Some day, I shall sit down to my journal and write that nothing of importance has transpired. That the weather has been fair, and that whatever ill news that may have reached my ears is distant and minor in its repercussions.
Sadly, this is not that day, and my journal is again a catalog of tears and pain.
But there were some good times. I spend a leisurely afternoon gardening with Edwin, and my gardens are nearly restored to their former splendor. I have promised myself to spend at least some time with him every day until our wedding, that I might become used to his presence...that I might replace those old nightmares with happier memories. I dined alone and spend the evening reading, and went to bed early.
I woke early the next morning and was barely finished dressing when Elaine called out. She stood, staring out the window with a look of shock that warned me that the day would be yet another trial. Out past Amber City I saw a pillar of purplish-pink light...some strange color I had never before beheld...it rose from the ground and beamed into the heavens. For a moment, I considered simply ignoring it and crawling back into my bed. But no...no catastrophe is complete without my personal touch.
I contacted Caine via trump and woke him, telling him to look out his window. He did and I was greated by the sight of him nude. Needless to say, I was less than impressed, and my comment caused him to break contact. Realizing that this might be dangerous, I called upon Edwin and asked him if he was up for a bit of a journey. He agreed and we secured a carriage, and immediately left towards the source of the pillar of light.
It took us some time to get there, and by the time we arrived, the light, and whatever had caused it, was gone. Not too surprisingly, Gavin was there...and on the ground was a pentagram scrawled into the ground.
He denied any complicity of this, which surprised me. I had the impression that infernal activity in Amber eventually traced itself back to Gavin. This one, it seems, was the result of Ishmael, Ariana, and Meander...whom I think I have met in passing. Realizing that trumping Ishmael would be a waste of effort, I instead attempted to contact Ariana.
I reached her and we briefly chatted. I found her to be very evasive, but I persisted. Eventually, she offered to pull me through, and Edwin came as well, just after ording the groom to return the carriage to the castle.
Ariana told me an interesting tale. There is a place called the Disc, where exists a type of magic that can be used to counter the power of Fairy. She also called it the Plane of Magic. She and Ishmael had contrived with Alex to summon this Plane from the Abyss...to re-attach it to Amber so that we could access a type of power that might counteract the Fairies who had so recently dealt us such a decisive blow.
The Emperor approved of their plan, but during the summoning Bart...the fifth point on their pentagram was kidnapped...pulled into the very ground...which seemed to indicate that some fairy had attempted to stop them. Ariana was unsure of the success of the spell.
I offered to assist them. The fairy ward given me by Benedict would keep Jack and his allies at bay long enough for the group to complete the spell. I could hardly refuse to aid them in what the Emperor had sanctioned. And they needed a fifth with Bart's disappearance....
We trumped to the Unicorn Shrine, where Ariana gave Edwin her enchanted sword, that he might defend us against attack. We had barely begun when the spell failed...some hidden archer was contriving to destroy our implements. Ishmael went after him. The arrows we recognized as Caine's. Irritated, Ariana and I joined forces in attempting to trump him...but he blocked. Our efforts, however, did distract him enough that eventually Ishmael returned to say that Caine was gone.
Thus we began the spell again, after Alex returned with more candles. We started the spell again, and shortly after beginning I felt two points go down. Immediately I trumped out. In my present condition, I have no way of defending or healing myself, and I am not so incautious as to gamble my health for an uncertain goal. I trumped Edwin to get him out. He resisted at first, until I explained that he had no business getting involved in a family quarrel.
Angered at Caine's interference, I went to find the Emperor. Surely he would know why Caine chose to stop this. The sight that greeted me there was unexpected. The two guards slumped against the walls outside...dead. And in the office, a spray of blood and no Nicholas. Immediately, I asked Edwin to help me drag the bodies inside, and I shut the doors endeavoring to hide what had transpired. It could be disastrous to Amber's morale to believe the Emperor assassinated.
Nicholas was untrumpable, and my spells indicated that no magic had been used in here. Almost immediately Ishmael, Ariana, and Random arrived. From their expressions, they were prepared for the worst. They informed me that somehow Eric had been whisked here during their conflict. I attempted to trump Eric, and could not reach him. Ariana assisted me and I was able to make contact. I questioned him respectfully, and he denied having anything to do with Nicholas' disappearance. He admitted to having killed the guards, but that the Emperor was gone by the time he breached the door.
I thanked him for his cooperation and recommended that he remain reachable. I closed the contact and narrated this information to the others. We discussed it for a moment. We were able to surmise that the blood was of the line of Corwin, and therefore probably the Emperor's. Ishmael trumped Vincent and conversed for a moment...telling us that Eric is not with Nicholas, but that he had just trumped Felix. Nicholas was moving, and wearing an item that blocked trump.
While I pondered Felix's possible involvement in this whole matter, Ariana trumped her husband, and soon Lucien Vetch joined us. Lucien admitted that he can track Nicholas anywhere, and transformed into a large creature which Ishmael mounted. The two left immediately.
Random took charge of the situation, for which I was very grateful. I explained that I would go to question Felix, and began by trumping Tamaryn. I asked her if her husband was present, and if the three of us might speak. During the conversation, I endeavored to be as polite as possible, but was quite blunt in making it clear that Eric was accused of attempted assassination, and that I was curious as to Felix's complicity in this. He explained that Eric had contacted him, claiming that he was about to be falsely accused of some crime. He asked from Felix a bauble which could block trump, which Felix granted. I thanked Felix for his cooperation and reminded him that as far I was concerned, Eric is innocent until proven guilty, and that I wasn't leaping to conclusions in this matter. I could tell from the look on Tamaryn's face, that she resented my interrogation of her husband, but to honest, I didn't give a damn what she felt.
I returned to the castle and filled Random in on what I had found out, and then went to Alex, as he apparently had some involvement in this. We talked over trump. He confided that the spell had finished successfully, of which I was not too terribly pleased. The conversation itself was odd...him being possessed by the personality Ree-Shau, who is a rather crotchety gentleman, and rather rude. Eventually I trumped through and we talked more...until I was attacked.
What to say? One minute I'm talking to Alex, the next I'm lying on the ground, my back torn open by claws...my kidney shredded...the pain was...not unfamiliar. I didn't attempt to get up, but rather drew a trump and trumped to my quarters. I arrived in the parlor and fell to the ground, bleeding on the woven rug. I alled weakly to Elaine, who screamed at the sight of me. I tried Edwin's trump but was in too much pain to concentrate. And so I gave it to Elaine and explained what she must do. She got through to him, and he immediately set about healing me.
Demonic creatures...that's what I had seen attacking us.
Ariana trumped me and came through; she, too, had been attacked by a demon. I told her to trump Tamaryn and warn her...to ask her to watch the children...for in pain I assumed that it was an assault on Amber...and wanted to run to Maddy to warn her and protect her children. But Ariana prevented me...the target was us, she claimed, those that cast the spell. As we spoke I began to hear sounds...of talons clawing their way through stone walls. I recommended we go to the Pattern room. In the center we could lure them, and on its curves they would burn and die. She agreed.
We ran there as quickly as we could, and were able to persuade the guards to come into the room and lock the door behind them. But I was too weak to walk it. I handed Edwin the Ward and bid him go to the far corner...and then I used my magic to heal myself more fully. I retrieved the stone, and began the walk.
Never in my life have I felt such pain...as if to be burning while walking it. It went on forever, until I collapsed in the center.
I awoke later, hurting profoundly. Ariana was there...helped me rise...and a leather cord fell from my throat. The Faerie Ward was gone. I cried out, fearing I had destroyed it, but Ariana disagreed, not elaborating. There was a battering at the door...and Ariana explained there plan. Walking the Pattern had removed the spell signature from them...the demons would ignore them. Ishmael was to serve as bait for them. He trumped through to me...but seemed oddly cordial, saying only that we'd fight later. I teleported us out of the center of the Pattern, and Edwin came to my side.
The demons broke in almost immediately...ten of them. Five Gavin was able to capture with a spell, and Ariana and Edwin set upon another, which they killed. Alexandra appeared and ordered me to stay in the corner...and I did, and she used her powers to drop one on the Pattern, which caused a wave of force to knock us all down. I cried out at her rash behavior, for we must be careful with it, having no more a means of repairing it. Realizing I was correct, she leapt into the fray in her normal style.
Eventually, they overcame the demons, and Ishmael trumped out.
In the aftermath, I spoke with Ariana who explained to me that the ward was a permanent part of me. The realization of it hit me with the force of a squall. My magic was gone...permanently...and there would be no reclaiming it. All that I'd ever known was gone. I cried out and ran from the room, eventually trumping to my rooms where I broke down into tears.
She can't remove it, she said. Impossible for her.
Alexandra arrived to console me, but I asked her to leave. I cannot bear her attentions just now...not in my moment of weakness.
Eventually, I calmed...and washed my face...and put on a clean dress...and shakily trumped Lucien. His examination was no more favorable that his wife's. Removing it from me would require an effort akin to running me through a sieve...and there was no guarantee that it would work...or that it would return to us the Ward. I thanked him and left.
I went to Random and informed him of all that had happened, and he told me that the Emperor had been recovered and that all was well. I told him of the Ward, but he had little to say on it.
And so I retired to my rooms and slept, and on the following day was refreshed, though still tender from my wounds. My magic was gone, but the Disc might provide me with a new magic. I trumped Alex and we talked. Dominated by Reeshau it was hard to get anything useful from him, and at one point he attempted to use the spikard on me, but being an artifact of fairy...it had no effect. He recommended I talk to Meander.
Before attending to that, however, I trumped Felix. I thanked him again for his assistance and informed him that Eric had been cleared of all charges against him. I asked him to inform Eric of this at his earliest opportunity, and that if Eric was unsure of the truth of it, I would be more than happy to provide it in writing. He thought it best, and so I drafte a brief note that exonerated him of all guilt concerning the assault of Nicholas on that day.
My talk with Meander went passably, and on trumping through to him I found myself on this place they call the Disc. Not so different from home really. He said that Ariana had just visited, asking the same of him...to procure her a tutor in witchcraft. He agreed to combine our inquiries. Before leaving, I made a sketch of an Inn there, that I might return again. And then I trumped home. I had lunch with Random, and we talked...and eventually I met with Ariana, and we rehashed the days' events.