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Recorded for Posterity by Iain Walker.
All of us apart from Tristan are in Brand's laboratory shadow.
All of the Family members who were contaminated by Anurerishkigal's possession have been cleansed and reconstituted to varying degrees in new, life-force-charged form. All of them are sedated, apart from Owen, who was awoken, confused, and who is now resting.
Elsewhere, Tristan finishes his business at the Farm and Trumps Damien.
In Brand's shadow, Damien feels a Trump contact coming on. Tamarind identifies it as probably coming from Tristan, so he accepts it. It is indeed Tristan. After a few brief words, Damien brings him through.
We explain how we have come up with a technique that allowed us to fix the various possessees, that can also be used to bring back Beloved Zombies.
Tristan is both impressed and overjoyed.
In return he tells us that the big life-force crystals Anurerishkigal had at the Farm are now in a safe place, and that the Memory Machine is in Castle Corvallin.
Now that it seems there is good chance he can be revived as something other than a Beloved Zombie, Phoenix wants to retrieve Delaney from the Land of the Dead.
Tristan suggests that we should also tell Girasol that Delwin and their other dead can now be brought back to full life.
We also consider who else we could bring back safely, for example, perhaps Dara, or Bleys, or Caine...
We decide to get Delaney back as a priority, and if someone from Girasol wants to come with us to get Delwin, then all well and good. However, if not then he can wait.
Ibrahim suggests that we should drain ourselves of most of our life-force before going, so as to give Anurerishkigal less to play with if (when) we are drained by the Nonagram upon our return.
No-one else thinks this is a good idea, partly because we are not entirely sure whether it drains a percentage or a fixed amount of life-force from returnees. If the former we might be all right; if the latter we would not.
Not wishing to participate in the discussion, though admitting its importance, Phoenix goes off to meditate.
Tristan goes to fetch Brand, who turns out to be pacing in an office not far away while dictating to a secretary, drinking coffee, and eating cake. When Tristan explains the situation, Brand leaves off his dictating for now, and returns with him.
When they return we explain the plan to Brand. We also ask him to explain the Nonagram to us in detail, as we think both Tristan and Ibrahim are now sufficiently learned to be able to understand what he is talking about, so we might want to try and repair it.
This Brand does, with the aid of his blueprints for the device. There is a quite a lot that is still over their heads, but Brand's explanation certainly allows Tristan and Ibrahim to get some idea of how to tell whether, and if so how, it has been tampered with. For example, whether it is some intrinsic change in the Nonagram, or something 'bolted on' to it.
Tristan suggests that Brand could come to look at it himself.
"No way in hell!" says Brand forcefully.
Given that Brand's original life-force injection spikes seem to have vanished from the castle in the Land of the Dead, Tristan asks Brand whether he can instead provide life-force receiver spikes modified to tap into Oberon. These would be part of Tristan's personal reality and so will come with us to the Land of the Dead and allow us to top up our life-forces while we are there.
Brand agrees to do this, and quickly modifies some of his existing spikes into ones that will tap into Oberon in the Land of the Dead, handing them to Tristan.
Rather belatedly, we wonder whether something less painful than ice picks to the temples could do the same job of rendering us brain-dead. A hat, for instance. Or poison. This could probably be arranged...
While all this is going on, Tamarind Trumps off to inform the Girasolians of what we have been doing.
He arrives over the centre of Corwin's Pattern, drops down, passes through, and then uses the Pattern on that side to transport himself to outside Castle Girasol.
Back in Brand's shadow, Damien Trumps off to Flora's hospital shadow to set things up ready for our return from the Land of the Dead. He chooses that location as we've already used it several times and so it already has holes from the Land of the Dead there, and is warded against the leakage of any memory-sparks that may emerge from said holes.
Tristan also asks Brand for a copy of the other ritual. The one to get someone back from the Land of the Dead without their having a body to return to, that we used to retrieve Brand and Deirdre.
Brand nods, and begins to explain.
Again, Tristan and Ibrahim have some idea of what is being said, but a lot still goes over their heads. Nonetheless, they think they could probably replicate the ritual if necessary. The main thing that makes it different from the use of the Nonagram is that the Nonagram uses the link between a person and their body to guide the returning spirit out of the Land of the Dead and to its physical form. This is a much easier process than to force a link down from a body in the Land of the Living to a spirit in the Land of the Dead and draw them out and into it. This is why the ritual to return Brand and Deirdre left a much larger hole out of the Land of the Dead than the ones that returned people with bodies from the Land of the Dead.
Tristan explains that this is for the benefit of Bleys, to be used at a later date.
Elsewhere, Tamarind appears outside the gates of Castle Girasol.
The guards there recognise and admit him. Servants guide him to the Throne Room, where Sandrine and Osric are holding court.
They greet Tamarind, who asks them for a private audience.
Osric nods, and everyone else begins to leave the Throne Room.
When the place is empty of non-Royals, Tamarind explains to Sandrine and Osric that we can now bring anyone we want back from the dead, even if they are a Beloved Zombie, and also explains how this is achieved.
However, he also warns them that Anurerishkigal is still a potential problem.
Osric and Sandrine both look rather taken aback by this news. "We will have to think about this," says Osric.
Tamarind thanks them for their time, leaves the Throne Room, and heads back to the Amber universe by way of Corwin's Pattern.
In Flora's hospital shadow, Damien sets up the hospital ward ready for our return.
When he is done, he Trumps Esmée, and when she takes the call, asks her to come through to him. This she does.
Once she has stepped through, he explains that we need someone to guard the fort at this end once we are in the Land of the Dead.
She agrees to do this.
With that done, Damien then Trumps Tristan.
In Brand's laboratory, discussions over, Tristan and Ibrahim find Phoenix and tell her about the plan.
They agree that the best place to start is Delaney's grave, in Requiem, so Phoenix uses her Trump of the place, and when the link opens up, takes the three of them through to outside a cave in a wooded valley, which Tristan has modified to remain forever undisturbed by wanderers. Thanks to Tristan's fixing of the shadow, the valley is much improved from the wasteland it was when Phoenix placed Delaney here.
Having arrived back in the Amber universe, Tamarind uses Corwin's Pattern to travel to Delaney's grave, arriving beside the rest of us, to the surprise of those who were expecting him to Trump here.
Shortly after Tamarind arrives, Tristan feels a Trump call coming on. He cautiously accepts it, and finds that it is Damien, with Esmée.
While the link is held open, Phoenix goes into the cave and removes the preserved body of Delaney from the rock shelf where it has rested since he died. He is passed through the Trump link to Damien and put on a bed in the hospital.
Then Esmée and Damien come through and join the rest of us.
At Tristan's prompting, Ibrahim gives Esmée the Jewel of Judgement. This is just in case his dying with a Jewel Imprint and the Jewel about his person might somehow cause it to come with us to the Land of the Dead, which we imagine might be a Bad Thing.
Damien gives Esmée the Trump of Flora's hospital shadow.
We then head off down the valley to Sanctuary, a few miles away, as that is where Delaney actually died and so our dying in the same place should put us as close to him as possible in the Land of the Dead.
Arriving at Sanctuary, that now seems to be a fairly thriving small town, we decide to kill ourselves in a small clearing on top of a nearby hill, rather than go into the town and excite comment by killing ourselves there, in public. Use of the Pattern ensures that we are extremely unlikely to be disturbed in this.
Phoenix - who is very hard to kill - spends some time switching off her many and varied shapeshifting defences before asking Tamarind to paralyse her mind while Damien delivers the killing blow.
Tamarind does this for her via eye contact. Although he tries to be as gentle is possible, it is still quite unpleasant, rather like being smothered by a one-ton pillow. But Phoenix is paralysed, and Damien runs her through in a manner that makes her death as quick and painless as possible.
Phoenix ... dies. Unlike the rest of us, she has not done this before. She does not enjoy it.
Tamarind and Tristan, not being as masochistic as some, take powerful poison, and keel over dead that way.
Ibrahim wants to know how much better Damien is than him.
Always willing to oblige, Damien draws Dashwood and stands en garde.
Ibrahim draws Chrysanthir and does likewise.
With lightning speed, Damien draws Wilkes and shoots Ibrahim in the head. Bang.
Ibrahim is suitably impressed. And dead.
Damien bids Esmée au revoir, and drives the traditional ice-picks into his temples.
Everything fades to black...
Phoenix wakes up. It is very cold. She is in a small, stone-walled room with an empty window and doorway, and is slowly leaking life-force in the form of black mist.
Concentrating hard, she manages to slow the flow of life-force out of herself, but finds that if she does this too much she begins to slow down herself, too. She notices that she has the puncture wound from Damien's sword in her chest, and that she appears to be about fifteen years old here.
As she watches, black mist swirls into the room and begins to collect into a black mass that starts to solidify into Tamarind. Before he is fully formed a second swirl of mist blows in and begins to solidify into Tristan (he having died of the poison slightly later than Tamarind).
When each of them is fully formed, they each stand up. Tristan checks that he has the Oberon-tapping spikes, and finds that he does.
Another mass of black mist swirls into the room, and solidifies into Ibrahim. With a bullet hole in his forehead. And a large exit wound in the back that seems to have removed most of the rear of his head.
Using the Pattern, Tristan finds him a hat to cover this unsightly crater.
More black mist swirls into the room and forms into Damien, who also stands up. He is sporting a stylish pair of ice-pick holes in his temples.
Phoenix checks Tristan's spikes. There appears to be no life-force coming out of them. She generates a sentient blob out of herself (growing slightly older in appearance as she does so) and pokes a spike into it, in case they need to be in an appropriate recipient to work. Again, nothing happens. No life-force comes out of the spike. Damn.
We conclude that Anurerishkigal has probably discovered Oberon's body. Damn again.
However, we cannot do anything about this at present, so we go outside into the city of the dead. Single-storey flat-roofed stone-walled buildings with empty windows and doorways stretch off in all directions under the terrible stars of the Land of the Dead. The quiet dead stand about, in windows or doorways, and on the street. It appears that most of them died unpleasantly.
We take to the rooftops, life-force flowing out of us all the while, and search for Delaney. Phoenix leads us to where there should be a garden, and using the Pattern, Tristan shifts us there in a few seconds.
We find an open space of the same size as one of the houses of the city of the dead, laid out with hints of flowerbeds, delineated by stones.
Standing there, staring blankly at the ground, is Delaney, dressed in camouflage gear and looking very old.
Tamarind gets out his Trumps of the Nonagram room, and concentrates on it. The card glows silver, then a silver thread shoots out of it, arcing up and off across the Land of the Dead as the link opens up. Tamarind visibly ages as this occurs.
Phoenix gently guides Delaney over to the rest of us.
Looking through the Trump link, the Nonagram room appears to be deserted. Phew. We all pile through.
Tamarind, Phoenix and Delaney crowd into one of the circles in the centre of the Nonagram. Damien keeps watch. Tristan and Ibrahim examine the Nonagram for any signs of tampering.
After a short while, Tristan and Ibrahim both see that there are differences between Brand's claimed specification of the Nonagram and what is actually here. The changes do not seem to have just been 'tacked on'; instead the entire system seems to have been corrupted. Life-force is not being redirected at the moment, from the recycling flow back to the Land of the Living, but instead it appears that the changes would affect what occurs when people are using it to return to the Land of the Living, tearing away the life-force then.
With the examination completed, Tristan tells us that he wants to look for Oberon.
No-one else is enthusiastic about this idea, but Tamarind offers to do a quick Trump Scrying for Oberon at the very moment we leave.
Tristan agrees to this compromise.
That being settled, Ibrahim does the ritual, adjusting the obelisks to activate the Nonagram.
As the black mist rises, Tamarind scrys using Oberon's Trump. He gets no response. Oberon is not too far away or in a barred location, he is simply not here any more. Oops...
The black mist rises higher and higher, along the lines of the Nonagram and around and through us all, pulling us up with it and along the column of mist into the sky of the Land of the Dead. As we rise, we all feel life-force being ripped painfully from us. Phoenix and Tristan can see that the drained life-force is flowing back down around the rising column of life-force in a spiral and into a part of the castle we have not visited, very roughly the equivalent of the lower level of the Main Keep of Castle Amber.
Very much drained of life, we fly up into the sky of the Land of the Dead and into the star corresponding to Flora's hospital shadow.
Blinding light surrounds us all, and blinding pain, and we wake up in the hospital ward.
Delaney appears to have been restored to youth, and is breathing, but is also a Beloved Zombie.
"He's not there," Tamarind tells us all, referring to Oberon.
He then Trumps us all back to Brand's laboratory shadow.
Brand looks up as we appear.
"He's not there," Tamarind tells Brand.
"Oh fuck. Oh fuck," comments Brand calmly.
Life-force top-ups are in order for all of us.
Spikes are provided and jammed in (ouch!) and we are all returned to roughly one hundred percent of the normal level.
Ibrahim describes the changes made to the Nonagram to Brand, who listens interestedly.
Then Tristan tells him where the life-force was being diverted to in the castle.
"I think that area was just empty rooms," says Brand. "And I left Oberon somewhere else, in a room with no way in or out."
Hmm...
Tristan suggests we bring the other Beloved Zombies here and return them all to life.
Ibrahim wants to talk to Random before bringing Eric back. He says he will return to Amber.
He reclaims the Jewel of Judgement from Esmée, and then gives it to Phoenix, in case Random wants it back when he hears of Oberon's return. Then he pulls out his Trump of Random and concentrates on it.
While Ibrahim does this, Tristan and Damien make ready to go off and reclaim the various Beloved Zombies.
Shortly, Ibrahim feels contact being made, and the link to Random opens up. He asks to be brought through, and Random holds out his hand. Ibrahim steps through the link into Random's office in Amber.
He tells Random that we have fixed the possessed Family members. And that the process can also be used to restore Beloved Zombies. And that we have been to the Land of the Dead. And that Oberon is no longer there.
Random takes this all remarkably well. "Oberon's body was thrown into ... er ... laid to rest ... in the Abyss at the Courts of Chaos," he notes.
Ibrahim asks him if he can bring Eric back.
"Oh, bloody hell," says Random in a somewhat vexed manner. "Oh, all right. Let's have the gang all here," he says.
"We could do the same with Bleys," points out Ibrahim.
"Yes, we could," says Random positively. "But I don't think anyone should be making any more trips to the Land of the Dead just yet."
Ibrahim agrees with this assessment, thanks Random, pulls out Tamarind's Trump and concentrates on it.
Before he and Damien leave, Tristan suggests that Phoenix and Tamarind consult with the Memory Machine in Castle Corvallin, after briefly using the Pattern to have it appear in the skies above Brand's laboratory ziggurat. "If anyone has been killed by Oberon recently," he tells them. "You can use probability manipulation to make it likely that they're in the Machine."
Then he and Damien leave to fetch Eric, Nitocris, Isabel and Martin.
Tamarind feels a Trump call coming on, identifies the caller as Ibrahim, and opens the link.
Ibrahim asks to be brought through, and Tamarind does this.
Tamarind then decides that he should warn the Girasolians about this potential problem, and Trumps away, to Corwin's Pattern and through to the other side.
Before carrying on to Girasol itself, he stops off by Corwin's Pattern to tell Beltaine the news. She and Chalice are in her moonlit grove of Tir-Na Nog'th apple trees by Castle Moebius. While he tells her, she gives him a purple energy drink from shadow Haven. Tamarind takes a bottle of this with him as he proceeds on.
Arriving outside Castle Girasol again, the guards look a bit concerned at his appearing so soon after his previous visit. He is rapidly admitted and conducted to the Throne Room, where Sandrine and Osric are still holding court.
Again, he suggests that they clear the room, and have a drink. This is done.
When only himself and the two monarchs are left, he tells them that Oberon is no longer in the Land of the Dead. "Umm... Enjoy the drink," he concludes. "Any messages?"
"Let us know if you need any assistance," says Osric.
Tamarind nods, thanks them, and leaves again, back to Corwin's Pattern and through to the Amber universe.
Back in Brand's laboratory shadow, Phoenix and Ibrahim discuss using the Memory Machine, then decide that, as they really have no clue about its use, they should leave it to Tristan when he returns.
In shadow, Tristan and Damien travel quickly between the Trump-proof Shadows of Destiny (whose destiny is to be missed by travellers) in each of which is a well-defended fortress holding one of the Beloved Zombies, frozen in magical stasis.
At each shadow they remove the Beloved Zombie from stasis and bring them along.
And when they are done, Tristan Trumps Phoenix.
In Brand's laboratory, Phoenix feels a Trump call coming on, and accepts it. It is Tristan, Damien and the Beloved Zombies.
At Tristan's request, she brings them all through.
Ibrahim tells everyone what Random said regarding Eric.
Tamarind arrives back again.
Tristan worries that Dworkin might go over to Oberon's side. As might Benedict, and/or Finndo. Perhaps Eric, too. Or Llewella.
We discuss this briefly, and come to the conclusion that although Dworkin, Llewella and Benedict are worries, Eric and Finndo are less likely to give their support to Oberon. Maybe.
We decide to bring back the Beloved Zombies first, then worry about Oberon.
However, we first discuss them, to make sure we do actually want each of them back.
Martin, we decide, is a bit of an unknown quantity.
Ibrahim tells us of Eric, and that he thinks the good qualities he saw in him were genuine.
Damien explains about Nitocris, her being mummified alive and trapped in a sarcophagus for thousands of years, his rescuing of her, her becoming a servant of Nyarlathotep for a while, her reversion to her original appearance, and their eventually going their separate ways. He thinks she may have mellowed a bit over the years, as she called him for help at the time of her death.
Phoenix looks less convinced about Eric's good qualities.
Ibrahim asks her what she knows of Eric. From what she says, it is clear that she blames him for setting shadow Requiem on its road to destruction. She also tells us that her mother, no slouch in the intellect department herself, thought Eric was the most brilliant scientist she had ever met.
Tristan tells us of Isabel, the brave and unflappable former wife of Oberon and Queen of Amber with whom he fell in love and ran off with. He also tells us of his early experiences with Oberon, whom he adored until Oberon divorced his mother and sent him off to an obscure corner of Arden to get him out of the way.
In the end we decide to bring them all back. We will revive Isabel, Martin, Nitocris, Eric and Delaney, in that order.
That being so, Isabel's mind is extracted from her body and fed into the soul-slicing device. All that she is is chopped into fragments, and is allowed to reconstitute in the reservoir of life-force, accruing life-force as it does so, while various powers are used to ensure everything comes together as it should. Tristan, not being familiar with the procedure, watches from the sidelines.
And in the end she is reconstituted at ninety-seven percent of her former self. She lives. She breathes. And is deeply unconscious, sedated by us for safety.
Tristan is very happy. He thanks us all, and forgives Brand for everything.
We leave him with Isabel and carry on.
The procedure is repeated on Martin, and we bring him back at ninety-five percent of his former self.
While all of this is going on, Damien is thinking about Nitocris, to satisfy himself that the four thousand years she spent as a ghost bound to a sarcophagus is not going to be all she is reconstituted with (those being most of her overall four thousand and twenty-odd years of existence). Discussion over the nature of memory, and how memories of the same thing on and on tend to become one overall memory convince him that reconstituting her is a practical plan, and so we proceed.
To reconstitute her at ninety-five percent of her original self. Damien gives her a quick kiss on the forehead and she is wheeled off, unconscious, to recover.
Then we move on to Eric. After the process is applied, we reconstitute him eighty-two percent intact (the same as Corwin).
Ibrahim wants to leave Chrysanthir with him so it is there when he wakes.
No-one else likes the idea of any of the (former) Beloved Zombies waking up armed, especially Eric.
Ibrahim decides to leave Chrysanthir in a cupboard instead, so that it can be given back to Eric when he both wakes and proves not to be mad or a threat. He does leave Eric Chrysanthir's scabbard, though.
Lastly, we reconstitute Delaney. He is rebuilt ninety-eight percent intact. Phew. Phoenix watches him breathe.
We decide to keep all of the newly reconstituted people sedated like the others, in the hope that sleep will help them reintegrate their memories, and smooth over any rough edges there may be.
After mutual congratulations, we decide to go up to Castle Corvallin and ask the Memory Machine whether anyone has been killed by Oberon recently.
Corvallin greets us as we come up the entrance ramp.
The Memory Machine - a large crystal sphere - is in one of Corvallin's more secure rooms. Tristan explains that it is basically a psychically-controlled Real computer.
Phoenix berates him for not telling us this beforehand - if she had known it was a computer she would have played with it earlier, rather than not wanting to meddle with a strange magical device neither she nor Ibrahim understood.
We search its records for the last two weeks, using the Pattern to ensure any relevant results come to the surface. The last new records were entered nearly that long ago now, at what Tristan calculates to be the time it was detached from Fianurerishkigal's memory-spark processing machine in the Farm. However, what records there are do not show anyone being killed by Oberon in the last fourteen days. Nor in the last four weeks. Hmm...
Searching further, we find that some people who look like Tristan were killed during that time, as were various Kings, Generals, heads of magical orders and so on. However, comparing these deaths with those from other time periods seems to indicate that they are not anything above the normal 'background' death rate for such people. Hmm again.
Basically, there is no data to suggest that there is an Oberon either on the rampage through shadow or working on building up a power base. Of course, he could just have returned since the last records were entered into the Memory Machine...
That done, we go back down to Brand's laboratory to do some Trump readings, in the hope that these will shed some more light on the situation.
'Where is Oberon?' is the question Tamarind is concentrating on as he lays out the cards in a very comprehensive layout intended to cover as wide a range of potential answers as possible.
Oberon, it seems, is... It looks as if an answer is emerging, then the rest of the layout seems to turn to gibberish. As if the subject is Trump-barred or being actively blocked in some fashion. This not good news, although it does indicate that Oberon is alive...
That being so, Tamarind tries a direct Scrying on Oberon's Trump.
As he concentrates on the Trump, he does not get any sense of where he is, as if Oberon were somewhere Trump barred. It does not feel like the sensation he gets when he tries to Scry Osric, in Girasol, from the Amber universe, so presumably Oberon is in this universe.
He tries comparing what he is sensing with a similar scrying on Dworkin, who is presumably at the Primal Pattern...
And gets a very similar response.
We consider this, and are not sure how we can do anything about this without using the Jewel of Judgement to get to the Primal Pattern, and hence exposing it to Oberon. Which might be bad.
We decide to rest for now, as it has been quite a tiring day so far.
Some time later, when we have all recovered, we and Esmée check all of the patients with the life-force lens. They are clean.
In the process of this we cannot help but notice that Delaney is very real, and also looks rather like Eric. He also has a lot of life-force, perhaps half as much as a young Amberite. Hmm...
We decide to check on how the patients are now, given that they have had a chance to rest and recuperate. We wake Flora first.
As she regains consciousness her eyes flicker open and she looks around at us all. She seems to recognise everyone, and when we ask her she confirms this.
We ask her what happened.
The last thing she seems to remember is being attacked by Anurerishkigal while in shadow Earth, and being overwhelmed by it. Taking different time flows and so on into account, this seems to have been a day or so ago. She confirms that she has some gaps in her memory.
We leave Flora to recover, and wake up Julian.
Again, he recognises us all, and Esmée. Like Flora, he says he can detect some holes in his memory, but is confident that walking the Pattern will cure any memory loss he may have suffered. He says he was attacked while in Castle Arden, again roughly a day ago.
We tell him about Felicia. He looks less than happy.
All of us apart from Damien and Esmée move away to give him time to take all this in. Damien tries to tell him what we've tried to do about Felicia being dead, including her being possessed by Anurerishkigal, ignoring Esmée's 'go away' gestures to him behind her back, where Julian cannot see.
Tamarind decides that Julian does not need to hear this right now, and so Trumps Damien and forces the contact, pulling Damien through to him on the other side of the room, obliging Julian to make do without Damien's reassurances. Which may or may not be a good thing. Esmée remains with Julian.
Next we wake up Corwin. He also remembers us, but only vaguely. He does recall that he has two sons, Owen and Merlin, but cannot remember why he likes Owen less than he does Merlin.
Secretly relieved that perhaps the Corwin-Owen feud is over for good, we move on, waking Owen, Caleb, Altair and Merlin in that order. All of them seem largely all right, though with some gaps in their memories.
Merlin, when woken, knows that he is not the floor, and does not try to shapeshift away.
We decide that Benedict should remain sedated for now.
Despite Damien's not being allowed to give similar news to Julian, we allow Tristan to tell Altair that Gerard is dead, that there are complications to this, but that we will get him back. Somehow.
Apart from Julian, who despite Esmée's best attempts to soften the blow, is rather in shock now, and Owen, who is still tired [no Endurance] everyone else in the first batch of resurrectees is now up and about.
Brand summons servants with refreshments and so on.
We continue to rest and recuperate while we wait for the last batch of resurrectees to wake up.
Tamarind apologises to Damien for his abrupt behaviour earlier.
Damien admits that he should have left it to Esmée.
Damien then remembers that Sebek has a chariot race very soon now. He tells everyone this, and that he will back in a couple of hours.
That done, he Trumps away to shadow Plinius, where he watches Sebek win his race, before Trumping back via Tamarind.
Tristan offers Phoenix a room in Castle Corvallin for herself and Delaney when he awakens.
Phoenix gladly accepts, asking only for one without any weird stuff in it.
This is easily done.
Before she and Delaney go, Ibrahim asks her whether she wants to be there when Eric wakes up.
"Why would I want to?" she replies.
There is a silence.
Phoenix turns and gives Ibrahim an awkward hug, then leaves, pushing the unconscious Delaney on a gurney.
More time passes. Damien returns.
In Castle Corvallin, Isabel wakes up in her own bed, with Tristan at her side.
"I finally found a cure," he tells her happily. "But it has been hundreds of years. You should rest."
"Tell me all about it over breakfast," says Isabel, who seems to be a little confused at no longer being old, but not unhappy with the situation.
Also in Castle Corvallin, Phoenix watches the sleeping Delaney.
After a while his eyes flicker open, look around the room and finally focus on her. "Meredith," he says. Like Isabel he seems rather confused to no longer be old, but also not unhappy with it.
"Good job, kid," he says.
Phoenix starts telling him what has happened, beginning with the fact that they are not in Requiem any more. When she is done, she collapses into Delaney's arms. "And you were dead," she says.
In a somewhat garbled fashion he is filled in on the details of what happened.
By this point Delaney is looking a little overloaded, so Phoenix decides to stop telling him things for now. Instead, she leads him out into one of Corvallin's gardens, and they sit under a tree and talk some more.
As they do so, a servant discretely pushes up a trolley loaded with breakfast things, including coffee, and goes away leaving the trolley behind.
"Cof-fee..." groans Delaney, who has clearly been caffeine-starved for a very long time.
Phoenix pours for them both.
Back in a bedroom in Brand's laboratory ziggurat, Nitocris wakes up with Damien beside her.
"Sorry I was late, but I got there eventually," he says.
They prowl around one another verbally for a while.
She admits she missed Damien ... but not so much that she wanted to call him until she was about to die horribly.
Damien tells her about Sebek's new developments.
She eventually thanks Damien and ... they suddenly find themselves kissing, then having wild, passionate sex.
Elsewhere in Brand's ziggurat, Eric wakes up and looks about him.
"Father?" says Ibrahim.
"Ah," says Eric.
Ibrahim explains his situation to him. Eric, like everyone else, seems confident that the Pattern will restore his memories when he gets a chance to walk it.
Carrying on, Ibrahim explains how he came to be in Amber. And that Random is King.
"Random?!?!?!" exclaims Eric.
Ibrahim explains how this came to be so. He then continues on, describing the status of the various family members, who is alive, who is dead, and why we have not brought the dead people back. Yet.
When he is done, Ibrahim hands Chrysanthir back to Eric.
"Thank you," says Eric. He scabbards the sword.
They talk some more. Eric does not allude to Phoenix at all, until Ibrahim mentions that we extricated her shadow Requiem. Then Eric admits to her existence.
Ibrahim asks whether he has any more siblings he does not know about.
"I know of no other offspring of mine," says Eric. "You should introduce us," he continues.
"Phoenix may not be glad to see you," Ibrahim warns him.
"I can't imagine why," says Eric.
Ibrahim then asks after his mother.
"Her name was Sukaina," says Eric. "She came from a shadow not unlike Keirei. She was a Queen of the Desert, who fell victim to tribal rivalries while I was away. So I took you to Keirei for your own safety."
Meanwhile, Tamarind performs some more Trump readings, mainly to see if Oberon's status has changed (it has not), and keeps an eye of the rest of the Family via Trump Scrying. Nothing much seems to be happening.
He has an idea for a Trump-powered device to perform Trump Scrying for him. One would simply insert a Trump into it and the device would Scry it and inform its user of what was happening.
Brand listens to this idea, and nods interestedly. He suggests that perhaps it could be improved with the addition of a mind and some Psyche into a device that could not only Scry the Trumps but also perform Trump readings to order. Perhaps even do so on a constant basis. A form of Prognosticator.
Tamarind and Brand discuss this further.
In Castle Corvallin, Tristan, with Isabel's permission, has Corvallin send servants with invitations to everyone in the Family who is in the shadow to a celebratory banquet in Castle Corvallin.
He then tells Isabel about his seven children, none of whom were produced by way of him having sex, and none of whom, he emphasises, were his fault.
Isabel is very understanding of the whole issue.
Elsewhere in Corvallin, Phoenix and Delaney finish their breakfast.
A servant enters the garden where they are, coughs discretely, and hands them an envelope, which contains an invitation to the banquet later.
They respond in the positive to the invitation, then Phoenix shows Delaney about the castle. She also spends a little while telling and demonstrating what she knows about the Trumps.
She assures him that he will not have to wear formal clothes to the banquet.
In Brand's ziggurat, Damien and Nitocris finally take some time to catch their breaths and talk.
Damien tells her that she succeeded in killing Nyarlathotep.
"I was actually trying to make a deal with him," she corrects Damien. "Then a huge white amorphous creature appeared and attacked the Elder God. I do not remember much after that."
Ah. Damien voices his suspicions that this might have been the Unicorn, with Nitocris just being caught in the crossfire.
He tells her that she doesn't need to make any more deals - the Impossigon is available. He then explains what this is.
There is a discrete knock at the door, which Damien answers, to find a Castle Corvallin servant holding an envelope. Inside this is Tristan's banquet invitation. The servant leaves.
Damien shows the invitation to Nitocris, and she agrees to attend.
Damien then RSVPs to Tristan, asking whether Sebek can attend too.
After a while the reply comes from Tristan. "All right." There is a special invitation for Sebek.
Elsewhere, Ibrahim and Eric receive their invitations, and both accept.
Likewise, Tamarind and Brand receive theirs, and also accept them.
Tamarind has servants take notes to Tristan and Phoenix offering to draw Trumps of Isabel and Delaney respectively.
After getting dressed and ready for the banquet, Damien pulls out his Trump of Agrippina and concentrates upon it. When she takes the call, he tells her what has happened, and asks her to send Sebek through. He passes on the invitation that Tristan sent, then closes the link.
Not long after he feels a weak Trump call coming on, and accepts it.
It is Sebek, wearing white collar and black bow tie. Damien brings him through.
Sebek, looks around the room, sees Nitocris, and is briefly speechless.
"Mummy!" he exclaims.
Damien's mouth drops open. Mummy?
He comes over and hugs Nitocris in his awkward way.
She looks more than a little taken aback by this, but hugs him in return anyway.
"Mummy, mummy, mummy..." repeats Sebek.
Eventually he winds down, but wants to tell Nitocris about all of his adventures.
She fends him off with (to Damien) surprising tact.
And the three of them leave the room and head up to Castle Corvallin.
In Corvallin, Tristan and Isabel make ready for the banquet. Corvallin still has plenty of Isabel's clothes, in perfect condition, and she dresses in royal blue and gold to complement her blonde hair.
For once, Tristan is quite happy to not wear monochrome clothing. Isabel assists him in selecting something a little more celebratory.
And when they are ready, they head down to the banqueting hall that Tristan has selected. This is a large hall with a domed glass roof, which has been set up ready for an informal sit-down dinner. Servants stand ready, and musicians are ready to play at one end of the hall.
They wait for their guests to arrive.
Phoenix and Delaney are the first to appear. Both of them are dressed in matching black t-shirts and camouflage trousers. Servants announce them at the door.
Inside, Isabel is looking extremely regal, while Tristan is no longer dressed in monochrome and looks much happier than Phoenix has ever seen him.
They greet Phoenix and Delaney. Delaney gives Tristan a hard handshake in a testing-his-strength kind of fashion (the normal sort of behaviour for Requiem), but kisses Isabel's hand. He seems to be slightly stronger than Tristan.
Servants offer drinks and nibbles. Delaney stuffs his face, as food, on Requiem, is something to be eaten right away, as one never knows where the next meal may be coming from.
Tamarind arrives next, and is announced too.
He greets Tristan and Isabel, then sets his self-playing lute in the corner, where it plays to itself and the room at large, before he goes over to Phoenix and Delaney.
He offers purple energy drink to Delaney, who shakes hands, again in a testing-of-strength fashion. Delaney seems to be somewhat stronger than Tamarind.
The formalities over, Tamarind offers a Trump of himself to Delaney, who accepts with thanks.
He then goes and does the same to Isabel, who also politely accepts. She is, of course, already familiar with the Trumps.
Eric and Ibrahim arrive, and are announced. Eric is wearing Chrysanthir at his belt.
Tristan introduces them to Isabel, the Tristan takes Eric off to meet Phoenix and Delaney.
Phoenix looks as neutral as she can as Eric approaches.
Tristan makes the introductions. Again Delaney shakes hands with Ibrahim and Eric in a testing-of-strength fashion. Afterwards he shakes his hand in an 'ouch' kind of way where Eric cannot see.
Phoenix is cool and does not take Eric's offered hand.
Tamarind asks whether Eric has a Trump deck.
"It better not include mine," Phoenix mutters.
Tamarind clarifies that he is only offering his Trump, not those of anyone else.
Eric takes Tamarind's Trump and thanks him.
Damien, Nitocris and Sebek are announced.
Tamarind has his lute begin to play one of Sebek's favourite songs, that Sebek sings as Damien and Nitocris are introduced to Isabel.
Elsewhere in the room, Eric asks after Phoenix's mother, Professor Solange Forrester.
She tells him that Requiem's technological revolution blew up and killed ninety-nine percent of the population. Including her mother. Oh.
Then she tells him to go and talk to someone else.
Eric nods and moves away.
Once Eric has gone, Ibrahim sidles over.
"I regard you as a brother because of the way you act, not because of blood," Phoenix tells him. "I see no reason to regard Eric as my father in any meaningful way."
She also points out to Delaney that although testing the strength of the person one is greeting is the way things are done in Requiem people do not, in general, do so here.
Delaney takes this on board, and stops shaking hands quite so forcefully.
"So, you're Bley's son," Eric greets Damien. This goes down about as well as might be expected.
Damien introduces Queen Nitocris to Prince Eric, thereby putting him in his place.
He also introduces Sebek.
"Hello," says Sebek. "Why are you wearing Ibrahim's sword?" he asks innocently.
"Because it was originally my sword, which Ibrahim was looking after and has now returned," replies Eric, unfazed at speaking with a talking dinosaur.
Nitocris is sizing up the women and flirting with the men.
Sebek just natters at everyone.
Brand turns up, followed not long afterwards by Altair and Caleb. They too are introduced to Isabel, and begin to mingle.
Owen, Corwin, Merlin, Martin and Flora turn up next, in a group, and as with everyone else are introduced to Isabel. Flora looks a bit ... rumpled. As if she has, perhaps, forgotten some of the finer points of fashion. Oh dear.
Tristan guides Corwin in the direction of Eric, and re-introduces them to one another.
They are civil enough to each other. Indeed, more than merely civil. They go off to talk in a corner, and are soon as thick as thieves.
Julian and Esmée arrive. Again, introductions are made.
Now that everyone who accepted the invitation has arrived, Corvallin begins to trundle around the shadow with Tristan using the Pattern to ensure that the starscape overhead constantly changes in an attractive fashion.
After some more mingling, everyone sits down and dinner is served.
Nitocris thanks those who assisted in her resurrection. Others, prompted by this, do likewise.
Corwin and Eric talk of old times.
Tamarind talks to Flora, to see where the gaps in her memory are.
After some time, it seems that her gaps are in her memory of events as such, but more in her memory of fashion techniques, or her skills.
By now Eric and Corwin have reached the subject of Amber and Random being King.
Eric remains surprised at the latter.
Those of us who know why the Unicorn chose Random as King look at one another.
"You wouldn't recognise Amber these days," says Tristan innocently.
"Why? Has it been burnt to the ground and rebuilt?" asks Eric.
"Only bits of it," chips in Damien.
"Not like some places," snarls Phoenix at the same time.
Ibrahim tries to clear the air by describing the geography of Amber as discovered by himself and Altair, the 'pizza geography' and so on.
We all eat, drinking the while.
More drinks are had while dessert is served.
While people enjoy their dessert, Tamarind picks up his lute and asks for any musical requests.
Isabel asks for an old ballad, one of Corwin's, a song of happy times and happy things.
This is one Tamarind knows, so he begins, accompanied by the musicians who are present. He sings, and so does Sebek. At least, Sebek sings something with the same tune.
And after dessert there is dancing. A number of the more attractive unattached ladies of Castle Corvallin join us, so that there are an equal number of men and women present.
Ibrahim, thinking it might be a bad idea not to do so, Trumps Margot, and when he gets through tells her what is going on. She comes through.
Likewise, Tamarind leaves the musicians to play and Trumps off to fetch Beltaine.
Corwin takes over the task of singing.
It does not take Tamarind long to travel to the Girasol universe, find Beltaine, explain the situation to her and return. She is quite happy to come.
With the arrival of Margot and Beltaine two of the castle ladies discretely depart, so keeping the numbers of men and women equal again.
Not long after their return Corwin invites Tamarind to play a duet with him - 'duelling banjos'. Tamarind rather reluctantly agrees, just for the one song, and joins Corwin on stage. Da-da-dang-dang, dang-dang, dang dang dang...
Sebek hurries to introduce Nitocris to Beltaine.
With the duel of banjos over, Corwin cedes the stage to Tamarind, who is joined by Beltaine. While Tamarind plays, Beltaine sings a moving song about Hope, that enthrals everyone there.
When the song comes to a close, Corwin leads the applause. He appears to be genuinely impressed.
And the night continues, with music and dancing and drinking and the swirling stars and auroras of Brand's shadows providing a beautiful backdrop to it all.
Margot and Esmée spend some time talking to their father.
And in summary, a good time is had by all.
Eventually the banquet begins to wind down.
Sebek, who has been allowed only one alcoholic drink, says goodbye to Nitocris and is returned to the Priory by Trump.
Margot also Trumps back to Amber.
We are still in Brand's shadow, but no longer near his laboratory ziggurat, so everyone stays the night in Castle Corvallin.
Of the couples, no-one re-emerges before lunch the next day.
Beltaine returns to the Girasol universe early in the morning.
After this, and before lunch, Tamarind tries scrying Oberon again. He finds that things have changed. This time there is active blocking, rather than the blocking effect of the recipient being behind a barrier of some kind. Interesting...
Brand, who is also there, suspects that there is something strange about both Oberon's and Dworkin's Trumps. When this pointed out, Tamarind also realises that he can sense the strangeness, though not what it is.
Tamarind spends a little while creating Trumps of and for Isabel and Delaney.
Almost everyone arrives in one of Corvallin's halls for lunch. There are several tables, so we are able to talk without being overheard.
Tristan looks even happier than he did yesterday, if that is possible, and far more relaxed than we have ever seen him before. Positively glowing, even. Isabel likewise glows somewhat.
The only person missing by the time lunch is served is Flora.
Tamarind, concerned after her unfashionablility incident last night, Trumps her.
When she takes the call she proves to be in her room in Castle Corvallin, sat at her dressing table in her dressing gown, and looking somewhat unkempt.
Tamarind asks whether he might come through, and she holds out her hand.
He spends some time with her, trying to give her some of the same fashion and grooming tips that she used to give him when he was younger and newly arrived in Amber.
Unfortunately, she just does not seem to be getting it, which she seems to find rather distressing. She knows something is wrong that she should be able to do, but just can't...
Eventually they give up, and she dresses anyway.
Back at lunch, Tristan announces that he wants to try and Trump Dworkin.
Damien states that he prefers the idea of getting the newly restored members of the Family around the Pattern first, just in case. The resurrection process does, after all, rob the resurrectees of their Pattern Imprints.
"Yes, they'll be tired in the short term, but perhaps their memories will be improved, and they'll be better able to function," he says.
"Are you of the Blood of Amber?" Ibrahim asks Delaney.
"I have no idea," replies Delaney.
Phoenix tells us that Delaney was the only survivor of a project to genetically engineer super-soldiers back in Requiem, but that the project records were all destroyed. So he could be...
"The Memory Machine might have the answers," Ibrahim points out.
Fair point.
At this point Tamarind enters the dining room with Flora, still looking rather dishevelled, in tow.
He has the Trumps he created of and for Isabel and Delaney with him, and distributes these. Isabel gets some of herself and one of Tristan, in addition to the one of Tamarind she already has. Likewise, Delaney gets some of himself and one of Phoenix.
As people are finishing lunch, Ibrahim stands up. "Oberon is no longer in the Land of the Dead," he announces to the room at large.
Reactions to this vary. Caleb and Merlin are largely unmoved. Corwin, Julian, Esmée and Martin look uncertain whether this is a good or a bad thing. Altair appears to be a bit worried. Eric is very unenthusiastic.
"What is anyone planning to do about this?" Eric wants to know.
"Trumping Dworkin," says Tristan.
We ask the assembled Family members just how powerful Oberon actually is.
Various people reel off a list of his achievements, including posing as someone else - Ganelon, a non-Amberite - for long periods, manipulating Tir-Na Nog'th in some fashion, creating blood creatures, beating up Gerard and so on.
Thinking about it, quite a lot of these are things that we can duplicate. Hmm...
"Most of the Family - and certainly the Elders - have been conditioned to think of Oberon as a god," Phoenix notes.
"I'm just conditioned to think of him as not very nice," notes Damien. "What I want to know is ... does anyone here think we can't take him, if he's here to make trouble?"
No-one gives an immediate assurance that Oberon is invincible against a united front. It seems to be one of those things that has never been tried, and that no-one has a great desire to try. Just in case...
All of that being so, we decide to carry on as planned, and Trump Dworkin.
However, regardless of how hard we concentrate on his card, there is no response.
Tamarind feels that we are up against a barrier, as in the Primal Pattern.
We consider this.
In the end it is decided that everyone will go to Amber. Those who need to do so will walk the Pattern (as long as Random is agreeable to the idea) while we investigate the Primal Pattern.
Isabel decides to remain with Corvallin for now, in Brand's shadow. She and Tristan say goodbye.
Brand decides to stay here as well. This is his laboratory shadow, after all.
Tamarind opens up a Trump link to the Amber Arrival Courtyard. A long line of people forms ready to go through.
Damien and Nitocris go through first. Damien warns the guards of what to expect, then everyone is passed through, one after the other, with Tamarind appearing last.
The guards let us out of the Arrival Courtyard and into the Main Courtyard.
A servant is summoned and given a message that we send to Random suggesting a big meeting in the Throne Room. Oh, and we have his son with us too.
Ibrahim sends another servant up to his room to bring his old Empowered Khopesh sword. As he has given his Pattern sword, Chrysanthir, back to Eric, this will have to do until he can spend the time to create a new Pattern blade for himself.
Servants direct us through the halls of Castle Amber to the Throne Room. En route Nitocris decides not to join us, but instead goes to wander Amber.
As the doors swing open, we see that Random, Vialle, Deirdre, Finndo and the children as already there. Random and Vialle are actually working, apparently hearing petitions from various inhabitants of Amber, and so on.
"Most of the Family, some of them back from the dead," announces the major-domo.
As we surge into the room and along the red carpet towards the thrones, Random dismisses the various nobles and other people there, who begin to make their way back towards the door along the edges of the room.
Vialle and Random come down the dais and welcome Martin. Vialle hugs him.
Martin allows Random to embrace him, too, although rather stiffly.
"We have indications that Oberon is at the Primal Pattern," we tell Random. "And to get there, we need to take the Jewel with us."
Random considers this, then nods. He authorises an expedition to the Primal Pattern to investigate matters there. He also gives the newly revived members of the Family carte blanche to walk the Pattern in Amber to regain their Pattern Imprints.
Damien asks Random for a loan of the Impossigon, so that Nitocris can attune to it.
"Delaney might like a go at attuning to it too," Ibrahim suggests. Fair point.
"I'll think about it," says Random.
Phoenix pulls the Jewel out of a pocket and gives it to Tristan, who puts it on. He, Tamarind, Phoenix, Ibrahim and Damien concentrate on it. Jewel power builds, and they disappear in a flash of red Jewel-light.
To reappear in the depression which holds the Primal Pattern. Nothing seems to be out of place, and no-one is in sight. It is very quiet.
We head for the entrance to Dworkin's cave.
Phoenix notes that she cannot scent anything here. Not even Dworkin's scent.
We go into the cave and down the tunnel towards Dworkin's quarters. As we reach the bank-vault-like door to them, Phoenix begins to hear voices from beyond it. That of Dworkin and that of someone else that he seems to be addressing as 'son'. Although she cannot make out any words beyond that, there seems to be an intense discussion taking place in there.
We knock on the door.
The voices abruptly stop, and after a moment the door begins to swing open.
Tristan can sense two extra Jewel imprints beyond. He concentrates on the Jewel, doing his best to bar it to anyone else.
As the door opens fully it reveals Dworkin, who invites us in.
There are two armchairs in front of the fire. One is empty. In the other is a figure, who rises to its feet as we all enter the room.
It looks like Oberon. But is made of black, oily ... stuff. Like Anurerishkigal. Oh shit.
To Tristan and Phoenix it appears to have lots of life force - about the same as that of a young Amberite - but entirely of the contaminated variety.
It looks at us all. "Tristan," is says.
"Made an interesting alliance?" asks Tristan.
"I do not take kindly to beings attempting to digest me," it says sternly, in a 'no' tone of voice.
"What are you doing here?" we ask.
"I am discussing my options with my father," he says. "Deciding whether Amber needs me back on the throne. Things here have become rather lax, and Random is not the person I had in mind for the throne."
As he comes around the armchair and fully into view, we can see that Oberon has a sword at his hip. It appears to be a black oily version of Galendrath, the Pattern Sword Osric stole from Oberon long ago.
Tamarind can tell he has some Trumps about his person.
Tristan, Ibrahim and Damien can sense that he has a Pattern imprint. We can all sense that he is attuned to the Jewel of Judgement.
When asked, he says that he has no intention of changing his current body. "This form has its advantages," he states.
"I defeated Anurerishkigal," he says, clarifying what happened in the Land of the Dead. "What are you doing here?" he demands.
"To discern your intentions," says Damien.
"And report back to our liege lord," adds Ibrahim.
We fill Oberon in on a little of the events since his death. The fall of Chaos. The destruction of the Ordnung. Re-establishing contact with Girasol. The conflict with Anurerishkigal.
"Are you sure this is Oberon, and not Oberon and Anurerishkigal combined?" Tristan asks Dworkin.
"Fairly sure," replies Dworkin. "But it is hard to say for sure."
Through the life-force lens, Tristan notices that Oberon's life-force is dropping noticeably. Oberon stares hard at Tristan in a scary manner.
Tristan feels a few tendrils plucking at the Jewel, and tells Oberon to stop.
He gives Tristan another hard look, but apparently desists. At least, Tristan feels no more such plucking.
We ask Oberon how he returned from the Land of the Dead.
"I found out how to get back from Anurerishkigal," he replies. "Which is here, under my control. Along with various others. Fiona. Bleys. Dara. Caine. Gerard. Felicia. Fletcher Rein. Carmel Urien. Yves Fulleri. Though they all seem passive, as if dead."
"Could they be separated from Anurerishkigal?" we ask.
"I am not sure," he replies.
From what Oberon says, Anurerishkigal basically found him in wherever Brand had hidden him, woke him, tried to eat him, and for its trouble got taken over in turn. "I was able to return to one of the prepared bodies Anurerishkigal had placed in various shadows," he concludes.
We consider this, then decide to leave.
We arrange to return here and meet again in a few hours, by which time, hopefully, Oberon will have learned what he needs and have decided how he intends to proceed.
"Goodbye," says Dworkin.
Oberon just continues staring hard at Tristan.
Tristan finally releases the stored Jewel energy he has been holding since we got here, and in a flash of red power transports us back to the Amber Throne Room, letting the remaining power fade back into the Jewel.
There are still one or two nobles about, and Tristan uses the Pattern to ensure than one of them has a bottle of gin about his person. He quickly persuades the noble to part with it, opens it, and downs most of it in a single long swig, following it by the remainder.
Then he hands the Jewel over to Ibrahim, as he thinks he has used it quite enough for now.
We tell Random what happened.
"Oberon has a Jewel imprint," says Ibrahim. "And Damien and I can confirm he had a Primal Pattern imprint too." Tristan nods in agreement.
We say that we are not too sure whether it is really Oberon, or Anurerishkigal, one having taken over the other. At the very least, there seems to be some Oberon in it. Oberishkigal? Or Anurishkeron?
Tristan is now feeling a bit drunk. He decides to Trump Brand to discuss the situation. Phoenix and Tamarind decide to go with him.
Quite quickly, the link opens up. We ask to come through, and Brand holds out his hand. We appear in his laboratory shadow, in an office.
Tamarind quickly Trumps off again, and vanishes in a purple Trump rainbow.
Brand's office seems to be well-supplied with coffee and cake, from which Tristan is quickly supplied with strong coffee.
It quickly becomes clear that he is not sobering up quickly enough, so Phoenix using her shapeshifting powers and detoxifies him instead. Tristan is very quickly very drunk, then abruptly sober.
At Tristan's command, Castle Corvallin descends from the sky and extends a ramp to Brand's office window.
Tristan, Phoenix and Brand go up it and into the castle.
Tamarind Trumps to shadow Haven, where he collects his armour and a few other bits and bobs, in particular some more purple energy drink, and the spare Trump Defence broach he has. He created one for each of the children, but since Octavius learned the Trumps he no longer needs it, so his is spare. He intends to give it to Isabel.
He then Trumps to Castle Corvallin, appearing on the entrance ramp behind Tristan, Phoenix and Brand. This sudden appearance does not help Tristan's general twitchiness.
In Amber, Ibrahim suggests to Damien that it would be useful to have a life-force reservoir to hand in order to top up users of the Jewel.
"I'll Trump Brand," says Damien.
In Castle Corvallin, Tristan brings Brand and Isabel up to date with events. Both are more than a little concerned at this new development.
"We should all stick together," Phoenix says. "Since Oberon previously mentioned maintaining control by the tactics of divide and rule."
Tamarind gives the Trump Defence broach to Tristan, and explains what it is and how it used. He in turn gives it to Isabel, who pins it onto her dress. "Thank you," she says to Tamarind.
Tristan also wants Isabel to have a bodyguard, and to return to Amber with us.
Phoenix volunteers Delaney for the job. He is, after all, quite hard (harder than she is in terms of pure combat skills) and he needs to learn of Amber, something Isabel is certainly well qualified to teach him about. This sounds like a plan.
Tristan goes off and takes some Empowered armour, weapons and other items from his stasis 'fridge'. Some of them are for him; others are for Delaney, assuming he wants to take the bodyguarding job.
In Amber, Damien quickly writes a note, then pulls out his Trump of Brand and concentrates on it. Quite quickly, the link opens up. Damien passes through the note, which explains Ibrahim's suggestion of bringing life-force-filled crystals for us all.
Brand nods and closes the link.
In Castle Corvallin, Brand reads the note, and shows it to Tristan, Tamarind and Phoenix.
Everyone thinks this is a good idea, so, as requested, Brand goes back to his laboratory to collect some life-force-filled crystals with matching receiver spikes.
After a short while, Brand returns, and then he, Isabel, Phoenix, Tristan and Tamarind Trump back to Amber.
After the guards let them out of the Arrival Courtyard, Phoenix goes off in search of Delaney. The others head for the Throne Room.
"Have you thought about sharing the Impossigon with Nitocris yet?" Damien asks Random, in the Throne Room.
"Not yet," says Random.
At this point the doors of the Throne Room are opened and Tristan, Tamarind, Brand and Isabel are announced. They advance up the red carpet towards the thrones of Random and Vialle, on the dais under the huge green and white unicorn banner.
As they arrive at the dais, Tristan belatedly asks Brand where Benedict is.
"Hidden away," says Brand. "Safely. I hope."
"Perhaps it would be better for us to revive Benedict," suggests Tamarind. "Rather than have Oberon find him hidden away by us and revive him on his terms."
"I agree," nods Random.
Tristan reintroduces Isabel to Random, and introduces Isabel to Vialle. Everyone seems to be happy to meet everyone else.
At this point, Tristan has a cheerful thought. "We know Dworkin is no longer the key to the Primal Pattern," he says. "But Oberon is, as he re-drew it. So perhaps the only way to hurt Oberon would be to attack the Primal Pattern."
"Oh, bollocks," comments Brand in a worried fashion.
"We don't need to damage Oberon, just flat-line him," suggests Ibrahim.
We consider this. It is true that Corwin's Pattern was not affected when Corwin was attacked and imprisoned by the Ordnung, but then Corwin drew his Pattern in a different manner to the way the Primal Pattern was drawn. So we don't know.
Brand begins to consider the question.
Elsewhere, Phoenix finds Delaney in the Castle Library, browsing.
They greet one another, and Phoenix tells him about the possible job opportunity bodyguarding Isabel, as well as the advantages that doing so could bring.
Delaney considers all of this for a moment, and then accepts the job in principle.
They return to the Throne Room to tell Tristan.
Entering the Throne Room, Phoenix and Delaney join the rest of us.
Tristan tells them his cheery thought.
"The Primal Pattern could be re-drawn if it was damaged by our attacking Oberon," notes Brand.
"Oberon died after redrawing the Primal Pattern," notes Ibrahim. "So the link may not exist as it did with Dworkin."
"Maybe the link was forged after he died," objects Tristan. "Which would explain why he seemed to be a big inexhaustible reservoir of life-force in the Land of the Dead."
"Perhaps Oberon's life-force tops up automatically, like the Unicorn," suggests Tamarind.
We just don't know. Brand continues to ponder.
Turning back to more immediate matters, Tristan offers Delaney the job of bodyguarding Isabel.
He immediately accepts.
Tristan gives him a sack of Empowered equipment specially selected by him for this job, and for its ability to function (at least to some extent) in Amber. This mainly consists of armour and weapons. Delaney begins to tool up.
Phoenix is informed of Tamarind's plan to revive Benedict and try to get him onto our side.
She objects to the whole idea, having a very low opinion of Benedict. "Better to mush his brain so he is no use to anyone," she says.
However, the general opinion is against her, including that of Random.
"Oberon might be able to un-mush his brain," Damien notes. "So we're left with reviving Benedict ourselves as our least worst option."
Hmm...
Brand, still pondering, goes off to fetch Benedict from wherever he is being kept. He vanishes in a purple Trump rainbow.
"If Oberon now has access to Lord Rein's memories," Damien suggests. "Perhaps Corwin should return to Castle Rosa to reorganise its defences."
A fair point. However, Corwin is currently in the process of walking the Pattern with the others.
"Perhaps we could try to rescue the trapped personalities with Eleanor's help," suggests Ibrahim.
"We might be able to negotiate their release," points out Phoenix. "We don't know."
The conversation having reached a pausing point, Tristan and Isabel go over to where the children and Deirdre have been watching and listening to all of this. He introduces Isabel to Deirdre and to his various inadvertent offspring.
They all look quite impressed, not to mention surprised at Tristan's obvious happiness.
"Wow, it's like a fairy tale," says Luther, the big sap.
At this point Tamarind feels a Trump call coming on. Identifying the caller, it appears to be Brand, so he lets the link open up.
It is indeed Brand. He has an unconscious Benedict with him, slung over his shoulder in a fireman's lift. Tamarind brings him through.
Brand lays Benedict down on the floor, and Phoenix, using her shapeshifting, revives him.
His eyes flicker open and he looks around the room. He seems to recognise none of us.
We ask him who he is, how he is, and if he knows us.
He seems to know where he is, and who he is, but not us.
We ask him what the last thing he remembers is.
"The attack on Amber by the Threllians," he says.
Tristan vaguely recalls this as some long-ago attack by a now-exterminated race from out of shadow somewhere.
We ask him whether the name Anurerishkigal means anything to him.
He shakes his head.
We tell him that it attacked and possessed him. We rescued him, but in the process of de-possessing him he unavoidably lost a number of his memories.
Asked who he does recall, Benedict says he remembers Osric, Finndo, Eric, Corwin and Deirdre. He recognises that none of the first four are here, but that Deirdre is. "Although she looks different," he says.
"Do you remember swearing allegiance to King Random?" we ask.
"I do not," he says.
"So you don't recall breaking your oath?" asks Phoenix pointedly.
"Perhaps you should try walking the Pattern to try and restore your memories?" suggests Ibrahim quickly, before things have a chance to spiral out of control.
Wanting to see how the Pattern walks are going, Tamarind quickly pulls out Finndo's Trump and concentrates on it.
The link quickly opens up, showing Finndo in the guardroom outside the Pattern Room.
"How are things going?" Tamarind asks him.
"Eric has just finished," replies Finndo, with blithe disregard for Trump security. "He's the first so far."
Tamarind suppresses the urge to give Finndo a hard time, and asks whether Eric wants to return to the Throne Room.
Finndo asks him, and when the answer is in the affirmative, passes Eric through.
Tamarind drops the link in disgust. He tells the rest of us what happened.
People grump about Finndo for a while. We particularly wonder whether he was just being crap, or whether he was behaving in this manner to ensure that Oberon knows what is going on, and knows whether now is the time to strike or not. Hmm...
"Benedict remembers you, but not us," Phoenix tells Eric.
We ask him whether walking the Pattern has restored his lost memories.
"No," he says in a not-entirely-happy manner. "There are still gaps, although I've got a better idea of where they are now. Which helps, I suppose."
"We should wait until everyone has finished walking the Pattern before doing anything major," Phoenix suggests.
No-one disagrees with this.
Given that Eric is tired and people are just standing around, Random adjourns this meeting from the Throne Room to the nearby Blue Sitting Room. This seems like a good idea, and we all make our way there.
Purple energy drink and other beverages are served, and people, particularly those who have just walked the Pattern, lounge on the many comfortable couches there.
"Perhaps the children could go off in pairs to organise the defences while we sort things out here?" suggests Phoenix.
This seems to be a sensible plan. Random nods.
Tamarind offers to be Trump Central, the person everyone Trumps to if they need to.
Everyone agrees to do this, too. "That's why I Trumped you with Benedict earlier," comments Brand.
Under Angelique's direction, the children decide where they are going to go. She, Eleanor and Carl will go to Castle Rosa and guard Corwin's Pattern. Beatrice and Luther will go to Castle Arden and assist there. Octavius and Duncan will go the top of Kolvir and defend the steps up to Tir-Na Nog'th.
This being decided, the seven of them Trump away.
Tamarind talks to Delaney about the Trumps, and learns that Phoenix has told him what she knows about them. He gives Delaney some further pointers on defending against unwanted Trump calls.
Phoenix and Tamarind then discuss whether it is possible to create Trumps that would allow caller identification without the person whose cards they are having to be a Trump Artist. For example, a card that senses when it itself is becoming active and informs its owner. Tamarind is not sure whether this would be possible or not. Brand listens in an interested fashion.
Damien has servants carry messages to Nitocris, Sebek and Agrippina, asking them to come to the Castle as soon as possible, and urging them to neither make nor accept Trump calls for the moment.
The servants go off to do this thing.
Phoenix urges Random to allow peoples significant others to attune to the Impossigon as soon as possible, for safety's sake.
Random considers this for a moment, then agrees that Isabel and Delaney can do so. He thinks for a little longer, then reluctantly agrees that Nitocris may also attune to it.
A servant is sent to fetch the Impossigon from its hiding place.
With that done, Phoenix and Ibrahim gang up on Eric while he is in a weakened post-Pattern-walking state.
"Is Delaney of the Blood of Amber?" asks Phoenix forcefully. "Could he walk the Pattern?"
"Possibly," admits Eric.
"Perhaps Brand, who has studied the Blood of Amber a great deal, might be able to tell?" suggests Ibrahim.
Eric nods.
Phoenix is unimpressed with what she sees as Eric's irresponsibility in this, and indeed regarding the entire shadow Requiem question.
Delaney, however, does not seem to be too bothered.
"It was my genetic material, as the best that I could get my hands on, that was used as the basis for the Cold Warriors super-soldier project that spawned Delaney," Eric explains.
Phoenix explains the situation to Brand. "Can you tell if Delaney can walk the Pattern?" she asks him. "Without just throwing him onto it, that is?"
"I think I can tell," nods Brand. "Probably. Let me see..."
He stares hard at Delaney for a while, while doing something with the Pattern.
He turns back to Phoenix. "I'm ninety-nine percent sure he can do it," he says. "He might have more trouble with it than an Amberite of equivalent stamina, but he should manage it."
We and Delaney discuss this.
Following a mixture of comments both helpful and unhelpful, Delaney decides that the prize is worth the risk, and he will give it a go. "We went for less with more risk all the time back in Requiem," he comments. Very true.
At this point Tamarind feels a Trump call coming on, that he identifies as probably being from Finndo. He allows the link to open up.
It is indeed Finndo, who has a tired-looking Corwin with him. "Can he come through?" Finndo asks.
Tamarind nods, and brings Corwin through.
In return, Phoenix and Ibrahim take Delaney back through the link the other way, ready to assay the Pattern when he gets the chance.
"Why did you want him to know?" Ibrahim asks Finndo once they are down close to the Pattern.
"I'm sure dad couldn't eavesdrop on the link," says Finndo confidently.
Phoenix introduces Delaney to Finndo.
Finndo leads them into the Pattern Room, where all of those who are waiting to walk it are sat in directors chairs by the wall, chatting and watching Julian, who is perhaps halfway round the Pattern. Esmée is also there watching him.
Upstairs in the Blue Sitting Room, a thought occurs.
"Might attuning Delaney to the Jewel raise Delaney's chances?" Tristan asks Brand.
"Probably..." says Brand thoughtfully.
This is definitely worth pursuing further, so Tamarind Trumps down to the guardroom by the Pattern Room (using his mental Trump of the place) to tell Phoenix, Ibrahim and Delaney of Tristan's idea.
In the Pattern Room, everyone is watching Julian, who, with a great deal of exertion, completes his Pattern walk and, after catching his breath, teleports back to the edge. Esmée supports him.
Tamarind describes Tristan's plan to the Eric clan, who agree that it would seem to be a good idea.
That being sorted out, from outside the Pattern Room, Finndo Trumps Brand, and when the link opens up passes Julian through to him in the Blue Sitting Room, followed by Esmée, Tamarind, Phoenix, Ibrahim and Delaney.
Meanwhile, upstairs, a servant enters the room with the box containing the Impossigon.
Isabel, as the only potential attunee currently present, has the attunement process explained to her by Tristan. She sits down, takes the Impossigon, takes a deep breath, and begins.
It takes her about an hour, but after that time, she has figured out how to make the number of sides on the Impossigon shift as she commands, thus mastering its power. She is attuned.
While this takes place, Damien sends a new message to Nitocris, telling her that the attunement is on.
When he is told that Delaney will, indeed, attempt to attune to the Jewel, Tristan nods, and gives the Jewel to Phoenix so that she can attune him while Tristan looks after Isabel.
Phoenix takes Delaney aside, sits him down, and explains the process to him.
When she thinks he has got it, which does not take too long, she has him concentrate on the Jewel, and on the flaw in it which is the start of the attunement process. As he concentrates, she feels him mind flowing into the Jewel and, watched and supported by Phoenix so that she is the one to be tired out by this rather than him, he begins to traverse the three-dimensional Pattern contained within it.
Eventually Delaney reaches the centre, and shifts his mind back out of the Jewel and into his body. He sags back into his chair. "Wow!" he says, rather shakily.
Phoenix agrees with this assessment.
At this point Nitocris arrives, followed not long afterwards by Sebek and Agrippina.
Damien explains the Impossigon attunement process to her, and she too sits down and begins to concentrate upon it.
Sebek is kept distracted so that he does not distract Nitocris.
And after roughly half an hour, Nitocris has attuned to the Impossigon. She seems to have a considerably more powerful mind than Isabel.
Tamarind gives Isabel a Trump of a shadow close enough to Amber that she can open a link from Amber to it, but far enough away that she can use the Impossigon to shift shadow from there.
She and Tristan thank him.
Over the next several hours Flora, Owen, Merlin, Martin, Altair and Caleb all walk the Pattern, in that order, and are each Trumped back up to the Blue Sitting Room to rest and recover.
Civil servants, high-ranking military officers and various members of the Amber nobility constantly pop in and out of the room to talk to Random regarding all sorts of things to do with the running of the Realm, the Castle and the City.
In between dealing with these people, Random tells Benedict about the reappearance of Oberon, possessed.
He tactfully prevents Benedict from interrogating the officers on the current state of Amber's defences.
Tamarind suggests that Ibrahim and Benedict might discuss alternative defensive plans.
This seems a sensible idea, so they do this.
In the depths of Kolvir, Phoenix watches as Delaney steps onto the Pattern and begins to walk it. He slowly makes his way along its lines, pushing through the veils as the sparks rise higher and higher about him.
He is very slow, perhaps as slow as Eleanor, but the Pattern does not destroy him.
And eventually he reaches the Third Veil, and very, very slowly pushes his way through it, hidden by sparks, to collapse in the centre as the sparks fade away.
Phoenix breathes again as, after a moment, he shakily stands up, waves, and teleports himself over to her.
They Trump back up to the Blue Sitting Room.
Upstairs, Random tells us that he wants us to be the return delegation to Oberon. "I want a very good reason for surrendering the Throne to Oberon, if at all," he says firmly. Fair enough.
"Of those present now who had sworn loyalty to Oberon before, who thinks they owe loyalty to Oberon now?" asks Phoenix seriously, looking around at everyone.
Only Benedict, Finndo and Julian look uncertain as to the answer to this question. No-one else among the Elders shows any enthusiasm for Oberon returning to the Throne.
Margot, Esmée, Altair, Caleb and Martin all state explicitly that they do not want Oberon back either.
"I am not going to change sides, though," says Julian. "Especially if dad has Anurerishkigal inside him."
"Anurerishkigal is certainly an enemy of Amber," agrees Benedict.
From what people say, in the main they consider their oaths to Random to still be legitimate and binding ones. Oberon was dead, their oaths to Random were given freely, and he has done little to make them consider them to be invalid. Thus they are still binding.
After some discussion we decide to tell Oberon that no-one wants him back on the throne with Anurerishkigal as part of him, see how he reacts to this, and ask for the various people trapped inside him (inside Anurerishkigal?) to be released.
Everyone agrees that this is the way forward.
"We should update Osric and Sandrine too," suggests Phoenix. "And ask them if they want to send a delegation."
This sounds like a sensible plan too. Tamarind agrees to go again, with Damien to accompany him. They Trump away.
Passing through Corwin's Pattern into the Girasol universe they use Corwin's Pattern to teleport themselves to outside the gates of Castle Girasol.
As we appear the guards look at Tamarind curiously. Three visits in one day, none of them bringing good news? Hmm... 'Tamarind Stormcrow', anyone?
Servants quickly lead them to Osric and Sandrine in the Throne Room.
As they are admitted they can see that Osric and Sandrine have already cleared the room for them, and they are alone.
Damien lets Tamarind explain the situation to them.
This he does.
Osric and Sandrine quietly discuss the situation for a few minutes before deciding to send Sandrine as their representative.
She leaves the throne room for a few minutes and returns armed and armoured, wearing a suit of dark gold metal armour with deep red leaf designs engraved upon it.
Thus prepared, Tamarind transports the three of them back to Corwin's Pattern, through it into the Amber universe, and so to Amber. They hurry back to the Blue Sitting Room.
Benedict does a noticeable double-take when he sees Sandrine.
She gives him a stiff nod in return.
Random greets her with considerably more warmth than this.
And with everything ready, a picnic hamper full of various good things is sent for, to sustain us all through any negotiations, and when it arrives Tristan is given the Jewel of Judgement. He concentrates upon it, summoning its power. When he is ready, he carries us all to by the Primal Pattern in a flash of red Jewel energy.
Again the depression containing the Pattern is deserted, and so we walk back down the tunnel to Dworkin's door.
Knocking, the door is once again opened by Dworkin. "You're back!" he says.
"We brought a picnic," says Phoenix.
"Ooh, cake!" says Dworkin happily, looking at the picnic hamper.
Inside the sitting room there are now eight chairs arranged around the fireplace. There are two larger ones flanking it and six smaller ones facing them. In one of the larger chairs sits the black, oily version of Oberon.
As we enter he rises and greets us formally. Then he sees Sandrine, and blinks, doing a double-take. "Sandrine?" he asks.
"Father," she replies rather stiffly.
"Girasol has a legitimate interest in these proceedings," Phoenix explains.
Oberon does not object to this.
At Dworkin's invitation we all sit.
"No-one wants anything to do with anyone tainted with Anurerishkigal," Tristan explains, when we have all sat down.
"It may be possible to remove the trapped people, though," says Ibrahim.
"I am of the opinion that I should be King again," states Oberon. "There is too much freedom, too many sources of unrest. Too many threats to the Realm."
"Even without Anurerishkigal, you would not be accepted back as King," we point out.
"This holds true for Girasol, too," adds Sandrine.
"When you re-drew the Primal Pattern," Ibrahim offers by way of explanation. "You changed the nature of the universe. Those who could not change and adapt to this - the Courts of Chaos, the Ordnung, and Anurerishkigal - have perished. The Unicorn and Dworkin have changed and adapted and so now thrive."
"Perhaps you can protect Amber without being King," Tristan suggests.
"I am prepared to put off the question," says Oberon. "But would like to be free of Anurerishkigal. I shall have to think about whether I wish to undergo your cleansing technique. I am, however, content for the others inside Anurerishkigal to be removed, as well as the entity itself. If the people inside it can be saved, so much the better."
"Would you accept Finndo overseeing your cleansing?" Tristan wonders. "Or better, given Finndo's track record in the area, perhaps Dworkin..."
Oberon is adamant that he will not tolerate being chopped up and reassembled.
Tristan uses the life-force lens to check Oberon. He is down to about seventy-five percent of that of a young Amberite now, after only a few hours.
Since, at this rate, Oberon probably has left than a day's worth of life-force left, Tristan slides one of the life-force crystals and its receiver spike over to Oberon. "A gesture of good will," he says.
Once the procedure is explained to him, Oberon uses the crystal and spike to top up his life-force. The pure life-force from the crystal flows into his, where it is converted into Anurerishkigal's black life-force. Hmm...
Oberon now makes it clear that, as far as he is concerned, removing the 'taint' of Anurerishkigal means dissipating its mind. He would, however, quite like to keep the body for the meantime, even with its life-force dependency, rather than submit to being chopped up. He implies that he would prefer to make his own arrangements to solve this problem.
We seem to have reached a point agreeable to all.
"I will not press my claim on the throne for the time being," Oberon sums up.
"As long as Random is King," he allows when pressed.
We find this only marginally more reassuring, and press him further.
"And I will also not take any steps to remove Random, or destabilise his rule," says Oberon. "And likewise for the rulers of Girasol. But as for any heirs, in that case I will promise nothing."
Tristan presses him to forswear any vengeance against those who have wronged him in the past, since if he revenged himself against everyone, Random would be weakened.
"I agree," nods Oberon. "As long as everyone else forswears any vengeance against me."
We essentially agree to this, subject to Random's approval.
"You are not quite what I had been led to believe," Phoenix tells Oberon.
He smiles.
We say our farewells, and Tristan summons up the power of the Jewel again. When he has drawn enough, he teleports us all back to outside the Blue Sitting Room in Amber in a flash of red power.
Upon arrival, he passes the Jewel back to Ibrahim, then we all go in.
Tristan hits the gin again.
We tell Random and everyone else what has been discussed and agreed.
"Oberon has changed," Sandrine says.
People speculate about why this should be so. Phoenix points out that he is basically a big bully who has never had anyone stand up to him before. Others wonder whether Oberon has, by taking this position and ensuring Random stays on the throne, got what he really wanted - freedom from the Throne. Perhaps.
It is generally agreed that Oberon is not stupid, and does not often act in a precipitous fashion, instead being patient and long-sighted. Hmm...
We tell Random that we have brokered a deal that keeps him on the Throne in perpetuity, and that also includes the forswearing of all vengeance.
Tristan and Brand high-five each other in a pleased fashion. Eric also looks rather relieved at this.
"The only way Oberon would really want to hold onto a body that is leaking life-force at that rate is if he is really Anurerishkigal," says Phoenix untrustingly.
We discuss this, and conclude that it was acceptably clear that from what he has said he is planning to do something about a new body himself. We think.
Tristan draws up a contract to formalise the deal with Oberon.
Random reads it, and then signs.
Everyone else present signs the 'no revenge' clause. Even Sebek. The only person who does not is Nitocris, since she never commits herself to this kind of thing. No-one else seems too bothered by her not doing so. And it is done.
There is space left on the deal for those of Girasol to sign, too, so Tamarind goes off with Sandrine to present some good news to Osric. For a change. He hopes this will undo his 'Tamarind Stormcrow' reputation. They Trump to Sandrine's Pattern and go through.
Arriving in the Girasol universe, they again teleport to Castle Girasol and are quickly admitted.
Meeting with Osric, Sandrine and Tamarind explain the deal that has been hammered out, and Osric signs it. Then all of the other members of the Family of Girasol are summoned, one at a time, and the situation is explained to them, too. They all sign the contract as well. Good.
That done, Tamarind thanks them all, and returns to Amber by way of Beltaine's grove. However, Beltaine is not, at present, there, so he returns to Amber.
Making ready for the hopeful return of those trapped inside Anurerishkigal, Tristan hurries off to shadow Sleeping Beauty, the shadow of Amber from which Tamarind long ago retrieved bodies for Brand, Deirdre, Margot, Esmée and Caleb, to obtain bodies for Caine, Bleys, Fiona and Dara to return to.
Meanwhile, the seven children are Trumped and also return to Amber. The situation is explained to them, and they also sign the contract.
Now that she is here, Phoenix talks to Eleanor about what would be required to extract the various minds from Oberon/Anurerishkigal. In particular they discuss how to prevent Anurerishkigal coming back with the trapped minds and infecting Eleanor, something that we consider would probably be a very bad thing.
In the end they decide that the best way to do this would be to have Phoenix act as a sort of psychic filter and circuit breaker, standing between Eleanor and Oberon and passing all of the minds through her before they go into Eleanor. This will hopefully allow any badness to be filtered out...
After a short while, Tristan Trumps Tamarind and when Tamarind takes the call, shadow bodies of Caine, Bleys, Fiona and Dara are passed through before Tristan also returns.
Servants wheel up the bodies of those in the Infirmary - Gerard, Felicia and so on - so that they are also ready to have their minds returned to them.
And we are ready to go. Using the power of the Jewel all of us, along with Brand, Eleanor and the comatose bodies we intend to put the minds of the trapped people into, return to the Primal Pattern.
As before, all is quiet.
Heading down to Dworkin's cave, we find that he and Oberon are both still there. They both stand up as we enter.
We explain that everyone has signed up to the contract. Oberon seems pleased.
He reads it, then signs, just stopping himself from adding 'Rex' after his name.
Dworkin also signs the contract, as a witness.
Tamarind senses his signature sparking with Trump power for a moment before fading away leaving only the ink behind.
Then Brand steps forward and he and Oberon shake hands.
Eleanor is introduced to Oberon. He kisses her hand. She blushes.
Tamarind offers Haven as neutral ground for the operation.
Oberon raises an eyebrow.
When it is explained what this is, Oberon agrees that this is as good a location as any, and no-one else objects.
That being so, Tristan uses the Jewel to carry us all there, Dworkin and Oberon and bodies and all, in a flash of red power.
Not wanting to have Tamarind's shadow infected with anything that might escape from Anurerishkigal or the Land of the Dead, Damien and Ibrahim set about raising wardings around the place we intend to use, on the purple lawn not far from Tamarind's villa.
Oberon watches them do this.
While magics are being cast, Brand Trumps away, presumably to his laboratory shadow, and returns with the equipment needed to perform the resurrection of those contaminated by Anurerishkigal. He sets this up inside the wardings.
And when everything is ready and in order, Eleanor and Phoenix step up.
"Some of the bodies need healing," Ibrahim reminds us. Particularly Gerard, with no head, and Felicia, Carmel, Lord Rein and Lord Fulleri, whose brains were mushed by Anurerishkigal's tetrahedrons. A fair point.
Phoenix spends a little while making the bodies capable of living on their own, ready for the ritual.
While she does this, we check with Oberon on the sum total of people inside him.
"I think there may be others buried deeper in Anurerishkigal," he says. "In total, I think there are Fiona, Bleys, Dara, Caine, Gerard, Mirelle, Delwin, Reanna, Meredith, Joshua, Gareth, Felicia, Fletcher Rein, Carmel Urien and Yves Fulleri in here."
We discuss this, and decide to put the extra Amberites into non-Amberite bodies for the moment. When they wake we will ask them whether they want to return to Amber under the new dispensation, and then decide how to proceed further.
However, we have no idea what Mirelle, Delwin, Reanna, Meredith, Joshua and Gareth look like.
Dworkin quickly sketches them for us, just pictures, not Trumps, and Tristan goes off back to shadow Sleeping Beauty to obtain bodies based on the sketches.
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It does not take Tristan long to locate shadow bodies essentially matching these descriptions.
Not much later Tristan returns, Trumping to Tamarind with another five comatose bodies in tow.
And we are ready to proceed.
Phoenix puts herself between Eleanor and Oberon, acting a psychic circuit breaker and filter in case anything should try to possess Eleanor.
Oberon stands there and does not resist as Phoenix, and through her Eleanor, make psychic contact with him. He is, however, very watchful as this goes on.
Phoenix senses what Eleanor does, and feels what she is doing, as she acts through her.
'Beneath' Oberon's mind is a large and powerful comatose mind. Within it, a number of lesser minds can be sensed.
Using her Souleater power Eleanor plucks out one of the lesser minds at random. It flows up out of the comatose mind, through Oberon, and into Phoenix.
Phoenix senses nothing trying to possess her, or otherwise act in a hostile fashion as this happens. To her the mind feels like that of a Beloved Zombie. She thus lets the mind flow through her and into Eleanor, where it passes into the psychic 'space' in which she stores souls that she ingests.
Eleanor repeats this on a second mind, with similar results, and so on and so on until all of the lesser minds have been extracted from Oberon, leaving only the large comatose mind behind.
With some time and effort, Eleanor, with help from Phoenix, manages to identify all of the minds she has removed from Oberon. She then expels each of them in turn into the correct body, in the form of a dark ectoplasmic mist that seeps out of her and into them. Again, Phoenix, who is also skilled in these matters, assists and observes.
The resulting fourteen comatose people are all Beloved Zombies, with no life-force between them.
"I couldn't find Fiona," says Eleanor apologetically. "There wasn't anything separate from Anurerishkigal."
Oh well, can't be helped.
Using Brand's equipment and our various powers, the souls of all of the fourteen new Beloved Zombies are extracted from their bodies, destroyed, and re-created in the container of life-force before being replaced in their bodies, bringing them back to active life.
We wonder why some of the older people, although presumably not that old when they died, are still less intact that older people killed more recently. Perhaps people's memories decay in the Land of the Dead, even with no life-force left in them?
Regardless of these consideration, Anurerishkigal also needs to be dealt with before we go any further.
After telling us what he is about to do, Oberon begins to expel its mind from himself. A mass of black mist begins to emerge from his eyes and mouth to form a roiling ball in the air before him. As soon as it begins to emerge we begin channelling it into the spirit-chopping device and channelling the memory fragments so produced.
As with the other possessed individuals we attempt to filter out anything that isn't Fiona and let is disperse, while saving Fiona to be reconstituted.
Unfortunately there appears to be no distinct Fiona in there, nothing but filtrate that is left to disperse.
So we simply shred Anurerishkigal's self, and it dissipates away into the air.
And eventually is gone. Anurerishkigal is, at last, dead.
Or so we think. And hope.
Oberon, by now appearing both a little tired and somewhat more relaxed, accepts a top-up of life-force.
However, when we question him regarding how he intends to replace his current oily black, life-force-leaking body with something more reasonable, he refuses to be drawn. So we shall have to see.
And there we have it...
The pictures on this page all belong to someone other than me. They are used here, without permission, for personal game use only and not for profit or commercial gain.
