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Ilk is at House Cara. Ilk is at Home resting. Ilk and Jean prime just returned to Darkover with Clarissa. Sandy Jean is on grand tour with Ilk, and the flying saucer on grand tour is a demonic spirograph. Logrus Jean is wandering around castle Amber, avoiding Norton's pig and waiting for Flora to wake up. Jolly Jean Giant has gone home with "his mom", has had a good meal, and is being yelled at by the clan for going off without permission and exposing himself to the dangers of night.
Clarissa transports Jean, Augral, Ilk, and herself from Princess Chandra's chateau directly into her tower in Darkover. Clarissa says that they will be staying there long enough for her to change into more appropriate clothing, then heading off to deal with the last piece. Ilk asks her if he should start acquiring reinforcements while she prepares, and is told that she considered reinforcements, but decided to wait until she discovered what powers would be useful against it. She then claims that she is certain that both Ilk and Jean will be useful.
Clarissa says that Janus will be joining them shortly, as soon as he gets over the sword giving birth. Blackwand gave birth to salmon-colored wavy knives. All of the fish are in the knives, and the sword is now fish-free. Clarissa says that she promised the sword back in its original state to the original owner, and that seemed like the best way to get rid of the fish. Clarissa goes off to change.
Ilk and Jean climb to the top of the tower. They can see an occasional fish swimming through the blue gem. There is a big sword, now sheathed, and about six little daggers lying on the floor. They daggers are so black that they're pinkish. Janus is pacing back and forth, muttering to himself.
Ilk can tell that the daggers are moving slightly. He asks Janus when the daggers started moving. "Moving?! The sword gave birth." Ilk points out that Darhyse gave birth, but Janus maintains that Darhyse is really a cat, not a Pattern blade, and that's entirely different. Jean just listens to the conversation, not entirely clear on what Janus is so emotional about.
Ilk decides not to experiment with possibly magic-eating Morganti weapons in a place where the Logrus cannot reach, and racks some spells.
After a short while, Clarissa comes sweeping back in, dressed in the regalia of Queen of Amber, including a crown.
Osric is alone outside his Fringe gate after the rest of the mob fleeing Rebma trumped into shadow. His timer went off, the gate opened, and Osric went through and made it to his control center. He examines the Fringe for any additional Gwen-taint, and finds some - seven platforms in radius around the gate he unlocked. Osric closes and isolates the relevant gates after expressing extreme displeasure and amazement. According to the station clock here, he's been gone for a week.
Osric contemplates methods of eliminating the influence, or at least checking the spread. He acquires a small Fringe-worthy army and something to pay them with, and goes hunting infected Mellor.
Osric checks on the meters occasionally as his army tosses infected Mellor off the Fringe. The power-o-meter is slowly climbing.
At one point, his army got overconfident and opened a pocket stop to a place with uninfected Mellor, and took heavy casualties. They're being more careful now.
Damia and her entourage have passed Malachai and company on the stairs to Tir. They reach the top of the stairs and dry off. Bast is especially happy about not being wet any more. The babies are happy and fine. The group continues towards Amber. They get about an eighth of the way up the stairs on Kolvir when the ground starts crunching under them. It's covered with green bug bits. They discuss trumping directly to Amber, but don't have any appropriate place trumps. The second step is ankle-deep in bugs, and the third step is thigh-deep. Damia complains about Malachai's rudeness in not mentioning this obstacle in his report.
Damia trumps Random, and actually connects.. Random moves to a larger area to pull the group through. Damia can see the chief medical officer, who is not pleased that he accepted a trump call, let alone interrupted the treatment.
Damia - "Are you well?"
Random - "A gift from your grandson."
Damia - "Which one?"
Random - "Martin... I'll tell you later."
Damia hands Bast through. Bast is carrying both infants, who are both nursing. Damia hands Vialle through. Random greets her cordially, bows over her hand, and so on. They have to wait while Random and Vialle finish being cute. She hands the guards through with the luggage. Damia goes through last.
Random tells Damia that she looks pretty bad, and warns her to leave the vicinity of the infirmary before the chief medical officer spots her. She humors him. The group heads away from the infirmary.
Random complains about the prevalence of walking corpses ever since Norton showed up.
[Celeste gibbering in the corner gets boring in about a day and a half]
Clarissa is dressed to the nines. Ilk shifts his clothing to match. Janus checks, and deems himself to be appropriately dressed. Jean is vaguely aware that he is dressed, but doesn't much care one way or the other.
Clarissa raises her hands and the world twists, leaving Jean, Augral, Janus, Ilk, and Clarissa all standing in a room. Ilk is very aware that he is in the middle of Castle Amber. He pulls in his Logrus tendrils and tidies up the Logrus tracks in the vicinity. He recognizes that he's standing in the ante-chamber that he furnished, directly outside Damia's quarters.
Logrus Jean enters Flora's room. Theraat is curled up across Flora's feet, and Flora is awake, doing petit-point, working on a tapestry. "Hi, Mom." "Shush - she's sleeping. How are you doing?" "We're doing fine." Jean tells Flora that one of him just arrived with Clarissa. Flora decides that she needs to prepare, and reaches into a pouch, pulls out some Faerie dust, and sprinkles it carefully over Theraat. Flora carefully pulls her feet out from under Theraat, leaves the room, and shuts it behind her. "Now we can talk normally."
Jean - "Mom! I walked the Pattern!"
Flora - "Good! A little young, aren't
you?"
Jean - "That's what Corwin said after he stopped throwing up."
"Norton's bad. He killed me!" Flora commiserates with her son. "I'll have to speak to him about that. Killing my children isn't nice." She says that she'll get Jean's father to talk to Norton, too.
They chat. He fills her in about the Jewel, and Brand, and Suhuy, and the thing with Princess Chandra in Chaos, and the demonic spirograph, and the Jolly Jean Giant eating dinner. "It's good to know that you're eating well."
Jean - "I lost the Dancers."
Flora - "Would you like some more?"
Jean reveals that he lost the Dancers when he started walking the Pattern. Flora is not surprised that walking the Pattern could be bad for a demon's health.
She trumps the Dancers Guild, and pulls two people through. "These aren't demons - they're actual people, so you have to be more careful with them. Demons don't deal too well with this side of reality." Flora introduces Jean to the two dancers, Ephram and Lennie. She gives them their marching orders. "You will both go with him, and when you meet him later, one of you will go with each of him." They look confused, but willing.
Flora goes off to the Grand Ballroom. Jean follows, and is told to stay out of the way. Flora starts arranging a party. Jean's not sure if she's using magic, but whatever she is doing is very impressive. He watches closely.
There is a hole in Random's shoulder. It's partially sewn up, and a needle is dangling at the end of a thread protruding from his flesh. Damia goes off to Oberon's rooms to get people settled. Just as they reach the door to Oberon's rooms, the door is being opened from the inside by Clarissa. Inside the room are Clarissa, Ilkandacian, and a five-year-old with a stuffed animal draped around his shoulders.
Damia - "Has his majesty returned?"
Clarissa - "No, not yet."
Damia - "So no formal courts have been
convened?"
Clarissa - "No - I was about to go
convene one. Would you like to do the convening? You know, you're not
looking all that well."
[Note: Damia is still a shambling corpse]
Damia introduces Clarissa to Bast as her cousin, and Vialle as her daughter-in-law. "Bast - how do you find clothes that fit?" "I found an excellent tailor." Bast hands Clarissa her tailor's business card.
Damia - "Who should i talk to to arrange
temporary quarters?"
Clarissa - "Oh - you can have
these. I'll sleep elsewhere. I didn't want to share Oberon's bed any more - it's just habit."
Clarissa mentions that Oberon just might show up again, and that would be inconvenient.
Clarissa - "And, besides, dear, I love
your new decorator."
Damia - "Well, you should look into hiring
him yourself."
Damia glances at Ilk. Ilk continues trying to be inconspicuous.
Clarissa asks to be introduced to the babies.
Damia - "Well, I'm waiting for a more
formal occasion."
Clarissa - "Good - I'll be holding a
formal court soon. You can introduce them then."
Logrus Jean warns Flora that Clarissa wants to hold a formal court. He notices that there is something that looks like a large blue police call box in one corner of the room that Flora is decorating, and out of which servants are occasionally walking.
Vialle goes off with one of the babies. Damia sends three of the guards with her.
Clarissa complains that the servants here aren't answering her calls. Jean replies that most of the servants here are dead. He fails to mention that they taste like pork.
Jean - "Norton is bad. He killed me."
Damia - "Well, did you deserve it?"
Jean - "No!"
Damia asks Ilk where Norton is. Ilk tells her where both of the Nortons are, and tells her that the one in Chaos is occupied, and he's not sure what the one with Malachai is doing.
Damia asks Clarissa to ensure that her granddaughter is with her at the court. Clarissa wonders if humiliation is planned, and says so.
Clarissa - "Do I want to be sitting
next to her?"
Damiana - "You don't want to be sitting
next to her."
Clarissa - "Excellent, excellent."
Clarissa expresses her theory that pain helps children mature.
Jean fills in Flora on the conversation. Flora is delighted, and decides to ensure that nobody is within sword range of each other at the court.
Celeste, her companion, Malachai, and Norton are in a small glade out in shadow somewhere. Celeste is re-inflated. Celeste thanks Norton for the help. Norton thanks Celeste for the challenge. Celeste checks herself over and notices something in the base of her being that reminds her of Norton. It feels like a signature. "Norton?" "Hmm?" "Do you always sign your work?" "I've been told that. It's unconscious. I'm not sure if I could prevent it."
Malachai suggests that they should return to Amber. Celeste's companion agrees with the plan.
Brand, regarding talking to Benedict, soon, with Celeste present: "I trust you, Celeste."
Celeste asks Norton if he is going to come along, too. "I should check in with Benedict. I am an Amberite, after all. And the hills might be rotting." Malachai is not okay with the idea of Garnath rotting.
They contemplate methods of travel to Amber. Malachai mentions that he could probably trump Corwin, and that Corwin would probably be willing to pull three of them through. Celeste seems unwilling to abandon her companion. Celeste contemplates blasting a teleport gate through the block.
Norton - "You could shadow-walk to the
Pattern-block, and then I could Logrus-pull us the rest of the way."
Malachai - "I don't see why not."
Brand - "I do."
Brand seems to be certain that the Logrus would be unwilling to move him. He suggests that since Ilk isn't here, he could feed Celeste enough power for her to burn through the teleport gate. Celeste starts working on a teleport gate into the gardens in the castle. Brand feeds her power. The gate opens. Norton throws a rock through, and it gets caught up in the field around Connor and slows down. Celeste changes the focus of the gate. Norton throws another rock through. It hits a gardener on the head. The gardener starts cursing and looking around for the person that threw the rock. Celeste changes the focus of the gate a third time.
Malachai steps through the gate. The gardener stops cursing and apologizes. Norton goes through. It's painful, but at the height of the pain, there is clarity. It reminds him of when he was in the other reality. Celeste and Brand go through last.
Norton hears the buzzing again, and fills in the others. "The other part of the big adversary... it's here, in Amber. It seems to be following me. But it's walking very slowly." Celeste is horrified. She notices a definite pressure in the back of her mind. She is upset at Norton for not mentioning this before they got to Amber.
"The last time we were here, Rainbow said run. So we did."
Celeste tries to push away the contact, but fails.
Norton shows off his echolocation device to Celeste. She is horrified. Brand experiments with it. He is less not okay with it than Celeste. Malachai carefully studies the wall while the redheads squeeze the bat-like creature.
The pressure in the back of Celeste's mind is increasing. She complains. Norton says that the nasty thing was only bothering him the last time he was here.
Celeste studies the pressure. The pressure is very familiar to her. It's her grandmother. Celeste looks on the god channels. It's Clarissa. The pressure goes away. They chat. Clarissa tells Celeste that she should be at the upcoming formal court.
Celeste mentions to Clarissa that Norton was instrumental in fixing her, and that he signs his work. Clarissa insists that she bring Norton to the court. Celeste tells Clarissa that Brand and Malachai are with her. "Bring them, too."
Malachai excuses himself and rides towards the castle.
Brand trumps his tailor, Avram by name, tells him that the rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated, and pulls through a set of formal clothing.
Celeste conjures up new court clothing and puts it on. Brand says, "Tacky. Anyone could unconjure them." Brand unconjures Celeste's clothing as a demonstration. Celeste complains. Norton fails to comment. Brand conjures her some new clothing, in his colors.
Norton Logrus-acquires some court clothing in Celeste's size. They're in Random's colors. Norton shifts the colors to burgundy and black. [Somewhere in the castle, Martin is cursing.]
Norton - "Is it impolite to show up to
court dead?"
Celeste - "It probably is. I'm sure that
it's at least in poor taste."
Norton reluctantly goes back alive.
Celeste and her companion turn simultaneously and raise defenses as a gate opens behind them. Norton doesn't notice the gate. Out of the gate steps four people. Norton notices the people arrive.
Neville sees a redhead who looks vaguely familiar, reminiscent of another, another redhead who looks vaguely familiar, reminiscent of another, and two other people.
They four are wearing neutral colors and human forms. Neville pokes one of his companions, and their defenses go up as well. Celeste examines the defenses - they're well built.
Norton dies and calls his gargoyles. Two huge gargoyles land behind the thin guy. One is carrying a big stick, and the other is carrying something that looks like a cross between an accordion and a piano.
[Neville, Jerry, Bill, Roderick]
Roderick bows in their direction. He apologizes for disturbing their garden party and says that they were traveling through shadow, following an anomaly. The anomaly was human-shaped, and brownish in color.
Osric - "Might I ask where we are?"
Celeste - "You can ask."
Norton - "At my castle!"
Celeste checks with her companion. They don't recognize the newcomers. Celeste asks the newcomers not to continue their search into the castle proper.
Mandor in Norton points to one of the new arrivals and says, "He's a mage, a good one. Probably master-class. Last time I saw him, he was associated with... no, I must be mistaken." "Entertain a madman." Mandor starts juggling. "No, I meant... oh, all right." Norton watches Mandor.
Norton scratches at Celeste's mental shields, trying to project thoughts at her. "Only Norton scratches at my shields." "Yes, Norton?" "That one is a master-level mage, and Mandor thought he recognized him."
Celeste - "Where are you gentlemen
from?"
Roderick - "From out in shadow a ways."
Celeste and Roderick chat.
There are three gardeners around. One of them has a lump on his head.
A liveried servant wearing Flora's colors enters the gardens. He bows to them all, and says that the party will be beginning in five minutes, and that they are all expected there. He then concentrates on the cuff-link of his uniform. Celeste can tell that the cuff-link is a trump. The servant looks at the newcomers. "All of you are invited."
Roderick seems to have adjusted his estimation of Celeste's status downward considerably after she is overruled by a servant.
There is a knock at Damia's door. One of Damia's guards answers it. In the doorway stands a servant, who announces that Flora is throwing a party now-ish, and expects RSVPs. They trump Bast and relay the invitation. Bast definitely wants to attend. "Maybe the horse will be there at this one, too." After much waffling and some pressuring from the servant, they decide to attend.
Clarissa, Jean, Ilk, and Augral are heading towards a set of rooms when they are overtaken by a servant, who invites them to Flora's party. Clarissa accepts the invitation on behalf of the entire group. The servant is carrying a couple pieces of fruit, which he hands directly to Augral, but exhibits surprise when Augral actually responds and eats the fruit.
Celeste asks the servant if this is a masked party. The servant stares at his cuff-link briefly, then responds, "Not this time... there isn't another party running against it." The servant looks confused at his answer.
Norton acquires some party clothing. They hear a scream from one of the windows, "God damn it!" and they see a flash of a naked Martin as he runs past a window. Celeste is amused. "Do you just reach out and take things from people?" "That's what the Logrus does." "We have to talk. Martin has something of mine that I'd like back."
Brand asks, "Who's Martin?" Celeste is shocked at that particular hole in Brand's memory. "Martin is Random's son." "They let Random breed?" "Actually, someone had something to say about that, after the fact." They discuss finding appropriate clothing.
Celeste - "Well, my room is a vacuum and
your room is unenterable, so..."
Brand - "Why is my room unenterable? Did
you walk in and set off all of the traps?"
Celeste - "No... but Ferro could just walk in."
Norton and Celeste roughly describe Ferro. Marzipan, created by a bored Dworkin.
Norton explains that he needs to check in with Benedict because he is an Amberite because the enemy said so. Brand asks Norton whose he is, and Norton asks Brand if he could tell because he doesn't know.
Brand - "You know, you look a lot like Caine's."
Norton - "?"
Brand - "Caine had a daughter... her name was K'rin. You look a lot like her."
Norton - "K'rin."
Brand - "You know her?"
Norton - "I'm supposed to hunt her down
and kill her."
Brand advises Norton not to speak poorly of K'rin around Caine.
Celeste gives up and takes Brand's arm. They walk arm-in-arm towards the castle.
Norton contemplates the nature of the enemy. "So, Mandor... theoretically, what would you use to deal with a thing made of anti-magic?" They decide to ruminate on it. Norton walks away from the castle, to draw the shadow as far from the ballroom as he can before the party begins.
Brand opens the door to his door and walks in. Celeste leans on thin air in the doorway. Brand tells her to give him a moment to take the wards down. Brand pokes around his room briefly, then complains that someone took most of his stuff. Celeste admits that she sent it to Darkover for safekeeping.
Celeste tells Brand that her room is a vacuum - it was a murder attempt. Brand goes to her door and gestures briefly, and a shimmering box appears around the door. Brand is shimmering as well. Celeste joins Brand in the box. He inquires about her environment suit. She is briefly confused, then makes one. The box drains of air, and Brand opens the inner door. The room is indeed a vacuum.
Celeste looks at the inside of her door. There is a note pinned to the door with a dagger. It reads, "Suck vacuum, baby killer!" There is a house seal on the note. It's the house that is trying to kill her. She looks at the note in horror for a moment, then has a moment of realization and expresses surprise that they still hold a grudge.
Brand opens the airlock a tiny crack, there is a thin whistling noise, and air filters into the room. She's not okay with that sound - it reminds her of a time when her spaceship was holed when she was traveling between planets in a shadow called Manhome. When the pressure has equalized, Brand dispels the airlock.
Brand - "Do you think Bleys's stuff would fit me, or should I
borrow Corwin's?"
Celeste - "You are not going anywhere in
Bleys's colors!"
Brand - "...not that I'd borrow underwear from you or anything."
They go to Bleys's rooms. Brand casually banishes the wards and starts rummaging around. He tosses something to Celeste. It's a receipt from the bet that he lost with Julian, when Celeste failed to be the youngest person to walk the Pattern. In that drawer are a number of other things that are familiar to Celeste. There is reminder of almost every time that Celeste disappointed Bleys, by Bleys's standards.
Celeste sits on the bed and sulks. She notices that there is a portrait of her on the ceiling, over the bed. It's not a very accurate rendition - it's deified.
Brand wanders over, looks up, and says, "I didn't know he cared!" The picture is now of the two of them together. Celeste backs up, and the picture is only of Brand. "What an arrogant bastard..."
Brand - "Y'know, we should come back
here and use that."
Celeste - "He's not using it."
Brand takes a few things and leaves a note, listing exactly what he borrowed. Celeste is annoyed at his courtesy. "I was gone for a while too, but I'm back. Chances are he'll be back, too. He's a sneaky bastard."
Celeste notices that among the things in the drawer are some dead flowers that look like they were picked off a grave. They are the kind that she and later, Flora, left on her mother's grave every year. There is only one set of flowers, so Celeste expresses irritation that he only went once. There is a note with the flowers. They say, "From Flora. I thought these might be important to you."
"He never went at all? The bastard!" Celeste expresses her extreme dislike of her father to Brand. Brand makes excuses for his brother. "Egotism runs in the family, dear."
Celeste warns Brand of the danger in attending the party. Brand tries to convince Celeste that she's much too untrusting. Celeste asks Brand how he would feel if he discovered that one of his brothers killed one of his kids. "I seem to recall that someone did accidentally kill some of my kids."
Celeste stalks out of the room.
From Damia's group, Bast, Damia, two guards are attending the party. The rest are staying with the babies. Vialle sent Damia a note telling her that she would be attending the party as well.
Ilk is heading towards the party with Clarissa, Jean, and Augral. Ilk asks Clarissa about Flora's parties, and shifts appropriately.
One Jean is already at the party. His mother has finished with the arrangements. She's even placed a tree in the middle of the party so Augral can climb and enjoy it.
Norton has gone to the far side of the castle and is waiting for the buzzing thing to get fairly close. Mandor has Norton try a few experiments, all of which are failures.
The grand tour is boring.
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