DUDE!!  What a wild ride.  I guess I'd better keep track of this
stuff so I can write it down when I get home.  Sure is nice to be able to
use my own memory as a word processor.  Anyhow, today, the fifth day of
Fire week, Fire Season, in the Year of the Roobat, I had a pretty weird
experience that'll probably change my life forever.  I found out that the
universe is way bigger than I had at first conceived, and it looks like I
might have a slightly more significant part to play than I thought, too. 
I'll start at the beginning...

	I'm all set to rehearse with the Bandwidth (Sketto was already
over), and this gorgeous redhead shows up wearing some kinda chain-link
shirt.  She's not one of the regular groupies, but she was more than
enough to get my attention, so I'm like, "Do I know you?"  She retorts,
"Sure ya do, Mok!  I'm yer cousin Caitlin!"  Riiiight.  I figured she
prolly ate some Fairy mushrooms or other bad juju, but then she hands me
this card.  It's a picture of some hall in a castle.  She goes, "Just step
through, into the room."  So I do.  And it works!  Now I'm in some weird
lookin' building made of stones.  I'm thinkin', "Oh the swankagement.  Now
I'm trippin' too."  All these people runnin' around in freaky, fairy-style
clothes, telling me that they're my cousins and uncles and junk.  Too
freaky.  Next thing I know, this huge guy named Claudio chants a little
bit, and *pow*, I'm standing outside the door to the 'Pattern Room.' He
wants me to 'walk the Pattern,' whatever the heck that means.  Some short
guy (I later found out this was Archimedes, the King's son and crown
prince; apparently not someone to piss off) bamfs in and starts whacking
Claudio over the head with a sword.  THEN Claudio transforms into a big,
winged, demon-looking thing!!!  That was about the time I decided to make
my exit and attempt to detoxify myself somewhere quiet.  When I got to the
top of the stairs, this tall, skinny dude named Benedict is there waiting
for me (he's my uncle), and he has this other cousin of mine, Ulysses,
tell me what the haps is.

	Now, about this time, I got the idea to check some of the other
minds in the place for validity.  I mean, if I'm dreaming, I'm not gonna
make anyone mad, right?  Turns out they were real, and I wasn't tripping
after all!  Ulysses and me chatted for quite a while about the nature of
the Universe, and my place in it, tellin' me how we Amberites (I guess
that's what I am, because it sure seems like everything he told me checks
out) are more 'real' than most folks, and how we have special powers over
Shadow (that's all these smaller universes that are supposed to be
'reflections' of Amber, of which Gaia is one).  I gotta admit, it was
kinda cool to have someone sit there and tell me I was pretty much a god
or something.  I mean, he at least believes that what he said to me was
true.  All that remains is for me to try it out.

	As it turns out, I already walked this Pattern.  Ulysses figures
it was when I was a kiddo, because I don't remember doing anything like
that.  Anyhow, if all this is to be believed, then Dale and Veruun aren't
my real parents, someone named Eric (who's dead) and a woman named Ismene
in some 'Golden Circle' Shadow are my real folks.  It seems Mom wanted to
see me, and that's why Caitlin came to Gaia and grabbed me.  Something
tells me if I want to get to the bottom of this, and find out the real
deal, I gotta go and visit her.  In fact, sounds like a plan!  If Ulysses
is right, then I can just start walking, concentrating on finding my real
mother, and I'll end up wherever she is!  If it works, I'll have more to
tell.  If not, then at least hopefully I'll be able to make a novel out of
this weird dream...