After restoring the sign of Savarious Blaine, I relaxed in the peace of the garden courtyard in Castle Amber. After all, such periods are few and far between at present, and one never knows when the opportunity for such may arise again.
I had about half an hour this time.
Then Samiel arrived, bearing wine. A glass of which I, of course, accepted.
Samiel (who is, it turns out, a Lord from Asari Del Southron, heir of Taimerlain and Kendra within Hendrake, Duke of the Eastern Reaches of the Blackzone, and who lives in a shadow named Paxima) appears to dislike meetings and bureaucracy. From what he said he certainly does not enjoy the more tedious duties that go along with his various titles. I cannot say I blame him; they are not one of the joys of responsibility that I particularly relish either.
Particularly as he makes the very fair point that the true meeting of cultures and races will not occur in such meetings, but instead in a more face-to-face context. Such as our own meeting.
His thought of having his (presumably younger, and thus subordinate) brother take his place in the meetings might be a good idea. Apart from, from the point of view of his brother, that is!
As we conversed Samiel described his shadow of Paxima, and it sounded to me a most interesting and pleasant place. When I mentioned this he invited me to visit. Apparently the rate of time slow there is sufficient that we could travel there and return to Amber sufficiently quickly for events elsewhere not to pass us by, so I accepted his kind invitation.
Admittedly this was something of a leap of faith on my part, as I do still know very little of him. He could have been luring me into some form of trap. Admittedly, that might have been a mistake on his part, but still, it could also have been a huge mistake on my part.
Nonetheless, it did not feel like a trap. I do feel that I can, perhaps, trust Samiel more than I can certain others with whom I have become acquainted recently...
And so I decided to go with him to Paxima.
We travelled there by means of a Logrus-enhanced Trump.
And upon arrival the place certainly lived up to Samiel's description.
We appeared on a forested island floating in the night with others floating all around it, all lit by tiny cool stars drifting through the air, which bounced softly from one should they make contact. One floating island had a storm engirding it, with the clouds raining down glowing drops of multi-coloured liquid.
Only the island we had appeared on seemed to have any buildings upon it. Samiel's home there appeared to be a cosy-seeming house of stone and heavy wooden beams, the sort of place in which one stays there alone or with few selected guests, as from the outside it was not sufficiently large to house a great many people.
I was really quite impressed and taken with the whole shadow, and could not help staring, looking at it all with all of my mystical and mundane senses as I expressed my pleasure to Samiel.
From what he said, shadow Paxima has always been as I saw it. Only the house has been added. Which Samiel claimed that he built with his own hands when a young man. He commented on the benefits of learning quality craftsmanship in any trade, then applying it to all in life. A very fair point, and one that I try to adhere to despite my increasing use of magical and other means to achieve the ends I desire.
He is certainly most fortunate to have such a ... marvellous ... place to call home. Apparently an uncle willed it to him.
Despite its simple and humble appearance, the house itself was more than it seemed. It proved to be built of an assemblage of shadows linked to each other and the external Paxima shadow in a complex and subtle manner via the door and windows. From what I have heard of them, I suppose it is a small version of a Chaos Way, though constructing it to be exactly the same as the real physical room that would have been present in the same location anyway does seem a little ... excessive. Though I imagine it perhaps provides better security than would be possible otherwise.
But regardless of its actual construction, the house, though not large, was well furnished, with a small pentagonal living room coloured with pleasant cool blues and greens and dimly lit so as not to obstruct the view from outside. Each corner of the room had caryatid in the figure of a cat-woman holding up the ceiling with their right hands and in the left holding a lantern. The walls had either paintings or murals at eye-level, with short bookshelves beneath them. Three chairs were situated facing one another in the centre of the room, with two tables between them. All really quite tasteful.
I complimented Samiel on such, compliments which he modestly shrugged off, claiming that the pool there was much more worthy of such compliments, being one of the loveliest things in Paxima due to its simple beauty.
And he was not wrong in such an assessment
Leading me through the 'back door' of his house, he presented me with a vista of connecting pools of faintly glowing liquids, with fountains and small waterfalls playing among them. One could, if one wished, swim between the pools with the water also falling between them, causing colour changes among them as one went. Really most enchanting.
Samiel said that he has a friend who allows him to borrow a spell to 'play' the colours of light in such as way as to form a symphony of colour from the waters. It also allows it to be customised to match the water that an individual might be swimming through. Altogether a most pleasant-sounding experience. And one Samiel stated he would have ready and waiting for me when I should wish to try it...
As one last thing before we returned to Amber, Samiel filled a cup with a light green-blue liquid and offered it to me. Tasting it, after first checking that it was safe, it proved to be a drink of ... the morning ... its taste reminiscent of the first thing in the morning in the many places I had been. Always memories of mornings. And it appeared to be such to my Aleph sight, also.
Most interesting, and unique! Samiel claimed that other colours can produce drinks of night, or passion, or relaxation, or many other things, but also that the same colour mix does not always produce the same effect...
He modestly pooh-poohed my compliments to him regarding it, saying it is not truly unique, merely extremely rare, given the infinitude of shadow. That may well be true, but even so does not mean that it is not a thing of value, nonetheless...
Samiel said he would extend a standing invitation to the place to me if I so wished. Which I did! One that would allow me to avoid any problems I might otherwise have with the guardians of the place. Probably a good idea...
From what he said, his guardians come in a variety of forms. The Lares, Winter Jasmine, is one. Others are entities of darkness, such as the Vengoth, creatures hidden to normal sight but to other senses revealed as four armed beasts with little or no solid form, dangerous energy beings of darkness and rage that those of Chaos (or possibly only Hendrake) use, controlling them via their weaknesses.
The Vengoth are apparently not allowed to touch anyone who has Samiel's approval or who is a Hendrake, and he is one they will never challenge because he is connected to them via their honour system.
From what he said, the Vengoth were threatened by a form of voracious energy mites with massive litters produced every breeding cycle, and several breeding cycles per year. He used the power of the Logrus to shape Logrus Armour and champion the Vengoth in a battle against them. Being unable to assimilate Logrus energy, when the mites attempted to feed from his Logrus Armour, their feeding killed them. A most cunning stratagem, using their own strength against them.
And so as he defended their race the Vengoth are honour-bound to serve him in return for their continued existence. As part of this he allows them (or some of them) to live in Paxima.
I am not sure I entirely approve of such 'debt servitude', but Chaos does seem to be very ... unbending ... in regard to such things...
The contents of the bookcases in Samiel's house in Paxima were very interesting in their own right.
Not only were there Chaosian history books, but also books of Chaosian legends and myths, and a number of works of Chaosian fiction. Some of the books seemed to have been well read over a large number of years. One, with a largely illegible title of which all I could make out was 'Fa_l _f _h_ M_si_n_' (where '_' represents an unintelligible character), gave the impression that it would be much more at home in a museum or other collection of rare tomes. Perhaps I should have Cerebaton try some possible combinations of missing characters and see if anything interesting crops up regarding its full title. One particularly interesting tome bore the title of 'The Serpents Younger Relatives and the Religious Implications for the Faithful'.
And Samiel seemed to have no particular objection to my having copies of some of those tomes. Pleasing!
In fact he offered to have copies made for me, though not immediately, as he claimed it would take time to find someone with the skill to copy them without harming the ancient tome. I did suggest that I could, instead, copy them with my magics, without touching them. Samiel indicated that this would be acceptable for some of the books there, but not for the religious tomes.
They are apparently written using the Logrus of Chaos itself. This will explosively prevent any copying using magic, but also has the interesting side-effect of preventing any editing of the text from that which the Serpent desires, as to do so would bring the wrath of the Serpent down on any scribe that attempted it. Interesting! Writing them with the Logrus establishes the veracity of the books, prevents their being convincingly forged (something those of Chaos have apparently used to good effect against shadow Empires from time to time, by way of heretical forgeries), and at the same time ensures that their contents are immutable...
A very interesting way of doing things. I wonder if one could do something similar with the power of the Aleph, perhaps to produce textbooks of some kind to spread learning and so on. Or even, I suppose, spread my church through shadow? One more thing to investigate, I think...
Samiel also claimed that he could obtain access for me to some of the Libraries of the Courts of Chaos. Although a number of the older ones are apparently still barred to outsiders, he stated that he could obtain a general permit to many of the public ones and perhaps some of the Royal Sponsored or House Libraries for me. If he can do such, then I shall be most grateful to him. Think of what I could learn there!
Even though some of the libraries have environments hostile to a human, hopefully this will not be a problem. Either I can send for the books, or deal with the environment, as I have Conjurations to do so, and the Lares can also provide protection from such.
However, appearing as a human, especially an Amberite one, is still likely to prevent me from being granted the highest levels of Chaosian hospitality. While time has healed much of the animosity to Amberites there is, apparently, still a fair bit amount of such remaining among the hard core of those within the Courts who do not venture out a great deal...
Good old traditional anti-Amber feeling. How I love it.
Apparently telling the Chaosians in question that I am a daughter of Brand, with no links or loyalty to Amber beyond blood and survival, would not help in this. It would, instead, brand me a double traitor - an Amberite traitor to Chaos and the child of a traitor to Amber as well. Damn.
From what Samiel said, traditions of children inheriting the sins of their parents have existed for a very long time, because in Chaos such an inheritance can be literally true. People can pass memories and parts of themselves down to their children, via what are known as House Memories. And because there is no way to see who may have had this, they err on the side of ... caution ... and assume that anyone can have such, even though these House Memories are apparently not used on a large scale any more.
It was certainly interesting to learn that there are some in Chaos that gain the memories of their ancestors, and others who have them imprinted into the younger generation. However, Samiel claimed that such practices are becoming rare now, as although effective for a few generations, in the long term - after seventy or more generations of imprinting - problems can arise. This seems to mainly be due to the transfer of emotional and personal feelings along with the raw information; the latter on its own is apparently less harmful. And even with such precautions, from what Samiel says natural talent still counts for a great deal, and it also takes time for a body to learn the reflexes and so on associated with the new skills that have been implanted into its owner.
But still, the 'sins of the father' may literally be the sins of the children in Chaos, at least until proof that this has not happened is found. Chaos apparently assumed that Dworkin and Oberon were such a pair for quite some time, until the evidence proved otherwise. It seems that one goes through a period of having very little privacy until such is proved...
Samiel claimed that such memory transfers are apparently how Dworkin came to receive his name. It was the name of the first Lord of the House from which Amber is descended who assayed the Logrus. Samiel further stated that once memory imprinting became common in Chaos, the imprinted one would take that name as their own and be the Dworkin of the House.
Because few Houses in Chaos have learned how to transfer memories without problems, they have generally returned to older and more traditional methods of education, though there are still some who have learned some of the memories of the past.
Samiel stated that Hendrake transfers selected memories rather than complete knowledge and so train in one or two fields - the method by which memories are transferred, and some of their strategic skills and military knowledge - via memory transference and learn other subjects in the conventional manner. This apparently avoids such problems.
From what Samiel further stated, it is entirely possible for a person to simply clone their mind into others, killing the personality of the body it is transferred into. This is generally frowned upon in Chaos. Not because it is a form of murder, but for the much more pragmatic reason that such things are considered to prevent progress and growth of ideas within a House. It is also disliked because it elevates the importance of the individual over that of the House itself, which those of Chaos consider to be a bad thing.
Because of this those who can do such things - Samiel included - are carefully watched to avoid their attempting to become a body hopping immortal at the expense of the younger members of their kin within their House.
I really must spend more time examining the Lares at some point, but to be honest I have not had the time, and apart from its Logrus powers, it does not seem to include any abilities that I cannot duplicate by my own powers...
And so we made ready to return to Amber.
Samiel did the honours. Using a combination of the Logrus and the power of the Black Pathways of Impossigon that Master Tarn also possesses he 'built' a pathway through shadow. He then pulled us along this until we were deep into the shadows close to Amber. It was certainly very interesting to see it done.
Apparently the Black Pathways is a power possessed by the Hendrakes alone. One they have guarded and used exclusively since they discovered it in the 'mythic ages' when the Courts were young. Samiel stated that it is a power related to shadow itself and based on using shadow's darkness to link and form roads through them. This makes it almost impossible to detect unless one knows what one is looking for, and thus perfect for a military House such as Hendrake...
I wonder, from his description, whether the Black Pathways power is the power of Elemental Nature?
But regardless, from what Samiel said only two non-Hendrakes have ever assayed it, father and one other person of which Samiel knows nothing but their name - Tharkis. Not a name that I recognise, alas.
And from where we arrived using it, Samiel Trumped us the rest of the way back into Amber City. I have not asked from where he obtained such a Trump; one assumes he has permission from Random to possess and use it...
Thus we arrived back in Amber, only a few seconds (Amber time) after we had departed. It being a pleasant night in pleasant company, we began to stroll up to the Castle from the park in which we had arrived.
On the way we discussed a number of topics. Samiel apparently enjoys the nights in Amber more than he does the days, finding there to be something comforting about Tir-Na Nog'th. How, to him, it seems a chaotic thing, as if a physical representation of Yin-Yang within Amber to match the Cathedral of the Serpent in Chaos, which as far as Chaos and the Hendrakes know has never changed.
I did ask him whether he thought there was a true link between Chaos and Tir-Na Nog'th, and also Amber and the Cathedral of the Serpent. Personally, I thought not, as otherwise one side or the other would have long since exploited it in some manner. Samiel agreed with this assessment, for much the same reasons. From what he said such a link was searched for, but not found, forcing Hendrake to build the Black Road to Amber through all of shadow instead.
I did not realise that the Hendrakes alone had built it. To be honest, I have not investigated it much at all...
As we made our way through the streets of Amber, I could not help noticing that we were being stalked by a group of muggers.
Samiel was also clearly aware of them. Indeed, I would have very surprised had he not been, his being a warrior of Hendrake and so forth. Watching his Ideal react to this potential threat, turning to 'watch' our stalkers as a ghostly image within his physical body, was a phenomena I have not seen occur before. Winter Jasmine also sensed and reacted to the muggers, though I turned down her offer of assistance after assessing them.
Given what I could sense of the muggers, I did not consider either Samiel or myself to be in any danger whatsoever from them. Thus I commented to him regarding them, and referred to them as muggers.
This proved to be something of a mistake, as his subsequent actions highlighted certain differences between the vocabularies of the Amber and Chaos dialects of Thari.
Shortly thereafter, after I had had a chance to prepare a spell to assist in their ... education ... the muggers confronted us, their leader demanding money from us with menaces.
I had it in mind to gives them a scare, perhaps encourage their taking up a new - and more honest - trade.
Unfortunately, Samiel had other ideas. Although he was clearly acting to protect me (not that I needed such, of course), his colossal and near-instantaneous over-reaction to the very low level of threat posed by the muggers came as something of a surprise to me. Samiel shifted to his demon form - a scaled, long dragon-faced figure, taller then his human shape, with a bladed tail and taloned hands and feet - and with a mixture of skull-crushing, beheading (with a Logrus weapon), poisoned needles (producing some form of fatal convulsions in their victims), poison spit, and a smothering weapon the muggers were more than incapacitated before I could do anything to protest.
I could, instead, only react with the casting of a mass healing spell and spells to do my best to undo the various types of damage Samiel had inflicted on the luckless muggers. At the same time berating him for his over-reaction to their minimal threat. And having Winter Jasmine assist in the healing process.
To be honest, he took my words with remarkably good grace. Probably better than I would have, were our situations reversed. In fact he seemed slightly confused. Both at my trying to keep the muggers alive, and at the fact that they were human rather than some kind of crocodile-person. Still, he did not let this prevent him from assisting me, most impressively re-attaching the head he had severed using his shapeshifting abilities, before providing to antidotes to the various poisons he had used on some of the others and un-crushing the head of yet another.
To be honest, given Samiel's performance here, I would not wish to be on his wrong side...
His words during all of this highlighted a significant difference between the Chaos and Amber versions of Thari. In Chaos, a 'mugger' is a crocodile-man rather than a common street thief. A type of creature infesting Chaos that normally runs in packs of twenty or thirty individuals. These packs attempt to kidnap Lords of Chaos in order to eat them. That being so, I can see why Samiel might have reacted as he did, from his perspective...
I did consider using High Compelling to coerce the newly-healed muggers into reforming their ways. However, I refrained. Such would have been unethical to say the least, not to mention the beginning of my descent down a very slippery slope that I have no desire to negotiate. Instead I simply left them an admonishing message. Perhaps it will do them some good. I hope so.
Still, with the muggers restored, we carried on our way.
Samiel asked me how people such as the muggers could have become sufficiently destitute to resort to petty crime. How they could come to be lacking in the skills or powers to go into shadow and take what they need there rather than turning to such crimes.
To be honest, I did not have a satisfactory answer for him, though like him I find the entire situation rather distasteful.
I suppose it could be due to the economy of Amber, or its lack of a social safety net. It could arise from a lack of skills, education or powers among the lower strata of society, or the short lifespan that the average non-Royal Amberite enjoys.
Nor do I know whether such is how Amber is intended to be run, or whether it merely indicates some lapse in its governance... Given what I know of Sapphire, an Amber-like city certainly does not have to be like this. Could it perhaps be a holdover from the days of the late King Oberon, a dog-eat-dog attempt to let the strongest rise to the top, and damn the hindmost? Perhaps.
But regardless of all of that, I certainly agreed with Samiel when he commented upon how sad it is that a kingdom with the power of Amber so greatly fails to support the people within it. Like myself with the people of Ensilarum, he said that he tries to take as good care of his people as he can. Why can Amber not do the same?
I do not know.
So, what do I think of Samiel himself? He certainly appears to be an upright, honourable member of House Hendrake. Hospitable, open, and let us not forget, also quite attractive to the eye. All entirely positive qualities!
But is he too good to be true? Certainly I do not know a great deal of him, our having first met only a short time ago.
As less positive features, he is a soldier, and thus far more willing to kill than I am. This could cause problems between us. As someone from the Courts of Chaos, and House Hendrake, he clearly operates under a very different - and far harsher and less flexible - moral code to my own. This could also be a source of friction.
I do not know, and it is probably far too soon to be able to tell how matters may develop between us. Still, the game may well be worth the candle, as they say, so we shall see how events unfold...