The Four Year Gap 126-130 PPF

Session 3.7   Index   Session 4.1

DAMIEN

Damien does a number of things during the gap:

• At some time during the Gap, Damien persuades Tristan to take Damien and Sebek to the Bounty Hunters' Retirement Shadow so that Sebek can visit his pack of velociraptors again. This he does. However, before doing so, Tristan makes the shadow proof against the power of the Impossigon, to which Sebek is attuned.

• Damien does take Phoenix up on her offer to learn about Shapeshifting. However, he is only interested in learning more about Shapeshifting in a theoretical sense, not least so that he knows how best to counter it (not intending any offence to Phoenix, but he and Shapeshifters have a History). And also so that he knows how best to cope with his New Hand (or is that Old Hand?).

• He also works on learning the basics of Advanced Pattern, and does indeed, over the gap period, figure out how to sense the properties of shadow. However, Ibrahim still has a head start on him in this regard.

• He attempts to train the sabre-toothed tiger he has acquired (how hard can it be?). This turns out to be extraordinarily hard. It would appear that the tigers are a type of creature which, while they may be trainable if you have them from cub-hood, are utterly un-trainable once they have reached adulthood. So despite the occasional savaging and the occasional loss of a finger, by the end of the defined three years, Damien has not trained it in the manner he desired. He thus accepts the agreed forfeit - no wine, women or song for three months rather than one week. Then he cheats, and uses Magic and shadow-shifting to tame the tiger, by essentially completely re-writing its brain. And lo, the tiger is tame. He then gives it to Sebek as a pet (or, more accurately, as an extra guardian to keep an eye on him). He names the newly reformed tiger Miutjemes.

• Damien attempts to train his rogue hand. It lives in it's box. It doesn't like Damien, and makes rude gestures at him quite a lot. In the end it proves to be un-trainable, and begins to grow an arm from the wrist. Not liking this development, Damien has it killed, stuffed and mounted. Even though dead it still seems to very slowly adopt new gestures over time...

• He organises Sebek's birthday and get it over with. Then has the builders in and transforms the ground floor of the wing of the Priory beside the Velocidrome into an extension for Sebek. Sebek is happy with the party, once he gets over the disappointment of not getting all of the gifts he wanted...

• Damien considers training up a Light Division for Amber's army, on the assumption that he has acquired a responsibility in the military area now.

• He also goes on more expeditions, inviting Phoenix, naturally, and any of the nippers and other Family who wish to come along.

IBRAHIM

During the gap, Ibrahim does various things:

• He spends plenty of time with the Nippers (sorry, young ladies and gentlemen of Amber).

• He arranges a suitable 'coming of age' ceremony for them as well, given the plan for all of the six original nippers plus Duncan and Chalice to all walk the Pattern in Amber, one after another, at the same time. This plan includes very thorough security, given what happened to the other 'proto nippers'. No-one disagrees with this idea.

• He worries that, once the nippers have walked the Pattern, how long it will be before Sebek decides he wants to walk the Pattern too? And until Damien gives him some Cthuloid 'move through shadow' item to compensate...

• He spends plenty of time with Margot.

• Given its demonstrated usefulness, over the gap, Margot asks Ibrahim to teach her some Sorcery. This he does.

• He introduces Phoenix and Jaheira, and tries to ensure that they get on well. A subtle suggestion is be made to Jaheira that Phoenix was really surprised to see horses when we turned up on them.

• Ibrahim also teaches Phoenix to ride, and she Shapeshifts his horse, Naseem, so that he is resistant to toxins.

• He continues to study the Pattern, particularly through the medium of Chrysanthir. Once he has actually developed the ability to sense shadow properties he makes a point of visiting all of the Pattern sites (extant and destroyed) and studying their properties in particular.
  The King is happy to assist with his examination of the Primal Pattern, and Osric and Sandrine have no problems with his examining the destroyed Pattern sites in the Girasol universe, at Girasol and the Rebma-equivalent, Losarig. The Tir-Na Nog'th-equivalent there is, alas, essentially unreachable. He finds that the destroyed Patterns feel very much like the destroyed Ht'Gon An-Rit Pattern - the power is still there, but it is broken in a very serious fashion. All of the other Patterns feel different to one another. The Primal, Corwin's and Sandrine's Patterns are definitely of a different kind than Amber's and the Tir-Na Nog'th Pattern - it appears that you can tell the difference between a real Pattern and a reflection of such a Pattern.
  As he studies the various Patterns using his new-found Sensitivity to Shadow, Ibrahim begins to realise that the surviving and accessible reflections of the Primal Pattern are related to the places in which they exist, or the places are related to the reflections, it is not clear which. They are not elemental Patterns, but they are, in some arcane fashion, a mountain Pattern and a sky Pattern. Possibly, from examining the remains on the Girasol side, the Rebma Pattern is a sea Pattern, too. Sandrine's Pattern seems to have completely over-written the old Ht'Gon An-Rit Pattern, so it is impossible to tell what that Pattern was with certainty. As he studies the Patterns further, Ibrahim gets the impression that there is a second level of things the Patterns are related too beyond the locational - perhaps something to do with the person who drew it, or aspects of them...
  Also, as he studies Chrysanthir in Amber, he begins to notice a small feeling of resonance from the sword. This is not as if something has just appeared, but as if he is just noticing something which has been there all of the time...

• Ibrahim goes out into shadow and finds a relatively fast time desert shadow that is within convenient Trumping distance of Amber, where magic works, with wildlife but no native sentient inhabitants. In this shadow he creates himself a suitable haven for resting up, healing and performing magical research and enchantment, warding the place and creating some small djinni to act as servants in the process. He also creates an area there that will Confer Regeneration upon those within the area. He names this shadow The Palace of Splendours. He asks Tamarind for a Trump of the place, and one is duly provided.

• In The Palace of Splendours, he does a variety of magical research and creates a variety of new magical items, including recreating his 'Militia' spell musket.

• In shadow Bannen, he studies the Tiger corpse to see if he can make any useful items from its body. He finds that its skin could certainly be usefully turned into armour, as he had previously speculated. Their bones, claws and teeth are also very hard and strong. Certain of their bodily fluids are quite poisonous, but not more so or in different ways than other poisons that it is a lot easier and safer to get hold of...
  He thus makes a set of Tiger Skin barding for Nasim (who is already Empowered to be resistant to damage - this is just a style thing), and also a suit of armour for himself, as there may be occasions where it will be more appropriate than his normal leather armour.

• He also studies the Shadow Beetle and tries to develop some magical means of communicating with and/or training the creatures for use as cross shadow transports.
  He finds that a magical means of communication with the beetles is entirely do-able, either on touch or at range, which can be used to train them, via some kind of punishment/reward system. The beetles are, however, not at all bright, are ferocious carnivores, and eat a great deal, which seems to be how they were led across shadow - the impulse 'food is that way' was implanted into their tiny brains. As long as someone is controlling them at all times, and they are kept fed, they can used effectively (in those shadows where they can fly, and indeed live, which is not all of them by any means), but if their 'mahout' is removed in some fashion, then they will go out of control... But they can carry several hundred troops in a gondola without any problems.
  Returning to Amber, Ibrahim explains the concept of having independently cross-shadow mobile Amberite paratroops at the cost of providing huge amounts of food to Random, and sees what he says.
  Random is most certainly interested in the idea, and views and has a go with the beetles once Ibrahim shows him the results to date. A cost of food alone he has no problems with. After this review, Random gives the plan the go-ahead. However, he adds the caveat that if there are hideous beetle-rampages anywhere then he'll have to re-think things. Certainly he wants there to always be at least two, or possibly three 'pilots' for each beetle, so that in case the main pilot is disabled someone can keep the beetle under control...

• He revisits Keirei and Renaissance and keeps an eye on things, inviting Phoenix along. She comes along on these visits.

PHOENIX

• Initially, Phoenix focuses on trying to help Vialle. She does not rush this, and involves Esmée as much as possible, Random and Vialle being more comfortable with the whole idea of her using Shapeshifting to cure Vialle's blindness if Esmée is there to keep an eye on things. Not that they don't trust Phoenix, but... From examining Vialle, Phoenix discovers that it seems that a very long time ago (hundreds of years, probably) Vialle was the victim of a cocktail of toxins which made her 'multiply-blind'. That is, the poisons seem to have attacked the retinas of her eyes, the optic nerves and the visual cortex of her brain, burning out all of them and effectively making her blind in several different ways at the same time. This must have hurt a lot at the time. Phoenix finds that there are some traces of the toxins that blinded Vialle still present in her system, which she also analyses.
  But the damage is within Phoenix's capabilities to fix, but the repairs are a complex process, mainly because they involve fixing parts of the brain itself, which is, unsurprisingly, always the bit one has to be most careful with. So Phoenix sets to work, being as careful as possible. She creates models of the damaged parts of Vialle out of herself to practise on, and develops the best treatments for them that way (making very sure that all such models are utterly destroyed or reabsorbed when she is done with them). When Phoenix is fairly sure how Vialle's 'multiple blindness' was caused, she checks with Vialle herself whether this were the case, just in case Vialle could then give extra information that would help the research into a cure. She doesn't want Vialle to feel at all pressured into giving details she doesn't want to, but checking the theory seems reasonable, so she does it. She waits until she is alone with Vialle to ask about it. "I don't need you to tell me the circumstances, just tell me if my diagnosis is right or wrong," she asks as gently as possible.
  "Your diagnosis is quite correct," says Vialle. "It was poison. Or poisons. It was a ... political problem ... so I am told."
  And having determined the injury and the best way to fix it, and having taught Esmée enough that she can both follow and assist in what is to be done, and with both Random and Vialle wanting it she, over time, gives Vialle her sight back, at the same time rendering her immune to the toxins which blinded her in the first place...
  Vialle looks stunned and delighted when she opens her eyes and actually sees things. "Everything is so ... beautiful," she whispers...
  Profuse thanks are showered on Phoenix and Esmée by both Random and Vialle. "If there is ever anything I can do for you in return," says Random, who is almost in tears at this point. "Name it..."
  Phoenix and Esmée have been standing back and leaving the moment to Random and Vialle. As always, Phoenix seems profoundly uncomfortable with other people's gratitude. At this last comment from Random, though, she moves closer and meets his eyes, allowing her feelings to show for a rare moment. "Requiem was Hell," she says, softly. "And I expected to die there. Your people gave me my life back. If I live forever, I could never repay them, or you." Then her expression goes back to its usual rather closed look, and she leaves them alone.
  "And I can never repay you," says Random with a very deep and formal bow to you.
  And Vialle begins to adjust to having her sight back, her recovery, needless to say, being carefully monitored. She is rather busier once she regains her eyesight, too, going out from the Castle more, into the City and out into the Golden Circle too. On sightseeing tours, effectively.
  Over the course of this Phoenix grows to be quite fond of Vialle.
  The only slight downside to this is that as news of Vialle's cure gets about, other people, as seriously injured, start asking Phoenix for help too... This is despite attempts to keep how Vialle was cured fairly quiet (that is, within the Family) and to let people assume the King had found a way to do it. Phoenix doesn't mind helping people (especially if Random wants her to) but she really doesn't want to become any kind of public figure or have any fuss. Unfortunately, just being a member of the Family means she is a public figure, and people are going to make a fuss. Of course, as a Shapeshifter, she has options in that regard that others don't, but even so, there it is...

• Phoenix also having been mentioned as someone who could possibly help Nicholas, in Girasol, she goes there to examine him, though she speculates that he is in such bad shape that it is possible the only way to help him is to teach him Shapeshifting. Osric and Nicholas are both happy for her to have a look at him, though Osric does stipulate that Alicia accompany her and observe any such proceedings. Phoenix does not object to this, so they go off to Garrison 1 to visit Nicholas. Alicia is certainly curious about Phoenix's Shapeshifting. Apparently she became a Shapeshifter because her mother was a were-leopard...
  Nicholas gives the impression of definitely wanting a cure, but not holding out any hopes of actually getting one. As if this is not the first time a cure has been offered, nor the first time said cure has failed to materialise...
  "OK. I can see why you would feel ... the way you obviously do," Phoenix tells him. "But I can't believe that with all the knowledge and skill our families have at their disposal, they can't find an answer. And I'll promise never to give up on finding a way to make you whole ... if you'll promise the same."
  "They have had tens of thousands of years to find an answer," he says. "With no success so far. I still live in hope, but you'll forgive me if any hope I may have is wearing a little thin after so long."
  Phoenix examines him, with Alicia 'watching', and it seems that there is something in him that is preventing regeneration. Whatever it is also seems to prevent her Shapeshifting him in any way (even in a very minor 'exploratory' way). Alicia tells her that this has, as far as she knows, been the case ever since he was crippled by the Ordnung. From the description, we were under the impression that Nicholas had been crippled by the same Abyssal Spray as that which killed Gerard. However, it turns out that he was actually hurt by something the Ordnung used to use long ago but phased out in favour of the (more effective) Abyssal Spray. He was hurt by an Order Spray, effectively the same thing as the Abyss Spray but of pure Order rather than Disorder. Where the Abyss burns and boils things away, the Order Spray froze things so they cannot move and reject less well-ordered things in their vicinity.
  Nicholas impresses Phoenix a lot - she is sure she would have gone completely mad long ago in his position.
  Phoenix decides she needs more insight into this, and so goes and talks to Brand, to see if he can make any sense of what's blocking her Shapeshifting. As far as she is aware he knows more than anyone else about Abyss and also the Ordnung.
  Brand considers Phoenix's description of the problem. "Presumably," he muses. "Nicholas was infected with this Order in some fashion, and it has prevented him regenerating. Perhaps his lack of a Pattern Imprint is why he has failed to regenerate for so long - he has no defence against such a thing. It is possible that someone radiating Pattern at Nicholas - beyond normal Pattern Defence - would enable this effect to be suppressed enough for something to be done for him..."
  She also talks to Finndo on the subject.
  Finndo considers the problem. "I am afraid I cannot really offer any suggestions," he says. "I know of nothing which could stop Shapeshifting or Amberite regeneration working in the way you describe. The Ordnung certainly had no means of doing so when it first attacked out through the Patterns..." Phoenix, thinking that Nicholas seems quite defeatist about the whole thing (though not without cause!), also asks them both whether this could simply be some kind of metal block on Nicolas' part. They both think this is possible, but his mind, while more powerful than Phoenix's, is certainly less powerful than that of Alicia and some of the other Girasolians, so in theory they should be able to override any mental blocks he might have on regenerating himself.
  She asks Nicolas whether he would consider the kind of body replacement the Amberites set up for Deirdre and Brand, if a 'cure' is impossible.
  "Yes, I most certainly would," he replies.
  "Then you need to talk with Finndo, not me. I'm beginning to understand what he did with Brand and Deirdre's 'essence', but I'm still learning. I think I know enough to observe and make sure he only does what he says he's going to do, but Alicia could probably do that better than me. And of course you would need a couple of Family members to donate - uh - raw materials."
  "Then I shall try to arrange an opportunity to talk to them," replies Nicholas.
  Essentially, Phoenix is saying this can't go any further without Finndo coming over (if Osric is willing) to take a look at Nicolas. Unless they want to wait for Alicia, or Phoenix, to catch up with his skills. Out of her hands, really, though she'll assist if asked.
  In the end Alicia cannot seem to get her head around the idea of this, so Osric calls in Phoenix and Finndo instead.
  Working from Nicholas' specifications, the two of them craft a new body out of some of the residual Dworkin-flesh. It has the full complement of limbs, of course, but in addition to that is seven feet tall, with enhanced animal-like senses and built to be as un-killable as possible, with duplicated and re-engineered internal organs, toughened skeleton and so on.
  When the new body is built to Nicholas' satisfaction, Finndo transfers his mind into its new home. Nicholas' old body falls over.
  A single tear trickles down Nicholas' new cheek.
  "Welcome back," say Osric and Sandrine.
  Nicholas gets up and walks about, testing his new body.
  Then he profusely thanks Phoenix and Finndo.
  Over the next few days there are a few adjustments made to 'debug' Nicholas' new body, but then it is done. Nicholas than walks Sandrine's Pattern.
  Then he takes a holiday.
  All of this seems to help reconcile Finndo with Osric.

• She assists in the healing of Gerard, and in particular with the re-growing of his body. Finndo is also involved in this, and he and Phoenix compare notes. Altair is happy to have Phoenix's help with her dad, and she can certainly boost Gerard's healing considerably, especially after he starts to become conscious and able to stop resisting her efforts...

• She spends time with Esmée, trading Shapeshift knowledge for sorcery lessons. Esmée is more than happy to do this, and by the end of the gap Esmée seems to have learnt a fair amount of what Phoenix has to teach. In return, thanks to Esmée, by the end of the gap Phoenix has the theory of full Grand Sorcery down pat, but has not yet applied it and actually learnt the power, having become interested in many things.

• Phoenix remains quite puzzled by Esmée, but seems to like her quite a lot. Esmée seems to think she is a little strange, too, but also seems to like Phoenix quite a lot.

• Esmée attempts to give Phoenix a makeover to get her out of her normal clothing and into something nice - "And to do something with your hair" - on several occasions. She also attempts to take Phoenix out to balls and other social events in Amber, introduce her to nice men and all of that.
  Phoenix humours her new friend in this, and a few months after she starts spending time with Esmée, she begins to turn up at social events dressed (albeit very plainly) in the style of Esmée's Shadow, Irenol, and later in other Esmée-chosen clothing, with an expression that sort of dares anyone to comment on the transformation. At least one or two people (Amber nobility) do make comments of this kind on the first couple of occasions Esmée takes Phoenix out into the City. Then such comments cease...
  Social occasions she sucks at, until actually given instruction in things like dancing. She also tends to behave towards the nice young men as though she's one of the boys. She does turn out to love going to the opera and ballet, though, and doesn't mind dressing up for those.
  Esmée is very pleased with her progress, and is more than happy to provide etiquette lessons, dancing lessons and anything of that nature she thinks Phoenix requires.

• Esmée seems to have taken over from Flora as Mistress of Protocol and Mistress of Ceremonies, now that Flora is Amber's Chief of Security.

• She compares notes with Finndo on Shapeshifting generally.

• When in Amber, Eric's large blue-black eagle of desire that led everyone else to her sometimes follows Phoenix about. In the end she adopts it.

• Phoenix also wonders tentatively whether it might be possible to create a new body for John out of her own. Would that mean that he then had an Amberite body and could walk the Pattern? She'd be happy to split her life-force (and power if necessary) up between the two if it meant they could remain equals as before. She quizzes Finndo about this while comparing notes on how the whole splitting up of body and consciousness thing works. She's intrigued by the whole concept, and can't believe she never thought of trying it when her main problem was only being one person.
  Finndo is quite happy to talk to her about Shapeshifting, and indeed anything else. He seems to have some sympathy for her duty-driven (as he sees it) years on Requiem. He is also willing to teach Phoenix about the Trump, too, though he knows Tamarind has also offered.
  Apparently the splitting up of oneself involves going beyond creating a living Blood Creature into splitting up one's own soul/spirit too. Finndo gives Phoenix lessons in this, and she finds that she can, eventually do it. She is not sure she could have done it on Requiem - it uses Shapeshift Aura and elements of the mimicking of powers to divide the soul, which she only figured out after walking the Pattern, or at least leaving Requiem... Even with this, though, she is not sure she could distribute her life-force across herself and a different person without something beyond what she now knows - perhaps some sort of artificial assistance (such as Brand's life-force transferring spikes). Let alone be sure that the person she gave her life-force to wouldn't just go 'pop' if they tried to walk the Pattern... So it appears that the only 'tested' method for providing a Pattern-blooded body to house someone else's spirit is the Beltaine pregnancy method, which would work just as well with a body grown in a test-tube, one assumes. Though as an additional caveat, this has only been tested so far using the spirit (or whatever term) of actual Amberites. Phoenix decides that more thought is needed.
  When Phoenix asks him about this, Brand attempts to explain it to her, but beyond the most general explanations, the actual technicalities seem to involve magics and powers that she currently knows nothing of. It's certainly not just a case of it being a big 'pipe' for life force - much more care and attention is required than that... Despite this, Phoenix is pleased with the result of her chat - she is just curious about everything at the moment, and she does like to try to understand how things work. Brand seems to have a certain element of that, too. And there is always the possibility that, with study, Phoenix will begin to understand what he's talking about. Together, Brand and Phoenix come to the conclusion that it could probably be done with Shapeshift, but there may be more of the power to learn yet...

• She spends some time learning about Amber, and especially recent history.

• She asks Damien to give her lessons in swordplay and martial skills of all kinds. She'd like to be better than she currently is, but even more would like to know about unfamiliar styles, such as sword fighting and so on. Damien obligingly provides said lessons. Together they also work out the potential combat weaknesses in a Shapeshifter of her calibre, of which there are few, and also how to deal with a berserk Shapeshifter (difficult).

• She teaches Ibrahim her 'Vaporise' spell and in return he Empowers an item for her containing the same spell hard-wired into it.

• She studies the basics of Trump Tricks with Tamarind in exchange for her teaching him the basics of Shapeshifting. In particular how to sense Trumps and how to block unwanted calls.

• She explores Shadow for a bit, both to learn to use her new Pattern skills and broaden her general knowledge.

• She generally keeps busy so as to avoid having time to brood about the past at all, though she does make the occasional incognito visit to Requiem, to check up on the place.

• And she spends simply lots of time wandering around in Arden, especially early in the gap period. Julian seems to have no problems with her spending time there, though he does warn her against the manticores, tigers, wolves and so on... "Yeah, wouldn't want to meet anything dangerous," comments Phoenix with a grin.

• By the end of the gap, Phoenix has not sworn loyalty to Random. However, Phoenix does consider that if he wanted to offer her a job or contract, that might be a different matter. She has nothing against Random per se; she just doesn't really go for the whole Royal set up.
  It takes him a while to figure this out, as it is an entirely new concept in Amber family relations. However, Random has the Lady Legislator draw up a contract for long-term employment by the Crown as a sort of trouble-shooter and generally useful person to have around. Phoenix will be paid in things one cannot get using the Pattern, such as Trumps, and rooms and board in the Castle. This means that by the end of the gap, Phoenix has a Family Trump deck, and some other Trumps in addition to that, including 'staging posts' to facilitate her visits to Brand, and one of Delaney's gravesite in Requiem.
  As part of writing the contract, Random asks Phoenix what sorts of things she is willing to do, and what she is not, on the grounds that there is no point writing a contract that's going to force one side or the other to break it on the first mission. It seems to occur to Random in this discussion that, far from Phoenix having things she would object to doing, he might want to be laying down guidelines for things he doesn't want her to do... Her ethical senses seem to have been a bit ... dulled ... by her life in Requiem.
  Essentially, she wouldn't get involved with genocide, or killing large numbers of 'bystanders', or other activities of that nature. If asked to assassinate someone, she wants the right to refuse, though refusal won't be automatic. And she won't spy on her new friends for him.
  Random seems reasonably cool with all of that. He's certainly not in favour of genocide or lots of collateral damage, but wants to keep any other options as wide open as possible... And he has no problems with her wanting a right to refuse things. On his side, Random seems to think he will be getting a useful agent who can do things no-one else other than Finndo, who has not proven himself the most trustworthy person, can do. He seems to think that as long as Phoenix will do what she is asked to, or refuse to do it up front, then he is getting a good deal. Of course, Phoenix is on probation for a while, but that's not too surprising, given the nature of the work...
  And once the contract is sorted out, Random asks her to go and watch a few people - Kings and so on - out in shadow. Not for very long or anything. Maybe find out some information on them. Flora, as the new Head of Security, is involved with this, too. Phoenix is totally happy to do this sort of thing, and so off she goes...

• Phoenix spends time getting to know better any Elders who show any interest in getting to know her. She seems to regard the Amberites more as a society she's trying to fit into than a family she's being re-united with, Requiem not having been big on families, after all. Finndo and Esmée are mentioned above. Margot and Julian are also interested in getting to know her, as are Flora and Deirdre. Corwin talks to her a few times, but is mainly off at his Pattern; Merlin likewise. Altair she definitely spends some time with due to her assisting Gerard, and they chat then. Brand is certainly also interested in talking to Phoenix. He seems quite pleased to learn that she was trained as a scientist, and is quite happy to talk about research, as well as Requiem and so forth, for hours and hours. By the end of the gap those of the Family outside of Damien, Ibrahim, Tamarind and Tristan the she gets on best with are thus Esmée, Brand and Finndo. Scary.
  The various children are certainly all interested in her, too. Chalice, in particular, is interested in her Shapeshifting.
  With parental permission, Phoenix happily supplies information, demonstrations and instruction to any of the children who want it. She does check first, though. From this it becomes clear that she actually loves teaching, as well as learning - and that she is thrilled to be learning new things again after having 'self-taught' herself as far as she could go for years.

• And she starts learning to play the piano, by the end of the gap having achieved the level of struggling beginner. She means well, but other stuff keeps coming up and she's not naturally gifted at it.

TAMARIND

Over the gap, Tamarind:

• Teaches Flora, in her new role as Head of Security in Amber, some things about Advanced Trump Tricks. She takes quite some time to learn these, seeming to be not quite as mentally adept at these things as Tamarind is, but she does, in the end, seem to get the hang of it. She also, Tamarind quite quickly picks up, spends some time talking to Finndo about Trump, as if doing a 'compare and contrast' exercise.

• Along with Esmée, he learns from Finndo about neural buds. They learn that the process involves the splitting off of purely psychic things which are sent, subtlety, down a normal Trump link into a target (note that this has to be a full Trump link from the person transmitting the buds into the target; it can not be done over the subtle contact required for things like Trump spying), where they are pre-programmed for specific things - sensory impairment and so on - which are done by physical alterations in the target. Tamarind does not have the psychic Shapeshifting ability necessary to create the buds himself, but he does, after some lessons, have the Advanced Trump abilities necessary to transmit them. Esmée, on the other hand, after a good many lessons from Finndo and Phoenix, acquires the Shapeshifting skill to be able to create the buds, but has no means to transmit them other than by 'normal' (and more obvious) means of psychic contact such as magic. And both of them together can both create and transmit neural buds... As a result of which both Tamarind and Esmée can individually, with concentration (but less than Tamarind at least needed before) sense buds in other people and also automatically sense attempts to implant buds in them and anyone else they are in a psychic contact with.

• Spends some time attempting to teach himself the Shadow Sensing part of Advanced Pattern, largely by wandering through different 'known' shadows trying to pick up on differences. He asks Tristan for some help on this. However, his involvement in various other projects stops him making much progress along these lines.

• Spends a fair amount of time with Beltaine, and Chalice too. Chalice is definitely becoming more and more the logical scientist type.

• For Chalice's benefit he looks into the issue of what walking the Pattern ties you into in terms of loyalty to Random, Amber and so on. He finds that walking the Pattern does not tie you in to anything. It is currently considered to be your birthright, so everyone gets to walk it without any obligation to swear loyalty to anyone or anything before or after doing so.

• Tamarind learns Trump Traps and thus becomes even more hideously dangerous than before. He also creates a Trump power source in shadow Haven to facilitate his research.

• He talks to Dworkin about the Trumps. From this, Dworkin seems to think that he has got most of the power down pat already, including a good grasp of basic principles. These talks spark his interest in the Trumps again, and Tamarind continues his researches, eventually teaching himself the power of Trump Traps (which sub-divides into two parts - the super-fast effortless opening of Trump links, and the easy pulling of a person through a Trump link against their will). This leads to a major re-write of his Trump deck to take advantage of the benefits this brings. Investigating his new abilities further, he finds that you cannot memorise 'multi-Trumps'. One can, however, 'key' Trump traps so they are safe for selected individuals (mainly Tamarind himself!).
  He also makes himself a Trump-powered sword, Nexus, which can Trump Gate and Trump Trap his victims off to a place of his choosing (benevolent, neutral or malevolent). It is also very sharp, and has a little bit of Psyche (so he can Trump it).
  He looks into creating a Trump Trap-based automatic gate to take one through Patterns from the Amber to and from the Girasol universe, but finds that this idea cannot work because it requires a Trump of the centre of the Pattern itself, a functioning one of which cannot be drawn. He also looks into the psychic ripping of minds from bodies, and talks to Dworkin about the 'backup' he made that restored him to his current state. Dworkin does explain this, but the talk soon turns into Advanced Shapeshifting 'techo-babble', which Tamarind does not, as yet, understand...

• Tamarind studies Osric's network of Trump Gates and Trump Traps.

TRISTAN

Tristan spends the gap years doing a number of things:

• First, he creates trap shadows for any Impossigon-attuned agents of Finndo whom Finndo may have neglected to mention. He is disappointed to catch a few such agents (in addition to various other Impossigon-attuned agents of Flora and the King, who he lets go again) after having previously warned Finndo that he would be on the lookout for them and would, if he found any, curse him with rancid drinks wherever he might go in shadow (an effect to be localised on Finndo and him alone and not to be spread to all inhabitants of shadow). The agents refuse to tell Tristan who they are working for.
  So Tristan asks Random and Flora whether the agents are theirs, and in both cases they deny ever having seen them before. So Tristan wheels them off to see Finndo. When confronted, Finndo, though with some reluctance, admits that they are his - some of the agents that he had declared, who are still out and about. However, they are people of his he attuned to the Impossigon before he was revealed as Finndo. And so, as they can't be de-attuned, and have been declared, they may as well be used... At least, that's his story.
  So Tristan tells Flora about the men he caught, what with her being Head of Security now. "I am willing to put them in a nice friendly shadow from which they won't be able to leave and is also Trump barred," he tells her.
  "It's probably best for all concerned that you do," she says.
  And this he does. Tristan just tells Finndo that he won't be hearing from his men again. It is obvious that Tristan is very disappointed in him, but otherwise he doesn't take any action against him because it's just not worth the bother.
  Finndo looks slightly bothered at this, but not too much so...

• Despite this, every now and again Tristan contacts Finndo and tries to get to know him better, even become friends... He does this partly because he fears that many others of the family will have little to do with Finndo and he doesn't want him to feel completely cut out. And he's not keeping an eye on him at the same time at all, oh no.
  Finndo certainly has no objections to spending time with Tristan, down the pub and so on; he even invites Tristan out on sea voyages and along on other activities too.
  Tristan takes him up on the voyages and (given the above) is interested in whether Finndo still goes to pubs...
  Finndo sails about shadow doing various voyages, exploring, waging wars, trading, and so on. He still seems to frequent pubs.
  Of the other Elders, only Flora and occasionally Deirdre really spend much time with him. Julian and Caleb (and Gerard, though this is second hand from Altair, who has told him of Finndo and related events) seem to really dislike him. The others seem largely cool towards him, and don't associate with him much.

• With Random's permission, and assistance in getting to the place, he goes to the Primal Pattern and does a month's exploring there. He tries to find out various things about the place:
  • First, whether anything is living there.
    As far as Tristan can tell, absolutely nothing lives at the Primal Pattern. The land is barren rock; the sea is crystal clear and empty of life. The stars at night (and there are stars there, despite there no longer being any in Amber) are brilliant and arranged in a complex geometrical array. There is no moon. When he realises how barren the place is, Tristan reconsiders his month-long stay, thinking that perhaps a week would have been better. But by now Random has gone, and with the only way out being to walk the Primal Pattern, Tristan is forced to stay...
  • Tristan also, as an interesting experiment, finds some iron ores and takes them back to the Primal Pattern, with the intention of forging a sword out of them. There is no forge in Dworkin's quarters, so he brings a forge along with him, along with some other metal ores.
    This has the result that Tristan makes a very Real but otherwise normal sword, which is too Real to Empower using normal Empowerment. It does not seem to acquire any powers just from being forged next to the Primal Pattern. Similar things apply to other metals too. Although not powerful in itself, Tristan speculates that it would be a good base material for someone to work with if he's trying to do Real Empowerment. As he is...
  • Tristan also investigates whether the geography there is like that of Amber.
    He finds that there are some similarities. The depression where the Pattern is located is equivalent to the position of the Pattern in Amber, with the top of Kolvir lopped off, and the coastline is also roughly equivalent. However, the horizon is quite close, and the coastline turns a right angle quite soon after you get out of the sight of the Primal Pattern's depression. Basically it turns out that the Primal Pattern is in a depression on the top of the only rise on an essentially square island, roughly two miles on a side, made up entirely of barren rock. Tristan makes a note to include a boat in any second expedition...
  Tristan also quickly notices that the whole place is hyper-Real, so that, although it is so barren, after a while he starts suffering almost from sensory overload from the sheer detail and texture of everything there. He begins to find himself studying even the most insignificant pebble or bit of rock as if it is the most beautiful thing in the world, with vast detail and meaning in every tiny part of its surface. By the end of the month this hypnotic hyper-Reality effect has Tristan spending hours staring at rocks or listening to the lapping of the waves, without really realising that he is doing it, and only breaking out of it when he gets very hungry. It gets worse and worse the longer he stays there, so that he suspects that if one stayed there long enough one would just stop eating and stare fascinated at some rock until one died of starvation...
  Bringing the Pattern to mind does not really seem to make a difference one way or the other to this - it appears that he is too close to the Primal Pattern for the power of the Pattern to have an effect.
  As a result of all the above Tristan is looking a little bit on the thin side by the time he returns to Amber. Nonetheless, he is planning to go back with a boat and start to explore the sea as well.

• Also, when Tristan returns to Amber, and shadow particularly, everything seems very flat, bland and texture-less compared to things at the Primal Pattern... Having a nice very Real (but otherwise normal) sword to look at does help stop Tristan from going entirely cold turkey, but it seems to be a property of the place itself rather than things made/brought from there. However, this effect does seem to slowly wear off over time...

• He asks Random for new Trumps of Random, Bleys and Fiona to replace the ones that Dworkin ate. Random provides these without any problems.

• Tristan remembers that there is a hole in the fabric of reality down by the Abyss which Damien and Altair made when getting Gerard back from the land of the dead. He reminds Random of this and suggests that they close it with the Jewel as per the other holes. In fact if the king doesn't mind then Tristan would like to do the closing under his guidance - it would be useful for more than one person to know how to do this and also might give Tristan some useful insights.
  Random thinks this is a sensible plan, and he agrees that having more than one person know how to do it would be a good idea. "Not that I didn't do anything more than radiate power from the Jewel at it until it closed," he says. So they go down to the edge of the Abyss with the Jewel.
  The hole is quickly found. In fact it is very large here, almost as large as the one in Renaissance/Moro, though this time it seems to be because shadow is so weak and flexible here. Tristan can sense the hole using the Jewel alone, as well as via the life-force lens, though it looks rather different through the Jewel - more of a noticeable black hole in Reality than just a place that memory-sparks appear from. It looks to him almost as if all of reality is (in a very allegorical way) a kind of woven fabric (a very loosely-woven fabric in this location) and here the strands of that fabric have been forced apart from 'the other side' to make the hole. One can smooth the threads back to some extent, but not enough to entirely remove the damage. Perhaps another useful allegory would be that all of reality is built up from fundamental building blocks of Order and Disorder in a manner not unlike a dry-stone wall. Here in Chaos that wall is very loosely constructed and easy to knock over, there being a great deal of Disorder and not much Order. The Jewel allows one to rebuild the wall but, again, one can never entirely remove this damage.
  But with the King's guidance Tristan is able to draw power out of the Jewel and use it to close down the hole to the minimum tiny size such things seem to have. And then he snips out that bit of shadow with API.

• One day Tristan sets off and begins trying to shift towards the Wall of Stones that bounds the Land of the Dead and which Altair, Tamarind and Brand have previously told him about. He is not intending to cross the Wall, in fact he's not even going to get anywhere near it. He plans to, as soon as he sees it (assuming that he gets anywhere at all), start shifting away from it again at top speed. And he will make sure that he is leaving no discernible trail through shadow on his way there.
  Never having seen the wall himself, Tristan does not really have any feeling to shift for, but he gives it a go anyway, shifting for 'feel of land of the dead' plus 'wall' and seeing where that gets him, keeping a careful watch on himself and his surroundings with the life-force lens as he does so...
  He does this and ... he is there. Right where he is standing when he tries it.
  Tristan guesses that this is a consequence of you being able to die anywhere. To test this he tries shifting away from the feeling of the land of the dead and the wall, guessing that the result will be 'there is nowhere to go'. And this does indeed turn out to be the case...

• He invites the Unicorn and Llewella to meet each other. This may hopefully defuse whatever Llewella's problem with the Unicorn is, or at the very least convince her that Random is not 'under her hoof'. He intends to spectate on any such meeting.
  And after some exchanging of messages. in some suitable neutral location, on a boat out to sea some way out into shadow from Amber, said meeting does in fact occur. Llewella has no problems with Tristan spectating from a distance, but not closely enough to overhear, lip-read or otherwise sense what is said...
  "Thank you for that, Tristan," says Llewella afterwards. "It was most ... enlightening." But she does seem to become a little friendlier towards Amber following the meeting. On the few occasions she comes to Amber she is occasionally seem subtly looking at Random in a rather pitying way.
  "I suspect there may still be trouble from her," muses the Unicorn/Miranda to Tristan after the meeting.

• At a fairly relaxed rate Tristan spends roughly two months practising his skills in Empowerment magic by producing assorted items of magically Empowered equipment, all of which are kept in a zero-time vault in Castle Corvallin's constant magical environment (so as to avoid their having to be maintained).

• He also asks Damien, Phoenix and Ibrahim to hang some spells on 'spare' spell racks and put them in the zero time chamber in Castle Corvallin. These can then be claimed when necessary.

• Tristan makes some progress on the Real Empowerment issue over the gap period, after spending quite a lot of his time in this kind of investigation. Having done so, he creates his own life-force lens. Brand's one, which he had been using before that, he donates to Ibrahim.

• He also continues his research into Life and Death™.

IBRAHIM AND PHOENIX

Ibrahim introduces his sister Phoenix to his sister Jaheira, and tries to ensure that they get on well. Before they do so a subtle suggestion is be made to Jaheira that Phoenix was really surprised to see horses when we turned up on them.

They ride out to Jaheira's ranch near Forest Arden, where Jaheira welcomes them. Refreshments are served. "How are you finding Amber," Jaheira asks Phoenix.

"Strange. Very strange," replies Phoenix.

Ibrahim mentions that Jaheira spent a lot of time helping their home shadow get back on its feet after being hit by shadow storms, much as Phoenix was doing with Requiem.

Jaheira suggests that Phoenix might like to visit Kieri at some point.

Phoenix replies that she would certainly like to, but that Jaheira postpone any return visit to Requiem until it has had a chance to improve a bit more.

Jaheira offers to pick out a horse for Phoenix, and as part of this they tour her ranch.

Phoenix offers to provide 'adjustments' to the horse breeding stock using her Shapeshifting at the genetic level. Jaheira seems to think that this is a good idea.

Ibrahim wonders if one could introduce genetic traits from (for example) the shadow-shifting sabre-toothed cats. Perhaps...

Phoenix and Jaheira find that they have quite a lot in common. Jaheira invites her back to help in the breeding of improved equine stock.

Ibrahim and Phoenix also perform some research into different toxins to find out their antidotes, plus to find a few toxins that work in Amber.

PHOENIX AND TRISTAN

• One of the first things that Tristan will offer to do during the gap is to travel back to Requiem with Phoenix and fix things so that no-one can get to John Delaney's grave. Phoenix approves of this idea, and off they go. On the way Tristan attempts to give Phoenix the facts about the Land of the Dead, with attendant dangers, rather than the 'personal opinions' that we expressed to her last time.
  Although she isn't a very demonstrative person, it's obvious that the whole land of the Dead issue has shaken Phoenix up very badly. In particular, she wants to get a clear idea, if she can, about how long it takes a person there to completely lose themselves. "We know very little about this, especially for shadow folk," Tristan tells her. "The best information we have is from Martin - we got his body shortly after he'd been killed, but he'd completely faded away by the time we got to him in the Land of the Dead." Requiem being a very fast time Shadow, Phoenix frets that Delaney is still 'rescuable' as himself and not a Beloved Zombie. Tristan points out that Delaney died of old age so he was probably un-rescuable as soon as he entered the land of the dead. He is therefore fairly convinced that Delaney is unfortunately a Beloved Zombie.
  Phoenix actually seems to find this comforting - her worry was that he had either suffered there for a long time, or was still suffering. Since this isn't the case, she doesn't feel bound to rush off there. In fact, she'll try to avoid it.
  Tristan also tells Phoenix that research is underway to try and restore the spark of life, but that optimistically this might take a few decades if it is possible at all... Tristan promises that if this research is successful then he will help Phoenix get Delaney back. He asks Phoenix not to tell anyone else about this promise.
  This she does. She also offers to help with the research if there is any way at all she can be useful. Once upon at time, she thought she was going to devote her life to scientific research, after all, and decades doesn't seem a long time for a project to her...
  Once in Requiem, Phoenix alters her appearance so as not to be recognised, not planning on wandering around there openly as Phoenix any more. Once he has safeguarded John's grave, Tristan also spends a week or so in Requiem, getting to know the place a little bit more. Despite the fact that he'd been prepared for the worst, Tristan is obviously horrified as he finds out more and more about Requiem. It is quickly obvious that Tristan really respects the way that Phoenix battled against impossible odds and the work that she managed to do, but also that he intensely disapproves of Phoenix's ruthless Daemon aspect.
  Which she neither defends nor apologises for. She takes Tristan to Sanctuary, so that she can speak to Farrell, the head of the teaching order there, and explain that 'Phoenix' isn't coming back and that the changes to the world are (she looks to Tristan for confirmation) permanent.
  "That is true," says Tristan. "However, it won't stop any further damage to the land should people redevelop weapons of mass destruction."
  "Then we have a great deal to thank her for," says Farrell. "More than can ever be repaid."
  This is where Tristan learns most about Requiem's history, as the main archives are here.
  It can be seen that the people of Requiem are coping with the new world reasonably well. There has not been any sudden change, so that as the land heals fertility and crop yields are gradually growing. Initially the people do not really notice much difference, but in time, as their lives become easier, they realise things have changed, and are happy about it...
  One of Tristan's reasons for visiting Requiem is to try and better understand Phoenix's reactions to things, and so avoid in future things like inadvertently 'daring' her to visit Tir-Na Nog'th. As such he learns that her behaviour follows a 'code' based on Requiem's society (or lack of same), which largely consists of:
  1. Never, ever, show weakness.
  2. Never refuse a challenge (see 1).
  3. Never get into anyone's debt.
  4. Useful talents are for the benefit of the community, not personal gain.
  5. Protect your own.
  6. Trust no one but yourself.
  Most of these are becoming less 'hard and fast' for Phoenix by the end of the gap, but it's going to take a long time for them to completely change, if they ever do...

BELTAINE

Beltaine also has some plans, which move on over the gap years. They change quite a lot after Tamarind tells her about discovering Ossian, though.

• Essentially ... she is trying to create a small 'gateway' to Tir-Na Nog'th from her orchard beside Corwin's pattern (which after all was drawn with the aid of Greyswandir, which itself has affinity to Tir-Na Nog'th) and perhaps even a small 'in between' realm there, to live in and feel safe. All of which is potentially do-able...

• In the very long term her plans had been to replace the 'lost' Tir-Na Nog'th sibling of Oberon, but this has been modified somewhat by the discovery of Ossian. She is now devoting a lot of effort to trying to make any kind of contact with Ossian. One side of her family has let down and rejected her (in her view) but perhaps she could relate better to him. She speculates that she could end up as some kind of agent for him...

• Now that Beltaine knows of him, it is quite easy for her to find Ossian, going into Tir-Na Nog'th via Chimeromancy - one thing she's very keen to do is improve her 'access' to Tir-Na Nog'th without being dependent on going back to Amber. She is as Tir-Na Nog'th-aspected as she possibly can be while doing this. He is thirty feet tall and asleep in bed, as described previously, with the two ravens on the bedposts.
  "I'd really like to talk to you," she says, directing her comments somewhere between the sleeping figure and the Ravens. "If you would like to talk to me, I think you would find a way..." And with that she curls up against the end of the bed and effectively goes to sleep - trying to be in a dream state, since the ravens entered her dreams as observers once before. She figures that if Ossian wants to talk or send a message, he will, and if he doesn't there's little she can do about it (except maybe track down visions of him before he went to sleep).
  She is essentially offering to serve him if she could - because what she really wants is somewhere to belong. So if he wanted someone who could wander around the waking world and see things for him (like the Ravens seem to do in dreams) - a person bridging both worlds - she would be happy to be that person, or a messenger/mouthpiece should one ever become necessary.
  As Beltaine falls asleep she feels the 'door' in her head swinging open and something huge - similar to when she channelled Oberon, but this is Real, not a dream-thing - moving through. And it is somehow - on some level - familiar...
  And when she wakes she feels she has most definitely been in communication with Ossian, though anything beyond that is vague, to say the least.

• She also talks to Brand about how to best improve her powers ... and about sending Finndo dreams. Not bad dreams. Dreams that draw on his subconscious to show him over and over the things he most regrets, things he most wants but can't have. Lovely, happy things that a nicer person might have in their life. Such as ... a family who trusts them, love, peace... She's learned that it's the visions of nice 'what might have beens' that really get to you and drive you mad, not the horrific ones.
  Brand is quite happy to assist Beltaine in exploring her powers, but claims that he does not know anything about them beyond what he has observed of her over the years. He is quite happy to observe and continue to learn more, from which conclusions and extrapolations may be drawn, though... He seems a little bit torn over the whole revenge-on-Finndo plan.
  "Fine - forget it. I'll work things out alone. Probably better that way," responds Beltaine. She's clearly hurt that even Brand is not completely on her side. She doesn't hold it against him, though.
  "I'm sorry," he says. "I'm more than happy to assist in research and exploring your powers, but I am not, at present, prepared to be involved in actions which might be perceived as hostile against other members of the Family."
  Beltaine struggles with her feelings for a minute, then smiles at him. "And I suppose - actually - that makes me proud of you." She kisses him on the cheek.
  "Thank you," he says, and gives you a hug and a peck on the cheek in return.
  And she doesn't actually go ahead with any plans to damage Finndo. She will, though, as and when she can work out how, try to work some kind of Chimeromancy to stop him dreaming at all. This seems fair to her - he has cut her off from the real world (as she sees it) so she will cut him off from hers.

• In general, Beltaine is giving herself over much more to her Tir-Na Nog'th aspects, and as a side effect of all this to some measure withdrawing from everyone except Tamarind, Chalice and Brand. In creating the 'tiny bit of Tir-Na Nog'th hiding-place' she seems to just retreat there and get more and more ghost-like and distant - people would effectively have to go look for her and talk to her in there if they wanted to. Chalice or Tamarind do not have any problem visiting her in this new place, but it means people don't keep running into her every time they go through Corwin's Pattern.

OTHER PEOPLE

Brand grows up, perhaps faster than time in Amber might normally allow. Deirdre also grows up, at a more normal (for Amber) rate.

Brand apologises to Dworkin for ruining his Pattern. Dworkin accepts this apology. He, Brand and Chalice begin to form a definite clique.

Corwin has Castle Rosa rebuilt to match Castle Moebius on the other side of his Pattern. That is, a fortress that is defensible against attacks coming both from outside or through the Pattern.

He also has had the rocket ship we used to escape from the monstrous Dworkin-blob, and in which we crash-landed on the slopes of Kolvir, raised onto a launch pad on the site of his tomb.

Dworkin begins to once again live in his cave next to the Primal Pattern. He commutes to and from the rest of the universe via the Pattern.

Various Girasolians visit Amber. Various Amberites, in return, visit Girasol. Embassies are exchanged between the two realms. Thomas is appointed as the Girasolian ambassador to Amber while Deirdre becomes Random's ambassador to Girasol (after she walks the Pattern, of course).

When Deirdre goes to take up her ambassadorship in Girasol, Tamarind takes her there. On the way, he tries to find out who his father was. He is more curious than dying to know.

"Corwin is not your father," she says emphatically. After some more probing by Tamarind she tells him that his father's name was Valerian, and that he came from one of her shadows. She thinks he is probably dead of old age by now, but does not seem too bothered by this.

Random offers the Girasolians attunement to the Jewel of Judgement. They all accept this offer.

We track down Dworkin's old body in shadow, with the assistance of Dworkin himself.

When we find it, it is still alive, floating in a shadow of void. Dworkin basically reabsorbs it into himself and dissipates the excess mass back into gas.

Tamarind suggests that we should keep some, to help make new bodies for people, such as Nicholas of Girasol. This seems a sensible plan, so Dworkin keeps some and Trumps it away for safe-keeping.

As time passes, Ibrahim's sister Jaheira, newly young again, cuts a swathe through Amberite society. She is having to beat potential suitors off with a stick.

Towards the end of the gap period, in 129 PPF, King Daniel of shadow Kintar in the Golden Circle comes to visit her, and after a while they become an item.

Kintar is a grassy, largely flat shadow with a great many horses.

EXPEDITION TO THE PRIMAL PATTERN

Following his first expedition to the Primal Pattern Tristan enquires whether anyone else is interested in coming along on a second expedition there, including a sea voyage. He points out that this could be dangerous since the sea suffers from the hypnotic hyper-Reality sensory overload effect even more than the land does, due to its movement...

• Phoenix volunteers to come along.
• Ibrahim does want to go and study the Primal Shadow, but he will probably only be interested in visiting for several hours, rather than several days. He is trying to visit all of the current and former Pattern sites and study their shadow properties, purely out of curiosity, though visiting Rebma's pattern will obviously have to wait a while at present... He also has several other projects on the go ("Ya, Beetle! Ya!").
• Damien will of course trundle along too, but will probably get bored when he realises that there aren't any interesting ruins or relics to plunder. But either has to stay until the defined pick-up time anyway, or walk the Primal Pattern to get out...
• Tamarind does not come along.

On the second expedition, Tristan brings blinkers for himself to try and cut down the hyper-Reality hypnosis effect. He also tests whether clockwork works there, thinking that if it does then one can come up with some ingenious timer which blocks one's sight entirely every hour or so. Something on those lines using a burning down candle could also be used - so long as you didn't mind wandering around looking like some kind of birthday cake.
Unfortunately, he finds that blocking sight doesn't help - the blinkers themselves become the objects of fascination instead. And clockwork turns out not to work at the Primal Pattern. Candles, being moving things, are also fascinating in their own right. Even if one closes ones eyes, the few sounds that there are fascinating too. And if one plugs up ones ears one can still feel the Reality of the place...
Importing some boredom, such as elevator music, accountancy text books, Harp beer, Little and Large joke books and so on, on the theory that they might be a counterpoint to the truly fascinating stuff there, also does not work. Unfortunately, the imported things suffer the same hyper-Real fascination problem when they brought there, regardless of how dull they might be elsewhere.

Tristan also attempts to find out whether, if you take seeds there, they will grow. He discovers that they will not. Things seem to decay very, very slowly at the Primal Pattern, and nothing seems able to reproduce there.

For everyone who goes on Tristan's second expedition to the Primal Pattern, the place is as previously described. Barren and hypnotically Real (though this does not become obvious until after we have been there for a few days, when we notice ourselves starting to be fascinated by rocks and so on for a few seconds at a time; this time increases the longer we stay there).

But we have a boat. We set sail, and off we go.

As speculated, the sea is even more hypnotic than the land, what with its glittering and constant movement. With the very close horizon, we quickly lose sight of land, and with no horizon visible - the sea and sky seem to simply join, seamlessly - it appears almost as if we are floating in the middle of the sky.

Lying in the bottom of the boat so that one cannot see the particularly hypnotic motion of the sea helps a little, as the sky is less distractingly hypnotic than the sea, but it, and indeed the boat itself, are hypnotic in their own right, so it does not stop the hypnotic effect. Having other people along to nudge those who are becoming 'tripped out' does help, though.

Impossigon power neither helps nor hinders one in resisting the hyper-Reality effect.

Navigation is mainly done by way of the sun, as the geometric patterns of the stars make navigating ambiguous - one could be sailing in any of a number of directions. A rope with knots in dangled over the back initially allows a good estimate of how far we've travelled during the day.

At night the geometric stars twinkle and glitter overhead and are reflected in the sea. We again feel almost as if we are suspended in the middle of the sky rather than floating on the sea.

It is all very hypnotic.

And eventually we end up just drifting, fascinated by the sea and its Reality, until, very, very hungry we bump back into land again, breaking up the boat on the rocks, which snaps us all out of it as our survival instincts kick in, and we crawl back onto land not far from the Primal Pattern...

...and that concludes this Tristan Enterprises Holiday. We will fully understand if you never travel with us again.

"Woah. Like bummer, man. That boat was like - cool." Ibrahim now has a deeper insight into what it means to be Caleb than he ever wanted...

Phoenix questions Tristan regarding his warning to her that Damien would probably try to take her on one of his 'mad' expeditions. Tristan claims that he was just trying to give Phoenix more evidence that he is not in fact a god....

And so everyone returns to Amber...

THE CHAOS TOMES

Damien shows Dworkin the various Chaos Tomes that we have been singularly failing to translate for some time now. And he proves to be able to read them. Hurrah!

Some of them are dull accounts of the running of a noble family in the Courts of Chaos. There is a great deal of trading in demons, as if they are a form of currency. There are also hints that the main use of Trumps in the Courts of Chaos is for assassination.

"From what the texts say," says Dworkin. "Someone called Prometheus invented the Trumps. A legendary King of Chaos."

Some of the other tomes are indeed religious and/or mythical in nature. There is a great deal of material that Dworkin was previously unaware of in them.

From them, it seems that Su-Chan of the Mira was the very first King of the Demons, and was the Chosen of the Nameless, who taught them Shapeshifting and Magic. The demons grew powerful and enslaved the human race. Su-Chan eventually died of old age.

Then Prometheus, a human, stole the secrets of Shapeshifting and magic from demonkind with the aid of an entity referred to as the Lion, and using these powers humanity rose up and overthrew the demons, enslaving them in turn. The Nameless was killed by the Lion, and Prometheus became the first King of Chaos. Under his rule, Chaos because a mighty empire, based on the use of the 'Power'.

From what we have learned before, Anurerishkigal was killed by an entity called the Nameless, presumably the Unicorn, who later returned as the Lion.

Then another human named Typhon overthrew Prometheus. Prometheus fled into the wilderness, never to be seen again, and Typhon became the new King of Chaos.

Another tome refers to the 'Power' being crippled by the creation of a new power, the Pattern. A mighty force was sent against Amber in retribution. It is not stated what became of them.

DISAPPEARANCES

Over the years a there are a few disappearances among mid-to-high ranking officials working in Castle Amber as part of the administration of it or Amber City.

Tamarind draws a Trump of one he knew vaguely, and tries it, but to him the subject seems to be dead.

Otherwise there is no sign of what happened to them.

Upon further investigation the disappearances seem to have nothing in common. The vanished people are not essential to the running of the Castle or City.

Flora is puzzled. She does not think the use of the Trump was involved in their vanishings.

Ibrahim investigates, searching for secret passages but finding none.

Tristan does not think the Pattern was involved either.

As far as anyone can tell, these people simply went missing overnight and were then not seen again.

Phoenix checks for scents, but finds nothing out of the ordinary. All of the disappeared were sleeping alone on the night they vanished. Phoenix does sense fear in the scents of a couple of the vanished, but most seem to have been asleep when they disappeared.

Damien brings Sebek in as a consultant, but he cannot detect any sign of Tristan's criminals.

Finndo, Flora and Random all deny that the disappearances are part of any official or unofficial Black Op.

By the end of the gap period some two dozen people have gone missing, and the last disappearance occurs some three months before the end of the gap.

THE AMBER REFERENDUM

Tamarind suggests to Random that if he is bothered about the Unicorn's Joke (that is, that fact that his being King is its little jest), he hold a referendum on his rule.

Random considers this then, oddly, does it. All of Amber's citizens have a say and thus, for the first time, Amber is exposed to democracy. Members of the Royal Family are also eligible to vote.

Phoenix and Owen do not vote. Julian also abstains.

Damien, Esmée, Margot, Flora, Deirdre, Finndo, Corwin and Ibrahim all vote for Random.

Tamarind votes for Random but also submits a form listing advice for the improvement of policy in Amber.

When the votes (all taken via a secret ballot) are counted it is found, not too surprisingly, that the citizens of Amber definitely approve of Random's rule. Although there is definitely a big 'he is not Oberon/Bleys/Eric/Corwin' factor (select name as appropriate), there is more to it than that. In general the people seem to approve of the way that since Random became King, freedom, trade and prosperity are up, while wars and disasters are down.

As a result of the referendum there are a few changes to Amber's social policies.

EXPEDITION TO THE ANCIENT CITY

Damien goes out on various expeditions into shadow.

One of them is to the ancient city in which the Unicorn had imprisoned Dworkin. He invites everyone else along on this one too, as well as Angelique and Sebek.

Upon arrival, we find that the ruins are now more ruinous than they were. Not surprisingly given the effects of the Big Fight between Dworkin and the Unicorn.

Scouting the place, and analysing samples from the ruins, we find that the city is large, and also incredibly ancient, some ten to twenty million Amber years old. Given its age it has weathered well.

The whole place seems to have been invaded and sacked a very long time ago, after which it was abandoned. There are a few fossilised remains to be found, and a few faint frescoes on a few walls. The inhabitants seem to have been human, and the invaders demonic.

We do find one building which is better preserved than the rest, apparently by some residual power. It is a temple, uncovered by the Big Fight, in the form of a three-storey high six-sided pyramid. Inside is a six-sided altar, above which hovers a statue of ... something ... a swirling shape, rather like milk swirling into coffee, but in three dimensions.

There is magical power protecting and warding the place. This is self-regenerating, and because of this the temple, and its wall decorations, are much more intact that elsewhere in the city. The six wall panels show a variety of images, in the following sequence:

• Priests performing rituals over a flat area, then something growing out of the ground there.
• People celebrating or dancing, with priests in the middle of the celebrants.
• A game or sporting event of some kind, a team ball game involving hang-glider-like devices. Priests are again overseeing this.
• Priests sitting in judgement on prisoners, who then seem to be exiled.
• Children being taught by more priests.
• Priests officiating at a funeral in this temple. The body is placed on the altar, then puffed away and absorbed by the swirling thing hanging over it.

The style of art is representational, but also somewhat stylised, as though the images are of generic rather than specific occurrences of the events in question.

On the pointed ceiling of the temple overhead, six large human faces look down into the temple. Alternating male and female, like the people visible in the frescos they all have mid-brown skin, bright green eyes and medium-brown hair. They all seem to be in early middle age. The faces are quite detailed and realistic, enough so that one could recognise the people depicted from their paintings.

The enchantment on the altar proves to be different from the rest of the magic on the temple. We consider this.

Then Ibrahim Trumps Tristan, and, when he gets through, asks to borrow the Life-Force Lens from him. Tristan passes it through and the link is dropped, with Ibrahim's thanks.

Through the Life-Force Lens it can be seen that the swirling statue over the altar has no life force in it. However, it is full of black memory sparks...

Examining the swirling statue shows that magic is holding them trapped within it.

Ibrahim thinks that stepping into it would result in the life-force being sucked out of one.

All of that being so, the object is left in situ for study, and not removed to the museum as so many other artefacts are. Damien keeps Sebek away from it.

From what we can tell, the stone swirl kills a person placed on the altar and holds their spirit as the life-force drains away, leaving just the memory-spark. It does not beam the Life-Force away to anywhere.

Ibrahim uses Fiona's spark-manipulating equipment to extract a memory-spark from the swirl-device, destroy it, and read the memories.

The selected memory-spark reveals memories of a priest named Naf-Kalu. A very devout man growing up in a stern, austere theocracy inhabited by a long-lived people. Naf-Kalu was very devout, and the memories show him growing up in the city and entering the priesthood who are responsible for all aspects of life there. From what Naf-Kalu knew, everyone in the city had some education, but only the priests knew magic, which made everything work. They also had to use magic continually to keep their shadow from dissolving away under them. Magic was given to the priests by their god, Rutiostom.

The disposal of the dead, Ibrahim learns, was intended to preserve something of the deceased. People were brought to the temple when they were dying so that their spirit would go into the stone swirl. Criminals - ones guilty of serious crimes - were exiled so that they could not be preserved. People who died in accidents and who could not be brought to the temple in time and so who were entirely lost were considered great tragedies.

Naf-Kalu lived in the city for tens of thousands of years, implying the same sort of lifespan as we have - an Amberite lifespan - and he was brought to the temple when dying, being absorbed into the swirl.

Ibrahim reports all of this to the rest of us.

Damien concludes, quite rightly, that it is a form of psychic mummification.

And we go our separate ways...

SOULEATER!

About eighteen months into the gap period [when they're how old?], one of the children's nurses rushes in as we are having dinner. "Eleanor has had an attack and Angelique is unconscious!" she exclaims.

We follow her at a run back to their quarters, where we can hear that Eleanor is screaming.

En route, Tamarind Trumps both girls. When he gets through, as he quickly does, both Eleanor and Angelique are panicking. Tamarind can sense that Eleanor is in the children's sitting room, while Angelique is ... nowhere.

He tries to hold on to Angelique and calm her.

From what he gathers from the pair of them, Eleanor became cross with Angelique and accidentally pulled off the soul-sucking trick on her.

Eleanor is upset. "Angelique's inside me!" she wails.

We all arrive at the children's sitting room, Tamarind telling us what has happened.

Eleanor is standing next to the collapsed and comatose body of Angelique.

Tamarind begins to do what he can to talk Eleanor through putting Angelique back into her body while Ibrahim helps to calm her.

Damien Trumps Brand.

Phoenix watches what is going on.

After a while, Damien gets through to Brand, who seems to be in his tent by the Abyss. Damien explains the situation and then brings him through.

Brand looks at the scene. "Oh, she's a Souleater," he says.

"What!?!" exclaims Eleanor, overhearing this.

"Shh!" Damien tells Brand.

After some little time, with Eleanor concentrating all the while, an aetheric, ectoplasmic Angelique emerges from Eleanor's eyes and stands palely in the middle of the room, not looking terribly happy.

Tamarind encourages Eleanor to move Angelique back into Angelique's body.

Eleanor nods, and shakily re-absorbs the ectoplasmic spirit of Angelique through her eyes, then expels it again back into her comatose body.

Angelique wakes up.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" wails Eleanor.

"It wasn't your fault," says Angelique.

Then they hug each other and both burst into tears.

With the immediate panic over, we find out what happened. It seems, as we had already suspected, that Eleanor activated her Souleater power without knowing what she was doing. She does not like being able to do this.

Tamarind points out that there is a good side to this - she can save people who are otherwise about to die.

Eleanor perks up a bit when this is suggested.

Ibrahim suggests that she should be taught how to control her new power.

"Yes, please!" she says.

Thus, over the next couple of years, some significant time is spent teaching Eleanor how to control her new power, both student and teachers learning about the power as they go. Her ability to manifest an absorbed spirit as an ectoplasmic form is something we have not seen before from the late Aximia Kwandril, the only other Souleater we have ever encountered. The ectoplasmic forms seem to be stable and semi-independent of Eleanor.

IBRAHIM AND LLEWELLA

Ibrahim asks Random about Rebma, and what has been happening there in recent years. For example to Moins, Moire, Llewella and so on.

Random tells Ibrahim that Tristan has already arranged a meeting between Llewella and the Unicorn (in the form of 'Miranda') on a boat, but that he does not know what they said to one another.

Tristan seems not to have consulted Random before doing this.

Ibrahim sends letters to Llewella, trying to treat her like a human being. She replies to these, though initially in a very formal manner. However, a correspondence develops, consisting mainly of news of the Family and the Amber court.

THE CHILDREN

• Chalice is growing up into quite a scientist. She is also picking up the power of Trump from her father, and has Beltaine's Voice and Spell-Singing abilities.
• Angelique is still the most skilled combatant of the children. She is becoming Damien's protégé on matters archaeological. She is also into flying, and is a member of Random's Hang Glider Flying Corps.
• Luther is very much a nature-lover, and spends a lot of time in his garden. He is not into military matters at all, and would like to be a Forest Ranger in the style of shadow Earth, caring for the forest, rather than a Forest Arden Ranger. He has learned Grand Sorcery and Power Words.
• Duncan is showing definite leanings towards a naval career.
• Beatrice is interested in the Cavalry, being a natural horsewoman. She has learned Power Words.
• Carl likes making things, and has spent a good deal of time in the Armoury, learning how to make arms and armour. He has also learned Grand Sorcery and Empowerment, and used the latter to construct his own magical suit of armour.
• Octavius is shaping up to be a talented artist, and is also shaping up to be a Trump Artist. He has lots of friends in the City.
• Eleanor has learned Trump Tricks, honed her Souleater power and has also had something of a growth spurt, meaning that she is now quite strong.

At the age of sixteen (the very end of 129 PPF) the eight children all walk the Pattern in Amber.

Eleanor almost doesn't make it, taking a very long time to make her way around the design, and falling unconscious after pushing through the Third Veil at the end. Random uses the Jewel of Judgement to teleport to the centre of the Pattern and fetch her back.

Octavius also has to work hard to successfully make his way around the Pattern.

Duncan has the least trouble with it of all the children.

When the children have all recovered from walking the Pattern, they are also attuned to the Jewel of Judgement.

When they have recovered from this, Tamarind gives them all Trump decks, and there is, in general, a great giving of presents.

There is a ceremony in the Great Hall of Castle Amber in which all of the children except for Chalice swear loyalty to King Random.

With that done, we teach the children how to use their new Pattern powers.

When they are reasonably familiar with them, they head out from Amber and are currently off exploring in shadow. Ibrahim has sent out some birds of desire to keep a discrete eye on them and return to him if the children are ever in serious danger.

Sebek is not happy at not being allowed to walk the Pattern, so Damien has him attune to the Impossigon instead. It takes him about as long as it took Klerothos the Red. Sebek also receives presents upon doing so.

With Sebek able to travel through shadow on his own, Agrippina also insists on attuning to the Impossigon, so that she can keep an eye on him. This Damien does.

He shows them both the overland shadow routes to shadows Plinius and Memphis.

EVIL THOUGHTS

• At some point, Ibrahim has an evil thought regarding the time where everyone was standing around smugly saying 'Ha! Stupid Chaosites! They were trying to call upon the Unicorn for revenge upon the children of the Unicorn!' What if the Chaosites had in fact been well aware that the Unicorn and the Lion were one and the same creature, and were merely gloating about the fact that we were going to raise a generation of psychologically well adjusted, co-operative Amber-Chaos hybrids? We tripped out, dysfunctional, weirdo elders may well be about to be superseded by our own creations. Well, being raised by Oberon probably didn't help, but it's a worry isn't it?

• Phoenix has an evil thought too, remembering that the Unicorn said she 'made Dworkin mad' because it was easier to control him that way, and Dworkin went mad because Brand tried to destroy the Primal Pattern and damaged it, and Brand did this because he was ... mad? Anyone else wonder how he came to be mad?

LIFE-FORCE RESEARCH

Session 3.7   Index   Session 4.1

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