From Kris.Fazzari@um.cc.umich.edu Mon Oct 25 15:14:14 1993 Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 11:37:12 EDT From: Kris.Fazzari@um.cc.umich.edu To: thari@umich.edu Subject: Kris' Campaign Log Chapter Eighteen Felix, Ahab and Ariadne exchange some snappy repartee at dinner. Among other things, they discuss Trump, completely ignoring Heather, the only Trump expert among them. Heather leaves and tries to Trump Mirelle, but the card remains warm. She decides to draw a Trump of where Mirelle will be, and winds up with a picture of an idyllic meadow. She goes through. Ahab leaves and goes to Deirdre's room. He knocks, but there is no answer. He tries the door, but it is locked. He tries her trump, but even though it grows cold, it doesn't seem to be working properly. Ahab decides this is not good. He goes back down to the dining hall and asks Ariadne if she was in the Castle all day. Ariadne says she was. He asks if she saw his mother at all, but she hasn't. She offers to let him into Deirdre's room. Ariadne crouches down outside Deirdre's door and studies the lock. After a moment, she sticks her finger in the lock, turns it, and unlocks the door. Ahab looks impressed. He goes into the room and look around. Everything seems to be in order. He finds Deirdre lying on her bed. She is breathing very shallowly and her skin is clammy. Ahab tries to wake her, but he can't. He decides to find Gerard. As Ahab and Ariadne head down the hallway, they run into Felix. Ahab tells him that Deirdre's taken a turn for the worse, and asks if he's seen Gerard. Felix hasn't seen him since dinner, so they go to Gerard's room and knock on the door. When Gerard answers, Ahab tells Gerard what's happened. Gerard takes off for Deirdre's room, with the others trailing behind. After examining Deirdre, he tells Ahab that she has slipped into a coma and must be taken the infirmary at once. Ahab pales a bit at this. Gerard gets Deirdre set up in the infirmary, and tells Ahab that he's done all he can for her. Ahab asks if Gerard can tell what caused her condition. Gerard says he isn't certain, since her wound doesn't seem to have been disturbed. Felix points out that if Deirdre was bedridden, she couldn't have locked her door. Ahab gets a very cold look on his face and says he'd like to move Deirdre to a safer place. Gerard says it's risky, and suggests taking her to Shadow Earth, or someplace similar, since it is more technologically advanced than Amber. Ahab suggests using the shadow that Gerard got his medical training in. Gerard agrees and goes ahead to check it out. He tells Felix to keep an eye on Deirdre. Ahab sends a page for his sword and announces that "Someone will die for this!" Felix responds "Hopefully it won't be your mother." Ariadne gives Felix an exasperated look. Heather wanders around for a while in the shadow for a while, but finds nothing. She sketches a trump of Martin and trumps him. She gets him in the middle of a saxophone solo. He finishes and asks her to call him back in a couple of hours. She agrees and starts thinking about who else she can call. Alex pays a visit to Medb. He knocks on her door and is invited in. He asks if she's feeling all right, and says he has a question about her mistress. He wants to know what caused Heather's sudden change in appearance. Medb says she doesn't know. She was as surprised as anyone when Heather walked into the dining hall. Alex asks if she needs anything, and she requests that he bring her a book from the library. Gerard returns and says everything should be ready in about three hours. Felix asks Ariadne why she asked him all those questions when she first met him. Ariadne tries to avoid the question, claiming that she wasn't really herself back then. He persists in his questioning. Eventually she admits that she thinks she was probably a spy back then. Heather sketches a trump of Ariadne and trumps her. She asks how well Ariadne knew Mirelle. Ariadne says that's a part of her life that she's rather vague about. Heather asks to come through. Ahab is not happy to see Heather arrive. He asks Heather to keep the news of Deirdre's condition quiet. Heather asks what happened, so Ahab fills her in on what they know. He asks if she can tell whether magic or something else was used on her, but Heather says she doesn't know how to do that. However, she does know some people who might be able to determine that information. Ahab is uncertain about letting another person know about Deirdre, since so many people dislike her. Heather suggests getting someone who barely knew her. Ahab reluctantly agrees, so Heather trumps Mandor. As she gets through, she experiences a major spell going off, along with a flash and lots of smoke, and gets the idea that she picked a bad time to trump him. Mandor tells her that now is not a good time and asks her to call him back later. Ahab asks Heather what would cause a trump to fail to grow cold. She's not sure, but offers to help him trump Corwin. They try, but fare no better than Ahab alone. Heather asks to speak privately with Ariadne. Ariadne demands to know why first. Heather replies that she was curious about some things that Ariadne might not want to discuss in front of the others. Ariadne considers this, and then goes to another room with Heather. When they come back, Ariadne says she has to go talk to her Grammy, pulls out a trump, and steps through. Felix asks Heather why Ariadne went back to Chaos. Heather points out that Ariadne already told them why. Felix asks if it was Heather's idea, but she says Ariadne came up with it on her own. After a couple of hours pass, Ahab gets a trump call from Gerard, who tells him that everything is ready. Ahab picks Deirdre up and they go through the contact. The shadow is much like Earth in the early 20th century. Gerard thinks that they should tell Bleys about Deirdre's condition. Ahab wants to tell Random first. He checks his mental map, and finds that Gerard's shadow is closer to Ygg than Amber, but is still only about a 1 1/2 hour Hellride from Amber. Ahab decides to trump back to Amber. Gerard tells Felix to go back to Amber with Ahab, and tell Isabeux where he is. They arrive in time to see Alex taking a silver tray. Felix tells him to put it back, but Ahab says there's plenty more in the Castle. Ahab goes to Random's quarters. Alex comes back with a romance novel, a history book, a book on needlepoint, and a flower, all carried on a silver tray. Medb blushes a bit when she sees the flower, and thanks him. She asks him if he has a vase, since she doesn't want the flower to die. He says he'll be back in a minute, runs out, finds a vase, gives the flowers in it to a page, says "don't think this implies a commitment", and brings the vase back to Medb. Vialle answers Ahab's knock on the door and gets Random. Ahab tells Random what happened to Deirdre and why they think someone was responsible. Random asks Ahab to trump Bleys. He does, and Bleys says to call him back later. Ahab trumps him back and blurts out before the contact closes that Deirdre's in a coma. This news seems to interest Bleys. Ahab goes to Flora's room and is invited in. She seems to be getting ready to go out for the evening. He asks her for some advice on how to dress in Shadow Earth. She asks him what time period. He describes the era as best he can. She goes to her bookshelf and shows him a picture of the appropriate clothing. He thanks her for her help and says he owes her "oodles" of favors. She agrees and says she'll wait for a special occasion to call them in. Ahab smiles and leaves. On his way out, he runs into a man who looks somewhat confuses by the fact that Ahab is coming out of Flora's room. Ahab briefly flashes his shit-eating grin, and then says "Don't worry, she's my aunt." The man foolishly looks relieved. Felix tells Isabeux that Gerard will be busy for a while, and explains what's happened to Deirdre. Shard decides to head home, so he trumps back to Amber with Battlestar. Ariana enjoys the celebration in Begma. Begma is somewhat Arabic in its attitudes towards women, so she is considered a bit of an oddity, arriving in armor and all that. She gets the feeling as the evening draws on that the later part of the celebration is reserved for the men and the women are expected to leave. She does so, since she is there in a diplomatic capacity, but resolves to come back some day when she is not so constrained. Heather trumps Benedict and asks if he's busy. He frowns when he sees it's her and says that depends on how many questions she wants to asks. She says she has no questions this time and tells him that she wants to apologize for her earlier discussion with him. She blames her actions on being overcome with worry. Benedict accepts her apology, so she cuts the contact and breathes a sigh of relief. Ahab looks for some appropriate clothing in Amber, but doesn't find any. When he returns, he finds Felix looking for him in the Castle. As Felix approaches him, Ahab gets a trump call from Bleys. Bleys actually looks disheveled, which is very unusual for him. Ahab fills him in on what happened to Deirdre. Bleys asks him to bide for a moment, turns his attention off to one side for a minute or two, and then asks to come through. He smells strongly of smoke. Ahab trumps Gerard, and asks him to pull them all through. Bleys examines Deirdre and tells everyone that a spell is not responsible for Deirdre's current condition, but he's not sure what is. He implies that Fiona or Brand might be able to figure it out. Ahab says he doesn't want to let any more people know about this than he has to. Bleys suggests asking Heather then, since she already knows about it. Ahab points out that he doesn't have Heather's trump. Bleys says he knows someone who does and trumps out. He trumps Gerard a few moments later and comes through. He hands Ahab the trump and says it's only on loan. Ahab trumps Heather and asks her to come through to help. Heather does so. Ahab waits for a moment when she's not looking and hands the trump back to Bleys. Heather makes psychic contact with Deirdre and enters her mind. She searches for 15 minutes or so and finds a little box with a lock on it. She looks for a key, but she can't find one, so she tries to force the lock. She hears a popping noise, and notices a crack in the box, next to the lock. Since she figures that breaking the box would probably be a bad thing to do, she stops her efforts and tries to see if she can sense Deirdre inside the box. She finds not only Deirdre, but something vaguely dangerous inside the box. She tries to form a key again, and gets a little further, but feels like she's being blocked. As she focuses on it, she slams into a mental wall. She decides that there must be a weakness in the wall, and looks for it. Three hours pass on the outside. The others become concerned. Brand examines Heather, and Ahab taps her on the shoulder. Heather feels the sensation and it breaks her concentration just as she thinks she was getting through. She breaks the contact and frowns at Ahab. She tells them what she found and implies that she would have broken through the barrier if Ahab hadn't distracted her. Bleys says that if she hadn't gotten through the wall yet, she wasn't going to. He thinks for a moment and trumps out. A few moments later, Gerard gets a trump call, and pulls through Bleys and Brand. Brand says he likes a challenge and places a hand on Deirdre's forehead. After 15 minutes pass, Felix and Heather notice Brand turn three shades paler. He removes his hand, says there's nothing he can do, and disappears. Heather, Ahab and Bleys all come to the conclusion that Dworkin is one of the only people who is powerful enough to frighten Brand. Heather says there's nothing more she can do. Ahab asks Bleys if he knows how to orient himself in shadow. Bleys says he doesn't and asks how Ahab learned. Ahab offers to trade the information for a favor from Bleys. Bleys agrees. Ahab tells him that he wanted to see what the senses he normally uses for shifting shadow could tell him when he was standing still. So went out into shadow, found a comfortable spot to sit and tried using those senses. He found that he could determine his location relative to the Pattern and Ygg, but he couldn't see any of the shadows on the Chaos side of Ygg. Ahab asks in return if Bleys knows why Dworkin would want to hurt Deirdre. Bleys claims he doesn't know of any reason. He excuses himself, saying that he needs to run some errands. Shard goes looking for Gerard, to get his neck wound stitched up. Gerard isn't in his room, but Isabeux is. She says she has some experience as a nurse, and offers to help. Shard gratefully accepts, and they go to the infirmary. Alex finishes showering Medb with attention and decides to go to bed. He heads for his temporary quarters on the third floor. Felix returns to Amber and goes to bed as well. Ahab spends the night at the hospital. After Isabeux is done cleaning up his wound, Shard also elects to get some sleep. Heather trumps Mandor. He looks even more disheveled than Bleys, so she asks him if he was with Bleys. He asks if that's important, which doesn't really answer her question. She asks him to pull her through to him, which he does. Ahab wakes up the next morning and checks on Deirdre. He makes psychic contact with her and finds more of her presence there than there was before. He decides that it's probable that there is appropriate clothing in the closet, and gets dressed. Ariana bids farewell to Coral and Orkuz and trumps back to Amber with the guards. She heads for the dining hall. Present at breakfast are Ariana, Alex, Felix, Random, Vialle, Isabeux, Heather, Medb and Jasra. Heather decides to sit next to Jasra in an effort to make peace with her. She isn't noticeably successful. No one else sits anywhere near Jasra. Brand and Shard both arrive late. Brand looks a bit subdued. He smiles at Felix, though, just for the reaction he gets. Shard has a huge bandage around his neck. Ariana, Heather and Felix press Shard about how he got his injury. Battlestar looks pretty smug about the whole thing. Shard keeps feeding him meat to shut him up. Felix makes a few insinuating remarks about Shard and his dog, which Shard isn't not happy about at all. He asks Ariana if she's doing anything after breakfast. Felix gets an amused expression on his face when he hears this. Ariana says she's not busy and asks what she can help him with. He says he learned a few things out in shadow that he wants to ask her about. He asks if he can walk with her after breakfast, and she agrees. Ariana asks Felix where Ahab is. Felix says he isn't sure. She mentions that Ahab seemed in a great hurry to return to Amber the other day. Felix says that it's probably due to Deirdre being sick. Ariana asks how she's doing, and Felix gets that uncomfortable look on his face that he always gets when he's trying to lie. Eventually Ariana learns that Deirdre has taken a turn for the worse, but Felix won't give any details on what happened. He keeps suggesting that she ask Ahab. Brand listens to this conversation with an amused interest. Felix leaves shortly afterwards. Ariadne comes in and goes over to Heather. She tells her that Grammy wants to talk to her. She asks if Heather has a trump of herself that Ariadne can give Grammy. Heather agrees to give her a sketch and leaves to go get it. Ariana excuses herself shortly after Heather leaves. She finds a quiet sitting room and trumps Ahab. Gerard wakes up. Ahab suggests that he go get himself some breakfast. While he is gone, Ahab gets a trump call from Ariana. She tells him that she is sorry to hear about his mother. He asks her how much she knows, since he had asked that it be kept quiet. She tells him that she was able to infer from talking to Felix that Deirdre had taken a turn for the worse, but wasn't dead. She says that Felix is a lousy liar and asks if there's anything she can do to help Deirdre. Ahab replies that he doesn't think there's anything that anyone can do right now. Ariana says she's sorry to hear that. Ahab asks if he can spar with her later on, to help him vent some of his frustration. She agrees and says she'll be in the Castle. Ariana breaks the contact and returns to the dining hall. Alex asks Ariadne what Heather wanted to talk to Grammy about. Ariadne says she can't really say, since it's private. Ahab trumps back to the main hall and heads to the workout room. He finds Felix working out there as well, so they spar for a while. Heather comes back to the dining hall with a sketch. She finds Ariadne building things with her food. She takes the sketch from Heather and trumps out. Heather leaves the dining hall and attempts to trump Mandor. As she trying to do so, she gets a trump call. She takes it and finds it is from a woman with silver hair and brown eyes. Grammy asks what Heather wanted to know. Heather asks if there's anything Grammy can tell her about the revenge plot that she thought was directed against Benedict. Grammy suggests that, given their relative positions, Heather should ask more specific questions.