Session Five

My head aches and I am not in the mood for verbosity. Nevertheless, I must record the last few days' events, as they were significant. Jack, it seems, has overplayed his hand quite a bit, and was forced to flee Amber. I am quite peevish about this. I would expect more subtlety from the avatar of Faerie.

When I returned to Amber, Elaine was quite in a fright. Apprently Ishmael barged in the previous day and destroyed my construct. She thought me dead or wounded, and so my sudden appearance startled her. I did not see it necessary to explain that it was not me in the first place. Rather annoying, however, that she is so incapable of following through with my orders. If I wish to remain undisturbed, I must do something more. And so I gave her a magical corsette of my own design, an enchanting garment which lends strength and durability to its wearer. That should make it quite a bit harder for Ishmael to push her around.

As I said, much transpired in my absence. Laughter and Foster were ambushed at Ygg and both of there minds were wiped clean of memories. The tragedy of this has affected the entire family. The Ygg cutting was destroyed, and occurring at the same time as Jack's appearance in Amber, many suspect it his doing. Ariana of course believes such and does her best to convince others of this. Really the woman is quite unreasonable in how much blame she lays at Jack's feet. Were she to tear her gown, no doubt she would blame it on some malign curse sent her by the avatar of Faerie. Certainly he stole her child, but one cannot be much surprised that a poisonous snake will bite.

We spoke at the infirmary and she explained to me how Jack must be invited into Amber to retain his power, and how only the one who invited him could remove said invitation. How trite. I could easily see where this was going to end. It was only a matter of time before I would be forced to confess, and so perhaps I immediately decided to find him and remove the invitation before any family member got around to asking me. As I chatted with Ariana I heard the sound of stone on steel, Ishmael dragging that wretched blade of his across the floor, and so I hid from his eyes using my magic. He spoke with Ariana a bit; I ignored him as best I could. When he left, I resumed my visibility and talked with her further.

After learning all I could from her, I went to speak with Nicholas, but he was busy. And so I went back to my room, where I created another clockwork bird and sent it to Jack. I clearly felt the need to talk to him. Realizing that it would be some time before he responded, I then went to lunch, where I met Ishmael and was forced to listen to his tirades.

Lacking a clear target into which he could thrust his mighty blade, dear Ishmael was feeling a tad...shall we say...impotent. With so much strife around him, and being left out of it in such an obvious way, he felt the need to reassert his manliness by stopping either Jack or Brand. I did what I could to bolster his ego by encouraging the notion that there was something he could do about this whole matter, but in my heart I realized that in this particular situation, we were both helplessly outclassed. Sometimes I just wish he'd get a date.

We talked for a while about Jack, he trying to wring concessions out of me while I artfully dodged his questions. Eventually we agreed to go in pursuit of Jack, and using my magical amulet, we began the slow and painstaking process of moving through shadow that comes of not having walked the Pattern. Were it not for our stumbling across Teresa, we no doubt would have wandered for a long time. I knew of course that this mode of travel was counter-productive, but I needed time to think, and the so did Ishmael, really.

Teresa was less than impressed with our plan, and told us that she, too, was in pursuit of Jack, and that he was on an intercept course with Fiona. Ouch. The last thing I wanted at that point was an unpleasant enounter between Jack and my mother, and so I resolved to stave this off as best I might. And so I trumped mother, and explained to her that I could help. She pulled me through, leaving dear Ishmael behind, no doubt feeling quite ineffectual.

I arrived on the back of mother's horse, caught in the middle of a furious hellride, which was certainly a new experience for me...and quite unpleasant. I used my magic to conjure myself increased protection, speed, and took the form of Teresa. And then I clutched Fiona all the more tightly and closed my eyes.

When we stopped I got down and began looking for Jack. He arrived in the guise of Brand, and was immediately held in a magical field by Teresa. Before he could do anything more I loudly called out to him:

"I retract my invitation, Jack! I remove it, withdraw it, which is to say that you are no longer welcome in my home, which is Castle Amber and all its environs."

He scowled at me and commented on the strange duplicity of two Teresas, at which point I dropped my illusions and began to admonish him on attracting so much attention in Amber. I mean, really, what choice did he leave me but to remove the invitation. We chatted about things, and I mentioned the possibility of assuming position as ambassador to Faerie. Eventually Teresa grew irritable and asked if she could banish him back to Faerie. Before she did, I also added that he was not to interpret the second clockwork bird as any sort of invitation. He frowned deeply at that, and disappeared.

When I looked back to mother, she had already subdued Brand and Benedict was carrying him. Mother returned us to Amber and the trial of Brand began in earnest.

The events that occurred there will not be recorded here. I do not feel the need to do so. I repaid my uncle for what he made me, watched his punishment idly, and offered comforting words to my mother after, saying "I am sorry you had to that, mother." And then I went out to drink with Mirelle, Ariana, and Ishamael.

And that is why, though the sun is shining and things are good in Amber, I feel like shit, and am disposed to less than pleasant. Elaine may not be the strongest girl, but she is perceptive, and upon seeing my mood this morning, found quick excuse to run errands in Amber city. As I sit here I start to recall some of the things I said last night. I believe I talked about Edwin...quite a bit actually. Funny, I haven't even thought about him for some sixty years and now I cannot stop remembering him. I know why. It was Bartholomew. Seeing the rabbit symbol on his tunic and seeing his features, so reminiscent of Edwin; they have caused me to recall. Such painful remembrances. I left Thorn's headstone in Chaos. I wish that there were some way to reclaim it. From what Ariana said last night, her son Grayson has been retrieved. Perhaps he can assist me in this. If nothing else I can find out if House Jesby ever learned of my husband's fate. And I should probably talk to mother. She will hear of this eventually, and it would be better that she heard it from me. It has been a long time since those dark days. Perhaps it is time I start dealing with what happened so long ago.

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