It certainly was not the most comfortable of situations. I certainly was not expecting him to greet me with open arms and then a huge embrace, nor was I expecting apathy, or even worse hostility. I guess if I had to describe it, it was as if we were sitting opposite each other at a game of cards, trying to a get a feel for this man who sat across from us, knowing that there is something so very familiar yet distinctly different from ourselves.
When we got around to the subject of why it was he'd sent his lackey Rook after the pattern sword, the answer was quite simple -- he wanted it to kill a few Chaosites who were on his hit list, and the only way Rook would be able to get to it or to truly identify the right blade would be to have someone from Amber to assist him -- namely me. I thought it might be a bit perverse that my father would hire the Chaos Duplicate of his own son in this fashion, but I could never really get a good read as to why he did this.
His hit list was apparently reading like a who's who of Importance in Chaos -- Lord Bances, our friend Zamorna, some people named Hiverna and Nivella. Things are a bit up in the air there as to who will be calling the shots, and if it was Caine's decision, he'd have his own puppet government set up there in no time. While I can understand wanting to have the sword to kill these people, just by observing Caine one can sense that this man is fully capable of dealing out the punishments he feels these people so richly deserve.
Caine seemed to skirt the issue of any other issue of his, though I would have liked to known a little more about any brothers or sisters. In actually there seems to be one of each (at least that he let on about) -- Jesse, who is a Sheriff in this land of "Deadwood", and Amelia, who Caine identified only as an assassin. Who knows how many more that may exist like myself.
When I tried to impress upon Caine that both his concerns and Ambers were nearly one in the same, he did not seem willing to either admit to that or inclined to move together in any actions. Obviously we both would like to see Zamorna taken care of -- Caine wants a wholesale change in things, while I don't know if Amber needs things to go that far. Fletcher may have an interest in what happens there -- I don't really know. But Zamorna -- that we can agree upon.
Speaking of Zamorna, Caine was able to give us more insight as to who the man truly was -- "Osric," formerly of Amber, and a direct brother of Benedict. Caine seemed to think that Osric was banished for killing the other brother, Finndo, by King Oberon. Well, this would explain the desire for doing away with all of us and Amber -- pure hatred and revenge. I did feel that we had an ace in the hole by holding on to Lucia, his wife, but I didn't feel confident that he wouldn't have her done away with if she became too much of an impediment to his cause.
Apparently Osric is not affected much by the curse -- maybe because he was disowned? It is hard to say, especially since in my own experiences curses seem to be rather insidious as well as logic-defying. Caine seems to have avoided most of the effects of the curse as well, but by his own admission he believes the reason to be that he is not so absorbed by having it, or returning to it.
Anyways, the time has come to gather up my colleagues and head back to Amber with our new information -- as well as our new friend. Caine had no qualms about giving Rook's life to me, even encouraging me to have him done away with (echoing back to the information from Dworkin's writings), but I was unsure of the ramifications, and I have a bit of a problem with killing the representation of me, anyways. Besides, Rook has talents that may come to good use -- I've decided to give his life to Cecily to do with as she sees fit. Besides, there's always the "magical command" to make him explode should he fall out of line.
Finally a source of information that gives us something positive to go on. Even though Caine seemed to be surprised as to the whole idea of the Dream being a power equal to that of the Pattern, we know that we have another powerful source of resistance against Chaos, as opposed to most of the rest of the family members who hide in their own pockets of Shadow. Cecily should be interested in what she finds out, and I have a feeling that this will not be the last time Caine and I speak.
On to Amber, then!
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