When last we met, the everyone was scattered to the four (or is it twelve?) winds: Erin is in the Land of the Milk-Fed Boys, Ronan is in his Surf Shop, Kira and Dalena are getting horses and prepping for their ride to the Grove, Elio is heading to his construction site in Vitae, Maladin is off in shadow experimenting on Vitae.

Maladin trumps Erin who is lounging in a hot tub being fed grapes by boys. He steps through the trump and she gets to be the one to break the news of the terror attacks, Benedict's death, Fiona's vegetable brain, her heart etc. The Boys help Maladin out of his armor so they can talk. Maladin is stunned, disturbed, and has reached his limit of new info for the day. They also talked about Daron and the arms shipment; some of the shipment was distributed to discontents around the Kingdom by way of thanks, but the majority was cached in the Way, and was most likely destroyed when the Oleai invaded. Erin has had a week of healing, is bored, and has gone through the first four volumes of Church literature. She asks Maladin to not forget her, to come visit … it was a plea reminiscent of when Aaron was a sword.

Maladin's next step is to contact Dalena. She invites him to come to the Grove to the Unicorn. He agrees. Ronan also comes over via trump, and they head off. As they go up the side of Kolvir, in the distance they see a column of soldiers beyond the city, headed up by Noble House banners, and one from the Church. Kira trumps Gerard, asking him to keep the people outside the gates, until they can be vetted. Maladin tunes the group back to the city gates. Once they reach the gate, the party seems as if they are valid, and after many speeches, they're let in. The rabble did what the Royalty could not … they defeated the sisterhood of the Dark Brother. Ronan does a "psychometry" reading on the person leading the column. He is Lord Justin, and his star is on the rise.

The group heads to the Grove. Ronan, Kira and Maladin commune in the best way they know how, while Dalena guards their backs. After an hour or so, the Unicorn enters the grove and approaches Kira. Taps her heart, waits for Kira to say what she wants, and taps her heart again. Kira asks if Corwin is still alive, and the Unicorn taps Grayswandir, points her horn to where Tir would be in the night's sky, and taps Kira on the chest again. The Unicorn then wanders over to Ronan and taps him on the chest. "Am I on the right path?" She taps him again. "Am I on the right path about the other thing?" She taps him on the chest again and then wanders over to Maladin. He is given a very stern look, and she waits. He kneels, and she waits. He tells her he wants to what's best for Amber, and she looks from Maladin to Dalena to Amber … and she waits. He reiterates that he wants to do what's best for Amber, and she gives him a "Are you certain?" look. Maladin takes a moment but then answers in the affirmative. The unicorn heads back to Ronan, who then delivers over the Jewel of Judgment to her, laying it across her horn. Maladin is offered the Jewel and he takes it, putting it around his neck. The Unicorn nods once then exits the Grove. Maladin takes an hour to settle with what's happened, and the group trumps back to Amber, agreeing not to talk about what happened until Kira has a chance to walk Corwin's pattern that night in Tir, and Maladin can attune himself to the Jewel. They decide that the safest place to rest and attune would be the Land of the Milk-Fed Boys.

Erin and Elio join Maladin and Dalena in a secure side room where they prepare for Maladin to walk the Jewel, and for Erin to support him, blow out her heart and get a new one… and for Dalena to support those two. They determine that maybe they should walk it separately, so Dalena doesn't have to support both of them with her puny psyche.

And so Maladin walks … and begins to fail. Dalena drags him across as much as she can, and he is still failing. She taps into her dad, Dworkin, who is the Pattern, and asks for help … he blasts through a surge of Pattern to carry they along. They make it to the center. Maladin is unconscious, and Dalena is seriously psyche burned. Meanwhile, Erin's heart blows out from first supporting the two walking the Pattern, then from the surge of Pattern reacting to her Chaosian heart. Elio sustains her with his shapeshifting, and when Dalena is ready, he takes her blood (containing Patterny goodness) and turns it into a heart to replace Erin's. They all survive. Barely. They nap for four hours.

Back in Amber, Ronan went to talk to the Church to be debriefed on the situation up north, and could only meet with some mid-level flunky who gave him a basic rundown. After that he heads up to Kolvir, and to the steps. Kira trumps Ronan and they all go up to Tir. It's a little less shiny, dimmer somehow. They go straight to the Pattern room, though there are wispy things which half-heartedly (for Tir) try to lead them away. The door is closed at the base of the stair, and the keys are on the hook. The Pattern inside is the usual one … not the Corwin one. Kira tries various things; looking at the sketch, pulling out Grayswandir, focusing on the sword. As Kira waves the sword over the Pattern it dips down, heavy. Kira touches Grayswandir to the Pattern, and the squiggle changes, turning green and points into a different direction. She is able to walk it, makes the center, there is a blinding flash of light and both Kira and Tir disappear. The five left plummet toward the ocean below. Elio sprouts wings and grabs Ronin. Maladin casts his floating disc spell and catches Erin and Dalena. They all land at the foot of Kolvir. They can't reach Kira through trump, and Erin is beginning to have massive guilt.

Dalena is trying to say her goodbyes and head home when Ronan gets a flash of something surprising and worrisome back in Amber. Much tuning, running, Pattern lensing and psychometrying later, they all arrive at the Cathedral of the Unicorn. After much bluffing, they discover that the Archbishop Justin has been assassinated. A page tells them that others have also been assassinated recently, but the killings make no sense, though the Church feels that they Royals did it. Wow, and the Royals just happen to be a the scene of the crime. Ooopsie. They tune away to a broom closet to hide. Ronan senses the Dark Brother in the slaying of the Archbishop. He was staked upside down within a pentacle on the wall, and whoever did it made it last a long time, and killed him with vengeful precision.

Dalena heads home, not wanting to be a part of this. Erin got a room in the city. Ronan goes back to the surf shop, and Elio heads home.

Maladin returns to Helmwind for the night … to sentence and execute Daron, and to check on the status of his Oleai armor. Galen is told about the whole "King Maladin" thing, and he questions him about who follows his Destiny, gives him some ribbing, and says he'll support him.

WE ALL SLEEP

It's Morning!!

Dalena is trumped by Erin who wants a trump of Marcus and the piece of Corwin's moon-armor. Both are handed over.

Maladin, who slept on Dalena's couch, wakes up, takes the head out of the cold storage, and tells Dalena he'll call when the family is all together. He then heads to Rebma to talk to Llewella. She tells him her version of how things should go down with him claiming kingship. It's a particularly Llewellan version. After a "anointing of the royal staff" Maladin tunes over to Ronan's surf shack to have a strategizing session.

Elio trumps Erin to talk about fortifying the shadows around Refuge, to create a "we're not really here" shadow. She asks him if he has time to stick around while she tries to get hold of Marcus.

Kira takes a walk in the morning to a place where trumps work. She trumps Erin. She had been in Corwin's pocket universe, and all is fine. Kira fills Erin and Elio in on all the juicy details about Corwin's area. In turn, Erin tells Kira about her theories concerning the death of Archbishop Justin. Gerard trumps Kira to say that Julian has succeeded from Amber, and the Nobles are freaking out. Julian will allow people through the forest on the established paths.

Erin and Elio trump Marcus. They talk about the Dark Brother, how he works, what it means for Marcus, what Marcus talked with to Florimel, what it means to be an initiate. Elio asks to look at Marcus with Psyche and focuses on the physical form. All is normal. Erin pushes to find out what Marcus knows … and Marcus says there isn't anything he can tell, because the Dark Brother manifests personally, but he will look into the assassinations at the Cathedral of the Unicorn. After they leave Marcus, Elio heads off into shadow, and Erin mind bends the woman at the Hotel counter into giving up Marcus' credit card information. "Marcus Black". Then she contacts Merlin, and asks him to do a credit card trace. After much direction and redirection, Merlin finally coughs up some information. Nothing to find. Erin asks Merlin to make a tag for Marcus that Marcus can't see. And then Merlin goes over to the hotel, rides the elevator up and knocks on Marcus' door and after much silliness, Merlin is able to slap the tag on Marcus and they skedaddle away.

Maladin tunes back to Helmwind and brings Dalena up to date on what his new plans are … which is to get all his ducks in a row. He makes coffee while she makes him a dozen tabards and some matching banners, pulling them out of Vitae; a white Unicorn rampant on a dark blue field edged in silver. Dalena trumps the Twins, and they come over to talk to Maladin. He asks for their help in leading his troops from his shadow to Amber. They're all over that idea. He then trumps Julian and goes through to Arden. After talking, Julian says he won't support or deny Maladin's bid for the throne, but won't stop him either. They reach an agreement. After that discussion, Maladin tells his knights to begin mobilization. They're also thrilled with something to do. Then he trumps Ronan, and they talk about status of the "plan."

At closing, Erin is in Paris with Merlin, Elio went back to Refuge, Kira is with the upset Nobles in Amber, Ronan and Maladin are talking, and Dalena is at home, prepping to head between vitae and shadow.

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