The chronicles of the exiles, 6.

By Aratana

With some trepidation I shall scribe the events of the past week. Things in Amber are certainly hotting up, and possibly getting literally too hot for some. But I get ahead of myself. Dark humour and melancholia seem to be the moods of the moment amongst even the elders. And thus starts the account.

It was a nice, sunny morning in Amber as I returned to the castle. People were quite busy and seemed to be putting up tables in the garden. I gathered that Flora was holding a garden party, and so I crashed. Silly, I hear you say? Well everyone else had been invited (and even some extras..).

I arrived early in the proceedings, when only Random and of course Flora were there, as well as Ricardo, Bryan, Thor and that strange guy, Lorien-with-a-"Z". People were talking. Random was drinking heavily and looked depressed. Thor asked him why he looked depressed. Random looked as if he didn't appreciate that question, gave a curt reply and went off to find more alcohol. On the way he paused and said to Lorien "Who are you"? Lorien replied that he was Lorien. I am not quite sure that that is what Random quite meant, but anyway.

Bleys arrived at this point, making a sparkling entrance of impresive magnificence and great presence. Ricardo wasn't paying attention. Bleys waited until he did.

Next to arrive was Corwin. Now he really did look depressed, as well as very tired. But he came in, went up to Flora said hello and then went off to eat

Johanna arrived about now also, and, being more late than was fashionable, made up for lost time by grabbing Corwin for a conversation.
Johanna : Hail uncle! How goes it?
Corwin : Oh I'm just doing great. I am so happy. Everything Everywhere is just fine.
Johanna : Don't worry Uncle. Something somewhere will go wrong soon. This is Amber, after all.
Corwin : So what's set to happen next?
Corwin : You have a face that suggests you are behind the many jokes and japes of this merry city.
Johanna looks blank....

Flora glared at Johanna for feeding her dog with very nice party food. Then Julian entered. Now he actually looked quite happy. I wonder what he'd just done.... Although, according to Corwin, people going into Arden still get hacked into ittle bitty pieces......

I noted that Walker arrived at this time also. I kept away from him.

It didn't work. He got closer. Throwing caution to the wind, I picked up a drink and went to meet him. He took the drink, downed it, put down the glass.
He then swept my legs out from under me. I was expecting something like that. I rolled and flipped back to my feet. He closed again. There was a brief discussion in which a re-negotiation was ruled out.
He closed once more and hit me. I staggered a bit, stunned. I think everyone heard the next conversation:
Me : Right, that was your shot. I guess I deserved it for my admission. If you continue, though, I will retaliate.
Walker : The renegotiation is satisfactory. [turns and walks off]
Me : [under breath]Phew!

During the altercation, it seems that Fiona (in Red), Fiona (in Green) and Gerard had turned up and were watching. As was Bleys. Well, Bleys was watching with one eye and squinting with the other at someone behind me. He grinned at Lorien and then got closer.

A Pattern Sword was drawn. "At least draw your blade." Bleys said. Lorien didn't, and hid behind a table, sorry, some splinters, before Bleys' sword cut his head open, and the body collapsed to the ground, brains slithering everywhere, before the corpse started to burn, turning to ash in a few seconds. Bleys commented "There are some things that you should never do to an Amberite."
Walker blanched at about this time.

The party had gone completely silent. Flora looked a bit upset that this had happened at her party. Poeple then went back to their conversations. Bleys turned to leave, but Johanna went and intercepted him before he could do so, inviting him back to the party for a drink. As Bleys pointed out, he had after all made the most impressive entrance, so he should stay. Corwin also came up to Bleys.
Corwin : Wasn't that just a little excessive? Ah, but I suppose it was a nice fire. [Corwin turns to leave for more alcohol]
When questioned for motive, Bleys mentioned that "He had wronged another who is not present."

Walker was not at this time in a conversation. Thor went to talk to him. He asked Walker if he had enjoyed the fight.
Walker : It was an impressive display of Swordsmanship...
Johanna : ....And Brain....
Fiona : But such a waste of good organic matter....

At this time Fiona arrived. That's right, there was now three of them. Red, green and blue. Johanna excused herself from the conversation with Walker and Fiona in Green to talk to Fiona in Blue, thereby offending slightly Fiona in Red and Fiona in Green. She introduced herself to Fiona in Blue, and then introduced Fiona in Blue to Fiona in Green at the request of Fiona in Blue. Any questions? Goooooood. Meanwhile, Corwin and Gerard were getting Drunk. Or at least trying quite hard.

Johanna commented to Fiona that they seemed to have made too many invitations. The joke was somewhat leaden.... Flora was mingling with the lesser nobility at this time and so of course could not come and talk to the Fionas without committing a grave faux pas. she then moved on to Random for a little chat.

Returning to Walker and Thor, Thor asked him what was on his mind, in that kind of worrying way that Thor asks that question.... Walker replied that it was a "job lot of worry". This is worrying for the rest of us.

Fionas green and blue at this time were having a staring conversation, sorry, competition, while Fiona Red was er, missing. Ricardo and Darius made conversation with Thor and Walker, acting disturbingly like identical twins once more. Ricardo admitted that he might have known who Lorien really was. This was silly as it led to Thor piling on the peer pressure (hey, at least it wasn't psychic) as well as various threats until Ricardo confessed. In the middle of the conversation there was an earth tremor. This worried people as this is not the kind of thing that happens in Amber. Darius skulked off somewhere and started to concentrate. After a little while, Walker hit, sorry prodded him. Just in case. I mean, he could have been doing anything. . .

Meanwhile in a galaxy far, far away...... Johanna had somehow gotten herself into a big fight, and was losing. She trumped home via Flora and staggered off to the infirmary..

Darius stood up and went to talk to the Fionas. He asked them what it was that would make a brief blemish appear in the Pattern, which would disappear soon after. Green Fiona said that it would fix itself. Blue Fiona stared at Green Fiona. Darius turned and ran into Red Fiona. Never one to pass up an opportunity, he asked her the same question. Red Fiona was impressed that he had noticed. I quote:
Red Fiona : You noticed that..... I think that you had better examine recent events. Very recent events. Your perception is promising. You should be nicer to your mother.

Don't ask me about the meaning of that last bit.

Darius then made the comment that he detected "a great disturbance in the Pattern."

Next morning, I found Darius in breakfast. He looked hung over
Aratana : So, Darius, was it the usual cause or merely alcohol this time. [grin]
Darius : A little of both. But mainly the first one.
Aratana : Do you know what caused the quake yesterday?
Darius : Yes, in a vague way. It was something that affected something, but that something wasn't affecting anything else, apart from the other thing it was affecting.
Aratana : [boggle]

There then followed a brief conversation in which Bryan showed his complete inability to cope with the concepts of metaphor and simile. I however lost points for being silly enough to try and explain them to him.

Darius : Oh yeah. I nearly forgot. Something else happened.
Everyone else : What?
Darius : Try using a trump. .
Thor tried.
He pulled out a card of a random shadow.
He looked at it.
He looked at it a bit harder.
He looked at it in slight annoyance.
He looked like he was about to be hit by an express train.
He disappeared in a shimmer of rainbow light.
A few minutes later he trumped Darius and got pulled through.
Thor : Er, Trump's working just fine. [sheepish grin]

After breakfast we decided to go and look at the Pattern, to see if it was OK. I was rather uncertain about that, although I did agree with Bryan that looking at Corwin's Pattern might be a good idea.
I have bad memories about the last time, however.

We got to the bottom of the stairs and tried to get into the Pattern Room. The Guards stopped us, even Walker, saying that we were not on the list of authorised persons. Just when Bryan and Thor were about to beat them up, Darius disappeared. He then opened the door to the room from the other side. We were having a brief argument about this when Bleys came past and reprimanded the guards, who let us in. Darius was a little tired from his exertions and decided that he would try after a good few days rest. I warned the others that trying to walk it would be a bad thing. Nobody really listened.

A few days later, we returned to the Pattern room. Darius and Bryan determined that they would be aiming for Corwin's Pattern. I tried to dissuade Bryan from this course of action - after all only one person needs to go through, but he was determined. I presumed that Darius knew what he was doing. Darius moved to the start of the Pattern. I moved to the doorway and started having flashbacks.

Darius started on the Pattern and there were quite few sparks, if my memory was any guide to how things went from here last time. Darius walked to the First veil and hit it, whilst glowing Silver in a way that I do not recall being normal. I expected things to go downhill from here but they didn't, and he seemed to be performing a fairly ordinary Pattern Walk apart from the glow. Bryan set forth upon the Pattern in Panther form when Darius was at the second veil. Things quite literally started to hot up at this point.

Bryan was wreathed in fire and obscured as soon as his foot met the surface of the Pattern, and I really started to cringe as silver white fire burst through my eyelids and dragged memories I would far rather not have out of the dark corners. I was really in quite a state at this point, but I could not move. I remember at this time Darius passed through the second veil, it parted before him as it would have done on our Pattern, so long ago. This was in contrast to Bryan who was now only a ball of raw energy to anyone looking. The tip of his tail could be seen smouldering behind him. I whimpered.

As Darius walked the grand curve to the final veil, Bryan came to the first veil. He combusted, his fur burning off in a second in the miasma of power that surrounded him. Energy crackled across the lines and wrapped itself around Bryan, slowing him down and pulling him back, and burning him. He buckled, his front legs giving way beneath him. Darius now reached the third veil, and walked into a wall. Bryan was similarly immobile, but struggled back to his feet. As Darius pushed into the third veil and was obscured by energy, Bryan buckled once more, but struggled through the other side to the relative calm of the first recurve to the second veil. Bryan was burning in a quite familiar manner, and I cringed to myself in the corner. I had gotten further than Bryan before igniting, and in the absence of Fiona to bail him out I feared for his life. Darius still pushed on the third veil as Bryan approached the second. I do believe that Bryan was finding his way by pain alone since I doubt he could see anything for the heat, smoke and nimbus of Pattern-stuff that played about him.

Darius broke through to the centre of the Pattern. I called to him, indicating the almost totally immobile and blackening Panther in the second veil. I said that when I was in the similar position, Fiona had somehow removed the resistance of the Pattern and enabled me to finish. I was not hopeful though, as Darius was tired, had never done anything like it before, and Bryan was only in the second veil, where I had become stuck in the third. Darius concentrated. The flaring of the Pattern quietened down and Bryan positively shot out of the second veil. I watched, horrorstruck, as Thor rushed past to the infirmary. I couldn't avert my eyes. Bryan neared the centre and the third veil, a flaming ball of burning flesh at a hideous run. Darius had buckled under the strain. Bryan hit the third veil, and the image was gone. My sight was cut off by a brilliant burst of energy from the Pattern. It formed a silver wall of coruscating sparks as far out as the door, and heat raged against my skin. Finally able to break the hold over my movements, I ran up the stairs.

In the infirmary we waited. Nothing happened for ten minutes. Eventually Thor decided to go and have a look in the Pattern room. With great reservations, I went with him. From the door of the Pattern Room we looked in. There was the Pattern, looking much quieter than when we had entered that morning. But that was it. No bodies, no mess. Thor reached for his trumps. He got a patchy and faint signal from Darius' trump, which meant he lived, but from Bryan's, there was no signal. Given the unreliable nature of Trump at the moment and the likely mental state of any survivors, Thor thought it unwise to bring Darius back - he could have teleported to a hospital and been on a life support unit, and bringing him back would possibly kill him. So we decided to return to our quarters and wait.






Rather than "Corwin goes up to Flora and starts eating", which was the other alternative. [Ari] [back]

The trump that melts in your mind, (not in your hand....). [Ari] back