From Kris.Fazzari@um.cc.umich.edu Thu Apr 7 16:14:28 1994 Date: Thu, 7 Apr 94 14:28:16 EDT From: Kris.Fazzari@um.cc.umich.edu To: thari@umich.edu Subject: Ariana's Diary Amber, year three, day 274 Early morning Ahab came around at four in the morning with news that Merlin had been captured by Vetch. Fortunately, there was no sign of the nausea that had plagued me the previous evening, so I put on my armor, grabbed Alastor, and headed down to the kitchen for some coffee. I forgot to bring a shield and crossbow, though. I'm going to procure those items from the armory and leave them by my bedside, where I am less likely to forget them in the future. Ahab put together a pretty impressive group this time. Bleys, Gerard, Felix and myself. I suggested asking Ariadne to come along as well, and she was more than willing when she heard there would be violence. Ahab asked Deirdre to come, but she opted to stay behind. She certainly has changed. Merlin has somehow created a computer that can operate across shadow. I wonder how he did it? Ghostwheel, as he calls it, is the one who came to Ahab for help when Merlin disappeared. It wouldn't talk to the rest of us. Felix told us that Vetch is the head of a house in Chaos. I'd always assumed Vetch was from Rygat's house. It just demonstrates how little we know about the man who has caused so much trouble for us. What will I tell my child when she asks about her father? For all I know, this child could be Vetch's heir. I hope not. He must have other children. If not, then I fear this will not end with Vetch's death. I wonder why Kimdyl didn't mention this little fact? I don't see how she could know of Vetch, but miss the fact that there's a house of the same name. His position will complicate matters when we kill him, since his house will probably want revenge. Why is nothing ever simple? Ahab and Bleys spent some time discussing how we were going to find Vetch, while Felix kept whining about the time. He certainly is crabby when he doesn't get his sleep. I suggested that Ghostwheel might be able to find Vetch, so Ahab asked if it could. It disappeared, which the rest of us took as a yes. Ahab kept hinting that Bleys should take charge of the group, but Bleys ignored him. I think he viewed the whole thing as an amusing interlude. Bleys seemed to think that the Pattern would be able to locate Vetch, even if he was shapeshifted. He also claimed to know a few methods for dealing with shapeshifters, but naturally, he didn't share them. Ahab got a trump call from Merlin, saying everything was fine and Ghostwheel had just overreacted. Given that we were dealing with a master shapeshifter, we had trouble believing his story. For all we knew Vetch had disguised himself as Merlin. So, we opted to go after Vetch anyway. Ahab asked Bleys to do the teleportation duties. Which meant Bleys needed an image of Vetch. Unfortunately, I was the only one who could provide him with that. None of us has seen Vetch's true form, to our knowledge, but I have been rather... close to him in two of his disguises. I wasn't real eager to reveal my relationship with Vetch to Bleys, but I didn't have much choice. I tried to keep any knowledge of my pregnancy out of the contact, but I'm not sure if I succeeded. Bleys kissed my hand and offered his condolences when he was finished. He really is quite charming. To put it briefly, nothing happened. Bleys transported us to a plain full of nothing but purple grass. No sign of Vetch anywhere. Or anything that Vetch could be disguised as. Then Bleys got a trump call from Random and said he had to go. So much for the only person in the group who has any skill in dealing with shapeshifters. Unless Gerard has some unexpected talents he's been hiding from us. Gerard checked in with Random, who was not pleased to learn what we were doing. He felt it might be seen as an invasion of Chaos. You'd think Chaos would be more than willing to let us pursue a man who is their enemy. Certainly Bleys and Gerard voiced no objections to the plan. To be honest, even if Chaos disapproved, I would still pursue Vetch. I will not feel safe while he lives. Random ordered us to get permission from Chaos before proceeding any further, so Ahab contacted Alex. Alex apparently wasn't taking calls, so Ahab asked for my help. I was only too happy to give it. I'm still convinced Alex knew more about Vetch than he told me. I hope I gave him a headache. Ahab asked Alex to ask Gramble for permission to attack Vetch. Actually, Ahab wanted permission to lay waste to the entire house, which I thought was a little extreme. We don't know if they've been supporting Vetch in his endeavors. In any case, I find it unlikely that Gramble would give us permission to destroy an entire house. It would set a bad precedent. While we waited for Alex to get back to us, Felix plopped down on the grass and took a nap! I can't believe that man. We're in the middle of Chaos and he goes to sleep! At least he wasn't complaining about how early it was any more. After a while, I decided to trump back to Amber and get some crossbows (apparently no one else thought to bring any either). That's when we discovered the trumps weren't working. Seeing as how we were already short our most important person, and feeling rather exposed in our current location, we decided to leave. Ahab tried to teleport us out using the Pattern. Ariadne interrupted his first attempt, and ran off when Ahab asked her not to do that. Felix followed her and informed us that we were right next to the Abyss. Definitely not high on my list of places to revisit in Chaos. It took Ahab a while to get ready, and seemed to take more out of him than usual. I wonder if Alex has as much trouble using the Logrus in Amber? I never got the impression that he had any difficulty at all. Curious. Ariadne wouldn't come back, so we decided to go without her. She is from Chaos, after all, so she was already close to home. I'm not sure what happened next. There was some kind of backlash that knocked us off our feet. The next thing I know, Ariadne is standing over us saying we'd been suspended in some sort of power flux for the past three hours. I was definitely starting to feel like we were in another shadow trap. We tried shifting shadow next. Ahab said it was working, but the more we walked, the more... unpleasant the shadows became. Then Ariadne fell through a trap in the ground. She fell a long way before we heard a splash. We were still trying to figure out if she could get out on her own when Ahab told us Merlin was in contact with him and offering to bring us out, but it had to be done now. I didn't want to leave Ariadne, but I didn't want to stay in that place any longer, either. I told myself we could trump Ariadne after Merlin got us out of there. Merlin brought us to his apartment on Shadow Earth. If it was Merlin. If it was Vetch, he was playing a curious game, but that would hardly be unusual. Ghostwheel was nowhere to be seen. Merlin claimed he was pouting in a corner. I tried to get him to tell me a little bit about Ghostwheel. Partly out of curiosity and partly to assure myself that this was Merlin. Even if Vetch assumed Merlin's persona, I don't think he'd understand how Ghostwheel worked. Unfortunately, Merlin claimed it would take too long to explain. Which did nothing to reassure me. I have got to learn how to identify shapeshifters! This is starting to get ridiculous. The others went back to Amber. I decided to stay and make use of the tech level in the shadow, since I was overdue for a pre- natal exam. Fortunately they have free clinics in Shadow Earth. I checked on Ariadne before I left. She answered the call and seemed fine, other than being a little wet. Assuming it was Ariadne. I hate this! It seemed rude to go rifling through Merlin's apartment, so I did some shadow shifting to find some appropriate clothing. Shadow Earth just isn't the place to go walking down the streets wearing armor. I used Merlin as a reference to home back in on Shadow Earth and went to the clinic. The doctor seemed competent and told me the pregnancy is going fine. Which was reassuring news. Afternoon After the exam was over, I trumped Gerard to see if he was willing to look at Mirelle with me. I woke him up. Ooops. I let him go back to sleep and trumped back to Amber. It was past noon when I arrived. Time flow seems to be particularly weird around Chaos. During Patternfall, we spent only four months fighting our way there, but two years passed in Amber. Similarly, when Martin and I went to find Ahab in Chaos, far more time passed in Amber while we were gone. But Foster spent ten years growing up in Chaos while only a few days passed in Amber. Today it seemed like more time passed in Amber than in Chaos, but the ratio wasn't off by much. I don't understand how the ratio can fluctuate so much in both directions. Maybe that's part of the nature of Chaos. I just wish it would fluctuate to our advantage, for a change. After grabbing some lunch, I went looking for Ahab. I couldn't find him in the Castle, so I trumped him. He was talking to what I later learned is his Pattern ghost. He came through and we had a long talk about the Pattern. Ahab told me that the Pattern takes kind of a snapshot of you when you walk it, and it can later recall these images. Apparently no women have walked the Rose, so Ahab's Pattern ghost is getting a little unhappy. Ahab asked me if I wanted to sleep with it. I don't know. It would be kind of weird, sleeping with Ahab but not sleeping with him. On the other hand, a Pattern ghost is probably one of the only things Vetch can't imitate. I'll keep it in mind. The fact that the Pattern can create these images is mind boggling. Amber's Pattern must have quite a collection. At least one from each of my aunts and uncles from when they first walked the Pattern. I wonder what they were like when they were younger? It must have a quite a collection from Corwin and Ahab. Mirelle's ghost can't have been from very long ago, since I had already been born. If I asked the Pattern for a ghost that could instruct me in how to identify shapeshifters, would it help me? Something to try, at any rate. I told Ahab about my conversations with Mirelle, both the real one and the Pattern ghost. He seemed to feel sorry that Mirelle is my mother, but it could have been worse. At least I don't have Brand for a parent. He also thought it odd that my visions in Tir-na Nog'th would be so wrong. Neither of us really understand how that place works, though. I'd like to visit it again, and see what it shows me this time. The rest of the afternoon was quite enjoyable. It's probably the most fun I've had since I found out about Vetch. Ahab and I went to Gerard's summer house. Ahab wanted to present Gerard with a gift he bought in shadow and I still needed to talk to Gerard. I figured that this way I wouldn't have to wake him up if he was still sleeping. Besides, it was a beautiful day for a ride. We came across Felix and Foster in the process of making a bet. A little coaxing revealed they were planning to visit Rebma without any clothing and see who could... last the longest. Needless to say, Ahab and I found this quite amusing and asked to come along to "judge" the contest. Foster said we'd have to follow the rules of the bet as well. Ahab and I readily agreed. The trip was a lot of fun. Foster changed to his Chaos form, which doesn't have any genitalia. It was hardly fair for Felix, but it wasn't a condition of their bet that they remain in human form. Felix was nervous about the whole thing. I guess he was worried about the way Foster was acting. I tried to reassure him that he had nothing to worry about. Boys Foster's age try to pretend that they're sexually mature, but it's all a bluff. I don't think Felix believed me. Foster seemed quite surprised to learn that Ahab and I had slept together, and asked Felix why we could sleep with relatives if he couldn't. It sounds like Foster has been asking Felix all the difficult questions today. I don't see the problem, but then I've never understood the objection most of the family seems to have about that. At least Foster seems to have loosened up. I think Felix was the only one who didn't have a good time. Poor Felix. I think Foster is good for him. On the way back Foster grew fins and outdistanced us all. Felix was afraid Foster would steal his clothing, so Ahab teleported us to the beach ahead of the boy. At which point Felix wanted to do to Foster what he thought Foster was going to do to him. I pointed out that Foster would probably just stay in Chaos form then. Felix decided to leave Foster's clothes alone. We've been invited to stay for dinner, which should be fun. Afterwards, I'll have to talk with Gerard about Mirelle. What a peculiar day this has been. Given the way it started, the last thing I expected to be doing this evening was sitting down to dinner with Gerard and his family. Hopefully the rest of the day will go this well. I wonder if Gramble approved our vendetta against Vetch? I'm sure we'll find out, one way or the other.