Recorded for Posterity by Iain Walker.
Title for this session by Iz Levigne.
Suddenly Damien drops his glass - which breaks with a tinkle - and leaps to his feet. He asks the others to see if Brand can open a channel of communication to the land of the dead, and tells them he is off to talk to Lady Ranghell. He runs off.
Altair Trumps Brand, who comes through to where they are in the garden of the Unicorn Chapel. He is informed of Martin's death, after which he asks where Martin was when he died. "Chaos," we say. We tell him what happened in Chaos. Altair shows him the gem that caused the grey lapidification of the Courts. Brand observes that with no Pattern imprint he cannot tell much about it.
We also tell him that Damien has gone off to talk with Lady Ranghell, then explain whom she is. Tamarind asks if the cold black stone Brand gave us when he sent us back from the land of the dead could be used to return, or to contact Martin. Brand says that would not be possible - the stone resembles a Trump, and only allows contact with himself. Damn.
Tamarind wonders if one of us could flat-line and go look for Martin in the land of the dead, then re-activate the nonagram to return with him.
Brand tells us that the Chaos end of the land of the dead is, well, Chaotic. Dangerous.
Tamarind notes that if all the Chaosites who died have ended up there, Martin might not be easy to find.
Brand suggests that ideally we would need to send both a sorcerer and a Trump artist to get Martin back - one to contact him, one to operate the nonagram. When Tamarind asks, Brand says that he is not sure whether Chaosites could use the nonagram or not.
We worry that the CfV might be there, at the Amber end of things, as that is where they were killed (well, Hania and Prava anyway). Brand suggests that in that case strength in numbers might help.
Tamarind is not keen on raising the hopes of Random and Vialle unnecessarily. Flora reluctantly allows that she could go, being both a Trump artist and a sorceress. But she cannot create a super-Trump that could reach Martin in the Chaos end of the land of the dead. Tamarind asks the rest of us who are there if we are prepared to do this. We all agree to go.
Meanwhile, Damien sprints down to the dungeons, is let in by the guards (who follow him in) and heads for Ranghell's cell. She is alive in there. Damien asks if he can come in. "Please do," she replies.
Damien enters and has the two guards lock him in with Ranghell. They do this.
Damien asks how she is. "In a cell," she says, deadpan.
Damien asks what she is prepared to do to get out of it.
"What did you have in mind?" she asks.
Damien suggests an exchange of information followed by her swearing loyalty to Random. He asks her about Martin. What does she know about him?
"The King's son," she says.
"He was in Chaos," notes Damien.
"Oh yes," she says. "He was being bred for stud. He was captured a long time ago."
"Are the CfV descended from him?" asks Damien.
"Him, Prince Benedict and Prince Corwin," she says. Apparently Merlin had siblings.
Damien asks if Martin ever co-operated at any stage.
She doesn't think so.
He asks if she had been to, or was fond of, Chaos.
"I am loyal to Chaos," she says.
Damien tells her Chaos is no more, explains what happened, and asks why she thinks they killed Martin.
She doesn't know. "Perhaps he knew too much," she says.
Damien lays out her options - imprisonment, and probably not death (though Random is pissed off at the moment). Or she could join the other side of her family (us). She seems unimpressed. Damien points out that she has adapted better than her compatriots, and she can adapt further. At this point Damien notices that she is turning blue under her fingernails...
Tamarind meanwhile is examining Martin's Trump. Altair wonders what Martin's powers were. The conversation keeps on forcing Brand back to alluding to his stabbing of Martin on the Primal Pattern. Oh well.
Tamarind decides he needs to go to the Chapel to talk to Random, and view the body. He exits the garden, goes to the chapel door, knocks, and enters.
Random and Vialle are sitting on the front pew nearest the body. Random has his arm around Vialle's shoulders. He looks around as Tamarind enters.
Tamarind says we think it may be possible to bring Martin back, and explains how. But, he continues, he needs to study Martin's body. He emphasises that there are no guarantees. Random glances at Vialle, who nods. "Do it," he says.
Tamarind begins to study the corpse.
Outside, Altair is quizzing Brand on returning from the land of the dead.
"A sufficiently powerful sorcerer could use the nonagram," he says.
Altair is also uncertain how we get there in the first place. Spikes through the forehead again? Ibrahim suggests something chemical.
"There are worse ways to go than cirrhosis of the liver," muses Altair.
Brand says that most family members are medically qualified to lobotomise people, and dwells on his past sins again (hospitalising Corwin on shadow Earth this time).
Meanwhile, in the dungeons, Lady Ranghell is continuing to turn blue.
Damien tries to talk her out of it. She remains unconvinced. He asks her what she wanted. "Victory. To rule," she says.
Damien points out that she can be part of a ruling family.
"You are the enemy," she says.
"Don't you want to preserve anything of Chaos, its culture?" asks Damien.
"Culture is irrelevant," she says.
"I noticed," replies Damien. "I though of all the Chaosites we met, you were the most intelligent. I'm disappointed."
Ranghell topples over, unconscious.
'Oh well, I tried,' thinks Damien.
In the Unicorn Chapel, Tamarind works on a super-Trump of Martin. There is enough of an impression left in the corpse that, added to Brand's description, he can create a functioning Trump. At least, he thinks it will work, but there is only one way to know for sure...
Once he is done he sends a servant to Dr Mesmer to have her come to the Unicorn Chapel.
Outside, Altair tries to Trump Damien, but he is in a Trump-proof cell. Ibrahim points this out to her. Altair sticks Damien's Trump on her forehead and has another drink.
Flora sends a servant to fetch Damien.
In the cell, Damien waits and watches as Ranghell goes bluer and bluer. Eventually she dies, asphyxiated.
Damien summons guards and a body bag. "What happened?" ask the guards.
"She held her breath," replies Damien.
Damien chops the head off the corpse of Ranghell. The guards watch, looking slightly nervous. He then orders the body burned and the ashes put in an urn. The urn is to be delivered to Damien's chambers (though he narrowly avoids ordering it delivered to the Museum! 'Get a grip...' he thinks).
The body is taken off.
The servant Flora sent arrives, panting. He tells Damien the others want him, so Damien exits the cell and Trumps Tristan. When Tristan takes the call he passes the servant through before coming through himself.
Damien tells the others that Ranghell is dead, and the how and why of it.
In return, Altair tells Damien what the plan is.
Ibrahim wonders if one can damage spirits in the land of the dead.
"Yes," says Damien, "I was wondering the same."
When Altair asks, Brand says he has hidden Oberon's body. As long as he is being drained of power he should remain comatose. 'Hmmm...' thinks Damien.
"You can only damage other shades by forcing them to use their powers," says Brand. "Otherwise you can only injure or restrain them. Mind is the most important thing down there."
Damien sends Vigilant (Llewella's Pattern sword) to the armoury for safe keeping.
Dr Mesmer turns up. Tamarind wants her to supervise the lobotomising. "We have to be brain-dead but alive," he tells her. "Can this be done here?"
She says we could only be kept alive manually in Amber. Life-support equipment would be preferable.
"Flora could take us to shadow Earth," suggests Altair.
Flora agrees to do this. She says she has a Trump of a suitable place.
Tamarind Trumps Deirdre and goes through to her. He tells her what happened in Chaos, and to Martin. "We are going to recover him," he says. She understands what this means.
"Don't exert yourself too much," she says, going into mother mode. She then apologises for not being there for Tamarind as he was growing up.
Flora Trumps off to shadow Earth to prepare the facilities there.
Antonia Mesmer goes off to prepare for the lobotomisings.
Altair Trumps Gerard to explain what is going on. He says he will come though and keep an eye on us. She tells him that if she gets back, she wants a promotion and a better ship.
Brand explains where the spikes which channel power from Oberon are hidden - in a warded space under a stone in the room where Oberon was. It needs a phrase to temporarily deactivate the warding, which he tells us when Damien asks.
Then he tells Ibrahim and Damien how to perform the ritual to operate the nonagram to return us from the land of the dead. Well, mainly Ibrahim. It is similar to the one we used to bring him and Deirdre back, and makes more sense to Ibrahim than it does to Damien. We run through it for him, to make sure we have it off by heart.
A message arrives from Dr Mesmer - the infirmary is ready.
Damien goes and Trumps Esmée. She looks tired. Damien summarises recent events for her, and tells her to keep an eye on things in the castle, and that he is bringing Julian in, in case Bleys tries something. Anything. He asks her not to go off with strange men or to go to the wine cellar while he is away. She glares at him and drops the contact.
Damien then Trumps Julian, and when Julian takes the call explains that he wants him to guard Amber from Bleys. Julian comes through. Damien summarises events again, then asks if he infiltrated his anti-Bleys campaign. "No," says Julian.
Lastly, Damien sends messages to the anti-Bleys campaign, demanding to know who came up with 'that fucking stupid scheme,' and making it quite clear that if anyone tries it again he will kill them himself.
He then rejoins the others and we go to the infirmary. Gerard joins us there.
We await the call from Flora.
In short order, Flora Trumps Tamarind. She says she is ready; behind her through the Trump link is what seems to be a high-technology hospital ward.
Tamarind suggests that Gerard Trump her when we are dead and passes our bodies through. Gerard nods seriously.
We all lie down on the beds which are waiting for us. Opiates are administered, but Damien refuses his, having had enough opiate-induced hallucinations recently. "Use a local," he says. The others all nod off.
"We don't have any local anaesthetics," says Dr Mesmer.
"Then use an alcohol swab," says Damien.
Dr Mesmer does Damien first. The points of her surgical ice-picks begin to go in. Ouch. "Are we still on for lunch?" Damien asks her. She nods. Then Damien feels a Trump call coming on. "Hurry up," he tells her. She nods, there is hideous agony as the surgical ice picks sick into Damien's frontal lobes, and the Trump call fades away.
'That's one way to avoid unwanted Trump contacts,' thinks Damien. As Damien's brain dies and everything goes black a faint Trump contact forces its way in - it's Nitocris.
"Damien..." he hears, as everything fades away. Oh, bugger.
We all open our eyes. We are all in the same dark, bone-chillingly cold square room, with black mist swirling on the floor and empty door and window holes on one wall.
We have our normal equipment, but there is no sign of Castle Corvallin. Everyone can see the bloodless holes in everyone else's temples. We all look as old as we were when we left last time - grey hairs and all. We are back.
We venture outside, and there is the Castle Amber analogue off in the distance (see 'City of the Dead' in the Image Gallery). Ibrahim asks Tamarind and Altair to check the Trumps.
They do this, but as they do they are seen to visibly age. The Trumps of Caine, Eric and Fiona feel normal rather than strange, as they did before. Hania's, Prava's and Aximia's now feel strange though, as if they were here. Evander's doesn't feel like he is here. Martin's Trump also feels strange, as if he were here. Tamarind, having recently acquired Trumps of Osric and Finndo from Caine, tries them too. Neither show as if the people they depict are dead. Nor does Dworkin's.
Tristan uses the Pattern to shift us up to the Castle, acquiring grey hairs on the way.
We enter Brand's lab and go into the room that previously held Oberon. The body and the slab it was laid on are no longer there. We go to the hidey hole Brand described and say the magic word. The slab of stone making up the floor there fades away, revealing a space beneath, containing the spikes. We pass them around.
Damien inserts one into Tristan (and enjoys it). Tamarind does Altair. Altair returns the favour on Tamarind. Damien and Ibrahim each do themselves. Driving in the spikes hurts just as much now as it did the last time...
We are now ready to Trump Martin. We seal up the hole containing the remaining spikes, but not before Damien takes an extra one. We head down to the Nonagram Room.
Damien then asks Tristan if he remembers Nitocris well enough to find her with the Pattern from the time she was in Amber? He explains that she was trying to contact him just as we 'left', and sounded as if she was in trouble. Tristan considers this.
We reach the Nonagram Room, and Tamarind concentrates on Martin's Trump. It glows silver, but the glow does not immediately arc outwards towards the subject. The rest of us notice a couple of spikes lying in the centre of the nonagram - Brand's and Deirdre's.
Tamarind is not getting anywhere, so Altair helps. A silver line finally arcs off, and a contact quickly opens up. Martin is standing on a flat stone in a sea of black nothingness; some other slabs are visible sparsely scattered at various angles behind him, vaguely like ice floes. He stares blankly as the contact opens up, and does not resist as Tamarind and Altair grab him and pull him through. There is a wound visible all the way around his neck. Ibrahim pushes one of the spikes into his chest. He does not react.
Damien asks if anyone else is willing to stay while he and Tristan check to see if Nitocris is here. Damien is prepared to try it alone, but Tristan points out that he will not be able to shift shadow here at all.
We agree to send Martin back first, even if we are not sure how long it will take before the nonagram 'recharges' after being used.
Martin is placed in one of the circles contained within the nonagram's design and Ibrahim commences the ritual while Altair and Tamarind stand guard. Damien lends Tamarind his sword for the duration (as Tamarind has carried no weapons with him to the land of the dead). Damien and Tristan slope off. Tristan shifts shadow away.
Ibrahim manipulates the obelisks. Black mist rises from the channels in the floor and surrounds Martin (and indeed the entire nonagram).
Tamarind notices that the three CfV Trumps he has are active. He uses a new-found ability to spy on the conversation.
Tristan shifts us out of the castle into a house in a city of the dead. "Let me see now," he muses. He wants a detailed description of Nitocris. Damien describes her new, Celtic appearance and her artefacts - the shadow movement device in the back of her neck; a couple of spell racks and possibly shadows of the Shining Trapezehedron (which he also describes). Tristan nods, and they set off.
In the Nonagram Room the black mists swirl up, seeming to stretch Martin's form out with them as they rise. He becomes more and more stretched out and more and more transparent until he is gone. The mists dissipate. The obelisks seem to have reset themselves to their original positions with the end of the ritual.
Tamarind spies on the CfV's Trumps. They have seen the Trump effect. "So someone else with Trumps is down here," suggests Aximia.
They seem to go through the Trump link to Hania so that they can investigate, and the Trump contact ends.
Tamarind tells the others that the CfV are investigating the Trump effect. He suggests that Ibrahim restart the ritual and the others be brought through at the last possible moment.
Ibrahim does this while Tamarind and Altair stand guard.
As they go, Damien tells Tristan more about Nitocris, such as how her previous reality was in part due to her having part of her god inside her. But she does not have it inside her any more.
Tristan's path leads them to a black beach with no sea, cold and silent under the terrible stars of the land of the dead. And there is Nitocris, back in her original form. She is sitting on the sand holding a Shining Trapezohedron, which looks like the real one. She looks blank, and oldish, but perhaps not entirely due to the local draining of life-force. Possibly something happened to her first. Damien puts a spike into her chest. "Let's start back," he suggests to Tristan.
They do this thing.
Ibrahim has completed most of the ritual. "It's time to contact the others," he says. Altair Trumps Damien.
Elsewhere, a silver thread of light arcs out of the sky and envelopes Damien, who glows silver. He opens up to the Trump call, and he, Tristan and Nitocris all come through to Altair in the Nonagram Room.
"They're coming, get to the centre," says Tamarind.
"Are you sure?" asks Damien.
Ibrahim interrupts the ritual to explain. "Concentrate on the ritual," says Damien.
The rest of us wade through rising walls of black mist to our positions near the centre of the nonagram.
The door to the Nonagram Room bursts open, and in charge the three members of the CfV as Ibrahim has one more obelisk alignment to perform. They go for him. He performs the alignment.
Altair immediately Trumps Ibrahim and, not taking no for an answer, form the contact and drags him through to the centre of the nonagram as the CfV close in. Ibrahim runs to another circle as the black mists continue to rise.
It can be seen that Aximia, Prava and Hania all look rather old. Ha ha.
They hesitate as the black mist rises, then head for us - their hands shapeshifted into weapons.
Tamarind throws Damien's sword at Aximia, but she dodges. He concentrates on his own Trump, defending his mind.
Altair Trumps Aximia to slow her down. Silver light lances out, but does not quite seem to make contact. Aximia looks at Altair.
The CfV members start casting spells. Altair concentrates harder.
Damien and Ibrahim cast spells back.
Altair finds a spell invading her mind, and can feel that Aximia's mind is considerably more powerful than her own. "Help!" she cries. Tamarind runs across to her circle.
Damien casts his 'Militia' spell. Lead balls fly across the nonagram. Aximia is struck, spun around, and falls over. Hania dodges the lot. Prava is grazed.
Hania casts a monochromatic lightning bolt at Damien that hits him a glancing blow as he rolls, trying to protect Nitocris with his body. He twitches as electricity (or its equivalent here) courses through him.
In return, Ibrahim lightning bolts Aximia, who is still maintaining her spell on Altair. His lightning bolt is monochrome too. She is somewhat crisped, and her Mind Touch spell on Altair collapses.
Prava remembers Tamarind's spearing her through the head and so lightning bolts Tamarind. His Trump Defence and armour protect him to a large extent, so he is just thrown to the floor. Altair pulls him into her circle.
Damien crawls back into his circle with Nitocris in tow.
The black mists are rising and rising.
Aximia is still climbing to her feet, but the other two are moving towards the circles.
"Don't let them move into the circles," shouts Ibrahim, realising (as do we all) that they have no bodies to return to by now.
The black mists rise up and hide everything from view.
We hear the sound of the three CfV members screaming in pain. The process is sucking the life-force from them since they do not have spikes channelling energy into them, were using their powers, and were not in the circles on the nonagram from which one returns to the land of the living.
Damien is happy.
We feel ourselves elongating up into the black mist and rising up into the sky. Nitocris spirals off in a different direction to everyone else. Damien tries to note which star she is heading for as the stars become less terrible to look upon with height. The rest of us all spiral into a single star, and then there is the familiar agony of returning to life.
Then...
Beep. Beep. Beep.
We sit up. We are all in the same hospital ward, wearing hospital gowns. Martin is visible in a bed at the far end, through the doctors gathered around him. The doctors look round as we sit up. We ask after Martin. He seems to be alive, but brain-dead.
"It's a miracle," says a doctor. "His head seems to have re-attached itself."
Flora comes in. "How are you?" she asks.
Damien gets up and gets dressed. He notices that his hair has grown back, but he is still missing the teeth that were knocked out. He and everyone else notices that the fingertips they lost in the Courts of Chaos have also not grown back.
When Damien is dressed he asks Tristan if he is up on stellar cartography - he wants to try and work out a correspondence between the stars in the land of the dead and shadows in the living universe so that he can work out where to look for Nitocris. He draws a map of the sky of the land of the dead and shows it to Tristan (the Advanced Pattern initiate) and Altair (the sea captain, and thus good at navigating by the stars).
While this goes on, Tamarind Trumps Martin. He gets through very easily. There is definitely a mind of some kind there. He prods it with images of Random and Vialle and gets a faint flicker in response, but that is it. It feels as if there is no driving force, no spark. The memories are all there but there is nothing remembering them.
Tamarind wonders if the Unicorn could help. He is impressed by the Unicorn. Damien and Altair are not.
Flora wanders off.
Tamarind Trumps Gerard, who as far as he knows is in Amber. He quickly gets through and tells him that we have got Martin back, but he's not himself. Tamarind picks up Martin and goes through to Gerard in Amber. Ibrahim comes too. They appear in one of the Castle Amber kitchens, where Gerard is making himself a large 'Scooby-snack'. They take Martin off to the Infirmary. Gerard brings his snack.
Back on shadow Earth Damien, Tristan and Altair attempt to construct a star chart.
In Amber, Ibrahim, Gerard and Tamarind reach the Infirmary, with Martin. Ibrahim Trumps Random.
On shadow Earth, Altair, at Damien's prompting, amends the star chart. Then Damien asks Tristan how the shadow he ended up in the first time felt with respect to Amber.
"Why do you want to find her?" asks Altair.
"Because I love her?" replies Damien.
"Her too?" queries Altair.
"I want to find her before she ends up dead again from whatever she was doing," responds Damien.
Altair wants beer before she returns to Amber. A hospital intern provides some. She drinks. Then she Trumps Gerard. "About that ship..." she says as she makes contact and vanishes through the link. Gerard takes her down to the Office of the Navy where they discuss things. She wants a frigate with at least forty catapults.
Ibrahim gets through to Random and reports on what has happened. Random looks hopeful as Ibrahim starts the report, but his face falls as he continues. When the report is over Random says that the Jubilee celebrations are going ahead. Tomorrow. And that Bleys and Fiona have brought back the last of the population of Amber. He breaks the Trump link.
In the Infirmary, Tamarind waits for Random and checks the Trumps. Currently, none are active. Not even Caine's.
Ibrahim goes looking for Brand.
He finds Brand in a sitting room. He is with Isobel (and hence Eric).
Random and Vialle arrive in the Infirmary. They go over to Martin. "He's just like the others, isn't he?" says Random.
Tamarind notes that he reacts to Random's image and wonders if carrying him around the Pattern would help (though this was Damien's idea originally). Or perhaps something with the Jewel of Judgement?
Tamarind also tells Random that the CfV are in the land of the dead, but are not well. Bad things happened to them.
Tamarind then Trumps Deirdre to tell her he is all right. He tells her that we got Martin back alive, but that's all. He goes through and joins her. She is supervising the preparing of a new set of rooms (Tamarind took over her old ones when he arrived in Amber). There are lots of sheet-draped items of furniture scattered about. Her new suite of rooms overlooks a disused and overgrown garden courtyard. Tamarind offers Deirdre her old rooms back if she wants them, but she declines.
They potter about and bond.
Back on Earth, Damien discusses Nitocris and the Shining Trapezohedron with Tristan. He tells Damien it had 777 sides (Damien has never been able to count them). From the chart they reckon that Nitocris was headed to the area of her shadow, Memphis. The Vaults of Kish, perhaps?
Gerard takes Altair off to see ships in the Harbour. Ones that haven't been sunk, that is. Altair chooses as her new ship the HMS Porcupine, a frigate and one of the few wooden-hulled ships in the Amber Navy. She looks it over then takes it for a spin, with the survivors of her old crew. Fortunately the harbour entrance has been cleared now. They sail out under the Colossus of Oberon.
Ibrahim tells Brand what happened to the CfV. Brand says they would probably have been completely drained of life force. He is not having much luck with Isobel and Eric, he adds.
Ibrahim mentions Corwin, when Brand had him locked up in an asylum on shadow Earth. "That was different," says Brand. "Then, Corwin had life but no memories. Here the opposite is the case."
"Tamarind says the memories are there," says Ibrahim. "Could the life-force coming back from the land of the dead be tapped to revive them?"
Brand allows that it might be possible to tap it from babies in the womb or some such thing. He says he will be investigating further.
Ibrahim sits with Eric for a while, while Brand peers at Isobel some more.
Damien and Tristan leave Amber and speed through shadow. Before too long they arrive in shadow Memphis. The First Intermediate Period has apparently arrived. Nefermoseret didn't make it work. 'Oh well,' thinks Damien.
They go on to the Vaults of Kish, which lie in a 1930s shadow Egypt, acquiring a car - a 1930's Morgan sports car - and driving through shadow. Tristan thinks this is the right place. But something has happened here. Something bad.
They arrive near the shadow. It is a blasted wasteland (not what it was like the last time Damien was here). Djoser's pyramid is just a pile of rubble. I looks like a huge swathe of fire has swept over the place.
Tristan says there was something powerful here.
"There was always something powerful here," says Damien.
"This is something else," replies Tristan.
They come over a rise and before them is a vast crater, at least a mile deep and stretching as far as the eye can see. At the bottom is a vast corpse, five miles long at least. Nyarlathotep himself. Three-legged, black, a tentacle for a face. Damien looks impressed. "Good for her," he says. "I hope."
They drive over the rim and down into the crater. It gets hotter and hotter as they go down, and they feel their ears popping as the air pressure increasing. "Can you do anything about this heat?" Damien asks Tristan.
Tristan nods, and suddenly a cool wind is blowing around them.
They arrive at the corpse, which looms over them. Damien asks Tristan to spread the cold effect. It starts to snow. Damien gets out of the car and looks around. He soon finds the charred body of a woman. She's a charcoal briquette. Holding the (a?) Shining Trapezohedron. She looks less dead than her surroundings - as if she came back to life then was killed again by the intense heat. There are no signs of her having moved.
Damien checks the Shining Trapezohedron. "It's not Real," says Tristan. "And it didn't do 'that'." he indicates the vast crater and the body of Nyarlathotep.
Damien decides to take her back to shadow Earth. "I'm going to have to go after her again," he says to Tristan.
They drive off, Tristan shadow shifting for shadow Earth. Back to the hospital where we woke up after returning from the land of the dead this time. They check in Nitocris, and it is only because Flora has told the hospital staff to obey their orders that she is given a bed in a private ward and not taken straight to the morgue. Miss Charcoal is put to bed.
Damien Trumps Flora and asks her if she can man this end again for another expedition to the land of the dead.
But there is a problem - Damien needs an Advanced Pattern Initiate to get from where they arrive to wherever Nitocris is.
In Amber, Tamarind has a few hours helping Deirdre move into her new rooms. As they do so he mentions Evan. He is thinking of doing a Trump of him.
A servant arrives and hands over a note. Random is summoning them to a family meeting in the Great Dining Hall in one hour.
Tamarind goes off to begin a Trump of Evan.
Out at sea, Altair is getting used to her new ship, and drinking heavily. The HMS Porcupine is quite a good ship. Drunk, Altair rants at the seagulls.
Then she feels a Trump call coming on. Checking the cards she sees it is Esmée, and takes the call. Esmée says the King is holding a family meeting in one hour, and that Altair should be there.
Altair gives orders to her crew - "Splice those white flappy things" - then goes through the Trump link to Esmée.
Ibrahim is still sitting with Eric when a servant brings in a message notifying him and Brand of the meeting. Ibrahim leaves to get ready, going via his staff office to check on the situation. He finds a report that the new defence plans (made since the first time everyone was rendered brain-dead) are being implemented. Things generally seem to be coming back to normal, apart from various instances of looting and the like which took place while the city was mostly empty. Oh, and Dr Antonia Mesmer is dead. She has been murdered by shadow ninjas while we were recently brain-dead, then guards killed the ninjas - just like Kalen Clemens.
Ibrahim detours to the morgue, Trumping Tristan as he goes.
At the hospital, Tristan gets a Trump call. Damien feels one coming on at the same time.
When Tristan opens the link, Ibrahim hands him the report. Tristan scans it. "Oh, bloody hell," he says.
"What now?" asks Damien.
"Dr Mesmer has been killed by ninjas," he says.
"Yours, by any chance?" says Damien.
Tristan thinks so. He wants to investigate.
Damien thanks him for his efforts, and suggests that he may have to try Fiona instead. Tristan goes through the Trump link to Ibrahim, in Amber.
Damien opens up to his Trump call. It's Esmée. She doesn't seem angry with him, and tells him about the family meeting. He recalls that time seems to be slower in the land of the dead. And Nitocris is not getting any deader.
He asks Esmée who will be there. "Everyone," she tells him. Damien muses that he needs to talk to Fiona.
Esmée scratches her arm absently.
"What's wrong?" asks Damien.
"Just an itch," she replies.
Damien tells her he is paranoid - bad things are happening to people he cares about. He tells her he will be along for the meeting.
Before Flora can go through her own Trump contact Damien asks her to arrange heavy security on this ward. Flora calls over a doctor and gives him her orders before asking whom the body is. Damien tells her it is Nitocris, and the essentials of what happened to her. Flora gives him a hug.
Armed security men turn up.
"I'll be back," Damien tells Nitocris' body.
He and Flora Trump out to Amber.
Damien goes to his quarters, where he finds that an urn containing the ashes of Lady Ranghell has been delivered.
Ibrahim examines the bodies of the ninjas, which are on slabs in the morgue. They have no identifying marks or anything useful. They're ninjas, basically.
Dr Mesmer is on an adjacent slab.
Tristan curses a bit. He says he set them against the escapees, not all and sundry. He looks at a scroll found on one of the ninjas, the only identifying item on any of them - a contract on Dr Mesmer.
Ibrahim wants her quarters searched.
Tristan stares at her body.
Ibrahim wants to know if there is anything odd about her, or whether the ninjas are simply out of control.
Tristan's eyes widen slightly as he looks at Dr Mesmer's body. "Oh, bloody hell," he curses. "Bloody shapeshifters." This is one of the escapees from his prison shadows - Lillina Jadrax, a notorious poisoner - but with her body, mind and aura all changed to disguise her identity.
Tristan quickly drafts notes to Caine and Random describing what he has found. Then he goes off to bang his head on a wall somewhere.
Ibrahim goes to search her quarters.
By now Tamarind has created a Trump sketch of Evan.
Ibrahim enters Dr Mesmer's quarters, a set of rooms close to the infirmary. He conducts a brief search. On the dressing table he finds a gilded box with sides of metal filigree, inside which are three tiny blood-red mosquitoes. When he opens the lid they buzz about and one escapes. It lands on his forehead. He picks it off, but feels a tiny psychic contact from it.
'Report,' he thinks at the mosquito.
It seems to be waiting for orders. Ibrahim tells it to repeat its last report, but it can't remember.
Ibrahim puts it into an earring box and continues the search, but doesn't find anything else of interest.
He realises the mosquito might suffocate in the earring box, so he puts it back in the filigree box with the other two; now he knows what is in there and how fast they are this is not too much of a problem.
He leaves and heads for the Dining Room and the family meeting.
In his quarters, Damien freshens up. He places the urn with Lady Ranghell's ashes by Nitocris' statue.
Then he heads for the family meeting.
Damien meets Ibrahim outside the Dining Room and tells him what has happened. Ibrahim warns Damien against going back in case it frays the boundaries between the lands of the living and the dead.
Altair and Tamarind arrive. Damien tells them the same, and they give him the same warnings. Damien bitches about Tristan's creatures of desire and their animus versus members of the medical profession. Then we go in.
Princess Felicia of Aretskaya is seated next to Julian, along with Margot and, furthest away from him, Esmée. Damien gives Felicia a bow, ignores Bleys and pours everyone but Bleys drinks (fortunately Bleys has a brandy in from of him anyway).
Tamarind asks how the return of the populace is going. "Fine," Bleys tells him, "Apart from the people trying to kill me."
Brand arrives. He says he has so far had no luck with Isobel and the other beloved zombies. Tristan arrives in time to hear this. Damien tells Brand there will be another invalid - Nitocris. He tells Brand about her. Brand says he has heard of Nyarlathotep.
Deirdre arrives. Then Fiona, who sits by Bleys. Brand does not sit near them.
Caine arrives. Altair asks him about Chever and the ancient Chaos Lords. "They are all dead," he says.
Damien suggests that the others of us will check Chever ourselves. Caine seems unconcerned by this.
Then Damien tells the others that Ranghell is dead, and he is thinking of holding a memorial service. "For her, or for Chaos?" asks Brand.
"I liked her more than the others," says Damien.
Flora, Gerard, Random and Vialle arrive together.
We are still missing Caleb.
Tamarind Trumps him, and finds him drunk in his quarters. He brings Caleb through. Caleb staggers a bit. Tamarind pushes him into a chair.
Random stands up. "I am glad everyone could make it," he says, looking pointedly at Caleb. "Does everyone have a drink?"
When he is sure that everyone does, he continues. "There are a number of matters we need to discuss," he says.
Damien asks how long this will take - allowing for the usual family arguments. A few hours, Random thinks. "Just wanted to know," responds Damien.
"Death is no longer a permanent thing," announces Random.
"It's not as easy as it sounds," responds Altair.
"Yes," he answers, nodding. "And there is also the matter of 132 Amberite foetuses."
Damien has had a thought, but doesn't interrupt.
"And also," continues Random, "What to do about Chaos now that it is gone."
Damien says we should bring them up in batches. We need to tell them the truth, as they will find out one way or the other, but how are they going to react to learning they were bred to destroy us? Raising them in small groups will integrate them better with the rest of us.
Tamarind puts forward the idea that we could use the foetuses as sparks of life for the beloved zombies. But he makes it clear that he is not suggesting we do this. At all. On the whole, he backs Damien's suggestions.
"They have the potential to be the greatest threat, or the greatest opportunity, Amber has ever faced. We should let them live," says Caine. Gerard, Julian and one or two others look surprised that Caine should voice such sentiments.
"They are contaminated. With Chaos," says Julian. "We should kill them."
Esmée nods at this. Margot shakes her head. Each looks surprised at the others reaction.
"Let everyone have their say," says Tamarind.
Random nods, and goes around everyone in turn, starting with Deirdre as she is the oldest family member present. He sits down while they speak.
Deirdre agrees with Julian. "Get rid of them," she says.
Fiona agrees with Caine - let them live. (Damien humphs to himself - that was his idea.)
Bleys agrees with Fiona, hence Caine, hence Damien. 'Bugger,' thinks Damien.
Brand also agrees with the pro-life position.
Flora is also on Caine's (Damiens!) side. "Killing babies is the sort of thing Oberon would have done," she comments.
This wins Tristan's vote. Not that he wasn't going to argue for letting them live anyway.
"Kill them. Kill them all," grates Julian.
Gerard agrees with Julian. He says he has fought enough Chaosites.
"Let them live," repeats Caine.
"Let them live," agrees Altair.
"Let them live," agrees Ibrahim. "But examine them closely. I suggest they be raised together in Amber. I am not in favour of raising them in batches."
Tamarind thinks there is a chance that the last words of King Merodach could be embedded in these beings. Perhaps they are what Merodach hoped would supersede us. But regardless, he thinks we should let them live.
"Let them live," says Margot. She gets a disapproving look from Julian.
"Lady Ranghell said that it was upbringing, not nature, that made the CfV what they were," says Damien. "Kill them out of fear, and that is the only victory the CfV will have won."
"Is that the only reason?" asks Tamarind.
"No," replies Damien. "It is partly that, partly because some of them are mine. But mainly because our only options are killing them all, or letting them all live." There is much general nodding at this last. "And I am just more comfortable with the latter."
Esmée agrees with Julian, surprisingly.
"Er... yeah, I agree with Julian," says Caleb drunkenly. He hiccups. "Get rid of the little bastards."
"How can we judge them before they have been born?" asks Vialle quietly. "Let them live."
Felicia and Fiona are glancing at each other across the table.
A servant brings the Crown and other royal regalia over to Random on a purple velvet cushion. Random takes the Crown and puts it on. He picks up the regalia and stands for his big pronouncement. "It doesn't feel right to kill children," he says solemnly. "But how do we know they will not turn out like we - the elders - did, or worse."
"That's up to us," Damien interrupts. "The new generation may have learned from the elders parenting mistakes."
"Let the king speak," says Tamarind.
"I am not keen on raising them all together in case they factionalise," continues Random.
"We might avoid that by raising each batch to adulthood before the next one," suggests Tamarind. "Or we could raise them in separate groups."
"The latter will fractionalise more," says Damien. "We need a continuous development within the Family. Raise them as part of the Family on a continuous basis. We do not want a separate group of strangers."
"We should raise them with normal kids," says Tristan. He offers Castle Corvallin as a nursery.
"We should raise them in Amber," says Damien. "Being twelve and being able to kick the crap out of the head prefect engenders more arrogance than being brought up amongst ones peers."
A long discussion ensues on the relative merits of bringing the nippers up in Amber or in shadow. Damien prefers in Amber, but allows that we can do both. Ibrahim has a concern. "How do we cope with the population of Amber learning of so many new Family members?"
"They do tend to be loyal," says Random.
"And we maintain some mystique," adds Damien.
It is generally considered that the natives of Amber should not have a problem with this enlargement of the Royal Family.
The discussion moves on to who should actually bring the nippers up.
Damien thinks the closest genetic parents. Altair agrees. Others are sceptical. It is agreed that not everyone wants to bring them up. A long argument ensues. Damien concedes that having parent figures is better than parents per se when the parents want nothing to do with them, and parenting can be done communally.
"We will have to cope with the fact that some of them will turn out to be shits," adds Altair.
"Statistically, twenty to thirty of them, going by the previous generations," says Damien.
"We need to avoid giving them too much discipline and not enough love," says Vialle.
"At all costs we must avoid the Oberon style of parenting," agrees Damien.
"Will those who wanted them dead promise not to interfere?" asks Tamarind.
"Yes," says Damien. "Because that's the best way to turn them against us."
"I won't assassinate them unless the King wants me to," says Esmée.
"Can we guarantee that the people who wanted them dead will either suspend judgement or at least keep away?" asks Damien.
Deirdre and Caleb say they will keep away. Gerard says he will suspend judgement until there is more evidence one way or another. And teach them sailing. Julian promises nothing...
"Given the elders propensity for meddling, can they guarantee not to do it?" asks Altair.
"And if any want to learn arcane powers?" responds Caine.
"Better if as many family members as possible play a part in their upbringing," says Damien. "We don't want them to feel that it's their generation and ours versus the elders."
"Then I shall not interfere any more than is absolutely necessary," says Caine.
Random stands up again. "We should abide, perhaps, by the collective decision of the parental group," (i.e. the younger lot, plus Tristan), "as to who is interfering and who is helping.
"Also, it seems that it will be best to tell them the truth, as some of us," as usual Damien gets no credit by name), "have pointed out."
Random hands the regalia and Crown back to the servant, who takes them away. He sits down. "Next?" he asks.
"What to do with Chaos?" asks Damien.
"Yes," says Random. "You'll be organising a new expedition, I take it?"
Damien makes along speech saying that they gave rise to us, and even if they were fossilised gits, they still produced people like Dworkin and (let's face it) Oberon, who, if nothing else, had the vision to create something better. They at least deserve to be remembered. And there is an empty gallery in the Museum...
"It is a hard place to get to," says Tamarind. "And the place may no longer exist. We should check it first."
Damien notes that the demons there may construct a new civilisation. It would be better for them to be an ally state than to be vassals. It might even be in our long-term interests to encourage them.
Random decides to put the matter on hold until someone has checked Chaos again to see if it is still there.
We discuss other threats. Damien notes that Nyarlathotep has been toasted by something. He explains who Nyarlathotep is. Brand nods in agreement as he does so. Damien also explains about Nitocris.
"If you'd taken the Trump call when she called..." says Tristan.
"Don't remind me... Please..." replies Damien.
"Has anyone got any objection," he continues, "if I go and get, from the land of the dead, the only witness to Nyarlathotep's destruction?"
"Which brings us on to the next topic," says Random. "Revolving Door Death."
"We have some control over it," says Damien. "It may" (long pause) "be an idea if all of us know."
"I can hold a seminar," chips in Brand.
"May there be others of our siblings down there?" asks Deirdre.
"Osric and Finndo did not seem to be there, Trump-wise," says Tamarind.
"Could they be 'recycled'?" asks Altair.
"The Trumps should still recognise them," says Brand. "The life-force may be recycled, but the mind and memories remain."
"About Evan," says Tamarind. "We brought him back, but there is no sign of him. I have prepared a Trump of him."
Damien suggests that Evan was probably strong enough to claw his way up out of a grave.
Random asks for Tamarind's sketch of Evan. He examines it, and it is passed around. Nobody appears to admit to recognising him. Caine says that he reminds him vaguely of Harla - a wife of Oberon from long ago. Very vaguely.
"I don't think he had been there long before we found him," comments Deirdre.
"We could try this Trump now," says Tamarind.
"Yes, but I have some pressing business elsewhere," points out Damien.
The discussion regarding getting people back from the dead carries on regardless. Damien tells Random that if he forbids the bringing of people back, he will have to reluctantly disobey.
"Then I won't order you not to," says Random.
"What about Dara?" asks Gerard.
Damien points out that she is probably a zombie and may not thank us for bringing her back.
"What are the consequences of bringing people back?" Random wonders.
Damien doesn't think it amounts to much - just the speeding up of a natural recycling process. Brand is not so sure - it could have long-term consequences. There is just no way of telling - yet. He would look at places where people have been resurrected, to see if there is any increase, decrease or alteration in local life-force.
"But what about those who have returned?" asks Tamarind.
"I'm not sure there is much that can be done at present," answers Brand.
"If only the life force is recycled," says Damien. "And the personality and memories are intact, why not stick life-force into the bodies?"
"Ibrahim considered this," replies Brand. "I am working on it. It would help if I had a body with a Pattern imprint, of course."
Damien wonders if we could clone a body for him. Or, if that is not possible, create an embryo from Amberites sperm and eggs. He volunteers his own sperm for the job.
Brand is not sure how this is different from his taking the body of one of the 132 foetuses.
We argue this point for a while, as well as whether we can create Amberite children with no mind through artificial insemination, magic and technology. Damien seems to be the main optimist here (though Brand and Deirdre are hopeful).
Some more discussion of Nitocris ensues.
After a while, Random speaks. "OK. Is that all?" he asks.
"Reluctantly," says Damien, "what about a treaty with Rebma?"
Some discussion of this ensues. It is agreed that such a thing should be negotiated, following the preliminary agreement which was signed when Llewella was released.
"As an interim measure," says Tristan, "Deirdre and Brand should attune themselves to the Chaos shadow-movement artefact."
This is generally agreed to be a Good Thing.
Tamarind is now ready to Trump Evan, but wonders if Damien has things to do.
"Yes," replies Damien, "But I need an advanced Pattern initiate or a Trump Artist who knows Nitocris to come along."
No APIs volunteer (Tristan has had enough for one day), but Caine, who it seems can do a Trump of Nitocris, is prepared for a tour of the land of the dead.
Brand stands up and gives his 'How To Return From The Dead' speech again. Everybody listens intently, apart from Altair, who is bored (and not knowing magic most of this goes over her head anyway), and Caleb, who is sliding drunkenly under the table. Brand's talk is basically identical to what he told us before.
When asked by Tamarind and Ibrahim, Brand says that people interfering with the ritual site would not affect it, but would have a tendency to suffer horribly if caught on the nonagram but outside the defined circles while is was active.
It appears that Caine already has a Trump of Nitocris. He swears that he has never used it.
Damien suggests that they adjourn to the infirmary to be ice-picked in the brain. Someone should be ready to Trump them to the hospital on shadow Earth.
Death, it is pointed out, is becoming less and less a final thing.
"If you're going, then let's go," says Damien to Caine.
Esmée scratches her arm again. Damien asks her to indulge his paranoia and have it seen to.
"Was it an insect bite?" asks Ibrahim.
"No," answers Esmée.
Ibrahim raises the subject of the murder of Dr Mesmer. Tristan says she was a shape-shifted impostor - one of his escapees. "A female escapee?" asks Damien.
"Yes," replies Tristan.
"I see," says Damien. "Carry on."
Ibrahim produces the box of psychic spy mosquitoes and explains to everyone what they are.
"Time for a sweep of senior and middle level staff," comments Damien. "Now, if you will excuse us..."
"Give Evan my regards," he says as he, Caine and Altair (who comes to pass them through to Flora) leave.
Flora Trumps off to shadow Earth.
As they make their way to the infirmary, Damien tells Caine that the others used anaesthetic. Caine goes 'pshaw'. Damien agrees.
In the dining room, Tamarind reclaims the Trump sketch of Evan, and everyone gathers around. They attempt a group Trumping of him. They do not get through, but continue in the attempt until the Trump sketch becomes used up, and goes dead.
"He is either very well hidden, or dead, or..." comments Fiona.
Tamarind Trumps Caine and goes through. He quickly draws a Trump sketch of Evan and gives it to Caine, who puts it into his deck. He apologies for the delay. Damien tells him that Nitocris is not getting any deader, but Evan might be. Caine and Damien lie down on hospital beds and doctors apply surgical ice-picks to their frontal lobes, forcing them down into brain death. Ouch. Off they go. Wheee.
Altair passes them through a Trump link to Flora who is in the hospital on shadow Earth, and goes there herself.
Tamarind Trumps Ibrahim, and arrives back at dinner, which is finally served just after they arrive.
Over dinner, Ibrahim asks Tristan if he can change his ninjas-of-his-desire into informers-of-his-desire? Tristan says that now he has set it all in motion it cannot easily be stopped. It would be easier to simply stop the ninjas and replace them with informers, rather than turn the ninjas into informers.
Once dinner is over and people are moving around and retiring to the adjacent lounge, Fiona and Felicia are seen talking quietly in a corner.
Tristan takes Random off and they discuss the succession to the Throne.
As everyone retires for the night, Fiona comes up to Julian and says, so that everyone can hear, "Oh, Julian, what have you been doing?" Julian is stony-faced and does not respond.
In the land of the dead, Damien and Caine wake up. As before we are in the same sort of dark, bone-chillingly cold square room, with black mist swirling on the floor and empty door and window holes on one wall. They seem to be close to the castle again. Damien looks as old as he did when he left earlier.
"I should have told you the architecture leaves something to be desired," says Damien. "I suggest we go up to the castle and obtain chest spikes as soon as possible."
Caine nods. He cannot seem to avoid leaking power, and is greying and ageing continually.
They hurry up to the castle and get the chest spikes from the warded hidey-hole. As soon as the spike goes in, Caine stops greying.
Damien suggests they contact Nitocris now. He notes that there will be some resistance because she won't actively respond, but she won't be able to actively resist either. The two of them Trump Nitocris.
Contact is quickly made. She seems to be in the same place as before - sitting on the sand of a black beach with no sea, cold and silent under the terrible stars of the land of the dead. She is holding a Shining Trapezohedron. They grab her and bring her through the link to the castle. Damien knocks the Shining Trapezohedron out of her hands.
They take her down to the Nonagram Room. Three comatose, very old-looking bodies are lying on the design, as are the spikes that were left there when we departed before. "We should really move them," says Damien, referring to the bodies. "Do you want to conduct the ritual, or shall I?"
He goes over, picks up the scattered chest spikes and throws them into the deepest part of the swirling black mist, so that they will be hard to find.
Caine checks the Trump sketch of Evan, but wherever he is, it does not appear to be in the land of the dead.
Caine performs the ritual. The black mist swirls and rises. Damien holds on tight to Nitocris. They become one with the mist, rising up into the sky. This time, all three of them seem to fall into the same star...
On shadow Earth, Altair has been waiting in the ward with Damien, Caine and Nitocris for most of a day when suddenly the charred body heals into a beautiful woman, apparently of middle-eastern origin.
Once again Damien feels hideous screaming agony. It gets no better with repetition.
'Beep, beep, beep,' is heard from the medical machines.
Damien and Caine wake up; they can feel that their head wounds have closed up.
The charcoal briquette lives! Nitocris is alive.
"It's another miracle," say the doctors.
Altair sends the doctors away and pours drinks for everyone. Caine downs his in one.
Damien goes to Nitocris' bedside. She is not responding, and appears to be another beloved zombie. Damien accepts that drink from Altair.
Damien and Caine change out of hospital gowns back into normal clothes. Altair notes Caine's butt for future reference.
Damien picks up Nitocris. Altair finds a dressing gown for her, and then Trumps Ibrahim.
In Amber, it is the morning after the dinner, the morning of the day of the Jubilee.
Ibrahim is in his office, having got Tristan to check the doctors and other staff in the Infirmary in case they are shapeshifted escapees. He gets a Trump contact, and takes the call. It is Altair. He is informed of what has happened.
Altair asks him to go to the Infirmary and Trump her back. Ibrahim does this thing. Before he uses the Trump, Tristan tells him that all the remaining Infirmary staff are the genuine item - no impostors there.
Ibrahim brings Altair, Damien, Caine and Nitocris through to the infirmary. Damien puts Nitocris to bed, then thanks Caine.
Damien tell him they should talk about what he wants to do about Bleys (irrespective of the King's wishes). He points out that he is still not happy about his friends dying trying to kill Bleys, but will overlook it for the meantime. "And until then," he concludes, "You have my thanks and my interest."
Caine inclines his head and smiles, then wanders off.
Altair drifts up. Damien tells her he knows that she doesn't like Bleys either. "I don't plan on killing him every morning," she says.
"Neither do I," replies Damien. "I have a very specific date in mind."