The young man, Matthias, exchanged introductions with us, and then asked that we wait until the proceedings there had ended before we could talk with him. We'd been seated about ten seconds before Cecily suggested I let the others know that Matthias would speak with us. I acquiesced, only asking that she not throttle him before I return. It's a fine line to treading amusement and physical injury in teasing Cecily, but her reaction is just so fun to observe -- kind of like the sister I never had.
I'd followed the others to a sitting room where we enjoyed the hospitality of our guests for a while until Cecily and Matthias returned. We made quick introductions again; apparently Cecily had warned Matthias about the flood of questions and/or rude comments that were about to come his way. He was very good about addressing as many as he could, and he began to explain how things were in this, our ancestral homeland.
*****
Amber had been raped and pillaged a hundred times over, whether it was pirates or barbarians or whatnot. Matthias' father, Gerard, had taken an armed force our to track down said barbarians, the last group to invade the city. As for our motivations, we relayed the story of how we'd come together and the (public) motivations we'd had, as well as those we'd run into -- Bleys, Benedict, Llewella, Korbin, not to mention Kazor.
Matthias mentioned the Pattern; since the great war at which the old king, Oberon, had "redrawn" it, no one had used the artifact, neither Gerard or Matthias, even though in theory it should accept them. We'd decided to wait until Gerard's return so that we could garner his counsel; Random was still in the mind-fugue that I'd put him in, and should keep until needed.
We looked upon the Pattern. It was immense; the room was filled with a wavering haze that did not allow for a full perspective, but the fact that it was so large and inscribed along the floor only allowed for a partial viewing anyways. We'd circled around it. The room literally throbbed with the pulse of great elemental energies -- greater that the mana that allowed us magicians to work our spells. This was an eldritch power that was seeming greater than all of us, greater than this place -- this was existence itself.
A cry snapped me out of my ruminations, and I ran over to where Stark and the others were to find Shen had stepped onto the Pattern and was walking along the flaming line! We called to him, but he seemed to be in one of his meditative states, not reacting to us at all. We could only stand a watch as he made his way about the circuit for a tense hour. Flames and sparks shot up about him, growing stronger and stronger as he twirled in towards the center. There were moments were Shen seemed to struggle against some unseen force, a gale wind of sorts that threated to push him backwards and downward towards certain death -- however, his persistence kept him moving.
Finally, he'd stumbled into the center, and as we'd yelled and waved at him, Shen regarded us for one short moment before he popped into existence at Stark's side. We ran over to him; Shen could only advise that we be careful before curling up to sleep on the floor. Cecily and I decided that we'd get Shen upstairs to rest while Stark and Fletcher said that they'd "stay to observe the Pattern." The looks on their faces where similar to that of children who'd had stickybuns waved in front of their faces.
On the way up the stairs, I bet Cecily a few coppers that Stark would end up on the Pattern. She could only laugh.
*****
After several attempts of putting Shen in a bed, we'd finally gotten the sleeping arrangements settled and were currently listening to Matthias describe the wildman raiders that Gerard had gone after. Apparently this tribe lived over a mountain range to the west and had found Amber relatively easy pickings after the family had been cursed.
The story had been interrupted when Stark came up to let us know that Fletcher had stepped foot upon the Pattern and walked to the center, except that he disappeared and did not return afterwards. Cecily grimaced, more than for just the fact that she'd passed up winning some coins from me. We'd worked so hard at sticking together and now -- we'd lost another of our group. We did not know where Fletcher went nor did we have a way of being able to track him down. Matthias let us know that the Trumps had not worked in Amber since the Great War. When we'd asked about how the Pattern worked, Matthias had few ideas, but we suspected that one could will one's self to a location from the middle of the Pattern depending on what one concentrated on.
There was nothing else to be done that evening, so we retired for the night. As I lie in bed, I thought about our hypothesis on the Pattern. I think I have an idea on where it is Fletcher ended up.
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