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A large gate opens from House Cara to House Hendrake, and a mob goes through. Neville, Ilk, Mecha-Jean, Norton, and a horde of frogs go through the gate. The group enters, and is greeted by one of Norton's servitors. Norton heads of in search of Celeste, leaving the group in an entry room.
[...and you don't think that a Mecha-Jean would occur naturally in nature]
Celeste - "You're a lizard, dear. Why?"
Norton - "So the frog wouldn't feel left out."
They discuss Dworkin's interest in Boba Frog returning from his tour of reality intact.
"Take me to the frog."
Celeste heads down to draw the frog; Norton goes off to say hi to Faythe. Faythe is sleeping, surrounded by a penta-Jean. Norton rebuilds and reanimates some paisleys into flying and chirping entertainment as a gift for Faythe.
Neville questions Celeste about trump artistry.
Cailin sends a message to Cassandra asking her if the cats would like to fight the bunnies.
Cassandra tries to trump Corwin, fails, and asks Darhyse if she thinks that the Sha'um would like to hunt the bunnies. Darhyse pours off her back out of cloak form into cat form and darts off. Cassandra contacts Hunter, and discovers that he is lurking overhead, watching her back.
Eleven kittens minus Lazy, Peekaboo, and Atalanta converge on the bunnies.
The frog has carved two things into the table -- "I want my flower back", and "the princess didn't kiss me".
Norton explains Frogdalorr to Celeste.
Boba Frog and the frog drones are prepared. "Unleash the frogs of war!"
Trumping details are discussed.
Faythe awakes, is delighted by the flying, singing paisleys and heads down to find her fiance.
Neville opens the trump gate; Celeste holds a trump contact with Boba Frog. Celeste notices a massive location-based attack on everything not matching a particular shape. It's hitting all of the frogs. The Norton in her head can determine the set of valid shapes. Celeste pulls the frog out through the trump contact. Boba Frog's armor is smoking and scarred; the 'seven' indicating his unit designation is pitted.
The frog has preserved most of the recording equipment attached to his armor. There are three distinct people in the room, and possibilities of eight or ten more. All of the three are elders that Neville recognizes. Ilk recognizes the signature of the attack as Pharaban's.
Mandor is acquired via the Jean-band, and Norton welcomes Mandor to his humble home. Mandor is shown the data, notices something in the target room, and departs rapidly to look into it.
Celeste shakes Norton's hand. Norton talks to Norton, and they swap data, including the safe shapes and the existence of the green door.
Norton shares the knowledge that the safe shapes match at least the three visible figures in the room.
Jean notices Pharaban step out of a ways that wasn't there a moment ago and says hi. Pharaban looks at Jean and continues towards House Helgram.
Jean warns Raymond of Pharaban's approach.
The outside wall of the House rearranges itself around Pharaban and then reforms behind him.
Ilk analyzes the Logrus defenses in the room - they have at least one of Suhuy's apprentices currently or formerly working for them.
Pharaban enters the room. Norton sees the giant spider that he saw in court. To Ilk it looks like a ball of Logrus - a unique, non-local Logrus. Not using the Logrus - an actual Logrus. Jean notices that pieces of Pharaban seem to be migrating in and out. Celeste can't actually see the body - her sight is blocked by magical shields of the sort that she has never seen before, powered by a source that she cannot even imagine.
People bow appropriately.
Celeste sees Pharaban reach out a magical tendril to the trump. Ilk sees a Logrus tendril. Jean sees a tendril appear and then disappear. The rest see a physical tendril.
He seems to taste the trump, and then hands it back to them. Celeste can tell that the trump was undamaged by whatever he did.
Faythe says, "He's a very handsome man." She shows Celeste her mental image - Faythe is seeing a very handsome, well-proportioned man.
Pharaban walks out. On his way past the frog, he flips out a tendril and the frog jumps, landing in completely restored armor.
They discuss sending Boba Frog through again; Ilk claims that he should take off and deal with another component of the defense first.
Amaranth Sinclair comes home after noticing the one-eyed woman several times during her day. Sitting in her living room is a gentleman dressed in somewhat outlandish clothing. Her alarm has not been set off, and her dog is lying calmly next to the fireplace. There is a corpse at the stranger's feet that she recognizes. It's the photocopy-security guy from her workplace, with a binocular strap wrapped around his throat.
She confronts him. "You're my father? Prove it or get out."
She threatens to call the police. He says that the police are otherwise occupied at the moment. She dials 911. The phone rings, and rings, and rings. She hangs up.
"As I said, they're all busy elsewhere."
"What have you done with all of the police?"
He proffers her a drink that appears in his outstretched hand.
He warns her that a pair of powerful individuals have become aware of her existence and that she should be prepared against them.
"Maybe you're warning me, and maybe you're turning me into your pawn."
"No, I don't have time for that."
"Your mother will be showing up soon."
"My mother is dead."
"No - she got distracted by her brother Benedict at the time."
"So nice having you over."
"Don't mention to Tabitha or Samantha that I was here or they'll be upset." He takes a step towards her and vanishes.
Amaranth immediately calls Samantha and complains.
A patrol car pulls up with two police officers inside. They tell Amaranth that they received a call during a major outage, and wanted to make sure that everything was all right. She complains about the corpse, and they ask if she would mind if they dusted for prints.
"Dust for anything you like. Just try not to make too much of a mess - I have company coming over."
Tabitha and Samantha arrive, and the three of them leave the police to their business and return to Tabitha's house. She complains to them about recent events.
Tabitha (or Samantha?) conjures a glass of wine as a demonstration.
"Well, maybe it's not your father - he usually stocks the bar when he comes." "Well, ... "
They chat.
"Where I come from, apparent age is a matter of will, not of inevitable grey hair."
"And my parents?"
"You see - your parents are an interesting anomaly... it took your father two years to find out that you were conceived, and another half year to find out who the mother was."
...
"He asked us to grow up here next to you and keep you safe."
"Safe from what?"
"Mostly your mother's family."
They say that they are telling her this now because if he felt the need to go to her directly without talking to them first it must be urgent.
"Last I checked there was a war going on in his area and one of the other areas of influence was winning..."
"And he's one of the elite folks who can travel between them."
"Travel between realities? Uh-huh."
...
"As far as I can tell, your mother has been alive for at least several centuries, if not more."
"My mother is the person I remember from my childhood, yes?"
...
"So, both my deadbeat father and the mother that I loved chose to abandon me through the crucial moments of my childhood?"
...
"All right, who is my father?"
"Well, his name is commonly rendered as Mandor. He is or at least was the power behind the household to whom I owe my loyalty..."
"And who is my mother?"
"Well, Mandor never actually said which member of that family was your mother... it's the family Amber."
...
"You don't need to go crazy, unless you chose to, or go walk the Logrus
or something."
"Back that up... Walk the logrus?"
"Forget about it. It's a figure of speech, like go around the bend."
...
"He didn't look like he was dressed for war."
"How was he dressed?"
Amaranth describes the clothing that Mandor was wearing.
"He was in court garb? Maybe they won the war!"
...
"Given your father, there might not be any fingerprints."
"Even if there weren't, it wouldn't matter. I'm blackmailing the
commissioner."
[Tia and Jet bet a good home-cooked meal cooked to the others
preferences on her maternal parentage. Jet - Fiona, Tia - Flora.]
[Note from the future - hey Tia, looks like you won. :-)]
They offer her an extra week before her meeting tomorrow, with Samantha as company. She asks for the French Riviera.
Tabitha gestures, and a portal opens, with a beach on the other side. They go through, and the gateway disappears behind them. "First question - how did she do that, and can you teach me? Second question - where do we eat lunch?"
They spend a week in the shadow. It is altogether pleasant, although definitely not the French Riviera. At the end of the week, they go down to the beach, a gate opens, and they step through back into the living room where three hours have passed. Tabitha agrees to teach Amaranth how to make gates. Samantha says that she has a bad feeling about the one-eyed woman.
They decide that the three of them will take an extended trip to an unannounced destination starting tomorrow evening.
The night passes quietly; Samantha drives her to work. As she is walking towards the building and Samantha is driving off, Samantha dives out of the car, and throws herself over Amaranth just before the building blows up. The abandoned car runs into some nearby cars.
"The media - the media is going to be here. How do I look?"
A media circus ensues. Amaranth milks it.
Before they leave, Samantha casually reaches beneath the car and straightens out some of the dents. Amaranth is shocked. Samantha shows off by peeling some metal off one of the cars she ran into and folding it into an origami crane.
[Shadow. It's everywhere you want to be.]
They drive to Amaranth's home. Sitting in her home is a young lady who looks precisely like her memories of her mother. The alarms are still enabled.
Amaranth walks up to her mother and punches her.
"That is for leaving me when I was a tender and impressionable child."
"Brother Benedict needed me."
"And your brother Benedict needed you
for twenty-eight years?"
"Well, it's been seven or eight where I come from."
"So tell me, mother, who the hell are you, really?"
"Most of them are [...?]"
She gestures her hand at Samantha, and Samantha grins at her. She looks at her again. "Might I ask you what House you're from, Samantha?" Samantha grins at her.
There is a knock at the door. Samantha answers, and Tabitha enters.
They look at each other.
Flora - "Tabitha. You're looking well-preserved."
Tabitha - "Ja???? - you're looking
well-preserved. "
Flora - "Chaos?"
Tabitha - "Indeed."
Flora - "Mandor's house?"
Tabitha - "Indeed."
Flora - "I see. I've been outmaneuvered."
Flora stands and bows to Tabitha.
Flora says that she's had another child by her most recent boyfriend, Rainbow. He's about five or so.
Amaranth calls Flora a bitch and hits her again. Flora doesn't seem to notice.
Amaranth - "So who the fuck are you?"
Flora - "Your mother. And you shouldn't
use such language around your mother."
Amaranth bitches at her mother.
They discuss the danger imminent upon her person. Flora is upset that Amaranth's company was blown up - she wanted a tour. Flora leaves.
Samantha hands Amaranth a large book, saying that her mother gave it to her in case she didn't have an opportunity in the near future. They slip out the back window, discussing placing the blame regarding a tragic car accident on her local arch-nemesis.
They return to Tabitha's house, where they notice some odd glowing characters around, that Samantha says were written in Thari.
A pitiful assassin attacks under the guise of a reporter, and is squished by Samantha. Amaranth contacts an ex-lover mob boss and asks him to look into her more recent problems and send a cleaner over to Samantha's to deal with the phony reporter.
Dog, luggage, Amaranth, and Samantha go through a gate from the master bedroom into a large chamber hewn out of solid granite.
"This is the basement of the citadel... Technically, Tabitha rules here."
"Tabitha? Rules? ... Queen Tabitha?"
"Technically, Empress Tabitha."
Samantha explains that the realm is quite small - only a few hundred light years across and thirty or forty populated star systems.
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