Amber Session N: Burn, Baby, Burn

When we last left our heroes:

Aristides had just finished a chat with Dad, who had requested that he not get himself killed and suggested that making some allies might not be a bad way to go about that. Dad's gonna throw a big party tomorrow night to introduce his new son to the family, and formally tattoo the big bull's-eye on Aristides's back.

Aristides returns to his quarters, and Trumps his people to let them know he's alright. They must be very perceptive, since they don't believe him. They're insecure, and badger him with their petty troubles. Aristides then decorates his room.

Lucian, Arndis, and Misao had been looking at the Broken Patterns Fiona had slimed, after decisively establishing that the Primal Pattern was not under glass. They have experimentation in mind, and Misao is toting Mike along. The trio establishes that they cannot burn off the slime on the Broken Pattern Fiona put under glass by sliming it.

They go to the other Broken Pattern a la Fiona, and are happy to see that this slime can be burned off, though it requires a constant, very hot flame at close proximity. Solvents also work, but seem to leave some sort of questionable residue. They paint some of Kaleva onto the cleared part of the Broken Pattern and experiment some more. Kaleva's a bit harder to remove; magical flame seems to work best. They observe that the outside of the Kaleva slime hardens on contact with the air once it's on the pattern, while the inside remains liquid to seep into the Pattern better. Very strange.

Misao tries to focus her fan so that it's particularly deadly to Kaleva. She falls into it psychically, and encounters someone she doesn't much like criticizing her for taking so long to fix this little Pattern problem. She calmly and reasonably begins screaming incoherently back. For some reason, this alarms Lucian and he tries to establish psychic contact, only to find both Misao and the fan resisting him. It's getting uncomfortably warm in Lucian's head and Misao doesn't seem to believe that he's really him. He gives up. Misao yells sternly at her fan, yielding some as-yet-undetermined result, and returns to reality.

Quentin had been showing his new network to Hildegard. He has managed to find a nice new shadow for his recruits from House Deed. Now all he needs is someone to make them Trumps to it, but Wakenda hasn't gotten back in touch with him yet. He ponders the issue of communication protocols for his agents but doesn't come to any satisfactory conclusion. He then ponders how to distribute his people through Shadow and has more luck with that. He checks out the training protocols his people are undergoing in disguise. They're getting effective simulations of exactly what could happen to them if they mess up. The simulations could be nastier, but seem to be effective. His people are getting briefed on who to watch for, who can be trusted with what, and who to be very careful around if they are encountered. Quentin is satisfied.

Wakenda had been meeting with Martin, and explains what he's found in Fiona's notes about maintaining Amber's defenses. No one aside from Bleys is capable of doing it alone, but Wakenda thinks that he and Martin combined can probably do the trick. Wakenda mentions that Bleys' valet has a copy of the notes, but since Bleys is in a mood just now, the valet has been instructed to not deliver them until Wakenda is dead or Bleys cheers up ­ whichever happens first.

Martin wants to meet Aristides outside of the Castle, and prevails upon Wakenda's long and intimate acquaintance with Aristides to talk him into it. (Ok, so Wakenda was just part of the "Your Dad is Random, You're Screwed, Have a Drink" party and genealogical excavation Misao organized, but it's better than nothing.) Aristides's valet seems rather overwhelmed by Aristides's rank until Martin takes pity on the poor man and sends him for food.

Martin, Wakenda, and Aristides trump to Aristides's manor house in Shadow. It's the off season, and totally abandoned.

Martin proceeds to give the following advice:
    ® Look like you are totally uninterested in power, even if you aren't.
    ® Keep your options open to run like Hell.
    ® Ask Martin, Llewella, or Sally to take a look at Rebma's histories of Amber ­ an outside perspective, but rather more complete than anything in Amber's library.

Martin observes that Random seems to be playing some sort of a game, but isn't sure who the opponent is or what the rules are. And Random has changed recently: his style of music has changed, he's not pushing Martin to be a proper prince, he's not pushing Martin to take power in Rebma, he's abandoning old allies that prefer to remain unnamed, and he's not giving Vialle as much power as he used to. Previously, Vialle had been left in charge of Amber from time to time, but not in the recent war. She isn't doing well; perhaps she's aging. Martin encourages Wakenda to talk to Vialle alone.

Wakenda warns Aristides about Misao's lessons in how not to get assassinated.

They decide to rest there, and Aristides discovers that Wakenda's got friends all over shadow and some of them are very strange.

Misao doesn't want to talk to Arndis and Lucian about the whole screaming at her fan incident. Lucian scolds Misao's fan when she isn't looking. They crash in Shi Jen Ten Chi Sho (geseundheit) before heading off to the Primal Pattern. Misao drags Koji along: "I'm about to do something so stupid that I need you there for it." She also brings Mike.

Misao can burn Kaleva off the Primal Pattern, but it's much harder and takes something out of her to do it. She burns the sections she can reach without actually walking the Pattern, and then eats and tries to rest, but has bad dreams. They debate calling Bleys as a backup; he might be able to help if something goes wrong, but Misao doesn't entirely trust him. Lucian thinks that's sad, and Misao thinks it's scary that Lucian trusts his mom. In fact, she just thinks Lucian's mom is pretty damn scary overall.

They do call Bleys in, who agrees that something does need to be done rather quickly, the plan should work, and only Misao can execute it. But he warns her that if she dies, he'll hunt her down and make her afterlife miserable ­ and he can do it, too. He hugs her, kisses her on her forehead, and sends her on her way. Misao finds walking the Primal Pattern while burning Kaleva off of it is very difficult; she looses awareness of everything but the task ahead of her and finds it impossible to step off of the Pattern.

Lucian and Arndis note that there are sparks coming off of the Pattern when the fire hits it, but none from around Misao's feet. Bleys looks grim, and circles the Pattern to keep an eye on Misao's face as he mutters to himself. About halfway through, Misao psychically falls into her fan again, but doesn't encounter anyone. Instead, she bonds with it and they become one entity, focused on cleaning the Pattern.

Arndis is using her Pattern Lens through her crystal ball to observe Misao's progress, and sees Misao's face become foggy and then replaced by Brand's features. Lucian eventually sees that Misao now resembles a red-haired man, but since he's never seen Brand, he doesn't know for sure who the man is. Lucian doesn't think he could trump Misao if he tried. Misao/Brand reaches the center of the Pattern; Misao/Brand raises the fan and unfolds it, and then falls to the ground. Misao is Misao again. The Pattern glows blue now. Lucian can't reach Misao by Trump. Lucian and Arndis try to figure out if the Pattern is safe, then notice Bleys walking it very quickly. Bleys reaches the center, picks up Misao and her fan, then disappears. Koji seems unhappy and trumps Mike and himself home.

Quentin receives a trump call telling him his stepmother, Nadya, is in labor. He trumps there, and Jasra tells him that the baby is early, Nadya has been unwell since returning from Rebma and Amber. Quentin asserts himself, violates local custom by entering the birthing room as a male, and is disturbed. The baby isn't turned right, Nadya is very weak, and there is something very wrong.

Quentin trumps Wakenda and asks for help. He tells Wakenda that Nadya has had a difficult pregnancy ­ she almost lost the baby in Amber after hearing that Kashfa fell and hasn't done well since her visit to Rebma.

Quentin can see that at some point, Nadya was somewhere that by it's nature was inimical to the child, and hypothesizes that the place was Amber. Wakenda is able to save both mother and child, and Quentin has a half-brother named Jacob.  After making sure all is well, Quentin and Wakenda return to Amber; they hypothesize that the only people able to change the nature of Amber are Dworkin and someone wearing the Jewel. As far as they can remember, Annabel was the last child of the blood born in Amber. Wakenda updates Quentin on the whole reinforcing the defenses of Amber thing.

Quentin investigates. By the nature of Amber, those of the blood cannot reproduce there, and anyone pregnant with the blood that enters will miscarry. The problem is with the reproductive capabilities of the parents. There is an exception, but it's wrapped up in a mess of conditionals. This isn't a recent change ­ it's as old as any rule of Amber. He starts working on unraveling the conditionals.

Wakenda meets with Random, to tell him that he thinks he and Martin can reinforce the defenses of Amber which would otherwise fall in a few days. Informs him that Quentin's half-brother has been born, but it was a near thing, and says that he and Quentin think that something about Amber/Rebma makes it difficult for the royal family to reproduce. Random says, "It would be so like the old bastard."

Wakenda trumps Martin in and tells him about the birth. They reinforce the defenses. It's an alarming thing, since the two of them become the defenses, in a sense. It also psychically entangles Martin and Wakenda, a situation Martin tolerates only because he is stronger than Wakenda. Wakenda discovers Martin is much more serious and paranoid than he seems. They are successful, but Wakenda's going to find it difficult not to accidentally turn into Martin for a while.

Misao finds herself surrounded by beautiful fire that will cut through all her bullshit and bring out everything in her she'd ever wanted to be. It will also kill her if it isn't stopped soon. She admires it. Then she finds herself cold and under water. She panics, fights her way up a couple of times only to be pushed back down. She gets away, and finds herself and a singed-looking Bleys in a cold river. Deciding she's safe, she finds an angle to fall down at  that will land her on rocks rather than underwater and collapses in total exhaustion.

She wakes up again, warm, dry and coddled in a strange place. Bleys is taking care of her since she's totally drained her mind and body. He's very reassuring and patient and kind, and Misao suffers from cognitive dissonance. He won't answer any of her questions and she cannot remember how she got into this condition.

Arndis and Lucian return to Amber. Tir is no longer in the sky, and Lucian cannot trump his mother. They set up an appointment to talk to Random in the morning, and gossip. Then they go read Corwin's memoirs and mock them. When they meet with Random, they tell him the taint on the Primal Pattern is gone, and Tir is no longer in the sky. Random wants a bit more in the way of details. They tell him that they had Bleys procure a sample of Kaleva from Stefan, and we experimented with it on a broken pattern. Misao figured out she could burn it off with her fan, confirmed that it worked on the Primal Pattern as well, and just went ahead and fixed things.

Random wants to know where Misao is now. They say she's with Bleys, as she found the process taxing. He wants to know if anyone has tested the Pattern.

"If you count Bleys going out on it after her."
"I do. Thanks for telling me."

Random seems kind of irritated that no one asked permission before doing this. He doesn't have any more projects to assign them. Lucian extends fraternal greetings.

Lucian and Arndis ponder what do now.
"Are there any pirates operating in the Golden Circle?"
"Not yet."
 
 

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