Chapter 106: Government In Exile

"It seems that paradise

Has been well locked and barred

To all the issue of Adam

It seems that children must

Pay for their parents' crimes

Until they wish they'd never had them"

East of Eden - Twelfth Night

            To sleep… Ah yes, and a spot of dreaming might not be such a problem either. Between the party last night, all the excitement that followed, and my various Power manipulations I was quite worn out, yet it appeared there would be no rest for any of us, wicked or not. No, things had been set in motion, new developments were taking place, and now was the time to shape our future. Or something along those lines. What it boiled down to, however, was that both Random and Benedict felt it was necessary to have an immediate Family meeting to discuss the current state of affairs and decide upon the course that Amber was going to take. Of course, the both of them had the luxury of at least having had some sleep during the night.

            Along with Benedict, Alexander had also been informed that we had returned, and he had arranged a meeting room for us large enough to accommodate the entire Amber Family, if necessary. However, there was a general feeling that we needed to have some preliminary discussions before summoning the remainder of our relatives. Most importantly, Benedict felt that we first needed to decide what Random's status was going to be. It was still possible to carry out our original plan and have Benedict assume the temporary role of Regent, but since Random was of sound mind and the danger to his wife and daughter had been removed, he could also choose to remain in charge. Random himself agreed that this was a valid point for discussion, but he'd rather keep the crowd as small as possible to limit the risks of the discussion running on and on. Since Alexander was already present, he would be allowed to stay and have his say, but it was impressed upon him that he could only be here as a member of the Family. In other words, a certain amount of discretion would be required on his part when it came to informing either Myrthe, Galoran, or any of the other people of importance in Galoria of the things we were going to discuss.

            When we had all taken a seat, more or less arranging ourselves around the table in a seating order that left little gaps for the people we were going to call upon later, I suggested that we at least inform one other person before we got started: Bleys. Benedict said he had also been considering this, but he wondered whether we might not save a lot of time by leaving him out of the immediate proceedings. After all, there was a good chance that he was not entirely up to date yet, and this meant we would have to do a good deal of explaining, which might be better saved till later when all the others were present too. I had to disagree, however, for I felt in the long run it would serve us best if he was to get involved at this stage and not later. Besides, there didn't seem to be any pressing reasons not to call him at this point. The thought that this kind of courtesy to Bleys would be better for the overall stability of Amber, leaving the struggle for the Throne well behind us, didn't need to be voiced. I saw several of those present, like Justin and Alexander, nod at my suggestion, and I felt Julian's objection that Bleys would certainly constitute an unnecessary delay in the discussion to be more for show. Perhaps it was merely a little display of his peculiar sense of humour.

            A consensus more or less being reached, Boadice awkwardly got to her feet to Trump her father. She stood slightly lopsided, favouring her good leg, while the other looked rather silly with the gilded chair leg that Gerard had perfunctorily tied to it as a splint. She turned away from us momentarily, and a few seconds later Bleys appeared beside her, smiling smoothly and radiating nothing but confidence and a complete lack of surprise. He really gave an impression of being completely in the know, a fact which I very much doubted. Apparently, I wasn't the only one.

            "Brother," Benedict said in greeting, "it seemed like a good idea for you to lend your wisdom and support during these subsequent discussions." Bleys, his smile fixed like a mask, nodded uncommittally. Benedict's expression was as level as only his could be. "Undoubtedly, you are quite well-informed on most of the recent events," he continued, halting just a moment before adding: "but to avoid any misunderstandings we shall give you a quick summary." To his credit, Bleys didn't as much as blink an eye, but I don't think anyone was fooled.

            The summary as given by Benedict was typically Benedict's, meaning that Random had to cut in at certain points to clarify some finer details or to relay some parts of the story from his perspective. Random emphasised that he had all the time been looking for some kind of solution to the Kreel problem, but his hands had been tied by Vialle and Ruby's life hanging in the balance. He said he believed he had probably had some conversation with me, although he couldn't quite remember it clearly, during which he may have asked me to do something to remedy the situation. With all eyes turning towards me, Benedict asked me to confirm this part, and I simply nodded and said that, yes, such a conversation had taken place. No need to go into details on why I hadn't told anyone about this before. Everyone was smart enough to come up wth some reasons of their own.

            As was to be expected, Bleys wasn't convinced right away of the threat that the Kreel represented, but by now there were too many people with first-hand experience to let him sustain his doubts for very long. Especially the fact that Boadice attested to have been taken over by the Kreel herself, albeit temporarily, seemed to clinch the matter for him.

            With most of the background in place, Benedict told Bleys about our original plan of Benedict becoming a temporary Regent. However, now that Random was here and both Vialle and Ruby were safe, there was a possible alternative to the original plan: Random could simply stay on as King, provided we would be able to take sufficient security measures to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. And this was what we were now here to discuss.

            Julian was the first to express the opinion that it was more than a little unfortunate that Random had proved so vulnerable in this regard. It made it difficult for him to weigh the alternatives. Principally he would be in favour of the King remaining in office, for this would simply constitute more stability and consistency, and it would present a stronger image of Amber leadership to the outside world. However, in light of these particular problems he was more inclined to favour a Regent or even another King who wasn't as vulnerable, as long as it was a temporary solution, of course.

             Boadice was more in favour of keeping Random in office, but she agreed that something had to be done to ensure the safety of the Royal family. She recalled that the Guild of Guardian Creatures, who were found throughout Shadow, used some kind of silvery skullcaps which apparently protected the individual creatures from psychic attacks. Maybe these could also be used to protect people from the Kreel, she suggested. With this kind of defense and some place of refuge, like Sherwyn for instance, Ruby and Vialle would be well-protected.

            Gerard also felt that it would be better not to replace the rightful King, no matter how temporary it was going to be. Random's vulnerability remained a problem, though. Vialle and Ruby would clearly not be safe in Amber as long as the Kreel were present, but we should also not discount the possibility of other, more physical threats to their safety. Still, it was clear to me that Gerard at least believed strongly in Random's right to rule as the one chosen by the Unicorn. Not that he had anything against Benedict, but our original plan of making him Regent still gave Gerard cause for unease, no matter how legal it might be.

            Justin basically said he agreed with Gerard, although he added that he was more interested in hearing what Random himself thought would be best. As I nodded my agreement, Justin continued by reminding us of Sherwyn's experiences with the Archai and he posed the question whether Galoria would be as safe a haven as it was thought to be, considering that the Archai had decided to put their embassy here. On the other hand, Sherwyn might be free of Archai influence, but he acknowledged the fact that it wasn't very strong either. As a necessary extra eplanation to Bleys, Benedict told him about Corwin's insistence that no one who was controlled by the Kreel would be allowed entrance to Sherwyn. Also, he explained about the Galorian policy on granting asylum and the preliminary arrangements that had been made before our rescue attempt. The question was whether the whole notion of political asylum was still an issue, since Random could very well stay on as King instead.

            Since the discussion was shifting from Sherwyn to Galoria, Alexander seemed the logical next candidate for venting his thoughts. What was foremost on his mind was also Vialle and Ruby's safety, but not just out of simple concern for their well-being. They would be very difficult to protect, he said, and he quickly ran through several scenarios involving assassins and the gruesome possibillity of either Vialle or Ruby being murdered as both a general warning and a way to get to Random again. Also, he reminded us of Karnagh, the supposedly unbeatable assassin working for Lothair, saying that he couldn't think of any place in our Reality that would be completely safe from him. The crux of his message was, though, that if Random was going to stay in Galoria and remain King as well, the Galorian government would not bear the full responsibility of keeping his wife and daughter completely safe.

            Bleys, funnily enough, began in much the same way as Julian had, by expressing his concerns about Random's vulnerability. Thankfully building on the unpleasant picture that Alexander had just painted, he put it to us that as long as Random remained King of Amber, Vialle and Ruby would remain viable targets, perhaps now even more so than before. Whether the goal would be kidnapping and blackmail or simply to hurt Random and get him mentally off-balance, the risk remained the same. Like Alexander had said, there was no place that was truly safe. No, Bleys was starting to think along other lines. Ruby and Vialle's safety shouldn't be our primary topic of discussion here, he said, the safety of Amber itself was most important. We should be talking about how we were going to get the Kreel out of Amber in such a way that they wouldn't be coming back. Then we ought to be looking into measures that would make Amber into a fortress to stand against the forces that were threatening us, a place where those we wanted to protect could truly be safe.

            I must say that I reacted rather sharply to this. Of course, Bleys had a point, but did he really think that we had completely forgotten about all of that? No, I had the feeling his rhetoric was deliberate, that he was still looking for some way to get himself on the Throne, slim as his chances might be. My tone, therefore, was rather annoyed, as I explained to him that he was getting ahead of the entire discussion. Bleys shrugged slightly and nodded at me to continue. Of course the Kreel were our primary problem, I said, and of course we should be looking into ways to deal with them, but before we could start that discussion we first needed to decide under whose leadership we were going to do all of this. This wasn't the most important problem, but it had to be resolved before we could do anything else. Was Random still going to be an active King? Did we want Benedict as our Regent instead? Or was there some other option that would find more favour among the Family? Because there were always other options, even though they might again present us with quite different problems.

            "All very well," Bleys said, "but which solution do you prefer?"

            "Me? Well, it's not an easy choice, for like it or not everything does depend on Vialle and Ruby's safety. I have to agree, though, that they probably wouldn't be safe anywhere, but then the same goes for every one of us." I sighed. "We can talk about this until the cows come home, but I think in the end it's simply Random's own decision."

            "Naturally, I have some ideas of my own," Random said, in response to my words, "but I'm still interested in hearing what all of you have to say. All of your opinions carry some weight, especially if there were to be some sort of consensus."

            "Alright, then let that be my opinion: you're the King, you choose."

            "And you wouldn't object to any scenario?" Random insisted. "King or no King? Regent or no Regent?"

            "I don't mind," I said. It was more or less the same thing as Justin had said earlier, although I may have been a bit more direct in phrasing it.

**

            Caine gladly took advantage of all that had been said before and managed to come out sounding like the voice of reason. The King shouldn't be vulnerable like this, he quite agreed, so we had to find some solution that would allow the locus of authority in Amber to shift to a degree where a direct threat against the King's nearest and dearest would no longer have the same effect as it now had. We wouldn't have to use the same procedure that we had come up with earlier, for another form of a temporary transition of power might be more suitable, leaving the King nominally in charge but giving other people the authority to handle the day-to-day business.

            This was the course of action that appealed the most to Random too, and he proposed the following: he would sign a written decree, tranferring all direct authority to Benedict, but only as a temporary measure. Meanwhile, Random would officially go on holiday, or on sick leave, or whatever cover story was most appropriate. In any case, he would be staying here in Galoria, where he could personally see to the safety of his wife and daughter. He wouldn't be out of the picture entirely, however , but would be available for consultation and, if necessary, for putting his Kingly foot down, so to speak. He could still appeal to everyone's Oath of Loyalty if need be, but with Benedict actually in charge he would be under a lot less pressure.

            "What about the earlier suggestion that Julian and Bleys would assist Benedict with civilian matters?" Boadice wanted to know, but Justin was quick to disagree.

            "No," he said, "I'll only agree to this if Benedict is the only other one in charge besides Random." He too had sensed Bleys's reluctance to relinquish his claim to power, it seemed.

            "That's understandable," Random said. "However, I think Benedict is likely to establish something like a chain of command in any case. Only for internal Family reference, of course, for to the outside world he will be the sole point of authority in Amber. He will probably delegate a lot to the rest of you. Undoubtedly he will handle things differently from how I would have done, which may take some getting used to for some of you."

            Benedict nodded, smiling grimly. "A chain of command will indeed have to established," he agreed. "I don't want everyone to be Trumping me personally all the time with all kinds of strange new problems. That may work for Random, but it's certainly not the way I want to conduct business."

            "What about written reports with executive information?" Boadice asked. I frowned slightly. She actually took time to write stuff down for Random when just telling him was so much easier?

            "Ah, those should go to Benedict now," Random grinned. "If he wants me to, I'll have a look at them now and again. And of course I expect everything to be properly filed and archived, so I can study all the information later." Of course, he would.

            Seeing as how no one raised any objections to Random's proposal, it was decided that this was to be the solution to the immediate problem of Amber's leadership, and it would be the first thing to tell our various relatives who were not yet present. A round of Trumping commenced, focusing on those members of the Family whose loyalty to Amber was clear and beyond any doubt. This meant that people like Elayne, Yaslin, Brand, and Flora were to be excluded, although I doubted whether we would have been able to get to Brand if we had wanted to. On the other hand, there were a few people with mixed loyalties who were invited anyway, since they had not yet been placed in a position where their other loyalties would clash with their loyalty to Amber. These included Justin and Alexander, who were already present anyway, but also Corwin and Murlas. Corwin, now King of Sherwyn since Adrian's demise, was generally not believed to be a problem, since his love for Amber was beyond question and Sherwyn's interests as another Pattern Kingdom were closely tied to ours. Murlas, however, was a more complicated case. It could very well be that sometime in the future he would have to choose between his allegiance to Amber and to the Courts, but for now it seemed that he could still have his cake and eat it.

            Aside from those already mentioned, we managed to reach Deirdre, Martin, Melusine, Rinaldo, Charles, and Diana. Several people tried to Trump both Fiona and Llewella, but there was no getting through to either of them, which in Fi's case I found not all that surprising. Algo couldn't be reached either, but he was assumed to be in his personal Shadow, which was barred from any Trump contacts, and no one seemed much inclined to take the trouble to try and reach him in some other way. Cousin Rhiane wasn't available either, or so Gerard assured us, so that left only eighteen of us to decide on the future of the Realm. It seemed like such a small number.

            After everyone had taken a seat, Benedict explained our whole current situation to those who had not been present before, this time going into some more detail. The points we needed to discuss in this Family meeting, he said, would be which political course Amber was going to steer, especially when it came to our role in the conflict between Lothair and Ornach. There were some enquiring frowns when this was mentioned, so he also explained about Lothair's reason for being in our Reality. I caught a sharp glance from Diana, who clearly had been unaware of all this up till now, and I knew I would have to do some explaining of my own later on.

            When the plan of Benedict taking charge from now on was explained, some of the late arrivals muttered a bit angrily about why they had not been informed of this earlier, but Benedict firmly stated that it had seemed more efficient to have some preliminary discussions with a much smaller group instead of involving the whole Family right away. If anyone had any objections, they'd better take them up with him personally. After this the muttering ceased.

            Murlas, however, wanted to know straight away what the official story would be that he was expected to take back to the Courts. Something better, he hoped, than Amber being in a crisis and Random going on a holiday? Benedict frowned and said that this would indeed not be the image we wanted to project, but Murlas quickly plowed on.

            "There is a crisis," he stated firmly, "or in any case, the Courts believe there is. I have been given rather specific orders, which I am naturally not going to carry out, to use any possible means to involve Amber in the war. " He smiled glibly. "For it is said that Amber is not inclined to do anything. People are beginning te get rather desperate in the Courts, so I do not want to have to return with any light excuses of holidays or anything like that. And stories of the safety of the King's family are out of the question too. A King should be able to rise above such concerns."

            "Look," I said, "all very well, but we're not here to talk about the Courts, we're here to talk about Amber. There are far more important issues to be discussed than our public image. Frankly, I think your concerns can wait." Again I reacted a bit more annoyedly and angrily than I might have done under other circumstances. It may have been my weariness, but the implication of his remarks had made it seem just a bit too much as if the concerns of Chaos should take precedence over our own affairs. Luckily, he climbed down a bit after my retort, or we might have had a shouting match on our hands.

            As an aside Benedict added that if we were going to get involved at this point, the Courts would get their way too, and they might not be too picky about what our official explanations were going to be. Murlas agreed that in such a case his report would turn out altogether differently.

            Addressing the entire assembly again, Benedict told us that he had put together a list of items that needed our immediate attention, but that this should not be seen as a definite agenda for the meeting. Things could be added or removed, depending on what kind of information people were going to share. The most immediate point of action, which he felt no one would be inclined to argue about, should be the removal of the Kreel influence from Amber. He elaborated by pointing out that we were currently unaware to what extent the armies of Amber had been taken over by the Kreel. Since Amber's military had been compromised, it would be impossible for us to commit to any military actions in our Reality. This was a serious situation that needed to be remedied as soon as possible.

            To be able to fight the Kreel, however, there were certain steps that had to be taken. First of all, we needed to develop a method for discovering the presence of the Kreel. Preferably, this should be something that would cover large area in one go, and it ought to be something that could be put into effect by other people than just us. Either some magic spell or some kind of object incorporating the means to discover the Kreel would do, but it had to be something that could easily be reproduced, so that several people would be able to use it at the same time. This method should also work as a means of making sure that people had not been taken over by the Kreel again.

            Secondly, and closely intertwined with this first part, we needed to develop some simple method of freeing people from the Kreel. This too would have to be something that would work on a large scale and that might easily be reproduced. We quickly needed to make sure that not only the armies, but also Amber's middle management, all our retainers and officials, could be put back into action. Boadice once again raised the subject of the silvery skullcaps, but Benedict said that while this was a possibility, he wanted to save a detailed discussion until he had broadly addressed all the major issues. He added that a combination of the first two steps ought to be enough to ensure that people would not be possessed by the Kreel again after they had been released.

            Some scouting missions into Amber were necessary too in order to get a clear idea of how many of the Amber officials and the military were now in the hands of the Kreel. So far we only knew that the Kreel were present in Amber, but whether they were controlling only one percent of the populace or sixty to seventy percent made a huge difference.

            With a wry smile Benedict said that we could of course also try to lodge an official complaint with Lothair regarding this Kreel problem. He didn't seem too convinced of the use of this himself, saying that Lothair may simply promise to form some committee to look into the problem, which would undoubtedly take more time than it would take us to come up with more practical solutions. However, we could resort to this course of action anyway as part of our public image. There was enough evidence to suggest that the Kreel were indeed working for Lothair.

**

            "There are some other minor problems that only seem to be connected to the problem of the Kreel in a roundabout way," Benedict said, "but I think we should address them all the same. First of all, Fiona's been missing for quite a while now. Ordinarily, this would not be a problem, but we require her expertise to deal with the larger issues. She knows too much about these sort of things."

            I looked at Random, who met my gaze and quickly said: "It is true that Fiona can't be reached right now, and with good reason too. However, I shall take this matter up with Dorian and we shall see to it that she will report back as soon as possible." He met my gaze again, but I shook my head. This would not do, and if he didn't stop me right now I was going to have my own say on the matter. Random frowned, excused us to the rest, and took me off to a quiet corner somewhere.

            "Look," I said, "Fiona won't like this, but I think we should allow the story to get out."

            "Do you have any idea what's she's going to do to us if we tell everyone?"

            "I know, I know. But her tale is part of the bigger picture. And if Benedict is to make sensible strategic decisions, he ought to know exactly what they are capable of."

            "Alright, alright, I suppose this is as good or bad a time as any." His expression told me he still wasn't very happy about it, though. He walked briskly back to his seat and said to the others: "After consulting with Dorian I think I'd better elaborate a bit on Fiona's situation. As some of you may know, a number of Crystal Spires have been erected throughout Shadow, often quite close to the various centres of Power. There are reports of one close to Rebma, there's one in a Shadow quite near to Galoria, there is at least one near the Courts of Chaos, and there are some in Shadows that are more real and stable than others, such as Quendor for instance. Dorian can testify to what these Spires are capable of. In fact, he witnessed what happened to Fiona when she went up against such a thing."

            He gestured for me to continue, and so I told them of the Crystal Spire in Quendor and how Aurelia had used its Power to alter Fiona's personality. I briefly mentioned how I had reported this to Random and how we had decided to keep it a secret. I didn't go into too much detail on my programme to shock Fi back to her own self, but merely said that I had been trying to remedy the situation and that this had ultimately resulted in her taking off in a burst of Pattern energy.

            "Which her other personality had been unable to use," Random added, "so the treatment was at least partially successful." My story had caused some worry and unease among my relatives, I could tell. I saw Bleys frown disaprovingly, as did Boadice. I would have liked to see them handle the problems that I had faced, though. Alexander, meanwhile, asked why we were still unable to Trump Fiona.

            "We don't know," Random admitted. "Fiona may be her old self again, but she simply may prefer not to get in touch with us right now. Then again, it's also possible that the treatment resulted in some kind of strange mix between her old and new persona."

            "The fact is, though," I said, "that we do need her if we are to tackle the Kreel effectively. That was also the reason why I thought all of you should know what happened, for I suspect that the Archai did this to her quite purposefully in order to keep her from taking actions against the Kreel." For I now knew they had already been in Amber at that time. I saw some of the others nodding too, as another piece of the puzzle slid into place. We really had been unaware of what had been going on for much too long.

            "I take it you are familiar with both of Fiona's personalities?" Alexander asked me.

            "Yes," I said, "I got to know the other one pretty well too, unfortunately."

            "Well, if you are completely stuck there may be some way of finding her that's a bit more elaborate. You could take a Black Trump and temporarily leave our Reality to try and search for her that way." He saw my expression and added: "It could be dangerous, but if all else fails…"

            "It would be best to keep the discussion of such practical methods until after the meeting," Benedict said. "It could be important, that is true, but it is more up to the people who are actually going to work on one of the projects to decide on the appropriate methods. And we'll leave the various assignments till the end of the meeting too.

            "Next, I would like to address the issue of Llewella's absence. She has been gone for quite a while too, and no one in Rebma seems to have a clue where she is or what she is doing."

            This was something Justin apparently knew more about. He told us that he was supposed to be travelling to the Mirror World next, and that Llewella was supposed to be there too. Apparently, she was busy fighting the Archai on that plane, for it was said that Karnagh was on the prowl there. Murlas added that he'd already agreed to accompany Justin and that their passage into the Mirror World would not be a problem. Benedict gave a curt nod and said that finding and communicating with Llewella would be added to the to-do list, since it would seem she had some more first-hand experience with the Archai.

            The next point was a controversial one: Brand. By now everyone knew he had escaped again, although the particulars might not be common knowledge yet. People were casting glances at Boadice, though. Benedict firmly stated that he saw no point in bringing up the whole matter of Brand's original verdict once again, since we had not been able to settle this the last time. However, he felt that Brand ought at least to be returned to our hands. There was still a theory that Brand could tell us more about the Archai, but even if this were not true he was too dangerous to let anyone else use him.

            Random whispered something in Benedict's ear at this point, and immediately Benedict announced that Random would personally see to the matter of Brand's return. Since it was such a controversial subject, we would not discuss him any further during this meeting. Hmm, I recalled that Boadice had taken Random aside before the meeting had got started, and I felt I had some idea at least of who would really be going after Brand. She had to set a few things right to redeem herself, it seemed.

            There were some more practical issues that needed to be discussed too, such as where we were going to have our headquarters, so to speak. Amber itself wasn't an option for now, although we would have to make some effort to keep up the appearance of our government still being in its rightful place. As for our actual seat of government and Family meeting place, it was suggested that some short term building projects would be realised in both Sherwyn and Galoria. These two places, being more real because of their loci of Power, would be more difficult to mnipulate at a Shadow level, and as such they would be easier to secure in an ordinary fashion. This was the suggestion we would go with at least, unless any of the representatives of those two Powers objected.

            Corwin said he didn't mind as long as we didn't bing any Kreel to his Kingdom. There was some grumbling at this from some quarters, but Corwin was quite determined, and it must be said that others felt it would be a reassuring thought that there was at least one place in our Reality where there weren't any Kreel. For, as Murlas put it, could the same be said of Galoria? Alexander said he had no illusions about there being no Kreel in their Kingdom, and as such Galoria would be very interested in sharing any methods for Kreel detection and removal that we might be able to develop. For now he thought that Galoria's neutrality would be its best shield. There might be some Kreel around already, but they wouldn't be so obvious as to risk a diplomatic incident. Most of the Family seemed to agree with this, although for varying reasons.

            One of the reasons Alexander himself quoted for the Archai respecting Galoria's neutrality was that they were actively collaborating with Galoran on all kinds of Nexus research, which prompted Benedict to inquire how neutral the various important people in Galoria really were. Alex asserted that Queen Myrthe would be striving very hard to maintain the current status quo, but the same could unfortunately not be said for Galoran. Alex had the strong impression that the old man might be willing to sell out the lot of them just in order to gain more knowledge and control over the Nexus. He was very single-minded in considering things only on a Power level. As for the regular security forces, those were still mainly made up of former members of the House Hendrake, although there might be some new recruits soon in the shape of General Wynst's army. This was a Chaosian army from back during the Patternfall War, which had been left stranded in Shadow and which the Galorians had recently come across. It didn't seem likely that these people would be returning to the Courts, so possibly they would find a new home in Galoria. Benedict indicated that it would be important to make sure that these Chaosians would be able to withstand the Kreel on their own, and if they weren't to check how many of them had already been taken over. Alexander asked about Gerard's spell that had been used to determine whether Ruby had been taken over, but Gerard explained that he had only been able to use this because he had made similar scans of Ruby earlier on, and that the spell would be of no use on adult subjects.

            "Surely detecting these Kreel on an individual level is fairly simple," Murlas said. "You just look them straight in the eyes and you can tell whether they are Kreel or not right away. Or is my solution perhaps a bit too simplistic?"

            "I don't think it would work for everybody here," Benedict said, glancing momentarily at Boadice, "but I guess it would be no problem for the likes of you."

            "Maybe it would be best if you check the guards for the Amber wing in the palace yourselves?" Alexander suggested, but Benedict disagreed.

            "I do assume you are at least capable of something in that regard, Alexander," he said reprovingly, but he added that it wouldn't hurt for any of us to do some occasional scanning when we were here.

            As Alexander had explained earlier, a number of wings in the palace had been set aside for the various Powers, including Amber, the Courts, and even Lothair's Archai, since it was felt they couldn't be made to feel left out. Apparently, Sherwyn could, however, for no arrangements had been made for them. Neither Corwin nor Justin seemed to mind very much, though, and I guess they would simply be staying in the Amber wing whenever they visited Galoria. Of course, there was still the matter of the war between Sherwyn and Galoria, which officially had never been settled…

            Alexander also told us he had had some rooms prepared especially for possible asylum seekers that had been warded against all the major Powers, although he wouldn't answer Boadice's question about it being barred from Trump too. As an extra measure to ensure there would be enough room for all of us, Bleys suggested that he'd call in a favour with a djinn he knew, who could very quickly build us a palace in an empty plot near the royal palace. It would be in the typical djinn style, but that might go very well with the usual Galorian fashion.

            As a last word on our relocation scheme Alexander suggested that maybe Boadice could draw us all some Trumps of this meeting room, which as it turned out was also in the Amber wing. Benedict thought it a useful suggestion, but who was actually going to draw these Trumps was again something that would be decided later.

            Having outlined all of Amber's direct problems, Benedict now turned to our relations with the other Powers. Some first efforts had been made earlier on to establish some kind of ongoing discourse with Galoria, Sherwyn, and the Courts on the situation between Ornach and Lothair. The current problems in Amber had more or less put a stop to that, and in the meantime the situation had changed significantly. It was felt that we should first address our own problems before we tried to set up some kind of Reality wide policy again. After all, if we succeeded in our plans against the Kreel, we would have something to offer to the other Powers too. Of the representatives of the other Major Powers present Murlas remained the most critical one, but as such Benedict asked him to clarify the Courts' position somewhat.

            "Well, basically, the hands of the Courts are tied," he said. "We are officially bound to support Ornach in this conflict. Still, if the House Ornach is to perish, then the Courts will not be able to stop it from happening. We will not allow it to happen too easily, however."

            "It would be useful if we knew a bit more about Lothair and everyone who is supporting him," I said. "I mean, Amber is now only facing the Kreel, but there were various other creatures involved in the battle for Cardane. And even our knowledge of the Kreel is limited. They might have some kind of weakness that we're not even aware of."

            This spawned a new discussion on how much we actually knew about Lothair and what were believed to be his sub-Archai. Sonia was someone that at least some of us had met, Karnagh had already been mentioned, although no one seemed to have actually met him, and Justin mentioned one Assuo, who was supposed to be something of a military leader. Aurelia was a likely candidate too. Thinking of her display of power, I elaborated a bit on how they had been using the Crystal Spire in Quendor not just to take over in the Shadow but to initiate Shadow magicians and raise them to a new level that was closer to ours. So, the Archai were able to recruit Shadow folk at a much more dangerous level than we were.

Janice was mentioned at this point as an example of what we were talking about, and naturally people wanted to know what these powers of the Crystal Spire actually entailed. I explained that she was apparently able to sense the various Spires through Shadow and use them to shift much like we could. Most important were her empathic powers, though, for I believed this was basically the same kind of trick that Aurelia had played on Fiona. Using this empathic ability could very well be Aurelia's field of expertise. I hoped it was, for I didn't want to think about her being even better at anything else.

            Talking about Assuo, who Justin described as an older, oriental-looking man, we turned to our own military expert, but Benedict said he hadn't been able to get a clear idea of how Assuo thought or reasoned. The only information he had to go on so far had been the attack on Cardane, and that had seemed pretty meaningless in the overall scheme of things. It had been nothing more than a pin prick to see who was going to react to their threats and in which way. However, he didn't know what to think of the fact that they could afford to throw away an army of that size so casually. It could simply be that they had so many resources that they didn't mind wasting them like that. I suggested, however, that their struggle with Ornach might have to be settled on an entirely different plane, and that this reckless waste of lives and military resources had been done deliberately to create confusion and make a big impression. Justin added that they clearly weren't above the usual divide and conquer strategies, for that appeared to have been the point of the whole war between Sherwyn and Galoria.

            Caine wondered out loud why they would want to gain control over the Mirror World, and Murlas had an easy answer for him: they were trying to block off all the exits to this Reality. Ornach was their real prey, and they wouldn't leave any way open through which he might escape them. The fact that the Mirror World could serve as a suitable resource for espionage, with all the mirrors in our Reality linking back to it, was only a secondary concern. Their trying to keep Ornach from escaping was also why they hadn't attacked the Courts more openly thus far, as Boadice had asked. First they had to get rid of all the exits, then they could slowly start to dig him out.

            In relation to this Benedict mentioned that we really had no idea what kind of resources Ornach still had at his command. Referring back to the War of the Eye in the Courts' distant past, he remarked upon the fact that neither Ornach nor any of his subs had been killed at that time as punishment for their actions. Instead, great pains had been taken to lock them all away, and he was fairly sure it had not been out of mercy or sympathy. No, there was little doubt in his mind that Ornach had other means of protecting himself than just his position as a Major House in the Courts.

**

            "His position in the Courts is only a shield," Murlas said darkly. "Only when that shield has failed him will he show his true measure."

            "Then again, we don't know all that much about Lothair's resources either," I said. "We don't know his timetable, we don't know whether he has to rush because of upcoming deadlines or whether he is expecting extra resources at a certain point."

            "As I've come to understand it," Alexander said, "all the Archai are supposed to have seven sub-Archai. So where are Lothair's other three?"

            "Hugo, the new ambassador, is one too," Benedict said matter-of-factly.

            "What about those Kreel?" Martin asked. At first the question seemed  irrelevant, but the more we argued about it, the more it became clear that it was indeed a possibility. After all, with creatures like these Archai it would be foolish to expect them all to have a similar physical form as ours. Boadice finally clinched it, though, for she said that her mental combat with the Kreel had indeed reminded her a bit of the dealings with the sub-Archai she had had so far.

            Alexander wondered why Hugo had been appointed ambassador instead of Sonia, who had been more active as a diplomate for a while at least. It was generally believed that Sonia might be busy elsewhere, and it was mentioned that we really didn't know yet what kind of a person this Hugo was. Several people who had been at the party last night remarked upon the strong similarity between Hugo and Samal, not so much physically, but more in regard of personalities and projected images. Murlas told us, a bity wryly perhaps, that Ornach had apparently considered Samal to be his weak spot, so if Hugo was indeed so similar maybe he was Lothair's. It turned out that no one had actually studied Hugo more extensively than a brief glance and a quick handshake would allow, for most of us had been too occupied with other matters. Benedict himself had taken a closer look, but this proved not much use since he had a way of observing people that focused too much on their physical and military abilities, and these clearly were not Hugo's strongest points. However, Murlas had talked just a bit longer with Hugo too, and he thought the similarity with Samal to be a bit uncanny. He believed Hugo to be a rather self-centred and playful individual, someone who would consider other people to be merely toys to be manipulated. Murlas smiled again as he said that Hugo would be a hard one to handle, much like Samal had also proved too much for Ornach.

            "And yet they made him their ambassador here," Boadice said.

            Murlas shrugged. "Perhaps this way he can do the least harm," he suggested.

            "Well, at least he's more or less bound to this location," I put in.

            "Sonia may be more actively involved right now," Caine warned us, "but that doesn't mean Hugo can't be dangerous too."

            "Oh no, he can," Murlas said immediately, and silently I agreed. It wouldn't be wise to underestimate him.

            With Hugo and the Kreel that made six of Lothair's subs accounted for, and people were sort of wondering about the seventh, especially when Murlas mentioned that the various roles and characters of Ornach's subs may correspond to a more general division of aspects between sub-Archai. We had some information at least about Ornach's children, even the ones that had not yet turned up publicly, and we started comparing this to what we knew about Lothair's bunch. We had already mentioned Hugo and Samal, and Assuo was a clear match for Seren, who Nisse had also described as being the military mind of the family. Caine had a strong suspicion that Sonia's true calling may be closer to spying than to the more regular diplomatic work, which would probably make her Tiphane's counterpart. We wondered a bit about Karnagh, until I recalled Nisse describing Geron as "cold, hard, and distant". We couldn't entirely be sure about this one, but since none of the others seemed to come even close to what we knew of Karnagh it was generally agreed that this was probably also a match. The Kreel, despite their oddity, bore some similarity to Bihaye and her political, perhaps even demagogic schemes, and in spite of my growing dislike for her because of what she had done to Fiona, I was willing to accept that Aurelia was Taureth's counterpart when it came to the use of and fascination with Power.

            That only left us Malketh as the possible corresponding aspect for Lothair's seventh sub. She was a strange one too, it seemed. Nisse had called her a rebel and unorthodox, and apparently one with quite an interest in plants and other lower lifeforms. I just wondered whether she would count the likes of us amongst those as well. Anyway, she had been sighted, having

only visited Ornach once it seemed, and she was said to keep quite busy with her own affairs. Most of her time she seemed to spend on the Overshadow, where she even resided in physical form it seemed. Not that I had any idea what was so special about that. Bleys suggested that because of her nature it might not be unlikely that Malketh had already made contact with the opposition quite some time ago, and that it might be possible that Lothair's seventh sub was also staying on the Overshadow. Either that, or he or she might be in the Mirror World. If so much was transpiring there, it could be that someone else besides Karnagh was involved. The Courts of Chaos were ruled out as a possible location, though, since the consensus was that Lothair would be very cautious in approaching Ornach too directly.

            Benedict asked what we were to make of the fact that Samal was apparently no longer one of Ornach's subs. Murlas said that Ornach had not simply severed their bond, but he had also reclaimed the part of Samal that was clearly his, so it would seem that the action had not weakened him. Besides, as Alexander pointed out, he had effectively removed the one person nearest to him who had been regarded as his weakest link, so the reverse might actually be true. He may have anticipated the building conflict and have done it to reinforce his position.

            From Ornach Justin turned to his link to the creation of Amber and his grudge against our elusive progenitor Dworkin. While it was logical to think of Dworkin, considering the kinds of Reality wide problems we were facing, the unfortunate truth was that no one had even so much as seen a glimpse of him lately, and there was certainly no one who admitted to knowing how to get in touch with him. Random admitted he also had some doubts about trying to obtain Dworkin's help. The main problem was that he was much like his brother Galoran in that he was only interested in our Reality on a Power level. Anything other than that, like politics for instance, didn't really matter. Whereas Galoran might be willing to sell out the entire Reality just to gain more knowledge and skill in handling the Nexus, Dworkin on the other hand might resort to far more radical measures than we would like when it came to defending Amber, or to be more specific, when it came to defending the Pattern. Of course, he would be interested in the battle between Lothair and Ornach, but Random thought that he wouldn't mind very much if, say, about ninety percent of our entire Reality was destroyed in the cataclysm, as long as the Pattern and perhaps the Logrus survived. Then again, there might be some among us who felt the same way. Random himself didn't, however, saying that he would very much prefer the Golden Circle to stay more or less intact too. I quite agreed, and I proposed that trying to reach Dworkin should not be given any priority. Should he appear of his own accord, we could always see again about getting him to help us or not, keeping well in mind what he was capable of.

            Dworkin was one thing, Justin said, but what about the Jewel? Did it still play any role in the current conflict, considering how much Ornach had first wanted to have it? Murlas theorized that Ornach may originally have wanted to use the Jewel to dig himself in much further. Perhaps drawing the first Pattern himself would have strengthened his bond with our Reality much more than it now was. Caine had managed to learn a bit about this piece of history from Taureth, and he explained that all of the Ornach family had initially been quite fascinated with the creation of new Shadows. They had believed that the creation at that time of a new Power in our Reality would have resulted in many new Shadows taking shape as well, and both Ornach and Taureth had conducted many experiments to test this theory. Dworkin had been the one, however, to put the idea really into practice without further consultation with Ornach. Still, the possibility remained that all these extra Shadows that had been created at the time had substantially reinforced Ornach's position here.

            "Then the reverse might also hold true," Murlas suggested. "The destruction of the Pattern could lead to a weakening of his position."

            "We shall have to guard against that," Benedict said firmly. "Most of this information isn't really secret, though, so we had best assume that Lothair already knows about it."

            "Wasn't it true, though, that Brand's damaging of the Pattern had been done in connecion with this whole bond between Ornach and our Reality?" Alexander wanted to know. He should never have asked. Nearly everyone started talking all at once, arguing loudly for and against and any other way you could think about Brand, until Benedict firmly started hammering on the table for everybody to be quiet. Still, now that we were talking about escaped alleged traitors, the question was asked where Flora was and if anyone knew what she was up to. Had she actively joined the Enemy or not?

            It was up to Boadice to relay the story of the Keep of the Four Worlds and its apparent destruction by the Primal Chaos that had been Trumped there. Rinaldo confirmed most of this, although he made no secret of his disapproval regarding our handling of the whole affair. However, he also mentioned that he had been back to the same region to investigate, and he had the impression that the presence of the Primal Chaos there had had some strange side-effects. There was a whole area of Shadows that were quite unstable, little islands of normal reality interlaced with patches where the ordinary laws of Shadow physics did not apply and where you needed quite a bit of willpower to push through. It was quite a dangerous area now, and he was keenly reminded of the way that things behaved on the Overshadow. He also had the firm impression that Flora may still be around there somewhere, influencing things, but he didn't have any real evidence to support this.

            I was interested in the question whether Flora was still fully in league with Lothair, or whether she had merely been used by him all along, but nobody seemed to be able (or willing) to answer this. Random could only say that he had been able to keep track of her up till the moment when the Keep of the Four Worlds had so suddenly been destroyed. After that there had simply been not a trace of her, not even in Sherwyn where she still had a sanctuary because of the promise Adrian had made. Benedict added this point to the general to-do list at the same level as the general task of gaining more information on Lothairs tools and allies.

            There had been something I had been dwelling on after Murlas's revelation that Lothair was trying to cut off all of Ornach's possible escape routes. It was an interesting theory, but for the fact that there was a large gaping hole in our Reality right in Ornach's back yard. In other words, how were they going to prevent him from escaping by means of the Abyss? Murlas didn't have an answer to this, but after a moment's silence Caine frowned and came forward with a quite interesting piece of information. According to him there was a strong connection between the Abyss and the Power of the Nexus, and that was now more or less completely in Lothair's grasp. He thought that they might even be able to close off the Abyss completely if necessary. They might simply construct some kind of Nexus net that would severely hamper Ornach if he were to try and escape or which would perhaps redirect him to Galoria. With a happy and keen Galoran there to assist the Archai, these kind of tricks should prove no problem.

The information made sense in view of the other things we had heard so far, but it also shed some light on a part of Caine's past that I had not heard much about from himself. I knew Caine had been initiated in the Nexus after Galoran had saved him from Rinaldo's assassination attempt, but I'd always wondered why he had stayed involved in Nexus matters beyond a certain point. The link between the Abyss and the Nexus fitted the desperate attempts he had been making at that time to retrieve Deirdre.

            Random had the feeling that we had drawn the picture to a point of completion that could only be surpassed once we had new or more information, and he asked whether there were any other things we needed to discuss before he started assigning the various tasks.

            "Well, I would still like to know what the official story is going to be," Murlas said with a slight smile.

            "Okay," Random said, looking round the table, "there must be some among you who have some public relations experience. How are we going to do this? On the other hand," he added right away, turning back to Murlas, "since you were the one to bring it up, what would you consider to be a suitable story? What do you think would go down well enough back in the Courts?"

            "Whatever it is, it should clearly express purpose and resolve," he replied. "Let them know that Amber is taking action."

            "But Amber will first be busy with internal affairs, so we will not be taking too much action in the outside world yet, will we?" Random said.

            "The answer is to go public with the Kreel," Murlas said calmly. "This would be a good move in any case, for there may very well be Kreel in the Courts too."

            "That's going to cause quite a stir in Chaos, though," Random said pensively.

            "Oh, that would not be too bad either," Murlas mused.

            "No," I said, "that will keep them occupied for a while too." So they wouldn't be breathing down our necks, I thought, and they hopefully wouldn't be telling Murlas to stir up extra trouble in Amber anymore.

            "And they won't be bothering us too much about our involvement and our policies," Random said, giving more polite words to my thoughts. "Yes, I like it."

**

            Murlas added that he thought the Kreel infestation in Chaos should not be so extensive yet, so they still would have a good chance of getting rid of them. Alexander responded with some suspicions he’d had for some time now about the Oban, the legendary society of assassins in the Courts, having been infiltrated. According to him it could have been the work of the Kreel. The reason for his suspicions was the fact that the House Hendrake had actually attacked one of the headquarters of the Oban when they had still been in the Courts, and so far there had been nothing that could be seen as retalliation on the part of the Oban. True, the House had been broken quickly after that, but that had not been because of anything the Oban could have done. Besides, if a group of assassins was going to retalliate, you’d think it would be in a rather more violent fashion. Murlas concurred, saying that the current reputation of the Oban wasn’t nearly as good as it once had been, or as he put it: “They are no longer the people to go to if you want anyone assassinated.” An at least partial infiltration by the Kreel and a possible ensuing internal power struggle, as Alexander had suggested, could very well explain why their performance had been so disappointing of late. Caine remarked that this could be Somia’s current project, if we were still wondering what she was up to.

            “While these assumptions about the Kreel and the Oban may be true,” Murlas said, “the Oban are on the other hand not as powerful a force as they are generally made out to be. I do not think the Kreel will be as powerful either. I rather doubt whether we have lost control in Chaos as you have already done in Amber.”

            This did not go down well with Random, or many of the others. There were quite a few frowns aimed at Murlas, and Random spat sarcastically: “You in Amber… Thanks so very much!” He shrugged, apparently not in the mood for too much infighting, and said: “But going public with the Kreel is a good idea.”

            “Well,” I said, “earlier there was some talk of filing an formal complaint with Lothair. That would be an excellent way of bringing the Kreel out in the open, while at the same time declaring something of our official position.”

            “But what if Lothair just replies with glib promises that the Kreel will be withdrawn?”

            “Oh,” Murlas smiled, “that is going to be the official answer in any case. Just a lot of diplomatic bleating.”

            “And meanwhile we’ll just continue to work on finding practical solutions to our Kreel problem,” I finished.

            With Benedict officially pulling the strings, Murlas felt that our story was strong enough to make a decent impression in the Courts. Random warned him, though, not to raise their hopes too high, for our policy when we would have dealt with the Kreel was still far from certain. On the other hand, there was no denying that we weren’t exactly pleased with how things had gone, and Murlas wouldn’t hesitate to put this in his report. Random remained hesitant, however, saying that if our diplomatic protests did have an effect and if all the Kreel would be withdrawn, we would have little cause to take up arms against Lothair, but Murlas assured us with a cold smile that the Courts would find ways to draw us further into the conflict. I can’t say any of us really liked the sound of that, but we would let it pass, for now.

            Time had come to talk about the various tasks and to assign the right people for the right jobs. Grinning, Random asked us whether there were any volunteers for anything that had been discussed so far. Murlas shrugged and indicated that his personal duty still lay in the Courts of Chaos, and as he had mentioned before he would be assisting Justin on his mission to the Mirror World. There didn’t seem to be any objections to this, and Random only added the task of getting through to Llewella and having her get in touch with Amber to share her information on what was going on. After a moment’s thought Random also said they should perhaps do more than just observe what was happening in the Mirror World. He didn’t know whether it would be in our best interest to provide Ornach with a possible means of escape, but it might prevent a great deal of destruction if he were able to withdraw in time. Murlas said coolly that it would indeed not be too bad if Lothair and Ornach were to take their squabbles elsewhere.

            Before we could continue with handing out the assignments, Caine remarked that there was one important point that we had not yet addressed at all: the third Archai that was in our Reality, Prisma. Boadice reported that Malketh had been seen in contact with one of the Sisters, as Prisma’s sub-Archai were called, which Murlas didn’t find too surprising considering Ornach and Prisma’s history together as lovers.

            “Still, she doesn’t seem to have dug herself in like Ornach has,” Random said.

            “They are not looking for her, however,” Murlas replied. “She has apparently not committed any crimes. Whether she is going to take any action herself or not is an entirely different matter.”

            “Well, what we’ve seen so far of the Sisters’ behaviour is that they can be meddlesome at times, but so far none of their actions have been of any severe consequence.” The thought of Violet tormenting poor Algo came to mind. Colouring the guy purple could hardly be seen as Reality shattering.

            “Perhaps Prisma has not intervened because she doesn’t want to take sides yet,” Alexander suggested.

            “She’s not unquestioningly supporting her former lover, though,” Random mused.

            “It would not seem so. At least, she did not do anything when Ornach got himself in real trouble in the Courts of Chaos,”Murlas said.

            “As far as we know.” Random still looked rather pensive. “She has never tried to free Ornach from his imprisonment,” he said, “as far as we know.”

            “There does appear to be a difference between what the Archai can do to each other and what we can do to them, though,” Murlas stated. “At least, I assume this difference exists, or they would not have stopped at mere imprisonment.”

            “I can’t believe Ornach actually enjoyed being chained to a rock for quite so long, though,” Boadice said.

            “Perhaps their passion for each other has cooled down a bit over the centuries,” Random said. “It’s also possible that at the time Prisma hadn’t been fully aware of the crimes Ornach had committed, and once she found out she may not have supported his actions after all. Still, the fact that she has remained in more or less the same location as he has would seem to indicate that there is yet some kind of bond between them and that she at least hasn’t fully turned against him either.”

            Benedict told us that he knew Tiziane at least had been present in Chaos during the War of the Eye, so Prisma and her subs had been around and about for quite some time. Though I didn’t remark upon it at that moment, later I started to wonder. I was aware that Benedict knew Tiziane from long, long ago, but could it be that he had actually met her during the War of the Eye? In other words, was he that old himself? If so, how much had he been a witness to that he was not telling us about now? Despite my strong belief that Benedict would not let Amber perish, I couldn’t help remembering the unspecified doubts that Caine and Deirdre had at times expressed about their eldest brother, and I wondered whether we had not made some terrible mistake in handing him this position of ultimate authority over Amber.

            These thoughts didn’t come until much later, though, for at that moment my mind was focused more on our discussion of Prisma and her subs. For some strange reason I couldn’t stop wondering at that point about the trivial question why all of Prisma’s sub-Archai seemed to be female, while both Ornach and Lothair appeared to have a mixed bunch of children, so to speak.

            Meanwhile, I listened to Benedict explaining how Prisma seemed to be rather ambivalent towards her former lover now, while her feelings towards Lothair were still unclear. Murlas thought that her reactions would very much depend on how Lothair was going to behave towards Ornach. If he was going to come after him fair and square, with no tricks or dirty deals, she might simply stand by and do nothing, but if Lothair was going to go all out she might reconsider. It was a problem for us, though, that we had no idea what the usual code of conduct between Archai amounted to, or we might be able to anticipate some of their actions.

            “For now it seems Prisma is still too much of an enigma,” Random sighed, “and it would be difficult to predict what she might be going to do. If anyone should happen to come in contact with one of the Sisters, they should certainly seize the opportunity to ask a few questions and gain some more information.” Murlas grinned and said that we all knew where we could probably find one of them. “Yes,” Random said, smirking, “but then Violet would be a bit of a problem. If your theory about these sub-Archai aspects always being the same is true, I would say she is probably the youngest of the bunch and the equivalent to the likes of Samal and Hugo.” That seemed to make a strange sort of sense somehow. Violet was certainly playful and whimsical enough, although her pleasures had all seemed rather innocent till now.

            From the information various people volunteered we could piece together that so far we had seen only five of the Sisters. Tiziane and Violet had already been mentioned, the one Malketh had been hanging out with was called Viridiane, I had also met the young Alice lookalike whose name was Cyni, and finally there was also one called Jaune. Was it just my imagination or did they all appear to correspond with one of te seven colours of the rainbow? Another puzzle.

            Murlas had some doubts whether we would be able to learn much from the Sisters, arguing that the other Archai would already be trying to get through to them and gather their support, but I said it would still be worth the effort. Most of our information on Ornach and Lothair seemed to be rather one-sided, and it wouldn’t hurt to try and get some details confirmed before we made up our minds about what we were going to do. Perhaps there were some points where Prisma’s account may differ from what we had heard before.

            Random now continued handing out the assignments that we had discussed before. Gerard said he had some ideas for a spell that might be used to detect the Kreel, but he would have to do some research to get it right. The problem with the magical approach, however, was that not everyone was able to cast these kind of spells. Hell, I didn’t even know how exactly this spell casting was done, but then I usually employed more basic means of redirecting Power to suit my needs. Some kind of artifacts would be more useful when it came to means of detection, but unfortunately there wasn’t anyone who was currently present who admitted to knowing more about how to forge these kind of items. Dworkin would be able to do it, and Fiona might have some skills in this area as well, but both of them were a problem for the various reasons we’d discussed before. Perhaps… No, I would leave that till later. It was a possibility, though.

            “Maybe Janice would be able to help with devising some means to detect the Kreel,” Alexander suggested.

            “She might,” I said hesitantly, “but we’d first have to see how much damage has been done to her mind during that attack last night.”

            “And how much do we trust this Janice of Quendor?” Benedict put in. “She’s not a member of the Family after all.”

            “It is a very specific area, however,” Murlas said. “If we are just talking about Kreel detection, I do not see why we would need to rely solely on Amberite experts. It would not be a bad idea to look for some assistance in the Courts either.”

            “Did Janice already have a method of detecting the Kreel?” Benedict wanted to know. I looked at Caine, since he had been working with her on this.

            “Yes,” he said, “but I rather doubt whether it was something that could be transferred or reproduced so that others might use it too. Still, I also think it would be a good idea to gain her help in this.”

            “Alright,” Random said, “Gerard will be the main Amberite working on the detection project, with Janice as a possible assistant. I understand she is open to negotiation for some political favours, although I think we ought to be reluctant when it comes to actual promises of support in the Quendor situation.”

            “Perhaps we could follow Murlas’s suggestion and look for experts on artifacts in the Courts of Chaos,” Alexander said.

            “Well, it does not necessarily have to be the Courts,” Murlas replied, “although in this case I think we do have some experts in this field. It may be an overall good idea to pursue these kind of collaborations actively, as long as they only concern minor matters that add to a greater solution of our problems. It would encourage future cooperation and keep the masses in the Courts happy.”

            “That should be possible, certainly,” Random mused. “Why don’t you see what you can come up with in your official function, eh? If they’d start working on something like this, it would have to result in items or spells that could be used in Amber, though.”

            “Oh, I am sure that this challenge in itself will interest many of the Courts’ brightest minds,” Murlas assured him.

**

            It was unfortunate, but it really seemed that we needed Fiona's expert knowledge when it came to removing the Kreel infestation from Amber. All of a sudden I found all eyes staring meaningfully at me. As Random put it, I was the one who had spent most time with her recently, and I had the best impressions of what her other persona was like, so on all counts I should have the best chances of finding her. Some assistance would be possible, he quickly added when he saw my doubtful expression.

            "Well," I sighed, "it's a bit like looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack, but alright. However, there may be some reasons why Fiona would not want to be found by me." The fact that I'd put her through a great deal of discomfort and mental torture, for instance.

            "I think I'll lend you a hand," Bleys said, "but we'd better discuss the details after the meeting."

            "Alright," Random said, "but in the meantime we need something to fall back on if we are to get rid of the Kreel. Are there any bright ideas? Those skullcaps were mentioned earlier. Is there anyone with ties to this Guild of Guardian Creatures?"

            I looked round in interest to see whether any of my relatives would own up to being the one in charge of this organisation, but no one did, and when Deirdre quietly reminded me of my own connection with the Guild, I felt like a right fool. Of course, Harry the Hydra was still keeping an eye on Cardane and everything, and the last time I'd been there I'd even noticed the skullcaps he was now wearing. How could that have slipped my mind? Deirdre said that she did not mind looking into the matter herself, since it would give her a chance to see her grandchildren again. I didn't mention it, but it could be that I would be visiting them too quite soon, if Taureth's ritual was any good.

            There was another thing that might give us some leads on how to tackle the Kreel, as Alexander suggested, namely the legacy of Parcellus's work in Hywara. With a quick reminder I was able to recall much of this story, revolving mostly around the metal collars that this Parcellus had been able to forge, which apparently blocked the use of any and all Powers. In the aftermath of the Hywara incident, in which boh Boadice and Alex himself had been involved (on different sides it must be added), Amber had been able to snatch up most of the special ore that had gone into forging these collars, while Parcellus himself had found a new home in Galoria. Random said that it would certainly be something to investigate further, although the manner in which the collars had prevented the use of Powers may not be suitable to affect the Kreel. However, it wouldn't hurt to see what could be turned up.

            Random also said that Gerard had better try to develop some new spells to battle the Kreel as well, just in case we weren't able to retrieve Fiona in time. While the single-handed approach that Murlas had suggested would also work, it would not be enough to rid Amber completely of this menace. While Murlas shrugged and very pragmatically proposed that we had either to free the individual civilians of Amber or simply put them out of their misery, I insisted on the other hand that we approach the matter with some caution. It wouldn't do if a large number of the people who we managed to release would end up with brain damage or worse. After all, not everyone possessed the kind of mental prowess that we had.

            The job of lodging an official protest with Lothair on the Kreel infestation, with the right degree of veiled threats, Benedict felt to be just the right thing for himself. It would be a good way too for going public in his new role as leader of Amber, but he said he didn't mind some asistance for the more diplomatic touches. Rinaldo proved quite interested, and no one seemed to have any objections to this rather odd couple.

            Julian and Caine said they would try to take stock of the situation back in Amber. The level of Kreel infestation still had to be determined, and Caine hoped that Janice would be willing to lend her assistance in this area too, if she managed to emerge from her coma. As soon as Gerard's new spell would be ready, they would also have a better tool for sniffing out all the Kreel.

            Both Random and Benedict would keep in touch with Murlas, Alexander, Justin, and Corwin, as the representatives of the various other Powers. They would also slowly start to plan for the time when Amber was back to her old self and could fully devote her attention to other matters besides internal affairs.

            Talking about other Powers, however, prompted Bleys to declare that he would like to hear more about what had happened in Sherwyn, and more precisely about the methods that had been used to rid the country of Lothair and his men. His impression was that their Pattern had somehow been used to accomplish this, and he wondered whether the same thing might not be done in Amber too. If the Pattern could somehow be edited to delete the Kreel from our Reality, it might be a course that was worth pursuing. He was aware that this might require some serious sacrifices, but if our prospects became really dire it might be our only option left. Anything was better that to let Amber perish, he felt, so what was it they had done? Or what was it that Adrian had done? All those involved had been very tight-lipped about it up till now.

            Everyone in the room was now closely regarding Corwin and Justin, as they exchanged a long an meaningful gaze. Finally, Corwin turned to us and he explained that Adrian had tried to remove the alien influence in Sherwyn by drawing everything back into himself. That was what had ultimately cost him his life too. In a ritual he had walked the Pattern, removing anything that should not be part of Sherwyn by completely absorbing the influence. This had not been an easy process, although Corwin admitted that it would not be impossible to try the same thing in Amber. However, as long as we still had other options, we'd better not resort to this one. The life of the person to try this would certainly be forfeit, and success was not guaranteed.

            Personally, I agreed that we'd better leave this course of action till all else had failed. Not only did the thought of messing with the Pattern at that level severely disturb me, I also thought that if we were to try this, we'd be certain to draw Dworkin's attention, and there would be no telling how he would react to this spot of Pattern editing. Murlas thought that the Amber Pattern may not be as pliable as Sherwyn's, since it had existed for so much longer, and Bleys quite agreed. He believed that Sherwyn had been able to recover from this surgical procedure only because it had still been such a relatively young kingdom. Amber was an entirely different matter, for there was quite a bit of history to contend with. If we were to draw everything out of Amber that was not originally part of it, we could easily bring all those problems in the Vale of Garnath and the effects of the damage done to the Pattern back to the surface again. He quite agreed that it wasn't something that ought to be our first choice for dealing with the matter.

            "And what about your method?" he suddenly asked, turning to me. "The one you used in Cardane?"

            "A very large Shadowstorm," I replied coolly. It was not something I wanted to reminisce about.

            "Ah, I see. That's not exactly something we want to let loose on Amber either," Bleys said.

            "It's not something I want to have to do again, period," I said firmly.

            "But how did you manage it in the first place?" Bleys insisted.

            "By working with Power on a very basic level," I sighed. "Look, it couldn't be done in Amber anyway, at least it could not be done as long as the Pattern is there."

            "Perhaps the Power of the Pattern could be temporarily switched off?" Murlas ventured.

            "That's not something I want to mess about with either," I replied. Not without Fiona to back me up, anyway.

            Enough time had passed since last someone had mentioned his name, so naturally Rinaldo put Brand back in the discussion again. Weren't there certain theories his father had had that concerned the kind of things we were now talking about? Rinaldo seemed to remember that Brand had been wanting to make the Pattern and the Logrus be more alike or in nature closer to one other, in order to make our whole Reality more stable and less open to all kinds of influences. Wouldn't this be applicable in our current situation, he asked gingerly.

            "Is it not a bit late of such kind of measures?" Boadice asked.

            "I don't know," Rinaldo said. "The time may be just right. As I've come to understand it my father's plan had been to destroy the Pattern and then probably to draw a new one that was in some ways to be more like the Logrus."

            There was a moment's silence, then everyone started talking all at once, raised voices and broad gestures, all to make their points come across. Finally, Benedict managed to restore some order by banging loudly on the table again. "This topic is just too controversial," he said, "and I see little point in prolonging this discussion. Besides, all these supposed plans of Brand's are rather vague, and it is not as if we've got all of his personal notes on his theories to study them for some clearer indication of what he was hoping to achieve." Well, we had had these at a certain point, but there was no use in bringing that up. I knew Flora had taken my bunch, and from the way Murlas also kept his silence I could only assume that he too had also his papers somewhere along the way. Fortunately for us, neither Rinaldo nor Martin made a big deal of it either. Perhaps they'd had another falling-out between them.

            Whatever the cause, Rinaldo soon had other things to occupy his thoughts, for near the end of the meeting Alexander proposed that Amber would appoint a new ambassador in Galoria, someone with enough weight to counter the growing Archai influence and keep Galoria neutral. Since Rinaldo was already going to play diplomat, Alexander suggested that he'd do so not merely as just another Amberite but in an appropriate diplomatic function. Rinaldo himself was both amused and intrigued, and since there was again no clear opposition he accepted. Martin said that Melusine and he would be going to stay in Galoria for a while too, keeping his father and family company and acting as a bit of extra security. Well, maybe Galoria was turning into a kind of interesting place after all.

            Naturally, the aftermath of such a massive meeting involved a great number of much smaller ones, but luckily the meeting room in our new Amber wing featured a good number of antechambers and the like, so there were plenty of opportunities for private conversations without really having to go somewhere else. There were a few people that I would like a word with, but Bleys was quickly led away by Boadice and I'd rather leave the conversation with Diana till later and under far more private circumstances. Perhaps that discussion might even involve either Caine or Deirdre, or both, for there was more than one thing to discuss in our nice little nuclear family.

            I waited until Alexander had had a brief talk with Benedict before approaching our new leader myself. Come to think of it, we needed some other proper official title for him, since there had been no more mention of Regencies, and I felt Leader wouldn't do. Perhaps we should simply refer to him as General. Short, simple, and quite fitting.

            What I wanted to talk about concerned Random too, actually, but it was no problem to draw him away from his conversation with Martin. They listened with interest to what I had to say to them.

            "I've got a couple things," I began. "First of all, the problem of no one in the Family being able to forge magical artifacts aside from Fiona. I think I may know someone who could teach me, and as a matter of fact I'm rather interested in learning. This would take quite a bit of time, though.

            "There is also another thing I need to do something about. In a way, I'm just as vulnerable as Random, only six times more so, and I would like to do something about this before it really turns into a problem. This would take quite a bit of time too, but not nearly as much as you might think. "I don't want to brag, but as you may know my control over Shadow has developed to the point where I'm able to redirect the relative flow of time inside Shadows. My idea is to withdraw in some Shadow somewhere and to have my children grow up at an increased rate, till they reach an age of maturity where they would be able to walk the Pattern and more or less look after themselves. In the meantime, I would have the opportunity to do the necessary research and undergo the necessary training that will allow me to acquire the same artificer's skills as Fiona has, or at least something close enough to help us in our battle with the Kreel. However, no matter how much I speed up time inside the Shadow, this enterprise would put me out of the picture for a while."

**

            Both Random and Benedict looked a bit pensive, and Benedict asked: "If you are going to do what you now propose, which things would you have to neglect that would otherwise require your immediate attention?"

            "Well, there is the search for Fiona," I said, "but I think Bleys would be better suited for it anyway."

            "I suggest that you meet up with Bleys right away," Random said, "and give him all the information he needs. Everything about Fiona's other persona, anything that might help him find her, and anything he has to be wary of when he does."

            "That was going to be my next little chat," I said with a grin. "I can still help him look for her, but like I said before, if there are still any traces of the second persona left in her and if she still remembers some of the things I put her through, she will not be likely to welcome me with open arms. I think Bleys would stand a much better chance of success there."

            "Yes," Random said, "I have already taken the liberty of telling Benedict a bit more about the treatment we had decided on."

            "I can imagine that this might lead to some problems between Fiona and you," Benedict said with a grim smile. I shrugged. That much had been clear from the start. No need to dwell on it now.

            "Anyway, looking for Fi would just about be the only task that would require my immediate attention," I said, "and there is no denying the benefits my scheme would reap us in the long run."

            Random still looked rather doubtful, though. "Will you be able to arrange matters so that you can be reached, if necessary?"

            "That would be possible, although it might be a bit tricky if the time differential is too great. However, what I also would like you to consider is whether you would not like to join me and have the same thing happen to Ruby." I saw him frown and hastened to add: "Look, just think about it. I don't need to have an answer straight away."

            "I shall think about it," he said, slowly. "Thank you for the offer, in any case, but it's not something I can decide on right now. I don't mind telling you that I'd rather hoped this would not be necessary, but I'm realistic enough to know that we may be forced to accept your offer at some later date."

            "Just so long as you realise that Ruby doesn't have to be alone. There's no reason why Vialle and you couldn't be with her, or anyone else for that matter. But it'll take me a while to prepare this anyway, so just think about it carefully."

            "Will you be staying in Cardane for this?" he asked.

            "I don't know yet," I admitted. "It may not be the most suitable place." I wasn't sure what the time juggling would do to the new stability in that region, and I felt a bit reluctant to upset the current balance. Perhaps a somewhat larger Shadow pocket would be more appropriate.

            "There is something else I would like you to consider as well," Random said. "I don't want to belittle your own skills in any way, but you're not the greatest of experts when it comes to physical combat or military training. Also, there is a bit of a tradition which holds that younger Amberites all undergo some training with one of our other relatives, to bring out their own special skills, so to speak." That much was true I realised, thinking of me and Fiona, or Alexander and Benedict, or even Murlas and Julian.

            "I am aware of that," I said, "but then again I'm also aware that this would not be the most perfect way of raising my children anyway. However, it's not as if I have much choice, and I really don't want to be too vulnerable in this regard. If they're mature enough to walk the Pattern, I shall also be able to leave them with other Amberites without having to worry too much about them. I realise it's not a perfect solution, but it's a far from perfect situation to begin with."

            "You will have to give them a basic defense training, though," Benedict said, "and I don't doubt you will be able to teach them the basic mental techniques, although I don't know how experienced you are as a teacher. For the more physical stuff I do suggest that you'd consider asking one of the other Amberites to join you at a certain point to help you out. No offense, you understand. Your skills are quite adequate, but it has never been your strongest point."

            "Very well, but in that case there has to be someone in the Family with enough time on their hands to get involved. At the moment it's not like I could ask someone like Julian, for instance, to drop everything and come and instruct my kids, is it?"

            "No, everyone's quite busy," Random sighed, "so this is hardly the best time for it. I do understand why you want to go ahead with this, though."

            "Alright," I said, "as we are already talking about my children, how much have you told Benedict about Diana?" That was one thing that hadn't been discussed yet, it seemed, but it didn't take too long before Benedict was up to date.

            "It is quite an unfortunate request," he said, frowning once more. "What are you going to do about it?"

            "I'm not sure yet," I sighed. Again, this was a situation without any perfect solutions.

            "Ultimately, it is your decision," Benedict said. "As her father, this falls completely under the heading of your authority, as far as Family Law is concerned. Politically speaking, we could always adopt a certain position on the matter, but in the end you will have to decide. I hope you are aware of all the complicating circumstances."

            "Well," I said, "officially I might have the final say in this, but for me personally Diana's own choice is just as important."

            "What do you think she would do if you were to refuse?" Benedict wanted to know.

            "Again, I'm not really sure. It's fairly possible that she would go ahead and marry Taureth anyway, and in the process sever all her connections with Amber and the Family." I didn't have to say that this was not the way I would like things to turn out.

            "If she does get married, though, will she have to swear loyalty to Chaos?" Random asked.

            "That's another thing I have to look into," I said. "I have asked Taureth to arrange a meeting between his father and me to discuss this possible marriage. That request was made even before I was completely aware of all the facts about Ornach and Lothair and the Archai in general, which I must say came to me pretty late. No more than just a night ago, actually. However, I still think this meeting is a good idea. I kind of wonder what Ornach's feelings about these wedding plans are, and whether he's even in favour of them.

            "I deliberately kept this matter out of the general meeting, though. It would only have caused a huge argument that wouldn't have helped me in any way and would only have been worse for Diana. I don't mind telling both of you, however, that at this point I personally do consider Lothair and his people to be my enemies. By now they've done more than enough to achieve that distinguished position. And while this does not automatically mean that Ornach is supposed to be my friend, I am rather more inclined to hear him out." And perhaps give him the benefit of the doubt.

            "How do you feel about a possible family tie with the House Ornach?" Random asked. "I mean, regardless of the whole matter of loyalties and maybe having to come to their defense and everything, how do you feel about your daughter linking her fate to that of their House?"

            "Honestly? I have to admit that I would not really mind having these closer ties with House Ornach, and especially not where Taureth is concerned. If it were not for the fact that he's Ornach's son, I wouldn't have any reason not to agree to the marriage right away."

            "Taureth does seem to have this reputation of integrity," Benedict mused, "although I can't say myself how much of this is true. You should take into account, though, that when Lothair is really going to go after Ornach directly with the intention of taking him out completely, his sub-Archai will also become valid targets, and their partners will probably be taken out too, just to be sure. Especially if there could be a possibility of further possible descendents."

            "That's a different matter once again," I said, "because if everything I've heard about these Archai is true, having children may be entirely out of the question. I mean, I've been told about the way they supposedly procreate, and there's quite a bit of difference with our ways. Taureth and Diana may simply not be able to have any children." Which, of course, I felt they should be well aware of before they actually got married.

            "You're right," Random mused, "if what we've heard so far is true, they may not be compatible at all."

            "Anyway," I said, "I would tend to ignore the possible danger in favour of Diana's own wishes in this matter."

            "Well, it is plain that this marriage is to be based on strong emotional ties," Random said. "So, is this just to inform us about it, or are you here for our advise as well?"

            "Oh, I wouldn't mind hearing your thoughts on the matter," I said with a smile, "but it's not as if I'm going to regard them as Royal Commands or anything." In other words, he'd better not plan on giving me one.

            Benedict had few doubts about the marriage: if it were up to him, he would refuse to grant Taureth his request, for all the obvious reasons. Random, on the other hand, was a bit more politic. He wasn't in the least in favour of the marriage, but he was a bit reluctant to issue an all-out refusal because of the possible consequences. There was quite a stubborn streak running through the Family, and an outright refusal coud very well drive Diana away. He would rather try to keep a dialogue going to see how she really felt about it. If as he suspected a refusal would have the wrong effect, he would instead cautiously assent to the marriage and try to limit the possible damage as much as he could.

            "Alright, I see," I said. "I think it is going to be Diana's choice anyway. In all likelihood, since we don't want any immediate ties between Amber and House Ornach, she will simply end up joining the House herself, with everything that this may entail."

            "Do you think there could be any possibility of the reverse happening instead?" Random asked keenly.

            "No." I could be quite firm about that. "From what I've learned so far about Archai and their subs, the bond between them is just too strong, even between the individual subs of one Archai, at least up to the point where they start to battle it out amongst each other. It is something I already noticed before I had even heard speak of the Archai: the bond between Ornach and Taureth is not one that can be broken."

            "Alright, so you're saying Taureth won't break free from Ornach. Yet Samal did."

            "No, that's different. From the rumours I've heard, Samal didn't leave the House himself but was kicked out by Ornach. Those are quite different circumstances. Anyway, I don't think Taureth would even be able to make such a decision if he wanted to. The bond is just too powerful to be denied."

            "I guess you're right," Random said. "On a certain level he does not have a full individual personality but is merely an aspect of Ornach himself."

            "And even when not taking all that into account," I continued, "Taureth's personality is such that he would not ever leave his father."

            "He has quite a reputation of loyalty too," Random agreed. "A rather strange combination in such a powerful figure. It doesn't make things any easier, though. I guess you've got quite a challenging conversation with Diana to look forward to."

            I merely nodded. What else could I say? Besides, there were other aspects, like the Curse, that he and Benedict weren't aware of. The way I looked at things now, however, I couldn't see any other scenario taking place other than the one in which Diana became a full member of House Ornach. The only way things could turn out differently was if what she had heard during the meeting had somehow changed her mind, which I rather doubted, or if Ornach himself would for his own reasons not agree to the marriage. This latter possibility would throw the matter completely open again, I guess, but somehow I didn't think Ornach would be so adamantly against Taureth's wedding plans. Not when the wedding could ultimately garner him at least some support from Amber as well. For while the Crown might not feel bound to honour any demands that would be made on Amber in the name of such a union, I knew that I probably would.

            I ran into Bleys as he came out of one of the antechambers with Alexander, and he immediately grabbed my arm and turned around, back to the privacy he'd just come from.

            "Alright," he said, "now you're going to tell me what you did to my sister."

            It was hard not to feel intimidated by his manner, especially since he had every reason to worry about Fi. However, in the course of everything that had been happening to me lately the notion that my aunts and uncles could be just as fallible as the rest of us had firmly nestled itself in my brain, dampening some of the usual respect and fear I might feel towards them. Not that I was as foolish as to stop respecting and fearing them altogether, but I had the strong feeling that I'd quite proved myself to be able to compete at their level, meaning I was also due my share of fear and respect.

            So, I calmly started telling Bleys the story of our adventures in Quendor again, this time going into more details, especially when it came to describing Eugenie Lablanche. I also made sure to mention what we hadn't told any of the others, namely that Eugenie was more than just another personality, and  that in fact she was a severely repressed part of Fi's own persona. This came as quite a shock to Bleys, although he fairly well managed to keep a straight face.

            "I can see why you didn't want to discuss this too openly," he said.

            "No, I still don't like the idea that we had to tell the others about her anyway, but…" I faltered momentarily as I saw a glint of something in his eye. It was only there for a brief moment, and then it was gone, but it really made me wonder whether I had been right in telling him any of this. It was too late now, though, and I guess Fiona already had plenty of reasons to be upset with me, so I might as well carry on with what in my view was nothing more than taking her best interests at heart.

            As I went into some detail to describe the treatment I had used to shock her back to her own self, Bleys looked rather pained and unhappy. When I had finished he thought for a while in silence before he said: "And that's the last you saw of her, is it? You managed to bring her to the point where she was able to access her Pattern abilities again, but you don't know which side of her is now the dominant one." I nodded. "Hmm, but you also told me this Eugenie is more the dependent type. She really wanted to return to what's his name, didn't she?"

            "Lucius? Yes, I guess so, although I tried to make her believe that he had been executed."

            "Still, do you think she could have gone back to Quendor all the same?"

            "She may have," I replied hesitantly. "It would be a good place to look for her first, although it's not the safest of places, especially when Aurelia is around."

            Bleys's remark that it certainly was a place where you didn't want to be recognized launched me off on a full-fledged version of the tale of Fiona's behaviour in Quendor, coming in with fireballs blazing and all. Yes, I was tired, and I was still quite mad at her for having pulled this off. If she had been just a bit more careful, just a bit more subtle, all this mess could have been avoided. Bleys shook his head wistfully and started to tell me of the first time that Fiona and he had encountered some Chaosians. That incident had almost plunged all of our Reality into a very premature war too, if Brand had not shown up to curb his dear sister's impetuousness. He trailed off before he could get carried away too much by his tale, though. Pity, I would have been interested in hearing more about it.

            "Yes, that's her," I sighed. "Still, Quendor's a good start. I don't know what you'll find, though. She could be Eugenie, she could be Fiona, or she could be anything in between."

            "At least I'll have a place to start," Bleys said. "Can I Trump you if I need some assistance?" I nodded. "After all," he added, "you're more familiar with both the new situation in Quendor and this Eugenie character, and I could imagine there might be moments when that extra bit of knowledge wouldn't be a luxury, so to speak." Wow, my uncle Bleys more or less admitting that he might be up against a situation that he might not be able to handle by himself! Then again, this was Fiona we were talking about. There wasn't anyone who wouldn't be careful around her.

            We talked a bit more, and I found myself trying to explain to him, without actually saying as much, that what I had done had all been because I really cared a great deal about his sister. Bleys was keen enough to pick up on this, although he winced a bit when I described the prison cells and the mental torture techniques I had applied on Fi. On the other hand, he clearly would not have wanted to try the direct mental approach either.

            Subconsciously, he was also conveying a bit more than he was saying out loud, and I was a bit surprised to find that deep down he was rather afraid of Fiona too. Not that he would ever go so far as to admit to it, but it did give him some pause, and he did have some doubts about going after her on his own. With this level of rapport between us, I sort of tried to gather whether his fear stemmed from her impulsive nature, which made her so unpredictable. That was only part of it, though. Bleys indicated that the other part was Fiona's sheer power.

            "You don't ever want to be on her wrong side," he said. "Believe me, I've seen too much of what she can do. On the other hand, I don't think any of us in the Family ever witnessed her fully unleashing her powers, and I rather wouldn't want to see that, ever. During Patternfall she was quite involved, but always on an purely intellectual level. Cool, collected, no emotions whatsoever. And now you tell me all those emotions have burst free."

            "There have been quite a few times lately when she ended up not getting her way, so she had to deal with some serious disappointments," I said. "Considering all of that, it might be better if there was at least a substantial part of Eugenie Lablanche left in her. It might make her more friendly."

            "Well, Eugenie Lablanche would require a whole different way of handling," Bleys said, and added with a characteristic grin: "But I've got some ideas on how to deal with her…" Oh right, as if the Family wasn't incestuous enough already.