Entry 15:9  One day

	Stuck in an infirmary all day.  Very boring, of course, as it
always is.  Good news is, the nurses are fun, and the pages are helpful.
Kept them busy running back and forth to the library for me.  Wanted to
find anything useful about magic or ghosts.  Magic seems like a useful
skill to pick up.  Especially of the sort that Random used the other day.
Poof!  Ammo, of exactly the right style.  That would be very handy.
Suspect Ari can do it too, when she's herself.  She stopped by early this
morning, but wouldn't tell me everything I wanted to know.
Understandable.  I wouldn't either, if in her shoes.  Anyway, she
suggested a book or two on ghosts, and I skimmed a bunch of useless
stories all morning.  Nothing to help with the suddenly appearing woman
I've seen twice, now.  Ari didn't suggest any books on magic, because
"Magic doesn't work now."  Curious phrasing.  Obviously, it worked before,
seen it, after all.  Trumps still work.  Three possibles.  1) She's lying.
2) She's lost hers without her body - yet she changes her appearance! -
and is overreacting.  3) Something happened (during quake?) to change the
way things work.  1) Possible - wasn't watching for a lie, since she's
sensitive to even light probes.  She's got a strong mind.  She did seem to
be holding something back, but my impression did not "feel" like she was
lying.  2) Too many holes.  She's likely a better liar, and she's taking
the change rather calmly, otherwise.  3) Added with the fact that no
'gunpowder' will work here, and that Ari refused to comment on selecting
this dimension by the family (Oberon?), I now suspect there is some
mechanism for changing the way things work - magic and chemistry, for
example.  Perhaps that is why this dimension was chosen.  I'll need some
corroborating evidence before I accept this result, however.

	Actually, though, I only decided to write this entry today because
of a visitor I had this afternoon (and I'm bored).  Brand.  Nothing really
happened, and that's what made it so odd.  He just asked after my health,
and offered to provide me with any help I might need.  That could have
been his trap - get me indebted to him.  But it might have been just what
it seems, too.  It seems too obvious, so I would've been inclined to
accept it as just a nice gesture, except for his entrance.  He walked in,
systematically tapped everyone else on the shoulder so they all left,
apparently on some errand, and then he came over and talked to me.  Why go
through all that to just talk, unless you were trying something?  I've no
clue what he's up to, and Fiona did warn me about him (vaguely), so I had
Angel see if she noticed any change in my mind.  She didn't.  Perplexing.

	Meanwhile, Angel feels tasty mice are better than free scratchings
by the bedridden, and my ribs feel much better.  Thanks to my fast
healing.

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