When we first start … 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.

Refuge is going very well. It's expanding, slowly, and Elio is starting to get immigrants. The shadows surrounding Refuge is not so lucky, however. They're slowly becoming tattered and worn down around the edges. Since everything is going well for Refuge, Elio wave rides out to a stable shadow, then trumps Dalena. Elio comes through to Helmwind, and they check in and talk about what's going on with Maladin. Elio says that he'll stick around to see how things go with Maladin. Dalena trumps Galia, who is still in Amber, helping with the survivors of the bombing.

They talk about Vitae, the nature of wavecrests, and what happens when the wavecrest slides into solidity. As they talk, a storm darkens, and a blue chicken bawks, then slams into the ground. Followed by more chickens, sheep, cows, and other farmyard animals. Dworkin isn't available by trump. As the storm lessens, they resume their conversation. Galia says that some of the older Shamans have seen a totemic figure of a Dragon … so Dalena's off to find some old Shamans out in the Camps.

Meanwhile, at the surf shop, Ronan and Maladin are talking when BAWK! WHAM! They both try to figure out what's going on with the Shadow storm. Contacting Erin, and by proxy, Merlin, they both get pulled over. With much speculation, and some bitchiness, they try to figure out what is going on with the storm. A ball of something comes down and resolves into an imp of some kind… which is immediately squashed by Erin's lens. Another imp comes down, and Merlin says, "Hey, you've got demons!"

Kira is dealing with Nobles when the storm hits. They're happily full of their own, new power now, and are quite bitchy about the cows coming down on their roof. "And what is the Family doing about it??" The People Alliance is being very pissy, and saying that a Family member had the Church member killed off to eliminate the competition

Maladin tries to perceive the nature of the storm with the Jewel, and taps into it's power. Erin comes over to sit on his lap, to try to see what he's doing, and she's not able to tap into his vision through the Jewel. "Show me!" He ignores her … sort of it. With the Jewel he tries to contain the storm, then tries to tatter it away … and it dissipates. Now it's raining out in the villages. Maladin sees that everything has stopped moving … and stops. Things begin moving again, slowly, jerkily, then falls over in a faint. Erin sets him down, and there's a minor tussle for the Jewel, as Erin fondles it, Merlin wants it, and Ronan doesn't want either of them to have it.

Dalena is about to hop a wave, and she gets a trump call from Brand. "How's the political situation?" She doesn't say anything, but he's pulling something out of her through the Psyche connection. "Oh, I see." They have a long talk about Oleai involvement in the succession process, and Maladin's suitability to take the Crown. Dalena tries to get him to consider the possibility that both of them could work in Amber together, but he can't envision how that would look. He tells her he won't come back to Amber now, as he doesn't want to present a target to someone who would stab him in the back. He also says that, regardless of the outcome, he will accept her surrender. Before he signs off, he makes the point that he could have snuffed her life through the trump connection, but chose not to.

Dalena goes to see Ronan to see if he can find lines of probability showing Brand working with anyone else. His power doesn't work that way. Erin's there, as well as Maladin, who is sleeping in the next room. She passes on the Brand information, and tells them that she's off to Vitae to "try the thing," and asks them to tell Maladin about Brand when he wakes up.

Kira trumps Erin to get some help with a small demon problem. The imps all seem to like Kira greatly, and keep crowding around her skirts. She hits a few with Pattern and they explode, then calls Erin as they keep on coming. Erin flares a few of them away, and the stench is horrific … so bad that it wakes up Maladin. Kira, not getting any help, signs off and takes her small herd out to the city to clean up the animal refuse. In the middle of all this, Brand trumps her to get a read on the nobles in the city, and her view of the current situation. He tries wooing her through words and persuasion … and tries to get her to sign on to his campaign. The subject of the Unicorn's choice is brought up, and Brand rationalizes away that Her choosing. She gets him to agree to meet with Maladin ... and they'll "talk". Brand tells her to set it up: Out in shadow, two to a person, neutral ground, Kira facilitating.

Maladin wakes up, and is brought up to date on the Brand situation. Ronan trumps Kira and she comes through with her demons, saving one and letting Erin toast the others. Kira brings Maladin and the rest up on the current Brand discussion. They plot and plan and decide it's time to go visit Florimel. Erin decides to take a nap instead.

Florimel is smooth … and claims a large amount of willing uninvolvement. She's just a woman, and steps aside for the men to do their boys things. They're pretty much snowed in a deluge of socially desirable bullshit. Kira asks for five minutes alone with Flora, and the gentlemen head down to Gerard's office. Once the boys leave the room, the bullshit meter drops a great deal. They talk about Brand, Maladin and the situation, and what the best thing to do once the guns start blazing.

Down in Gerard's office, he's already been contacted by Brand, and the Regent is having none of it. He tells Maladin that he doesn't care who is king, but keep your fight outside of the city. Everyone listens, and that's that. Gerard goes back to work with Lord Fuzzywuz, and Kira stays behind to help … but not before she tells Maladin to not pursue the throne unless he really believes in it. Maladin sighs, and decides to take an angst-ridden walk which ends at the armory. Maladin wants in … he wants bullets and a gun.

He trumps Erin and asks a favor. "I need some bullets so I can make more." She gets pulled to the Castle, and there's some discussion about why from the armory and how about just getting it from Shadow Earth. Ronan remembers something, and trumps Paige … and has her dig something out of his pocket of a certain jacket. It's handed over and it turns out to be the two bullets Random had given him way back when. The question arises … why do you want to make more of these? Maladin wants to ramp up his amount of ammo, to counter Brand's possible Chaosian troops. Erin tries, very hard, to explain why escalation in Amber is a very, very bad idea.

Out in Vitae Dalena goes to Delwin's camp to find some old Shamans. There's a 5,000 year old one, and then Mal, who is 10,000 year old. Dalena goes to visit Mal. To get rid of her, because he is a surly bastard, he answers her questions … not politely, but he does answer. The dragon is the icon, the emblem, of Potential, much as the Unicorn is for the Amberites. He is possibility, and is the Vitae, the wavecrest. If the mind is pure, and there is no attachment to outcome, them all is possibility and the dragon is with you. Another way to find Him is to get hopped up on something and go sit in a wave. Mal says that because of Dalena's Amberite mind, always looking toward different possibilities, it will be almost impossible to come to the right state of mind to view the dragon, so the drugs route may work best … if you can't wait a thousand years to get true enlightenment. They thank each other for a truly wonderful time .

Erin finally trumps Kira again, and rescues her sister from the sewage person Fuzzywuz. They're all now in Helmwind, and Elio sees them. They talk more about Maladin's taking of the throne. Elio gets a trump from Dalena who asks for a lift back home.

More talk about how to deal with taking the throne. During that time, someone tries a bit of trump spying on Kira. A trace back discovers that the spy originated in Shadow, but then it disappears. Kira blocks any more spying, and the group continues the discussion of what to do about Brand, the kingship, the meeting, and Maladin's reason for taking the throne. Dalena has a revelation about what will probably happen if Brand takes the throne … and excuses herself to go talk to Galen.

Kira trumps Gerard and asks if he has any objections with having Brand and Maladin discuss in the Library of the Castle, instead of out in Shadow. "Will there be a library standing afterward?" Kira assures him that it should be so. "Okay, but no troops!" So that's the current plan, assuming Brand agrees with it.

And the discussion goes on. How can Brand be swayed? What does he want? What about Flora? How can Maladin get Flora on his side?

And the end of the evening, everyone is still at Helmwind Castle … still plotting and planning, while Dalena is finding Galen.

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