This just bites.  First my Chancellor disappears, leaving only a
large pool of blood behind.  Swell.  I wonder if the Jewel would save him,
even if someone else had it?  I hope it did.  Something got his sorry ass
out of there, since we didn't find a body.  He'd better be all right. 
Damn it.

	Then Farad fools around with that fucking statue that Gabriel
brought back from the Abyss, and out pops yet *another* relative.  So far
he seems OK, but so did Bonaparte, and we all remember how *he* turned
out.

	Then our shapeshifting friend Trumps me as Gabriel again.  This
time he got smart, and didn't claim to be anyplace stupid, like the Abyss. 
Lucky for me, he's not nearly as good as Gabriel.  He's more than good
enough, though.  We can't keep going on like this.  There's got to be some
way to bell this damn cat.  Walking the Pattern every time we need to
prove we are who we appear to be just isn't feasible.  Alastair claims he
can tell the shapeshifter from the real McCoy, but how can we tell who's
the real Alastair?  Some days, I just wish that Flora had left be in
Shadow Earth.

	At least we know a little more about this assassin, but it doesn't
help much.  He's one of Benedict's generation.  Swell.  If he's on
Benedict's level, then Benedict should be dealing with him.  At the very
least, we need to contact Benedict, to see if he can ID this guy.

	Plus, there's still the problem of the *other* shapeshifter, the
one who stole the Jewel.  Not to mention trying to determine what went
wrong with my teleport.  I've screwed them up before, but they always felt
wrong when I did that.  This one felt spot on, but it's like someone
changed the map when I wasn't looking.  Could be a block of some sort, or
it could be a mental command inside my head.  I like the latter option not
at all.  Time for some trial and error testing.  Which is going to be
tough, since Gabriel is sticking to my ass like glue.  But, to be honest,
that's right where I want him.  So long as he doesn't leave my sight, I
*know* he's the real deal, and there's no one better to have around to
defend your ass.  The lack of privacy sucks, though.  This whole situation
is getting real old, real fast.