There are days when I am almost tempted to just give up and leave
Amber all together.  My efforts to drain Ulysses were going quite nicely,
right up until the point when someone else decided they also wanted his
energy, and more of it.  At least I broke the connection before they got
much of mine, but he is going to be off-limits until I figure out who was
behind this.

	In the span of a few days, I have seen everything that I have
worked on fall apart.  I lost the energy I took from Ulysses.  The Eye is
gone.  Lady had to be brought back to our universe.  Even Sandr has
disappeared from the Shadow I left him in.  Father would be disappointed
in me.  He taught me to do better than this.  And he taught me the price
of failure.  Of course, he is responsible for one of my failures.  I
overheard another conversation between the mystery couple, and they said
he has a Jewel.  It must be the Eye.  At least the feedback is evidence
that he has not been successful, thus far.  Maron was not pleased to learn
that I had lost the Eye, but I doubt he could have prevented Father from
taking it, either.  It was just my misfortune to have it when he went
looking.

	Maron will soon have other concerns.  The badlands are becoming an
abyssal plain.  In about thirty years or so, all of the universes will be
separated from each other by an abyss much like the one near Chaos.  Which
might not be such a bad thing.  No one is certain what other effects this
will have, though, so I suspect the Amberites will want to stop this from
happening.  At any rate, even if I do recover the Eye, I do not think I
will be drawing my own universe, not until this is resolved.  I do need
someplace, though, a private retreat, as it were.  Some place to locate my
own power source, when it is ready.  I believe I will seek Sandr's help in
this.  Once I find him.

	Until then, I will pick up the pieces of my plans and move on.  At
least Balin still seems fond of me, although that device of his is most
annoying.  Perhaps my error was in spreading myself too thin, leaving too
many plans running, without being able to give each the attention they
required.  I shall see if I am any more successful with a smaller set.  I
can do little about Father and the Eye.  I have told Archimedes of it, and
he may deal with it if he wishes.  As for Ulysses, we shall see what he
does now.  He must suspect my involvement, but he cannot prove it.  And
even if he can, what of it?  I was merely investigating the source of his
power.  Naturally, I needed a sample of his power to do so.  He will not
believe this, but it is plausible enough to stay the others.  And Balin
will believe me over Ulysses, no matter what Ulysses argues.  Ulysses'
previous actions have already taken care of that.

	The only question that remains is what to do about this Abigail. 
I dislike the idea of a Shadow of me moving about in circles of
importance.  On the other hand, while she exists, she is a convenient
scapegoat.  Not that I do not intend to mindrape her, should I ever get my
hands on her.  But I may let her live, depending on what I find out.