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Recorded for Posterity by Iain Walker.
The Jewel of Judgement carries us from Anurerishkigal's Farm to Amber, where we all appear in the Arrival Courtyard in a flash of red Jewel energy.
"Do'h!" says Tristan as we appear. "We left all of the life force storage crystals and whatnot behind, and unguarded." He wants to go back and rescue them.
Ibrahim reluctantly uses the Jewel to send him back, and he vanishes in another flash of red light.
"Why don't we go and see if anything else has gone wrong?" says Tamarind pessimistically as we identify ourselves to the guards and exit the Arrival Courtyard.
He checks Merlin's Trump, scrying through it, and finds that Merlin is where we lift him, in the Infirmary. The other casualties prove to be there too.
That being so, we head for the Infirmary. The atmosphere in the Castle is generally subdued, and flags are flying at half-mast. There are lots of guards around too, particularly outside the Infirmary.
In the Infirmary we find that all of the possessed people - Altair, Owen, Caleb, Corwin, Benedict, Julian, Flora and Merlin - are unconscious and chained to their beds. The dead and headless Gerard is not present, his chained body having been taken to Eric's tomb on the side of Mount Kolvir, where there is, of course, already a hole back from the Land of the Dead.
The rest of the Family are gathered to one side of the ward.
"It's done," Ibrahim tells Random.
We proceed to tell them all what happened.
"There hasn't been any progress on the patients," Random tells us. "Eleanor is still working out whether she can do anything."
Random tells us that he has discovered that Owen was assassinating ambassadors from Golden Circle shadows, while Merlin was killing high-ranking Naval personnel. Damn.
Ibrahim wonders if Gerard is still possessed in the Land of the Dead. If so, we will need some means of exorcising him when he returns.
Phoenix, Eleanor, Esmée and Finndo huddle to discuss the best way of extracting the black Anurerishkigal life-force from the patients.
Tamarind, after telling us his intentions, Trumps off to check on the Girasol branch of the Family.
Ibrahim hands the Jewel back to Random and suggests that the Abyss guns be disassembled again. Random agrees that this is, indeed, the way forward.
Damien goes off to get changed.
Tamarind Trumps to over the centre of Corwin's Pattern and drops down onto it. The Castle Rosa guards immediately see him and, apparently recognising him, wave rather than begin shooting at him.
At this point he realises that he has forgotten to bring along a life-force lens. Doh. From the centre of Corwin's Pattern he Trumps Damien with the intention of borrowing his (well, Fiona's old one, which one does not need any Advanced Pattern skills to be able to use).
In Amber, Damien has just reached his rooms when he feels a Trump call coming on, and accepts it. It is Tamarind, who explains what he wants.
Damien passes him the life-force lens. Tamarind thanks him and drops the link.
Tamarind then uses the Pattern to travel into the Girasol universe on the other side of Corwin's Pattern, in the centre of Castle Moebius. He then uses the Pattern (not the Trumps, for once!) and teleports across shadow to appear outside the gates of Castle Girasol.
The guards there recognise him, and he is admitted and directed to King Osric, who, he can immediately see, via the life-force lens, is not possessed.
Tamarind explains the situation to Osric, who listens seriously, and then summons the rest of the Girasol branch of the Family so that Tamarind can inspect them.
As they appear one by one Tamarind sees that they are all clean. Osric then sends them back to where they were.
Tamarind thanks them all, and Osric.
Osric asks if Girasol could have a life-force lens of its own, as that would most certainly be a useful thing for them to have.
"Probably," says Tamarind. He then Trumps off to the centre of Corwin's Pattern on this side, goes through to the Amber universe, and teleports from there back to Amber.
Meanwhile, in Amber, Ibrahim has finished disassembling the Abyss guns.
Damien returns from getting changed and Tamarind arrives from the Arrival Courtyard at about the same time.
By now the discussion in the Infirmary seems to have settled on finding a means of filtering Anurerishkigal out of the possessed, then trying to recover them. At present all of the possessed are stuffed with black life-force - about that of a mature Amberite - with none of their own present. Or so it seems.
The idea that has been settled on is to put some unadulterated life-force into one of the possessed and see whether it is distinguishable from the black variety. If so, we could then drain them down to almost nothing, then pump in clean life-force and filter out the remaining black stuff.
Random sends Margot off with the Jewel to return the Abyss gun parts to Dworkin.
By this stage Phoenix has figured out how to move life-force around without the aid of external devices. As such, she tries pumping some life-force into Benedict, who we have chosen as our designated test subject (because we don't like him), while the process is watched by those who can see life-force.
The pure life-force is seen to 'swirl' into the black life-force of the supine Benedict, then it slowly changes to black. It is clearly not merely diluted by the black life-force, but converted, or corrupted, into it.
Phoenix decides that this is good - if it can be converted one way, then it can also be converted the other.
Brand takes notes.
Margot returns, without the Abyss guns.
At this point there is a slight commotion out the hallway. Someone seems to be talking to the many guards there. Then the door opens and a dishevelled-looking Ranger enters the Infirmary. He looks over at Margot and Esmée, then at Random.
Damien and Ibrahim guess what he is going to say before he says it. "Princess Felicia is dead."
Margot and Esmée in particular are shocked at this. The Ranger is questioned in more detail as to what has happened.
He says that they are not sure how it happened. Apparently she was simply found, dead, in her rooms in Castle Arden.
Esmée bursts into tears. Damien puts his arm around her.
Tamarind checks his Trump of Castle Arden, in case this is some kind of trap or ploy. Through the link he can see many people rushing about in an 'our-mistress-has-just-died' fashion.
Phoenix opens her mouth to suggest an up-side to all of this - it must mean that Fiona really is dead and gone, absolutely and permanently ... and then shuts it again. She whispers her thought to Finndo and Brand instead.
"Someone should examine the body," mutters Brand.
Phoenix looks at Esmée in a puzzled fashion. "Aren't we going to get her back?" she asks. Her tone implies that what, in short, is the big deal about being dead these days?
"Perhaps," mutters Esmée.
"But," Phoenix points out. "We need to move quickly. As Felicia can't make her own way back from the Land of the Dead, she will not last long there, will she?"
Damien wonders out loud if it is worth picking up Gerard, too. He then points out that it would probably be best to let him make his own way back, though, so that we will have time to prepare a way to filter out the black life force from people.
Brand asks for permission to examine Felicia's body. Random nods. He will go to Castle Arden with Margot, Tamarind, Phoenix and Ibrahim.
Damien remains behind to set up the rescue mission into the Land of the Dead.
Tamarind pulls out his Trump of the Castle Arden Arrival Courtyard and concentrates on it. When the link opens up he passes the rest of the CSI team and himself through.
Upon arrival Margot talks to a few Castle Arden people and then leads us off to her parents' quarters.
Outside Julian and Felicia's rooms there are a large number of guards, who stiffen as we approach. At Margot's order they step aside and we go in. Felicia is quickly seen to be face down on her desk in her office. A quick once-over shows no sign of violence, Trump residue, life-force or holes to or from the Land of the Dead.
Phoenix conducts a closer examination, with Margot's permission laying hands on Felicia and examining her using her shapeshifting power. She immediately notices the presence of a tetrahedron in her head, exactly like the ones extracted from the heads of the possessed Amberites. It appears that the tetrahedron did not explode, but merely resonated, vibrating and heating sufficiently to turn half of Felicia's brain into mush. Ouch.
Further investigation indicates to Phoenix that Felicia died at about the same time that we destroyed the resonator shadows. So it would seem that she did not die simply because she was a shadow of Fiona, but because Anurerishkigal had nobbled her.
A thought occurs to Ibrahim and he Trumps Jahiera to check on her. When she takes the call he goes through to her. She appears to be all right, and the life-force lens confirms this. He explains the situation to Jahiera, and they chat for a short while.
Then Ibrahim Trumps back to Margot.
Back in Amber, Damien helps himself to Flora's Trump deck (which, like all of the equipment of the possessed Amberites, has been removed from them and put safely to one side). Thumbing through it, he borrows a Trump of her emergency medical centre shadow. This would be her new one, having abandoned the last one as we put holes from the Land of the Dead in it.
Finndo is visible leafing through his Trump deck, checking to see if anyone else in Amber or anywhere else of substance has recently suffered an unexpected sudden death.
Damien then Trumps Sebek.
When Sebek takes the call, he proves to be in shadow Plinius, and bouncing. He is preparing for his chariot race. Agrippina is visible in the background, alive and well. Jolly good.
With that settled, Damien and Esmée Trump to Flora's medical centre shadow.
As they appear medical staff leap to alertness, then relax again as they see that they are not visibly in need of medical care. Instead, they greet them.
Damien and Esmée talk to the facility's administrator, and determine that the place is both secure, and was set up before Flora was possessed.
With that sorted out, they begin to make arrangements for a little trip to the Land of the Dead.
Back in Castle Arden, we realise that Felicia almost certainly does know the Ritual of Return, having had more than enough opportunity to be taught it by any of Julian, Esmée or Margot, and being enough of a mage to be able to use it, too. Margot confirms this.
Phoenix removes the tetrahedron from Felicia's head. Brand asks her if he can examine it, so she hands it to him.
Tamarind checks Felicia's Trumps. She has a small deck consisting of Trumps of Amber, Castle Arden, Julian, Margot, Esmée and a couple of other people and places. Nothing out of the ordinary. He gives the Trumps to Margot, who thanks him.
From Flora's hospital, Damien concentrates on Phoenix's Trump.
In Castle Arden, Phoenix feels a Trump call coming on, and mentions this to the rest of us.
Tamarind identifies the caller as Damien, so she accepts it.
Damien tells her that he and Esmée are ready for their trip to the Land of the Dead, and if anyone wants to join them... Margot and Brand decide to stay in Castle Arden for now. Everyone else comes through to Damien, bringing Felicia's body with them.
Once everyone is there, Damien reminds them that the Nonagram will drain people of their life-force on the return journey. Unless our damage to Anurerishkigal's set-up in The Farm broke the link, of course.
At about this point, Tamarind feels a Trump call coming on. He identifies the call as from Finndo, and accepts it. Finndo tells Tamarind that there have been a few other unexpected deaths - Lord Rein, in Castle Rosa, Lady Carmel Urien (Vialle's friend) and Lord Yves Fulleri (the Chief of the Amber City Watch). The bodies are being brought back to Amber for examination, though it appears that they died from the effects of resonating tetrahedrons in their heads, like Felicia.
Damien, joining the link, points out that the bodies will have to be restrained in case of unexpected reappearances from the Land of the Dead. Finndo tells him that this has already been done.
The Trump link drops.
Tamarind tells us that he is not going to the Land of the Dead. That being so, how will Damien find anyone there, as his Trumps will not appear there with him?
"By shifting the local equivalent of shadow," says Damien. "Because I can do that now. I think. If Tristan could find Nitocris that way, then I think I can probably find Felicia and the others. However, if the rescuees are still possessed then they may not be very co-operative..."
"Do we need all of them?" asks Phoenix bluntly.
"Felicia," allows Damien. "But since we're going..."
After some discussion, it is decided that Esmée and Damien will go. No-one else is really willing, so they rope in Finndo to assist, because it is his turn, and he is a Trump Artist.
Finndo eventually being persuaded that this is the way forward, collects the bodies of the other possessed and passes them through the Trump link with Tamarind to Flora's hospital. Tamarind then passes Damien and Esmée back to Finndo in Amber.
Tamarind quickly Trumps off to Eric's tomb, appearing outside it. The guards snap to attention, then relax slightly and admit him. Tamarind retrieves Gerard's body and Trumps back to Flora's shadow with it.
All of the dead folk, as well as all of the possessed, are now together here, so that we will not cause any more holes in the fabric of reality in Amber itself should any returns from the Land of the Dead occur...
In Amber, Damien, Esmée and Finndo are taken into a side ward. Anaesthetic is given to those who wish it, then surgical ice picks are applied to their brains. And they sink into darkness, and into the Land of the Dead.
To wake in the cold and dark of the Castle there.
The three of them go to collect the life-force-boosting spikes from their hiding place. However, when Damien opens the hidden box where they are kept, it is empty - the spikes are gone. Damn.
Damien then leads them down to the Nonagram Room instead. All three of them are ageing slightly as they go, but as no powers are being used, they are not ageing too quickly. Finndo is certainly ageing more slowly than when he came to the Land of the Dead in the form of Caine.
As they go, Damien attempts to use his enhanced understanding of the Pattern to shift 'shadow'. However, this proves to be rather more difficult than he had anticipated, and he has not quite worked out how to do it. However, as they descend he finds it either getting easier, or he is coming to understand how such things work here.
Arriving in the Nonagram Room, Damien heads for the place where the spikes he, Altair and Gerard used the last time they were here had been hidden under the black mist flowing about the floor of the room. Unfortunately, they too prove to be gone. Damn again. He also notices that the bodies of the three members of the Council for Victory are no longer lying on the Nonagram.
Damien stops and thinks, hard, about the Pattern and its use here. Then he begins to walk towards the spikes, letting the Pattern lead him. This is difficult, but he seems to be getting the hang of it (and ageing as he exerts effort on doing so). At first his movement through 'shadow' is erratic, but as he continues, his movement gains in confidence, and speed.
And shortly the three arrive at a door, which Damien recognises as that of Brand's old laboratory here.
Entering, it can be seen that the stuffed crocodile is back in place, hanging from the ceiling. The life-force-boosting spikes are visible on a bench to one side of the room. However, a quick examination proves them to be inactive, dead. Damn a third time.
Damien quickly checks the next room. There is sign of Oberon there. As there was not the last time we came here, Brand having hidden him.
Back in the Land of the Living, we wait. Nothing much happens after they are Trumped by Random and the bodies of Damien, Esmée and Finndo passed through.
There are now seven occupied beds in this ward of the hospital.
In the Land of the Dead, Damien decides to begin bringing people in, rather than using the Pattern to find them. Conveniently, Finndo seems to have Trumps of all of the relevant individuals.
They begin with Felicia's Trump, all three of them concentrating on it. As they do so, the card glows silver, and then the thread of silver light shoots out from it, through the wall of the Nonagram room and away.
And the link opens up. Unfortunately, it opens to a black liquid creature, glowing with silver Trump light, somewhere in a city of the dead. Not a good sign.
"Mum?" asks Esmée hopefully.
"Hello," it bubbles. "Would you care to join me?"
It reaches out to us through the Trump link.
Damien snatches the card away as Finndo shouts a Power Word. The link is abruptly severed.
"I'm sorry," Damien tells Esmée.
She nods unhappily.
They go back to the Nonagram Room again, Damien shifting 'shadow' to take three of them there, ageing again as he does so.
Upon arrival, they all examine the Nonagram, trying to see if there is anything different about it which could explain the life-force-draining effect suffered by Damien and the others when they came here last. However, as far as they can tell it is identical to the first time they were here. Hmm...
Damien worries about leaving the black creatures here, making the assumption that the other dead possessed people are likewise infected. After all, there is no guarantee that they will return to their old bodies in a manner that allows us to keep an eye on them...
They decide to send Finndo back first. He half-volunteers, given the possible options of returning safely, being drained to a husk on the Nonagram, or being drained to a husk by simply existing here for too long. He steps into one of the 'protected' circles on the black design as Damien manipulates the obelisks to activate it.
Black mist rises across the Nonagram. As far as Damien and Esmée can tell Finndo is not being excessively drained, at least up to the point where he is hidden by the black mist.
The Nonagram activates, and when the black mist dissipates, there is no sign of Finndo. Must have worked then...
With little choice, Damien and Esmée wait for the Nonagram to recharge, then Esmée enters a circle while Damien reactivates it. As the mist rises he runs across the design and joins Esmée in her circle. They cling together as the black mist rises higher and higher. As they feel the Nonagram activate they feel great swathes of their life-force being painfully ripped from them, much like the last time Damien was here. Then they rise into the sky in the flow of black mist, heading back to the Land of the Living.
As they rise into the sky they see, far away in the sky, a new constellation of several very bright, very close-together stars. Presumably Anurerishkigal's Farm. Maybe. They can also see a new bronze-coloured 'rainbow' reaching from the mountains on one side of the land of the dead to those on the other where before there was only a glow on each side - Sandrine's Pattern, perhaps?
Back in Flora's hospital, in shadow, those who can see life-force see a flare of it at a point in Finndo's chest - the point through which the life-force-boosting spikes have to go - which then blossoms out to fill his body. But not with very much life-force - less than one percent of that of an adult Amberite; almost too little to detect.
Finndo's eyes snap open as he draws a breath, sits up and he looks around.
Once he gets his breath back he tells up what he, Esmée and Damien found in the Land of the Dead, and asks for a cup of tea.
A little later, life-force bursts into Damien and Esmée too. When the process is complete and they wake up, they too prove to be on less than one percent of life-force. Damn.
Tamarind checks their Trumps, while Ibrahim uses his life-force lens and Phoenix her life-force sight. All three prove to be themselves, and clean.
"Anything to add to Finndo's report?" asks Ibrahim.
Once this is summarised for them, Damien and Esmée shake their heads.
"I'm wondering if the others are lost to us then?" says Phoenix, with regard to those who are infected but not physiologically dead.
"I've been thinking about that," mutters Damien.
Those with life-force lenses or life-force sight notice black memory-sparks beginning to appear through the three new holes from the Land of the Dead.
We Trump Random and, when we get through, ask to borrow the Jewel of Judgement.
He pulls it out of a pocket and hands it over. We thank him and drop the link.
Using the Jewel, we seal up the three holes as much as is possible. Ibrahim then casts a warding on the area to contain any of the stray sparks.
"What about the ones in the Infirmary?" asks Tamarind.
"We try and find out whether there is anything left of them which can be separated out," says Damien.
He then notes that while Felicia may have been overwhelmed, Family members may still have some of themselves left.
We discuss the problem. "We have bits of Anurerishkigal, probably most of it that's still left," says Phoenix.
Ibrahim wonders if we could 'wash' the infected Family members down with memory shards, as we did in the Farm, to burn off the Anurerishkigal life-force? This does have the problem that we might then be left with beloved zombies, though.
There is also the possibility of removing the Family minds from the bodies and leaving the corrupted life-force in the comatose bodies. Tamarind is of the opinion that he could keep their minds in Trumps if this option was chosen.
However, as far as we know, the life-force tends to follow the mind when the latter is removed from the body. Phoenix's research also indicates that a unprotected spirit loses life-force first, then the remaining mind/memory-structure falls apart and dissipates away.
Damien checks with Tamarind that the Trumps themselves cannot be used to filter life-force out of a mind.
As far as Tamarind knows, they cannot.
It is beginning to look as if this problem is, in theory, converging with that of the beloved zombies. If we solve one, it certainly looks as if we will be able to solve the other.
We decide to return to Amber to continue our work on this.
Tamarind concentrates on his Trump of the Amber Arrival Courtyard and, when the link opens up, all of us, along with all of the various comatose bodies, are passed through before he comes through himself.
We make our way up to the Infirmary, to find that, while the rest of the Family are there, Brand and Margot have not yet returned from Castle Arden.
Damien asks Phoenix how much life-force the comatose bodies have left in them, relative to when she last looked.
She looks, and discovers that they have lost decades, if not centuries of life-force in just the last few hours. There is some speculation that this is why Anurerishkigal had to keep feeding on life-force. Precisely why its life-force should burn up more quickly than, for example, ours, is unclear. Tamarind speculates that it is because Anurerishkigal is a very primitive entity, and so does not process its life-force as efficiently as us.
Esmée Trumps Margot, who after a moment appears with Brand.
By now Ibrahim has come up with a plan. We drain the casualties down to almost zero life-force, then quickly top them up again with pure life-force and hope that the residual corrupt life-force is too weak to infect the pure stuff.
Tamarind tries to draw a diagram of what we know about minds and life-force. He wonders what would happen if one was to fire a memory-spark into a life-force reservoir. Would something be created? Given the way in which life-force seem to simply not 'stick' to beloved zombies, perhaps not.
Instead, Damien suggests that one could perhaps take a mind and fire its memories into the life-force reservoir in the sequence in which they happened, essentially reconstituting the person by rebuilding them as a coherent mind one memory at a time.
"You lot are really very good," say Brand admiringly as he listens in to all of this.
We decide to experiment with firing memory sparks into life-force to see if the basic principle works.
Ibrahim wants to put the dead and comatose people into a slow-time shadow while we work in a fast-time one. Sounds like a plan.
Phoenix asks Damien whether he was still connected to the Jewel of Judgement in the Land of the Dead.
Damien recalls that he could feel it, but didn't think he could draw on it.
With research decided upon as the best way forward, Brand Trumps us and the various bodies to his fast-time laboratory shadow. Finndo and Eleanor accompany us too.
We appear outside a large high-tech ziggurat structure. Those who can sense such things can tell that the shadow is both high technology and high magic, and that time here runs five times faster than in Amber. It also seems to be linked to Brand in some fashion. Those who know magic can sense a huge concentration of magical power in the ziggurat. "Welcome to my thaumaturgical research centre," says Brand, with a hint of pride.
We enter the ziggurat. Brand has some of his minions take the bodies and put them into a slow-time shadow pocket in a vault in the centre of the ziggurat. Ibrahim follows them, and stays close to the vault, to guard it. A virtual reality system is put in place to allow him to stay in touch with the rest of us while he remains there.
Brand leads the rest of us into a large laboratory space, filled with benches and magical and technological accoutrements. He points out that we really need a supply of life-force if we are to be able to experiment to the level we will probably require. One of the Anurerishkigal's life-force containers from the Farm would probably do.
We consider this, and decide not to contact Tristan for this. We would only be bogged down in arguments when we tried to explain our plan.
"I think he has discovered that the best way to make progress is to learn from one's mistakes, so he makes as many mistakes as possible," Damien notes of Tristan.
Damien and Tamarind volunteer to go and acquire a life-force storage crystal from the Farm, while Brand, Finndo and Phoenix make things ready in the laboratory.
A combination of Trump use followed by shadow-shifting takes Damien and Tamarind to one of the Farm shadows, and into the life-force collection facility at its centre.
The life-force storage crystals are, however, a quarter of a mile long or more. Tamarind concentrates hard and Trumps Brand. When they are linked by the Trump they, together, create a large Trump gate which scans down the crystal, Trumping it to a chasm that Brand has created just below and to one side of the laboratory.
When the crystal is through, Tamarind (now rather tired) and Damien follow through the Gate into the laboratory. The Gate closes.
Phoenix suggests that we should decant some life-force out of the large crystal into something smaller, so that it is easier to handle. And also to stop any problems with possible contamination or corruption by black life-force.
Damien agrees. "Shooting memory-sparks into the crystal might mean that we can't see what is happening," he comments.
Via virtual reality, Ibrahim agrees with this precaution. "Perhaps shooting memory sparks into the crystal might result in a chain reaction that would blow us all to smithereens," he warns. Fair point.
Brand admits to having smaller life-force containers, and fetches some, along with some life-force transmitter and receiver spikes. A transmitter spike is inserted into the huge crystal, and from it Brand fills the smaller container. Then a memory-spark-slicing machine (much like the one we 'obtained' from the late Professor Branarien) is set up to provide the memory fragments to feed into it.
Damien goes to where Ibrahim is and borrows his (formerly Brand's) life-force lens from him.
Phoenix sends Ibrahim some snacks to tide him over while he waits.
Brand also seems to have a store of memory-sparks obtained from the Land of the Dead in some fashion, stored in a warded container. One of these is placed into the slicing machine and the last remnants of that person broken into its constituent memory-fragments, which are then shot into the container of life-force.
The fragments seem to stick to each other, and attract life-force. But to some extent, and only for an instant. Almost at once the proto-mind structure falls apart, and the memory-fragments dissipate away into nothingness. But there was definitely something happening there, however briefly...
Damien wonders whether sending the memory-fragments into the life-force in sequence would mean that they clump together more securely, like the components of a complex molecule, or a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.
Unfortunately, Brand points out that the memory-slicer is too crude to sequence the fragments - it merely slices the mind-structure apart.
The idea of using probability manipulation to have the fragments fall into place in the correct order is suggested. We consider this. It sounds like this might be a way forward.
Damien thinks it is worth trying if only to see whether the ordered fragments clump together better and/or for longer.
Phoenix points out, however, that having another person manipulating things is not an ideal way of reconstituting someone's mind. Let alone a Real mind.
Damien agrees with this point.
Over his virtual reality link, Ibrahim reminds us that, for Amberites at least, memories are laid down in sequence. At least, that is how we recall things on the Pattern - in definite chronological order. Fair point.
While we discuss all of this further, Tamarind does a Trump reading, to see whether the Trumps think that there are any shadows of Fiona left in the universe. The answer that comes back is an unambiguous "Yes". Damn.
We send another memory-spark into the slicer, and channel the fragments that are now all that remain of that person into the life-force container.
As they are channelled in, Brand uses Advanced Probability Manipulation to try and ensure that they cohere back into the original person in the correct order.
This time the structure that forms is more stable, and does not fall apart as soon as it has come together.
Tamarind quickly draws a Trump sketch of it and, once he is done, Trumps the proto-mind that is there. The proto-mind is a weak one, and Tamarind easily overwhelms it, sensing that it is a confused, scared, disjointed thing.
Once contact is made, Tamarind projects soothing thoughts at the mind, and allows Damien and Phoenix to join the link.
We can all sense that the mind has a sense of self, and is definitely male. When asked, he says his name is Albert.
Tamarind asks where he came from.
He is not sure. He says he remembers dying. "Is this Heaven, and are you Angels?" he asks.
"We try not to be," replies Damien dryly.
As we observe further it seems that Albert is a person, but one with big holes in him. We get a sense of how his memories fit together in clumps, but they are very incomplete.
And as we observe Albert fades slowly away, still confused, his memories fragmenting from the outside in until nothing is left of the person that Albert was.
We analyse our results.
They are quite encouraging, for a second try. Ibrahim thinks that our attunement to the Pattern is a way into the memories of Family members.
"Aren't we all attuned to the Jewel?" asks Phoenix. "Wouldn't that make a difference?" Fair point.
Tamarind offers an analogy. We could use the Pattern imprint of a person to feed memories into them like threading beads on a string. Then he thinks of the Trumps. Perhaps we could use the Trump of the person as an additional guiding factor as the memories are fed in. As a template.
Brand considers this, and nods. "I think this is well worth adding to our armoury," he says. He also mentions that his examination of the tetrahedra we removed from the heads of various people are communications devices and nothing more - certainly not bits of Anurerishkigal.
So the people with black life-force are fragments of Anurerishkigal. Which implies that they may have two sets of memories - their own, and that of Anurerishkigal.
Ibrahim hopes that the Pattern imprint will help us to distinguish the two.
Phoenix thinks that if one were to use the Jewel one could essentially follow another person's Pattern imprint because it is a higher-level attunement.
Brand thinks this is a good idea, too.
Eleanor looks thoughtful. Damien asks her what's on her mind.
She says that she is thinking about Aximia, and how she held other minds inside her while walking the Pattern, and how she held them separate to herself. Though they may have been the minds of people with the Blood of Amber. She is thinking about how individuals are distinguished from herself when they are being carried in her mind.
We consider this.
However, the rest of us conclude that we are not sure she can safely separate out the Anurerishkigal memories from those of the actual person. We do not want to put her at unnecessary risk when we have other promising operating techniques we can experiment with first.
Damien suggests that she is best placed to rescue people (or as much of them as is possible) should our other experiments go awry.
She agrees to do this.
Phoenix is not convinced that that rest of us could cope with Anurerishkigal in Eleanor's body, particularly with access to her Souleater power.
"Hmmm..." think the rest of us.
We thus modify our instructions to Eleanor to be 'watch and learn and do nothing else'.
She agrees to do this, instead.
We spend some time experimenting with probability manipulation, improving our technique while destroying the last remnants of a fair number of people until we reach the point where we are confident that we could bring someone back from the state of beloved-zombiedom should we wish, and have a good chance of doing so successfully.
Phoenix and Tamarind become quite good at the probability manipulation side of things, as long as they keep moving around. Brand improves his performance somewhat, but nowhere near as much as they do. It seems that the trick is to remove random elements from the recombination process, not to try and impose the most likely combination upon it.
So we select an Amberite who will be the first to try the procedure on. After a lot of discussion, we narrow the field down to people we don't really like. Then further until the choices are Owen or Merlin.
Then, while making damn sure that no-one is manipulating probability, Damien tosses a coin to decide which of the two will be the first. Heads Merlin, tails Owen.
The coin comes down tails. Owen it is, then...
That being so, Brand has Owen wheeled up from the vault. Ibrahim accompanies him in person.
With everything ready, Damien double-checks that no-one has any overwhelming qualms or objections about what we are about to do.
No-one does.
Then, with everyone's agreement, a life-force-draining spike is inserted into Owen's body. The black life-force within him begins to drain away and dissipate in the air.
Down and down the level goes, until there is nothing left. Owen and, presumably, the piece of Anurerishkigal inside him, is now a beloved zombie.
As the last of the life-force drains away we find that we can distinguish two minds inside him. They are somewhat linked together, but not, we think, inextricably so. And, fortunately, we can distinguish that of Owen from that of Anurerishkigal.
We use the mind-slicer on the minds, and Owen is chopped away from Anurerishkigal.
Tamarind could now Trump Owen's mind out of his body, but we really need the body to be Anurerishkigal-free. So, instead, Phoenix uses her soul-shifting powers to extract Anurerishkigal from Owen's body and into a warding which Brand sets up. Once inside the Anurerishkigal-part dissipates away to nothing. Owen's mind is left behind, apparently intact. Phew.
Now we do extract Owen's mind from his body, and into the mind-slicer. Phoenix stands by his body, shapeshift-merged with him, keeping his body alive while the process continues.
Owen's most fundamental self is cut apart by the machine, and the pieces of him fed, one at a time, into the life-force reservoir while Damien, Brand and Ibrahim use probability manipulation to remove the random elements from the recombination process.
And it seems to be working. Life-force begins to coalesce around the memory fragments as they self-assemble, and it appears that Owen is reconstituting nicely, his memories accreting life-force about themselves as they recombine into a person rather than a collection of memory-fragments.
Until Damien attempts to push at the memories of Amber's poorly housed, trying to incorporate them into Owen, for the sake of sentimentality, because it seemed to be an important part of Owen, and because it was a part of him that Damien liked. Even though Damien warned people not to try and influence things like this right from the very start...
This abruptly stops the re-coalescence process, and nearly shreds the newly-formed Owen mind back into nothingness, but although Owen's mind shudders, it does not break, and stops growing at the point where Damien interrupted. As far as we can tell, perhaps eighty-five percent of the old Owen has been incorporated, with the rest of him simply dissipating away...
When it becomes clear that Owen's mind has stabilised, Tamarind and Finndo extract him from the life-force container and put him back in his body. Phoenix pumps in plenty of life-force, until he is restored to one hundred percent, when she stops. More importantly, he is at one hundred percent life-force, and uncontaminated, although his mind only retains eight-five percent cohesion or so.
As we look down at him, Owen gradually regains consciousness. He asks where he is, and what is happening, but seems to be very confused.
We encourage him to sleep, and, eventually, he does.
We discuss our new results.
Ibrahim mentions that the probability manipulation process felt a bit odd about half-way through.
At this, Damien admits to having possibly influenced one aspect of Owen overly, and apologises to everyone for not having followed his own advice.
No-one appears to be very impressed by Damien's behaviour at this point.
Everyone rests, and then we repeat the procedure on Merlin, this time without Damien's input. He stands back and observes instead.
Following the same procedure, as Merlin's life-force-drained mind re-coalesces in the life-force reservoir it achieves ninety-five percent cohesion - significantly better than was the case with Owen.
Again, he is put back into his body, pumped full of life-force and quickly rendered unconscious before he can start shapeshifting uncontrollably - we do not want a repeat of the 'Merlin becoming part of the floor' incidents.
Next, we prepare to do the same with Caleb. However, this time, before we begin we Trump King Random and again borrow the Jewel of Judgement, which Random happily hands over once the situation is explained to him.
With the aid of the Jewel, and with Damien using probability manipulation as he should have done the first time we retrieve ninety-eight percent of Caleb.
The main factors in this success appear to be:
With Caleb restored, we repeat the procedure on Altair, who is, when we have finished, ninety-six percent intact.
Then we go to rest, this all having been really quite an effort.
Before resting, Damien and Finndo make use of the copious amounts of life-force available to top themselves each back up to the one hundred percent level.
Once this is done, Damien also Trumps Esmée, and when he gets through tells her the situation. She is happy to have her life-force restored to a healthy, rather than an almost-dead, level and comes through the link for this.
Once topped up, she thanks Damien, and Trumps back to Amber.
Then they rest, too.
Later, when we are fresh, we get back to work
First we restore Flora, recovering her ninety-two percent intact. From what we have seen so far, we conclude that the older one is, the harder it is to re-assemble ones larger store of memories intact.
Next is Julian, who is restored to ninety-one percent of his former self. Then Corwin, who is restored to eight-two percent. And lastly Benedict, who is restored to only sixty percent. Oops. Oh well.
Leaving only the various beloved zombies to be restored...
Meanwhile, upon arriving back at the Farm, Tristan spends some time adjusting the Farm shadows to make them much more hospitable to the inhabitants. These adjustments include:
When all of this is done, Tristan Trumps away, then shifts off through shadow leaving no trail and disguising his path in a number of other ways too. He carries on until he reaches an uninhabited Trump-barred zero-G shadow, which is also Shadow of Destiny that no-one will find. Once he is there, Castle Corvallin appears from behind a cloud with the life-force-storage crystals in tow.
Tristan wonders whether the fact that we have found memories involving specific people (such as Oberon) in the memory-extraction machine means that shadow is not, in fact, infinite.
After all, if one assumes that shadow is infinite and so has an infinite population, by taking a finite number of memories from the land of the dead and searching them for memories involving someone specific, then the chances of finding anything at all is proportional to that finite number divided by infinity. That is, zero. However, we know that it is possible to find memories of Oberon and a few other Amberites, so perhaps the initial assumption is wrong and shadow is not infinite.
There are a number of alternatives that Tristan comes up with which get around this problem, however:
With all of his loot safely ensconced in the Trump-barred zero-G shadow of Destiny, Tristan does a few more things.
First, he sends eagles of his desire to each of the people who have recently gone missing from Amber. The eagles each carry pen and paper for a reply to come back as well as a message asking them to detail what happened to them and to describe in as much detail as possible their current location. Tristan has reason to believe that these folk are still alive and are hidden in shadow, probably in Trump barred shadows. If the eagles can't find their targets they are to return to Tristan.
The eagles fly off ... and after a while return carrying no messages, having not found their targets. Hmmm...
Secondly, after what Fianurerishkigal said about the possibility of bringing back the beloved zombies, Tristan sends a speculative bird of desire to Bleys with the message:
|
Bleys. If you received this then my hunch was right and you live again, for which I am glad. No one else in Amber suspects this, to my knowledge, but they could work it out too. I wish you good luck, Tristan |
Again it is to come back if it can't find its target. It flies off ... and after a while returns carrying no messages, having not found its target. Tristan destroys the message.
With this done, Tristan examines the Machine of Sifting Memory Fragments in more detail. The first thing he does is to attempt to find out what questions or search patterns Fianurerishkigal was using to sift through this mountain of information. He is more than a little interested in finding out what It was after.
There is a lot of information in the data store, but after some study it seems that Fianurerishkigal was searching through the memory fragments based on their subject matter. She does seem to have been particularly interested in ancient memories, and the memories of people from Amber. Some memories seem to have particularly grabbed her attention, mainly those relating to Family members and the Courts of Chaos, but also any very old memories that she trawled up. In particular those memories relating to Oberon and Brand seen to have particularly attracted her attention.
Tristan then attempts to gauge the extent of the information available by seeing how many references there are to himself and Flora's shadow Earth.
There are some references to Tristan, but nowhere near as many as to most of the other Elders. Presumably this is due to his being so much younger than the rest of them, and his having lived in slow-time shadows for so long. Fianurerishkigal's notes certainly speculate that this is so. There are quite a lot of memories from people who were from a shadow Earth; it is hard to judge how many of them were from the exact shadow that is Flora's Earth.
From this it appears that the chances of finding one or more sets of memories from a group of one hundred or so is very small. Which raises an interesting point. Tristan thinks about an elderly servant he knew in one of his favourite shadows from his youth, who has now passed away. It is unlikely, but possible, that his memories are in the machine. Or perhaps probable, likely even, almost a dead certainty. And after a while of this Tristan looks him up...
And there he is.
Based on this Tristan reasons that it is also just possible that the memories of Queen Moire of Rebma are in The Machine. After a short while wandering up and down to convince himself of this he tries to see if they are there. The first question he would like to ask is what happened to her. However, her memories are not there.
Tristan then speculates that despite this there are probably the memories of people who were present at her demise (or abdication) in the Machine. He suspects that many of them died at roughly that time too. And there are indeed. It seems there was some sort of coup...
With this achieved, Tristan then makes it probable that the memories of Sir Francis Dashwood, from shadow Medmenham, are there. He would like an independent view of what happened between Bleys and Damien's mother at the time of his conception. And his memories are indeed there, of the Hellfire Club's Black Mass at which Damien was conceived.
Knowing that Sir Francis Dashwood was an extremely accomplished mage who could see that Bleys was adapting the Black Mass to his own ends but couldn't work out how or to what end, Tristan hopes that with Dashwood's memories of the events, he can work out what was going on in the ritual. For example, whether it really was the case that Bleys could have just ended it at any time, or whether it was the case that although he could have escaped it would have destroyed most of south England, killing millions, including all those present.
From Dashwood's memories, the ritual certainly was a huge magical juggernaut. It seems that it was not something Bleys could have stopped; he could control its course, to some extent, but not stop it once it was going. As for what it was actually intended for, the power was most certainly being focussed into Bleys and Elizabeth. Beyond that it is hard to tell. However, the nature of what is happening did seem to change when Elizabeth started to feel that she was getting out of her depth, and resisting. There was a lot more 'splashing' of the power, as if it was not all going where it should have been. And this increased the more and more Elizabeth resisted what was going on.
Before the ritual all of the celebrants, including Elizabeth, knew what was going to happen. However, Dashwood seems to have been of the opinion that some people may not have fully grasped the implications of what was to occur. They did all realize that the Venetian Black Mass was dangerous and that once begun it could not just be turned off.
Tristan is also interested in what happened after the ritual. For example, was Bleys horrified or smug once it was over? Tristan and Bleys were best friends so Tristan hopes that he might have a reasonable chance of working out the truth even if Bleys was acting at the time. As far as Dashwood recalled Bleys was neither horrified nor smug. Concerned and a bit unhappy would seen to have been his responses.
He finds that what Dashwood told Damien about the Mass was the truth. Bleys never told Dashwood why he never came back to Medmenham.
Then Tristan searches for Merodach, the first and last King of Chaos. He would like very much indeed to go through his memories. However, his memories are not there. Nor are those of any of the Chaosians from the mass-suicide.
In addition he looks for:
At this point Tristan gets security conscious. He attempts to make it very improbable, nay impossible, that anyone in The Machine has even seen Castle Corvallin, that no-one has any information on the defences of Castle Amber or Castle Moebius, and no-one knows anything about the history of House Clemens. He then checks that this is so. Unfortunately, information on all of these things proves to be already there in the machine, neatly organised by Fianurerishkigal, as it is with all of the Family, Chaos and so on...