Place Cards, Playing Cards and Trump Cards

Later in the first week a letter, parchment sealed with green wax and a unicorn head erased seal, arrives addressed to Princess Flora...

Dearest Aunt,

Since the Returning the Castle has become a much busier place. Hence I've decided to take advantage of some options I have and set up household outside the City. Uncle Gerard mentioned several times during the Interregum that yours was a voice of experience in some of the obstacles I've faced here in the City.

If you'd be so kind to join me for lunch at your convenience, I'd be honored. I would value your opinion on some of the decisions I'm found making, and further we can discuss the coronation plans.

Yours,
Paige

Paige receives a return note on Flora's stationery:

Dear Niece:

I will be happy to join you for lunch. Perhaps in two days, at Sext? Let me know where we will meet, and I will join you.

Flora

Paige responds, suggesting the southern sitting room, and two days later is there waiting calmly, sippping at a strong ginger tea with lemon. She's dressed in a simple ivory dress with green brocade bodice and sleeves.

Flora is dressed in a green that sets off her blonde hair and blue eyes. It is not quite the current fashion, nor that of five years ago. However, it will soon be the style if it suits most women as well as it suits Flora, or probably even if it isn't.

"Good afternoon," she offers by way of greeting.

Paige appraises the outfit silently. "You look lovely Aunt, good afternoon," she greets, standing and offering a seat at couch across from her.

"I'm so pleased we could have this time," she begins. "I've decided to strike out on my own, and well, I don't claim kinship by environment, but it seems we shared a common Shadow for a couple hundred years, and my opinions have been highly influenced by my time there."

"I suppose I was a little over-zealous in the library about "the cause", but you hit it right on the mark when you said that I tend to internalize things," she says pouring tea and offering sugar or cream.

"I fear I'm doing much the same again, and you've the wisdom I don't, in so many of the arenas I have to do battle in. I've decided that it would most likely be best if I removed myself from the Castle for a while," Paige says. "And while doing so, I'd like to keep in the good graces of the Court."

"How you'll need to do that depends on how you're planning to defy them, Paige. Moving out on your own could be scandalous enough, unless your father is planning on heading your household," says Flora.

"Yes, I know," Paige agrees, "and he's not."

Paige quiets as servants enter with a few platters of food, and after they've withdrawn, begins again. "I'm going to stir things up a bit more than that, I fear."

"You see, a few days ago, something happened that I didn't think possible. It's a good deal of the reason for my moving." She removes the cover from her platter and looks over her lunch. "It seems I'm with child... children actually."

Flora has also removed the cover from her own platter. "By that son of Julian's, no doubt. My first piece of advice to you is to conduct your dalliances with more discretion. I've heard quite a bit about your romantic foibles in the last several days, Paige, more than a wise woman would be let known about hers. Especially one who chooses to defy convention in so many other ways."

"I'd like to think you haven't heard most of them, but I have had some minor scandals, I suppose," Paige says. "I was never raised to be the daughter of a Prince.

"Although I'd love to know exactly which of the rumors have made their way back," she comments spearing the steamed asparagus.

"Oh, I hear things here and there. Most of what I hear isn't necessarily commonly known, but how I find that out is one of my little secrets. So much better to know gossip than to have it know you, don't you think?" Flora says, taking a delicate bite of her own lunch.

Paige accords her better a simple nod, _Of course._

Her table manners are so perfect, they're almost a reproach.

"But the rumors I've heard say you were interrupted in dalliance with Julian's barbarian son by his father and Prince Caine. Some of them say that Admiral Worth was with them, but I tend to ascribe that to an overactive imagination. I've seen him briefly this week, at Lady Hardwind's, and he didn't seem that kind of broken-hearted."

Paige takes a sip of her tea to cover her slight grimace.

She adds: "And there's the rumor that Prince Martin threw you over, and you made a quite a show of yourself over it, but that's old news, of course."

"Yes, well if that relationship was ever anything it was a study in extremes," Paige comments. "I suppose he was the first relationship where I found a man I could call my equal and the end of it was handled poorly.

Flora smiles at Paige. "I'll tell you a secret, Paige. Never want a man more than he wants you. It saves you so much trouble."

"I've survived those, I'm truly more concerned for the children's place in society than I am for my own," Paige says honestly. "I can endure scandal, but there's no reason that innocent children should have to, not before they can make those decisions for themselves."

Flora spears a bite of her own asparagus deftly, and follows it with a sip of her white wine. "I don't think you're going to like my advice, Paige, but here it is. Don't raise the children in Amber. That's the only way to avoid scandal. Someone will always speak ill of you here, but in a shadow of your choosing, you may do as you like.

"Of course," she says, "that would forfeit your chance of a position in the new regime. Of preferment from King Random, and the favor of his--partisans. If you value that more, you may wish to live with the scandal."

"I value being of service to Amber, Aunt," Paige says. "I didn't bleed these last six years to see it all swept away.

"I suppose we'll have to see what my father has to say," she concludes. "But, I'd think that if I've endured the little scandals over the last few years, I can endure a few more for my children's sake."

"A wise decision, Paige. If it weren't such a crucial time, I'd say leave anyway, but things will be very much in upheaval for a while, and people will be less inclined to find fault."

She takes a sip of her wine. "Actually, it may count for something with those left behind. Given what I've learned about Amber's economic situation in the last few days, I suspect that the Returnees and their money will evoke a great deal of resentment among the Home Guard. The Returnees may think you're been a bad girl, but the Home Guard may see you as another lass taken advantage of by a wicked Returnee."

"You see the schism that clearly defined? We who stayed against those who went and fought?" Paige asks.

"I'll admit, the finances of the situation are going to create some headaches, but I had hoped it wouldn't tumble the class structure. Of course as my cousins have mentioned, there were a few women fighting with the forces in the rank and file. It'll be wonderful to see what happens when they have more liquid capital in hand after the coronation than most residents have had over the last five years combined.

"I think the king just turned his army into the upper middle class. Very Heinlein of him."

Flora sniffs. "I tried to import literature into Amber, Paige, not dross. But I suppose I see your point about the new military class. Maybe he's been studying up on what our father did after the Moonriders sacked the city. I wouldn't have thought we were that badly off, but perhaps the situation below the stairs makes all the difference."

She looks Paige over for a moment. "You're stuck on that women's liberation thing, aren't you? I'd be careful with that. The men in this family are, collectively, against women who don't know their place. And even if they admit a Fiona or a Deirdre to their company, you shouldn't mistake it for an acceptance of corset-burning in the lower classes. One of the secrets of being considered a charming eccentric is limiting the ways in which you flout society's rules. If you want to be a mother out of wedlock, perhaps you'd better consider limiting your feminist advocacy. At least for the time being."

"Yes, the thought had occurred," Paige says. "I figure that any support will have to be silent, at least until I can find the right man to do right by me." The sarcasm wouldn't be lost on Lilly, let alone Flora.

"Marriage was... I suppose is... a consideration, but while I have no problem with the institution, several people recently have advised me against it," she continues.

"There's no point in it," Flora says. "By the time you could arrange anything but a rush marriage, your pregnancy will be obvious. If you'd been a bit more discreet, you could put it out that whoever you chose had been a secret amour all along. I don't think that's viable as things presently stand."

"Actually, I have one of those. Discreet enough to serve but public enough to been believed," Paige offers. "Unfortunately he's probably waiting on the King's coronation to press his suit for divorce."

"What are you planning to do about your association with the Prince's Retreat?" she asks.

"I haven't decided yet, but it will be significantly lessened," Paige answers. "You have a suggestion?"

"Not beyond the discretion you clearly intend to practice." If Flora doesn't think Paige can maintain such discretion, she's discreet enough not to say it.

Paige smiles, _Of course._

"Actually, I was wondering about something you might have heard through your acquaintances on staff there. It actually relates to an area of your own expertise, which is why I thought it might have come to your attention. I understand you've become quite the maven in Amber's courts these past few years. Lucas mentioned something about his mistress being a legal expert, which struck me as rather odd."

Paige looks interested, cocking her head to one side and considering the idea.

Flora takes a sip of her wine. "But I don't suppose you'd know anything about that. A lady such as yourself would hardly have any knowledge of the demimonde of courtesans, of course." The last is as much prescriptive as descriptive, Paige feels. "If someone you knew did, though, it would be an interesting thing to hear about."

"To the best of my knowledge I've never seen her name come across the bench, but Silken is supposedly well respected. It wouldn't surprise me that she might have a head for contracts and such," Paige comments. "My own business dealings with the Prince before I sold it to the membership gave me a good foundation to build on when dealing with the property laws.

"I might be able to ask, discreetly, if there's more to it than that," Paige says, sipping from her own glass.

"Oh, I don't know, it just seemed such an odd boast to make of one's mistress. Especially to one's mother," says Flora with a wicked smile. "One might almost think he was trying to shock me."

"I'd think Lucas more subtle with his barbs and that he'd have better material, after all he's had years to work on it," Paige offers.

[unless Paige has somewhere else she wants this chat to go, I think Flora's done with any serious things she has to say. She can sit around and make idly venomous chit-chat while finishing her lunch, otherwise eot on Flora's end.]

A message is delivered to Conner...

Cousin...

It's that time again. Red Mill Poker game. Martin's going to be back. Relaxation time is in order. Bring your cash.

PS: We need to talk. Diogenes club tomorrow for lunch?

The messenger who delivers the note will wait for any reply. The date for the poker game is provided.

Cousin:

Relaxation is a welcome thing. I'll be there with pockets full.

Conner.

PS: Do we? Then I shall certainly be there for lunch.

A message is delivered to Brennan...

Cousin...

Your presence is requested at a gathering at the Red Mill. Martin will be returning from Shadow and would like to engage you in our semi-routine poker night. Bring your cash.

Jerod.

Brennan dictates a reply as the messenger waits:

Cousin,

I'll arrive with five years of staff officer pay. I intend to depart with fifteen. I'll be there with bells on.

Brennan

A message is delivered to Marius...

Cousin...

Welcome back to Amber. I would request your presence at an evening event at the Red Mill. Prince Martin will be back and would like the company of his peers at a poker game. I would hope that you would be able to find time to attend.

Bring your cash.

Jerod.

The messenger who delivers the note will wait for any reply. The date for the poker game is provided.

Rather than replying with the capitalized Cousin, Marius' reply to Jerod is addressed with the most flattering of his titles, which the player is, alas, unfortunate in not knowing but knows her character would know, or at the very least, investigate thoroughly.

(Your guess is as good as mine - I've never really discussed with the GMs what assorted titles or awards would have been given to Jerod. I've always assumed they would have been nullified during the coronation so I just went with he's got titles and left it at that. The one title I know he does have that comes from Rebma is that he's a Duke of Rebma)

His reply is written in a careful, steady hand.

"I must admit no taste for games of chance. However, if one may be allowed the bittersweet of company unburdened by competition, I shall attempt to make all due amends to Lady Luck by courting her in conversation. May I attend penniless but for those coins which pay for mine and my cousins' drinks?"

Jerod looks at the message curiously, reminding himself to show it to Cambina sometime soon. For some strange reason, he wonders as to whether Marius is Marius.

But after a moment, he sets out a response. It does not include titles.

Marius...

You will find the drinks flow freely on this occasion so you may save your coin if you wish. Your presence is what is preferred more than gold, since we both know its value in Amber. Bring your conversation for your peers. The rest will attend to itself.

Jerod.

A message is delivered to Reid...

Cousin...

Poker night. Red Mill. Bring your cash.

Jerod.

PS: Where are you? You missed our morning sparring practice.

The messenger who delivers the note will wait for any reply. The date for the poker game is provided.

A message is delivered to Ossian...

Cousin...

Hopefully you're not too busy prior to the coronation. Martin will be back and it's poker night. Bring your cash.

Jerod.

The messenger who delivers the note will wait for any reply. The date for the poker game is provided.

Ossian swiftly scribbles an answer:

I'll try to be there, and count on you not robbing me of too much money.

Random will probably want a Trump of you. Would you feel less uncomfortable if Reid did the painting?

Ossian

Jerod reads the note and scowls. He knew this day would come. The one downside of the army winning.

Cousin...

Whoever is selected to down the painting will be acceptable.

Jerod.

Ossian smiles upon receiving the note.

A message is delivered to Vere...

Cousin...

With luck this message finds you in between interviews for your father's health. A bit of relaxation would be in order from your gruelling schedule and the Red Mill would seem to be the ticket. Martin will be back from his outing for the King and requests your company. Bring your cash.

Jerod.

PS: Any luck?

The messenger who delivers the note will wait for any reply. The date for the poker game is provided.

Vere replies:

Prince Jerod,

I shall be most gratified to take this opportunity for relaxation and profit. There are some interesting directions of investigation that are developing. I look forward to discussing them with you.

Vere

A message is delivered to Lucas...

Cousin...

Your presence is requested and desired for a poker game at the Red Mill. Our cousin M will be back from wherever and wants some detox time. You know the drill. Bring your cash.

Jerod.

PS: I'd like to talk about our mutual acquaintance while he's away. Dinner at Herod's?

The messenger who delivers the note will wait for any reply. The date for the poker game is provided.

Lucas will scribble out note, citing a valid time and date for dinner at Herods.

There is one important thing Ossian will do the first week; write a preliminary report on the status of the Trumps.

The report consists of an abstract written in hexameter (I hope to be able to write it sometime during christmas) and a more thorough, but still short main document.

[that's great! Random suggests that he may require all reports to have abstracts written in hexameter]

The major points are these:

One viable short term solution is to equip Reid or Ossian with Trumps/trump sketches, whatever is availible of all the Amberites. All Amberites gets a Trump of the link person, who can then deliver messages. The foremost reason for using one of the Trump artists as a link is that a large number of Trumps of them could be painted in a relatively short time.

In the cases where we have a Trump for the person someone wants to call, the Trump can be handed over.

Reid and Ossian, and probably some more of the relatives can keep up at least two Trump connections, if on the receiving end of the calls. This allows a somewhat slow, but still viable two-way communication (slow since the link has to repeat everything the two talking persons say). This should be used sparingly, however, since it requires all attention from the link. It has not been tried over larger distances yet.

Reid is probably a better choice for the link than Ossian, since more people seem to trust Reid. It is up to Random to decide in the end, though.

The best solution in the short time-span would be to try to collect Trumps from everyone who has one of themselves in the family for the link, and then paint Trump sketches of the rest, then start painting Trumps of the Amberites only availible as sketches. (Thus gradually going to a more reliable system, with trumps instead of sketches.)

The painting of Trumps/sketches could be speeded up greatly if we could get people to stand model when the Trumps are painted, if existing Trumps/sketches were made availible for the artist to look at and if the painting could be done in a shadow with fast time-flow. Bleys thinks shadows with very fast time flow could be dangerous.

The more Trump artists are involved in the project the faster the Trumps will be painted (obviously). Reid, Ossian, Merlin and maybe Paige should be put to work.

Even if everything works to our advantage even painting sketches of all availible cousins will at least take months.

Random wants one trump or sketch of everyone, and a sketch of a room where they're all kept. He doesn't want to tie Ossian or Reid to being the switchboard operator for transferred messages except for emergencies. He asks everyone to find/get/make one and give it to him.

"That room. Do you want everyone to have access to it, or just you?" Ossian asks.

"Heh. Maybe we should put it in a cell in the dungeons. No trump hidey-holes, though. A real room somewhere in Amber. If someone from the family wants in, I can't really stop them, can I?" Random shrugs. "What do you suggest?"

"If it's at the disposal of everyone it might actually be safer. That way anyone entering cannot be sure who is watching. At least if there are a couple of sketches of that room around.

"I guess Vere would say that any single-node network is vulnerable. We need to make copies of those Trumps and hide somewhere as soon as possible."

"I want it to be somewhere I can walk to from the castle trump location outside the gates. We may need more of those, though."

"Somewhere just inside the gates, then? I'll talk to the queen about what room we can set free. I'll fix some kind of guard too, I guess." Ossian says. "I think I could make sketch copies of the castle trump fairly quick. We are still talking a day or two per copy. Sketches of the trump chamber will take longer to make."

"No, basic security. No giving people an easy way to funnel an army inside the walls. They need to have at least one accomplice inside, so we can only be invaded by people who have friends. It needs to be in an outbuilding."

"Ok. Another solution, if we want to keep the chamber within the walls, would be not to paint any Trumps of the trump chamber, except one for you, I guess."

"Talk to Venesch. He's in charge of security. He can help you pick a picturesque spot."

"Outside or inside the castle?"

"Outside. Otherwise it's a hole in the defenses. At best, in the outer barbican."

"I'll talk to Venesch."

He wants to leave the long term until after the coronation. He wants to know if you have an inventory of who we have trump sketches of already and who we need to sketch.

"I have a fairly good idea of who we have trumps of. The question is if they have enough of them to place one in that room. You could force them of course. Then borrowin a Trump or sketch also makes it easier to draw a new one.

"I will have to check with the newcomers, though."

"Well, I wouldn't be comfortable sending people out unless I could contact them. We'll just explain it to everyone and they'll cooperate.

"And Ossian? This would be on page 3 in the Big Book of Kinging:'Never give an order that you're not convinced will be obeyed.' It's a pity, really, that Eric never wrote down half of the stuff he spouted off. It was half brilliant, even if it was the pompous utterings of which all others are but lesser shadows."

Ossian smiles "I have never tried being king. Wouldn't be a good one either, as you may note. When will you start telling people to hand in their Trumps? Or do you want me to tell them?" It is easily told from Ossian's voice that he believes a command directly from Random will be much more effective.

"You tell them. I can't be effective if every command has to be verified personally by me. You should try being King somewhere, sometime. It's highly educational."

Ossian shrugs. "I'll tell them then. I guess you want the Trumps until the chamber is ready?"

"If you are concerned about the people you send out, we should make sure that everyone has a Trump of at least one other person, so they can get back on an emergency."

"Heh. Let's just give everyone a trump of Jerod, that way they'd only call in a real emergency."

Ossian chuckles. "Actually I was thinking me or Reid. Painting Trumps of oneself is significantly faster than anything else."

"Have you seen Reid? Gilt says he took two horses from the stables yesterday morning, but no one has heard from him since then."

"He's gone? I have not seen him, nor heard from him. He is not a person who talks very much about what he is going to do. Brita may know where he is, of course. Maybe Jerod, but I doubt that."

"We'll have to look for him. It's no good, this losing nephews. People will think I'm careless. Does anyone have a trump of him?"

"I have one."

"Try to raise him. I recall something about him investigating missing people, and I'm hoping he hasn't fallen down some rabbit hole while he was looking for it..."

"I guess the chamber can be finished in a day or two. But you will have to make a few choices. Which is most important; a sketch of the trump chamber or sketches of the people we lack trumps of? Or those trumps of me to give to people going out?"

"Start with the people."

"Ok. Do you mind if I drag them out to someplace in Shadow for a day or two to get more time?"

"You'll have to go pretty far to get more than a 2:1 ratio, and some of them might be busy, so work with them, not against them. Nobody can miss the coronation, otherwise, knock yourself out."

Ossian nods.

"Will you provide the trumps of your sisters and brothers?"

Random shakes his head and says "that won't be a problem. We've mostly got our trump decks."

"And for the record. You already have some of us. Me, Vere and Martin, anyone else?"

"Merlin. I think that's it. Check with Paige, too."

"Ok."

[OOC: I have asked before about the deteroriation of Trump sketches. We will need to adjust some of the points above if the sketches don't last for long enough periods. (Are we talking motnhs, years or decades?]

Depends on
1: quality of the initial work (e.g. time to create it. The longer you spend, the longer it will last)
2: skill of the artist
3: frequency of use
4: stress on the trump (e.g. you've been told that they never survive a pattern walk)