Chapter Ninety-two: "I'm not political anymore, so you can trust me now."

	Ariana asks Bleys why he didn't tell her that he just wanted to
scan her.  He claims it would be rude.  Ariana thinks the way he went
about it was much ruder, and asks him to relay her sympathies to his wife
when he leaves.  She and Tamaryn discuss Ahab's note.  Neither of them are
inclined to cross Ahab right now, but they're not happy about it, either. 
Ariana asks if Tamaryn can find Felix with the Logrus.  Maybe, but it
would take quite a while.  Tamaryn Trumps Fiona, but Fiona doesn't answer. 
Ariana Trumps Eric, but Felix isn't with him.  Tamaryn can't get through
to Caine.  Ariana says she'll keep trying to reach Felix.  Tamaryn
suggests that she get some rest, since she's been spreading herself too
thin, recently.  Ariana says she'll try, after she takes care of a few
things.  She checks on her patients in the infirmary, and finds that
Nicholas is sleeping, with Beauty sitting by her.  Ariana nods at Beauty,
who winks in return.

	Ariana returns to Vetchways and Trumps "Riftvan," to pass along
Ahab's note.  As she does so, she realizes that she has her Takaran blade
concealed in one hand.  When the man answers, Ariana says she has
something for him, then slashes his throat, saying, "That'll teach you,
you bastard!"  The knife is jerked out of her hand, and the contact
breaks.  Ariana suddenly realizes that Bleys set that up under Ahab's
orders, and she is now free of her programming.  She sends a note to Ahab,
letting him know what happened, then spends the rest of the night with her
kids.

	Jesus signs up with Usires' ship.

	Laughter Trumps Fiona in the morning, and asks to come through. 
She's concerned about whether Dara may have spies in her army.  Fiona will
get back to her on that as soon as she can.  Preferably before she has to
use them in a combat-critical situation.  Laughter returns to Amber and
tells Foster about Ahab's mission.  He wants to come.  OK.  She says
goodbye to Beauty, who's keeping an eye on Nicholas.  Beauty wishes them
luck, and gives Laughter her armor back.  Laughter has a bad feeling about
this mission.  Foster doesn't think she should have shared that with
Beauty.

	Laughter Trumps Bart, but can't get through, so she Trumps Fiona
again and goes through to her, since she's close to Bart.  Fiona appraises
Foster's new wardrobe, which consists of Gordon expanding up over his
body.  She tells Laughter that when Bleys comes by, tell him not to bother
with her, then sends them directly in front of Bart, who screams. 
Laughter tells Bart that Ahab has put her in charge.  This is news to him. 
Laughter asks if he has a plan, currently.  Bart casts blood-mapping to
determine that these are Amberites, before telling them that once they
find Dara, he'll teleport her into a Shadow pocket that he created for
that purpose.  Foster asks who Bart wants on defense.  Everyone who's
there.

	Alex looks for Laughter, to ask her about Faeries.  She's not in
the castle, so Alex finds Caitt, instead.  He explains that Mebd has
fallen afoul of Faeries, and she ate the food.  Oh, dear.  Caitt tells him
there's not much you can do about that.  There aren't many natives of Foil
who were ever invited to dine in Faerie, you see, so there aren't any
known cures.  Caitt has a few theories, though, that she's never had a
chance to try out...  Alex is willing, so long as they're non-lethal. 
First he'll have to bring Mebd to Amber.

	Lyss begins moving through Shadow again.  Bart focuses on the
amulet, which shimmers a bit.  Lyss pauses with a puzzled look, and says,
"Hello."  Then she says, "I guess so," and holds out her hand.  Laughter
thinks she's leaving, so she leg-sweeps Lyss, causing Lyss to land on her,
and Bleys to land on Lyss.  Laughter says she's sorry.  Bleys isn't. 
Laughter kicks at his shins while he's helping Lyss up.  He catches her
leg and admires the view, as does Bart.  She tells him that Fiona said
there was no need to check them out.  Bleys looks at her and says it's too
late.  Then he asks her to repeat exactly what Fiona said.  She does. 
Bleys says that clears her, and Fiona's already played with Bart, but that
still leaves Foster and Lyss.  Foster buffs the dirt from Laughter's fanny
with Bart's handkerchief, but doesn't return it.  Laughter gives Bart
another one.  Given that she pulled it from between her breasts, Bart is
happy to have it.  Foster, on the other hand, is not happy at all.  Bleys
gives Foster Ahab's writ.  Foster frowns, hands the writ back, then
dissolves Gordon from his hand.  Bleys scans him for a moment, then a
brief scuffle breaks out.  After a few moments, Foster stops and shakes
his head.  Then Lyss vanishes.  Bleys says that she's gone to ground and
vanishes as well.

	Ariana has breakfast with her family, then Trumps to Amber to
check on her patients.  She renews the spells on Nicholas and Meander, and
then goes looking for Usires.

	Foster points out that Bart's amulet is black again.  Is that bad? 
Bart hasn't determined that yet.  He begins experimenting with it.  Foster
and the Hellmaids step away from it.  Bart casts Grain of Sand, and finds
Logrus at one o'clock and closing.  Bart relays this, and the Logrus
masters begin working, while Laughter brings up Pattern.  Bart notices
that the second Logrus master has almost as much Logrus as that which is
incoming.  He uses MCI to contact Bartleby, and asks if he recognizes the
Logrus master in question.  Nope.  Would he recognize a superior Logrus
master?  Yes.  Bart asks Bartleby to come through.  He and the second
Logrus master look at each other, and the man gets an "Oh" look on his
face.  Bartleby gets a similar look on his face when he spots the incoming
energy, and he begins waving his arms around, then asks Laughter to lower
her Pattern.  She does.  They spot a shitload of Primal Chaos heading at
them.  The Logrus masters form a sphere of Logrus around them, just before
it hits.  Everyone looses their footing except for the Logrus masters, who
are anchored into the sphere.  Bart tries to grab hold of Laughter, but
gets Foster instead.  The Logrus bubble gets tossed around quite a bit. 
The Hellmaids anchor themselves into the sphere, then begin anchoring the
non- Logrus endowed.  Eventually the sphere slows, and the Logrus masters
flatten the bottom so that people can stand.  Bart checks out the amulet,
which is still black, but at least the powers are still balanced. 
Bartleby begins trying to remember how he got out of this sort of
situation the last time he was in it.

	Ariana finds Usires down at the docks, and asks if he's seen Felix
recently.  Nope.  Felix/Jesus overhears his name, and begins paying
attention to the conversation.  Ariana notices this, and lowers her voice. 
She asks if Usires has gotten his ax back.  He grumbles and then glares at
her.  Who was working on it?  Bitch.  Ariana asks for a name.  Miranda. 
Where is her shop?  Cleared out.  She says that maybe she could help him
track down Miranda and his ax.  He likes this idea, and rents a couple of
horses.  While they are riding, Usires gets a Trump call, and asks Ariana
if she can help him block it.  She tries, and they are able to hold the
caller off.  When they pass through the no-magic barrier, Ariana realizes
that they are leaving Amber, and has Usires stop.  He wants to know why. 
She says they need more people with them if they are going out into
Shadow.  Whatever.  Ariana Trumps Laughter.

	Laughter asks Bartleby if they want to leave via an incoming
Trump.  Fuck, yes.  She takes the call and asks Ariana to pull everyone
through.  Ariana does.  Usires comments that when Ariana rounds up a
posse, she doesn't waste any time.  Laughter explains they were hunting
Dara, and got Primal Chaos thrown at them.  Er.  Bart looks at the second
Logrus master with suspicion.  Bartleby points out that he did save their
skins.  Laughter pulls Bart aside, pretends to study his amulet, and asks
what the problem with the second Logrus master is.  He explains.  Laughter
offers to interrogate him.  Bart thinks he's helping them.  While this is
going on, Foster fills Ariana in on the posse's adventures, thus far. 
Laughter and Bart eventually rejoin the others, and Bart sniffs at
Laughter's handkerchief.  Foster looks quite angry at this, and says he'll
be speaking to Bart later.  Laughter and Foster bring the second Logrus
master off from the group, and Laughter explains that she needs to know
who he is.  Lots of people know who he is.  Even her.  He's a Count.  Did
they dance at her wedding?  Yes.  Laughter realizes that it's Suhuy.  They
rejoin the others.  Bart touches his pocket and smiles.  Foster bristles. 
Laughter tries to reassure him.

	The posse decides to wait an hour to hear from Lyss or Bleys. 
Ariana tells Laughter what Usires is looking for.  Laughter wants to know
why it can't wait.  Ariana asks if Laughter doesn't think it's a bit odd
that a shopkeeper just took off through Shadow.  Oh, yeah, shopkeepers
shouldn't be able to shift Shadow, should they?  Laughter tells the others
that she's going looking for a "thing."  Bart comments that he thought she
had one.  Foster advances on him.  Ariana tells him there are better times
for that.  They begin riding.

	Laughter tries to get Foster to calm down.  Foster says that
Laughter's his first wife, and he only slept with one other person before
her, so he's not used to this.  Laughter has trouble believing this. 
Well, he was training with Vetch before he came to Amber.  Laughter
indicates Ariana and points out that Vetch obviously didn't abstain.

	Ariana suggests to Bart that he might not want to pay so much
attention to Laughter.  Bart says he's just complimenting her.  Ariana
points out that Foster won't see it that way.  Bart says he'll just have
to direct all of his compliments at her, then.  Whatever.

	Bart is Trumped by Bleys, who passes Lyss through.  She wraps her
arms around Bart and gives him a big kiss.  Usires gets another Trump
call, and asks Ariana to block it again.  She tries, but it's too strong. 
Usires refuses to let go of her hand, so she uses Psychic Defense to block
her mind from the caller.  Bleys comes through and debugs Usires, then
asks what he and Ariana are doing out there.  Investigating an anomaly. 
Bleys asks if Ahab's note meant nothing to her.  Ariana says it did, which
is why she's not tracking that specific anomaly.  Well, if she gets in
trouble, it's not his fault.  Ariana asks Lyss if Usires was heading in
the same direction that she was planning to.  One of them, yes.  In that
case, they can travel together.  Bleys Trumps out, and Usires begins
riding again.  Laughter asks Ariana why they're keeping what Usires is
tracking a secret.  Bart chooses this moment to ask Usires where his ax
is, and gets a rock thrown at his head in response.  Oh, that's why.

	Felix decides to take advantage of his disguise and join Ivan's
fleet.  He shifts Shadow for Ivan, and after four hours finds a harbor
containing ships flying Ivan's flag.  Tamaryn clears her throat behind him
and says she thought he learned his lesson the last time.  Can they at
least see if Ivan is there?  All right.  Tamaryn shapeshifts herself to
look different, and they go down to the harbor, where they find Dara and
Ivan.  Tamaryn says they should let Ahab know, but then that'll be
admitting they went after Ivan.  Of course, she actually went after Jesus. 
God knows what Caine is doing with Felix's body.  Felix is not thrilled to
know that Caine is the one disguised as him, and asks how his mother is
taking it.  She's spending a lot of time with Vivienne.  They return to
their horses and begin riding, but discover that they can't escape the
Shadow.  Tamaryn tries a Trump, but that doesn't work, either.  She could
try Logrus, but then Dara would definitely know where they are.  They
return to the docks, and while they're milling about, they notice that
there are organized patrols of various creatures, and they seem to be
looking for someone, or something.

	Alex recites a mantra about putting a hex on his enemies, and gets
through to Foil, then shifts to Dexter.  It takes Mebd a minute to
recognize him.  He says he'll take her on a picnic, and begins heading
back to Amber.  Mebd's grip gets tighter the further from Dexter that they
get.  He assures her that they'll go back.  She's not sure that she
believes him.  Alex brings her to Amber, where Caitt takes them to Foil. 
He suggests not letting Mebd know what she's doing.  Caitt begins casting
spells, and there is a subtle shift in Mebd's aura.

	Laughter is contacted by Looks Twice via a talking bones spell. 
He felt badly about turning her down, so he talked to some of his
tribesmates and found one who's willing to teach her people archery.  His
name is Dead Oaks.  Looks Twice says he'll send him through, and a wind
begins to whip up around Laughter.  Ariana asks if there's an incoming
from the Disc.  Yep.  Ariana tells everyone to move away from Laughter. 
The wind increases to 60 mph, then a centaur tumbles through and rears
over Laughter, who ducks and moves out of the way.  Laughter introduces
herself.  The group begins riding again.  Laughter rides with Dead Oaks
and fills him in on what she wants from him.

	Bartleby asks why he's with the posse.  No reason.  Fine, he'll
leave.  Bart says that everyone who's in the posse has pissed off Ahab. 
Ariana asks what Bart did.  Laughter explains.  Ariana is not happy with
Bart.  Bart asks Bartleby to check on his family.  Sure, he can count the
bodies.  He leaves, and Bart comments that he doesn't see the resemblance
between them.  Ariana does.  Foster mumbles that he's glad someone else is
picking on Bart.  Bart kicks a rock at Foster's legs.  Laughter throws a
rock a Bart's thigh, then says that's enough dissension.  Lyss comforts
Bart, who tells her psychically that he wants to go home.  She offers to
send him there, but he won't leave her with these people.

	Laughter halts the group after three hours and asks Lyss how far
off they are.  One to two hours.  How far does Usires think they are from
his ax?  About the same.  Laughter wants Ariana to leave, since she's
pregnant.  Ariana asks why that matters.  Laughter thinks the fact that
Ariana is carrying a Pattern baby will make her more of a target for Dara. 
Ariana says her pregnancy doesn't interfere with her fighting ability, and
she doesn't think she'd be any less of a target even if she wasn't
pregnant.  Dead Oaks thinks that if she wants to fight, she should be
allowed to.  Laughter says she won't order Ariana to leave, but would
rather she did.  Ariana says she'll think about it.  Bart doesn't think
they should just walk in, since it's probably a trap.  Ariana agrees,
since the paths are still coinciding.  She figures that the ax was stolen
to lure Usires in.  The group plans for a while.  It is decided that Bart
will sneak in and scout around, while Laughter uses talking bones to keep
in touch with him.  If this doesn't work, Lyss will turn off magic, Trump
and Logrus in the Shadow, and everyone except for Lyss and the Logrus
masters will go in after Dara.  Laughter loans her Takaran blade to
Ariana, since Dara's an expert shapeshifter, and Ariana has a better
chance of hitting her.  Laughter casts Talking Bones and opens contact
with Bart, then Suhuy deposits Bart in an alley in the Shadow.  Bart casts
Somebody Else's Problem to avoid detection.

	Felix notices that the patrols are carrying devices of some kind,
and seem to be homing in on him and Tamaryn.  They move, and Felix tells
Tamaryn to get them out of there with the Logrus as fast as she can. 
Tamaryn tries, but unfortunately, this doesn't work, and the patrol blows
a whistle and begins chasing them.  They run by Bart's alley, but he
doesn't recognize them.  They steal a wagon, and Felix begins throwing the
crates of squash at the patrols.  Bart shifts to his Chaos form, which is
a giant, green rabbit, with sharp, pointy teeth, and follows the
commotion.  Tamaryn is grabbed by her neck and lifted up by the Logrus. 
Urk.  Bart tells Laughter that he's found Dara, or, more precisely,
evidence of her.  He doesn't know where she is, though.  Felix grabs
Tamaryn, turns off his pin, and asks psychically what he can do.  Let go. 
He does, she lifts into the air, and then vanishes in a puff of fire and
smoke.  Bart follows the smoke to an alley, where it reforms into a naked
Tamaryn.  Bart tells Laughter that he's going to teleport Tamaryn to
Jesbyways, so they should Trump her and let her know what happened.  They
have Foster do this.

	Felix unhooks the horses from the wagon, jumps onto them, and
rides for the town gate.  Once there, he jumps off the horses, pulls a
nearby wagon over himself for cover, and begins lifting the gate.  It's
very heavy, so this is slow going.  Bart tells Laughter that he wants to
use Tamaryn's companion to flush Dara out.  Ariana tells Foster to ask
Tamaryn who was with her.  Foster does this, then relays that it's Felix,
and Tamaryn is rather frantic that they retrieve him.  They relay this to
Bart.

	Caitt tells Alex that she thinks that's done it, but there will be
residue.  At the moment, Mebd isn't capable of acting independently.  Alex
Trumps with Mebd back to the main hall, where he finds things in a bit of
an uproar.  A page tells him that the King's been killed.  The old King,
that is.  Oberon.  Whew.  Prince Delwin was killed as well.  Alex brings
Mebd to his room, and assigns one of the castle staff to check in on her
periodically.  Then he finds Lucretia, who is rather distraught.  Alex
consoles her.  She reveals that she was the one who found Delwin.  His
throat had been slit from ear to ear, in kind of a jagged cut, and his
neck was broken.  Alex Trumps Teresa, but she doesn't answer.  He uses
Spikard to send Trump pulses to her in Morse code, telling her that Delwin
is dead.  She uses the same method to say that she knows.  He takes
advantage of this and accepts the call.  Teresa is annoyed by this, and
tells him that he's tardy.  She thought someone should talk to Mom, after
all.  Alex says he'll stay with Lucretia for a bit.  They need to talk,
but now is not the time.  Teresa warns that he should watch his back, if
they're starting to kill Amberites.  He's not concerned.  She tells him
that he sucks, just as the contact ends.

	Random comes flying in to Ahab's quarters and tells him of
Oberon's murder.  Whoever did it got past Benedict's defenses.  What about
the Jewel?  It was kept in the same vault, after all.  Random hasn't
checked yet.  Ahab sends him to do so.  A page comes in 10-15 minutes
later and explains how Oberon was killed.  he also relays a message from
Random, saying that "It's gone."  Ahab decides that this is rather
depressing.

	Ahab goes looking for Brand, who's in his room.  Brand tells him
to go away when he knocks, until Ahab identifies himself.  Has Brand
detected any anomalous Trump activity?  Bleys has been in and out a bit,
but not many others have been going in and out that way.  There are other
ways of getting into the castle, though.

	Ahab summons Eric and Deirdre, since they're in charge of
security.  There's no evidence of forced entry into either vault.  The
guard that Ahab had assigned to hide and report to him in the event of an
attack had his throat slit, but he was the only casualty.  The others
guarding the vaults saw nothing.  And the plans to defend the place
against Benedict's army?  They're working on it, but they're dubious about
their ability to fight Benedict.  Ahab tells them to go over the various
guard postings, with the assumption that the place isn't secure, and see
where people are getting in.

	The rain of crossbow quarrels against the wagon stops, then Felix
hears an ax bite into his cover.  This gives him the necessary adrenaline
to lift the gate and go through.  He brings a couple of planks through
with him, and hunts cover among the houses on the other side.  Bart sees
Ivan, wielding Usires' ax, heading in pursuit of Felix.  He tries to
teleport Felix to Rebma, but fails.  Fuck.  Felix keeps moving away from
the gate.  Laughter tells Suhuy to yank Felix out of there with the
Logrus, then Lyss will turn off Logrus, Trump and magic.  Bart realizes
this will blow his spell, and heads for the water.  Suhuy grabs Felix by
the waist, and deposits him with the rest of the posse.  Once he's out of
the Shadow, Lyss concentrates, and Ariana sees a wave go out from her,
kind of like haze on a hot day.  Suhuy says that Lyss is fighting Dara for
control of the Shadow.  Ariana conjures a sword for Felix, and the posse
enters the Shadow.

	Bart fells his spell go down, shifts to Bacchante, and dives into
the water.  She notices that sails are being raised on the ships in the
harbor, and anchors lifted.  She grabs a hold of the closest one.

	The posse shifts for Dara, but finds the crowd impeding their path
through town, until the centaur clears the way.  He grabs Laughter up unto
his back, and they ride ahead.

	Usires and Felix head for Usires' ax.  They find it buried in the
corner of the house Felix was last hiding in, but no sign of Ivan.  They
head back to the harbor.

	Laughter and Dead Oaks reach the top of the hill leading down to
the harbor, and notice that most of the ships are heading out to sea,
while some are turning to fire on the town.  Dead Oaks doesn't handle the
cobblestone streets very well, and looses control entirely on the hill. 
He slides down towards the harbor, then leaps into the air at the bottom,
causing he and Laughter to sail cleanly over the pylons and into the
water.  This sucks for Laughter, who is wearing armor.

	Felix runs up to the others and tells them that Ivan is his
father, so don't kill him.  The Hellmaids asks Ariana if she wants them to
go after the escaping ships.  Yes.  They turn into flying forms and take
off.

	Bacchante slips on board her ship, lights the powder hold, and
jumps overboard, heading for another ship.

	Laughter hangs onto the centaur, to keep from sinking to the
bottom like a stone.  Dead Oaks manages to get his head above the surface,
and inhales deeply.  The rest of the group finally reaches the harbor at
this point.  Ariana ties a rope to a piling, and tosses the other end to
Laughter.  Once Laughter has pulled herself out, Ariana conjures a ramp
for Dead Oaks to climb out along.  The ship Bacchante sabotaged explodes
at this point, and one of the other ships opens fire on the group on the
docks.  Felix yells for someone to Trump Ahab, so he can command Ivan to
stop.  Then he and Usires head for the port guns and begin returning fire. 
The Hellmaids begin tearing into the ship firing on the city as well.

	Everyone notices that the escaping ships are beginning to leave
the Shadow.  Laughter hops up on Dead Oaks, tells him to run, and begins
shifting Shadow.  This causes the centaur to stop dead in his tracks. 
Laughter tells him to keep going, and calms him.  They speed up again, and
they are quickly back to Lyss.  Laughter tells Lyss that Dara's left the
Shadow, so Lyss turns magic, Trump and Logrus back on.  Laughter tries
Trumping Ahab, but can't get through to him.  She tells Suhuy that the
real Dara was in that Shadow, but she's left.  He takes off after her.

	Ariana finds a small sailboat, which requires four people to man
it.  She Trumps Laughter and asks her to bring everyone through, so they
can continue the pursuit.  The centaur likes the boat not at all, but
reluctantly gets on.  They sail after the fleet.  Once the Hellmaids have
finished tearing the ship that was firing on the port apart, Laughter
Trumps Felix and Usires and brings them through.  She suggests that
someone should Trump Bart, as well.  Lyss has Foster take over the Shadow
shifting and does so.

	Bacchante notices a great white shark heading straight at her, in
a very unsharklike manner.  She figures this is probably Dara.  She gets a
Trump call at this point, but ignores it.  She casts Xeno's Jail on Dara,
who dispels it, somehow.  Bacchante takes the Trump call, and tells Lyss
to hang on a moment, while she tries to put Dara in the pocket Shadow. 
Dara disappears, but Lyss checks and says she isn't in the pocket. 
Bacchante comes through, and shifts back to Bart.  Felix wants to go after
Ivan.  Ariana thinks catching the real Dara is more important.  Laughter
agrees, so they chase after Dara.  Tamaryn is Trumped and brought through,
to give them more Logrus power, since they don't have Suhuy anymore.

	Lyss eventually loses her trace on Dara, so they change course to
go after Ivan.  Lyss says she could teleport Ivan to the Shadow pocket,
but she has to be able to see him.  Ariana conjures some spyglasses to
help people look for Ivan.  Lyss eventually spots him, then disappears. 
Ariana looks through her spyglass and sees her appear next to Ivan, then
Ivan disappears, leaving Lyss alone on the ship with a hostile crew.  Bart
casts Xeno on Lyss, just before they open fire.  Lyss is quite happy when
the crossbow quarrels stop in mid-air.  Ariana asks Tamaryn to transport
people to the ship with the Logrus.  She does so with everyone except for
Bart and Dead Oaks, since Bart is just about out of spells, and Dead Oaks
is pretty much useless in water.  The centaur just lies in the center of
the boat and repeatedly asks Bart if they're there yet.  The rest of the
posse is deposited on Ivan's ship, and lay into the crew.  Tamaryn uses
the Logrus to take down the rigging on all of the ships, keeping the
others from getting away.  Felix yells for someone to Trump Bleys and have
him debug Ivan.  Lyss does this, and Bleys appears next to her.  They
disappear shortly afterward.

	The fighting goes on for an hour before the flagship is subdued. 
Felix searches Ivan's quarters and finds a Trump of Isabeux, but not much
else of interest.  Lyss, Bleys and Ivan reappear, and Ivan runs up some
flags that tell the other ships to stop fighting.  Ivan/Gerard and
Jesus/Felix hug each other, then look over each other's forms.  Much
snickering occurs when the others see Felix's nipple rings, which were
exposed during the fighting.  Felix fills Gerard in on recent happenings,
including the fact that Caine is disguised as him.  Unfortunately, he says
this loud enough for everyone else to overhear.  Now that the fighting is
over Tamaryn transports herself, Bart, and Dead Oaks onto the flagship. 
Dead Oaks doesn't like the larger ship any better than the smaller one, so
Laughter has Foster Trump to Rath with the centaur.  Everyone begins
preparing the ships to sail back to Amber.

	Alex talks to those who are investigating Delwin's death.  He
learns that Delwin was killed in his study, and one of his household staff
was killed as well.  They figure it was the work of a master assassin. 
Alex goes through Delwin's stuff, and finds that Delwin was looking into
some of the questions Alex had raised about the Spikard.  He asks how
Oberon was killed, and learns it was by passing a very sharp object
through his neck, separating the head from the body.  The body is still in
stasis, for all the good that does.  All of the guards around the body
were killed as well.

	Laughter Trumps Fiona and says that she lost Fiona's husband.  He
was with them in disguise, and took off after Dara.  Oh.  Fiona says that
if Laughter doesn't hear from her, she'll know why.  Laughter tells her to
be careful.

	Ahab loses contact with Fiona.  He can't contact Caine, either, so
he pulls up a Pattern lens to look for him.  In the middle of this, he
gets Trumped by Martin, who looks somewhat unsure of himself.  Ahab pulls
him through.  Martin explains that he used to be good friends with Dara,
and this isn't really her style.  He thinks she's been taken over by the
Logrus.  Ahab figures he'll deprogram her, if he can, but it's easier to
kill her.  Martin leaves, feeling less than reassured, and Ahab resumes
searching for Caine.  No luck.  Fiona still isn't answering Trumps,
either.  Ahab swears, and comments that he presides over an increasingly
unpredictable crew.  Ariadne chooses not to comment.

	Laughter Trumps Ahab and goes through.  She proceeds to fill him
in on everyone's misadventures in Shadow.  Ahab wants everyone brought
back to Amber.

	Ariana Trumps Mirelle and checks on her kids, who are fine.
Mirelle sees that she's on a boat, and wants to come through and go
sailing.  Ariana says that now isn't a good time, and points out that the
boat she's on isn't even moving at the moment.  Mirelle pouts and breaks
the contact.


Quotables:

"I handle (Fiona's pregnancy) with as much grace as Laughterly possible."
-- Laughter to GM
"Meaning none." -- Matt

"A couple of the mercenaries you brought in (for Rath's army) look like
they could eat babies in sauce." -- GM
"I don't have a problem with this." -- Laughter

"I figure that since everyone can read my mind, I may as well push it out
there for everyone to see." -- Laughter to GM

"I hug Beauty a long time, because it would suck if I never saw her
again." -- Laughter to GM

"For the game log, does Foster dress right or left?" -- Liam to GM
"The game log doesn't care." -- Kris

"What am I here for?" -- Laughter
"You're to be the brains of the operation." -- Fiona
"Foster pales even more." -- Matt

"It's a battle of wits, Foster, I'm underarmed!" -- Matt to the group at
large, speaking for Laughter

"You hear a noise behind you." -- GM
"Do I turn around?" -- Felix
"You tell me." -- GM

"I'm not political anymore, so you can trust me now." -- Alex to Mebd

"You can't get out (of Dara's Shadow), but you can get in." -- Suhuy
"That's how traps work." -- Laughter