes w/ a device: unicorn bracing a dragon w/ a big cat at the bottom. Slightly pointed canines, snow white hair.
Stormy asks how many folks are in the militia. Caine replies that initially there were hundreds, but they are at only about one-fifth of that now, and will be at even less a bit later.
When the fires went out, the fighting mostly stopped.
Stormy starts trumping Caine's troops around, sending the still conscious and intact ones to the ships.
Cassandra trumps Corwin and asks him about the disappearances. He tells her not to worry -- a friend is trumping them back to Caine's ships.
Rivka notices a sword in front of her, drinking off of her. She shifts into Mikail's form and says "Stop it!" "You're a potential firebug!", the sword replies. She discovers that she's leaking some fire, damps it, and the sword leaves. She goes dog again, and shifts to a new hiding place.
Turvalen returns to Stormy, says he found a fire source, and shows the dog shifting to a human than back to a dog again. Stormy resheaths Turvalen and wanders off with Zack to reconstruct damaged chunks of the city. The stone that Zack conjures is Real, but Stormy's is only shadow. Stormy doesn't really notice the difference, just that Zack's seems more substantial. Stormy tries to resurrect some of the dead sailors, but with very little success - most of them are real. Stormy tells Zack that he's just a shadow, albiet a shadow of Dworkin. He hasn't met the Dworkin of this Amber yet - there are many Ambers, but possibly only one very big Chaos. Stormy says that he functions as a living Trump, after researching lots of magical stuff. He claims to have reversed learning curves - he doesn't plateau, he exponentiates.
Stormy and Zack shoptalk while fixing things.
Cathryn works on some of the details of Benedict's upcoming duel, then goes looking for flat, dead, neutral shadows for Rivka. There seem to be many of them up by Ygg. She goes to House Cara to look for Rivka, and finds a note stating that she was going Amber-ways but will be back. Cathryn prepares to talk to Benedict about his upcoming duel and plans how she is going to work in a mention that Rivka would like to talk to him about vital matters.
Random stops by to chat about the party in honor of her victory over Julian, and says that he will take care of the details. Cathryn asks him, "When do you want to make the announcement?" How about during the next Amber court? Formal or semiformal? Random says that the next formal court could be centuries from now, but Oberon holds semiformal courts daily. Should I make it after Benedict's duel? Before or after talking with Vialle? She's eight months pregnant in a very slow shadow and waiting for things to settle down before giving birth, so a visit there could take a month or more Amber-time.
Random asks if she would like to invite any Amberite guests to her party and, if so, who?
Random inquires about the Big Trouble that Cathryn is fretting about; Cathryn stonewalls.
Random leaves and she continues preparing her presentation to Benedict, but is interrupted by a House Jesby staff member with a summons from Jesby. Jesby asks Cathryn about the trouble that Random was overheard muttering about as he left the House. Cathryn reassures her that there is no problem. Jesby is going on a discreet vacation with a guild second, and is going to leave Cathryn in charge since everything has settled down now. However, Jesby will be checking her messages, and would like some lead time for Random's announcement. Jesby gives Cathryn the ring of office, and they part company.
Cathryn heads to her meeting with the Warlord at a practice field. The Warlord notices Cathryn and easily disarms her opponent, who then spots Cathryn and runs over to greet her. Cathryn and the Warlord chat. Apparently Jesby heirs tend to wear out quickly. They talk about the terms of Benedict's upcoming duel.
The challenging mage wants the duel to be magical, and Benedict does not. Benedict wants a standard duel to the death; the mage does not. The mage would be willing to accept a game with lots of magic; Benedict would be willing to accept a pure strategy game, but the mage will not. In short, Benedict wants a physical duel and the mage wants a magical duel. Cathryn and the Warlord discuss the possibility of having proxies do the actual fighting, as getting the two primaries to agree to terms otherwise could be impossible.
The Warlord dislikes her principal, and believes that he is trying to draw out the process as long as possible in order to inspire doubt as to Benedict's rightful claim to the guild head.
After her conversation with the Warlord, Cathryn heads to the Warriors' Guild to talk with Benedict. Benedict is wiping goo off his shoes, and claims that he just found a ring that disrupts shapeshifters violently. Cathryn backs up, and Benedict reassures her that it has an controlled effect. Benedict mentions having just tested it, and then throws a knife at an eavesdropper. They chat about the duel, and Cathryn says that the other primary is stalling. Benedict considers a magical duel, using Clarissa as a proxy. They decide to inquire as to whether or not that would be acceptible to the opposition, and to check on Clarissa's availability. Finally, Cathryn mentions Rivka's problem - that she needs to talk to Benedict about an urgent, serious matter in a neutral shadow. Benedict is convinced that Rivka wants to arrange a tryst, and agrees to meet with her after his duel.
Benedict then asks for a favor -- Cathryn has ties to Corwin, and Benedict wants an answer from Corwin - could she acquire it for him? Benedict is stuck with his current duties. Cathryn then asks Benedict if he could give her some fencing or general strategy lessons, and he agrees. On Cathryn's way out, Benedict tells her "In four seconds, decline your head ten degrees." She does, and Benedict throws a knife past her head and into the chest of a charging assassin.
After returning to Jesby, Cathryn tries to trump Corwin.
Rivka is staying low and checking Rhiannon's trump periodically. It gives her a headache each time she does so.
Cassandra is talking with Corwin and Malachai about troop dispositions and Stormy. Corwin expresses disappointment with the the troops - they took casualties in a riot. How embarrassing. Peekaboo wanders in to Cassandra, then wanders out again.
Peekaboo wanders in near Stormy and Zack, wanders through piles of rubble, then wanders back out. Stormy tries to move Peekaboo from point to point with them with Trump gates, but fails because she is insubstantial. However, a few minutes after they trump out, Peekaboo wanders back into sight.
Corwin asks Cassandra about trading off between Marshall of Amber and Captain of the Guard. They chat at great lengths about skills, reputations, and the improbability of Benedict accepting Cassandra as Marshall of Amber, and her refusal to become Captain of the Guard. Cassandra becomes very annoyed.
Cathryn receives a trump contact from Corwin; he's lying on his back looking up at the lack of sky. Cathryn asks Corwin about Benedict's question, and Benedict's duel. Since Benedict didn't specify what question he wanted the answer to, Corwin dodges. Corwin then asks Cathryn how she handles little girls. Corwin asks Cathryn if she knows any reliable Warriors' Guild types to be Marshall of Amber, or possibly some House Cara people - they seem to be friendly towards Amber. Corwin claims that Cathryn is the only person that he can trust, because she's not a family member.
Cathryn returns to the Warlord and mentions the possibility of a magical duel with a proxy fighting for Benedict. The Warlord believes that her primary would be favorably inclined towards that.
Cathryn trumps Bleys, mentions that they haven't been formally introduced, and introduces herself. "You wouldn't happen to know where Mikail went that day, would you?" Bleys answers that she might want to check with the Rim Fishers' Guild. Bleys also agrees to tell Clarissa that Cathryn is looking for her.
Ilkandacian is in Castle Black, talking with Morrolan about Morganti blades while melting Mikail clones with Logrus tendrils. Morrolan suggests a visit to a shrine of the Seroli, the reclusive, xenophobic, cannibalistic crafters of Morganti weapons. Ilk agrees, and Morrolan teleports them out to the edge of the orange sky and says that it isn't too far to walk from here. Ilk offers to teleport the rest of the way, so Morrolan gives him a direction and a distance and teleports them to a place near the shrine. Morrolan mentions that the locals look like that short guy of whom many clones appeared a few days ago, so Ilk shifts to look somewhat like Mikail, and places an illusion on Morrolan to make him look like an easterner with dragonish features. Ilk decides that his Mikail-shift isn't close enough, so he Logrus-fetches a Mikail clone, touches up the shifting, then melts it right there. Morrolan appears somewhat uneasy at that...
The shrine is a clearing in the woods that is neat and well-tended, with a big gem in the center that seems to radiate a Clarissa-type power. Morrolan wanders around the shrine wondering who tidied up, mumbling about how it was a mess the last time he was here, and Ilk studies the gem.
Unfortunately, Ilk soon starts shifting into a red-headed female form, and is unable to stop or redirect the shift. He tries to Logrus-pull away, and is pulled back. He starts pulling in magical power, from Real sources as well as local to stop the shift or teleport away, but still no luck -- and there is a mental contact. It's Clarissa. She asks why she has been called here, and then recognizes Ilk's mind from their earlier encounter and proceeds to riffle through it while exchanging pleasantries with him. She wonders as to his choice of forms, and he blames it on Morrolan. At one point during the riffling she remarks "Oh, I'll have to check that place out". She advises Ilkandacian to avoid Mikail's form -- it has a power of its own -- and breaks the contact. Ilk quickly shifts into a nondescript human form, and breaths a sigh of relief. He then notices that the spells that he has currently hung have been modified such that they are self-sustaining and require no maintenance.
Ilkandacian is contacted by the magical wards on Home -- there's a Real visitor, and it's Clarissa. Ilk sends a message asking her if she would like a tour, and she declines. Ilk then proceeds to wander around the shrine with Morrolan, trying to not act shell-shocked. When Morrolan inquires as to his change of forms, he replies that this form seemed more appropriate. Morrolan is still muttering about the recently cleaned status of the shrine, and Ilk suggests that possibly those who cleaned the shrine might be returning soon, and that if they are Seroli they would probably be violent, and that killing them could annoy their goddess. They leave the shrine.
Morrolan leads Ilk to a local bar, claiming that he is in the need of a drink. Ilk reaches out and Logrus-grabs some local coin, excluding the current town in order to avoid any social annoyances. Morrolan orders rum in the local tongue, which Ilk's spell doesn't handle, and Ilk orders the same. When Morrolan prepares to drink, Ilk modifies the illusion such that the bottle appears to move to the illusion's mouth.
While they drink, a local runs in, looks at the two of them, and then wanders over to the barkeep and starts talking to him in the local dialect. Ilk creates a magical gramaphone-style horn to allow Morrolan to overhear their conversation, and Morrolan mentions that they are about to try to conscript them into the local army. Ilk and Morrolan decide not to destroy the brute squad, leave the bar, and walk around the corner, from where Ilkandacian teleports them back to the courtyard of Castle Black. The Lady Teldra greets them, and Ilk excuses himself to take care of a matter that just cropped up, and heads Home to see what Clarissa is doing to it.
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