Miranda's Page | Miranda's Logs
A few days after Miranda returns from Corwin's Pattern, Jasra informs her daughter that she needs to do psychic surgery to remove her other self from Miranda's mind. Why can't she just dispel her? It has to do with the deal Miranda made with Jasra in order to get broken Pattern - the one Miranda can't remember the details of. But the Jasra in her mind was a result of protecting her from Merlin, not the earlier agreement. True, but Jasra can't dispel her without undoing what was done for the earlier agreement. Miranda allows Jasra to operate, and when she becomes aware again, she realizes that the ring she's worn on her finger since the incident when she was 13 is gone...causing her to wonder if it was ever there to begin with, or just something Jasra implanted in her mind. She checks her mental house for the serving girl, but there is no sign of her. The psychic surgery also brings about an end to Miranda's strange dreams.
Brand and Jasra both hint that Miranda should consider Maevyn as a potential marriage prospect. When Miranda pretends not to notice the hint, Brand then becomes more direct about it. Miranda says she thought there was no rush for her to get married. Brand points out that she's all that's left, unless Jasra has another child, and Jasra really doesn't want to do that. Miranda isn't eager to face nine months of perpetually pissy Jasra either, so she agrees to at least spend some time getting to know Maevyn better.
Miranda attends the wedding of Maseera to Duke Gramble Sawall, which is quite the gala affair. If Maseera has any objections to the marriage, she keeps them well concealed
Jasra announces that she is pregnant again. Miranda wisely doesn't ask what changed her mind. This means the pressure is off for her to marry quickly, but she continues to spend time with Maevyn anyway.
It is announced that Shennayr Succat has died at home of a sudden illness. Given what Maevyn has told Miranda about him, she privately doubts it was an accident.
Yut-Lung returns after a month or two in the east, having become bored with the war. Apparently wars are shorter his homeland. He resumes training Miranda, and begins training others as well, eventually earning enough to buy his own house.
Delwin eventually returns, figuring Fiona will hurt him but not kill him, and he's tired of hiding. It's Sand she's really angry at. Miranda asks him why Fiona and Sand hate each other so much. They always have. He thinks they were jealous of each other growing up, Sand because Fiona was petite and pretty, Fiona because Sand was more free to do what she wanted, while Fiona had to obey a very controlling mother. This reminds Miranda of the comment that Bleys once made about Clarissa being a lot like Jasra.
Much to everyone's amazement, the weather in Thelbane continues to get warmer, and it soon becomes obvious that the grip of winter has been broken. Unfortunately, the effect of many years of accumulated ice and snow starting to melt makes things a bit...soggy. It's predicted that it could take a few years for everything to dry out in the Palatine.
Miranda tries to find out more about Yut-Lung's background, but he doesn't really want to talk about it, nor is he interested in visiting his home Shadow. She tries another tack by trying to interest him in discovering what his link is to Thelbane, since he obviously is Real. He points out that his people can't shapeshift. Neither can everyone in Thelbane. Or those in the East, for that matter. He still isn't interested. Miranda asks Brand if she can look into the matter further, since he's busy with other things. Brand gives her a Trump of Yut-Lung's Shadow.
More time passes. Driscoll marries Faith Chanicut during one of his brief visits home from the war in the East. Yut-Lung becomes rather uncharacteristically irritable after the wedding, something Miranda eventually deduces is because he is attracted to Driscoll.
Miranda overhears Jasra hiring an assassin to kill Cole. Apparently Merlin told her a little too much about Trump for her own good. Miranda opts to stay well clear of this mess.
Miranda continues to practice using her Pattern imprint to affect probability. She finds it's easier to affect things, like making a heel break, or a horse shy, than to affect people directly.
Maevyn and Lily become the Lesser Assembly representatives for House Succat. Miranda fills him in on her own experiences when she was starting out as Barimen's representative, and warns him that he'll have trouble getting people to take him seriously at first, due to his age.
Several children are born. Jasra gives birth to fraternal twins, Desmond and Isabelle. Gramble and Maseera have a son whom they name Borel, after the fallen Margrave. Driscoll and Faith have a daughter.
Miranda goes to Yut-Lung's Shadow, known locally as the Empire of the Sun, to find out more about him. She learns that several years ago, Yut-Lung tried to overthrow his uncle, the Emperor. Not because his uncle was a bad ruler, but because Yut-Lung believed that, as the son of a storm god, it was his divine right to rule. He failed in the attempt and was punished by losing his status and being made a kitchen boy. Rather than endure this disgrace, he chose to leave. Given the power she saw Yut-Lung wield in the East, Miranda doesn't understand why he was defeated. The only explanation she can think of is that he chose not to use his power because it would have harmed the palace. She is unable to find any information about Yut-Lung's mother, other than that she was the Emperor's sister. There's no other mention of her, and her name isn't even given. Since the Emperor has several sisters, Miranda theorizes that by not naming which one it was, the Emperor was able to protect her from the usual fate of unwed women, which is death.
An unexpected side effect of Miranda's visit to Yut-Lung's Shadow is that she becomes intrigued by the style of art and dress there, which is much like Imperial Japan. It's very different from what she's been exposed to in Thelbane. She winds up staying for two months before duty calls her back home, and resolves to return there to study when she has the chance.
As part of Brand's overall desire to increase the size of House Barimen, Bleys marries Jane of House Theldorn. The couple tends to be pretty social, so they wind up arranging most of the Barimen parties.
Since Bleys' new wife isn't being told about Trump for the moment, Jasra gifts the family with special bags for their Trump decks. These bags have glamours on them so that they aren't noticed. Of course, this can be bad if you put the bag down somewhere and forget about it. To deal with this, Miranda makes a Trump of the bag that she keeps separate from it, that she can use to find it if necessary.
Brand puts together a private gallery of all of the portraits of the Barimen family, so that the younger family knows who they are, what they looked like, and what their history is. This naturally covers quite a bit of Amber's history, including how Oberon never named an heir, setting all of the children against each other. This gives Miranda an idea of why Brand finds the naming of an heir important.
Brand and Jasra continue to periodically raise the marriage issue with Miranda. Although initially, they encouraged her to look at all options, Brand now begins to indicate that Maevyn or somebody like Maevyn, would be ideally suited. Miranda admits that Maevyn is her favorite among the suitable candidates.
As Maevyn and Miranda begin spending more and more time together, Miranda realizes that Maevyn can tell when people are lying, herself included. He's also good at detecting when she's being evasive about something, since this is apparently how Lily dealt with his ability as well. While Miranda finds this vexing at times, she discovers there are also certain advantages to his ability, especially when they are talking to people at social occasions.
Driscoll and Faith have another daughter. Gramble and Maseera have a second son, Darius.
Maseera begins filling the social void left by Manot's death, starting Manot's salon back up again and hosting many parties. Maevyn and Miranda discover that whenever Maseera touches one of them, they get a splitting headache afterwards. They learn to wear a lot of clothing to Maseera's parties, so as to decrease the chances of direct contact.
Bleys and Jane have a son, Emmett.
After two years of swampy conditions, the water table finally stabilizes in the Palatine.
As part of their investigation into fixing the Pattern, Maevyn and Miranda learn more about the true history of Amber from Brand. Brand says the Pattern was damaged by a sorcerous ritual and a blood sacrifice by Martin, a member of the family. He survived, but it isn't known where he is now, and Thelbane is not aware of his existence. The damage to the Pattern caused the Black Road, but Brand isn't sure if killing Martin would remove it.
Delwin is the next Barimen to get married, wedding Bridgett of House Quince.
Lily marries Colin of Medraut, leaving Maevyn to represent House Succat on the Lesser Assembly by himself.
Miranda turns her duties as House Barimen's representative to the Greater and Lesser Assemblies over to Bleys so she can return to Yut-Lung's Shadow. She winds up spending about two years studying there. Maevyn joins her when he can, since he finds the culture fascinating as well.
Maevyn returns Bleys' ring, and winds up looking scruffy for about a week while he gets used to being without it.
Driscoll and Faith have another daughter.
Delwin and Bridgett have a daughter, Alicia. Lily and Colin have a son, Josef.
Miranda returns to Thelbane, and together with Maevyn begins introducing new styles of art and clothing based on those in Yut-Lung's Shadow. They are very successful in this, and become known as fashion trend setters.
Gramble and Maseera have a third son, Sasha.
Maevyn publishes "Bleating of the Lamb," a book loosely based on his adventures with the Seals, which are called jewels in the book, and his flight to the East. It ends with the protagonist overthrowing the evil leader of his house. Lily is miffed that she isn't in it.
Miranda spends some time in technological Shadows, trying to get an understanding of how technology works so she can defend against it if need be. The result is that she still doesn't like it, but it's now less of a mystery to her.
During his visits to Thelbane, Driscoll begins giving Miranda grief about the fact that she hasn't gotten married yet. Apparently married life agrees with him better than he thought it would. Miranda insists she'll get married soon, but can't explain to him why she's putting it off.
As it starts to look like the Assembly will approve House Barimen's proposal to make the House heirs public, Brand asks Miranda if she still wants to be his heir. Yes. When does she want it announced? She figures that since they pushed the whole issue, they should do it soon after the proposal is made law.
After a great deal of debate, the Greater Assembly agrees to Barimen's proposal, and the naming of heirs is codified into law, as are a new tier of punishments for offenses against an heir. Brand is the first to announce his heir.
With the issue of the heir now publicly settled, there's no longer any reason for Miranda to delay marriage. She discusses the topic with her parents, neither of whom are surprised at her choice of Maevyn, given their shared interests and compatibility over the years. Brand seems rather pleased, in fact. He and Jasra talk to Maevyn's parents, who also approve of the match. Maevyn's parents then present the match to him, and he formally proposes to Miranda. Finally, the couple talks to the Priesthood, which tests them for fertility with each other and gives its approval. Miranda and Maevyn's engagement is announced, with the wedding to take place in a few months.
Deirdre returns to Thelbane with Corwin in chains. She also has a husband, Lord Edward of Karm. Since her marriage to Edward was performed in the East, she has to get approval for it from the Priesthood, but this is soon granted.
There are major change in two of the greater houses, as both Sawall and Medraut lose their Dukes. Gramble Sawall passes away after a long illness, with his son Borel named as his heir, and Misha assuming the function of Head of House until Borel reaches majority. Roderick of Medraut also dies of old age, and is succeeded by his son Colin, Lily's husband.
Word makes it back to Thelbane that Benedict has been killed by two members of House Vizsla, Perrin and Marina. Miranda recalls that Perrin is the Vizsla who Brand sent to find her when she went missing after the bridge collapse.
Driscoll is instrumental in winning the war in the East. Upon his return to Thelbane, he is honored with a parade and a week of festivities. Perrin and Marina are honored in the parade as well. As a reward for his service, Driscoll is given Benedict's sword, once known by the Amberites as Greyswandir, while the two Vizsla are given permission to assay the Logrus.
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Miranda's Logs
All text on this page is © 2002 by Kris Fazzari.
Last modified on April 24, 2002 by Kris Fazzari.