Chapter 004: Family In Shadow
With my newly aquired weapons I went to my room to put on some decent
travelling clothes and pick up the few things I didn't want to leave behind, of
course including Wylde. Fortunately she was present, although she wasn't eager
to leave Amber again after such a short stay. I playfully chided her for being
such a lazy kitten, since I could clearly see that she had already aquired some
weight during those few days we had spent at the castle. It seems the mice in
Amber are no match for her.
Besides my weapons I decided to take only a few
necessities, like my Trumps, the small dagger which had belonged to my Mother, a
little bit of money (easily shiftable to local currencies) and some food from
the kitchens. The only thing that wasn't really necessary was a simple but
well-tuned lute I had aquired during one of my previous stays at the castle.
Being still in a musical kind of mood I found I just couldn't leave it behind
and strapped on my back. It wasn't really that much of an inconvenience.
I had heard Adrian mention something about a horse,
so I assumed that would be our method of transportation. I went to the stables
to look for a suitable steed and to my delight I found the grey mare there whom
I had ridden accompanying my Uncle Gerard around the city on a couple of
occasions. She had suited me perfectly and I had named her Styll. Personally I
don't care to much for horses and I usually don't ride them through Shadow as
they may panic while going through some of the more violent shifts. Yes, I know
most of my family does their Hellriding on horseback, but if truth's to be told
I prefer my travels in a small sailing-boat (though this somewhat limits your
choice of Shadows). If I had to choose a horse though, Styll was the perfect
choice, possessing a quiet nature and a healthy dose of endurance. I sadled her
up and led her out to the courtyard where the others were already waiting for
me.
Adrian immediately attracted all of my attention.
He was dressed in predominately white plate-armour with some black and silver
for contrast. He carried two weapons: one normal sized longsword and one awfully
big two-handed sword. But the main thing that got me staring was his horse.
Beside the fact that it was unusually large for a horse, the monster also had
six legs! I wondered in what kind of Shadow he had found it. I noticed the beast
was also part of his coat of arms. The whole picture was that of some heroic
knight of legend setting out on some quest.
Murlas was the other extreme. Black cloak, black
hat, black horse. He carried a rapier and a crossbow and he reminded me a bit of
a Victorian vampire-hunter.
Again a surprise with Alexander. Not from his
outfit (black jeans-like suit, black horse, rapier and compound bow), but from
the big black panther at his side. She and Wylde eyed each other warily, but
apparently they both decided that the other formed no real threat.
Finally, Vincent was the only one who looked a bit
normal to me. Like myself he was dressed in Amber-style, sort of Shadow Earth
Renaissance, blue and purple coloured clothing. He also carried a sword and was
mounted on a plain brown horse.
Before departing we divided the standard Trump deck
Random had given us between us. I really wanted to have a Trump of my Mother,
Murlas wanted Caine's and Bleys' and Vincent wanted Oberon's. Alexander took the
rest of the deck, since Adrian wasn't interested.
After that we immediately departed. Somehow I ended
up in the lead with Murlas and Adrian behind me and Vincent and Alexander
bringing up the rear. As the leader I was supposed to do the shifting, looking
for the origin of the Black Unicorn. However, I waited until we had reached
Arden before starting to shift, since doing it on the Kolvir is possible but
extremely difficult. I believe Fiona once told me it has something to do with
the nearness of the Pattern.
When I judged that we had sufficient distance
between us and Amber I began concentrating. I had decided beforehand I wasn't
going to hurry so our journey wouldn't be too hectic. Slowly more and more open
spaces started to appear in the forest. Also the leaves shifted several shades
to a more blue-greenish hue. After that the trees around us grew taller and the
terrain became hillier. All the way the weather stayed sunny and warm. No point
in getting uncomfortable.
As we reached the top of a slightly higher hill we
looked down on a clearing where a lady was having a picnic by herself. Her
reddish-brown horse stood a couple of paces away from her quietly grazing. Our
path seemed to lead directly towards this stranger and as she saw us coming she
stood up to greet us. Her hair had almost the same colour as her horse and she
wore a pair of practical brown riding trousers and a beige shirt.
"So you finally found your way here. You
certainly took your time. But you must be hungry. Come join me."
With that she gestured towards the picnic basket.
We dismounted and sat down beside her while she filled some goblets with wine.
Alexander was the first to ask her the question that was probably running
through all of our minds.
"Then you were expecting us?"
"But of course! I knew you would set out
sooner or later, though it proved to be a bit later than I had expected. But
there's no harm done. Better late than never. Oh, I still haven't introduced
myself, have I? My name is Sand."
We also introduced ourselves in turn, though I had
a pretty strong feeling that she already knew our names and who we were. I
wondered who she was. I had never heard the name Sand before, but the way she
had been waiting for us here in Shadow smacked a lot of Amber and the Family. I
studied her face while sampling some of the contents of her basket. Although her
knowledge of us was a bit unsettling she seemed to be friendly and even somewhat
helpful. She caught me staring and flashed a smile at me and I found myself
smiling in return. Yes, I had a feeling I could trust her.
"Why were you waiting for us in this
place?" Murlas asked.
"Well, I know you are looking for the Black
Unicorn and it just seemed reasonable that your search would lead you to this
spot."
"How did you know what we are looking
for?" Alexander cut in.
"News has a way of travelling round," she
said and smiled mysteriously.
She had to have some very special sources, cause
thinking back I couldn't remember us telling anybody what we were going to
search for. Somebody might have been able to guess what we would be after, but
the way Sand had phrased it told me she had been very certain of our goal. I
stole a quick glance at the others and saw that they were also contemplating the
things Sand had just told us.
"The way I see it," she continued,
"I've got some information which might be of interest to you. I've also got
some questions to which you may have some answers. So what I propose to do is
trade. A piece of information for you for an answer to one of my questions. Do
you agree?"
We looked at each other and both shrugged and
nodded. Of course it was a perfect opportunity to get some information and if
Sand's questions were not to our liking we could always call a halt to the
proceedings.
"Alright then. My first question concerns your
respective uncle and father, namely Caine. I have reason to believe that the
reports of his death were slightly exaggerated, that is I think he is still
alive. This concerns one of my projects, although not directly. So I would like
to know whether any of you have seen Caine recently."
Of course we all looked at Murlas, who sat there
calmly sipping his wine. He took his time, carefully choosing the right answer,
but when he finally spoke, he asked Sand a question first.
"You are not by any chance Rinaldo's mother,
are you?"
"Oh, no! No, you don't have to worry about
that."
Satisfied by her answer Murlas told her of how
Caine had appeared at his bed that fateful night. He refrained from telling her
any more than that, clearly saving that for her following questions. She
accepted his answer and indicated that it was our turn. But she said that we
could only ask for a small piece of information, since she had also received
only a small answer. We spent some time trying to phrase a question which she
was willing to answer, until I finally found one that was agreeable to her.
"Is there a connection between the Black
Unicorn and the force that attacked Arden under Dalt's command?"
She also pondered this question for a while, until
she found the right answer.
"It might be a possibility, but it's not
strictly necessary."
She immediately continued with her next question,
which was once again aimed at Murlas.
"What did Caine want of you? Did he give any
indications of his current affairs?"
"Well, he wasn't very talkative, as usual. He
said he wanted me to get something for him and led me to some Shadow by means of
a strange power, which was similar to the Trump power, as I later learned."
Our turn again. We soon found a suitable question.
"Who is responsible for the attack on the
Pattern?"
"The effects on the Pattern are inherent in
the nature of the Black Unicorn. In this regard it was never a premeditated
attack on the Pattern, at least there is no reason as yet to believe that it
was.
So what happened? Did you find that object your
father was after? What was it?"
Murlas told her the rest of the story, with the
harpy and the Black Trump and everything. Sand betrayed no real reactions but
avid attention. She sighed though, when she heard our next question.
"You want to know what the Black Unicorn is?
Hmm, that's a hard one. Are you familiar with the meaning of the White Unicorn
of Amber?"
The others looked puzzled and shook their heads,
but I hesitatingly started to nod. One of the unavoidable aspects of life in
Amber is the Church of the Unicorn. Although my Father hadn't really much use
for religion and accordingly had not placed too much emphasis on it while
raising me, I had read through the Book of the Unicorn on a couple of occasions
just out of curiosity. In this way I had learned that there was a very tight
link between the Unicorn and the Pattern, although the specifics remained very
unclear to me. As I tried to explain this to my companions, Sand nodded as if to
indicate that I had caught her meaning.
"Yes," she said, "that's right. The
Black Unicorn is a being of the same order as the White one, but it isn't from
this reality. Its presence here and the powers it represents tend to have a
destructive effect on the White Unicorn and the thereto connected powers. I hope
you understand what I mean. Murlas, I'm just curious, but who is your
mother?"
She seemed very interested in Murlas, I should say.
This time he sighed.
"I don't really know much about her except for
the fact that she came from the Courts of Chaos and the fact that she's dead, at
least if I am to believe my Father. He told me he killed her himself."
Hmm, not very pleasant news. I must admit that I
didn't envy Murlas' childhood very much. It also placed my Uncle Caine in an
entirely different light.
Meanwhile Murlas continued by asking Sand whether she knew something
about his mother that he didn't. Although this was a personal question and of no
real direct interest to the rest of us, we had no objections since Sand's
questions had all become quite personally directed at Murlas. She hesitated a
little before answering.
"I can't really be certain, but I think that
she may have been Rega of the House Ysarn. You should ask Caine though.
She produced a Trump deck and shuffled out four
cards which she showed to us. The first was a woman with short light hair and
piercing blue eyes. The second was another woman with long dark hair and dark
hair. Her face was drawn with a very peculiar expression. The third was a man
whose look sent shivers down my spine. Murlas may be a bit sinister, but this
guy didn't need any make-up to feature in a thriller. He also had blond hair and
blue eyes, and I wondered whether he and the lady on the first card might be
related. Finally, the fourth card showed a young man with brown hair and blue
eyes. His expression seemed a little sad.
I had recognised none of these people and neither
had my companions, but luckily Sand accepted our "don't know" as an
answer and allowed us our last question. As ironic as it seems, she couldn't
answer it either. No, she didn't know where the Black Unicorn had come from, how
it had gotten here and how it was supposed to go back again. Ah well, you can't
win them all and she had already given us much to think about.
Our trade was over but we spent a few more minutes
eating and drinking. After a while I noticed Sand glancing in my direction.
Finally she asked me if I accompany her for a short stroll. It was clear that
she wanted to have a private talk and I was curious what it would be about, so I
said yes and we departed under the suspicious gazes of the others. When we were
out of ear-shot she told me she wanted to ask a favour of me, as one relative to
another.
"So you are Family?" I asked her,
surprised that she had refrained from mentioning this to the others, and yet she
chose to confide in me.
"Yes, we are related. But I haven't been in
touch with Amber for some hundreds of years. There isn't really much love lost
between them and me.
The favour concerns the woman on the second card I
have shown you. Her name is Aradia and she's very important to me. I'm looking
for her at the moment and I have reason to believe that you may run into her in
the near future. She may be in some kind of danger,
probably even from several different sources, and I would want you to
look after her and help her if need be. Will you do that for me?"
I thought about it for a little while, but I
couldn't see any harm in it, at least not at this moment.
"Alright, I will promise to do what you ask of
me, provided that doing so won't conflict with my duty to Amber. Is that
satisfactory?"
"Yes, it is. I don't think there will be any
conflict of duties though. When you do find her, I would like to hear about
it."
She again produced her Trump deck and handed me her
own Trump. She must really trust me, I thought. I briefly wondered whether I
should give her my own Trump in return, but I decided against it. She had
already proven to have some not insubstantial powers at her command, so I
guessed that if she should want to reach me she would find a way easily enough.
Besides, I might have a need for my Trump later on.
"I'd like to know one more thing," I
said. "Is Aradia a relative too?"
"No, I'm pretty certain she isn't. It would
really surprise me if she were related, but then again, stranger things have
happened.
Now, I make it a habit to settle my debts as soon
as possible, so if you know anything I can do for you in return for that favour,
now's the time."
Well, I didn't really have to think very long.
There was this personal matter that I was still very unsure about and I felt
that there was a good chance that she would be able to help me with it. So I
told her all about my Mother, the strange dreams and my part in Murlas'
adventure.
"So you see, all of this has gotten me very
confused. What I really like to know is whether my Mother is still alive. Or, if
you can't or won't tell me, how I might be able to find this out for
myself."
"Well," she said, "I do believe that
she's really dead, but I also believe that death isn't as final as most people
think it is. It is hard to explain, but I think it isn't impossible for your
Mother to be dead and appear to you at the same time. I think you Uncle Caine
may be the person who's able to tell you more about her fate. So seek him out if
you want to find any answers."
After that we walked a little further while I
thought about the things she had told me. I realised that I rather liked Sand.
Or Aunt Sand, as that was the most probable relationship I could come up with. I
wondered why she had turned her back on Amber and why her name was never
mentioned there, not even in the historical texts I had read when I was younger.
What had happened in that distant past? Maybe I should ask one of my relatives
when I returned to Amber. For the moment I decided to keep her relationship from
my companions. I couldn't see why she hadn't trusted them with that information,
but I felt it better to rely on her judgement in this matter. After all, she
seemed to trust me and I didn't want to betray her trust so easily. Hell, I
liked her and was starting to trust her too! So I
wouldn't tell them. Period.
We arrived back at the picnic spot and shortly thereafter Sand bade us
farewell. We mounted again and I indicated that someone else should do the
shifting, since I was still musing on Sand and the information she had given us.
First Adrian tried to lead us, but Murlas got the feeling we were going too slow
and he soon took over from him. This rather quickened our pace as Murlas wasn't
above a little inconvenience. Dark clouds and a strong biting wind accompanied
us as the terrain around us quickly shifted to a rocky desert with reddish sand
dunes. Ahead of us some kind of structures appeared in the distance. As we got
nearer and nearer they proved to be several tall, rusty, metal beams sticking
out of the sand at various angles. The wind eerily whistled around them.
I noticed that Murlas had stopped shifting. He said
that he felt that this was somehow the right place. I doubted it, for I couldn't
see anything that could be of interest to us. As a matter of fact I didn't like
it here at all. I looked inquiringly at Wylde, who sat in front of me, and by a
peculiar coincidence she immediately responded by warning me that there was
danger coming from below.
No sooner had she said that or several pairs of
ruddy-pink stone arms reached up from beneath the ground and started groping for
our horses. I quickly dismounted and sent Styll off to safety. Around me I saw
the others also dismounting, while our attackers worked their way to the
surface. Murlas started to climb into one of the beams to stay out of reach.
Adrian and Alexander stood ready to face any attackers with weapons drawn. I
drew my own sword, but saw that Vincent remained empty-handed.
With their stony skin, our attackers reminded me
most of golems. There were eight of them and they had us more or less
surrounded. This didn't prove to be a problem for the two brothers who started
hacking away at their opponents and eliminating them by chopping off their arms
and legs. I didn't really have time to watch them at leisure, but I did have
time to see that their skill with the sword was really remarkable. They were
clearly a lot more skilled than I was, so I decided it better to stay out of
harm's way until one of them could come to my aid. This proved to be easy, since
my opponent was somewhat slower than I was and by constantly retreating I found
it possible to stay out of the reach of those wildly milling arms.
Meanwhile Vincent had recklessly decided to tackle
a golem with his bare hands. However the remarkable thing was that he was able
to hold off the big brute. A quick glance told me they were just about equally
matched.
Murlas found himself not as safe as he thought he
would be up there in that beam, for one of the golems started to push the beam
further into the ground, thus slowly bringing Murlas into its reach. Alexander,
who had run out of opponents, came to his rescue, but another golem also found
Murlas very interesting and continued bringing him down.
Murlas himself didn't like the idea of meeting such
a monster face to face, so when he was nearly within its reach he leaped from
the beam over the head of the golem... right in the way of the golem that was
chasing me! Something about looking before leaping came to mind as the golem
decided Murlas was an easier victim than I had been. The blow hit him right in
the chest and he was thrown several paces backward by its force. His face
contorted with pain while the monster closed in for the coup de grace.
Well, of course I couldn't leave Murlas to his
fate, so I ran towards the golem and tried to chop off its leg like I had seen
the brothers do. No such luck! My blade bit deep into the leg, but wouldn't
entirely go through. Worse yet, as I tried to pull it out again I found that it
was stuck. Hell and damnation!
At least I had distracted the golem from its prey and had given Murlas
time to crawl to safety. Luckily Alexander quickly helped me out by chopping the
monster to little pieces. He also pulled my sword out of the leg, while saying
that I should find me a better blade. I thanked him all the same.
Meanwhile Adrian had helped Vincent dispatch the
last of the golems. Vincent expressed surprise at the fact that the golem had
proven to be as strong as himself and Adrian advised him to try using his sword
the next time. Vincent just shrugged and said that he wasn't as good with swords
as he was with his bare hands.
While Alexander checked out Murlas' injuries, I
investigated the remains of our enemies. The chopped up golems contained lots of
pieces of intricate machinery. I tried looking at it with the Pattern lens and
found some traces of magic, though I couldn't tell their origin. The golems
hadn't appeared to be very intelligent, so it was a fair assumption that they
had been controlled by someone. The only remaining question was: by whom?
Looking around at the others I noticed that
Alexander was missing. Just as I was about to ask Murlas where he had gone I
felt the inquiring touch of a growing Trump contact. I opened my mind I saw
Alexander standing in a corridor in Amber. I brought him through and he told me
he had gone back to pick up some first aid equipment to treat Murlas' injuries.
It seems that the blow from the golem had broken one or more of his ribs. Alex
had also taken some drugs that might speed up the healing process. Murlas didn't
like the idea of using drugs though and they had an argument about it. In the
end Alex left it up to Murlas whether or not to use the stuff.
We all thought it better to stay here and rest
until Murlas would be able to travel again. I took some time to see whether my
sword had survived its encounter with the golem's leg. There were a few notches
on it, but after some time whetting it I felt it was at least usable again,
though it would never again be as keen as it had been before. Adrian joined me
when he saw me working, but thank goodness he refrained from making any
"useful" remarks on the maintenance of weapons. No, when he started
talking he surprised me by asking me to explain the way Murlas and I had driven
off the harpy. I had not figured that he had any interests in that direction.
Maybe he just felt he needed an alternative strategy in case weapons or pure
strength might not do the trick. I tried as best as I could to explain to him
what we had done and I felt he at least grasped the basics of the idea. He just
would have to practice it to get a real feel for it.
The night was quiet and no new golems appeared to bother us. The next
morning Murlas said he felt well enough to travel on. He still looked a bit
pale, but he didn't seem to be in a lot of pain anymore. He also said he had a
feeling about which way we should travel next, so we again let him do the
shifting. We rode away from the metal beams and soon the desert became less sand
and more rocks. More hills, quickly shifting to mountains. Then, as we galloped
around a corner, we came to the entrance of a cave, which Murlas indicated we
should enter. It was plain that we couldn't take the horses with us, but Adrian
assured us his horse Beiaard would protect the others. Well, he'd better, for I
didn't like the idea of any harm coming to Styll.
Adrian dug some torches out of his pack to light
our way and then we carefully entered the cave single-file, with Murlas in the
lead, since we were still following his feelings. I could feel him shifting, but
I also noticed that the shifts came quite easily, as if there was some other
power guiding us. The floor and walls quickly turned smoother and smoother as
the passage turned into a corridor. Just as we reached a staircase
going upwards I noticed that the floor was covered with tiles of a simple
design. Signs of civilisation, I'd say. We started climbing the stairs, but
after a while we found that the stairs were taking us up of their own accord. At
the top of the escalator we were greeted by a familiar figure, complete with
mohawk and leathers like we had last seen him.
"I had a feeling someone was coming this
way," Martin said. "Welcome to Angel City."
I looked around. The escalator had led us to dark
city street. A little rain was coming down and the few streetlights still
burning reflected back on the wet concrete. The buildings around were big and
dark and ominous. Not directly the Shadow I would choose to call home; however
that judgement was only based on first impressions.
"Yeah, I'm glad you guys showed
up," Martin continued. "I've had some problems here and I was going to
sort it out myself, but I already had the feeling I should wait for whoever was
coming. You see, my place has been burgled and though there's nothing much
missing of any value, I would like to get that black piece of carbon back. It
was just about the same size as a Trump but totally black."
Hmm, that sounded awfully familiar. I nonchalantly
glanced at the others and somehow we all silently agreed to keep from telling
Martin that we had also found such a Black Trump. I had the feeling that there
was a more than average chance that we were talking about the same thing here.
If that were true I had no idea how the thing had gotten from here to the Shadow
with the harpy, but maybe that was something we would be able to find out by
investigating this burglary. I also would like to know how the Black Trump had
gotten into Martin's possession in the first place, and it seemed that I
wasn't the only one, for Alex was already asking him that very question.
"Well, a couple of days before that Family
banquet in Amber I was mugged by three men while walking home late at night. I
thought they were probably after my money, but now I'm not so sure anymore.
Anyway, I managed to take out the first two easily. The third one then took that
piece of carbon out of his pocket, but I chopped off his hand before he could do
anything with it. He ran off and I lost him in the alleys. He left the piece of
carbon behind though and I kept it as a sort of souvenir. It didn't seem to be
anything special. I had
We told Martin we would be glad to help him. Alex
asked him some questions about this Shadow and we learned that it was
technically just a bit more advanced that Shadow Earth (they had such things as
laserguns here, but they were considered to be illegal). Also important was the
fact that time passed a lot faster in this Shadow than it did in Amber. That
wasn't too bad, since any time we would spend here would amount to only a
fraction of that back in Amber. Martin told us the burglary had happened about
three weeks ago local time.
We decided to go to Martin's place first to find
some clothes that were more inconspicuous. On our way to his appartment I
noticed a lot of tramps sleeping on the sidewalks with rats and other vermin
scurrying between them. In the distance I could faintly hear the sound of
sirens, but I got the feeling the local police didn't patrol in these
neighbourhoods very much.
Martin led us up the stairs of a dark wharehouse,
through a dimly lit and smelly corridor to the door of his appartment. Upon
entering I asked him whether he hadn't had time to clean the place up after the
burglary, but the blank look he gave me told me this was just the usual mess.
Especially his broad collection of cd's, which was strewn all over the room, was
quite a sight. He also had a drumkit, saxophone and a fine-looking electric
guitar stashed away in a corner.
Martin started digging in piles of more or less
dirty clothing and soon came up with some attirement for all of us, except Alex
who already looked right at home in his black jeans. Adrian got a black leather
jacket, jeans and a whitish T-shirt, Murlas only wanted a long coat which hid
most of his other clothes from view, and Vincent and I also took a pair of jeans
and a T-shirt each. My shirt read "Chaotic Dreamers" on the front,
apparently some famous group in this Shadow, but I just loved the irony.
After we were all dressed in fashion Martin said he
would find us some weapons, since life in this Shadow was pretty dangerous,
even for an Amberite. Lasers might be rare and illegal, but normal guns
were quite commonplace and just as deadly. After all, one
bullet between the eyes is usually enough...
He led us through the streets again to a cellar
where a silent old man sat smoking a cigarette. He didn't acknowledge us in any
way until Martin said we were looking for some guns. Without so much as a glance
in our direction he stood up and unlocked a cupboard which proved to be
chock-full with guns of every imaginable type. Alex and Adrian both chose
machinepistols, while Murlas felt a shotgun, which he could also hide easily
under his coat, was a safer choice. I personally didn't have much experience
with firearms, so I just chose a medium sized gun, nothing special, just like
Vincent. Martin paid for us and we left again.
Out on the street Martin told us he had two leads
concerning the burglary: a vague description of two men who were seen in the
building that night and the license-plate of a suspicious-looking car seen at
the scene of the crime. He made a couple of phone-calls and then took us to the
house of a man called Jake, a dowdy guy with long greasy hair and smelling of
liquor. It soon became clear why Martin had brought us here though, cause at
Martin's mention of the license-plate Jake seated himself behind a computer and
started tapping away. After only a few moments he told us the car was registered
with a rental service and that it had been rented by the Myrone Corporation on
that fateful night.
Martin seemed surprised by this. He told us the
Myrone Corporation was specialised in computers and software, with little or no
ugly rumours running around about them. He had heard that there had been a
change of ownership lately, but things had been pretty quiet after that. He
found their possible involvement in this quite puzzling and worth looking into a
little further. Thanking Jake for his help we went off again.
While we were just wandering around we discussed our options. Martin knew where the offices of the Myrone Corporation were located and it seemed like a good idea to pay them a visit. He also figured that it might be worth our while to investigate the origin of "that black piece of carbon", as he kept calling it. We might go to the local morgue to see whether the two bodies of Martin's attackers had been identified and/or claimed by family or friends and we might ask round the hospitals to see whether any man with only one hand had received first aid during that night. These were all good suggestions and we more or less decided to follow up on all of them. We would have to work fast though, if we wanted to attract no attention, so that meant we would have to split up.