At last glance, Elio, Kira and Maladin are in Argent. Dalena and Ronan are in Helmwind. Erin is in the Land of the Milk-Fed Boys.

Maladin and Corwin continue their discussion about warfare, armies of Amber and Chaos, the Battle of Garnath, etc. Maladin's mining for military data, and Corwin gives him whatever info he has. Kira asks for further information re Brand's not being willing to back down, unless he sees opposition he can't beat; and that would be *what* exactly? Corwin replies, overwhelming numbers, and an opponent he thinks can kill him. And right now, he doesn't see either of those things. Elio asks if there are any Waveriders in Argent … Corwin has no idea what Waveriders are, so Elio explains who they are and what they do. Then Elio goes off to do some experiments within this flavor of Vitae.

Erin and Fiona start to cover the last 1,000 years of the Princess's life … and to re-teach her all about Pattern use, Shadow Shifting, etc. Fiona is pretty darn quick at picking things up and experiences some spontaneous memory regain as the lessons progress.

Dalena checks out Helmwind, seeing how people are doing, and what's up with the Oleai. Everything is back on track now that the fields are leached of poison, and Helmwind is pretty darn quiet. She gets to see what breeding experiments are going on … blue sheep, and a cross between a sheep and a slug (for riding upon) called Shugs. Oookaaay. She's off to Vitae to look for the Dragon. When He shows, she asks him if he found out who the Abyss's paintbrush is. "Do you want me to?" "You were going to …" "I was? Want me to?" "Sure … if you want." And, as it did before, it takes off. Dalena comes to the realization that if she wants to find out, she'll need to do it herself … and have to really WANT to.

Meanwhile Fiona and Erin come back to Amber. Fiona meets up with Gerard, as her first official "meet a member of the Elders" act, then goes to reacquaint herself with her quarters. Erin goes "non-noticeable" and scopes out what's going on with Amber … the upshot of which is the people are worried about invasion and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then Erin goes back to Thermalfyre, to see how things are going. On her desk, in her residence, is a note which reads: Matthew 13:49-50. That's it. Back in Amber Erin researches the reference and it reads: "So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous, and throw them into the furnace of fire; then men will weep and gnash their teeth."

Dalena decides it's time to go hunting for info re the Abyss, and makes a trip to the Church of the Unicorn. The info she's looking for is in the Proscribed section of the library, and can't be accessed without permission. She asks to see an Inquisitor, and is directed to the Admin office where she meets with Inquisitor Theron. They have a brief "Oh, how nice to see you!" moment of politeness, and then Dalena asks for permission to view the writings on the Abyss. The church would rather not, as they're worried about what her (and her friends) application of that info will be, and she promises that she'll discuss any findings with the church first and include them in any plans that are made. Theron says that may be enough to appease the Powers that Be, and tells Dalena that he'll get back to her with an answer, probably within a day.

The Argent contingent comes back to Helmwind. Maladin gathers his Knights and Elio helps with that. Elio believes that Brand is bad for the Oleai, and so Maladin needs to be protected (at least mentally). Kira goes back to Amber to write a opening petition to the Church asking for time to discuss with them the Church's stand on the throne, and accession, etc … then something happens… (Log Girl doesn't know what!!! No one but Kira does!!)

Elio waves to the Twins' Shadow where all is totally screwed up. There has been a big battle and things look like a wreck. Elio tells a guard that he's the brother of the Ruler of this place, and is summarily tossed in a holding cell. Whipping out his trumps he calls Thisbe, and she pulls him through. The twins explains all of what happened, and how things just sort of disintegrated and got out of control. They're exhausted, so Elio brings them both home to Helmwind, and puts them to bed. They don't know what happened.

Erin trumps Kira and they talk about Fiona's situation in Amber, and asks Kira to keep an eye on her. Then she Trumps Lord Byron, is checked out by the Bronx Nurse, and has a very long conversation which includes much giggling on Erin's part.

Maladin and Elio talk about using Refuge as a staging ground for troops, and Elio says that having the army there will be a really, really hard sell. Maladin also talks to Dalena about her army, and his need for them. She brings up some issues with doing so, but says she'll look into the logistics.

Elio trumps Erin and Kira to let her know about Dalena and her lack of ability to use Trumps. Kira comes through, and gets caught up on everything that's been going on. She and Dalena try a few things; Dalena can talk through trumps if someone else initiates contact and she taps in. Also, when looking with Pattern Lens, Kira sees that Dalena's Pattern Imprint is gone. Totally wiped. The Unicorn jacked Dalena's Pattern Imprint. One good thing, this means no one can trump spy on her with a standard deck.

Kira trumps Marcus for Dalena, and he eventually gets pulled through to Helmwind where he is brought up to date on what's going on. He offers rendering Dalena invisible to the Unicorn using the powers of the Dark Brother; an offer she declines. He's taken on the aspect of Darkness … the ambient light type, not the Evil type. Dalena asks him to check on Calissera for her, and he agrees to do so. When all is said and done, he melds back into the Darkness and fades out.

Ronan comes back from an early morning Surf to find leaflets proclaiming Brand as King scattered all over the beach. Brand has taken the official high road, and has set up the date and time of when he'll accept challenges. He signs it, "Brand, King of Amber." Talk about throwing down the gauntlet.

Elio and Ronan and Erin head back to the Twins' shadow to see what happened there. The affect wasn't a broad use of any power. Erin discovers, however, that something was tweaking the rules, subtly. Probably with Logrus, as there are no Pattern traces. Elio "investigates" one of the deaders, and discovers that the people were physiologically tweaked to have adrenaline through the roof, as well as an increase of several other hormones to make the people as angry as possible. Brand basically screwed the shadow over. Ronan tries to see how by reversing his ability to precognate, to *retro-cognate* in fact … and passes out from all the information being processed by his brain.

When he comes to, Ronan, Erin, Kira, and Maladin, as well as some of Maladin's knights head to Argent to pick up Maladin's loot. Erin's powers, once they cross the border into Argent, die off. She has a flicker of her Pattern energy, but that's it. Argent doesn't run on the Old Pattern, and Erin does. Once they meet up with Corwin, they show Corwin Brand's declarations, which makes him laugh. They talk about how that affects the race for the throne. Then they talk about crazy weapons of mass destruction.

Erin, Ronan and Maladin view the Vale of Blendail, using Erin's Pattern Lens … they see troops massing, as well as Brand's pavilion. Something big is building up. Maladin reviews the layout of the area, looking for tactical advantage.

Dalena grabs her youngest daughter, Misha, to act as her secretary and to take Trump calls, as she can't use the things herself. She gives a trump of Misha to Kira, and both Elio and Maladin already have one of her. She also finds out what its going to take to mobilize the Oleai army in Helmwind -- a notion Galen is not very fond of, to put it mildly.

Kira goes back to Amber, then goes to the Church of the Unicorn to talk to them about her Petition on Maladin's behalf. The Bishop says that it is being forwarded onto the entire Bishopric for a vote. She lets him know that Maladin was the Unicorn's chosen. He tells her that giving out that information now is rather self-serving. Why didn't they tell the church earlier? She tells him that she understands why they'd have doubts, and why they waited. The Bishop says they'll take the information into consideration.

Maladin and Dalena have a lengthy talk about needs, troops, truth and following the dictates of heart and conscience. Then he gathers his troops in the Vale of Garnath. He and Erin talk about how best to use her talents in the upcoming events.

Dalena is granted permission to delve into the tomes and records of the Abyss at the Church. Istin, one of the Priests of the Unicorn, is assigned to help Dalena with going through them all. It's dry work with occasional flashes of intriguing, but more often, the writers seem to have been insane. Aside from forays back to Helmwind for dinner and sleep, Dalena keeps herself immured in the Library at the Church.

Ronan is staying as a houseguest with Dalena and Galen until this whole King-Battle thing is over.

Elio returns to Refuge.

Erin talks to Merlin about being her eyes in Amber while the stuff with Brand and Maladin goes down.

Return to the Index