Chapter 100: "You always die from the last, biggest, stupidest thing you
ever did."

Thursday, July 13, 2994

	Felix gets to hear many tales of Caine and Gerard's early days at
sea.  Unfortunately, he also gets very drunk, so by morning, he's jumbled
them all together in a drunken haze.

	Alex Trumps Laughter, but the card doesn't animate.  Neither does
Foster's.  A random page doesn't know where they are.  Caitt is gone, too. 
She left Alex a note, though, telling him that they are in Rath.  Catch
is, it's a barred Shadow, so Alex can't get in.  Rashan claims he knows a
spell that can do what Alex wants.  His attempts to teach it to Alex, and
the resultant arguments, occupy him until noon.  At least he thinks it's
noon.  As he looks around, he realizes that it seems to be the middle of
the night, and his hand really, really hurts.  When he pulls the glove off
to give himself the injections, the blackness is halfway up his hand.  It
smells kind of ripe.  Ewww.  After he finishes the injections and is
replacing the glove, he hears something snap on his hand.  So much for
that finger.  He gets some food from the kitchen, then Trumps Teresa to
discuss his problem.  She comes through and asks why he's up in the middle
of the night.  Well, they were working on a spell...  So, losing time is
the problem he wanted to talk about?  No, it's the hand.  He's not worried
about the time loss.  He asks what will happen to the Spikard if he chops
his hand off.  It will probably revert to its pristine state.  He'll have
to re-rack his spells, of course.  Well, he's been putting off amputating
the hand, but now that the cancer is almost at his wrist...  In that case,
Teresa points out that they are in the kitchen, where there's lots of
cleavers.  No, he'd rather go elsewhere.  She has a place in mind.  He
should gather up a few things, though, since they might be gone for a
couple of days.  He gets his spell notes and Teresa takes him to Bedlam.

	Ariana goes down to the practice room to spar in the morning, but
no one else is there.  She makes an appointment to see Nicholas and Eric
at ten, then finds Shard and asks if he can make a meeting that late.  He
thinks he can, if it's short.  Ariana then finds Bill Roth and gets
permission to access Miranda's shop.  She goes back to her quarters and
finds that the kids are up, as is Anne.  Riftvan is still sleeping. 
Mirelle's door is closed, which is odd, since she's usually up with the
children.  Ariana knocks, but there's no answer.  She opens the door, and
finds that the room is empty, with the bed neatly made.  Talking bones
shows Mirelle packing up in the middle of the night and leaving. 
Unfortunately, any pages/guards that were on duty then are currently
sleeping.  Ariana Trumps Mirelle, who asks who she is and tells her to go
away.  Mirelle is wearing black and has her hair tied back.  The Shadow
she is in is wild and dark looking.  Ariana tries to get her to come back. 
Mirelle decides to ignore her.  She sneaks up on a camp and kills everyone
there.  She then takes all of the possessions from a body that looks a lot
like her, and begins digging holes.  Ariana figures that Mirelle is going
to take that woman's place.  She wakes up Riftvan, shows him the image of
the Shadow, and asks if he knows where Mirelle is.  She's near the Rim. 
He adds that she had to have help getting past the Logrus barrier. 
Ariana's worried about leaving her there.  Riftvan doesn't want Ariana
going after her, so he goes himself.  Ariana continues watching Mirelle
through the Trump contact.

	Laughter has a nice bath with Driscoll.  Well, most of the
activity takes place after she gets out of the bath.  Foster is just
getting up when they are done.  They all pack up the kids and go down to
breakfast.

	Ariana is missing from breakfast, although her kids are there. 
They're still very well-behaved.  Caine is also absent.  Gerard seems to
be hung over, and Isabeux is taking some delight in making loud noises
near him, and scraping her utensils on her plate.

	Laughter Trumps Mandor after breakfast and comes through with
Iseult.  Iseult stares quietly at Mandor for a while, causing Mandor to
remark that she shares Fiona's gift for speech.  Iseult keeps giving
Laughter questioning looks, and still has quite a grip on her hand. 
Laughter tries to make her comfortable.  Does she want to show Mandor her
sword?  She draws it and points it at Mandor.  Laughter shows her the
proper way to present her sword.  Iseult sheathes hers instead.  Mandor
comments that his reputation seems to have preceded him.  He eventually
manages to get Iseult over her stunned awe of him and takes her over to a
cabinet in his study which has all sorts of neat weapons.  While she's
distracted, Laughter Trumps Foster and leaves, after taking a longing look
at the cabinet herself.  Foster asks how it went.  Laughter explains,
including the fact that Iseult didn't say anything at all to Mandor. 
Oops, maybe Foster went a bit overboard, but better that than dead.

	Felix checks in on Gerard.  Isabeux is still making a lot of noise
around him to torment him.  Felix asks if it's really true.  What?  He
doesn't remember?  Then forget he brought it up.  Felix tries to leave,
but Gerard grabs him by the back of the neck.  Felix claims he doesn't
remember.  Then why did he ask?  He wanted to know if it was true.  Gerard
threatens to ask Caine.  Felix isn't sure Caine will remember, either. 
Felix finally admits that doesn't quite remember the stories clearly,
they're all jumbled up.  Gerard comments that maybe Felix isn't too old to
spank, causing Felix to yell for Isabeux.  Gerard winces.  Felix explains
that Gerard is trying to spank him.  Isabeux thinks that Gerard deserves a
spanking for going off and getting completely drunk, with her in this
condition.  Apparently, Isabeux is suffering from morning sickness.  Felix
sneaks out, earning a glare from Gerard as he goes.

	Usires stakes out an alley in the area where Maxim thought Rolly
hung out.  He remains there until the bars close, then crawls back into
bed to sleep for a bit.  He wakes up after a couple of hours and waits for
the page he paid to listen for information at the bars, but the boy
doesn't show up.  He heads down the practice room and finds Felix.  They
spar for a bit.

	Another new PC makes an appearance.  Her name is Vixen, and she is
5'2" tall, with yellow-brown eyes and orange-red hair.  She notices that
her lord has a finely dressed visitor, a man with red hair and green eyes. 
He sees her when he is leaving, smiles, and observes that her clothing
marks her to a certain profession.  Would she mind walking with him for a
bit?  Sure.  She's in the disposal business, correct?  She disposes of
certain problems.  For money?  Yes.  He offers to lure her away from her
petty lord.  Perhaps.  What is her usual fee?  For one time or steady
employment?  He's thinking of placing her on retainer, if she's any good. 
She has reasons for staying in the area.  Well, he'll scratch her back if
she scratches his.  What kind of work?  Very exciting, lots of travel to
exotic locales, lots and lots of money.  She asks for more details.  Back
in his country, there are a few nobles that are causing him no end of
grief, so he wants to make examples of them.  Well, she does have some
things of her own to take care of, but it might be good to get out of the
country when she's done.  He dangles a purse in front of her.  He'll
arrange the travel?  Yes, and cover the expenses.  She thinks she could be
ready to go within a month.  He'll pay her lord a visit at that time.  She
takes the purse.  It's pretty heavy.  She opens it and finds that the top
layer, at least, seems to be platinum.  This worries her a bit.  She looks
the man over more closely, and notices that his left eye is a bit cloudy,
so he probably can't see very well out of it.  He takes her hand and
kisses the air over it.  She says she'll want more details when he
returns.  Like destinations.  Fine.  Anything else?  No.  He gets into a
fine carriage and heads north.  Her contacts let her know that her half
brother, Barr, seems to have come into a bit of wealth, from an unknown
source, and he's more confident now.  The next day the word comes back to
her that Barr is beginning to buy up lots of the surrounding unclaimed
lands.  Vixen ponders this for a bit.

	Alex and Teresa take a flying taxi to the hospital.  Alex takes
off his glove, much to the dismay of the nurses, and they quickly take him
into one of the exam rooms so that no one else can see the horrid thing. 
They take his blood pressure, etc., and tell him that the doctor will be
in to see him shortly.  Teresa says she'll hold his hand.  *groan* She's
going to go be a nurse, since he wouldn't want to be unattended, after
all.  The doctor enters shortly after she leaves, and seems fascinated by
Alex's hand.  It looks like an advanced case of gangrene.  He squeezes a
finger and asks if it hurts.  It doesn't, but Alex pretends that it does. 
He is admitted and given a private room.  Teresa brings him dinner that
evening, dressed as a nurse.  She seems to have found a replacement hand
for herself.  Alex can see the magic around it.  She gives him some pills,
and says that he's to take them for the pain.  He might want to damp down
his shapeshifting a bit, so they don't decide to turn him into a research
project.  He takes the pills, and the night passes comfortably.  In the
morning, they begin preparing him for the surgery.  Teresa is there as a
different nurse.  Once the other nurses leave, Teresa begins squeezing the
anesthetic into him until the bag is empty, then replaces the bag and does
it again.  Sometime later, he wakes up in his room, with light streaming
in through the window.  His "hand" itches.  Teresa is nowhere around.  His
other two personalities are still there, though.  Doh!  He'd been hoping
they'd go with the Spikard.  He checks his stump, and determines that they
removed his hand and his arm halfway up to his elbow.  It hurts a lot.  A
nurse comes along and inserts something into the IV.  She suggests that he
relax and get some sleep.  The room starts feeling warm and fuzzy, and he
falls unconscious.

	Ariana continues to watch Mirelle through the Trump, until Mirelle
casts a spell that breaks the contact.  Ariana is unable to contact her
again, via Trump or Talking Bones.

	Laughter meets with Nicholas and asks what his bodyguard situation
is, since she wants to take him to Foil.  What is she going to show him? 
The kingdom she started to rule when she was 22.  Nicholas motions to the
shadows and two Hellmaids step out.  Laughter takes them to London, to the
battlefields where there are still countless faerie skulls lying about. 
Her kingdom was founded on blood, after all.  She then gives him a speech
about how difficult it was, and how the only thing good in her life was
Beauty, and Beauty is worried about Nicholas, and used to keeping the
council of kings, etc.  It looks like Nicholas hadn't gotten around to
thinking how this was affecting Beauty, yet, and he smiles for the first
time since Ahab died.  Laughter tells him that many people care for him,
and he has lots of help, if he needs it.  He notes that having been in a
similar situation, she should understand why he feels the needs to deal
with it alone.  Yes, she was pretty driven the first few years, but he has
more support.  He nods, and says he'll take her words to heart.  She
comments on how all the people she trained are now better than her, and
thinks that she's inferior.  He points out that she does have that army
she assembled.  She thinks he's hinting that she should be dealing with
that instead of tormenting him, and gives him her report on the army. 
Once she is done, he pulls a Trump of Amber and departs with his
bodyguards.  Laughter goes with.  She checks in on Foster and asks him to
watch Hary and Pax while she goes to play army in Rath.  She hasn't been
there long, when she realizes that she never told Nicholas Ahab's last
words, which was her primary reason for meeting with Nicholas in the first
place.  Doh!

	Ariana and Shard go to meet with Nicholas.  Shard is definitely
not a morning person.  He carefully pulls the curtains over the windows
before passing in front of them.  Ariana offers to do this for him, and
conjures him some sunscreen in jest.  They reach Nicholas' office and find
that Eric is not there.  Ariana tells Nicholas what she has learned about
Bridget having Amber blood, and her suspicion that she may be a spy. 
Nicholas thanks her and says he'll have Bridget watched.  Shard says he'd
like to formally acknowledge Brendan as his son.  He plans to talk to
Bridget tonight.  Ariana updates Nicholas on the Miranda situation.  He
asks her to keep him informed.  Was there anything else?  Yes, but she's
not sure he wants to discuss it in public.  It has to do with him and the
Pattern.  He'd rather discuss that some other time.

	Ariana decides to head into town and investigate Miranda's shop,
since it will keep her from worrying about Mirelle and Riftvan.  Miranda's
shop has two rooms downstairs, the front room, which Ariana has already
observed with her talking bones spell, and the back room.  She uses the
talking bones to play back what occurred in the back room, but it reveals
nothing useful.  Dara obviously didn't make the switch there.  Ariana goes
upstairs and repeats the process with the kitchen and the main room, and
gets the same results.  She hits pay dirt when she casts the spell in the
bedroom, however.  A woman dressed in black, with Dara's height and build,
entered the room, covered Miranda's mouth, and plunged a dagger into her
chest.  She then wrapped the body up and Trumped out with it.  Some time
later, "Miranda" returns.  Ariana thinks Miranda might have survived,
depending on where she was taken, since the blow missed the heart.

	Felix and Usires spar with blades for a while, then switch to
fists, at Felix's request.  They continue until lunch.  Felix tells Usires
of the drunken escapades of Caine and Gerard.  Usires tells Felix about
Jackie walking the Pattern.

	Vixen plots.  She sets up an arms deal in hopes of luring Barr out
the castle.  This is successful.  She kills everyone there, saving Barr
for last.  Unfortunately, when she goes to garrote Barr, she can't tighten
the cord around his high collar.  He then elbows her and throws her off of
him.  She throws a knife at him, and he flinches, but it bounces off of
his clothes.  Vixen grabs a sword, but while she's doing so, Barr slams
the door and locks her in.  She shifts to her fox form and goes out the
window.  Barr looses his dogs on her.  She runs for the river, shifts to
human, climbs a tree, and breaks loose a heavy branch.  She drops it on
Barr as he rides underneath her, and it catches him smack on the head,
stunning him and causing his horse to throw him.  She jumps down on him
and sticks a dagger in his eye, then kills the three guards that came with
him.  She returns to town and acts casual for a couple of days, waiting
for Brand to return.  She receives word that it's known that she's the one
who killed Barr.  Luckily, it's not public yet, but it will be, although
her other brother is doing his best to slow things down.

	Alex wakes up to a beeping sound moving in time with his heart,
and feels like he's restrained.  He can hear voices murmuring.  He opens
an eye a bit, and observes that he seems to be in a more isolated room. 
The nurses are separated from him by a window, and they're discussing his
amazing vital signs, and how fast his stump has healed.  He begins
processing the drugs out of his system as the nurses leave.  He carefully
looks around through slit eyes, and notices that there's a camera in
the corner, pointed right at him.  He shapeshifts out of the bonds, then
Logruses to Middlecourt, Trumps to Amber, and goes to his quarters.  It's
late afternoon.  He changes out of his hospital gown, and asks a page if
Laughter is around.  She's with her troops in Arden.  Alex Trumps Teresa,
but she doesn't answer.

	Brand arrives at the appointed time, on business with Vixen's lord
again.  Afterwards, he spots Vixen and asks if she's considered his offer. 
She thought they'd already taken care of that.  Is her business here
concluded?  Satisfactorily.  He'll wait for her to inform her lord that
she's leaving, then.  She does so, claiming to her lord that she got a
better offer.  She gets her weapons and torture implements, then Brand
hands her up into the carriage and they set off.  As they travel, he
begins giving her the kind of information she'll need to pull off her job. 
The next time she looks out the window, she doesn't recognize the terrain. 
She asks when they're taking ship.  They aren't.  Where are they going? 
Amber.  She's not familiar with it.  He offers to tell her about it. 
They'll be making a few stops along the way before they get there.  She
notices that he's wearing a necklace with a very large ruby.  She says
that she's never heard of a foreign country that's attached to hers by
land.  He tells her that they're traveling between the worlds.  She
doesn't find this all that reassuring.  She notices that he smells clean,
rather than perfumed, and begins to wonder if he's a demon.  She also
begins to wonder about the reason her attempt on Barr's life went so
wrong.

	Laughter talks to Beauty about Foil.  Beauty admits that with
everything that's been happening with Nicholas, she hasn't been there
recently.  Laughter suggests that she slow down the Shadow.  OK.  Laughter
also discusses the need for pre-natal care with Beauty.  Beauty doesn't
like the idea of a pelvic.  Laughter admits that it's oogie, and figures
they'll just ask Ariana to be her midwife.

	Usires checks in on the fleet building.

	Felix spends the afternoon avoiding Gerard.

	Laughter picks up Iseult from Mandor.  Iseult runs over and begins
chattering at her.  Mandor's given her a locket for emergencies.  There
are two Trumps in it, one of Mandor's study, and one of Laughter. 
Laughter's relieved the locket didn't contain a cyanide capsule.  She
returns to her quarters and throws Iseult in with Hary and Pax.  Hary is
chasing Pax and pretending to be a monster.  Foster whispers "food" to
Hary, causing him to head straight for the door.  As if his build alone
wasn't evidence that he takes after Gerard's line.

	Ariana searches Miranda's place, but doesn't find any notes on how
to make Takaran weapons.  Since she didn't see Dara removing any notes,
either, she figures that Miranda must have kept the information in her
head.  Her stomach reminds her that she hasn't eaten all day.  She returns
to her quarters and gets a hug from Jalana.  The boys are still
well-behaved.  There's no sign of Riftvan or Mirelle.  Ariana takes her
kids down to dinner.

	Missing from dinner are Mirelle, Riftvan, Eric, Ronan, Kimdyl,
Nimue, Fiona, Suhuy, Jackie and Ruepert.  Alex hides his hand/stump under
the table.  Gerard is still looking sternly at Felix, although there's a
glimmer of mirth in his eyes.  Felix says hello to Iseult.  Laughter tries
to pawn her off on Felix for the next day, much to Foster's amusement.
Laughter notices that Ariana isn't eating much, and asks what's going on.
Nothing.  Laughter asks her psychically to be Beauty's midwife.  Ariana
agrees to do so.  Laughter says that, in that case, she needs to set a
better example.  Like by eating more.  Ariana claims that she is eating. 
Laughter shovels more food on her plate, attracting Bleys' attention.
Ariana eats her food with a remarkable lack of enthusiasm.  Dessert comes
around, and Iseult, well-behaved until now, grabs some chocolate cake and
begins eating it with her hands.  She's a kitty, you see.  Laughter says
she needs to use a fork, and she's not a kitty.  Kitties don't carry
swords.  They do in Chaos.  Felix gives Foster a questioning look at this. 
Foster begins laughing.

	As they are heading back from dinner, Laughter gets a Trump call
from Fiona, who looks tired but happy.  Laughter figures that Fiona's had
the baby.  Fiona invites her to come through and see her baby sister. 
Laughter hands Iseult to Driscoll and goes through.  The baby's name is
Alexandra, and she's very tiny.  Her eyebrows are fine and almost silvery
in color.  Fiona tells Laughter that she and Suhuy will be passing a bit
of time in this Shadow.  She missed out on the chance to raise Laughter,
and she doesn't want to do the same with Alexandra.  Besides, things are
quiet in Amber, Middlecourt and the Courts, and they'll only be gone for a
few weeks.

	Alex waits for everyone else to leave the dining hall, so as not
to expose his stump.  He seeks out Caitt and asks if she knows the talking
bones spell.  Who does he think taught it to Laughter?  He'd like her to
use it to determine who killed his father.  OK.  They go to Delwin's
townhouse.  Caitt senses an odd power and asks if Delwin was a sorcerer. 
Yep.  She asks Alex to show her the room where Delwin died.  Lucretia asks
Alex how he's feeling.  Fine, but they can talk about it later.  Caitt
casts the spell and rewinds to the point of Delwin's death rather quickly. 
Delwin is at his desk, studying a book intently.  Alex realizes that it's
not the book that was found under Delwin's body.  It's a book on the
Spikards.  Suddenly, some of the shadows on the wall coalesce into a very
tall, slender man, dressed in black, who steps up and quickly slits
Delwin's throat, turning him away so that the blood spray is minimal. 
Then he goes out the window.  A little while later, a faerie steps through
the wall and takes the book on Spikards, leaving another in its place.  He
also takes Delwin's Spikard, and rearranges Delwin so that his body is
over the replacement book, before stepping back into the wall.  Caitt puts
a comforting hand on Alex's right arm and says she's terribly sorry.  Alex
takes Caitt back to the castle, then returns to talk to Lucretia. 
Lucretia thinks Teresa was terrible to leave Alex in the hospital.  Alex
wholeheartedly concurs.

	Laughter tells her family about Alexandra's birth.  The kids are
put to bed, then the men take Laughter to bed, with a slightly different
resolution this time, in that rest is not the immediate goal.

	Ariana spends the evening worrying about Mirelle and Riftvan.  She
sits up waiting for them, and eventually falls asleep in a chair.

	Felix Trumps Tamaryn, who smiles when she sees him.  She's on her
way back, does he want to pull her through?  He does this thing, and
receives a passionate kiss for his troubles.  Where has she been?  Faerie. 
She traces her finger down his chest.  Did he miss her?  Yeah.  She places
her finger someplace harder to ignore and tickles gently.  Then she takes
his hand and leads him to the bedroom.

	Usires asks Bleys if it's possible to track down a missing Trump
deck.  Bleys seems amused that he's lost another deck, but tells him that
the artist who drew the cards can probably track them down.  Right. 
Usires goes looking for the page he sent to the taverns, to see what he's
found.  He's learned that drinking men don't really talk about politics. 
They're all complaining about having to complete the ships when others
have been brought in, but that's about it.  The page is still kind of hung
over.  Mixing drinks is bad.

	Brand and Vixen continue to travel along.  Brand finishes talking
when it gets dark, and goes into a bit of a reverie.  Vixen just waits. 
While glancing out the window, she notices that the features of the
landscape are changing.  All the hair stands up on her body.  Brand
doesn't sleep at all.  Her internal clock says it's only been three or
four hours since they left.  She asks how long the journey will take. 
They should be there by morning.  She asks if they're going to stop for
food.  Well, since she turned up her nose at the hors d'oeuvres he
offered, what would she like?  Rabbits, mice, etc.  He assumes she'd like
them rather fresh.  That would be preferred.  He stops the coach so she
can hunt.  She moves out of sight before shifting to a fox and killing
some food.  There's plenty of rabbits and she eats hearty.  The land
smells different.  Everything smells right, but it's not her rabbits and
not her grass.  She changes back to human form and returns to the coach. 
They drive on.  By dawn, they are on a dry, flat savanna.  The only
feature is a large volcano plug rising out of the land, with a castle on
top of it.  The climate seems rather temperate.  The coach is heading for
the castle.  Brand tells her it's his home.  It takes an hour to climb the
mountain.  There are zebras, wildebeests, and gazelles visible on the
plain.  Vixen unloads her stuff and follows Brand to her quarters. 
There's lots of artwork, and the whole place is decorated tastefully and
expensively.  It smells clean.  He tells her to make herself comfortable. 
As long as she's on retainer, his home is hers, although she should take
any locked doors as evidence that she is not to go there.  He can't
guarantee her safety if she does.  He leaves her to her rest.  She bolts
the door, changes into her fox form, and curls up under the bed.

Friday, July 14, 2994

	Alex Trumps Teresa, who answers this time.  He assumes that she
took the trinket?  Oh, yes, it was her payment for helping him.  She's got
it in a faerie-proof box.  He brings her through to discuss how to kill
the faeries, and shows her what Caitt's spell revealed.  Teresa remarks
that they have to get that book back.  Alex mentions that Laughter knows a
lot about killing faeries.  Teresa figures they should be able to persuade
Laughter to tell them what she knows, whether she's willing or not.  Alex
mentions his relationship with Caitt.  Teresa figures she'll be even
easier to persuade.  They go to breakfast.

	Ariana wakes up in bed, with Riftvan next to her, an arm wrapped
around her to pull her close.  She starts as she realizes that she's not
where she went to sleep, then begins to get up.  Riftvan groans and
reluctantly releases her.  She offers to let him sleep in, but he figures
he's already awake now.  He thinks she should let Mirelle sleep, though. 
She asks what happened.  Her mother has a nasty streak, but a knife
between the ribs doesn't really stop a shapeshifter.  Does Mirelle
remember her?  He shuffled that personality to the front.  Essentially, he
reached in and found the personality he wanted, then did his best to tape
it in the front.  She tells him what she learned about Miranda, and asks
if he thinks Dara would have let her die.  Well, Takaran smiths are
valuable, so...  Ariana asks how he knew Miranda was a Takaran smith. 
That's a story for another time.  He had to find out why she was
interested in Miranda.  Ariana insists that wasn't the reason.  He knows,
but it's why he's interested.  He doesn't want to go after Miranda now,
however.  He'd like to be a father for a couple of days.  Ariana wasn't
planning to ask him to leave again anyway, especially since she doesn't
know where Miranda was taken.  Riftvan smiles.  He knows where she is,
doesn't he?  He keeps smiling.  She asks how he knows.  It's part of that
long story.  He suggests getting breakfast.  As they are rounding up the
kids, he tells her that since Benedict and Fiona now know his true name,
she can use it, if she wants to.  She asks what he'd prefer.  He'd like
her to call him Lucien.

	Laughter is woken up by a Trump call from Fiona.  They've decided
to take things a bit quicker.  Does she want to come through for a visit? 
Sure.  She grabs her clothes and comes through.  Alexandra appears to be
about ten.  Fiona introduces them over breakfast.  Alexandra has silver
hair, with a streak of red on one side, and a streak of black on the
other.  Her eyes are green.  Fiona is wearing a halter dress with a short
skirt and sandals, and her hair's in a pony-tail.  Laughter notices this
and asks if Fiona would like to fill her in.  Fiona says the Shadow is
easier experienced than explained.  Suhuy says they've been rather
bohemian.  Laughter asks if they'd like her kids to visit, once she's
checked the place out.  Sure.  Fiona takes her on a tour of the house,
which is in town.  Not much in the way of clothing seems to be the norm. 
Fiona shows Laughter her garden, which is full of lots of subtly colored
flowers.  Laughter tells Fiona of her conversation with Nicholas, the
Takaran blade situation, and her kids.  Finally, she gets to the
Driscoll/Foster situation.  Fiona reads the truth of their new
relationship off of Laughter's expression, and finds that interesting. 
Fiona isn't mad.  She understands why Foster doesn't want to let Felix
know, though.  Laughter says that Ariana was delighted, of course.  Fiona
figures she would be.  Now if only they could find someone for her besides
that high lord of Chaos.  Laughter tells her that Riftvan's retired. 
Fiona doesn't believe it.  Retired from Chaos, yes, but she's sure he's
working for Mandor.  But Laughter was mentioning her kids...  Laughter
Trumps Foster and asks for the children.  They are passed through. 
Laughter figures Fiona can speed up the Shadow until the kids miss their
dads, then they'll go back.  Laughter tells Fiona about Iseult's visit
with Mandor.  At one point, Alexandra asks if Laughter has two husbands. 
Technically, yes.  Fiona smiles mischievously and asks if Alexandra wants
to invite Laughter to her ceremony.  Sure.

	Felix wakes up, but Tamaryn's still asleep.  He brings her
breakfast.  Felix asks about her time in Faerie.  She thinks they're going
to choose someone more pureblooded than her for the ambassador position. 
Felix asks when she last had news of Amber.  She knows of Ahab's death,
and the others.  All of Faerie is mourning the Unicorn's death.  Felix
tells her that Laughter had Driscoll's child.  How's Foster handling it? 
They seem happy, which he doesn't understand, but they have been gone for
a while.  Felix still hasn't come to terms with Driscoll's actions.  He's
glad she already know about the big news, though.  Well, Faerie's pretty
well informed about Amber and the Courts.  She feeds him some of her
breakfast as she eats.  Now that she's no longer ambassador, she figures
she'll go back to building her house.  Felix tells her that Bridget gave
birth to Shard's child.  Ariana was able to determine the parentage. 
Tamaryn comments that Ariana tends to be quite clever with her
spellcasting.  He tells her about Ronan as well.  Once breakfast is
finished, Tamaryn offers herself up as dessert.

	At breakfast in the dining room, Foster asks Gerard if he knows
where Felix is, since it's rare for him to miss breakfast.  Gerard has no
idea.  Ariana suggests that Foster Trump him if he's worried.  OK.  Felix
gets the call at an...indelicate moment.  Foster drops the contact as soon
as he realizes what's going on, with an "er" look on his face.  Ariana
comments that it seems there are things Felix values above food.  Foster
replies, "What man wouldn't?", clueing much of the table in on what Foster
interrupted.  Lucien looks almost wistful.  Ariana tells him psychically
that she didn't think he'd recall being interrupted fondly.  He thinks
that Laughter is rubbing off on Foster.  Ariana tells him of how Foster
was disappointed the time that he Trumped her and didn't catch her having
sex.  He comments that Foster always did overreach himself.

	Vixen wakes up around late afternoon.  As she scouts around the
castle, she comes across a young man with red hair, dockers and chinos. 
They talk for a bit, and she learns that he's Brand's son.  She asks him
what his father is.  It's more like what he isn't.  The man introduces
himself as Rinaldo and gives her a tour of the castle.  Are they in Amber? 
No, several Shadows over.  This confuses her.  She asks if there's
anything to eat, so Rinaldo leads her to the dining hall.  Brand smiles
upon seeing her, and runs his eyes over Rinaldo for a moment.  Rinaldo
sits at the far end of the table from Brand.  Vixen does likewise. 
Rinaldo clams up now that Brand is observing him.  She asks him about
Trumps, since he had mentioned them earlier.  Once Rinaldo is sure that
Brand is occupied with his company, he pulls a velvet pouch out of his
pocket and hands her some cards under the table.  He explains that those
are Trump.  She leafs through them, then asks how you travel with these. 
He explains.  She thinks it's magic.  Not technically.  He asks her what
she's doing there.  Well, she's not sure how much Brand wants spread
around.  Rinaldo seems to understand.  He makes idle conversation, which
isn't as creepy as it was coming from Brand.

	Laughter stays a day in Fiona's Shadow.  Fiona does stuff like
make popcorn, etc.  Laughter's jealous.  Fiona seems to be trying to make
an idyllic setting for Alexandra.  She assures Laughter that she would
have done the same for her, and she's still coming up with a fitting death
for Julian for losing her.  Laughter figures it was just his hormones. 
She's come to the conclusion that men do all sorts of things and blame it
on their hormones.  Do tell?  Maybe later.  It all comes down to Vetch. 
Fiona inquires about this.  Laughter explains about her trying couple of
years, including how Driscoll and Foster made up.  Alexandra is confused. 
Laughter really thought Foster would vote to boot Driscoll completely, but
he didn't.  Suhuy asks if she and Foster ever really talked about his
past.  Well, he doesn't like to talk about his time in Chaos.  Suhuy tells
her that the explanations for Foster's actions lie within that past. 
Suhuy took an interest in Foster when he was growing up.  Did Suhuy know
Haris?  Yes.  That's were Laughter should start.  Suhuy says he knew
Foster was not assassin material, but Vetch refused to see this.  Laughter
leaves with the kids the next morning.  Fiona says they'll contact her for
Alexandra's ceremony.

	Laughter and kids show up at breakfast.  Laughter warns Foster and
Driscoll that the kids have passed a day since they last saw them.  Foster
still looks a bit embarrassed.  Laughter gives him an inquiring look. 
Ariana explains that Laughter is rubbing off on Foster.  Laughter figures
they've been married for a while, so that makes sense.  Foster says he now
knows his mother is back, without having talked to her.  Huh?  Ariana
explains that Foster caught Felix in the act.  Laughter tells him
congratulations.  Foster isn't thrilled.  Laughter thinks he deserves it
for trying to see something he shouldn't see, referring to his hope that
he would Trump Ariana while she was having sex.  This goes over Foster's
head, and he is confused.  Ariana updates Laughter psychically on the
Takaran situation.  She also tells her that Vetch learned the method of
punishment that he used on Foster from his father, who used it on him.

	Alex asks to talk to Laughter privately.  He explains that Caitt
gave him a clue as to Delwin's death.  It involves the faeries.  There
were two.  One of them took the Spikard.  They've been collecting
artifacts, and since Laughter knows a lot about them...  He knows she
might not want to be involved, what with the new addition to her family,
but if she can help in any way, it would be appreciated.  What would he
like her to do?  Well, he has an image of one of the perpetrators, but
doesn't know who it is.  He's not sure if there's a way to identify him,
or to capture a faerie and question them.  Laughter says she's been
working on a spell to summon and bind a faerie, actually.  Alex thinks
Teresa would like to be in on this.  Laughter says she's going to be busy
during the morning, but maybe that afternoon?  Alex shows her an image of
the two figures.  Laughter recognizes the one who stole the book as Drumm,
and asks if Alex would like to speak with him.  No, that's not his first
inclination.  Laughter points out that the one who killed Delwin had
Benedict's height and build, not to mention his skill, and since he was
under Dara's control for a time, it's possible that it was him.  Alex will
tell Teresa of this.

	Usires asks to talk to Martin privately after breakfast.  They go
to a sitting room.  Usires explains about his missing Trumps.  Since
Martin drew two of them, maybe he can find them?  Martin is amused that
he's lost them.  Usires isn't certain that it's his fault.  Martin is
planning to step out into Shadow this afternoon, so he'll take a look for
them then.  Usires heads down to the practice room and spars with Felix.

	Ariana asks to speak briefly with Benedict, and thanks him for
stopping her from going after Zane.  He seems surprised, but is glad that
he doesn't have to worry about her trying to do that anymore.  She also
tells him that she's sorry about Ariadne's death.  After he leaves, she
seeks out Vialle and asks her some things about Rebma.  When the
conversation is finished, she writes a note for Nicholas, informing him of
what she learned the previous day about Miranda, then goes down to the
practice room and joins Usires and Felix.

	Vixen does some scouting.  She hears her first lion roar and
thinks that maybe this was a mistake.  She comes back inside and sniffs
around the private rooms.  All of her hair stands on end in a decidedly
unhappy manner when she does so.

	Ariana returns to her quarters and tells Lucien that she wants to
take the family on a picnic at the ocean.  He thinks this is a splendid
idea.  She wants to invite Tamaryn.  He pauses for a moment, then says
that since he's no longer a member of the House either, he doesn't see the
harm.  Ariana goes looking for Tamaryn, but she's not in her quarters, and
none of the pages have seen her.  Ariana tries contacting her with the
talking bones.  As the image resolves, Ariana sees that Tamaryn is getting
a back rub from Felix, so she stops the spell before contact is made.  She
leaves a note with a page asking Tamaryn to contact her, and goes back to
her quarters.  She and Lucien discuss the future.  He'd like to divide
their time between Amber and Middlecourt, and be a father and a husband,
something he's never really done before.  Ariana would like to visit
Faerie occasionally as well.  She asks if Lucien is still uneasy about her
desire to retrieve her memories from her past life.  He admits that he's
worried that she'll lose herself to it, since she's a different person
than Loryn.  Ariana doesn't think she and Loryn can be all that different,
since he fell in love with both of them.  He assures her that he feel in
love with her, not the memory.  Ariana says she's curious to see what
Loryn was really like.  And what he was like, back then.  Lucien is
worried that the way he is now will lose out in such a comparison.  Ariana
tells him that she will not stop loving him just because he's changed from
how he was with Loryn.  He tells her that if she can reassure him of this,
he won't mind her looking into those memories.  Ariana decides it would be
best to wait to retrieve the memories until after she has the baby.
Hopefully, Lucien will feel more comfortable with the idea by then.

	Foster and Laughter attempt to seduce each other.  Laughter points
out that she's expected in Amber for lunch, so she'll have to speed the
Shadow up if any seduction is to take place.  That's fine with Foster.

	A page delivers a note to Ariana from Tamaryn, asking to meet her
in one of the sitting rooms.  Ariana does this thing, and asks Tamaryn how
she's been.  Much better, recently.  Tamaryn asks why Ariana wanted to see
her.  Ariana explains that Lucien has retired.  Tamaryn is amazed by this,
and asks if he's left the House.  He has.  Tears begin running down
Tamaryn's face, although she continues smiling.  She asks where Lucien is.
Ariana tells her, and asks if she'd like to speak to him.  Yes.  Ariana
brings Tamaryn back to her quarters.  Tamaryn and Lucien simply look at
each other for a while, then Tamaryn approaches him and they hug each
other fiercely for a long time.  Then Lucien takes Tamaryn's hands and
talks psychically with her for several minutes.  At the end of the
conversation, Lucien puts his hand on Tamaryn's cheek and thanks her.
Tamaryn then turns to Ariana and offers to help pack for the picnic.  The
two women go down to the kitchen to pack, radiating happiness.

	Once the food and the children are gathered, Lucien opens a faerie
gate to the beach house, and they all go through.  Ariana tells the
children that they can watch Ana's birth, if they want to.  Jalana can't
wait.  The boys say they'll pass.  Mirelle is rather quiet and kind of
confused, since she doesn't remember what happened while she was missing.
Ariana gets her to play with the children, which distracts her quite well.
Ariana talks with Tamaryn about recent events in Faerie.  Apparently,
they've been arguing over how to help Amber, and who the ambassador to
Amber will be.  There are a lot of volunteers for the job.  Tamaryn won't
be Amber's ambassador to Faerie, since Nicholas thinks she's too biased,
but both Ariana and Laughter were on the list that Tamaryn saw.  Ariana
asks Lucien if he'd mind if she got the job.  Nope.  Ariana and Tamaryn
discuss Tamaryn's future plans.  Ariana is happy that Tamaryn and Felix
are getting along so well.  After lunch, the children spend a lot of time
playing in the surf with the various adults.  Ariana tells Lucien not to
make any plans for the evening, since she thought they might have dinner
together.  He comments that she must have missed having him around.  She
fills him in on everything that happened in Amber while he was gone.
Lucien seems to really like gossip.


Quotables:

"You don't have to forget very much for all the progress that I've made to
be undone." -- Alex to Teresa

"Well, you'll never catch me with my mouth closed." -- Laughter to Mandor

"Don't make me remind you how to talk to your father." -- Gerard
"In Thari?" -- Felix

"Felix, you know what I want.  Give it to me." -- Gerard to Felix

"I've got lots of confidence.  Brains, maybe not." -- Vixen to GM
"You'll fit in with us just fine." -- Mer

"Being torn apart by dogs would not be conducive to your plan succeeding."
-- GM to Vixen

"I thought you were an atheist?" -- Kris
"I was.  Then I got in this coach." -- Jen

"They've actually supplied you with a means of dealing with your waste."
-- GM to Alex
"Keen, never take it out!" -- Mer

"(Tamaryn) takes your hand and leads you to the bedroom." -- GM
"I'll be led." -- Felix
"Shouldn't that be laid?" -- Mer

"You're never too young for incest." -- Sean to the group

"Hary pretty much picks (Iseult) up and holds her there until the fit
stops, and then puts her down." -- GM
"That's OK, that's what Foster does with me." -- Laughter

"How about some food?" -- Vixen
"(Rinaldo) offers you his arm." -- GM
"I don't take a bite, because I'm too polite." -- Vixen

"You always die from the last, biggest, stupidest thing you ever did." --
Laughter to Fiona

"I'm going to like your sister." -- Ariana
"Well, you're not touching her.  I'm sorry, my best friend can't sleep
with my sister.  My mind would blow up." -- Laughter
"It would be a small explosion." -- Sean

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