Session
3
Amber, year one, day three (Friday, September 12, 2985)
Since I learned of my true heritage, each day has been getting
stranger and stranger, and this one was no different. I still cannot
believe what an idiot Driscoll was. But more on that later. It all began
shortly after we started looking for Ariadne. Heather claimed that she
had to return home for something that she had forgotten. Driscoll and I
accompanied her back, myself because I would not trust her out of my
sight. When we reached her home, she walked up to a stone marker with the
name "Jonathan" engraved on it. I later learned from Driscoll that this
was a marker for a dead body. Apparently they place their dead beneath
the ground, instead of burning their bodies. How barbaric! Then, much to
my surprise, Heather pulled out her sword and tried to run it through her
chest. I did nothing to interfere, for when a person chooses to end their
life is their own business, and I am none too fond of Heather besides.
Driscoll seemed to feel differently, however, and he pulled out an odd
looking rod which I later learned was a gun (although I am still not sure
why Sand called Fiona a big one). He aimed one end at Heather and
concentrated, and a beam of light emerged. I am not sure what would have
happened if the light had hit Heather, for she had already stabbed herself
when Driscoll aimed the gun at her, and the light passed over her head as
she fell to the ground. Much to my surprise, her sword was deflected
upwards and did not appear to penetrate her body . When Driscoll and I
ran over to get a closer look, she was covering her abdomen, but there was
no blood, and no exit wound in her back. Eventually she removed her hand,
and I was able to see that the sword had penetrated her outer layer of
clothing, but not the second layer underneath. Now, it seems to me that
she ought to have known that she was wearing armor, and therefore should
have removed it before trying to send herself to Haldor. I suppose she
could have been faking the attempt, but I do not know what she hoped to
gain by it. In any case, it seemed pretty stupid to me. I wonder how
this Jonathan died? He was probably some old lover of hers. Perhaps she
drove him to kill himself. I cannot imagine anyone loving that woman!
She was obviously in great pain from the force of the blow, and
Driscoll looked utterly exhausted, but both of them insisted on resuming
our search immediately. So we rode for a while. I had to take the lead
in the search because Driscoll did not have the strength. After a while,
we came across what at first appeared to be a black road. When we rode
closer, we were able to see that all of the vegetation in this area was
entirely black, but there was no actual road. The blackened area was wide
enough for many men to march abreast along it, and it continued to the
horizon in either direction. I also noticed a man standing by the side of
this black area, with black hair and silver eyes. I pointed him out to
Driscoll, who recognized him as an old friend named Alex. We asked him
about the blackened area, and he told us that he had come across it while
he was walking in shadow, and he had been walking along it for some time.
I felt uneasy about the idea of even approaching that black road, much
less walking on it, and the others seemed to feel the same (even Heather).
Our horses felt similarly about the matter. I cannot understand how this
Alex could have actually walked upon it. Perhaps it has to do with his
being from Chaos, which I learned of later. After he and Alex had talked
for a while, Driscoll trumped Mirelle to ask her something about Ariadne.
I talked with Alex a little more and learned that he too had grown up in
shadow and was unaware of his true parents.
While we were talking, I noticed that Heather was staring at a
trump card. Curious, I moved closer, and was able to overhear her end of
the conversation. The person she was talking to seemed to be asking for
her help in escaping some sort of imprisonment. Upon hearing this, I
moved to see the image on the card she was using, but she spotted me and
quickly hid the card. I am positive she was talking to Brand, for why
else would she hide the card's identity, and who, outside of her staff,
would she trump that would ask for her help? I cannot imagine her wanting
to talk to Ahab or Felix after what happened yesterday. I asked her who
she was talking to, and when she refused to tell me, I informed her of my
suspicions. She did not deny that she was talking with Brand, but she
would not admit to her crime either, and we argued for a time.
Eventually, Driscoll finished talking with Mirelle. He gave me
trump cards with images of Ahab and Felix on them, and told me that they
were from Mirelle. Heather tried to see them, but I hid them from her
(why should she view mine, when she hid hers from me). Driscoll asked
what had caused the disagreement between Heather and myself. Alex was not
really sure, so it fell to Heather and I to explain, which caused us to
resume our argument. Eventually Driscoll placed his fingers in his mouth
and made a loud whistling noise. Upon gaining our attention, he informed
us that it was time for us to resume our journey again. I was not willing
to let matters drop so easily. She had been talking to Brand, the man who
was the source of so much of our recent troubles, and no one else seemed
to care! So I smiled my sweetest smile at her, and told her, with utmost
sincerity, that the next time she wanted to kill herself, I would be happy
to help her along. This offended her (what does not?) and caused her to
leave the rest of us. Would that we had not sought her out again.
Alex and Driscoll talked for a while after she disappeared. They
kept referring to these "others" in their conversation, but when I asked
who the others were, they were rather reluctant to tell me. After some
pressing on my part, they finally admitted that they were referring to
people from Chaos, which I now know to be a city-state of some sort, much
the way that I assume Amber is. They did not want to talk further on the
subject, so we began riding again.
After a time, it occurred to me that Mirelle would not have given
me trump cards of Ahab and Felix if she did not think that I should use
them. I determined that I would contact one of them, and set to deciding
which one. Given that Felix always seemed to following Ahab's orders, I
decided to contact Ahab, although I must admit that I was not looking
forward to the prospect of speaking with him again. When the image
resolved, I saw that he was riding on a horse as well. He asked to be
brought through the trump to join us as he had something he wished to tell
me in person. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ahab wished to
apologize for his behavior of the previous day. I may have to reevaluate
my opinion of the man. At the very least he is refreshingly
straightforward compared to the other Amberites that I have met. Driscoll
seemed rather amused by Ahab's apology, and told me that it was a new side
to Ahab that he had not seen before. He told me I should let Ahab grovel
some more before accepting his apology, but I did not see the point in
doing so.
Ahab wanted to know what had been going on since he had last seen
us, so I told him about Heather's attempted suicide, the black road, and
Chaos. Driscoll became rather upset with me when I related the
information about Chaos. Apparently most Amberites regard almost every
piece of information as secret, and rarely share such secrets with others
without getting something in return. It all seems quite ridiculous to me.
There are some things which make sense to keep secret, such as war plans,
but Amberites keep everything secret, even the most trivial information.
This whole mess with Brand and the Pattern would never have happened if
the fact that there was a Primal Pattern that could be damaged with
Amberite blood had not been kept a secret from most of the Amberites. Or
at least they would be better prepared to deal with it.
Ahab and Driscoll started talking about parents, and I learned
that Driscoll's Amberite parent is Random (I suspected as much, for there
is a resemblance). He also grew up in shadow, unaware of his true
heritage, and was found by Mirelle in much the same manner that he later
found me. I was rather fascinated by this, but Driscoll did not seem to
want to discuss matters any further. Instead, he brought the conversation
back to our search for Ariadne, and suggested that Felix be invited to
accompany us, since Ariadne has developed a fondness for the man. Ahab
contacted Felix with a trump, and brought him through to join us.
Then, much to my surprise, Driscoll insisted that we needed
Heather for our search as well. I do not know why Driscoll was so
insistent on her help. Ahab did not seem to think that she was necessary.
It seems that he distrusts her even more than I. I never should have let
Driscoll go back for her. He can be such an idiot sometimes. I am
beginning to wonder if there are any brains at all in that pretty head of
his. There do not seem to be any as far as Heather is concerned. But we
foolishly agreed to let him go fetch her, providing Alex accompanied him.
I would rather that Ahab or myself had gone with him, but he seemed to
think that Heather would find our presence distressing. In retrospect, it
is obvious that we should have insisted on accompanying him more
strongly.
For what happened next, I can only rely on Ahab's account of
things, and he was not present until the agreement was made. When Alex
and Driscoll had not returned after some time had passed, we thought it
best that Ahab should go investigate matters, while Felix and I found a
place for Kira and the others to stay. According to Ahab, when he arrived
in Heather's shadow, he was only shown in after much delay. He was
escorted to Heather's parlor where he learned from Alex that Heather had
indeed been talking with Brand, and had actually persuaded Driscoll and
Alex to assist her. Finding this turn of events unacceptable, Ahab had
the good sense to contact Felix and myself, and we joined him immediately.
Heather was her usual obnoxious self, so we left her and searched for
Driscoll.
Alex found him first, and apparently startled him so greatly that
he let out a shout of surprise, which allowed the rest of us to ascertain
his whereabouts. We argued with him for a time, and finally managed to
convince him that it would be unwise to free Brand before we had learned
who his current captors were and had prepared a place for us to hold him
prisoner ourselves. Given the damage that he had already caused, I
refused to allow him to simply go free again. We decided to learn the
answer to our question about Brand's captors by asking Brand himself. If
he refused to answer us, we would leave him there to rot! To be honest, I
was hoping that he would refuse us, since I had no faith in our own
ability to hold him.
We all joined hands and focused on a trump of Brand. It felt much
like battering oneself against a brick wall. Before we were able to force
our way past it, Driscoll left the contact. Realizing that we needed
every bit of strength we could get, we stopped our attempt and stared at
Driscoll, who seemed to be in the middle of another trump contact. I
touched Driscoll to learn his reasons for leaving us, and found that he
was talking with Heather! She broke the contact soon after I joined it.
Fearing that she had managed to learn what we were attempting, we quickly
linked together and tried again, only to have Driscoll break out of the
contact once more. Now, you would think that having been tricked by
Heather once before into answering her plea for help via trump, and having
been stabbed by Brand as a result, that he would at least hesitate if the
same situation presented itself. If I were Driscoll, I would have been
very suspicious of another trump distress call from Heather. But not
Driscoll! He just went on through to her, and since I was touching him at
the time, I went with him. And then, even when he realized that he had
been tricked, he still freed Brand! He did not even try to escape without
him, or at least render him unconscious.
Once free, Brand returned with all of us to Heather's home, where
we were later joined by Felix and Alex. Brand is truly as mad in person
as I had inferred from his actions. Unfortunately, he seems to have a
ring that gives him great power. Driscoll did finally realize that he had
made a grave mistake, and he tried to attack Brand from behind.
Unfortunately, Brand was shaving at the time, and he saw Driscoll's
reflection in his mirror. All he did was gesture, and Driscoll was
knocked back into the wall hard enough to break several of his ribs, as
well as render him completely senseless. Needless to say, I decided not
to try a direct frontal assault after witnessing this. Unfortunately,
since I was positioned directly in front of Brand, I had no opportunity to
move out of his sight. Surprisingly, he left us all alive, merely
rendering us unconscious when he left. Including Heather, much, I am
sure, to her surprise. I do not know what Brand promised her, but he
obviously had no intention of living up to his end of the bargain. It
must be hard to be used so by your own pater.
The next thing I was aware of was being shaken awake by Felix.
Brand, of course, was long gone, and Heather's hands and feet were
shackled. Apparently Ahab had returned to Amber for reinforcements after
he watched Driscoll and I vanish. He returned only with Benedict, who was
not pleased with Driscoll or Alex. He called Alex "Chaos scum" and almost
killed him right on the spot. Given how upset Benedict was with Driscoll,
I decided that it was not a good time to mention that Driscoll and Alex
were friends. I barely had time to set Driscoll's ribs (and yes, Mater, I
know I was unduly harsh, but I was rather upset with him myself) when
Benedict grabbed him by the arm and took him away to another room.
Judging by the expression on Driscoll's face when they returned, I have no
desire to ever be subjected to one of Benedict's private lectures. While
they were gone, Alex freed Heather from the shackles, and she offered him
some tea as thanks. I suppose I could have objected, but I doubted she
could escape with all of us watching her, and I guess I felt a tiny bit
sorry for her. Not much though, I will grant you. Benedict announced
that he would be taking all of us back with him to Castle Amber, where
Driscoll, Alex, Heather and I would be brought before Eric, who is
currently acting as ruler. He did not look in the mood to tolerate any
argument, so we all accompanied him with no trouble.
And so, I have finally journeyed to Amber, the place so beloved by
my relatives. It is not, however, how I envisioned my first entrance to
the city, and certainly not the circumstances under which I wanted to meet
the man who may be my true pater. I had wished to spend some time
learning more about him, so I would have more than a resemblance to him as
proof when I confronted him. As it is now, I can say nothing, unless he
chooses to broach the subject himself. I just wish I knew why I was
abandoned as a baby. Sometimes I fear I may never learn the answer to my
questions. Well, it should not be long before I meet Eric. When next I
write, perhaps I will have learned a few of the answers I so desire.
"Outrageous Fortune"
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All text on this page is © 1993-1998 by Kris Fazzari.
Last modified on August 2, 1998 by Kris Fazzari.