Notes Taken by Samantha and Alastair Beadle.
Godofos is in the clearing in the woods in the forest on Ghenesh, with Arun's squires Danek and Lena and everyone's horses. There are frequent rustlings and noises from the forest, and to Godofos they all sound hostile. He hears yet another nose, and spins to face it, too. This time he can dimly make out a figure, part in moonlight and part in the shadow of the trees. Then he sees another next to it. And another. And another... All in all there seem to be maybe two dozen figures in the trees around the clearing. This doesn't look good.
Suddenly he feels the tingle of a Trump call coming on. He checks his Trumps and discovers that it's Etienne. He accepts the call, and tells Etienne that he is being attacked (not strictly true). Etienne can see at least one of the shadowy figures in the background though. They decide to quickly evacuate. Arun's squires start leading up horses, and Godofos passes them through the Trump link to the others in the underground chamber, Electra first, then Jihx's horse, then the others. Godofos' horse starts to buck and panic, but he grabs it and passes it through. Arun's squires go through, and then Godofos.
It's a bit crowded in the chamber now, with six horses and seven people in here. The horses are definitely looking a bit concerned. Jihx pulls out his Trump of the Amber castle courtyard and starts to concentrate on it, with the intention of using to ferry the horses back to Amber and give them some room.
Meanwhile, Caitlin has been concentrating on Gerard's Trump. After a short while, Gerard accepts the call, greets her and asks her how things are going. Caitlin tells him, and mentions the gem they've found here with a white Pattern-shaped flaw within it. Gerard looks concerned at this, and asks to be brought through. Caitlin does this.
Jihx makes contact with the Amber courtyard, and passes the horses through. It gets much less crowded.
Gerard examines the gem. Someone asks him if it could be the Jewel of Judgement. Gerard says it isn't - the Jewel is smaller, spherical, and red, in a gold pendant mounting. He asks Etienne to examine it with her magical senses. This she does. From what she can tell, the gem is very magical; to her magical senses it throbs with power. It also appears to be capable of storing spells inside itself, as well as enhancing the power of spells cast though it. Impressive. Gerard asks about the hexagonal black obelisks. Etienne examines them, too, and finds that that are quite heavily enchanted. However, there is also some other power on them, seeming to be mixed in with the magic.
After her examination she can also tell that both the obelisks and the gem are very real - not up to Amber standards, but not too far off.
Everyone discusses what to do now. In the end, they come to the conclusion that the gem should be removed from here and taken away. However, there is still the problem of the obelisks. Godofos tries to uproot one of them. It is a bit of a struggle, but they don't seem to be cemented in, and gradually he tears one from its roughly carved hole in the floor. He throws it to the ground. Nothing much happens; it certainly doesn't break. Jihx draws his sword and fires its energy beam at the fallen obelisk, forgetting that it seems to be working a bit more effectively than normal in this high-magic shadow. An intense blast of purple energy hits the obelisk, and it shatters into fragment, spraying shrapnel everywhere. Godofos, who is examining the obelisk, is sprayed with shrapnel, and only a reflexive raising of his arm saves his eyes. He falls over. Caitlin and Arun are slashed with a few bits of shrapnel. Gerard and Etienne take a couple of hits, to little effect (especially on Gerard). Arun's two squires take some bad hits, which seem to affect them more than the Amberites were (surprise). Danek falls down, his neck slashed and hole in his chest bubbling bloody foam. Lena also takes some hits, including one on the head, and falls unconscious to the floor, bleeding. Jihx is completely unharmed. He realises what he's done and apologises.
Etienne and Arun rush over to Danek and Lena, who are the most badly injured. Etienne casts a healing spell on Danek; golden light flows over him and up the arm she uses to touch him to the elbow, and his wounds quickly close until he is healed. Arun does the same with Lena. Sea-green light washes over her and she, too, is healed. Being a shapeshifter, Arun's wounds close without needing any other treatment (due to his being a shapeshifter). Godofos staggers to his feet, conscious, but hurting a lot. Etienne bandages him up. He looks a bit like a mummy once she's done.
As things calm down, Etienne can feel that the magic here has become unbalanced, and is starting to oscillate in a way that will probably lead to problems if nothing is done. She tells the others this, and that the obelisks probably need to be balanced up to stop the imbalance. Caitlin volunteers her home shadow, Derris, as a place to dump one of them. Godofos goes over to the obelisk opposite the one he pulled up before, and pulls it up. Caitlin Trumps her cave on Derris, and Godofos pushes the obelisk through. Etienne feels the magic start to settle down. Gerard pulls up another obelisk, and Jihx takes it through to the place shown on the Trump of this place (which is some miles off) - he is just about strong enough to carry it through. He uses his sword to melt a big hole in the ice sheet there and pushes the obelisk in where it will be frozen, then Trumps back to the others. Godofos volunteers his Trump of an idyllic-looking tropical island, a once pleasant land, which has since been hit by natural disaster and is a barren rock (this change is obvious as the Trump link opens up). Another obelisk is passed through to the place.
Jihx takes another obelisk through to the clearing in Ghenesh. As he sets it down, through the Trump link he sees at the edge of the clearing a figure like the ones Godofos saw earlier (only one of them though). He tells the others, goes through the link and appears in Ghenesh. As he goes Etienne hands him her glowing light-gem. The link goes down. Etienne starts concentrating on Jihx's Trump (as the place Trump of the clearing doesn't form a link back). Jihx heads for the figure, dimly visible at first, then more and more so as he approaches. As he gets closer he can hear the figure whispering something in a language he doesn't understand. Jihx gets close enough for the light of the gem to touch the figure; it is tall, thin and pale-skinned, like the figures they fought back on the shadow with the obelisks, in dark clothes, again like the attackers here. Jihx doesn't have time to see any more, as the figure stops whispering, and suddenly Jihx is filled with extreme fear. He turns and runs. Then Etienne's Trump link forms; Jihx has little choice about accepting it, and is pulled back through to the obelisk chamber. As he comes through the Trump the fear leaves him instantly.
Jihx tells the others what happened and they go to examine the corpses of the attackers. However, they get there in time to see the last one melt away into moonlight, leaving only a puddle of shadow on the floor, which spreads and spreads until it is gone. Even their clothes go in this way. Damn.
The last obelisk is pulled up by Gerard. The plan is to just leave it here. However, everyone thinks the central obelisk, upon which the gem was sitting, should be destroyed. Everyone steps out of the chamber into one of the halls, and once they're out of the blast radius, Jihx activates its armour and once it has covered him fires his sword's energy beam at the central obelisk. It explodes violently, more so than the previous one. Shrapnel bounces around, and a few bits ping off Jihx's armour, but no-one is hurt this time. As the explosion dies away, Etienne feels the magic that was concentrated here is fading away, until it reaches the same level as the rest of the shadow.
As everyone's ears recover, moans and cries are heard again, less faint than before, like the ones Caitlin heard previously. Everyone follows the sound, off a little way down one of the halls leading from the obelisk chamber to a metal-bound stone door in a tunnel wall. It has the look of a cell door to it, as it is barred on the outside and has a peephole. There is a stench of disease, unwashed people and fear, too. The door is opened. Inside are two dozen or so thin, starved-looking people like the dead ones Etienne and Caitlin found on their way in - faintly white furred skin, cat-like eyes and small claws instead of fingernails. Some of them are hurt, and appear to have been burned with hot pokers.
They look up as everyone comes in. They ask who the group are. They are told the group are friends, who got rid of the tall, pale people. At this, all the prisoners look very relieved, and thank their gods for this deliverance. When asked, they say they were taken captive by the 'others' (the tall, pale-skinned people), who invaded this place which, it turns out, is Ragasa, home of the Storm Mages who tried to invade Amber 16000 years ago. At this point the group decide to keep quiet about their being Amberites for the time being. The 'others' invaded a few years ago - they're not sure how long, came through their magical defences like they weren't there, killed lots of people, and imprisoned the survivors. They tortured the survivors now and then, though they didn't seem to speak Ragasan so why they did so is a little unclear...
The prisoners are asked if there's anyone here who will help them. One of them, a very thin woman, staggers to her feet and leans on the wall. Etienne has her drink some Holy Water, which boosts her strength a lot so that she stands without leaning on the wall. They ask her is she knows anything about the obelisks in the hemispherical room. She doesn't, but says the chamber was the throne room of the King of Ragasa before the invaders came.
Gerard shows her the gem. She looks surprised, and says it is the 'Heart of Winter', the symbol of the King of Ragasa, which he uses to protect the realm from invaders, and the forces of nature. She though it had been lost in the invasion. The white flaw inside the crystal is the symbol of the Royal house of Ragasa, she says, and continues, saying that the insignia is on the shields of the Royal military, and on their banners. The group are a bit sceptical at this, so she volunteers to show them.
The Ragasan woman leads the group out of the cell, through the hemispherical chamber and down another tunnel. Through an opening on the right hand wall is a large, wrecked chamber, which had been looked into before while searching for the escaping attacker, but not in any detail. 'This is the Kings Reception Chamber,' says the woman. It looks like the walls were covered with battle banners, shields and weapons, which have all been torn down and wrecked. The woman searches around, and after a minute or two flips over a shield, open which is the image of the Pattern, in white on a silver-grey background. She pulls out a few of the banners, too, looking sad as she does so. They have the same symbol on them.
The woman tells the group that the Heart of Winter has been the symbol of the Royal Line since its founding 3000 years ago by Dwerukan, the first King of Ragasa, up to its last king, Olarburin, who was killed by the invaders. From the records in the Amber library, however, Ragasa was devastated by Amber 16000 years ago. When asked about this, the woman says that, yes, Ragasa was devastated by evil gods long, long ago. The gods the prisoners were thanking earlier were not the same as these bad gods, but the Ragasan gods.
Jihx mentions without thinking that he thinks they should go back to Amber now and see what else can or has been found out. When he says this, the woman's whole attitude changes and becomes much more cautious and defensive. Whoops. The group, Arun particularly, tell the woman that now that their King is dead they should stop using the symbol from the Heart of Winter and choose a new symbol. The woman is not in favour of this, as to keep using the symbol will be the honour the memory of their king. This goes back and forth for a while to no real conclusion. However, they tell the woman that they are taking the Heart of Winter anyway. She looks unhappy, but doesn't argue.
They take the woman back to the other prisoners. Etienne uses her 'Terrible Voice' spell and tells them to forsake the Heart of Winter and all its symbol, and destroy them all. They tremble under its force. Then, as a sign of good faith, Etienne looks for the worst-off prisoner, an old woman, and heals her; golden light glows around her, and she's much better. Then she heals Godofos, who is still bandaged. Golden energy glows around him, too, and then he feels entirely healed. He takes of the bandages.
They leave the cell. No-one is keen to take the Heart of Winter back to Amber unless its sudden appearance there causes thing to suddenly get much worse. A sensible precaution. The plan is that some will go to Amber and see what the situation is there, while others will go to Vitesse, the fast-time shadow Gilgamesh found which they have stayed in before, re-rack some spells and travel back to Amber to see what effect the Heart of Winter's approach will have in Amber.
Godofos, Jihx, Gerard and Arun's squires Trump back to Amber. Caitlin, Etienne and Arun walk away from the cell and back to the tunnel entrance.
Upon arrival in Amber, Godofos finds some servants and has them start repeating the temperature measurement experiments. One of the servants shows Godofos the results obtained so far. Measurements have been carried out all around Mount Kolvir, not just in Amber City, and rather than the four lines of increased cold found from the measurements in the city, there are in fact twelve, radiating out from the castle - or the Pattern - in all directions.
As Godofos and Jihx ponder this, more servants with bundles of paperwork run up to Gerard and start talking to him in urgent voices. Gerard nods to them, them bids Godofos and Jihx goodbye and good luck, then goes off to go to work.
The others reach the tunnel entrance. The angel Lauriel is still there, guarding it. Etienne thanks it for its help, and dismisses it. It nods, slowly fades away, and is gone. Etienne Trumps Jihx, and has him and Godofos go and check the Pattern. The trudge off into the castle, down the long, long spiral stair and along the long tunnel to the Pattern. They arrive to find the Pattern dimmer than before, by about the amount they might expect for the time. However, the brown energy crackling over it is slightly dimmer than it was before.
Jihx concentrates on Etienne's Trump to tell her this. Nothing happens. Then he realises he's trying to Trump someone from inside the Pattern room, where Trumps don't work. Oops! He steps outside and tries again. This time he gets through.
Back in Ragasa, Caitlin concentrates on the Trump of Vitesse, and quickly gets through. The image clears to reveal the courtyard of the fairly isolated country auberge (inn) which they have visited before. It looks like the afternoon, with a few people about. Everyone goes through.
From the hall, Jihx sees no change to the Pattern whatsoever as the Heart of Winter passes through the Trump link. Etienne is told this good news. As they arrive, she also feels the gem become entirely non-magical. Obviously it runs off of a shadow magic with entirely different rules to those on Vitesse.
The three of them, whose arrival seems to have gone un-noticed, go into the inn. They are warmly greeted by the landlord, who has met them before. Rooms for the night, food and drink are arranged. A serving wench leads them to a good table, and dinner, big bowls of a nice meaty stew with fresh bread, are served, along with jugs of wine, followed by desert.
In Amber, Godofos studies the Pattern. Over time he can see that it appears to be growing dimmer more slowly than before. A good sign, perhaps.
Jihx Trumps back upstairs to the arrival courtyard and heads for the stable to get his horse and check on the temperature measuring servant bucket brigades. He heads off into the city. After a while down by the Pattern, Godofos Trumps up and goes to do the same thing, heading in the opposite direction away from the castle (so they are not covering each others ground).
Jihx reaches the nearest servant bucket brigade to the south of the castle (which faces east). He is arrogant and patronising at them, and is told that as far as they can tell nothing has changed. Jihx orders them to send word to the castle, quickly, if anything does change and rides on.
A bit later, Godofos reaches the first group of servants to the north. They have parked their cart in a narrow street in one of the poor areas of the city, blocking it, and a crowd has gathered to watch. Godofos gets down off his horse, them slips and falls in some manure before speaking to the servant in charge. The servant fails to recognise him until Godofos shows his family signet ring. The servant goes pale, and becomes a lot more polite. He too says that nothing has changed. Godofos tells him to send a runner to the castle if anything does and rides on.
In Vitesse, Caitlin, Etienne and Arun spend a pleasant evening eating and drinking. Caitlin eats the most. Eventually they decide to go sleep it off, and stagger up to bed. The rooms are comfortable and good, especially the beds. They sleep.
The next morning they come down for breakfast. It too is good. Caitlin has a huge fry-up. Etienne has croissants and hot chocolate. Arun has some of both. There is lots of coffee too.
Once breakfast is over Arun and Etienne go to re-rack and maintain their spells, while Caitlin goes for a little stroll in the countryside around the inn. Caitlin and Etienne continue to heal the shrapnel wounds they suffered on Ragasa.
Godofos and Jihx ride north and south around Mount Kolvir respectively, continuing to check the servant bucket brigades. After the second group, they leave the city and start going on horse tracks around the mountainside. Godofos starts riding very carefully. They check out more bucket brigades, who are carrying the buckets on poles over their shoulders out here. None have noticed any changes until Godofos reaches his last bucket brigade. There he is told that the temperature seems to have risen, as is the line of deeper cold has vanished.
Godofos pulls out his Trump of Etienne, and concentrates upon it. After a while he makes contact, and the link opens up. Etienne is about to go to bed, and is in her room at the inn, in her night-shirt. Godofos tells her one of the lines has warmed up. He then asks if he can come though to Vitesse. Etienne brings him through into her bedroom. Godofos leaves and heads down to the bar. No-one sees him until he gets down the stairs (Etienne's good luck, or Godofos' bad?). He too is greeted by the innkeeper, and shown to a table for dinner. A serving wench gives Godofos her personal attention as he eats and drinks. And goes to bed.
Back in Amber, Jihx also reaches the bucket brigade on the warmed-up line, and discovers the same news as Godofos. He Trumps Gerard and once the link opens tells him about the cold going away on that line. Gerard congratulates him (and the others) on their good work, and says to keep it up. Jihx thanks him and breaks the link. He then Trumps to the courtyard in the castle, and heads down to the dungeons to have a word with the prisoner they captured earlier.
In Vitesse, breakfast is served. Godofos has his served to him in bed by the serving wench who he slept with last night.
Jihx heads down the long, long spiral stair once again, to the deep labyrinthine dungeons of Castle Amber to interrogate their tall, pale, hamstrung prisoner. He gets to the bottom of the stair and head in the opposite direction, to the cells. At the entrance several guards are sitting around a table by lantern light. They stand up and salute as Jihx approaches.
Jihx tells them he wants to see the new prisoner, and two of the guards get up, light lanterns, unlock the heavy metal-banded wooden door that leads into the cells and lead him in. A few doors down they open a peephole and peer in. They step back and Jihx does the same. Inside is the prisoner, sat on the thin straw pallet, and looking remarkable healthy despite having been hamstrung earlier.
Jihx has the guards unlock the cell and goes in. The guards look a bit dubious when he has them lock the door behind him, but they do as they're told. The prisoner looks stonily at Jihx as he asks questions. The prisoner doesn't answer, but does start to whisper something in his own incomprehensible language, which, as Jihx listens, sounds something like that spoken by the mage in the village they visited on Ghenesh. Jihx suspects he's trying to cast a spell, and tells him it won't work here in Amber. The man keeps whispering. No spells go off. No communication takes place between the two of them, really.
Jihx decides this isn't going anywhere and turns to knock on the door so he can leave. As he does this, the prisoner hobbles forward on its knees, really quite fast, and grabs for Jihx's Trump deck. Unfortunately, Jihx is too fast for him, swinging his sword and slashing the prisoner's wrist (though not very deeply). The prisoner tries to get the deck, but Jihx pushes him away. At this point the guards open the door. Jihx backs out. The guards lock the door, then asks Jihx if he wants them to give the prisoner 'a good stuffing'. Jihx says no, and warns them not to go into the cell at all.
Jihx pulls out his Trump of Caitlin and concentrates upon it. Off in Vitesse Caitlin feels the beginning of a Trump call, but resists. Jihx feels he isn't getting anywhere and stops. He pulls out Godofos' instead. Godofos is busy and also resists. He gives up and tries Arun. Arun accepts the call. Phew!
Once Arun announces to the others who's on the Trump link, the others join the link, and the situation is talked over. As this is done, Jihx walks slowly down to the stables. Etienne and the others go out to the courtyard of the inn. Once Jihx reaches the stables he passes Electra through to Etienne.
From their discussions, a number of conclusions are arrived at.
To see what the Heart of Winter may do they could try:
And to help with the current situation:
Once the discussion is over, Jihx breaks the Trump link and heads for the Amber castle library to research the tall pale people who invaded Ragasa.
Back in Vitesse, Arun and Etienne continue racking spells. Godofos and Caitlin prop up the bar.
In the library Jihx asks the librarian to find information on:
In the auberge in Vitesse Godofos goes on wenching. Her name is Ellen it turns out. Now that Godofos knows her name and is becoming slightly attached to her, she's probably doomed...
In Amber, Jihx goes to the vast Roman-style baths that are under the keep and enjoys a long relaxing bath there. On the way back to the library he is Trumped by Gerard. Gerard says he's heard what Jihx is researching and remembers that the Moonriders from Ghenesh could not be understood by Amberites, and from what he's heard the tall pale people are worryingly like them. He tells Jihx he's going to go down to the dungeons to see the prisoner and decide for himself.
Jihx arrives at the library. A librarian comes over tells him that they've got some answers for him.
Having found all this out, Jihx pulls out his Trump of Etienne and concentrates on it. Etienne quickly answers and the others join in the link. They discuss things. A theory is advanced that perhaps the Ghenesh they visited was in another time, which is why there was the wrench as the Trump link opened. Jihx is asked to get the librarians to find out if there are any shadow paths to Ghenesh that can be used to go there and find whether it is the same when gone to that way as by Trump. The librarians go off to do this.
Jihx drops the Trump link. He gets another Trump call, from Gerard this time. He looks worried. He tells Jihx that the prisoner in the dungeons is a Moonrider from Ghenesh. Not goo.
The others, all spell racking now complete, decide to return to Amber. They dismiss any worries about what bringing the Heart of Winter directly to Amber will do, and just Trump in with it. Arun has had the people at the auberge pack him a 'pack horse of lunch', just in case the Amber castle kitchens have gone on strike, presumably. Nothing bad happens as the Heart of Winter arrives. The only thing that seems to happen is that is regains a tiny amount of magic, much less than it had on Ragasa, but more than the none it had in Vitesse.
Etienne takes Electra and rides out of the castle to one of the cold corridors with the Heart of Winter. She keeps a Trump link open to one of the others, and brings a servant with her.
In the castle, Jihx helps out the librarians. Shadow paths to both Ghenesh and Ragasa are looked for. A book describing one to Ragasa is found. A book that did have one to Ghenesh is found. However, the page with the description of the route has been torn out, and an insert put in its place, saying, 'Censored by His Majesty, King Oberon, For the Good of All". Damn.
Information on the Heart of Winter is also looked for. It is mentioned briefly in several places, but no details are given. However, the librarians have found mentions of other such stones containing or bearing the image of the Pattern that have been found at random through shadow from time to time. Some of them had magical power. It seems all such stones were brought back to Amber, and it is implied, though not stated, that they may still be here.
When this is found, Caitlin Trumps Gerard and asks him about these Pattern-bearing stones. He is in his office, behind a desk piled high with paperwork. He says, yes, he does remember them, and he thinks they are still here - try the attic above the Central West Wing, on the left, he says. He breaks the link, turning back to his paperwork.
Caitlin leaves the others to go and find these stones. She heads for the Central West Wing. Her path quickly takes her out of the inhabited parts of the castle and into the disused areas. Fortunately she has been here before and has a clue of where to go. She goes along dusty cobwebbed halls and past overgrown gardens until she reaches a large flight of rickety-looking stairs, those of the Central West Wing. Up she goes, up to the top, and comes out in a long room with a ceiling sloping down to each side, obviously right up under the eaves. Sunlight filters through the dusty air from windows down each side and through holes in the ceiling. Display cases line each wall, and the whole place has the air of a tatty run-down museum. Caitlin turns left, and in the second case finds what she is looking for. It contains twenty or so stones of various sizes, each with a Pattern-like mark on or in it. None seem to be missing, though a few have slipped down to the front of the case. There are no signs of recent break-ins. Looking at the stones in detail, about a quarter of them have a mark that is exactly the same shape as the Pattern; on all the others there is some difference. None of them are as large or impressive as the Heart of Winter, though. She pulls out her Trump of Etienne and concentrates on it.
Out in the city, Etienne has reached the spoke of cold, and gone into it with the Heart of Winter. Etienne can sense that there is some kind of power flowing down the spoke, which feels much more like the energy of the Pattern than real magic.
At about this point, Etienne gets a Trump call from Caitlin. Etienne takes it and Caitlin asks her to come through and check out the Pattern-stones. Etienne tells the servant she has brought along with her to take Electra back to the castle. The servant nods, then Etienne allows Caitlin to bring her through to the attic.
Caitlin explains what she's doing here, and asks Etienne to scan the Pattern-stones for magic; there is no visible sign of such from any of them. Etienne does so. Only two of the stone have detectable magic radiating from them (at a low level). One is two halves of a spherical white quartz pebble which has been split in half; on the flat face of each half is a design of rust in the shape of the Pattern, each one a mirror image of the other (like the Patterns of Amber and Rebma). The other is a circular water worn beach pebble of beige stone, with an inclusion of black rock in the shape of the Pattern showing on the surface. Each one radiates a different kind of magic. Neither is like the Heart of Winter.
Etienne passes this on to Caitlin, then Trumps back to the castle courtyard.
Caitlin searches the rest of the attic. In the display case next to the one with the Pattern-stones is a collection of tiny human and humanoid skeletons of many kinds, all about two inches tall, pinned in the case like butterflies. On the case is a label that says 'Prince Caine's Collection'.
Leaning against the wall in a corner she finds a number of portraits. They seem to be of the elders a long time ago. The first picture is of a beautiful black-haired woman with a distinct resemblance to Deirdre wearing a black dress sitting on a directors chair on the to of a cliff, with the sea of Amber visible beyond. She holds a dark-haired baby. It is labelled 'Faiella and Eric'. Another picture is of a lad of about ten with the devil's gleam in his eyes, looking very posed, as if the subject really wants to be elsewhere. It is labelled 'Bleys, aged Ten'. There are a variety of other portraits, all of which seem to be of various elder Amberites as children. There are none of Etienne, Arun, Caitlin, Jihx, Gilgamesh or Godofos.
One of Deirdre as a child looks a lot like Caitlin. But also like Corwin and Eric. Jihx looks a lot like the portraits of the redheads, Fiona, Bleys and Brand. Gerard looks a lot like Corwin, and also a lot like Brand. They all have a distinct family resemblance, enough that none can be unambiguously pointed at as Caitlin's Amberite parent.
Caitlin heads back to the library.
In the library, more information is discovered.
It seems that the Moonriders of Ghenesh are made of moonlight and shadow, back into which they melt when they are killed. The books also imply the all the Moonriders were destroyed by Benedict, not just the ones in Ghenesh, and that they were exterminated as a race.
Caitlin and Etienne re-join the others in the library. Some more discussion ensues and two theories are put forward:
So, where to go from here...