Miranda's Page | Miranda's Logs
As Miranda and Maevyn's wedding draws near, the weather grows unseasonably rainy. Despite this, Brand manages to arrange for the weather to be partly cloudy over Barimen's estates.
A little less than two weeks before the wedding, Maevyn goes into Thelbane to run some errands...and doesn't return. Miranda grows concerned about this after several days have passed, and pays a visit to Medraut to see if he's visiting Lily. No. Lily is rather worried when she learns that Maevyn is missing and sends her people out to look for him.
By the fourth day, with still no word, Miranda informs her father of Maevyn's absence. Brand asks if she's tried to reach him by Trump. No, she isn't ready to bring him in on that secret just yet. They both agree that it would be best to keep this quiet, since the wedding is now a little over a week away. Does he think Jasra could find him? Brand isn't sure, but suggests she ask.
Miranda finds Jasra with the serving girls, in the midst of making final seating arrangements for the wedding. Miranda asks if she has a minute. Jasra dismisses the servants. Miranda explains the Maevyn situation. Jasra says she can't locate Maevyn, but could find a sorcerer who can. They'll also be discreet about it.
Miranda is sparring with Yut-Lung the next day when Maevyn enters the room. Miranda observes that the prodigal son has returned. Maevyn asks to talk to her in private. Yut-Lung leaves. Maevyn explains that he was out running errands when it started to rain, so he shifted to a place where it wasn't raining, walked most of the way back, then shifted back to a street a few blocks from Barimen's estates...at which point he got knocked unconscious. He woke up in an inn just this morning, with scars on his body and no memory of how he got there. Miranda thinks Brand needs to hear about this, and that Maevyn should be examined by a doctor. She sends for one from Prydain, then brings Maevyn to Brand. Brand is no more pleased by the story than Miranda was. Miranda asks who brought Maevyn to the inn. The register was signed by someone from House Deskant. Brand suggests that Maevyn go with Bleys to check out the spot where he was attacked, and the inn. Miranda also wants Maevyn to bring a bodyguard with him from now on. Brand says they'll try to find Maevyn a suitable valet.
The doctor arrives, and Maevyn goes off to be examined. He later sends a note to Miranda saying everything's fine, but healing the scars was very tiring, so he'll see her tomorrow.
Miranda sees a doctor regarding the details of sex and what she can expect, since that's not a topic she feels comfortable discussing with Jasra. The doctor suggests she hire a prostitute to get the initial awkwardness out of the way. Miranda is less than thrilled with this idea, and decides to get a second opinion. With Sand missing, and Deirdre not really any more approachable than Jasra, Miranda broaches the matter with Faith. Faith is surprised that Miranda hasn't had sex yet, and thinks the Barimens have some strange ideas. She offers to take Miranda out for a night on the town. Miranda reluctantly agrees. Faith brings her to an upscale strip joint, which proves rather educational for Miranda.
The wedding day finally arrives. Sand is there, saying she's borrowed a few things from Bleys that will protect her from Fiona. The ceremony itself goes off without a hitch. At the reception afterwards, Miranda dances with Driscoll, and they talk a bit about marriage and children. Driscoll says making the children is the best part, which makes Miranda blush. So, all in all, he's glad he got married? Oh yes. Before he got married, he didn't have anyone he could trust.
After the dance, when Driscoll is getting Miranda punch, he frowns suddenly. When Miranda asks why, he says it was nothing. Then he suddenly looks very irritated, and turns his head. His expression is dark enough that Miranda actually takes a step back from him before turning to look in the same direction. She realizes that the room has grown quiet, and everyone is looking at the same two people: Faith and a woman that Miranda recognizes as Fiona. Driscoll and Miranda begin heading in their direction. Fiona realizes everyone is staring at her and leaves. Driscoll asks Faith what that was about. Faith just says the woman was annoying. She claims not to know her, but seems very irritated. Maevyn joins the group. Miranda asks if the woman gave her name, and says she can have her escorted off of the premises. Faith says the woman didn't give her name, but she's left already. Faith leaves as well. Miranda warns Driscoll that the woman Faith was talking to was Miranda's Aunt Fiona. So she didn't die at the ball? Apparently not. Maevyn is concerned by this, since apparently Fiona danced with him before she talked to Faith.
Maevyn leaves to get Brand, who was in another room during Fiona's appearance, ostensibly so Brand can dance with Miranda. While they are dancing, Miranda fills her father in on what happened. He knew Fiona was there - apparently she was working things out with him. And she and Sand have come to an arrangement. That's good, but why was she interested in Faith? Did she dance with Driscoll at all? No. Good, he'd hate for Fiona to get control over him. Brand asks what Miranda knows about Faith. Well, Miranda knew her growing up, but didn't pay much attention to her until she ran into her right before the war. She's very friendly. Does she go to a lot of social functions? Yes, she gets invited to all of them. Everyone likes Faith. Brand pales a bit at this. Miranda asks what's wrong. He tells her to stop looking into this. OK, but she told Driscoll who Fiona was, and he's not likely to let it drop. Brand explains that one of his sisters had an ability like what Miranda described. But Faith doesn't look like any of the pictures of her aunts. No, but she could be a descendant. So why would Fiona care about that? Maybe she was sniffing around looking for blackmail material. That could be bad. Miranda suggests they fill in Driscoll, since that will eliminate one of the blackmail options. Brand will think about it.
Maevyn approaches Miranda after Brand leaves. Miranda asks what Fiona said to him when they danced. Just that she hoped he would have a long and happy marriage. He didn't know who she was. Now that he's part of the family, Miranda says she'll have to show him the hall of portraits. Maevyn says that Faith was lying. She knew who Fiona was. Miranda says they'll have to pass that along to Brand.
Finn approaches and gives his regards. Miranda notices that he is thinner than he was when they last met in the East, but doesn't say anything. While they are exchanging pleasantries, Miranda notices that Jasra is watching the three of them. A bit later, Finn pauses in his conversation and starts to turn to look in Jasra's direction. Miranda asks if anything's wrong, which causes him to look back at her and say he's fine. He leaves shortly afterwards. Miranda comments on Finn's weight loss after he leaves. Maevyn says not to mention that in front of Finn. He's very touchy about it.
Miranda passes Maevyn's observation regarding Faith along to Brand. Then she thinks over her aunts, trying to figure out which one Brand might have been referring to. Since she's never seen Deirdre or Sand exhibit that ability, nor Fiona, that leaves Flora and Llewella. Flora seems a much more likely a candidate, since Rebmans tend to look different. On the other hand, Faith doesn't look like either Flora or Llewella.
The next morning, Miranda and Maevyn open their wedding presents, then go out riding. Afterwards, Miranda takes Maevyn to the Hall of Portraits and shows him pictures of all the Barimens. They both notice that Caine has a dagger in his picture that looks identical to one that Driscoll wears. Maevyn asks if the dagger can do the same things that Corwin's sword can. Miranda isn't sure.
Miranda notes that she'll have to paint a portrait of Maevyn for the Hall, now that he's part of the family. Maevyn suggests they start on this now. Miranda has him change into the outfit he was wearing at the wedding and begins sketching him, then decides to try out some of the new paints they received as a wedding gift. When trying to remove a few stray bristles from one of the brushes, she feels something stab her finger, and sees a small dot of blood well up. Feeling suddenly dizzy, she looks at the brush, and sees a needle sticking out. She barely manages to tell Maevyn what's happened before she loses consciousness.
Miranda wakes up in her bed, lying on top of the covers and fully clothed. She sends a servant to find Maevyn, and is informed that he's gone into the city. She summons the servant who was keeping the list of who sent which wedding gifts, and asks who sent the paints. Her Aunt Fiona. Miranda says she's quite positive that she would have remembered if she'd received any gifts from Fiona. She asks to see the list, and sure enough, Fiona's name is on it. She asks where her parents are. They're both away. How convenient. Miranda summons her maidservant to dress her in her riding clothes, planning to go into town to find them. Then she sees Jasra standing in the room, holding a dress and saying she'd like Miranda to wear it. It's the dress that sparked the confrontation with Jasra when Miranda was 13. Miranda suddenly feels physically smaller. Not wanting to relive that experience again, she simply says, "Yes mother." Then Jasra disappears.
Suspecting that the entire environment she's in could be an illusion, Miranda dismisses the maidservant and concentrates on accessing the house in her head. It works. She focuses on waking up, and finds herself back in her supposed room again. She tries to leave that the way she left her mental house, and winds up back in her house. It appears she can only flip between the two. She tries to walk out of her mental house, but the door won't open. She breaks a window and tries to climb out, but as soon as she does, she's back in the room. She does it again, trying to pinpoint when this is happening, and realizes that something always distracts her and makes her look at the window frame, and then she's back in the house. She tries using Pattern to shift Shadow to a door that is open. There is a shudder, and now the porch is screened in. The door still won't open, though. She tries shifting again to make the screens disappear. Another rumble, and she notices a part of the house that wasn't there before. She tries cutting through the screen, but it breaks her dagger. She presses lightly against the screen with a vase, and the vase is damaged. She tries to shift the screen to be normal, but other than another rumble, and some nice curtains, nothing happens. In the distance, she sees the tall, thin tower that was Merlin's place. She tries to draw a Trump of it, but it doesn't work. She thinks she needs to see it more clearly. Then she notices that there's a house next door. She doesn't recognize the style. She draws a Trump of the enclosed front porch and goes through. She tries to open the door to the beach, but can't. Then she tries the front door.
The door opens, and Maevyn is standing there with a sword. She asks Maevyn what he remembers. He was talking with Jasra, then suddenly he was lying on his bed, fully clothed. He wandered around for a bit, leaving the estates and then returning. Then he heard someone knocking at the door, and when he answered it, Miranda was there, and he was in a different place. Miranda fills him in on what's happened to her. He's irked when she won't explain how she managed to get to his house without going outside. She says it's a long story and she'll tell him later. He tells her that Jasra said she's caught in a spell that Jasra doesn't know how to remove. Miranda figures this must be irking her mother greatly. She's sure Fiona is behind this, but doesn't know why. Maevyn's reaction to that makes her suspect he knows the reason. He won't tell her at first, trying to exchange the information for what she wasn't telling him, but this only annoys her. Eventually he says it has something to do with an arrangement that was made concerning a close relative of hers. She realizes that the arrangement Brand mentioned at her wedding must have involved allowing Fiona to kill Sand.
Miranda notices that there's another house next to Maevyn's. She points it out to Maevyn, who thinks it's Lily's. He tries to leave his house, but the door won't open for him, either. They go up to the tower in his house to see what other houses are around. Miranda spots some beyond her house. The first one appears to be Jasra's, then Bleys', then Brand's. The tower balcony doesn't appear to be enclosed, so Miranda suggests Maevyn grow wings and try to fly off. He does this thing, and is successful. Eventually, he flies back, opens the porch door and walks in. Miranda is then able to leave. They walk out onto the beach, where it's nice and warm. Miranda tells him what happened when she tried to use her Pattern. Maevyn tries it, and gets a rumble, but nothing else. Maevyn takes a nap, trying to "wake up," but is unsuccessful. When he wakes up, Miranda suggests they write a note and throw it into one of the houses, to try to communicate. She settles on Bleys, and writes a note explaining that Maevyn is with her, Fiona is behind it, and they are in her "mental house." He should ask Jasra if he doesn't know what this means. Maevyn asks why they don't just contact Jasra. Because Bleys is more expendable if the attempt to communicate with him winds up trapping him instead.
They go around to the back of Bleys' house and toss the note in an open window. Shortly thereafter, they see Bleys emerge onto the beach, wearing shorts and carrying a lawn chair. Then he sees them and groans. He's comatose back in Thelbane isn't he? Probably. Miranda says she didn't think the note would be enough to trap him. They bring him up to speed on the current situation. Bleys reveals that he didn't wake up in the faux Barimen estates, but that's because he was sleeping when he was sucked into the trap. He says the spell is tied into Miranda's Pattern, somehow. Ah. That explains what was happening when she tried using Pattern. Bleys theorizes that the faux Barimen estates are just the interim barrier Fiona placed between Miranda and the real world. Maevyn explains how, when he tried to go somewhere in the barrier world, it got looped after a while. Bleys thinks it's limited by where Maevyn's been, which means the place has boundaries. Maybe there's a way out there? The question is, if they're traveling together, do they have to be going someplace that none of them have been, or just the person who's in the lead? Good question. First, they have to get there, though. Bleys and Maevyn try to reach the barrier world by closing their eyes and waking up, but it doesn't work. Miranda tries it, and is successful. She closes her eyes again and is back on the beach. They join hands and she tries it again. She disappears, they stay. Finding herself alone in the barrier world, Miranda rejoins the others.
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Miranda's Logs
All text on this page is © 2002 by Kris Fazzari.
Last modified on April 25, 2002 by Kris Fazzari.