Ghosts Of The Past

Vere nods to himself, then silently moves away from the boat, leaving the looters' fate to be played out.

He swims to a side of the building, watching the priestess, and trying to put a name to the face. Is she someone he remembers seeing among the priestesses of his mother's court, or among the priestesses of Lady's Town?

She seems middle aged, perhaps 30. She seems familiar, but Vere doesn't recall her name.

One at the side of the building he searches it for a place where it can be easily climbed, and then pulls himself out of the water and begins to ascend the building.

One on the roof he stands, and regards the priestess for a moment, then silently begins to walk towards her.

When he reaches her, he says quietly, "How long will you continue this cycle, Priestess?"

She doesn't look at him. "Until I awaken from this dream, I imagine. I am not here, and neither are you, Prince Vere. They are the ghosts of men I killed for violating the law by stealing from the holy temples They are here to remind me of my duty as a priestess. You are here, I believe, to make me consider the differences between my calling by the Goddess and the words of the organization of the church.

"Why the goddess speaks to me through dead men, I consider a mystery to be meditated upon. What lesson do you think you bring to me?"

"Ah. An excellent question. But can a dream tell you anything you do not already know, somewhere deep in your heart?" Vere smiles, then continues, "Consider - why would the Goddess use the son of The Lady as her messenger to you?"

"Ah, am I asking myself to make my own lessons explicit? If I were to be flip, I'd say you represented the fault of not enough cheese before bed, but I'll resist that and answer you fairly, son of The Lady-Who-Was.

"As a man you represent the strengths, weaknesses, and ultimate dead-end that is the hierarchy of the church. You represent the strength of obedience and the comfort of thoughtlessness. It would be comforting to live as a girl or a man, to let another choose my path, to be free of worry and doubt. It's not a thing a woman can do and be true to her calling as a priestess. "

She blinks. "You represent your mother, teaching us that old ways could be discarded if they were wrong, and then throwing out the wrong wrongs."

Her gaze turns to the house, where the looters are carrying out something that's obviously very heavy.

Vere also looks down at the looters and makes a tsking noise. "Look at them," he says, "Scrounging among the ruins, taking what they want, with no understanding of its part in the greater whole. What example could lead men to this? Surely they saw how their leaders remained faithful, and took that as their model? How strange it is."

The hairs on the back of Vere's neck bristle and he turns back to see her floating 5 feet above the roof. She says something in a language Vere cannot quite make out and there is a line of fire followed by a great burst of light from the poleboat. When he can see again a moment later, the priestess is gone, and Vere sees the poleboat, now empty, being poled slowly towards the window.

"I see the priestesses have not changes a whit," Vere observes. "Still leaving in a huff just when a conversation becomes interesting." He leaps from the roof, landing just in front of the poleboat, then pulls himself up into the window the looters had used.

Vere climbs into the building, it looks like it's part of the teaching facility of the temple. It looks like it's been searched, roughly. It's someone's office/dwelling.

From outside the window, Vere hears the looters. "This is it, c'mon... Give me a hand getting in!"

Vere nods to himself, then steps aside to watch the looters climb in. He's interested in what it is they're after, there's always the faint chance that it's something useful, rather than merely a chest of coins or something similar. And if they dropped it when the priestess burned them, then it might have fallen into the water outside the building. So for now he will simply watch.

The two men come in and look around the room, squinting as if it's dark. One points and they move to a heavy sofa, which they move away from the wall. They pull an elaborate tapestry off the wall and expose a niche in the wall. In silence, they begin loading silver and gold plate onto a large tray.

They take it to the window and return. "Are you sure this is right? She told us to get the safe, not to nick the silver!"

"The way I figure, it's us or them, and it might as well be us, right? If we leave it, they'll take it."

The two men return to the wall behind the couch and the second starts carefully feeling along the wall.

Vere walks quietly over to stand beside the couch, watching them.

[The man] finds what he was looking for and quickly opens a section of the wall. The two men begin maneuvering a heavy-looking safe until they have it out of the wall and on a wooden board.

"Wait! We need to cover it up!"

"What? Why?"

"Shut up! So that we're not obviously stealing it if we get stopped when we get away from here."

The first man puts a cloth over the safe.

"Are you sure it's in there?"

"Yeah. My sister told me the witch-queens don't even know about it, but she overheard the priestesses talking about it just before the town fell."

"If we get caught, we're dead men, you know."

"Shut up. Move it."

The two carry their burden to the window and start to transfer it to the pole boat.

Vere follows as they carry the safe, estimating its weight and trying to judge whether it is watertight. He hesitates for just a moment, then smiles to himself and gives a fatalistic shrug. Reaching up and stroking the coloured locks of hair on his right temple he brings the Pattern to his mind, and considers how very, very, VERY likely it is that when the priestess cast her bolt of fire at the looters the safe ended up sinking directly beneath the boat.

The fabric of probability feels ... wrong. Stressed, somehow. It seems as if it would be easy to modify probability in some ways but not so easy in others.

[Game Mechanics note: It's never possible to manipulate the probability that an event in the past has or has not happened a particular way. Probability manipulation is only applicable for current and simple future probability. It works best for simple questions like "will the tent catch on fire" or "Can I find some rope in this room?" Completed events like "did the quartermaster buy fireproof tents?" don't work. Specifics make it much harder, but not impossible. "Is Greyswandir in that tree?" worked. For Random.]

For now, his thought that these poor souls need to be told that they have died and gently nudged on their way to whatever fate awaits them has taken a back seat to his desire to obtain the contents of the safe.

He watches, confident that his scenario is correct, and that when the priestess carries out her execution he will watch the safe fall into the water.

It is momentarily bright as day and then the remains of the boat are sinking. The safe is gone, as is the priestess, and the remains of the boat fade from view before they are completely submerged.

Vere notes the water seems to be slightly higher against the building than it was when Vere came in. The tide seems to be coming in. He hears a pole-boat approaching in the rain.

Vere takes a deep breath and dives into the water, directly where the boat sank. He's going to swim to the very bottom and begin searching for the safe. It was heavy, but not so heavy that two men couldn't carry it, so he should be able to bring it to the surface, if he can locate it.

The water is cloudy but not deep. After a few minutes below the surface, Vere locates the safe, lying in the dirt at the bottom. He feels around it, trying to come up with options. Rope would be best, because there's no clear way to swim with it. Vere thinks he could move it underwater as long as he took regular breaks for air. It would be slow, though.

As Vere tries to find a spot for leverage, he finds that he's standing on the ribcage of one of the looters.

He regards the body for a moment, then pushes himself up and to the surface. He pulls himself in the window, noting the level of the tide, then glances around to see where the looters are right now.

The looters are just putting the safe onto the tray to carry it. The water is below the window, but above what Vere thought was a high-water mark.

Vere feels a familiar mental stirring. Someone is trying to contact him via Trump.

Vere frowns at the annoyance of an intrusion into his plans, then smiles and shakes his head ruefully. He walks carefully around the looters and past them to stand with his back to a wall. He concentrates, trying to bar his mind against any unwelcome attempts at intrusion, and carefully thinks, "Who calls?"

"It's Jovian. I'm in Amber. Bring me through, I have news. My brother is dead." Vere doesn't have a lot of experience with Trumps, but he thinks Jovian is trying to keep a tight rein on his emotions.

"Aye," Vere replies. He pulls Jovian through, and waits silently for him to speak.

For a moment, Vere feels another presence, and then Jovian's arrival breaks the contact. Jovian takes a moment to get his bearings.

"Amber was attacked, by the dragon of Arcadia. My brother died defending his children."

Any further comment he had is interrupted by an eerie, high-pitched keening note from the west. It is clearly audible, even in the rain. Jovian closes his eyes, momentarily. "The dragons honor my brother."

Vere is silent for a long minute, then says quietly, "I never had a chance to meet your brother. I deeply regret this loss." He falls silent again, his mind calculating probabilities while he watches Jovian, then he says, "You were summoned to Amber by someone after the attack was over. There is no immediate threat remaining to Amber, or you would not have returned. Prince Julian has already been informed, or else it has been determined that he is completely out of touch right now. And by the same reasoning you do not see an immediate threat to him or your sister." He cocks his head to one side. "You will need time to think, to consider what your plans must be. Take that time. For now, let us watch and see what may be flushed from hiding by the cry of the dragons."

He moves to the window, for now ignoring the looters, and looks out over the harbor, watching for any signs of movement. Them he says, "When you are ready, I would hear all of the tale."

"Forgive me, cousin. I haven't been out of mental contact with Canareth since he hatched. It was .... difficult. I have an immense headache right now.

"We'll be called back for the funeral in a few days. The tale, thirdhand, is that the fardling Dragon snuck into the Castle and tried to steal Paige's twins. Dae--Adonis intervened, and was possessed, and destroyed himself while hurting the dragon. I don't think anyone else was hurt, or not badly. I didn't stay long.

"I think Dad means to go to war with it. He's sending Robin here to try to learn how to fight it."

Vere turns and stares. "Robin," he breathes. "Here?" Then he masters himself, and once more his face grows calm. "Yes," he says. "I can see the logic of that."

He stares back out at the rising water. "Well then," he says. "We perhaps want to spend less time here than I had planned. Are you up to taking care of a few matters here and now, or did you need to rest? There is a safe underwater that I want, a search of this building for rope is in order. There's also a brief..." he pauses, watching Jovian carefully, then continues, "A brief service I wish to conduct for those who died here. An obligation. Perhaps once we have recovered the safe you can cross the water to Kourin, while I carry out that task?"

"Why don't we bring the dragons in and have them get the safe you want? You can do what you need to while we're doing that. Once you're done with that, we should probably leave. Dragons are bad at 'inconspicuous'. I'll be fine, it's just a headache."

Vere nods. "Aye," he says. "It is time to be done with sneaking. Well enou, then, here is what I suggest. Call the others here. While they come, I have a few words to say over there, " he gestures towards the window. "Once they arrive, we will pull up the safe. I had thought to visit the lighthouse, as I thought I saw someone moving out there, but it will take too long to sneak out there, and once the dragons take to the air then if there is a guard watching it will not be long before they make a report. So, as soon as we have the safe, I would like to make one brief stop by the temple. If the Chancellor was forced to flee so quickly that she did not have a chance to take Robin's ocarina with her, and if she did not know how important it is, then it may have been left in the chambers below. The rising water might then have brought it to the surface. If so, a few minutes observing the pattern of the movement of the water within the temple should reveal if there are any obvious places it would have fetched up. I would like to at least make an effort to locate it. I did promise her that I would do everything I could to do so."

Jovian agrees and his eyes lose focus as if he's receiving a trump call. "They're coming," he says.

Assuming Jovian has no objection, Vere walks over to the window, and stands with his arms out over the water. "Attend me!" he commands. "You who died in flame, who are lost and cursed by your crime and the manner of your death. Hear my words. The Goddess watches over and welcomes all. She has not forgotten you, she has not abandoned you. Know yourselves for what you are, know that you have died. Do not remain here, there is naught but stasis and waste for you here. You have stepped from the cycle. Resume your journey, and seek out your fates. You sinned against the priestesses, and you paid the price for that sin. The crime is punished, go on now in hopeful expectation of what lies before you. Fear not what awaits beyond, for it is the Goddess. Go forth with trust. Go forth with peace. Go forth with faith. Go forth."

The ghosts take no obvious notice, but once they are incinerated again, Vere does not see them come back.

And that is good enough.

[OOC: We need to move to summary on this end to get Vere to the funeral, or have him bypass it. Jovian will be going either way.]

[I'm happy to do the opening of the safe, the search for the ocarina, and the return to Fair Isle in summary, if that's what you wish. Vere will contact Gerard to find out about the plans for the memorial service, and ask whether his father has any objection to Vere giving Gerard's trump to The Lady. He wants to attend the service, but he isn't willing to leave the Isles unless his mother has a certain means of contacting him and calling him back in case of emergency.]

1: Despite Vere's best efforts, he doesn't find the ocarina.

Sigh. Well, the attempt was made.

2: The safe has a lot of coin and a sealed package in it. Does Vere open it? It seems to be waterproof. It has a high-priestess' seal on it, but not Vere's Mother's.

Goddess take it. Vere weighs the package in his hand considering it, and thinking through the probabilities. His duty it to turn it over to his mother. But if he does that, he may never know what it contains, unless and until she decides he needs to know. On the other hand, there exists the definite possibility that some form of curse lies upon it, and that could have... unfortunate results if he were to open it here and now. He could take it to Amber and ask the Princess Fiona to check it for magical traps, but she would probably wish to see what it contained in that case, and then he would be guilty of hiding an important item from his mother, and revealing it to someone else, and that he is not prepared to do.

With a sigh he decides that he cannot risk opening it himself.

3: The return is without incident.

Hosannah.

4: Gerard agrees to the plan to give the Lady his trump so Vere can return ASAP.

Vere explains the plan to his mother, and gives her the package and the coin (coin always comes in handy during a war), describing the building where he found the safe. He doesn't mention the ghosts, as they are irrelevant to the matter at hand.

She nods. She takes all the goods. She says that the package is supposed to be a relic of Ysabeau's, but it was sealed at her death. She will keep it safe.

Ah. Vere will nod and smile, and make a mental note to mention to Robin that his mother is holding a relic of Ysabeau's for her....

She'll call if there is urgent need, and definitely [at a specified and highly convenient time] shortly after the funeral.

"Your father will take this hard. He never is one to surrender anything easily. Take care of him."

Vere nods. "I will do what I can," he says. "He takes it hard that he cannot be here with you, fighting for what is yours."

She hugs him. She looks, he thinks, less frail. Or at least as if she wants him to think so.

As people join Random and Vialle in the private audience chamber, the Queen is seated in an overstuffed chair and Random is speaking to a guard.

"Yes, there is. Send to the kitchen for food and drinks for a dozen. Oh, and send someone down to the B studio to bring up a couple of the big beanbags. If they don't know what they are, they'll figure it out when they see 'em. They're like bags filled with beans."

He turns back to the entering pairs.

"OK, all, that was court. If you're in the castle when I'm holding it, you need to show up for it. The future city elders are all now excitedly in town trying to figure out how to be the most important townies they can be, and we have them going down the 'please the Castle folks' path. They'll want to see royals in town on a regular basis, but it's not like we all won't head down regularly for one thing or another. Any one have any comments on that before we move on to the main topic of this afternoon's symposium?"

Garrett shakes his head. He has no comments, but the King's remarks about going into town remind him that he still needs to go check on the horses.

Hannah doesn't respond to Random so much as she watches everyone else respond.

Folly settles comfortably onto the floor while they wait for beanbags. She's sticking pretty close to Garrett in case she needs to fill him in on anything.

Garrett looks surprised when Folly plunks herself down, but then he grins down at her fondly. As much as he'd like to, though, he still can't bring himself to be that informal around the King and Queen.

"Any particular direction you would like us to encourage the city to grow in?" Conner inquires. "Besides down the mountain of course." Conner grins.

"In a musical direction!" Folly blurts out before she can quite stop herself. She looks up and grins, a bit sheepishly.

"Ba-dam-tchhhhh!" says Random, sounding remarkably like a drummer imitating a rim-shot.

"I think that will happen regardless of our actions," Lilly adds with a smile for Folly. "And that thought brings me close enough to my major concern to give reason for mentioning it." She takes a deep breath and looks towards random. "Music, clubs, bars, shops, restaurants, all of these things are in Xanadu's future. Merriment, like so many other things, can lead to certain people getting out of hand. We need to get a town watch organized. There are numerous other reasons to do it as well. Let's face it, we can't be sorting out every small issue. And while we could simply reassign the watchmen and guards of Amber, that will take time and at this moment, Amber is still in need of them."

Random nods. "We don't want to just assign strangers to police people. I'd like to promote some of the people who are guards in the castle now, both so we can mix them up with Amber's people who we're bringing in and so that they can have familiar faces in Xanadu City. Lilly, if you'll meet with Soren before you go, you can help him figure out who might be good at that."

A single nod of the head is Lilly's only response. She will meet with Soren. Then she will meet with the castle guards. It is not in her nature to simply trust the judgement of others in such matters.

He takes a big breath. "And speaking of Soren," Random says, looking at the man leaning against a wall with a mug of coffee in his hands, "He did get promoted today, because it's important that he not stop making music in order to run stuff. However, his advice is guaranteed to be at least 20% better than mine on most things, so feel free to ask him for it.

"The town will grow like a weed."

Dworkin snorts.

"A nice weed," Random continues, "and almost nothing anyone could do will fail. Up and down the coast and out to sea will be good. Have any of you looked south down the coast? Do that when you get a chance. Imagine it with it's clothes off. The terrain should look remarkably similar to the Great Vale of Garnath. Remarkably. That's where we want to expand."

Seeing a chance to do something useful, Garrett pipes up. "We came in that way, Sire. The terrain is excellent. I know a little bit about construction. If you want, I could scout it to try to plan a layout."

Random shakes his head. "Um, not immediately. We'd be better off engaging the townfolks and the soon-to-be townies, and the soon-to-be-former Castle Amber staff that are soon-to-be Castle Xanadu staff. We may try the other thing later."

Hannah smiles at Garrett, and offers her thoughts to the room at large. "Folly and I were talking a little about this, and it sounds to me you're going to have the issues a boom town has, but it's even more complicated if you're going to move people in on top of that. You've got to get the waste out or buried, and get water in. Water doesn't look to be a problem, so long as people don't decide that's a good place to dispose of... everything. It'd be good if someone could get a plan underway before the boom hits. It'd let us cross a bunch of diseases and rodents and more diseases off our list of things to deal with. Water, waste, food, shelter... and work will come of getting those going?" Hannah shrugs a little sheepishly.

"...which suggests who we oughtta be talking to first about moving here from Amber," Folly adds with a smile for Hannah. "We did a lot of similar things right after the Sundering, though with more primitive technology than we'll have here...." Instinctively she glances at Random, as if she's expecting a meter change and readying herself to push the tempo if she needs to.

"Random, I think Hannah would be an excellent woman to put in charge of public health. It sounds like she has a lot of useful knowledge that would help our city start out right." Vialle is beaming at the idea.

Random looks from Vialle to Folly to Hannah. "Ah. Hannah, what do you think of that?"

Folly turns to Hannah, too, looking half grimly amused and half apologetic.

Hannah thinks silently for a moment, and then shrugs. "I'd do that if I can have a growing paid staff of the kind that helps, and a big stick of the kind that motivates, and lots of time off. And a technology expert, because if there's one thing I know, it's that I don't really understand what the potential of..." she waves her hands around, "this kind of 'electricty' is. I'm happy to be in charge, but I won't always have my hands in it." Hannah smiles. "I've got some other things that need doing too, but if I never see another child waste away, it'll be too soon."

Random looks somewhat confused.

Hannah tilts her head and looks back at Random, trying to figure out what he's confused about, before Conner distracts her.

"I can recommend some of Gerard's staff that would be ideal for such a venture." Conner comments. "Not to mention a few of Folly's docksiders for the implementation. Seeing the problems firsthand makes you eager to head them off at the past. Also, I'd be happy to be scientific adviser on the same time basis you are willing to be Health Minister." Conner grins.

Hannah snorts and nods at Conner.

Vialle says "I'm sure you'll do an excellent job, Conner."

Conner turns a curious look to Random. "Was city planning the intended topic of conversation, or have we strayed from the orginial symposium agendum?" he inquires.

Random opens his mouth to speak, but gets distracted by Folly's change of subject. Or perhaps her smile.

Folly smiles. This was exactly the meter change she was looking for. "Yes, we'd hate to bore our honored guest with civics lessons," she says gently, "if that's not what he came for." She smiles at Dworkin and adds, "And if you really did come to offer a bit of training, I know I for one could use some...." She still sounds a bit awe-struck, like she's been mustering the courage to broach the subject.

"Well, that's not why I came, but perhaps, perhaps. I can certainly evaluate your potential. Do you have a card of yo... Ah, of course. Will you walk me out, Folly?"

Random's eyebrow goes up.

"I am sure Folly would love to walk you out when it is time for you to depart, Master Dworkin." Conner interjects smoothly. "But since you have gone to the trouble journeying here, I really think you should do what you came to do first." Conner coolly glances about the room using every bit of body language he has to ask for quiet from the rest of the room. 'The man has a mind like a magpie and we need to stop dangling shiny objects in front of him if we ever hope to hear what he actually came to say.' That is what Conner would like to broadcast mentally to all his family here present but alas he has never learned that skill. So cool glances and pointed looks to anyone that seems about to speak is all Conner can do.

"Oh, it was no trouble, young Conner, no trouble at all." Dworkin replies.

Folly is already rising to join Dworkin as Conner starts to speak. She looks surprised, perhaps even a bit dismayed, that their resident diplomat is treating their honored guest like an over-sugared child, but she bites her tongue and glances at Random. The message is clear: _I'll back you up on anything you need me to do, but if you don't need me here I'm going to talk to Dworkin._

The slight nod, slightly to the left. Folly always was the face of "Happenstance" and Syd would always bail her out of bad fan encounters, but only if she asked. Her call.

Conner's suggestion eases the look of concern that had come across Garrett's face when Folly started to leave with the seemingly-friendly artist. The thought of her walking away unprotected makes him uneasy. The feeling makes Garrett wryly conclude that he's been spending too much time with Martin.

Hannah turns to smile at Dworkin. "No one wants you to leave yet, tunkasila. Everyone has missed your wisdom, see?"

He smiles back. "'Tunka', perhaps. Toksha ake wacinyuanktin ktelo, Ohanzee."

"Tuki?" Hannah teases with an enormous grin.

He nods. "Your name really doesn't apply, you know. You should choose another one."

Hannah nods and seems to be giving this serious consideration.

For the greater portion of this meeting, Lilly has remained impassive. Right now though, her curiosity is outweighing all else. "Of course we have," she adds gently. "And we are all most interested in the primary reason for your visit. I would hate for you to leave Xanadu without sharing it. Of course if you only meant to step out for a moment, then we are all being quite foolish in our attempts to understand your intent." She finishes with a small, not quite apologetic, shrug.

He turns his grin to Lilly. "I never do anything with just one reason, Lilly. Don't worry, I will take you up on your offer of a demonstration of your art soon."

"I shall be prepared," she replies. She can not decide if the departure is cause for relief or alarm. Rather then fret over it, she simply plays along. It is his game after all. She has to learn the rules before she can plan a useful strategy.

"Are you ready, Folly?" He offers the purple-haired girl his arm.

Random clears his throat. "For what it's worth, you have my royal leave. I'd like Folly to come back here when you're done. And you're welcome to return as well, Master Dworkin."

Folly looks at Random, smiles, and nods, then slips her arm through Dworkin's to accompany him out.

She was probably already planning to come back afterwards: her shoes are still sitting next to Garrett.

Hannah can't just let him go without asking about Wixer, so she slips a little closer and says quietly, "Ya-a-teh el he wonjetah unci na tank wanbli Wixer. Tawa siha sicha owa? Iye wamani?"

[ooc - I had to put that one together so I'll just translate. Thanks to GMCroft for finding me a Lakota grammer guide online. Darn transitive verbs! - "Greetings to grandmother one horn and great eagle Wixer. His bad foot wound? He is walking?"]

[OOC: Wow. It's a good thing Garrett doesn't speak Lakota. He's had a bad enough morning without having to swallow being descended from a unicorn.]

"Iwastegla. Be patient, Sni-ohanzee."

She doesn't look patient.

As Folly, Hannah and Dworkin begin to leave, Garrett looks down, suppressing his uneasiness. If Random's not concerned, then he probably shouldn't be. With a chuckle, he discovers that this is apparently his day to take care of people's shoes.

Looking back to his father, Garrett prompts, "Sire, are there things we can discuss before they return?"

Conner looks vaguely uneasy as Dworkin and Folly start to head off. Then he shrugs his shoulder and the usual smile is back on his face. He too looks to Random at Garrett's question.

Despite all that is happening, Lilly finds herself wondering just how long Garrett is going to go on calling Random "Sire" during informal conversations. But, she suppose, referring to him as Father or Dad or something similar is probably right out. She can not imagine either of them handling that well. That title still most likely belonged to Donovan as far as Garrett is concerned, she decides. Garrett was far more likely to resort to the sort of 'hey you' approach that did not require a name or title. It was how she handled the first several months of her fosterage as a child. Maybe with time they would be father and son but obviously this is far too soon.

Dworkin and Folly depart, and Random looks back at Garrett and the others.

"I hope so. Dworkin isn't really good with things like 'time' and we'd get pretty bored if we waited for him to come back."

Soren says "I have a question, if you're ready for it."

Random nods.

"What, exactly, just happened here?"

"That was my grandfather," Random replies unhelpfully.

"Grand, perhaps," Hannah mutters to herself with a grin. Then she shoots Soren a smile across the room and shrugs.

Garrett shoots his father a look of surprise, then asks with the sudden interest of one discovering a new branch of his family tree, "On which side?"

"Paternal." Conner answers then turned to Soren. "Soren? Have you ever met someone that truly knew his field? Someone so in touch with what he was doing, someone so far beyond you in his understanding, that you knew he knew everything there was to know and yet would never be able to explain to you? Because your mind just doesn't work like his and quite frankly you aren't sure you want it to."

Random's eyebrows go up and he seems to be holding in a laugh.

Conner grins. "Well if you haven't met someone like that, you just did. His particular field of knowledge is the universe. He began to explain what this place was for in the grand scheme of reality. Then he was distracted in rapid succession by Garret's existence and Folly's artistic leanings." Conner looked off down the hall where the pair walked off. "All in all, when Dworkin shows up you just listen a lot and hope for the best."

Random adds, "So he's just like you, except not just about recording. Oh, good, the food's here." In the doorway is a guard with a lot of food. Random gets two round fruits and tosses them in the air, catching each before handing on to Vialle. "Dig in. Floor's still open for questions."

Hannah happily takes food, but before digging in, asks, "What happened in Amber today that led to injuries?"

Garrett glances at Hannah with a slight frown, then turns his attention to the Queen. He's heard the Amber story already and is content to let those more knowledgeable tell it. In a soft voice, so as not to interfere with the explanation, he asks Vialle, "Can I fix you a plate, Your Majesty?"

"Thank you Garrett, that would be kind." She's not quite looking at him, but she's not quite not-looking at him.

Garrett nods and moves off. He's halfway to the food tray before he remembers the Queen couldn't see his acknowledgement.

Random looks grim. "An attack. By your cousin Daeon's grandmother, it seems. It cost him his life. One of the things we're waiting on is a report from the castle. My son went there to take charge."

Hannah blinks and goes still and silent.

After a respectable amount of silence, Garrett speaks up. "I have another question, Sire. I've been thinking about the problem of moving so many people across shadow at once. How did Uncle Corwin do it when he brought those furry troops into the Battle of Garnath?" he asks over his shoulder as he prepares a plate of food for his step-mother.

"He marched them up the vale, which was easy, because Eric was distracted. Pretty much the same as when you all came here, except with gunpowder.

"I'd prefer to bring people in by ship, since we want 'em to be thinking about Xanadu as a new Amber and not be thinking too much about what's over that hill. If Jerod hadn't brought so many pirates back with those ships he brought, we'd've used them."

Soren looks up. "Syd, do you need me for anything else? I have some stuff to finish?"

"Sure, I'll see you down there later." Random grins. "Oh, and don't worry. Folly will land on her feet."

At the food tray, Garrett grins slyly over some mysterious bit of humor he finds in the exchange between his father and Soren.

Random continues, "Anyone else who wants to leave can do so. Anyone who wants to hang here, we'll be here at least until we finish dinner and probably until we figure out what the hell happened in Amber today."

Soren nods and leaves.

Dinner happens.

After delivering the Queen's plate, Garrett fills his own and partakes heartily while waiting for either news from Amber or Martin to return to chew him out.

At a break in the eating, Garrett turns to the Queen and says something he's wanted to tell her for over a week. "Your Majesty, I want to apologize for me mother's tirade. The king and I agreed to keep it quiet until he could tell you himself, but things got out of control. I'm so sorry you had to learn about me that way."

Hannah seems to come out of her distracted eating and thinking to smile over at Garrett.

A second face turns in Garrett's direction as Lilly takes a break from eating. Perhaps this would all work out after all, she thinks to herself. Vialle would not be a bad ally for Garrett to cultivate. Of course that could mean the two brothers being at cross purposes at some point in the future...

Vialle smiles in the direction of Garrett's voice. "It's not your fault, Garrett, and what's done is done. I wish it had been easier on you. But now all there is to do is welcome you to the family as my husband's son." She tilts her head in the direction of Random, or where she last heard his voice, still smiling. "I hope we will come to be a family in truth as the years pass."

The Queen, though perhaps no one else, can hear a small relieved sigh accompanying Garrett's smile. "I hope so too," he agrees, though the thought provokes a twinge of guilt about his own mother.

Conner stacks himself a plate and eats it more for sustanence than true enjoyment of it. "Majesty, I was a witness of today's events in the castle. Are there any details I can fill in for you or will only forensics answer your concerns?"

Hannah's eyes shift from Vialle to Random to Conner and back to Random, as she quickly regains her appetite and eats.

Lilly was rather convinced that there was little more to tell. Still she listened for the King's response. Her spirit was becoming restless though and she was beginning to be overcome with the urge to flee the confines of the palace once more. There was no point in having all of these new abilities if she could not put them to use. If everyone was safe and there was no impending danger, then a bit of exploration would probably only serve to make her more of an asset to the crown in the future.

"I've heard Brennan's version of your recounting to him, Conner. The only question I haven't heard answered is what happened to those kids?"

"If you mean ultimately, they are patched up, safe and presumably sound, and last seen being led by Celina to find rooms here in the castle to rest." Conner replies. "If you mean physically, they are now teenagers where this morning they were toddlers. If we are talking metaphysically," Conner shrugs eloquently. "Their growth patterns have always been tied to the the seasons. Paige would go through months of gestation in days just because the Shadow we were passing through turned the appropriate season. There was no discernable power at work so we presumed it was their Arcadian heritage. Close contact with that sort of energy clearly accelerates their growth. Or perhaps that was the age the possessing entity wanted them at. There was no sign of them visibly aging during the battle." Conner muses. "That is the best answer I can give you, Majesty."

Random nods.

Garrett's gaze sharpens on Conner at the mention of the twins' sudden growth. As he listens and chews, he looks away without focus, as if this new development is rolling around in his head like some block puzzle he's trying to solve. At one point during the tale, he glances at Lilly, but his expression is vague and difficult to read.

There is nothing vague about Lilly's own expression. She is extremely concerned, not just for the children but for Paige as well. Motherhood was difficult enough. Mothering young godlings... that is well beyond Lilly's comprehension. Paige has to be strong, she thinks to herself. For all of their sake.

Hannah almost chokes at the news. She manages not to, though, and swallows quickly. "How is Paige?" she asks Conner.

"Physically well. Cuts and bruises mostly." Conner reports. "Mentally?" Conner shrugs again. "Reeling from the shock like us all but she is still the lioness with her cubs. No doubt she is already planning how to keep her children safe. Having them here in a Pattern realm will go a long way towards that. But if they are anything like their father, it will be keeping them near a Pattern that will prove difficult."

At the mention of Daeon, Lilly takes a deep breath. If only she had taken the time to learn more about him when she had the chance. She might be able to provide some useful information. All she had to share though was an interesting story involving rock people. Not nearly what she would like but perhaps worthwhile, at least to the children. A quick mental note is made to share it with them in the near future.

"There's only so much we can do, but while we have a great, green forest upwards and westwards, Broceliande is currently free of lurking draconian presences.

"Is there anything else? If not the queen and I will retire and I will await word from Amber. Oh, new rule! If you leave the castle, tell someone."

Garrett pipes up. "Sire, I'd like to go riding after dinner, unless you have need for me." He looks around at the assembled group, taking care not to single out anyone in particular. "If anyone else would like to come, you're welcome."

Lilly looks at Garrett, then at Random, and then back to Garrett. Nothing can be decided right now, she decided. Still, it is best to cover all the options.

"I may step out this afternoon. If I do not turn up at dinner, do not be alarmed," she pauses then adds quietly, "I promised to share word of my pattern walk with other family members." With luck, no one would question her further. "If I am around this evening though, I would be interested in riding out this evening, Garrett."

Garrett nods at Lilly with a small, pleased smile. He'd been hoping she'd say that.

She does not, for whatever reason, meet his eyes. Her gaze remains steadily focused on the King.

Random looks at Garrett. "Garrett. We're sorta still on alert here. A huge dragon manifested magically in Amber and tried to steal two children of the blood and only barely failed, despite the efforts of four of your cousins and their collective centuries of magical experience. We're in mourning for your dead cousin, although that may mean black chainmail for the war that I think your uncle will be leading."

Garrett's smile disappears as he kicks himself for his lapse of reason. _Of course this isn't the time, you idiot._ The desperate need to ride -- to clear his head the only way he knows how -- had momentarily overtaken him. He stares firmly at his plate as Random continues.

"You don't have the defenses to go wandering off alone and I can't spare anyone to take care of you, since I don't know what we'll have to do in a hurry. The castle and the town should be enough range for now. And you probably shouldn't ride down since you won't get back by dark."

"Yes, sir," Garrett murmurs dejectedly at the mashed potatoes.

Relief. That is the only word that can describe the momentary look on Lilly's face. Thank you uncle, she thinks to herself. I will owe you yet another one.

Vialle cocks her head and listens as Random speaks to Garrett. "Perhaps you can explore inside the castle this evening, Garrett. I don't even know how big it is, much less what secrets are hidden here. Perhaps you could help me by giving me an idea of the dimensions and the layout, so I won't get lost if no one can be spared to help me."

"I'd be happy to, Your Majesty," Garrett answers, trying not to sound too disappointed. He sets his napkin beside his plate and rises, shooting an apologetic, yet hopeful glance at Lilly. _Lib'ry later?_ he hopes she can read in his thoughts.

If she can, she gives no indication of it. Of course he knows her well enough to assume she will either be there or in the salle.

Assuming the Queen has finished her dinner, Garrett offers her his arm. "Shall we?" he invites.

Vialle takes a moment to find a place to set her plate aside, then rises and puts her hand out for Garrett to take.

Hannah looks at Conner. "Do you have time to show me the way to the infirmary? Do you think Gerard will still be there?"

"If you will excuse me," Lilly says to those remaining (presumably Conner and Hannah). "I have some personal business that requires my attention." She bows slightly before rapidly making her way out the door. It occurs to her that she should seek out someone with a Trump of her father but at the moment, she really does not want to talk to him anymore then she wants to be alone with Garrett. Both situations were inevitable, of course but they could be put off - for now. What she really wants right now, is to speak with Ossian.