Now maybe we'll see some proper action...

	I could not believe the extent to which Dara has penetrated our
castle.  Guards, cooks, cleaning staff, they were everywhere.  Duplicates
coming out of the woodwork to make attacks on the children (or those
carrying the children) from the time of the Jewel's destruction.  It was
like an instant and total civil war.  Lucky that my side won.

	Nicholas did me proud by doing exactly the right thing - he
protected his woman.  Got his ass somewhat beaten, but them's the breaks,
sometimes.  You do what you got to do, and the rest can fall into place
later.  Or not.

	The time I spent in the desert has changed me, though.  I had to
envy the expressiveness of magic - it was neat how Fiona just zapped all
the spies back into their true forms - but I kept mostly cool.  I joined
in the melee, but then I didn't have much choice.  I could hardly go from
room to room without encountering fighting.

	But me... I was cool about stuff.  No need to go berserk this
time.  It's all under control.  Partially because I'm King, and while I'm
not the most important man in the world, I can't just run off and get
myself wasted, either.

	Partially I'm too angry to lose my temper.  They tried to kill my
daughter.  Now, my daughter sometimes reminds me too much of my mom, and
she doesn't have Flora's looks, and she's too damn sneaky.  But she's my
daughter, Dara, and you shouldn't oughta touch her.  So maybe now you pay
a little.  Maybe you pay a lot.  I'll find a way.

	I'm a lousy planner, or I used to be.  I never had faith in my
plans, so I always assumed something would go wrong early on, and never
really fleshed them out.  No more.  Kings can afford to have a little more
confidence.

	So I have a plan.  I'll just cool out here, in the Castle, and
pull a string here, and cut another there.  And, with a little fortune,
and some skill on the part of my happy little pawns, Dara's dead body will
turn up in the web.  If not, well, shit, she isn't perfect, either, and
she only needs to screw up once.

	Another nice note is that her little assassination campaign
pointed me in the direction she fears I'll go.  It's almost too easy, but
I don't think it's a setup.  She lost too much in that stunt today for it
all to be a trick.  She genuinely wants Lyss and the whole wacky-eye
brigade out of the picture.  So, sweet party me needs to drop them right
back into the picture.  Lyss and Bart I'll send as soon as they and their
group are up to it.  Necessary measure - those duplicates are dangerous. 
Once my daughter is well, we get her onto the Pattern, ASAP.  And then the
fun starts.

	On the far end, I imagine the Chaosites are trying real hard to
calm the Logrus down.  Must suck to find out your power source is backing
a homicidal ex-lover who hates you.  So I can't count on them.  But I have
what I need right here.  I just need to find the right firing arc.