Recorded for Posterity by Iain Walker.
We split into two teams. Damien tells the others he is going in at the top and indicates his crossbow. Tristan wants the team going in at the top to be subtle. And there should be one person with Trump powers in each group.
Margot has made levitation rings, and rather nervously hands them out to everyone. She is wearing the armour she got from the castle armoury earlier, but it is now black-red with black tiger stripes.
The teams are:
To avoid confusion and friendly fire Esmée chooses this point in time to reveal that she is in fact a shapeshifter. She demonstrates by turning into her war/demon form - a golden plate-armoured cat-humanoid, which looks like it is wearing armour but which is in fact part of it. It has large claws on its fingers and toes, a long razor-whip tail and large wings with razor-edged golden metal feathers. Caleb and Margot boggle slightly when Esmée changes shape.
"You've changed it," notes Damien.
"Just a few accessories," she says. Then she goes out, gets a robe (her clothes having been shredded by her change), changes back to human, and returns.
We armour up (the riot armour in the helicopter is bulky enough to be worn over peoples own armour). Various protection spells are cast. Then we hop into the helicopter.
Ibrahim thinks we should go in as the Fraud Squad. "Tax evasion is probably the only thing with which the authorities can touch them," he explains. Damien agrees.
Tamarind checks for active Trumps - just Caine's at the moment.
"It's been a while since I last flew one of there," says Damien, "But it can't be any more difficult than a Martian War Machine." He gives Tristan a Look.
And off we fly. The city looms before us; behind us Corvallin float off into the rain and is lost to sight.
The helicopter lands in a park (mostly mud with a few dead trees; miserable-looking people in black 30's style clothing walk past on the sidewalks) to let out the ground team. They nab a police vehicle parked nearby and drive off; faint cries of "Stop Police!" can be heard coming from an alley on the far side of the park.
There is a brief discussion of how to stop them escaping like 'Mr Skin'. Damien thinks it is just a shapeshifting thing; others think there is an element of Trump in it. Tristan says he can block Trump contacts with the Pattern if he's close enough.
The ground team drives for the skyscraper of Hania, Prava and Aximia. The main entrance seems to be the pink neon-lit doors of a nightclub - the 'Coco Beach'. They drive down into the basement car park and park across the entrance, blocking it.
Damien hovers the helicopter by the pointed top of the building (it is like the Empire State building). Altair jumps down with the helicopter's rope ladder. Esmée climbs down. Caleb just jumps. Damien sets the helicopter's controls to climb away from here at top speed then runs back and leaps out as it flies away. He lands nimbly on the parapet and jumps down.
Caleb points out a door in off the roof.
"We're in," thinks Damien to Ibrahim.
Downstairs, Ibrahim and Tamarind bicker about whether to use one of the two lifts, or the stairs. Eventually they decide to take the stairs.
Tristan, Margot and Ibrahim all notice that the building itself is enchanted. It feels almost alive, but not conscious.
They make their way past numerous mundane security devices (mainly by means of the Pattern making them malfunction) and into the stairs. The security devices include both things like cameras and also flip-down remote-controlled machine guns. Ibrahim transmits images of the security devices to Damien and notes to him that the place is enchanted. "Oh, yes," says Damien. He tells Altair and the others this fact.
Damien uses his cravat pin to pick the lock on the door in from the roof. Strangely, the security cameras here are defunct. Damien goes first, then Esmée, then Caleb, and then Altair bringing up the rear.
The others find a door out of the stairwell and burst through it into ... the foyer of the nightclub. A couple of men in black suits are walking through and a woman in a sequinned dress stands behind the reception desk. There is only one set of lift doors here, although there were two in the parking basement downstairs.
They march in and notice the girl pick up the phone.
Ibrahim speaks to her. They want to see Hania, Prava and Aximia. Tamarind, Margot and Tristan barge into the nightclub itself (through a set of double doors). A couple of thuggish bouncers are right by the doors. Other than them there are a few dozen people are sitting amidst a tacky ambience of plastic bamboo tables and plastic palms. They even have disco balls. To one side is a long bar (also of plastic bamboo) with a long mirror above it. Bet that doesn't last. As they come in, conversation dies. Tamarind hectors the bouncers. Some people try to sidle off.
One bouncer says he's going to have to phone their bosses. He demand's their names and badge numbers. These are given. He calls someone. "Boss, there are some cops here, want to talk to the three of you," he says. He listens for a moment then turns back to the three of them. "The boss will come down and see you."
In the foyer, Ibrahim presents his warrant and puts the girl's phone down. He asks her if her employers are in residence. She claims not to know. "I only work here," she says, then suggests that he speak directly to the bouncers in the club itself.
Ibrahim goes into the club proper, and notes that the others have already done this. Tamarind asks him if anyone here has magic. Ibrahim realises that about half of the club's customers have either magic items or are themselves sorcerers.
Upstairs, we find two service levels. There are two pairs of lifts and a set of stairs in the central core of the building. One lift in each pair has additional sub-basements on the panel of buttons, and covers the upper thirty stories of the building, while the other one in each pair just does the parking garage and the lower thirty floors of the building.
Damien reports this to Ibrahim, who tells the rest of the ground team.
Keeping to the stairs, the Top Team goes down.
In the 'Coco Beach', Tamarind hassles the customers. One tries to bribe him. Tamarind gets shirty with him. They hear the sounds of guns being cocked under tables. Tamarind threatens the man with the warrant and Ids are grudgingly handed over.
Upstairs, on the next level down the top team finds storerooms and offices which looks like they are not used much. Below that there is a penthouse suite.
Damien tells Caleb to watch the door then steps in. As he goes to do so he notices there is a magical aura around the doorway. Esmée thinks it is a warding of some kind, perhaps an alarm.
Visible beyond the warding, between two sofas, is a glowing mirror-polished black sphere floating above the top of a pillar. They can tell it is very magical.
Damien decides they should keep going down - it is unlikely (though not impossible!) that their target is disguised as furniture.
Downstairs, Tamarind is officious at people. Tristan can't sense any concentrated power sources nearby. He and Tamarind wonder as to the best way to turn up the heat. Suddenly Tristan senses the building becoming active, aware, as if someone is taking control of it.
Upstairs, Altair also senses this, and tells the rest of the top team. "Let's move," says Damien.
There is a faint rumbling. The people in the club look nervous.
Ibrahim decides they've waited too long, and they all go back into the foyer. The foyer is now a blank room with none of the ways in or out that were there before. They return to the club.
"What the hell is that?!" says Ibrahim, and points at the non-existent foyer to worry people. He casts a protective spell on himself. Other people (club-goers) are preparing spells as well. A few wands have appeared from sleeve-holsters.
Tamarind contacts Damien and tells him what's happened. Damien suggests that if his team doesn't find anything in the next few floors they'll grab a lift to the sub-basements. No one disagrees. As yet nothing has changed upstairs.
Esmée casts a spell while Damien watches her back. She's scrying. She says there are areas shielded against magic in the building - part of a floor not too far below them, and the sub-basements. And there are lots of magic users on the ground floor. Damien passes this intelligence on to Ibrahim.
Downstairs, the ground team decides to keep the Council's attention focussed on them. Tristan uses the Pattern to disable the guns of the clubbers.
There is another rumbling from the far side of the club (opposite the bar). The wall there melts away revealing two hundred purple-uniformed men with machine guns (the uniforms are the same as those worn by the people of Chever and 'Mr Skin' in the service of the CfV).
Tristan decides that the security systems will malfunction at this point, and open fire on the CfV troops. The ground team hit the deck. The CfV troops open fire - bullets spray everywhere. The mirror above the bar smashes. Then machine guns flip down from concealed hatches in the ceiling and open fire on them.
Tamarind wants to come through the Trump link to the top team, but they're currently being sealed off as the building moves around them. Caleb and Altair hammer at the wall where the door was. Damien turns back and dives for the stairwell through the closing wall.
Esmée turns into her war form.
Tamarind sees what Damien is doing via Ibrahim's ring. He slaps the floor and tries to pour in psychic energy to disrupt the building. It seems to work; there is a slight shake and the closing walls hesitate for long enough for Damien to make it through upstairs, the closing wall just brushing his ankle as it shuts. Then Tamarind realises that the psychic presence inhabiting the building is that of the Soul Eater. He immediately stops trying to disrupt the building.
The CfV troops shoot at and destroy the ceiling gun emplacements, having suffered some casualties.
Tristan hides behind the pot of a plastic potted palm (making it very probable that it is a bullet-proof one, while all the other pots are balsa wood) and shoots at the sorcerers in the club, avoiding the non-mages there. A couple of them manage to cast spells at him. Tristan dodges the resulting force beams then shoots them, too.
Tamarind concentrates on Altair's Trump.
Ibrahim casts a lightning bolt at the CfV troops. There is a crack and a boom, and the centre of their formation is scattered and singed.
Damien is in a concrete box with the walls closing in. The door from the stairwell into the penthouse is no longer there, so he quickly casts a Teleportation spell to plink through into it anyway. Things are getting a little tight by the time he teleports out...
Altair feels a Trump call coming on, and identifies the caller as Tamarind, so she takes it. Esmée and Caleb dive through the contact to Tamarind, behind the bar and in cover. Altair follows. Altair grabs a drink.
Damien re-appears in the penthouse living room, and drops to the floor. The place is basically the same as before, although now with walls where before there were windows. Nothing attacks him.
He Trumps Tamarind and, when Tamarind takes the call, tells him he is about to do something stupid. Tamarind can sense him looking at the hovering black sphere, and suggests that the others do a psychic blast at the building. Damien thinks this is a good idea.
The others behind the bar concentrate on the building while Ibrahim stabs the floor with Eric's Pattern blade. As they begin to do this, Damien casts his Militia spell. A volley of lead balls fly at the hovering sphere, and a lot of smoke drifts about.
Tamarind, Margot, Altair, Esmée and Caleb zap the building. The whole building shudders. Ibrahim, as he stabs the floor, feels the section of floor beneath him go dead, as if the magic had been seared out of it. Then he dives for cover, concentrating on not being shot.
Those concentrating on it can sense that the building (or the person behind it, at least) is in pain. They push at the mind. It seems worried, and tries to fight back, seeming to concentrate on that alone and not manipulating the architecture any more.
Tamarind realises they can use the building to mentally attack the person at the other end. He senses a 'virtual control room' for its changes. Perhaps someone else could take over the building...
Damien's Militia spell shoots the sphere. It explodes massively. He dives behind one of the sofas, but the blast throws it, and him, across the room and into a wall, along with the rest of the furniture in the place. Fortunately the sofa protects him as debris rains down all around and a lot of furniture piles on top of him. Ouch.
Downstairs, the others hear the explosion.
"Someone check Damien," yells Altair.
Ibrahim uses his ring to contact Damien. He is shot a few times as he does so, but the bullets bounce off his armour and he is just thrown around and bruised somewhat by the impacts.
Over the psychic link, the Presence greets Caleb, Esmée and Margot.
"Now the tables are turned," says Tamarind.
"I am just glad to have you all back in my hands," she purrs.
Tamarind looks for Caine's budded-off psychic things. He hears Caine's psychic voice. "She will soon lose control of all her senses; I don't know for how long. Prepare to take advantage in five seconds ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... now!"
The others redouble their attack as the Presence loses control and panics somewhat.
Altair takes advantage of this to grab control of the building, telling it to squeeze the area where the CfV troops are down to nothingness. As she takes full control of the building Altair realises she can see through it to anywhere inside. She can see the presence - a young oriental woman several floors above on a reclining chair, concentrating heavily. She shifts her viewpoint down into the sub-basements. The upper one seems to be magical laboratories. The lower one has a medical lab in which there are three bodies in hospital beds - Caleb, Esmée and Margot. They seem to be having blood drained from them. There are also roughly one hundred ranked tanks each of which seems to have a human foetus in it.
By this time the remaining CfV troops are pate, to the accompaniment of hideous screams and crunching noises.
Ibrahim has been telling Damien what's happening - he says that Aximia is only a few floors below Damien, in the upper magically shielded area. Damien asks for a lift shaft to be opened up for him. This is relayed to Altair, who obliges.
Ibrahim wants to have an open Trump link to Damien. Damien says no - it would either slow him down or destroy his armour spell (depending on whether he was making or taking the Trump call). Ibrahim objects, but Damien tells him that he won't Trump him, and will resist attempts to Trump him. So there.
Altair clears the way for Damien's approach. She uses the walls of the building to try and trap Aximia physically, effectively strapping her in her chair.
Downstairs, the others have mind-locked Aximia. They hold her. This is not easy!
Tristan finds a door out at the back of the club. He goes through and shifts shadow to upstairs (much faster than climbing the stairs) meeting Damien outside of Aximia's office. He goes in. Damien follows.
Inside, Aximia is held into her chair by bits of the building - looks like Altair's efforts worked.
Damien instantly shoots her three times with his repeating crossbow, the bolts of which are loaded with Caine's anti-shapeshifter poison, in the abdomen, chest and head. For Caleb, Margot, and Esmée, in that order.
The others feel her pain as the bolts go in, but she's still alive. Damien curses Caine's poison. Damien tells Tristan to tell Tamarind to step back (mentally). Tristan refuses.
Ibrahim says (over the rings) that there may be others in there.
"Has anyone seen anyone in there?" asks Damien.
Ibrahim doesn't know.
Tristan steps aside. Damien casts his Hellfire spell on her.
Downstairs, Tamarind senses Aximia's conscious mind slipping away, to be replaced by a simple, berserk, survival-first mind. The sudden change in the 'shape' of her mind allows Aximia to briefly escape the mind-lock. Her body disappears into the flame, as if becoming one with it, and the flame launches itself at Damien. Tamarind senses rage, and shouts that there is another mind in there, and for Damien to stop.
Damien dodges, yelling "sprinklers!" He is slightly singed by the fiery things passing. It turns back towards him. Tamarind and the others regain their grip on the things active mind and it stops again.
Tamarind asks Altair to pass on a message - they've got it again, stop provoking it, and there are others in there.
"This thing is too dangerous to capture," says Tristan.
"It's too dangerous to let live," says Damien. "Where are the sprinklers?"
The sprinklers come on, drenching the two of them, but not doing the fiery thing any noticeable harm. Damien walks around it, thinking.
Altair contacts Tristan, who says he can't see how to contain it. We should just try to get the other minds out, and then we'll kill it.
Downstairs, the psyche contact crowd try to calm Aximia, and somehow manage to do so. As she calms down, those upstairs see her switch back into human form, still mentally held.
Upstairs, they are unsure how to knock her out.
Tristan tries to localise the psychic presence. It's in the head, but looks somehow fake. He looks more closely, and sees something that is probably the real presence around and beside her spine. He punches her in the back in an attempt to knock her out. Those in psychic contact with Aximia feel her mind waver, but she's not unconscious yet.
Altair has opened a staircase down to the sub-basement labs. Ibrahim goes down to have a look.
Tristan tries to pummel Aximia unconscious but has no luck.
Ibrahim finds Margot, Caleb and Esmée's bodies. They have IV drips in them, and some blood is being drawn off (at a non-fatal rate). The blood is being fed indirectly into the embryos by way of a machine.
Damien pummels Aximia; she only falls unconscious once Damien has smashed her entire spine with the butt of the crossbow. She's rather floppy now, but the psychic contact has gone down. "I think I need a drink," says Esmée, downstairs.
Damien searches Aximia. He can sense a spell rack inside her, and uses Dashwood to remove it. It seems to be a living organ - a biological spell rack, connected to the rest of her by all the blood vessels and nerves one might expect of any other organ.
He also finds her Trumps - they consist of:
Damien and Tristan put Aximia in a sack and Tristan shadow shifts them downstairs again. Tristan says that she has a Pattern imprint, and other minds inside her.
Damien suggests draining her body of blood then putting it on the Pattern. Tristan suggests throwing it into the Abyss, but Damien says it's not sure enough.
Tamarind comes up and looks at the Trumps they found on Aximia. They're in the same style as Evander's Chaos Trumps. He checks for active Trumps. Currently Caine's, Prava's, Llewella's and Bleys' are all active. He suggests we all leave as soon as possible.
We all troop downstairs to the sub-basements.
A hundred or so embryos in baby-sized glass tanks confront us; their umbilical cords go into sockets in the base of each tank. Tristan notes that they all have the blood of Amber (Damien speculates on other explanations, but Tristan is sure). Damien looks at the magical stuff here to work out what it's all for.
"What can we do with them?" wonders Tristan.
"Destroy them," says Tamarind.
"Yes," says Damien.
Altair wonders how to move the comatose bodies.
Damien tells Tristan he'll need to concentrate on keeping the machines working. We'll need to destroy everything in this lab. Margot is not sure about destroying the embryos, on moral grounds, it seems.
Altair says she can move this chamber up to the top of the building so everything can be loaded into Castle Corvallin. She begins this, and takes the entire two sub-basement levels, in fact.
"Their fate is for the King to decide," says Ibrahim.
Tamarind checks the Trumps again. Only Prava's and Llewella's are still active. He notes this to everyone else.
Then he says we should take Aximia to Amber - she or the people inside her might have useful information.
Damien examines the magical laboratory (in the upper sub-basement level). It uses both sorcery and empowerment, but nothing too unusual - different schools of magic, not entirely new powers. It seems to be mainly for doing spell research and making magical items.
The equipment with the embryos is partly simply to keep them alive and let them grow - feeding them nutrients and the like. The magical element processes the Amberite blood, apparently making it 'palatable' to the embryos.
We argue over whether the foetuses count as Amberites. Damien thinks they're not family, but are being turned into creatures with the blood of Amber. Tristan says no, they are the offspring of Amberites. He can tell...
Tamarind notes that Prava and Llewella's Trumps cease activity at about the same time.
All this time the building has been moving the sub-basements up. Corvallin arrives, and Altair has the building decant the entire two sub-basements into a courtyard (including their self-contained power supplies). She discovers that she is still in touch with the building even when not in physical contact with it, and has the building re-arrange itself so as to collapse in onto itself.
We shift away. Some police helicopters fly up and try to arrest us, but break off when they stop working so well (thanks to some appropriate shadow shifting). They are now stuck in the wrong shadow, too.
Tristan shifts back towards the Abyss at speed, so we can Trump ahead to there, then use the super-Trump to get back to Amber.
En route we argue about which of Benedict or Llewella is more actively involved in this, and conclude that it is probably Llewella.
Altair hopes that Llewella is being coerced.
Esmée goes off to change back into human form somewhere private, and with clothes for her to put on.
Damien says he'll watch Aximia - if her vertebrae start healing up he'll break them again. In fact, upon examination some of them are already mending, so Tristan hits her some more.
Esmée returns.
"Shall we destroy the spell rack organ?" asks Tristan.
"Yuck," says Esmée when Damien produces it from somewhere now rather bloody and gooey.
Damien can tell that the organ is dying. He checks the spells it contains and finds them all to be Mind Touch spells. He passes this on to the others, and explains to Altair what the spell does.
Then he drops it on the floor and grinds it under his heel. Ibrahim pokes it with Eric's Pattern blade, and the magic sizzles away.
Damien will watch Aximia while Tamarind will watch the Trumps.
"Oh, yeah," says Caleb, then brutally kicks the sack containing Aximia about for a bit. Once he's done Margot does the same for a little while.
Damien watches Aximia in the medical lab, and checks the comatose bodies while he's at it. They seem healthy and intact (other than being on life support).
Tristan stops by long enough to place plastic explosives around all the foetuses, in the process of which he discovers that there are in fact 132 foetuses there. Damien puts screens between the embryos and the bodies.
Twelve hours later we try to Trump to the Abyss, with only Damien and Tamarind not participating as they are watching the prisoner.
They can't get through, nor to Castle Rosa when that is tried.
Tristan says we could take the bodies and shift on foot - it would be faster. Damien says we should destroy the foetuses rather than leave them unguarded. Caleb suggests we try Trumping directly to Amber.
Everyone else is dubious, but it is considered worth a go. So we try it and, after a struggle, it works. We can see through to the Arrival Courtyard. Well, Corwin's Pattern did shake up shadow a lot - more than people had realised, it seems.
Damien suggests we need Caine here to put people back into their bodies again.
So Ibrahim goes through to Amber, while Tristan sets us down.
We're between a construction site, the beginnings of a large modern hotel, and a small country inn, called the 'Foetus and Plastique' for some reason. We hire construction equipment from the building site to unload the two sub-basements (and everything else), then Tristan sends Corvallin off so Caine doesn't see her.
Damien stays to guard the foetuses; some of the others go to the inn.
Ibrahim finds it horribly hot in Amber. There is a smell of smoke in the air. The clouds have been burned away, and the sun is far too bright. The guards are now wearing Arab style dress - burnooses and the like.
He Trumps Random. Random is by the harbour with Gerard and Caine. Sunken ships can be seen protruding from the water behind him. He says the harbour has been blocked by sunken ships, including Altair's. "Apparently several of our captain's decided to scuttle their ships and block the harbour," says Random. Caine joins the link.
He says that Fiona and Bleys are leading evacuation parties through shadow.
Ibrahim reports - we have a Soul Eater, the bodies, and 132 embryonic Amberites. Caine offers to have a looks at the equipment feeding them.
Random says that in addition to the blocked harbour ... he looks at Caine. Caine says he went to Rebma...
Ibrahim remembers Prava's and Llewella's simultaneously active Trumps, and that Aximia had a Trump of the top of Faiella-Bionin.
"Well, that confirms it," says Random.
Caine says the stars of Amber were falling into a courtyard in Castle Rebma. And they're not stars at all but burning demons - Lords of Chaos, he thinks. He thinks they've been up there a long time - perhaps Oberon threw them up there, he muses.
Llewella was trying to revive them or ship them elsewhere he says; they looked very old and withered.
Also (more good news) the prisoner claiming to be Evander is not one of the Council for Victory. The personality inside is a guard who was checking on him. The person originally there did a switch - 'Evander' was the guard's body, shapeshifted, with the Evander mind then superimposed.
Random will accept this as proof of Evander's treason.
Ibrahim asks for a judgement regarding the embryos. "Keep 'em alive for the meantime," says Random.
Damien disconnects the comatose bodies of Caleb, Margot and Esmée from the machine feeding their blood to the embryos, so the embryos are getting the normal nutrients, but no more Amberites blood.
After an hour or so, the rest of us apart from Tamarind and Damien Trump Ibrahim. Ibrahim takes the call and he and Caine come through to the inn.
"First order of business," says Tristan, "put people back in their real bodies." He leads Caine off from the inn to the sub-basements, followed by various people, particularly those not in their real bodies.
They arrive at the medical lab, where Damien is. Damien greets Caine. "Who's first?" asks Caine.
Three hands go up. "You," he says, pointing at Caleb. Well, Caleb is his son...
Caine holds the hands of both Calebs, and Caleb's spirit flows through Caine, out of the shadow body and into his real body. The shadow Caleb collapses; the real Caleb takes a deep breath and wakes up.
Damien tells him to swap clothes with the shadow body and put the latter to bed. He does. The process is repeated for Margot, then Esmée, with the same results each time. Damien squeezes Esmée's hand. "I told you it wouldn't be for long," he tells her.
Ibrahim tells everyone else what's happened in Amber. Altair is very annoyed at the loss of her ship. "Now it's personal," she says.
Caine says Llewella and the man from the top of Kolvir were there in Rebma, with the demons. Then he goes and lifts the lid of a foetus tank, puts in his hand, and touches the occupant.
Tamarind tells him about the other minds in Aximia.
Caine says the foetus is a girl, and an Amberite ... probably. "It's yours," he says, pointing at Tamarind and Altair. Ah ha.
Damien notes to Altair that it's her choice - termination or no.
"It's a collective decision," says Tamarind.
Caine then examines the unconscious Aximia. We tell him the anti-shapeshifter poison didn't work. "Oh well," he says. Damien reloads his repeating crossbow.
"What a weird power," says Caine, still examining Aximia, "I wonder how you learn it?"
He says there are three persons inside her. He finds a male one, and decides to put it into the shadow Esmée's body, because she's slowest and weakest he says.
Esmée glares.
The mind flows out of Aximia and into the body of the shadow of Esmée.
'She' takes a deep breath and sits up, eyes opening. Damien points his crossbow at 'her'. "Have we met?" he asks.
"Don't think so," says the man in the shadow Esmée's body. Then he realises he's in a female body, and is somewhat distracted by this.
"How do you feel?" asks Tristan.
"Introduce yourself," suggests Tamarind.
He says he's called Goliash, and that he doesn't know where he's from.
Those of us with more powerful minds can sense that he's lying.
"Were you somewhere horrible?" asks Altair.
"No," he says.
"Passenger," mutters Damien to Altair.
Altair threatens him with a broken bottle.
Goliash is informed that his best chance of survival lies in co-operating.
Tristan can tell that Goliash is as real as an Amberite, but not an Amberite. A chaosite.
Altair hits him when he repeats that he doesn't know where he comes from (lying).
Ibrahim suggests we discorporate him and let him fade away, then put the next one into that body so it can sense what happens.
Goliash would rather die than co-operate with Amber scum, he bursts out.
Ibrahim respects this. Damien says the rest of us are comfortable with this. "You can't win," says Goliash.
"Watch us," says Damien, "or rather - don't."
Caine removes Goliash who starts to dissipate in mid-air. Ibrahim waves Eric's Pattern blade through his spirit, there is a psychic scream, and he dies.
Caine is doing something to Aximia. "A precaution," he says.
Caine puts the next one in - Ibrahim aborted doing what he himself had suggested by killing Goliash's spirit right after it was removed from the shadow Esmée's body.
Tristan asks who he is.
"Anianke of the Royal House," he says.
"Will you co-operate or be a mad xenophobe?" asks Tristan.
"Have to be a mad xenophobe," he says cheerily.
We remove and dispel him as well.
The last mind is put in - an Amberite's mind, says Caine. It goes into the shadow Esmée's body.
"Good morning," says Tristan. "Are you a member of the Council for Victory?"
"Yes," it says. Tristan asks who it is.
"Lady Ranghell," she says.
Tristan asks her how much she wants to live.
"Quite a lot," she replies.
"Is there an option of living in peaceful harmony?" asks Tristan. "What does the Council want? We might even surrender, if you convince us our struggle is futile."
She tells us, though only in an attempt to do as Tristan suggested and get us to surrender. When Dworkin Barimen drew the Pattern tens of millennia ago, he destroyed the Empire of Chaos. Ever since Chaos has been trying to restore their rightful power.
"What makes right in Chaos?" asks Altair, "Might?"
"Yes," she says, sounding surprised it could be any other way.
"Then right this!" says Altair.
"NO!" goes everyone else.
But 'this' turns out to consist only of flipping the finger as Ranghell. Phew.
The Lords of Chaos have decided (Ranghell continues) that there is no hope of restoring the Old Order, so now they want a new one. A new generation of Amberite-blooded Chaosites. Ruling Amber. Drawing on the Pattern.
If we surrendered we would be allowed to live, in a subservient role.
She knows that the power heating the sun can be turned off, but now how. They are not trying to destroy Amber, but simply take it over.
Ranghell says that she was in Aximia because Aximia killed her own body. She and 500 other Amberite-blooded Chaosites (including Hania, Prava and Aximia) were raised in a highly competitive environment, and whittled down to the three of the Council for Victory.
She wasn't 'created' to compromise, she says.
When Damien asks, she says that she's not interested in alternative lifestyles.
Damien explains to her why the new Empire will fail - if they're all like her, with no imagination or initiative they won't last a generation. He feels sorry for her.
She also says she can act without a physical body, if Aximia will it.
"It's interesting they've got Llewella on their side," comments Tamarind.
Ranghell won't comment on any of our speculation along these lines.
Tamarind wonders if Damien's magic could compel Ranghell to talk. Only by what would be magical torture.
Margot asks about the foetuses. "The next generation," says Ranghell. She supposes that we're going to destroy them.
"That's none of your business," Altair tells her.
Tristan uses the rings to asks the rest of us whether we want to kill her or not. Altair wants to give her to Caine, as does Margot. The rest of us want to keep her alive. Esmée says we shouldn't kill her.
"Congratulations," Damien tells Ranghell, "you seem to have won yourself a reprieve." Then he sedates her. She sleeps.
We're now ready to kill Aximia. Tamarind says to hold on, and asks Caine what his psychic buds have revealed.
"Aximia," he says, "knows of the goings-on in Rebma, and of Llewella's co-operation. They have bases in shadow, but not very many Trumps. She is from Chaos. They're still alive, as you" - he indicates Damien - "surmised. They think they've neutralised Benedict."
Tamarind wonders if Benedict is unwilling to repeat the experience of killing his own descendants (as he did with Dara).
Caine thinks Caleb, Esmée and Margot were selected because they are the children of himself and Julian, and thence because they were the ones who scuppered the peace talks ten years ago.
Caine says the Chaosites are not like us. They raise children like animals, and have no sense of dignity, freedom, or humanity. They are not a human society. And had peace come they would have influenced Amber too much. That couldn't be allowed. We couldn't have peace.
Damien thinks the talks-scuppering played into their hands, since this plot was being set up before then.
But regardless...
Tristan asks if anyone wants to risk Aximia ever coming round. "No," says Damien. Tamarind is the only one who is uncertain. We still need to know how to switch the sun of Amber back to normal. Damien suggests talking to Llewella to see what she knows.
Damien asks if anyone is going to object if he burns Aximia up now? The others think that will just turn her into a fire elemental again. Good point. Ibrahim lends Damien Eric's Pattern blade to do the deadly deed.
He, Damien and Tristan take Aximia's body outside. The others remain and monitor her Trump.
Damien bisects Aximia's spine (where Tristan says her brain actually is) down the middle with the Pattern blade. Then he chops up the spine. Tristan senses a spark of Pattern energy in her body (he wonders if it's a Blood Curse; ulp!). Damien feels a bit ill, but it quickly fades away.
"I think she's dead," says Tristan. He feels the body die. It collapses into hundreds of writhing black centipedes, upon which Damien casts his Hellfire spell. They all crisp and die, leaving only ashes.
The three of them go back in to the others.
Ibrahim says we should warn Brand.
Tristan says we should get Brand and Deirdre back, and also ask if they can bring Dara back, as this might buck Benedict up a bit. Unless she's a cabbage, of course.
Tamarind explains about the ritual. He has the bodies, and ideally needs nine family members to perform it. As much of this as possible is conducted via the rings, to exclude Caine. How rude. But he would like to help, he says.
Tamarind Trumps off to his slow time shadow, then Trumps back to Tristan with the mindless shadow bodies.
While everyone else waits for Tamarind's return Margot, Esmée and Caleb wander off into shadow and return with their various personal items.
Tamarind begins to draw the nonogram, outside. As he does so he describes the ritual to everyone else.
Damien suggests that, in addition to asking Brand about Dara, we ask if he can set things up so that his escape route will be destroyed or disabled after he and Deirdre leave.
"You won't be able to believe anything he says," says Tristan.
"If he wants to keep coming back that's all right by me," says Damien, "just so long as no-one else can."
Eventually the nonogram set-up is complete, and Tamarind uses the Stone to contact Brand. Caine has to be talked out of joining in. But he does stand close to Tamarind and watches.
Eventually Tamarind gets through to Brand. When asked he says he hasn't seen Dara, didn't even know she was dead, and doesn't have any means of contacting her, alas. He wonders if Tristan could do it? Tamarind also asks if the device that returns them can be made inoperable to anyone else. Brand says that it can't, but it requires specialised knowledge to work in any case which is essentially the same thing. He also says that he's left some of the spikes just in case any of us end up there again - Oberon should last another few millennia at least, he says.
He says he and Deirdre will be ready in half an hour.
Damien suggests that closest relatives provide the family blood for the ritual - Tamarind for Deirdre, him (as the token redhead) for Brand.
We drain the blood, prepare, and wait.
Damien tells Caine that if he interferes he'll shoot him. Just in case he tries to finish the job.
Caine says he's come to believe that every man deserves a second chance.
"Are we talking about you or Brand?" asks Damien. Caine shrugs.
The ritual is performed. Every point of the nonogram is filled, with all of Altair, Damien, Esmée, Margot, Caleb, Caine, Ibrahim, Tamarind and Tristan taking part. Tamarind chants the words Brand provided. A hemisphere of darkness forms around us, radiating from the Stone in the very centre of the nonogram. It grows cold. Our breath hangs in the air. The cold and darkness grow, both in intensity and in the area they cover. All sound other than Tamarind's chanting seems to fade away.
Deeper darkness swirls inwards from the points of the nonogram to and around the two bodies in the centre. An icy wind blows around the circle. Gradually a column of swirling blackness, like a whirlwind, rises up to cover the bodies, rising up into the sky.
The whole landscape around us is dark by now.
Tristan can sense that some Real power is being invoked here.
The pillar of swirling darkness reaches the vanishing point. Tamarind keeps chanting.
High in the sky, where the pillar vanishes, two tiny glowing white specks like stars appear. They spiral slowly down the pillar in the opposite direction to the direction the darkness is swirling. As they come close to the ground it can be seen that they are followed by other much fainter lights, also swirling down.
There are two bright flashes, one from each body, as the points of light reach ground level and go into the bodies provided. Then the pillar of swirling blackness snaps down from out of the sky and the darkness covering the landscape is blown away, as if by the recoil from this.
The bodies scream in agony.
Then they stop. They each take a deep breath. Their eyes open. They both sit up.
Tamarind helps Deirdre up. Tristan helps Brand up.
Caine wanders over, and loiters.
"I didn't expect it to hurt so much," says Brand.
"Sorry, forgot to mention that," says Damien.
Tamarind says there's an inn nearby. Deirdre greets Tamarind, and looks forward to her first meal in 113 years.
Caine greets Brand. "I suppose I should apologise for shooting you and knocking you into the Abyss," he says, "but on second thoughts..."
"The person you ought to be apologising to is Princess Deirdre," says Damien.
He wanders over to Deirdre. "I suppose I owe you an apology..." and so on.
"I suppose you do," says Deirdre.
"It wasn't my intention," says Caine. "My sincere apologies."
Deirdre seems almost surprised that he's said it as opposed to talking about it.
Everyone goes to the inn except Caine, who volunteers to look after the foetuses. In that case, Damien decides to help guard them. "I'll keep an eye on the little bastards too," he says.
As he goes Damien scuffs out the nonogram, and picks up the Stone. It's still burning cold. He slips it into a pocket, and wonders which gallery of the Museum it can go in. He shouts after Tristan to have a bottle sent out to him.
At the inn Brand and Deirdre stuff their faces and drink a lot.
Tristan wants Brand to swear loyalty to Random as soon as possible.
Deirdre says she should as well.
Tristan Trumps Random.
Damien sits by the big red button that detonates the plastic explosives on the foetus tanks.
Caine lounges on a bed and produces wine, two glasses and a box of cigars from a bedside cabinet. He offers Damien some wine.
"Given the potency of the last substance you offered me," says Damien acerbically, "I think I'll wait for whatever Tristan sends out."
Random takes the Trump call. He is by the harbour still, but comes through to Tristan.
Brand and Deirdre stand up and bow. Brand says he's going to swear loyalty.
"You do realise it's binding?" asks Random, and tells them they'll have to repeat it formally later on in front of the whole family and nobility of Amber, when there's time to do so.
They do. Random explains the oath and its implications. Brand and Deirdre both look impressed at its provisions for both subject and King. They swear before everyone assembled in the inn.
Random proposes a toast. They all drink.
Tristan wants to talk about the war. He repeats Damien's suggestion of questioning Llewella.
Everyone in the inn wanders over to the concrete bunker that was the two sub-basements.
As they all enter Damien holds his finger over the button. "Has a decision been made yet," he asks.
"No," replies Random.
Damien explains the options regarding the foetuses - if the CfV get their hands on them again, they'll mostly end up dead with the survivors being brainwashed imbeciles like her ladyship (he indicates Ranghell). If we keep them... Ideally we want a slow time shadow secure enough to hold them where they can't be found until the current crisis blows over. Tristan thinks he can find one of these.
Random is brought fully up to date.
Since we get vague impressions that perhaps all of Chaos is not united behind this plot maybe the others are either so stuck in their ways or they have reason to suppose the plan will fail, suggests Damien.
Caine and Brand are not sure Chaos has factions in the way Damien means - they're either united behind a plan, or it doesn't get done.
We decide that Tristan will find a slow time shadow for the nippers.
Damien suggests Tristan include some birds of his desire in the place to warn us if his security measures are breached. "You don't like my other creatures of my desire?" he asks.
"I've seen what they do," snaps Damien.
Tamarind checks the Trumps. The Trumps of Llewella, Hania and Caine are all active.
We ask Caine what they're saying. He says they're discussing what happened to Aximia.
Tristan and Altair will take the foetuses off. Tristan has a huge container-lifter thing come driving up. He pays off its driver and has him use it to lift up the sub-basements. Caine offers to help find a safe place for the foetuses, but is refused.
Before they go Tristan gets Caine to admit that he was the one who shot at the Chaos Ambassador ten year before. "We'll talk about this later," says Random.
Also, the sedated Lady Ranghell is removed from the medical lab so she can have an eye kept on her.
Tristan and Altair trundle off through shadow, going quite slowly as Tristan works with shadow to keep its properties such that the life support equipment keeping the foetuses alive continues to work at all times, and also eliminates the trail of their movement.
The rest of us go back to the inn. We discuss how much Llewella suspects we suspect her. Damien thinks she can't be sure we know enough to risk tackling her. But she may soon be, so we should hurry.
Away in shadow, Tristan looks for a shadow with the right properties to let the foetuses life support keep working - high magic and high technology, of certain specific kinds, with a slow time flow rate.
He decides on a shadow where the intelligent population was wiped out by plague a year or two ago, then the plague died out leaving all their technology intact and working, one of which items is a high-tech fortress. And they find such a thing. A large, heavily armed grey metal and concrete fortress in the middle of flat grassland.
At his will, Corvallin hoves into view, and he tasks his people to take control of the place and the foetuses, guarding it against all threats. Miranda, the commander of his castle guard, is in charge.
He also leaves birds of desire on standby in case of need.
Having done this, Corvallin goes off again, and they drive away in their vehicle, shifting shadow some way before Trumping the others.
At the inn, Random Trumps back to Amber.
Tamarind suggests that the Trump of the circular portal may be the route to Chaos - we should check it out. Damien wants to prioritise things. "Llewella," says Ibrahim.
We discuss means of getting to Llewella. Damien favours going in to Rebma. Tamarind favours a group Trump attack.
Caine says (when asked by Damien) that the route he used is not really accessible for us. Damien asks him to do a Trump sketch for them, and asks generally if anyone knows Llewella's abilities.
Caine says she has always been a bit of a dark horse.
Brand comments that she is stronger than she appears.
Damien suggests that if the group Trump fails then she'll be forewarned and we'd still have to go in physically.
Or take another target, suggests Tamarind. He suggests we could combine the two approaches.
Caine notes that if we go in to Rebma in this way we will be committing an act of war. "She's committing an act of war on us," says Ibrahim.
"Quite right," says Caine.
"I'm not sure where her powers lie," says Brand. "Most of our generation can use magic in one form or another."
Tamarind still thinks we should pick another target.
Damien thinks an unknown Llewella is still an easier target than Hania or Prava.
Ibrahim suggests that as the sun will eventually affect Rebma too she may know how to turn it back to normal.
Damien suggests a Trump-proof cell be waiting for her once whatever approach is tried succeeds in nabbing her. Caine says he can provide a Trump shortcut to the dungeons.
We discuss the plan.
Damien asks Caine for the real anti-shapeshifter poison this time.
He says that that was the real poison. It is obviously not as effective against advanced practitioners of that power. It is both a poison in its own right and inhibits shapeshifting.
Tamarind Trumps Altair. When he gets through she tells him that they're some shadows away from the embryos but Tristan wants to go further. She says she'll call him back.
Damien asks Caine if there's anything like Greek Fire that will burn in Rebma. Caine looks at Brand. Brand says he doesn't think so.
Damien then wonders why 'Evander' walked the Pattern three times, presumably once per Council for Victory member, when they had free access to Rebma's Pattern?
"Maybe they didn't trust Llewella," says Tamarind. "Or they didn't want to be spotted as having the wrong Pattern imprint."
At this point Altair and Tristan Trump back to Caine.
When asked which Pattern Aximia had walked, Tristan says it was Amber's. He likes our plan, and suggests that Caine and Brand Trump Llewella while the rest of us go in.
Caine gives us a Trump sketch of a tunnel. He says it will bring us into a secret passage at the back of the Great Dining Hall in Castle Rebma, not far from the steps down to Rebma's Pattern.
Tamarind gives Trump decks to Deirdre and Brand. He also gives Deirdre a Trump of his home shadow. Deirdre looks misty-eyed.
Esmée says she will help with the Trump contact. Margot and Caleb decide to come with the rest of us.
Caine Trumps us all to Amber along with the unconscious Lady Ranghell, from where the infiltration team will Trump to Rebma. We appear in a passage near the entrance to the dungeons. This time as we come up a guard hides his 'YES TO BLEYS' badge.
We enter the dungeons and go down to some comfortable Trump-barred cells. Lady Ranghell is put in one. The other is made ready for Llewella.
Damien asks Caine for directions along the Rebman secret passages to the Rebman Throne Room and courtyard. Caine gives them.
Tamarind concentrates upon Caine's Trump sketch and off we plink to Rebma...