The Family council breaks up, and Signy and Ambrose retire to their rooms for the night. After rising early and grabbing a quick breakfast, she heads over to meet Ambrose outside of his rooms.
"I assume since we attended the meeting last night, we're clear to depart?" she says by way of greeting.
"I believe we ought to formally announce our planned departure, just to be safe, but we were dismissed. It may be that King Corwin wants some way to get in touch with us, or perhaps he'll have some final instructions. I tend to be cautious in my dealings with our uncles. My father was--mercurial about his expectations, let us say--and I learned that it was easier to ask for permission rather than pray for forgiveness." Ambrose smiles at Signy, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes. "Shall we send a note, or go in person?"
Signy gives a resigned sigh.
"If we leave a note and just leave that's probably not really any better than just leaving if he wants to talk to us. I'd rather not wait around to see if he replies to the note, so maybe visiting him would be quickest?"
Assuming Ambrose doesn't object, she requests a nearby page to escort them to the King.
The page escorts them to the King, who at breakfast with a lady of a certain age unknown to either Signy or Ambrose. She's introduced as Mme. Hardwind and is clearly an ornament of Corwin's court. They are invited to remain for breakfast and casual conversation, which is light and mostly news of Paris and a bit about some of their cousins, who seem to be known to Mme. Hardwind.
Afterwards, they receive the King's blessing to depart and an offer of any supplies or assistance necessary.
After they leave the court, Signy gives a quiet, relieved sigh. "That wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared," she murmurs quietly.
As they make their way out of the city, she takes the lead and brings the two of them on a clearly predetermined path out of the city. As they head out through the high street area, she stops at a small jewelers shop. After a brief period of negotiation, she hands over a small but heavy purse of coins, and receives a tightly rolled leather bundle filled with jeweler's equipment. Once out of the tiny shop, she glances inside, and Ambrose can see numerous tools for working on small and fine tasks in the bundle -- hammers, picks, screwdrivers, miniature and needle-nosed pliers, and a series of jewelers' loups.
"I talked with a few of the ladies at court, and this is one of the hidden secrets of some of the ladies there. The only way they told me of his location was if I promised to keep it secret from the others that didn't already know. He's one of the best at small and fine work."
They continue on, and as they start to pass through the more industrial sections, she stops off at a small, out of the way shop. As they enter, the sounds of hammering and grinding can be heard from the back. Another quiet round of negotiations, and another exchange of a slightly larger and heavier purse of coins for a slightly larger leather roll that a quick inspection outside shows additional tools -- tap and die sets, gauges and calipers. She pulls out a smaller leather pouch that offers the briefest of glimpses at a well-stocked lockpick set before it's slipped into a pocket somewhere inside her clothes.
She gives a quick smile at Ambrose, stowing the second set of tools alongside the first bundle before leading them back to the gates and out of the city.
Ambrose accompanies Signy without comment or question until she offers an explanation, which doesn't seem to surprise him. "What my father said about Amber, and I would expect it to hold here as well, is that the tools might not be endowed with special reality, but you would be able to find the best tools in the city because of the quality of person the city attracts."
On the way out of the city, Ambrose obtains horses for them from the guard by the King's warrant. They're good quality and Signy would have been happy to have them on the plains: distance riding horses, not sprinters.
"My father would have hellridden back to our destination," Ambrose explains, "but I haven't the strength or skill with Pattern yet. Nor, I imagine, will you. But since you don't know the way this time, I'll have to do all the shifting. You can take the lead when we return, and ask any questions about what I'm doing along the way. I've had some teaching and some explanations. I'm just missing the practical experience that some of our cousins have."
His shifts after they leave Paris and get into the countryside are at first large and not particularly subtle. Things like changing colors of grass and sky as they pass over hills or around groves of trees on the road, or changing a body of water. They are obvious to Signy, and she can feel the alterations as Ambrose makes them.
Signy nods at what he says, but stays mostly quiet at first, observing and on occasion commenting on the changes she observes to make sure that she is following Ambrose's shifting.
"This seems a lot like a puzzle I saw my father make once," she notes. "Move this piece, so that you can move that piece, so that you can come back and move this piece again." She pauses, before getting a slightly far-away look in her eye. "I wonder if this was his inspiration for making it...."
She blinks, before giving Ambrose a quizzical look. "What happens if I try to shift as well? Can I make it go twice as fast, or would we cancel each other out?"
"For this trip, I don't think you can, because you don't know the puzzle you're solving. I don't know how it would work if we both knew, though." Ambrose looks thoughtful. "It's an experiment we might try on the way back to Paris or Rebma, though, if you're willing. Either it would work well, if we coordinated, or we'd be fighting each other and never get anywhere. I'm not sure how well we could coordinate at any speed, though.
"Has anyone talked to you about hellriding? I'm not strong enough to do it yet, but I'm certain you absolutely couldn't hellride in tandem. I know our uncles, and aunts, hellride together, but it seems to be one in the wake of another."
Signy shakes her head in the negative. "I think I'm like most of the rest of us, and I just walked the Pattern and...that's it. A chance discussion here, a bit of an insight there."
She pauses, before continuing. "I did have Uncle Bleys recommend I travel out to Ygg, though I'm not entirely sure what I would have gotten from that experience, since I got sidetracked right after I got there."
"With our Uncle Bleys, sometimes it's difficult to tell. He's the sort of teacher who believes it's all about the journey, sometimes to the exclusion of the endpoint." Which Ambrose says with a sort of exasperation that's touched with fondness and speaks of some acquaintance with Bleys' teaching methods. "The journey itself would be a difficult task for a novice, especially one with limited sorcery. He hasn't assigned that kind of a lesson to me, but I'm an experienced sorcerer. On the other hand, I haven't asked him for Pattern lessons, either. Have you had any tutoring from Aunt Fiona?"
Signy shrugs. "I got there, and I thought I...saw a face in the tree, but it was very quick and I didn't really have time to dig into it further to see if I could get its attention."
She sighs.
"Aunt Fiona was mentioned as well, but I haven't really talked with her. Maybe if she's in her lab...."
She looks at Ambrose. "Who's taught you? Or are you like most of the rest of us, and more self taught than anything else?"
Ambrose glances at Signy, surprise coloring his expression, and to a certain extent his fair cheeks. "You don't know?" he asks, which question is clearly rhetorical, because he continues, "My father, Brand, was my first teacher. Full brother to Fiona and Bleys, and supposedly their better in matters of Sorcery and Pattern both. One of Dworkin's students of Trump, attempted destroyer of the realm, and--your mother's murderer.
"I serve the family by trying to unravel his schemes. That's why I need a new code wheel: because his papers are in Uxmali glyphs and can't be deciphered without one."
It's Signy's turn to look at him in surprise. "I didn't think that he would have done that." She considers everything he said, before turning slightly serious. "Do you think he had additional plans that are still going on after his death? I hadn't thought that there could be some sort of trap in the code wheels."
"I'm sure he had additional plans that haven't come to fruition. I hadn't considered the possibility that he'd done anything to the code wheels, since he did have to use them himself." Ambrose looks appalled at the idea, and sounds somewhat resigned to whatever security precautions that will entail. "If there's some kind of kin-line protection against any curse laid on them, you might be close enough, or you and I might need to work together to learn how to protect you using me. Because I'm fairly certain my father wouldn't have trapped his legacy against me or my brother."
Signy looks thoughtful at this. "Why wouldn't he have done that, though? Was he planning on bringing the two of you in on his schemes, or was his end goal something different than just destroying everything?"
She pauses for a moment, watching idly at some of the scenery shifting by as they continue to move through Shadow, before continuing. "Code wheels and ciphers seems a lot of work, unless he felt the need to communicate to someone? He didn't seem particularly absent-minded from the histories I've read."
"The code wheels aren't for him to decipher his own notes. I'm sure he knew what he meant and only used the glyphs as a reminder. It's so that those of us who did know him, and who can speak Uxmali, which is a difficult language, can decipher what he meant. He might have meant to bring me or Brennan in on his plans, but he never did in life, or not entirely.
"As for what he meant to do," Ambrose pauses there and chews on his lip a moment, before concluding, "as best we can tell based on what we know, he meant ultimately to heal Dworkin by solving the problem of Tir."
Signy doesn't look comforted by his answer.
"Does that mean that he had others he was working with?"
"Well, of course at one point he was working with the Courts of Chaos. But of course, he double-crossed them. That was my father's nature." Ambrose looks at Signy with a little sadness. "He was the Smoking Mirror and he destroys the world. I don't think they understood the potential they were dealing with. Or perhaps they always meant to betray him and he just did unto them first." Which Ambrose says with a wry humor.
"I am the Feathered Serpent of Uxmal. It is, in some sense, my nature to oppose his works. In our family, as I'm sure you've gathered, relationships with our parents can be very complicated."
Signy doesn't bat an eye at the mythological roles that Ambrose mentions. "It seems a little at odds, though, doesn't it? His nature was to double-cross them, but he seemed to have a legitimate goal that he was working towards."
Signy idly glances at the desert-like surroundings they pass through, a pack of horse-sized lizards sunning themselves off in the distance, before turning back to Ambrose. "Would there be someone else that might have a working copy of the code wheels at the Courts?"
"It's not out of the question, I suppose. A Court would be the sort of place where you could guarantee the conditions were perfect for keeping the wheel intact, as long as the Lord remembered to do it." Ambrose frowns. "My grandmother might have one. I don't think he would have trusted any of the others with a code wheel. Grandmother coddled him and would have kept it for his sake. I don't think she was interested in helping Dworkin.
"His problem was that researching the way to solve Dworkin's problem drove him mad, I think. Because he was at the end: quite mad and vicious. And by 'the end', I mean probably longer than I've been alive." Which, given his age and appearance, could be anything from thirty years to a thousand.
Signy gives a mirthless smile. "At times, I wonder about the sanity of us all. I wonder if I was lucky that my mother left when I was so young, or if she would have offset my father...."
She sighs, before turning back to the matter at hand. "Dworkin had Oberon, who had a lot of kids, who had a lot more kids themselves. It seems odd that Dworkin only had the one, no?"
"It does, doesn't it?" Ambrose agrees. "On the other hand, given what I understand about our great-granddam--our great-grandmother--there may have been only the one time when it could have happened. While there's nothing to say that she couldn't have given birth to twins, it seems unlikely under the circumstances, or as best I can tell. I know a bit about horse-breeding, and I presume that applies to unicorns, but I might be wrong. Also, she is a singular Unicorn, so there's no reason any of it applies to her."
They move on through Shadow in silence for a time. Forests make way to jungle, jungle to savannah to tundra. As their breath comes out in white plumes in the cold, Signy looks sideways at Ambrose.
"So, what little reading I've done hasn't shown his name, but I have a feeling that my father was one of the Family, for the Pattern blades if nothing else. But in everything I've read, we don't generally form those sorts of relationships with one another."
There's no outright question, but Signy pauses for Ambrose to offer up any thoughts he might have.
"That's not the way I heard it," Ambrose answers. "My father told me our uncle Julian would have married our aunt Fiona if not for our grandfather's prohibition on brother-sister marriage. And he said that our uncle Corwin--" and there he stops and reconsiders his words. "I'm sorry," Ambrose says, "but he said that our uncle Corwin was very enamored of your mother. And that she was not above twisting him around her finger."
Signy nods. "I never really knew her, but the first time I met the King he was...moved when talking about her."
She sighs bitterly.
"Like I said, I don't know if I'm better or worse for not knowing her."
She pauses, considering, before continuing. "Did your father ever discuss the Pattern blades?"
"Dad was never personally interested in the blades that I know of," Ambrose answers after a few moments in which he was clearly searching his memories. "I know Bleys had one and Corwin had one, but I think he viewed them more as obstacles--especially Corwin and Grayswandir--instead of as something he should personally aspire to." He offers Signy a smile that suggests humor at his father's expense. "My father liked to be the planner, not the person on the front lines, and that's where those with the swords find themselves."
Signy shakes her head negatively, not immediately buying Ambrose's assessment.
"It still seems like the sort of thing that most planners would at least account for, to make sure that they had an answer, no?"
Ambrose smiles, amused at Signy's disbelief. "The answer was Bleys. Bleys and Werewindle, which with Corwin out of the picture, meant that the swords were on his side, at least in theory. My father thought he could control Bleys--and he could, right up until he couldn't. Bleys told me once that he punched my father in the jaw, but I'm not sure I believe it."
Signy shakes her head in disbelief. "Compare that with Weyland -- he would have had a plan to neutralize the blades themselves, so that if he couldn't co-opt them he could simply remove them from play altogether."
A range of mountains which had been constant on their left for some time start to turn a deeper purple hue, and starts to slowly curve around to come in front of them.
"Did he have any that he considered his equals?"
"Dworkin was his master, and he loved Dworkin. He feared his father and our Aunt Fiona, and sometimes Benedict. I can't say he exactly respected Bleys, but he considered Bleys worthy of personal manipulation, which is more than can be said for many of our cousins. And I think the same for Corwin and maybe Eric.
"My father was mad, though. Certainly at the end. His judgement was unsound." Ambrose grins, not pleasantly. "I'm glad he wasn't as forward-thinking as your father, though. He would've destroyed the universe if he had been."
As they crest a gradual hill, their destination comes into view.
"Did his notes talk about other family members at all, or talk of going to a master craftsman for anything like the code wheels? My father had a habit of using other names at times, so he might have had something to do with the wheels...."
"The code wheels were Uxmali in origin. Of our family, only Bleys, Fiona, Brennan, and myself know the language. And I'm not entirely sure Bleys knows the written language." Which thought elicits a smirk from Ambrose. "The craftsmen involved in making the original wheels may have been half-gods of my father's line, but if they were, he didn't mention it. If he did as he usually does with fine crafts work, he had the priests sacrifice them to his glory afterwards."
Fiona's tower in this shadow is a black glass pyramid.
Signy nods with her head at the pyramid that is steadily moving closer.
"Are there any ground rules for our Aunt that I should know before we get there?"
"Fiona's difficult to predict. Just treat her with wary respect and you should be fine. I've never seen her take an active dislike to anyone, except my mother. It's not like what we're doing is going to be at cross-purposes with her own work--then we might have to worry." Ambrose smiles in a way that suggests he's teasing. "She may not even be there, so it may be a moot point. But she does tend to prefer redheads and practitioners of the art, so you fall into one of the categories she prefers. And don't moon at her, if you're inclined that way at all. My understanding is that she gets very tired of that kind of behaviour."
Signy offers a wry grin.
"As long as she doesn't mind a bit of mess," she murmurs as they arrive at the entrance to the pyramid.
When they enter the black glass pyramid, which isn't actually made of glass, Ambrose and Signy are guided up three levels to a laboratory by virtue of there being no other direction they can go at any given point. Whether Fiona accomplishes this by magic, technology, servants, or some combination thereof isn't clear, but they arrive in a lab area, also furnished in relatively dark colors (though well lit). Fiona is in the room, but as they arrive, she holds up her hand and says, "Bide. It's Brennan."
After a moment, she adds, presumably to Brennan, "Hello, Brennan. Your brother and Signy have just arrived."
Signy shoots a calculating look at Ambrose, wondering if he somehow managed to time their arrival to coincide with his brother's Trump call.
She moves so that Fiona can easily reach out to include her in the conversation if she wishes, but stands silently otherwise.
There is a pause during which, presumably, Brennan is replying, and then Fiona holds out her hands to Signy and Ambrose. Ambrose joins into the contact at once, and greets Brennan: “Hello, brother."
Signy joins the link when Fiona offers. "Hello, Brennan."
"Ambrose, Signy," Brennan says, with a smile.
It's deep into dusk wherever Brennan is. It also seems to be countryside or wilderness-- there's a fire in the background, probably providing light for the Trump he's using, and the sounds of a stream nearby.
"What news from the other realms? I understand your man has given some testimony," he adds to Signy.
Ambrose holds back, as this is not his tale to tell, and there’s some awkwardness, which, although her expression does not change, amuses Fiona. But not in a mean-spirited way.
Signy nods. "He met with Edan and me at my forge in Rebma. The Order is old, and was in Amber at some point until Oberon banished them for some reason that he didn't know. He thought that Reid's mother was involved with the Order."
She pauses, before awkwardly adding "He didn't seem to recognize Reid's likeness that Edan...created."
No doubt imagining something much cooler than actually happened-- perhaps a fiery apparition or something similarly impressive-- the awkwardness of the memory passes Brennan by completely.
"She was," Brennan says. "And I suspect before all is laid to rest, that we will have to uncover the place of her homeland. Bear with me if I cover ground already trod-- I wasn't there for either of his interviews. Do you know if Tomat's presence in your father's realm was something Weyland welcomed, something he paid for with a service of his own? Or the opposite, something that the Order desired and had to pay for to make him accept?"
Brennan also glances at Ambrose as he concurs about Pastoral, as if to ask if he knows anything. It's a fleeting hope-- there's no particular reason he should.
Ambrose looks back at his brother. "Our father had a long list of those 'Consumed by the Imbalance in The Pattern'. I have heard her name, but no more. I'm not sure he knew more."
Fiona snorts. "I am sure he did not. I believe that, of old, the Order was banished for meddling in the affairs of Amber during the the Cymnea/Faella conflict.
"After they'd snuck back under another name, they were evicted with the other religious after the events which led to my brother being tasked with Werewyndle."
She looked at Signy, "I also am interested in anything you know about the relationship between Weyland the Smith and the Order."
Signy nods her agreement at Fiona's words. "That is what Tomat said about the Order's history. Unfortunately I don't know what the agreement was with my father. Tomat trained me, but I don't know if that was on the Order's instigation or on my father's."
She pauses, before continuing. "I do know that whatever the deal was, my father would have gotten the better of it, and in ways that the Order would not have necessarily expected."
Brennan nods at Ambrose slightly, to show that he caught the comment and hasn't disregarded it, but does not interrupt Fiona or Signy.
Once Signy finishes, he looks at Fiona and says, "They've used different names? Interesting."
"They have used a number of different names over time and across Shadow, as I understand things from Bleys. They are the religious order of which all others are but Shadow." The corner of Fiona's perfect mouth quirks in amusement at her own turn of phrase, mostly because she finds it so trite but technically correct in this case.
Back to Signy: "I ask, because it would be useful to know, when we hunt them down, whether they had been providing him with services so valuable as to merit unique weapons forged by his hand. And I am curious to know what Tomat could have trained you in that your father could not have done a better job."
Signy sighs, and looks unhappy. "I don't know for certain, he never really went into detail when he didn't feel like it. If I had to guess, given what Tomat has said about the Order my guess is that he wanted information from them, and in return they got access to me."
She pauses, and turns back to Fiona. "I didn't realize they had a connection to one of my father's Blades, though."
It's clear she's hoping that Fiona will elaborate further on this bit of history.
Brennan would also be curious to hear that.
"Brand might not have known much about Pastoral or their origins," Brennan says, "But I would bet much that he had more recent information about the Klybesians, whether it showed up in his notes or not." While it is impossible to prove the negative, he glances at Ambrose inviting him to prove the positive.
Brennan feels something through the connection that might best be described as amusement from Fiona, though she doesn’t say anything at this time.
It is, of course, Ambrose who speaks, since the question was posed to him. "Not yet, or not recognizably in that form, other than perhaps the information we have about the group that fostered Ossian. And the code wheels are beginning to experience some difficulties now that they're out of the perfect conditions of Uxmal. I've brought Signy here to construct a new one, which I hope will be more--robust."
(Brennan's own experience is that they can be a bit persnickety, and it's not a terrible surprise that the entropy Patterns sometimes bring on in magical or technological goods has caused problems for the code wheels. It's typical of Brand's approach to things: one-off solutions to get the job done, and not always well-thought-out in their underpinnings. Such as erasing the Pattern.)
If anyone can sense anything of Brennan's emotional state through the Trump contact, it is a dull flat angry red not unlike blackbody red radiation.
"He was active in Flora's Shadow, too-- he trained Lucas, after all-- and there is a chapter there, as well. Greenwood, the place that held the King of Paris." If there is anyone in the conversation who hadn't hear that, he pauses to let that sink in. "What concerns me just as much as what Brand knew, though, is what the Klybesians know and how they know it. My son ended up in Abford, not because he was an orphan but because they kidnapped him from his mother."
Dull flat angry orange blackbody radiation.
"As it is, I'm still working in Avalon for Celina and our uncle. But when that's complete, I may have my own set of questions for Tomat."
If Signy senses any of her cousin's rage, she doesn't display any outward sign of it.
"He is in the care of the Queen in Rebma while I'm not there," she notes. "Pastoral had a connection with this Order, and they had Reid's corpse. Was there any connection between the Order and Osric?"
She pauses for a second before adding in a musing tone, "Could Reid have been a pawn of theirs that they thought they had access to through Pastoral?"
Ambrose has got nothing.
Fiona's mien has grown more serious as well. "That was before my time, but I think it entirely possible. However, if they had some influence with Reid, they wouldn't have killed him if they could possibly avoid it. They would have allied with him, or tried to use him, as they did with Caine in his day, and perhaps with Brand. If Reid died in their custody, it will be either because they couldn't save him, or he turned on them for some reason."
"I have less than zero motive to cut these people any slack," Brennan says, "but as far as I know, we don't actually know that they killed Reid with their own hands." Which is a de facto agreement with Fiona. "But we do know they desecrated his body by taking tissue samples, and we know they steal children to raise as their own. And bear in mind that Pastoral lived long enough ago that Benedict's memories are sparse and unclear. As little as the Pastoral connection is living memory for us, through Benedict, it is even less so for Klybesians-- for most or all of them, it will have degenerated into myth and legend and may be almost totally disconnected from what actually happened.
"He could have died and they sought him out for religious reasons, or for tissue samples. He could have died in their hands after refusing samples, as I suspect he would have. He could have been a willing participant in some scheme which got him killed. None of this changes the requirement that they be dealt with. And that's where the Pastoral angle-- and this is just a hunch-- may help us," Brennan says. "It never hurts to understand an enemy."
"No, it doesn't. Dad's tactic of throwing them out of Amber doesn't seem to have worked very well for him in the long run. It just sent them out there to fester and cause trouble in the shadows. It may be that some of the trouble that was attributed to Chaos during the years that led up to the late war was fomented by them," Fiona opines. "We should pursue the Pastoral angle, and I'll advise Random and Corwin of that when I speak with them next.
"And, to my knowledge, the Order has never laid hands on Grayswandir, nor on Werewindle when it was the blade he had. But I cannot be certain of that last," Fiona concludes.
Brennan nods. "Ambrose, what did you mean about Pastoral and the imbalance in the Pattern? I had thought Pastoral came from... some Shadow somewhere or other... but you make it sound as though there is a connection to Tir. On a related topic-- somewhat--" he takes the sketch of Maeve and her Knight out of his Trump case and passes it through to Fiona, "I know who the woman is. She is the Queen of Air and Darkness. Does anyone recognize the man? I had thought it might be a very young Ben, but apparently not."
As the others are looking it over, he explains its provenance. "This is a sketch I made of a particularly vivid dream I had, in the time frame I was breaking into your father's tower, Signy. I didn't put it together until later, but given the large time differentials, this dream could have come at about the time Cambina was in Tir with Vialle. And then, I wanted to talk to Ben before anyone else."
As the sketch passes in front of Signy she studies it intently for as long as it's in her vision.
[OOC: In addition to the Knight, does Maeve look like Floaty Woman from her trip down to Rebma with Tomat and Red Fox Claws?]
[OOC: Funny, that, floaty woman and Maeve could be the same woman.]
Fiona shakes her head in the negative. "I don't recognize either of them."
Ambrose says, "Nor do I. And I don't know of any specific relationship between Pastoral and the imbalance, just that our father seemed to think it would require deaths to bind it. Almost as if they were-— giving their lives for the good of Amber."
"I was certain before, but I have it direct from Benedict-- the woman is the one who scribed the Pattern of Tir-na Nog'th," Brennan says. "The one who's been manifesting as 'the floaty woman.' When I explained the image's source to Benedict, his second reaction was that I should go to Tir. But his first was a hunch that she is manifesting... in search of a new host." It is clear that Brennan is deeply uncomfortable with that idea. "I don't know what to make of that, but I don't take his opinion lightly, or for granted. If anyone finds any evidence of who the man was-- or is, I suppose-- I would be grateful to hear about it.
"I am inclined to follow Benedict's advice, once I clear it with King Random. But for the present, I made a promise to Celina, so I remain in Avalon." Even if, as seems increasingly likely, the induced stress threatens to snap him in half. "Moire is here, in the vicinity, using Avalon's proximity as a platform to harass Rebma... and Dara was here, although I don't think they were working together." He gives a frown characteristic of an unsupported conclusion. "It's an interesting strategic puzzle-- she prefers to harass from the flank, and I need to force her into the field... ideally without letting her know that Family is involved."
Signy nods her head at the sketch. "I met the woman. Well, sort of. I dreamt of her when we were first coming to Rebma, and had paused for a rest on the way down."
Fiona listens to all of this with increasing concern. "How long," she asks Signy, "has it been since you saw her?"
As does Brennan. "The way down from Paris, I take it. Was this the chamber that seems like a half-way point? Was there a stone formation that looked like a figure sitting on an enormous throne, and a mirror?" For Fiona's benefit, if she does not already know from other sources, Brennan briefly explains the presence of the stone formation and its Astral light.
Signy frowns, thinking back. "Around two months ago, I think? I spent about that long getting a forge and workshop set up before heading out."
She pauses, and her voice becomes slightly more faint, as she thinks back in time. "We'd stopped on the way to Rebma to rest for a few hours. I woke, and the statue and throne were sparkling, and there was no sight of Tomat or Red Fox Claws.
"Something was hiding in there, it looked like it was breathing, so I tried to see what was underneath, and when the dust settled she was there, looking into the distance. She was connected by some sort of thread, through space or time, or maybe both.
"I used the Pattern to try and shift out of wherever it was, and back to Reality, before I finally was woken by Red Fox Claws for the start of my watch. Before I woke, it felt like she was somehow part of the Pattern, or connected to it somehow."
She blinks, and comes back to the present.
Fiona's attention is on Signy, though also enough on Brennan to help maintain the connection. "This was before or after you walked the Pattern?" she asks Signy.
Ambrose still has nothing to offer, so he's simply observing for the moment.
Signy looks surprised.
"This was well after I'd walked, but maybe the Pattern was why she never seemed to notice me? Do you know more about her?"
Brennan has nothing.
Fiona shakes her head in the negative. "I have a suspicion," she explains. "If she is, as Benedict suggests, looking for a new host, then she would be looking for someone whose reality, as it were, has not been confirmed. The Pattern makes you what you are. And what you are is yourself, Signy. Not her."
Brennan turns that over in his mind, uncomfortably.
"If your suppositions are both true," he says-- Fiona's and Benedict's-- "then she is looking for three candidate pools. Our very young: Brooke, Hope, Jasmine. Our estranged outcasts: Chantico. Meg probably fits in one of those categories. And the big one: Our unknowns.
"I try not to make life more complicated than it needs to be. I do try. But I am compelled to point out that the Klybesians are our biggest potential source of information about the unknowns. The ones possibly in their ranks, and the ones they've collected information about," Brennan says. "There has to be some threshold, though... Someone capable of walking the Pattern, but who hasn't yet done it, you think?"
"That was my assumption," Fiona agrees. "Someone young and fresh, but sufficiently ripe to be of use. I suppose using a child of Hope's or Jasmine's age might be a surprise to us, but my sense--purely guessing here--is that a child would be undesirable for other reasons. So an unknown or an estranged outcast. Chantico. Meg. Saeth, if she'd survive it. Questionably, Solace, who is neither estranged nor outcast but has not walked the Pattern."
Ambrose winces visibly at the mention of Chantico, but doesn't say anything.
"For unknowns, the Klybesian records will be useful. I do wonder," Fiona adds, a touch of malice slipping into her voice, "whether they make the same mistake as brother Corwin."
It is unusual for Brennan to be take a longer view than Fiona, but they won't stay six years old forever, he thinks. "I asked Benedict for a different reason," he does actually say, "and he was less than perfectly resolved on the matter, but I expect she would have extraordinary insight into just who can walk a Pattern and survive... especially that of Tir-na Nog'th."
Not for the first time, he recalls his own experience there as a boy, and represses a shudder. Mostly.
"This all seems to have started around the time of Oberon's labors," he says. "That isn't the kind of coincidence in which I believe. So either we're wrong and she's been manifesting for much longer, or she chose not to, or she couldn't. Something Oberon did, that now he obviously does not? Or just action while we're... still unsettled?"
Brennan seems inclined to think it is the former.
Signy listens, taking in the conversation and speculation and turning it over in her head.
"Does the fact that she's looking to potentially take one of us mean that she's of Order?" she wonders aloud.
"Dad did remake the universe," Fiona points out. "The Queen of Air and Darkness is a creature of some kind of Order if she's associated with the Tir Pattern. Rewriting the Primal Pattern is bound to have had an effect on her as well as everything else."
Signy looks at Fiona with interest. "So.... Dworkin created the Primal Pattern, and Oberon created Amber." The last is half question, half statement. "So were Rebma and Tir created by Oberon's siblings, the way that the Kings created Paris and Xanadu?"
Brennan has nothing but a keen curiosity in Fiona's answer... or any well-founded answer.
Fiona shrugs; a slight shake of her head sends the waves of her red hair sliding over her shoulder. "Lir was the founding patron of Rebma, and Maeve was the Queen of Tir. We have no firm evidence that they were Dad's siblings, but if they scribed those Patterns, they'd have to be Ordered beings at least as powerful as Dad was. Assuming there's not something we've missed, or there's not some inherent difference in those Patterns--which Dworkin never said that there was, to me, other than the obvious, but he's a cagey sort and always was. Did he say anything to your father, Ambrose? Brennan?"
Ambrose says, "My father's papers imply Tir was broken and damaged and the damage extended to Dworkin."
Ambrose's news is not news to Brennan, but Fiona's is.
"Nothing that ever reached my ears," Brennan says.
"But Lir? Not Moins?" he asks. "It's funny you should mention Lir, though. He is remembered in Avalon, and I had a long discussion with a scholar, one of the descendants of his followers... or so they claim. An interesting people, this tribe. They claim to have served Lir when he raised the Silver Towers, opposed the Witch-King by sinking the Silver Towers themselves, and remain dispossessed to this day. Lir himself is said to have joined his kin in a war against fish demons. Rebma was not mentioned by name, but he died in service of his wife, a woman named as Elyssa the Dido... identified as this woman." Brennan passes through Folly's non-Trump image of Moins.
Signy pauses, before asking the next obvious question. "So, the Jewel of Judgement is from the Unicorn, so where did the Sapphire for Rebma come from? And what was used to make Tir?"
"Unknown and unknown," Fiona replies to Signy as she takes the sketch of Moins and examines it. "And I named Lir because he's the ancestral totem of Rebma, much like the Unicorn in in Amber. It's entirely possible that Lir is--I don't know? a male form of the Unicorn? Another power like Dworkin? If he drew the Pattern, maybe he didn't need a token like the Jewel of Judgement, or maybe whatever he did made the token. We're just speculating now."
"We are," Brennan says. "When I asked Benedict, he expressed doubt that Lir ever lived, then rattled off a good handful of conflicting legends and possibilities, including that he was Moins' child, and that he was Family from before his time. I'm rather partial to that one, since it matches the first legends I heard-- the timeframe and temperament of the legends I heard would be right for another of Finndo's children. Or possibly another name for Cneve. Or the last of a crop of aunts and uncles so ancient they've finally passed out of Family history. In which case," Brennan says, shooting a glance at Signy, "your father might know more than he says. Or he might not." His ultimate conclusion for the moment is an eloquent shrug.
"I suppose Lir being the Scribe and still being alive somewhere would explain Rebma's continued existence, though," he says.
Signy returns Brennan's glance before looking back at Fiona. "My father discussed my mother almost never, and the rest of this Family even less than that," she notes drily. "I was rather surprised to learn I had a brother when he showed up in Brother Tomat's company."
She addresses her next question to Fiona in particular. "What is my father's history with this Family? He has to be related to us outside of marriage, or he wouldn't have been able to craft the Pattern blades...."
"Unknown. Dad didn't even tell us about Dworkin being his own father. We had to figure that out on our own." Fiona presses her lips together for a moment and her annoyance is palpable through the Trump connection. "You're not the only one discovering all sorts of new branches of the family tree, Signy." Her focus turns to Ambrose. "What about your father's papers?"
"Nothing yet, but I'm not finished with them," Ambrose answers.
Fiona says, "Keep it in mind."
Signy tries to hide the brief surge of embarrassment at raising Fiona's ire from the rest of the Trump contact, recalling too late Ambrose's earlier words.
"I suppose I could try to track my father down if Brand's papers don't give us any further insights," she says quietly, though she manages to keep the unhappiness at this prospect limited to just her voice.
"Unless there's other approaches that would be worth following up on first. We did not part well, and his price for helping will probably be... steep."
"I have unfinished business with your father as well," Brennan says. "I remain in Avalon for the time being, but perhaps if he is to be found later we can find him together."
"Perhaps," Fiona says. "But for the nonce, is there other news, from any of you?"
"Yes," Brennan says. "I'm in Avalon and I mentioned that Moire is and Dara might be here as well. Here is why I think that."
Brennan sketches the outlines of his trip to Avalon and the council with Benedict in broad, black and white strokes, and then his sea and overland journey to Montparnasse under the Walker disguise in quick charcoals-- just enough to get the point across without being tedious.
"...and then it gets strange. Pared back and condensed to its essence, Cameleopardis' story runs like this: Some time in the past, Cameleopardis of the Maghee was part of an expedition to find the sunken ruins of the Silver Towers-- the same ones his people claim to have sunk in the earlier days of the Witch-King. He found a castle-- or a palace-- with a vast throne room, with a throne of solid sapphire. On seeing it, he was struck by a vision of a man walking a great tracework of light. That man was Avalon's Protector, fighting Avalon's Witch-King. He then passed out.
"When he woke, he saw a woman sitting on the throne. They watched the Witch-King's blade-- just that-- duel the Protector, who won at the cost of his arm, then he was alone with the woman. She identified herself as Dara, of the lineage of Lir, and enlisted his service in a bid to destroy the Witch-King's new kingdom, and bade him to sleep until her priestess came to give him instructions. When he woke, such a priestess came to him and bade him lead her forces to attack Montparnasse, but when pressed he could not remember the features of the priestess.
"It was clear to me that someone had put him under a glamour. When broken, he was able to identify the priestess as Moire. Unfortunately, breaking that glamour broke the magics that had been keeping him alive. His expedition to Maghdeburg had begun centuries ago, and that time unspooled in moments, and he died.
"So," Brennan says. "That sounds a little like this Tir-related vision I've heard about, with Ben and Corwin dueling. And a little like Brita's vision of Huon under Rebma. I welcome any insight into that sequence, but... is that sort of vision common? An overlooked footnote in my education, or something new?" For values of new involving events centuries past.
Signy looks interested in Brennan's story.
"Rebma seems to be centrally involved in a lot of this. There was the rescue of the Queen, where there was a version of King Random involved. I didn't recognize it at the time, it had a ... feeling like it was Rebma."
She pauses, before noting quietly "Random referred to Rebma as a mirror of Amber."
She pauses, to see what others make of this.
"That's the family legend," says Fiona, sounding not particularly impressed by it. "Random puts more store in it than some of us do. There's clearly some relationship between Rebma and Amber and Tir and events among the three--and I have no firm grasp on where Paris and Xanadu fit in that equation just yet--but the idea that things happen in Amber and are therefore reflected in Rebma are the most simplistic interpretation of the equations.”
Turning back to Brennan, Fiona adds, "That does sound like a reflection, but more in what was traditionally considered the Tir style than the Rebma style. 'Through a glass, darkly', as it were.
"Ah, foot notes then," Brennan says, emphasizing the plural. "Because I think Cameleopardis had two or three visions back to back, but I hadn't thought to impose a category scheme on them. Interesting." Not immediately helpful, but interesting. "I hope to live long enough to visit this sort of confusion on Jasmine."
"And to be fair," he says, shooting a sympathetic glance at Signy, "the image springs readily to mind, given Rebma's reliance on mirrors and the similarities of the city plans. I wish I could remember the layout of Tir-na Nog'th, but I had more important things on my mind at the time."
Fiona lets Brennan close that subject before turning to the news that she has: "Very well. You do all know--I presume Signy and Ambrose do, at least?--that Random is bringing in all of the outlier cousins because of the threat of the Klybesians following the death of Reid? I can relay the news of your good health at this time, but in general Random prefers that we travel in twos and threes. Which may be all that's keeping me from a visit to Mother, so I'm not entirely ungrateful." Through the connection, Brennan at least can feel Fiona's impatience at the idea of visiting Clarissa.
"Is there anything else any of you need to know? Anyone you want to ask about?"
Brennan is having a hard time parsing that. Random is imposing travel restrictions on... everyone? Including his brothers and sisters?
Unbidden, a sequence of images flashes through his mind: The desperate flight from Brand and trek through Tir-na Nog'th, leading strike teams and scout missions along the Black Road, leading an army against the Courts of Chaos, fighting the Eater after it had eaten an entire lake of fire, throwing Huon off a mountain, holding his cousin's hand waiting for a crossing guard to wave them across an intersection. One of those images is incongruous.
Signy looks at Brennan and Ambrose. "Once we're done here, what's the best way to get hold of you?"
"Folly has a Trump of me," he says. "Brita made one also, but I think Celina has custody of it. There may be others." He glances at Fiona-- whether she wants hers to be common knowledge is up to her. "Sorcery can work, too, but I've already strongly discouraged Conner from that route and I'm doing the same now. If I'm going to be sneaking around looking for Moire and generally not advertising myself here in Avalon, I'm not looking forward to disembodied voices striking up a conversation." The glance he favors Ambrose with is mostly amused and tolerant. Mostly. "And I may or may not be available to join you looking for Weyland."
To Fiona: "Just in case she really is or was here recently, any news of Dara? Or Cleph?"
"I'm not sure anyone's been on the far side of the tree in some time. Since Martin and Vere got back Nothing definitive, certainly," Fiona says. She does not like uncertainty.
Ambrose adds, "I haven't heard anything about either of them."
"Making trouble somewhere, no doubt," Brennan says. "Let's hope it's not presently here in Avalon. That would be... messy. I'd ask after Bleys, but he's next on my list of people to call anyway."
Fiona says, "If there's nothing else, I have a question or two for Brennan." That's a hint and Ambrose takes it. "Only my good wishes. Stay safe, brother."
Brennan knows his tendency to come back from the field in various states of bruised and battered disarray. He aims for a self-effacing grin, doesn't quite hit the target, and says, "Worry about the other guy, Ambrose, but thank you. You two stay well, also. And Signy-- if you see your father before I do, tell him I still have a blade to re-forge."
Ambrose nods, lets go of Fiona, and drops out of the connection.
Signy blinks in surprise at Brennan's message for her father, but drops the connection with Ambrose.
Looking over at him, she mouths quietly "Should we go to the wheels and check them out?"
"Yes, let's do that," Ambrose agrees.
Last modified: 5 September 2015