Session 11

Miranda encounters Yut-Lung, who informs her that, since she is now safely home, he'll be returning east to help Driscoll. Miranda isn't very happy about this, but she understands. She retires to her quarters for a long soak, to get rid of the grime of her three-day flight from the east.

Feeling more refreshed, Miranda goes to speak to her father, but finds he's in a meeting with Maevyn. During the two hours that this meeting goes on, she winds up talking to Bleys again, who tells her how the proposal to make the heirs public went over at the Assembly meeting she missed. Some of the more conservative houses, like Amblerash, don't like it, but Hendrake, unsurprisingly, thought it might be a good idea. There are also some who think that Fiona has some grudge against Chanicut, since the person next to Bleys that she killed was the secretary to the Chanicut representative. Miranda notices that Bleys looks a little...scruffier than usual. A little bit more unkempt. She asks if he's well. Yes, why? He's looking a little...pale. He looks a little annoyed and says he'll have to fix that.

Brand finally finishes his meeting with Maevyn and sees Miranda. She mentions that Bleys seems different. Brand laughs long and hard about this, especially after he learns that she asked Bleys about this. He explains that Bleys recently had to give up one of his rings which projects a glamour. Why? Brand had need of it. To conceal Maevyn? Yes, at least for the next few days. Speaking of Maevyn, does Brand think there is still an intact Pattern? Oh yes, more than one, in fact. Miranda notes that if Maevyn walks it without the proper instruction, he'll die. Oh, they've discussed that and come to an agreement. Brand tells her to stay away from the Rebman Pattern, though. There's no way to detect whether someone has walked the Pattern, right? Yes, but that isn't what she told Maevyn, is it? Well, at the time she wasn't sure if they wanted him walking it, so she may have exaggerated a little. Brand smiles. So, if there is an intact Pattern, and he's going to help Maevyn walk it.... Ah, is that why she wanted to see him? Perhaps. He'll consider the idea.

News soon spreads that Maseera is engaged to Gramble Sawall. Everyone is rather surprised by this, since Gramble is older than dirt, so it's assumed that this marriage was not Maseera's choice.

Miranda wakes up from a dream about the conversation between Merlin and Fiona, and when she looks in the mirror, there's something wrong with her face. One eye, and the socket around it, looks like Merlin's, the other looks like Jasra's. Concerned, Miranda finds her mother and tells her of this. Are they any closer to finding Merlin's body? Jasra thinks the war may have preoccupied them. She decides they should talk to the Palatine woman who's in charge of finding Merlin, and let her know about Merlin's mind being trapped in Miranda's head. How will they do that without revealing what Jasra did? Jasra will do the talking.

Palatine Cole Helgram is invited to tea, where Jasra explains some of the situation regarding Merlin being trapped in Miranda's head. Cole is very excited by this, and looks at Miranda much as one might look at a bug. Cole asks if Merlin's mind could be transferred into some sort of container. Jasra says it could, but there's a good chance Merlin might escape. Jasra offers Rinaldo's services in finding Merlin's body. Cole thinks this will help.

Later on, Miranda is suddenly grabbed with the Logrus and appears in a room with Jasra, Cole, Rinaldo, some other people, and Merlin's body. She wants to kill Merlin, but Cole says he has too much information. Miranda touches Merlin's forehead, closes her eyes, and thinks of her house....and she's there. She and Jasra begin breaking down the wall, then it occurs to Miranda that it's her mind, so she just makes the wall disappear. Merlin wakes up when she does this and looks up. She says she's going to free him. Fiona appears behind her and says she's fulfilled her agreement, then. Miranda asks how she got there. When she took down the wall, the magical barrier came down. They stare levelly at each for a few moments, then Fiona says that if Miranda stays out of her plans, she'll stay out of Miranda's. Miranda says she'll certainly do her very best to. Fiona disappears. Miranda makes Merlin's shackles disappear and he leaves the house and disappears.

Miranda opens her eyes and finds Merlin struggling while someone sits on his chest. She smiles at this, and tells him that she forgot to mention that they'd found his body. Merlin tries to speak, but can't. Miranda places her Trump ward on him, telling Cole that it's needed to keep him from escaping. Then she returns home with Rinaldo and Jasra.

Miranda tells Brand and Jasra about Fiona's appearance in her dream when she gets home, but neither of them are concerned. It is announced the next day that Merlin has been executed, and his head is placed on a spike. Rinaldo retrieves the Trump ward and returns it to Miranda. She asks if Brand wants it back, now that they don't have to worry about Fiona contacting Merlin, but he tells her to keep it anyway.

About a week later, Brand tells Miranda that she and Maevyn will be accompanying him on a short trip. How long will they be traveling? Only a couple of hours. He tells her to bring shoes that can be easily removed, since she'll have to walk the Pattern barefoot. Brand shifts Shadow with them until they get to the location of Corwin's Pattern, a castle on a mountain with many unicorn and rose banners. The Pattern is in the castle on the same level as the dungeons. Brand shows them the door but says he can't go any further. Why not? Because he broke something once, and Una punished him by not letting him go near any Patterns. Miranda realizes that he must be the one who damaged the Pattern originally. Brand warns them that they must walk on the silvery lines. If they step off or stop, they will die. It's really a relatively simple maze, but they must study it carefully, because if they wind up in a dead end, that's it, and dying on the Pattern is very painful. Once they reach the center, they will be able to teleport anywhere. He suggests they teleport to him.

Miranda and Maevyn go in and study the Pattern, then Maevyn removes his shoes and begins. Partway through, his feet begin to bleed. Miranda reports this to Brand, thinking it might be due to the fact that Maevyn doesn't have Amber blood, but Brand seems to have expected that. When Maevyn reaches the center, he collapses to his knees for a few minutes, then disappears. Miranda checks back out in the hall to make sure he arrived safely. His feet are quite bloody. Miranda brings her shoes out into the hall, figuring she won't feel like walking to get them afterwards. Then she brings Maevyn's to him as well. Finally, she studies the Pattern one final time and then starts walking it. It isn't bad at first, the ground just a little rough, but the farther she gets, the sharper the ground seems to get, until finally it starts poking into her feet. She shapeshifts to make her feet harder, but this doesn't help. On top of this, she finds that at a certain point, corresponding to where the first break is in her broken Pattern imprint, she gets dizzy, and when the dizziness passes, she sees the broken Pattern in front of her instead of Corwin's. So she must rely on her memory of Corwin's Pattern, helped by occasional glimpses of it, especially when she hits a dizzy patch. The final dizzy patch actually causes her to loose her balance and begin falling, so she desperately throws herself towards the center, which is only a few feet away. She makes it, mostly, although her feet don't quite clear the center at first and start burning until she pulls them in. She lies there recovering for a minute or two, then sits up and teleports to Brand and Maevyn. Brand asks if her broken Pattern made the effort more difficult. Oh yes. She explains what happened. Brand makes a note not to have anyone else take the broken Pattern if they may take the Pattern later.

Maevyn and Miranda heal their feet, then they all leave the castle. On the trip back to Thelbane, Brand begins instructing them in how Pattern works. He tells them of the different ways to shift Shadow, and Miranda notes that his description of Hellriding sounds a lot like broken Pattern shifting, only Hellriding is faster. He also tells them of probability manipulation, including how it works better if spoken aloud, then has them practice while they are riding down a city street. Miranda successfully avoids getting washing water dumped on her by finding it probable that the woman will slip and fall backwards. Maevyn is less successful at changing the grade of the road to redirect barrels that are coming towards them. Brand explains that it's easier to affect people than things like the slope of the road. However, Maevyn could have tried to shift to a Shadow without the barrels. Brand mentions that you have to move to shift Shadow or alter probability, and that Corwin was blinded once to keep him from using the Pattern. Miranda doesn't see why he couldn't have used his other senses. Because you don't tend to remember how a place feels so much as how it looks. True, but couldn't you at least use it to move someplace else? Brand warns that shifting blindly in that fashion is dangerous. He and Miranda exchange a look, remembering how she wound up in Hell. Maevyn makes the connection between the thing Brand broke and the broken Pattern they keep talking about, and asks if it could be fixed. Brand thinks there must be a way to fix it, since there was a way to break it. Unfortunately, he can't go near any Pattern, so he hasn't been able to work on it. He does say that before he broke the Pattern, things were different. Jasra remembers things a bit differently than he does. The gods didn't play such an active role in things, and there were no seals. So maybe if they fix the Pattern, the seals will go away? Possibly.

Miranda's Page | Miranda's Logs

Last modified on February 9, 2002 by Kris Fazzari.