Chapter Sixty-two: "I think it would be wise to go back to the 
planning phase."

	Laughter tries shaking Fiona awake, with no success.  Kissing 
her does nothing, either.  Laughter Trumps Caitt, since she knows 
something about these sorts of spells.  Caitt says she always heard 
that you need the kiss of a prince to break the spell.  Sequence goes 
outside to chop down the thorn bushes, but they keep growing back.  
This only encourages Sequence to keep at it, which raises quite a 
racket.  Laughter Trumps Bleys and asks which Prince Fiona trusts 
the most.  Naturally, Bleys claims it's him.  Laughter suggests he 
come through.  After some hemming and hawing he does so.  He 
examines Fiona and observes that she looks almost sane like this.  
Laughter warns that Fiona might still be able to hear him.  Bleys 
figures she's in no position to do anything about it and raps her on 
the forehead.  Laughter tells him to kiss Fiona.  Bleys suggests she 
find a ranger to do that.  Laughter eventually figures out that he 
means Julian and thinks that's sick.  Bleys figures that's what makes 
it so delightful.  Laughter continues trying to persuade him to kiss 
Fiona, but he refuses to do so.  Laughter is most disappointed in him.  
Bleys goes downstairs and begins rummaging around the house.

	Laughter Trumps Felix and asks if he'd help Fiona, if she 
needed it.  Felix replies that Fiona is family.  Laughter finds this less 
than reassuring.  Felix admits he'd help Fiona, so Laughter pulls him 
through.  She Trumps Bleys and asks whose handiwork the spell is.  
Bleys points out that he's in the house, so she didn't need to Trump 
him.  She argues that she didn't want to yell like a heathen, then 
breaks the contact and yells her question down the stairs.  Bleys 
Trumps her back and says he's working on it.  Laughter asks if Felix 
is familiar with the legend of Sleeping Beauty, and explains that 
Fiona is under such a spell.  Felix is not real keen on kissing Fiona, 
since she might not react favorably, and besides, he's not sure he's a 
prince.  Laughter says she doesn't want to drag too many people into 
this and asks him to try.  Felix asks Laughter not to tell anyone and 
kisses Fiona on the forehead.  Nothing happens.  He braces himself 
and kisses her on the lips.  Still nothing.  He suggests Laughter try 
one of their uncles.  Laughter remarks loudly that Bleys refuses to 
help.  Felix asks what Bleys suggested.  Laughter explains.  Felix says 
she should try it.  Laughter doesn't want to leave Fiona with Julian.  
Bleys suggests leaving Fiona alone until Julian stumbles across her.  
Laughter feels this will take too long.  Bleys insists they can't just ask 
Julian.  Laughter suggests sending Julian a note saying Fiona needs 
his help.  Bleys says she needs to learn subtlety.  He admits that he's 
looked at the spell, but won't reveal what he's learned.  He leaves.  
Laughter asks Felix how his father would feel about trying to break 
the spell.  Felix is aghast and says that Gerard is married.  Laughter 
tells him to go home.

	Ahab looks up Benedict and asks who would have information 
on high tech. weapons, tac. nukes and the like.  He explains that he 
had reason recently to realize how little he knows in that area.  
Benedict looks at his singed hair and tells him to avoid high-tech.  
Further prodding gets Benedict to reveal that Random's boys have 
the most acknowledged knowledge in this area.  Ahab finds this not 
at all encouraging.  He makes an appointment to see Random.

	Bart wakes up and sneaks out on Lyss, then decides clothes 
might be in order.  He goes back in the room and gets dressed.  Lyss 
is still sleeping, so he leaves Ariel (the shell he stores his spells in) 
behind to tell Lyss that he's going to see Barnabas.  Hey, he's just 
going to the surface, what could possibly happen?  Unfortunately, 
Barnabas is not at the hotel.  Bart questions the landlord, who says 
Barnabas just left and points the way.  Bart spots Barnabas heading 
into the bookstore and follows him.  He asks what Barnabas is 
planning to do in Amber.  Barnabas claims he's on vacation.  Bart 
asks why he'd want to vacation in Amber.  Barnabas asks why not?  
Bart doesn't think Amber is the sort of place a Chaosite would want 
to stay.  He asks, as Barnabas' son and heir, that Barnabas share his 
motivations.  Barnabas says that House Hendrake is trying to kill 
him, and he expects Bart to be his protector.  Bart finds this not at all 
to his liking.  He spends the rest of the morning following Barnabas 
around while he shops.

	Gerard and Isabeux start setting up a nursery.  In the process, 
they bring out all of Felix's old clothes, including some old sailor 
suits.  Foster is much amused.  He observes Isabeux's increasing size 
and says he's glad he's not female.  Felix warns him to be careful he 
doesn't cause that.  Foster says he's not planning on sleeping with his 
grandmother.  Felix does not appreciate the direction of Foster's 
sense of humor, and tells him to change it.  Foster is amused.  Felix 
warns him not to roller-blade down the stairs once the baby is born.  
Foster goes down the railing instead.

	Usires has lunch with Perry, who's buffing the unicorn's ass.  
Don't ask.

	Ariana spends the morning watching Riftvan, who wakes up 
around noon, asks for water, and goes back to sleep.  She and Kira 
avoid each other.  Ariana Trumps Felix to see if he's back in Amber.  
He tells her of Foster's two months in Shadow.  She tells him about 
Laughter's admirer and asks if it could be Foster.  Felix says they 
only returned the other day, so it's unlikely.  He asks if he should 
mention this to Foster.  Ariana doesn't think it would be a good idea, 
since he'll deny it if it's true, and it might give him some ideas if it's 
not.

	Alex returns from his spell research and goes looking for 
what's changed in the day or two that he's been gone from Amber.  
Not much, as it turns out.  Mebd continues feeding him things like 
yohimbine tea and oysters.

	Laughter orders Sequence to give up on the thorns and rejoin 
her.  Sequence doesn't want to admit defeat but obeys.  Laughter 
notices that Sequence's chopping at the thorns has stimulated their 
growth immensely.  She asks Sequence for advice (mind you, this is 
the sword that has trouble with words of more than one syllable).  It 
suggests cutting their way out.  Laughter figures they'll go to 
Ariana's and spar.  She orders Sequence not to mention the thorns.  
Or Fiona.  Sequence wants to leave Fiona the way she is.  She didn't 
raise Laughter, after all.  Laughter doesn't find this argument very 
compelling.  They go to Ariana's house.

	Ariana asks if Laughter's found Fiona.  Laughter says that she's 
sleeping now and claims that Fiona wouldn't say where she's been.  
Sequence is obviously upset about something but will only say that 
it's been fighting bad guys.  Mirelle makes an appearance and looks 
on disapprovingly as they spar.  Ariana asks what Mirelle would 
prefer to be doing.  She says she'd rather be engaging in fisticuffs.  
Ariana suggests she spar with Felix in that case.  Mirelle doesn't 
think he'd be willing to do that, given how their last encounter went.  
Ariana laughs and admits that Mirelle has a point.  Laughter asks 
why Ariana is laughing.  Ariana won't explain, since she doesn't think 
Felix would like the story spread around.  Mirelle says she beat Felix, 
and Brand as well.  Squashed him flat.  Laughter perks up at the 
mention of Brand.

	Ahab rides off into Shadow until gunpowder works and 
attempts to analyze the Shadow with a Pattern lens.  Then he rides 
back towards Amber until gunpowder doesn't work and analyzes 
that Shadow, trying to determine what's different.  Unfortunately, his 
lens is not that fine tuned.  He does find that Shadow seems to be 
rather well traversed right now.

	Over lunch, Barnabas tells Bart that the Hendrakes are after 
him because he overheard something very important.  Naturally he 
won't share what this was.  Bart is horrified to learn that in Chaos 
people kill each other for fun.  Barnabas says that normally the 
Hendrakes are avoidable, but not when they're after you en masse.  
Bart thinks Random should be told that the entire house is after 
Barnabas.  Barnabas disagrees.  Bart asks if Barnabas intends to rule 
his House en absentia and suggests that the Hendrakes will just kill 
all of the Jesbys if they can't get to him.  Barnabas disagrees again, 
claiming it wouldn't be worth the bother.  Bart is most upset that 
Barnabas won't tell him what's going on.  Barnabas says it would get 
Bart killed.  Bart complains about having to look after Bartleby just 
so he doesn't do anything to get Barnabas kicked out.  Barnabas says 
Bartleby is despicable and suggests that Bart convince him to leave.  
Bart asks if leaving won't put Bartleby in danger of getting captured 
by the Hendrakes again.  Barnabas figures that if Bartleby gets 
caught, it'll be his own damn fault, since he'll know they're coming 
this time.  He reveals that Bartleby is not a Jesby by birth.  At one 
point, the House had no male heir, so they grabbed the dumbest man 
they could find and had him marry the daughter of the Head of 
House.  Barnabas says that he should look to his realm and tells Bart 
to pass that along to Random.  Bart doesn't understand any of this.  
Barnabas observes that he's not playing the game.  Bart refuses to do 
so and demands he just be told what Barnabas wants.  Barnabas says 
this would get him killed.  He doesn't want to be known as a traitor 
to Chaos, after all.  Bart says to leave him out of it then.  He has a 
nice life and he likes it stable.  Barnabas says nothing will be stable 
for very long and that they'll continue this tomorrow.  Bart wants out 
of the game.  Barnabas tells him that when you leave the game, you 
leave life.  Bart returns to Rebma.

	Lyss wants Bart to help her look for Ariadne.  Bart points out 
that they tried this before.  She wants to bring Usires along this time.  
Bart says there are vermin like rats in Shadow called Hendrakes, and 
they want to kill him.  Lyss thinks they'll be fine.  Her mother is 
from that house, so they wouldn't dare hurt her.  Sure.  Bart gives up 
in defeat and spends the week hanging spells.

	Ariana decides to settle things with Kira the next day.  Kira 
hands Ariana a letter.  She says that she's going to die someday, and 
she wants to do more than this.  Ariana says she understands and 
asks what Kira is going to do.  Kira figures she'll go back to selling 
pottery.  Ariana asks if she has anyplace to stay.  She doesn't, so 
Ariana invites her to stay with her until she does.  Ariana adds that 
she'll be hard to replace.  Kira observes that Mirelle seems willing.  
Besides, she'll come back sometimes.  She won't leave Ariana to deal 
with the children alone, since some men are rather useless.  Kira 
glances up towards Riftvan's room at this.  Ariana says men do have 
one or two useful abilities, but Kira points out Riftvan hasn't been 
much good for that lately.  Ariana admits this is true.  Kira figures 
this must be frustrating and asks why she doesn't fix that.  She's not 
married, after all.  Ariana says it would feel odd to sleep with 
someone else.  Kira mentions that she's thinking of going to Rebma to 
look up Bart.  Ariana gleefully encourages this.  The rest of the week 
is uneventful, with Riftvan recovering to the point that he can sit up, 
although he's still very weak.

	Laughter casts a spell to try and get rid of the thorns and finds 
that the spell present is very similar to hers.  She tries to change the 
nature of that spell, but the original magic wins.  Julian sees a large 
flash of light from the vicinity of Fiona's house and decides to stay 
far away.  Laughter casts a talking bones spell to show her what 
happened in the room where she found Fiona.  She sees Brand walk 
in and lay Fiona down.  He arranges her carefully on the bed, so that 
the light falls on her, and spreads of few rose petals.  Then he turns, 
looks directly at Laughter, waves, and disappears.

	Driscoll returns to Amber with Clytemnestra.  The dragon 
causes a mild stir, to say the least.

	Ahab checks out Shadow for advanced weaponry and arranges 
with Cosgrove as to when to visit them without Kimdyl noticing.

	Alex spends the week racking spells.  Mebd keeps asking him if 
he's solved their problem.  He insists he's working on it.

	Felix wants to present Foster to court.  Foster wants nothing to 
do with this and skates away down the stairs.  Felix pursues him, but 
Foster makes it outside, where his skates turn into skies.  Felix pelts 
him in the back of the head with a snowball, knocking Foster over.  
Foster insists that he's not coming back until Felix gets this idea out 
of his head and skis away.  Isabeux is horrified that Felix threw a 
snowball at Foster.  Felix argues that he's the injured party here.  
Mirelle shows up and tells Felix that she's come to bury the hatchet.  
Felix yells "Mother."  Mirelle says she's not his mother, then realizes 
that he wasn't referring to her.  She and Felix argue briefly about 
what she meant by "bury the hatchet."  Mirelle apologizes for 
plucking his backside bare several years ago.  Felix asks how this 
came up.  Mirelle says Ariana mentioned it to Laughter.  Felix is not 
happy.  Mirelle asks if she's invited in for cakes, now that they've 
made up.  Isabeux says she is, and gives Felix a look that says he's 
staying too.  Felix is even more unhappy about this.  Seeking to share 
the misery, he mentions that Foster should be there and offers 
Foster's Trump to Mirelle.  She tries it and says he doesn't seem to 
want to answer.  Felix joins in and Foster quickly responds.  Felix 
tells him that Mirelle is over for cakes and Foster has no choice but 
to join them.  They spend a torturous hour listening to Mirelle 
chatter on.  After she leaves, Felix suggests that court would have 
been better.  Foster claims this was more interesting and still refuses 
to go to court.  He says he's not a part of that life any more and 
points out that Felix is the one who brought him to Shadow.  Felix 
grabs Foster's shirt but Foster sheds it and heads out the front door 
again.

	Ahab meets with Random and says he has some questions 
about state policy.  He explains that he was talking to Deirdre and he 
got the impression that Random was implementing reforms to keep 
the infighting down.  Random figures that mutual fear always works.  
Ahab observes that he's not changing things, then.  Random thinks 
that, with a few exceptions here and there, most of the family is not 
as hell-bent for vengeance anymore.  Corwin and Brand have their 
Patterns, after all.  Ahab wonders if all Brand wants is a Pattern.  He 
also mentions that Deirdre said Amber was originally meant to be 
different from Chaos.  Random agrees that this was so.  Ahab asks if 
things have really changed that much.  Random observes that he's 
still on the throne.  Ahab doesn't find this convincing and says 
there's still a lot of personal grudges going around.  Random feels 
they aren't as intense and says you can't expect the family to play 
nice together.  Ahab wants to know if they'll be a policy for 
adjudicating these disputes.  Random asks for an example.  Ahab 
brings up Sand and says he's peeved that he was told to go for it and 
then stopped.  Random admits that he wasn't expecting them to get 
that far, based on Ahab's past performance.  Ahab says it would help 
to know what the rules are going into these things.  Random offers to 
define things better next time.  Ahab wants a more general rule, so 
you don't have to run to the King each time.  Random says the 
standing house rule is to try not to off any of the relatives.  
Compared to the Courts, they are one house against legion, so they 
can't afford to lose anyone.  He wonders if the recent baby boom has 
anything to do with that.  Ahab figures he'll have to be content with 
nebulous answers, since his concerns were so nebulous.  Random 
admits that he's had less nebulous conversations.  Ahab mentions 
that Lyss is pregnant, which surprises Random.  Ahab also says he's 
all for keeping things a little saner around here.  Random thinks 
that's understandable, since Ahab has a young son.  Ahab jokes that 
Nicholas is one of the risks.

	Laughter asks Caitt to take care of Beauty while she deals with 
family problems.  She spends her days in town and her nights at 
Fiona's.  One night she spots movement outside, so she turns invisible 
and investigates.  It's Clytemnestra, who easily detects Laugher's 
scent, so Laughter dispels the invisibility.  Clytemnestra notes that 
Laughter's having problems.  Laughter agrees with this and admits 
that she doesn't know how to get rid of the thorns.  Nestra suggests 
burning them.  Laughter points out that she might burn the house as 
well.  Nestra advances towards Laughter.  Sequence asks her not to 
burn Laughter.  Nestra says she sees no need to at this time.  
Laughter asks what brought her out here.  Nestra claims it was 
curiosity about Laughter.  Laughter finds this oh so reassuring.  They 
look each other over.  Nestra observes that there seems to be nothing 
special about Laughter.  Sequence disagrees with her.  Laughter 
claims there's nothing special about her other than Sequence.  Nestra 
decides to remove Sequence and see what's left.  She does this by 
stepping on Sequence.  Sequence is most upset about this but is 
pinned down and can't move.  Laughter starts listing her skills.  
Nestra asks why Driscoll likes her.  Fuck if Laughter knows.  Nestra 
says Driscoll has a brave and true heart, and the dragons follow him 
by choice.  Laughter asks how one knows this.  It seems dragons just 
do.  Laughter doesn't think Driscoll's all that interested in her.  Nestra 
just smiles knowingly.  Laughter suggests that Driscoll likes her 
because she looks like Libby.  Nestra says she can smell something 
between them.  Laughter says that's probably due to the fact that 
each of them were in love with a Shadow of each other.  Laughter's 
not sure it would be wise for her to choose Driscoll, due to family 
obligations.  Nestra mentions that she could kill Laughter.  Laughter 
tells her to go ahead, then says that was bravado and she'd rather 
live.  Nestra thinks Driscoll likes Laughter because she can laugh at 
herself, something he could never do.  She hands Sequence back and 
leaves before the sword can attack.  Laughter orders it not to pursue 
her.  Sequence pouts.

	Bart goes looking for Usires.  Eventually he's directed to the 
edge of the woods, where rumor has it there's a dragon.  Usires 
passes by Clytemnestra as quickly as possible.  Bart arranges an 
intercept course with Usires that avoids the dragon entirely.  He 
attempts to persuade Usires to come along with him and Lyss.

	Foster gathers a bunch of guys his age together and forms a 
lacrosse league.  Felix gets fed up with dealing with Foster and goes 
into Shadow for a while.  He finds a Revolutionary War-type Shadow 
and works in an infirmary there.  Eventually Foster finds him and 
asks if he's all right.  Felix says he just wanted someplace he could 
help and admits he's feeling frustrated.  Foster asks if this is about 
court.  Felix claims it isn't.  Foster thinks Felix is pouting, since he left 
without telling anyone.  He says that if court's that important, he'll do 
it.  Felix repeats that that's not it.  Foster says he'll check up on him 
again if he's gone too long.

	Laughter finds Driscoll.  Sequence mentions that Clytemnestra 
sat on it.  Driscoll is surprised, since he told Nestra not to bother 
Laughter.  He tells Sequence that women often fight when they both 
want something.  Sequence observes that Driscoll is cool, but not as 
cool as Mirelle.  Driscoll is confused by this.

	During one of Ariana's lessons with Laughter, she attempts to 
draws Mirelle into the sparring.  She even offers to fight hand-to-
hand.  Mirelle doesn't want to, since she thinks Ariana won't let her 
cheat.  Ariana asks if Mirelle will show her how she cheats.  Mirelle 
is willing, but unfortunately this usually involves dropping a large 
weight on someone and Mirelle doesn't know how to make the 
weight disappear.  Ariana decides to pass on this, not wanting to 
decorate her house in this manner.  Mirelle conjures some rather 
strong bloody Marys instead.  Sequence is disappointed that they 
don't have any real blood in them.  Mirelle offers to get him some, 
but Ariana tells her not to.  Mirelle mentions that she apologized to 
Felix, and that he yelled for his mother.  Ariana finds this rather 
amusing.  Laughter still doesn't understand the joke.  Mirelle says 
she also talked Foster and thinks he's strange, since he frowns a lot.  
Ariana explains that Foster was raised in Chaos.  Mirelle reveals that 
she met many Chaosites after Patternfall.  Ariana asks who they 
were.  Mirelle claims she can't remember and asks why she wants to 
know.  Ariana says she's just curious.  Mirelle says she has a temper 
(no kidding).  Laughter says she doesn't want to kill while she's mad.  
Ariana and Mirelle don't see the problem.  Mirelle feels it's important 
to kill creatively.  Laughter asks what you do if they're more 
powerful than you are.  Mirelle says that hasn't stopped her, except 
when she tried to kill Brand, since he's a living Trump and can't cut 
be cut.  Ariana observes that his bones broke nicely enough.  
Laughter asks about Brand.  Ariana asks what he's done to her.  
Laughter says he's done something to someone she cares about, but 
won't say any more in front of Mirelle.

	Alex talks to Lucretia about his difficulties with Mebd.  
Lucretia asks who Mebd's parents were.  Alex explains.  Lucretia tells 
him that the child of a demon and a Shadow human is sterile.  
Naturally, she leaves it to Alex to break the news to Mebd.

	Laughter tells Ariana privately about the situation with Fiona.  
Ariana questions her about what's happened so far.  She agrees that 
Bleys' suggestion regarding Julian is rather icky, but if it works...  
Laughter says she hasn't tried contacting Fiona psychically because 
she's afraid she'll be drawn into the spell.  Ariana asks if her analysis 
of the spell gave her any information that would help resolve this.  
Laughter admits she hasn't analyzed the spell yet.  She was relying 
on Bleys to take care of that.  Of course, she hasn't heard from Bleys 
in a week...  Ariana suggests it might be a good idea for Laughter to 
look into the spell herself.  Laughter sees the logic in this.  Ariana 
suggests she have someone else present when she examines the 
spell.  Laughter asks who.  Ariana suggests a sorcerer.  Laughter asks 
which family members are sorcerers.  Ariana runs through those she 
knows: Bleys, Brand, Bart, maybe Mirelle, Benedict, Kimdyl, Foster, 
Alex.  Laughter says she would feel most comfortable with Benedict 
and leaves to find him.

	Trinity tells Ahab of some stories the sailors have been telling.  
One says a whole ship was lost on one of the well traveled routes.

	Felix returns from Shadow to find that his rooms have been 
kept clean by Foster.  He catches up on what's happened while he 
was gone and picks up on the same rumor that Ahab did.

	Laughter finds Benedict and explains what happened to Fiona.  
She asks him to help watch her while she casts the spell.  Benedict 
figures Fiona was looking into what Brand was doing and Brand was 
simply responding to that, so there probably won't be any residual 
effects.  He asks how long ago she told Bleys about this.  She admits 
it's been a week.  Benedict tells her to look for a body, then.  Then he 
suggests she find Bleys, since he'd help the most.  She tries to Trump 
Bleys but can't get through.  She tells Benedict this, who says he'll 
look into the matter.  She goes to find Foster to see if he'll back her 
up.

	Felix Trumps Caine and asks about the rumor he heard.  Caine 
says someone has tweaked the Shadow paths and it would be useful 
if he had someone like Bleys to check it out.  Felix offers to look, but 
this isn't very useful since he can't observe Shadow paths.  Caine 
suggests having Ahab check it out.  They discuss Usires' problems 
adjusting to Amber.  Caine tells Felix that Bart and Usires have found 
a magic-negating pool.  Felix doesn't think that's very nice.  Caine 
figures it's aimed at Ariana.

	Bart asks to see Ahab.  Ahab finds this interesting and comes 
down in full battle gear.  Bart asks to speak privately.  He asks if 
Ahab would like to do something to annoy the Hendrakes and to help 
Lyss.  He has this mission in mind, you see.  He believes Ariadne's 
being held by the Hendrakes.  Ahab points out that she is a 
Hendrake.  Bart says that she was...  Ahab asks if this is due to her 
marriage to almost him.  Bart thinks it might be and tells of their last 
attempt to find her.  Since they wound up near Dara's home, he 
thinks this means Dara's holding Ariadne.  Ahab mentions that an 
expedition into the heart of Hendrake to free a prisoner, while 
entertaining, is not the best plan.  The Hendrakes do outnumber 
them.  Bart figures the Hendrakes are out looking for others, so there 
won't be many around.  Ahab asks how many Bart has going with 
him.  Bart admits he only has three so far.  Ahab figures the 
Hendrakes have at least six, and Dara is no one to mess with.  Bart 
says he might have a Logrus master to help and explains about 
Bartleby.  Ahab thinks Bart's explanation about his heritage makes 
much clear.  He suggests Bart plan some more.  Bart takes this 
suggestion badly, since Ahab is notorious for his lack of planning.  
Ahab says he's changed and points out that Bart was the one 
complaining about the planning during the expedition to kill Sand.

	Benedict Trumps Caine and tells him it's definitely Brand on 
the loose and that Fiona and Bleys are out.

	Ariana Trumps Random and says she's learned what happened 
to Fiona.  She brings him through and explains.  Random is not 
pleased that Brand's up to his old tricks.  He notes the squalling 
children and comments that Ariana had a litter.  She figures she'd 
rather deal with them than Brand.  Random thanks her sarcastically 
for telling him about Brand.  She points out that he's always 
complaining that he's not informed and asks if he'd prefer she not do 
so in the future.  He jokes that if she didn't, he'd have to banish her.  
She figures that might be safer.  He adds that he'd make her take her 
kids with her.  She still believes that her problems are better than 
his.  He jokingly threatens to abdicate to her.  She looks horrified and 
tells him she'd refuse.  He Trumps back to town.

	Laughter tracks Foster down and asks for his help.  He agrees 
to assist her.  She tries to analyze the spell and learns nothing.  For 
some reason, she decides to make psychic contact with Fiona, despite 
the fact that she still doesn't know if this will cause the spell to affect 
her.  As expected, she slumps over.  Foster looks at Sequence and 
recalls that Laughter mentioned kissing as a way to break the spell.  
Sequence tells him to go for it, so Foster kisses her and she wakes up.  
She asks what happened and is filled in by a somewhat embarrassed 
Foster.  Laughter asks if he was feeling affection or lust for her.  He 
claims it was mostly affection, with just a little bit of lust.  Laughter 
decides to find Julian.  Foster says Julian responds to honor, so they 
need to explain the situation to him along those lines.  He thinks 
explaining that Brand was involved might help.  He also worries that 
he should be talking to Rinaldo more, since Rinaldo is Brand's son.


Quotables:

"I'm only going to contact one more person.  Then we're going to 
have to go to plan B, which I don't have yet." -- Laughter

"(Fiona) might say, 'Ooh, morning breath!' and fry my brain or 
something." -- Felix
"Well, if you'd like to brush your teeth, by all means..." -- Laughter

"Bit early for you, isn't it?" -- Barnabas
"I wasn't aware that I had a season." - Bart

"Hello, Felix, I've come to bury the hatchet." -- Mirelle
"Mother!" -- Felix

"Separate me from Sequence and what have you got?  An Amberite 
who doesn't cook." -- Laughter to Clytemnestra

"Go ahead, kill me, all the problems of my life would be, like, over.  
OK, don't kill me, I'm mostly saying that on bravado." -- Laughter to 
Clytemnestra

"I see why (Driscoll) likes you now." -- Clytemnestra
"Because my mind is easy to control?" -- Laughter

"What would you be doing with yon dragon?" -- GM
"Just passing by." -- Usires

"I saw Brand lay (Fiona) down, arrange her, and spread rose petals 
around.  This is why I think he did it." -- Laughter to Benedict

"I think it would be wise to go back to the planning phase." -- Ahab 
to Bart