Session 53: "Don't talk to me, the universe ended under your reign."

	Archi talks with Laughter, admits that he's a schmuck, and makes
it up to her.  We all know what this entails.  Laughter points out that
they don't have Alfred at this point.  Archi reminds her that she hired
Alfred the last time.  She wants to hire him again.  Archi isn't sure
letting a 17-year old boy watch infants is a good idea, no matter how many
children there were in his family.

	Claudio gets a Trump call from Random, who wants him to guard Sky. 
Yes, he admits that Sky doesn't need a bodyguard, but that's not common
knowledge.  This way, most people won't suspect.  Claudio has no
objections, providing Random explains this to Sky.  Random does this, and
Sky is not happy.  Claudio wishes they had a warrior king.  Like, say,
Archimedes.  Sky goes for a ride in Shadow, because she's bored.  Claudio
goes with her, and explains how Random wants him to hire more
fierce-looking people to guard her.  No way.  She doesn't need him, so she
certainly doesn't need them.  Claudio casts a danger-sense spell on her,
then leaves to find ten a Christian Claudio.

	Melanie asks Kaedric if he's actually joined House Cormallon at
this point.  Um, nope.  She arrives for her appointment, and meets Ran,
who sort of resembles Kaedric and is very attractive.  Kaedric doesn't
appreciate her pointing this out, and says that Ran's fiancee would kill
her.  She is interviewed, and explains that she wishes to learn sorcery. 
Ran asks what she brings to the house.  Sorcery and money.  He asks her to
demonstrate a spell.  She provides him with a convincing illusion of
Cthulu, being careful to take longer than it normally would.  Ran then
quizzes her for several hours.  He admits that she has a good general base
in magic, enough for a Tellyn, so why does she want to join?  Sanctuary? 
Perhaps.  Ran must meet with the counsel, and will get back to her.  She
returns to Ixaxis, reads Claudio's diary, then draws a Trump of Ran.

	The Jewel returns to Archi's pants (well, that general vicinity)
while he's being massaged by Laughter.  He feels no particular urge to
halt things and return it.  When Random Trumps him later, he asks if he
can try something.  Sure.  Archi tries to tell the Jewel that Random is
King, and the Jewel must stay with the King.  Then he Trumps Random, but
meets resistance when trying to pass the Jewel through.  Random comes
through and takes it, but then can't Trump out.  He leaves it with Archi,
for now.  Archi asks Ulysses to find all of the Jewel fragments that he
pulled out of Archi's chest.

	Claudio finds ten eunuch Shadows of himself, and brings them to
his estate in Ixaxis to train.  Then he goes in search of ten mean guys to
be Sky's actual guards.  Nobody really understands why Claudio is doing
this, but nobody is concerned enough to ask.

	Sky runs into Julian and some of his rangers.  They show her a
picture of Fey, and ask if she's seen the creature.  Nope.

	Laughter sits up in the middle of the night, and says that
someone's having a Wild Hunt, and it's not the night.  She and Archi leave
to stop this, and Archi notices that Fey is by the border of Foil.  He
asks how Laughter knew about the Hunt.  The Jewel told her.  She uses it
to tell when people are near her Shadow.  Fiona told her that you can use
it to notice when people are making Shadow paths.  Archi concentrates, and
finds that this is so.  Whoever's doing the Hunt doesn't have much
finesse.  They ride to intercept.  Julian comes to a screeching halt when
he realizes that Laughter is standing there.  Laughter asks why he's
leading a Wild Hunt in May.  Julian gives her a look of scorn, and points
out Fey.  Fey approaches Archi and reaches for the Jewel.  Archi draws
Song, points at Fey, and says, "No."  It pauses, but doesn't stop.  Archi
asks someone to net it, so Julian conjures a net and does this thing.  Fey
slashes its way free.  Julian tells Morgenstern to trample it.  Archi
begins to hand the Jewel to Laughter.  When Fey follows the Jewel, Archi
nails it with some chloroform he conjured, which stuns it, but doesn't
knock it out.  After another two minutes, the stuff stops having an
affect.  Archi begins mixing in the Halybard poison, which stops it from
shifting.  He Trumps to Amber and finds Random.  The thing begins to get
loose, so Archi puts it down and gives it food.  It likes this.

	Laughter Trumps Melanie and asks about shapeshifting poisons. 
After Melanie gets the story, she conjures some for Laughter.  Laughter
asks her to open a Trump gate between her and Fey.  Melanie does this
thing, and Laughter tosses the dart, but it has no affect, due to Fey's
invulnerable skin.  Melanie tries surrounding it with a force field and
releasing the poison in a gaseous form.  Fey simply stops breathing. 
Laughter and Melanie Trump to Amber, and they discuss the problem with
Archi.  Laughter brings Ulysses in on this, while Melanie asks Kaedric
about Fey.  He's seen her species before, and she appears to be an
adolescent, but she's obviously been altered.  Ulysses, having taken a
small liking to the rat-dog after it led him to Beauty, begins funneling
the gas out of the force field.  They give up on the gas anyway, since
it's having no effect.  Ulysses suggests Archi and the Jewel go with Fey. 
Melanie suggests supplying Fey with a fake, instead.  Random is Trumped
for his approval and comes through.  Melanie Trumps out to avoid meeting
him.

	Archi hides the Jewel, then conjures a fake one.  He hands this to
Fey, who takes off for a spot in the forest, with the others following. 
It waits, they watch, but nothing happens.  Someone tosses a meat cube at
Fey, then another one lands a little further away.  Fey extends an arm to
grab it.  A deer carcass falls next to it, then a squirrel lands on its
back and reminds Fey to get the Jewel fragments.  Fey eats.  The squirrel
takes the fake Jewel and smacks Fey.  Ulysses calls out to Dworkin and
offers him cookies.  Dworkin doesn't respond.  Ulysses keeps trying, but
the crotchety old man is mum.

	Claudio Trumps Sky and asks when she's coming back to Amber.  When
she feels like it.  Claudio would like to go back there soon.  Eventually,
they return to Amber for dinner.  Claudio introduces himself to Flora.

	Archi tells Random that he's going back to Foil to try and
integrate the shards, but he'll return the Jewel before his trial
tomorrow.  Ulysses Trumps them out.  The squirrel turns into Dworkin in
demon-form, and impresses upon Fey the importance of getting the Jewel and
the fragments.  He also gives Fey a mantra to get across the barrier to
Foil, which starts with "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow."  Not a
chance.  It finally gets through by playing its flute.  Archi is working
on gluing the shards together when Fey crawls in off the balcony.  Archi
summons Song.  Fey wants the Jewel.  No way.  Ulysses taunts it, and gets
swiped for no damage.  Isn't being a living Trump wonderful?  We think so.

	Kaedric asks Melanie to bring him back to Ivory, since he just
remembered that he's going to be visiting a friend in the guard at the
imperial palace.  Confused yet?  You will be.

	Laughter finds Fey in the room, and says they should just give the
damn thing what it wants.  No way.  Ulysses Trumps Fey and a note back to
the clearing.  The note tells Dworkin that they ain't giving the stuff to
Fey.  Dworkin gives Fey another note to give to Ulysses.  Fey eats it. 
Dworkin gives up and sends the note back himself.  The note says they are
risking destabilizing the time stream, or something like that.  They
decide to turn over the shards from the future.  It's not like he could
have asked, when they were there, right?  Dork.

	Laughter asks Claudio to make sure that Brenner doesn't show up
for the trial.  Would suicide be OK?  Well, Laughter can't sanction it... 
Claudio assigns one of his doubles to guard Sky, and asks her not to kill
the man.  Then he goes down to Rebma and finds Brenner's place. 
Correspondence reveals that Brenner is at home, along with several others. 
He Trumps Laughter and asks for opium.  She supplies it, and he ODs the
entire group.  Then he Trumps Sky and goes through to her.

	Kaedric explains that Melanie will find him at the naked dancing
show in the Gardens.  Melanie likes this not at all, but takes some
comfort by pointing out that Kaedric can't see a damn thing.  After the
past Kaedric is suitably engrossed in the show, she casts a spell that
immobilizes him and he falls to the ground.  Kaedric's companion isn't too
concerned, once she assures him that what she's doing won't involve the
Imperials, or the six houses, or anything he cares about.  She brings the
body back to her hotel room, where Kaedric instructs her to place the
bracelet on the body's chest.  Melanie does this thing, and then waits. 
Nothing happens.  She contacts Kaedric psychically, and he admits that
there's another soul in the bracelet with him, named Raquel, and she
doesn't want to let him out.  Now he tells her.  He suggests that she hire
Ran to help with this.  She figures that it makes more sense to wait until
he's admitted her to the house.  Kaedric points out that it will be a
long, cold night.  Not for her.  She suggests that Raquel might leave if
they provided her with a body.  Kaedric agrees, so she goes in search of
one.  She asks Kaedric for a description of Raquel, so she can find
something similar.  Kaedric's description is a bit too complimentary, and
at one point Melanie pauses in front of a pawn shop and contemplates it. 
Er.  Kaedric shuts up.  An appropriate body is found, and Kaedric tries
transferring into his body again.

	Archi gives Laughter his sword, Trumps Llewella, and is brought
through.  His hands are chained behind him.  Laughter, Ulysses, Sky and
Claudio attend the trial, which commences with a reading of the charge. 
The punishment for rape is castration, followed immediately by death. 
Defense calls the first witness, which is Muriel, who admits that she
falsified the charges.  Moire's eyes go to the woman with two swords
standing behind Archi, and invites in the truth-teller to make sure that
Muriel is not under any compulsion.  Archi volunteers to be scanned by the
truth-teller as well.  Muriel says the same thing under the spell, and
begs clemency not to reveal the whole story in public.  Moire clears the
room, except for Archi and his family, and Martin, who sneaks in.  Then
she has Muriel explain the whole thing.  After Muriel explains why she set
Archi up, Moire consigns Muriel to a tower.  She agrees to review the case
after one year, due to Archi asking for clemency for Muriel.  Muriel gives
Archi a dirty look, and gets one from Sky, which quiets her down.  Archi's
privileges are reinstated, and Martin is given the keys to Archi's chains. 
Martin wonders what prompted Archi's return to Rebma.  Archi claims he
just felt it was time to deal with it.  He offers to share what he
remembers of Morganthe, since he intends to be visiting Rebma more often. 
Martin would like that.  He mentions that Random told him that Archi was
married, so Archi introduces Laughter and Sky.  The gang goes out to
dinner in Amber.

	Julian Trumps Archi and asks if he can kill the creature.  Archi
would rather it was kept alive, although Julian is free to stop it if it
attacks his men.  Fey is allowed to hunt in the forest, but is watched.

	Kaedric sits up suddenly, and remarks that his muscles have
atrophied.  Melanie asks if Raquel is in the woman's body, as they drag it
into the hall.  Probably.  Kaedric might be in there too.  No, he's in the
bracelet.  Serves him right, Kaedric thinks.  Melanie thought he was just
going to displace his younger self, but Kaedric says it would be too
difficult for the two of them to coexist.  He and Melanie engage in their
usual bickering, then take Kaedric's new body for a test drive.

	Archi goes to see Random, who has the Jewel encased in a gold
cage.  Fiona put it there.  It remains to be seen how well it works. 
Archi asks about the tournament.  There are a number of sports, and as
captain, Archi will pick a champion for each sport.  Archi points out that
he has no clue for most of the sports.  Random says he'll take care of it. 
Laughter asks if the baby's name has changed, now that Random is alive. 
No, Archi figures that Chance is fine, since they got a second one.  He
tells Random that he didn't realize that he kind of liked him until after
he died.  Random figures that this explains why he's been so chummy.  He
suggests that Archi go look up his kids, in the three days remaining until
the tournament.  Archi figures he'll start with Kalevala, which means he'd
rather Laughter didn't come along.  She suggests Claudio for the jousting,
and Sky for the archery.  Ulysses could do wrestling.

	Claudio asks Sand for something that would temporarily take down
force walls.  Sand points out that it won't be at the top of her priority
list, unless he explains why he needs it.  To eliminate an enemy of Amber. 
And who would that be?  Um, Maron.  Yeah, that's the ticket.  He's going
to do nasty things in the future.  Sand notes that since this enemy won't
become active for at least seven more years, it can wait at least a week. 
Claudio is not pleased, and Trumps back to Amber.  He Trumps Melanie, but
is denied.  He finds Fiona in her quarters, and asks her to teach him. 
And what does he want to learn?  Sorcery.  Fiona pretends disappointment,
and says that can be arranged.  Then Claudio heads into Shadow and spies
on Sky's people, to see how they prepare a meal.


Quotables:

"Laughter, are you sure you want a boy that young watching the children?"
-- Archi
"Beatrice is too young for that, yet." -- Laughter

"Claudio." -- Random
"Random." -- Claudio
"Um, that's your Majesty." -- Wendi
"Not to him.  Archi is his Majesty.  Random's just some dead guy." -- Kris

"You learn something new every day, it's just not often that you learn it
from your air-head wife." -- Dann to Archi

"(Fey) is being very still, and not using anything that might require
oxygen." -- GM
"Like its brain." -- Sean
"Hey, that's Laughter." -- GM

"I thought you had (Foil) better patrolled than this?" -- Archi
"Don't talk to me, the universe ended under your reign." -- Laughter

"(Laughter) didn't mean kill him, kill him, just kill him." -- Laughter to
the group at large, referring to killing Brenner