Time and Tide

Once he's written all those letters, Brennan emerges from his office and sets out in search of Ambrose, if he is still there, and sends another page out to find Captain Raven, letting him know that Brennan is looking for him. Eventually, with the help of the pages, they'll all end up in the same place.

Ambrose probably really doesn't like to 'hang out' there but where the pages find him is in the garden by the gazebo, which is being used to distribute the prisoners from the raid. They're security guards and once they've been disarmed and unarmored, they don't seem like much of a threat. Ambrose isn't alone: Gilt Winters is out there and a bunch of Royal Guards are working under his direction. Ambrose's presence was probably overkill since the odds they could do any sorcery this close to a Pattern are very, very low.

One of the rooms with a window-eye on the garden is open, so they take it.

When he finds Ambrose, and they settle themselves away from other ears, Brennan says: "Well that was certainly an interesting meeting. Didn't mean to spring that whole business about the City on you like that, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized the only way to decide who knew first was as much 'at the same time' as possible."

Ambrose looks at his brother for a moment, clearly gauging Brennan's mood. It's not like Brennan hasn't been angry and pulled God Voice out on him once or twice, after all. He settles on, "It's not a surprise. It was our Father's last work, accidental or not, so it's logical that you'd want to undo it."

"I'd like to think my motives have a little more depth to them than that, but, yes, that's a part of it. I bear some responsibility here-- if I had gone to Oberon directly 500 years ago, things would be considerably different. But I didn't. That is not something I can change, nor would if I could," Brennan says. "But while I recall you keeping tabs on everyone's reactions to the idea, I don't remember you offering one of your own."

"I'll support you either way, but hearing about your other motives does make that easier," Ambrose admits. "I can understand how someone who wasn't aware of the other concerns, personal and larger, could see a line between you and our father: an outlandish trick to fix the universe that would, in theory, leave you in control of some large portion of it." In Uxmali, that sentence would be a circle around an open center.

"Well, this would either reassure people or just the opposite: This isn't going to fix the universe. That was the better part of Brand's obsession, not mine. The worst of it was how he lost sight of the difference between fixing the universe and breaking it on purpose, and that he was willing to murder people for the chance." Usually, Brennan can keep the bitterness out of his voice when talking about that. Usually. Just now, not quite.

He takes a breath to force a more conversational tone before continuing. "Overall, I'd prefer the comparison to Oberon, not Brand. Besides, it's not the right Pattern to fix the universe-- that would be the Primal, not Amber's. Nor, to be honest, am I really even sure any more what it would mean to fix the entire universe."

Brennan turns the conversation back slightly. "Why? Why support me either way?"

"You're my brother," Ambrose says, an eyebrow rising in response to the question. "You've been my patron here, quite successfully, and moreover you're generally opposed to our father's works, and in favor of the king's. You're interested in righting the universe. I think question is more 'why wouldn't I support you?'."

"Ah, I see. It sounded like you would support the idea over your own private reservations," Brennan says.

At which point, there's a knock at the door, and when Ambrose opens it, a page announces, "Captain Raven," in his not-quite-broken-yet best loud voice. And there Raven is.

"Thanks," Raven says to Max, with a bit of a smile. And then she turns her attention to the others. "Ambrose, Brennan. Wasn't so quick that I'm interrupting, I hope?"

"Not at all. Welcome cousin," Brennan says, switching to Thari. Brennan is seated, dressed much as he was for the rest of the day but he's evidently gotten tired of wearing the breastplate. He's taken that off, and it's resting on a cloth on a nearby table.

He waits for Max to close the door and retreat, then finishes his thought to Ambrose, again in Thari. "And if you have reservations, you should voice them. I don't intend to presume your support just because we're brothers and I take your thoughts on the matter seriously." Raven is obviously not Brennan's brother, but definitely included in that sentiment.

Ambrose says, "I don't have an informed opinion yet, but you're a competent mathemagician. I trust your judgement, though if I do the math later, I reserve the right to offer corrections."

Raven has changed out of what she was wearing earlier, into clothing that looks less like it was meant for a diplomatic meeting and then worn through an undersea trip and a tunnel chase in short order, and more like she's prepared to travel. It's clear from the flash of confusion on her face that she's not really sure what having reservations and math have to do with each other, but she acknowledges the request for her thoughts with a nod.

Then Brennan adds to Raven directly, "Who's the page with the familiar aristocratic cheekbones?"

"My brother Max," Raven answers. "Well, half-brother. He and Ma both say he's Lucas's. Don't know how many know that yet, but I'm guessing it's not gonna stay quiet for long if you're spotting that he's family to more than just me that fast."

"I think it's going to get more obvious as he grows into his features," Brennan says. "I won't say anything unless I have a good reason to. And he's a bit young for it, but if he's got the temperament for it, you might want to see about getting him a squireship."

Seeing Raven's confusion, he adds, "The immediate topic was the side project I mentioned at the Gazebo, which you'd expressed some interest in, but Ambrose hadn't said anything either way. Redheads have an analytical approach to these things, since we study them formally. But ask Corwin, Random, or Benedict, and I'd lay odds they'll say none of that is necessary. Moot point, really, until there's a basis for comparison. Except that Brand was trained in that tradition, and Ambrose has the ciphers of his notes, and apparatus-- a set of coding wheels-- he used to cipher them.

"Mostly I wanted to talk about Moonriders before we head back for Fiona's Tower and on to Ghenesh, but as long as I have my brother's ear, there's two things I wanted to ask. Did you catch what Conner said about the Patterns being projects of a design inside the Jewel? Do you think the code wheels might have had another purpose-- searching for particular orientations of the Jewel?"

"I did catch what Conner said," Ambrose says, "and while I hadn't put it together in that way yet, it's not out of the question. I think I want to at least see, if not walk, the Patterns in question. To map them," Ambrose says.

"Mapping them like what was happening with the plates?" Raven asks. "Which would make the code wheels possibly some kind of rutter, or at least a try at making one?"

"Something like a rutter, if not a little more pro-active. Brand's project, at the end, wasn't really about fixing anything, but about re-writing things and I'm not going to pretend I understand all of it. But I'm thinking of it as a potential way to get at an orientation that corresponds to Amber, or as close as possible," Brennan says.

"Sort of like that," Ambrose answers Raven. "But I'm interested in using it to reconstruct the code wheels if, really when, they degrade past usability. But that's a complicated topic and if you're not interested in the Pattern math, probably a very boring one." He looks apologetic, as if it were some sort of insult to suggest the topic was less than fascinating.

Raven shrugs. "And it'd have to be led with getting me caught up on the terms you're using," she says frankly. "Pretty aware I'm still green at all this, compared to most of the rest of you. Not opposed to learning more if it might help with a particular goal," that with a glance at Brennan, "but I know I don't know a whole lot about all these powers and there's some things I still ain't sure what use they are."

"I agree with Ambrose, this probably isn't the time for a math lecture," Brennan says. "But it's also not a bad time for general questions if you've got them. The only one left I have for Ambrose is this: I'm not sure I understood what you were talking about earlier with the Trump suits being related to the number of Patterns. But I am pretty sure about this: unless I am very wrong, Benedict's Pattern in Avalon is fairly recent. Not Xanadu-recent, but I'd guess in the timeframe between Corwin's disappearance and return."

"Why do you think that?" Ambrose is frowning in a way that suggests he thinks Brennan is operating on facts not in evidence to him, or is just flat out wrong.

Brennan's frown is eerily similar-- he takes Ambrose seriously enough that he's re-evaluating all the things that caused him to think that.

"First, a few conversations with people that are too tedious to reconstruct-- Weyland-- or may have been in unannounced confidence-- Benedict-- that I don't want to say too much about. But I'll concede that they aren't ironclad," Brennan says. "Second, I've spent a considerable amount of time in Avalon, now, and I've always made it a point to listen to their folklore and read their holy books when I have the chance. The rough order of eras I've worked out is something like an era of rule by the Gods, followed by the Giants who killed them, followed by the Fair Folk who killed them, followed by the current era of Men. That has eras of rule by Lir, the Witch-King, and the Protector with appropriate periods of small-C chaos between them. Lir was pretty obviously a relative from before Benedict's time. The Witch-King was Corwin. The Protector is Benedict. Talk to different people, you get different versions, but the basic order doesn't seem to change. Granted, drawing a Pattern and making a realm seems to create a history that precedes it. But even in this context it seems awfully weird that Benedict would create a Pattern realm that incorporates Corwin's personal history, complete with the Fall of the Silver Towers... before those events actually happened to Corwin.

"Rather, I always took it to mean that Corwin did whatever he did out in Shadow, then got disappeared into another Shadow by Eric, then Benedict found Corwin's old place or something very like it and made the Pattern realm. Never mind why much less how. That seemed the simpler explanation to me. But if true, it has implications for your theory about the Trump suits and the theory about the number of veils being equal to the number of Patterns. And the thing that it says is: If this only happened a few hundred years ago, how did nobody notice either of those effects.

"So, I don't know. That's why I think what I think, but I don't know if it's right," Brennan finishes.

Raven, who has no particular opinion on the age of Patterns, just listens to all of this carefully.

"I think that makes the timeline tight based on our father's notes," Ambrose says. "Not impossible, but tight. It's difficult to tell in Shadow, if it was Shadow. I think I also need to talk to the cousins who were here before Random drew the Pattern before I come to any firm conclusions."

"That place seems to be one of the Shadows-- while that's what it was-- that just naturally draws Family to it. The Moonriders seem to have some history with the place, too, and I wouldn't be surprised to see more traces of the Very Elders having visited the place. Moreso, now that it's not a Shadow. But be that as it may: What is it that we can do, while we're far out in Shadow, to test this theory? What are we looking for? Changes to our own Trump decks? Get involved in card games and check the local decks?"

"Don't have any of the family cards," Raven says, "but card games are easy to find. If I'm following, it'd be things tied to all this, aye? Cards, but not, say, how many legs are on a stool or how many flags mean what at sea."

"If there are correlations beyond the card decks--which are symbolically connected to the Fortunes--I am unaware of them. And they weren't mentioned in our father's work, at least the part of it I have read," Ambrose explains to Raven.

He adds, for Brennan's benefit, "I don't think it would affect our own personal cards, Fortunes or otherwise. We'd find what we expect to find.

"If the Moonriders use cards, I'd be very interested in seeing their decks."

Brennan thinks about that for an uncommonly long period of silence-- it's clear that whatever literal or figurative math he's doing in his head, he's not really fluent in, probably because it deals with Trumps. "So if I have this right, the suits of the cards in the Fortune deck somehow encodes the number of Patterns, meaning Rebma, Xanadu, and so on-- but not the Primal?-- and that the creation or destruction of a Pattern adds or subtracts a suit from the decks. But just like the Patterns come equipped with their own 'histories,' the Fortune decks do something similar and so a fifth suit would always have been there. And, footnote, just like Patterns project realms into Shadow, the Fortune decks project images of themselves into Shadow as well, which is why four suits are seemingly invariant everywhere we go. But also, those of us with power over Pattern can't just check the decks we have because we'd subconsciously conjure the unexpected suit away.

"Am I with you so far?"

Ambrose nods.

"Because if I am, this becomes viciously hard to demonstrate one way or the other. We'd need to find-- what, someone Real," which term Brennan would ordinarily challenge, but in the interests of brevity, elects not to, "so that we can't accidentally conjure our expectation onto them, but also without anything that smacks of Pattern initiation of their own so they can't do likewise. Which leaves us with who, exactly? The Moonriders, I guess. Maybe Brita's Asgardian ancestors, they're supposed to be descended of Finndo. Same with Daeon's Arcadian side. For that matter, if grandmother has been hanging on to a deck as a keepsake all this time, or Borel or Madoc had one squirrelled away, maybe those would satisfy," Brennan says.

"But here's what still bothers me: If I'm right and Avalon is something that was drawn after Corwin's disappearance, wouldn't all the Elder decks have three suits-- Amber, Rebma, Tir-- because that's what they'd project onto it? I'll still try to find a way to ask Benedict about the timefrme, next time I talk to him. It's maybe not impossible that Avalon's been there since before Eric's birth. But...." Brennan trails off intentionally, to underscore his concerns about this.

"Yes," Ambrose agrees. "Plus there's the complication that the Trumps may be Court cards for the suits, which is implied by something in our father's notes. On the one hand, that suggests the need for growing numbers of Patterns, lest there be too many of us for the System of the Cards--" which is something Brennan can imagine Brand saying with exactly that capitalization "--but on the other, that means we need Trump mathematics to create any kind of theoretical solution." He glanes over to Raven and adds, "So you can see how our father ended up insane."

Raven, who rather looks like she's nearing new information overload at this point, snorts softly at that.

"Right, so step one is playing poker with the Moonriders, and step two is drawing another Pattern for each four cousins and newly discovered Elder who's got a Trump and has taken the Pattern." Brennan isn't entirely serious about the last point because he doesn't stop to count them up and do the arithmetic. "I'm thinking maybe there's more to it than that, but it's definitely a start. And maybe one of the new arrivals has a deck to look at.

"So, turning to the Moonriders themselves, anything in Brand's notes about his dealings with them?"

"You might as well know now," Raven says, "what I know about the Moonriders ain't much. I know what I saw the other night, when the Unicorn showed up, but all I've got past that is what was talked about earlier and some bedtime stories."

"Brennan is, I think, the expert in our generation, or at least the one with the most experience. I don't know if you heard this part, but don't take or give any knives," Ambrose says drily to Raven.

"Noted," Raven says.

"Our father had some correspondence with them, possibly indirectly through someone like Weyland. Not with the High Marshall, but with some other authority in their group. There's a title I haven't been able to decipher yet."

Ambrose takes out a piece of paper and draws a complicated Uxmali glyph. Brennan's best immediate read on it is that it has something to do with priesthood/wisdom/learning, but it could be anything from the Royal Secretary to the High Priest(ess) of the Moon.

Raven's best take on it is that whatever language they're drawing in isn't for the faint-hearted or faint-headed.

Brennan takes the sheet from Ambrose and studies it briefly. "Interesting-- the Moonriders said there's history between Brand and the High Marshal, but were unable to say anything more than that."

He takes another sheet of paper and begins a tracing of Ambrose's glyph, to be certain he has all the details of it, while he addresses Raven. "Okay, here's where I try to put everything I know about the Moonriders on the table, without putting everyone to sleep. The broad sweep of history, you probably pieced together from the Gazebo meeting: associated with Tir-na Nog'th ruled by a Queen we somewhat superstitiously don't name. At some point long before Benedict's birth the Pattern realms had some sort of civil war, and Tir-na Nog'th went from being a place ordinary people could go for a long weekend to being somehow inaccessible and 'out of phase,' which was supposedly in some way related to the destruction of Paris. Then during Faiella's reign when someone-- presumptively someone associated with Tir-- tried to undo that, and it ended up the way it is today. That's the day that the stories of people falling into the bay to their deaths come from. Then much later, I'm not sure who was queen, but recent enough that Bleys was leading armies, the Moonriders attacked Amber and sacked it, before being defeated in detail and exiled to Ghenesh.

"Here is new information that I couldn't manage to get out during the meeting: Not everyone in Tir-na Nog'th fell to their deaths in the bay. Apparently, some of them were trapped there until the sack of Amber." He pauses a beat to switch papers, as he starts to sketch Amrbose's glyph freehand, thinking that perhaps muscle memory will prompt an interpretation that just looking at it doesn't. "Suddenly, many of the confusing accounts of the period of Jones Falls make sense-- they attacked from above because they came from Tir-na Nog'th. They didn't bypass Amber on the way up and attack on the way down, at least not all of them. Most of them were already there. But if anyone at all of Amber descent knew that until a few days ago, it's news to me. And that explains why none of the Elders are likely to be preaching peace, love, and fraternity on behalf of the Moonriders. That surprise attack left a mark. Anyway, that brings us to today, with the complicated plot that revolves around murdering Cambina, possessing Vialle, and bewitching Random and the skirmish on Avalon's border-- the implication I've picked up is that functionally, whatever treaty Oberon had with the Moonriders lasted until his death or the fall of Amber or some such.

"So, here's why they're at least as dangerous, if not moreso, than the Klybesians: They don't have a royal family with power over the Pattern, like we do. But they have some sort of sorcerous initiation which gives them powers over time, whose extent I don't fully understand. One thing I know they can do is send people back in time. They haven't tried it on me, but supposedly it would be very difficult to do to a Pattern initiate, especially one who was expecting it and actively resisting it. It is, however, a really effective way to break up an army, if a tenth of them go missing back in time. And it can be a very effective technique of terror if one of your comrades discovers his own dead body. We saw just that, a few days ago-- one of the Rangers near the steps to Tir-na Nog'th found his own body."

Brennan pauses a beat to let that sink in.

Raven scowls at that.

"Worse, is that they have some ability-- which, again, I don't fully understand-- to pass information back through time to their past selves. Or from our perspective, their present selves are getting information from their future selves. Multiple versions of their future selves, I think. It's as though they get to riffle through the deck of future possibilities and pick the one they like the most. There obviously have to be some limits to that, or we're all just screwed no matter what, but I haven't had a lot of luck probing those limits. Sometimes it's subtle: I'm convinced it's how they travel natural Shadow paths with such speed, by sending future versions of themselves out to scout and make sure they're taking the right paths to get them going in the right direction instead of getting lost.

"Sometimes it's like a grotesque violation of causality, where they send a memo back in time telling theirselves to make a different choice, and suddenly they're in a different place, possibly without wounds you just gave them. On the battlefield, it can be devastating, tactically and strategically. Making a minor, momentary mistake can escalate into a major tactical blunder, then to a strategic failure and ultimately cascade into a loss almost before you recognize the mistake. They're not just larking about with this ability, they've been incorporating it into their doctrine for centuries. I can give a concrete example of that if you want, but it's a long-ish story from the skirmish at Avalon. Just bear in mind that all of these abilities can be applied not just to themselves or their opponents, but to their allies or (I think) to regions of space. So that trick about sending people back in time? They can do that to themselves and their allies to flank you in ways that should be impossible.

"Somewhere in here there has to be good news, right? Well. Pattern has some ability to defend against these abilities, both personally and at a distance. Again, what we hear about Jones Falls makes more sense in this light-- the tales of Benedict holding the pass above Arden against the Moonriders isn't just about swordsmanship or even generalship but, I think, about the mastery of Pattern that kept them from manipulating time during the battle. I can barely imagine doing all three of those at once, but that's Benedict.

"Also, just like us, they lead a lot of foreign troops and Shadow allies into battle. If we run across a column of five thousand so-called Moonriders, they won't all have those abilities. I think Benedict estimated the number of 'true' Moonriders in the hundreds at most. So, more of them than there are in the Royal Family, but some of them will be comparatively weaker, some stronger.

"What I've been doing since that battle is this: It ended with three true Moonriders fleeing the field, in a bid to recruit more allies and come back at us from another angle. To foil that, I had to pursue them. I did, caught up with them, and instead of another fight we settled on my escorting them back to Ghenesh. I'll be honest-- here at least-- that I have two reasons to do this aside from ending the first skirmish of Avalon. First, I want to know where Ghenesh is, because even across Shadow, geography matters. Our Elders, some of them, have a blind spot about this, because our ability over Pattern allows us to ignore it most of the time. But the Moonriders can't. This may not bear fruit, but I'd like the ability to get behind their lines, so to speak.

"Second, I want to see their abilities in practice as much as possible, while showing them as little of ours as possible. I want to know everything: Do they have a horizon to their ability to foresee? How far? Is it different for each one? How can we tell? Is there a breadth limit, meaning, can we explode the number of future timelines past their ability to see them all? Not sure how successful I've been at that-- trying to get information without giving anything away is limiting. They're not cretins, of course. They know exactly what I'm trying to do, and I know they're doing the reverse. But we're all oh-so-too-polite-and-cordial to come out and say it. So I'm all for suggestions here, and I'm all for more observations as we go back farther toward Ghenesh," Brennan says.

He examines the sketches of Ambrose's glyph again, and offers three successively more pithy translations: "They Who Speak On Behalf Of the Moon? Speaker For The Moon? Moon-Oracle?" The middle one is self-consciously in the style of a Moonrider name.

"Possibly," says Ambrose. He's still turning over something, possibly that he has no record of whatever happened between Brand and the High Marshal.

Raven was clearly a little lost during previous explanations, but she's not lost on this one. She nods when it's clear Brennan has finished. "Well, I'm pretty much stuck asking questions that feel like I'm the biggest idiot in the room until I get up to speed on everything," she says dryly, "so I guess I'm happy enough to act the newbie to your experienced hand as needed to see if they'll let something slip. Speaking of dumb questions - there anything that actually says that what that queen and what the rest of the Moonriders are up to are the exact same thing? 'Cause murdering someone, taking someone else over, and all that... that's not really the kind of takeover that you need an army to show up for unless there's too much that ain't right. And the right people have to be around to notice that, instead of off, I don't know, chasing down monks and righting things with folks that used to be allies."

Ambrose looks to Brennan to answer this question.

"Someone once told me that wisdom is knowing when to say 'I got nothin,'" Brennan says.

"And here, I got nothin' but informed speculation. I'm sure that what the Queen wants, ultimately, is to get her realm, her throne and her body back, and the nature of... whatever was done might make it so that 'by any means necessary,' applies. I'm sure that what the Moonriders want is to accomplish her goals and move back into Tir-na Nog'th. How much communication goes on between Queen and Moonriders, and which ones...." Brennan shrugs. "Edan might have a better guess than I do. Whether they need people up in the City to accomplish any of that, or if the group in my so-called custody were just land speculators looking to get in on the ground floor, or what, I couldn't even begin to guess. From what I've heard from the Elders, they're all going to assume they want to be up there to attack us again.

"There do seem to be factions, though. First seems to want to make peace with us. I'm a little cynical to think that's a principled stand rather than a means to an end, but who knows. She certainly seems keen enough to marry any eligible royal bachelor, though. And, having met the High Marshal, I suspect-- I don't know, but I suspect-- that if he has to go through us rather than around us, that's so much the better for him. Must make for great dinner conversation, that family."

Brennan thinks back on something he just said earlier, and asks Ambrose, "Do you think Brand might have worked out a method to communicate with her directly?"

"He claims he was a Living Trump, so that would be a yes," Ambrose says drily. "If he could do what he claimed."

"'Factions' gets at why I was asking, I think," Raven says. "When the Vale got lost in Shadow -- wasn't a man on board that ship that didn't want to get home. But the hows, that was a different story. There were some that didn't have any idea, some that thought the best plan was to find a place to hole up and wait for someone to come get us, and some that were willing to take anything that looked like a way home in the hopes that it'd get us back. Sounds kind of like what you're saying, with the Moonriders, but that don't entirely account for the queen. I might be looking for something like revenge when it's just a matter of who was silly enough to be in the right place at the right time, when it comes to who she's been hanging out inside of, but it does make me wonder if the rest of 'em are on board with how she's going about it."

Ambrose nods his way along Raven's question. "My expectation of the Queen, based on what I've heard of Oberon, is that while she has passions, she also operates on motivations the scale of which we don't entirely comprehend. Maybe the Kings do. The three of us certainly don't. But she's got to be very old and very deep, and not entirely unlike a Dragon.

"Some will follow her without understanding, some will understand part, and some will be afraid of her. In the legends of Shadow, gods may create you, and may be kind to you, but they also bring chaos and destruction in their wake. If we're gods to most Shadow-dwellers, she's as close as we get to knowing a goddess, even though she's not our goddess."

"I never understood what exactly a 'living Trump' was supposed to be," Brennan admits.

"But that's as good a take as any on what the Queen is probably like, especially since her origins-- even moreso than Oberon's-- are somewhat mysterious. Best guess is that she was another child of Dworkin and the Unicorn, but the few who might know aren't talking. Immensely, almost incomprehensibly powerful, and with an agenda that spans ten times my lifetime if not longer. Which, combined with time manipulation and the visions typically associated with Tir, is going to make long shot coincidences and chance opportunities very hard to distinguish from impossibly long range plans.

"For example, let's assume I'm convinced that her plan was always to give birth to herself, as she seems to be doing via Vialle. I'm still not sure if Vialle was the first person she found with the right combination of traits-- Pattern capable, but not yet initiated, and close to a Pattern initiate man-- or if she somehow decided on Vialle decades or centuries ago and then carefully nudged Cambina to be in the right place to help her. Arguments either way, really. I'm going to get used to not knowing, because that's the sort of contemplation that'll drive you to real paranoia if you let it."

Raven snorts at that. "Aye, I can see that. Not really something I was planning to chase too far. Just struck me that getting a woman pregnant on purpose when she's married to someone you have reason to hate, that's a very specific kind of revenge, and revenge plans get out of control in a hurry. And some of those that meant to help you at first start running away when the crazy comes out." She pauses, and shrugs and finishes, "I grew up down dockside. Seen that kind of thing a time or two."

"I grew up with my father's court of godlings and godlettes," Ambrose says. His meaning is clear: same difference. "When a madman rules, or a madwoman, there will be advantages for an enemy. The problem for you is going to be finding them. Is there aught else I can do for you before you go?"

"Any insights on how to probe the limits of their abilities?" Brennan asks. "Either from Brand's notes, first principles, or gut hunches?" That's a question for both Ambrose and Raven.

"Actually, let's put that to the cards as a general question." Brennan looks to Ambrose to perform the reading, since he has a full deck. "How do we best approach Ghenesh to learn about the Moonriders?"

"No ideas on that yet, but I think that might be because I haven't been around 'em," Raven observes. "I'd be game to see what the cards say."

"Very well," Ambrose says. "Let's try it." He opens his own deck of fortunes and shuffles them side to side, a gesture that Brennan finds reminiscent (probably distressingly so) of their father. He does not offer either of the others a chance to shuffle--also typical of Brand.

He lays out the cards in the traditional six-card pyramid.

Bottom row:

The Eagle

Spring

Knowledge

Middle row:

Drowning in Armor (reversed)

Winter (reversed)

Top row:

Striking the Dragon's Tail (sideways)

"Well." Ambrose says. "What do you think?"

Raven eyes the cards for a moment, frowning thoughtfully. "Er... bearing in mind I haven't done this much," she says wryly, with a glance at the other two. "I kind of feel like the top half's telling us what we already know - there's too much danger here to charge in blindly, especially with me not being all that familiar with 'em, and being careful's the way to go. Not real sure I understand what's going on with the other three, though. Especially that one." She points at Spring. "The other two are - well, the past is thinking things through, aye? And the future is some sort of truth, which seems like it'd go with the idea of some kind of bigger picture... Just ain't sure I get the one."

"Alternating between cryptic and obvious is par for the course," Brennan says. "At least it isn't Overlooking the Diamond, again.

"The virtue and the fault are probably clearest. Yes, there is real danger, here, and yes our precautions are wise and worthwhile-- the entire idea of taking this seriously, this ostentatious reconnaissance, bringing along backup... could be any or all of those. It's a card that counsels discipline and caution," he says, pointing at the Drowning card. "And the surface reading of this one is that we're too young and inexperienced to know what we're doing-- which might be correct-- or that a failure to follow our virtue will leave us unprepared. But as far as youth goes, I'm not sure how old First is, but I bet it applies to her, too. In the larger scheme, probably everyone in the younger generations.

"The Past, Present and Future." Brennan shrugs. "The Present, I think, is the sudden proliferation of new Patterns. At least Xanadu, because that's without precedent. Avalon, maybe. I'm five hundred years old and I feel that reversed Winter staring right at me, so maybe Avalon is new enough. And who knows, for Paris, it's both old and new. The other two, I'm not so sure of. All three are conspicuously sky signs. The Mind, and the Truth," Brennan mutters, thinking it out. "The healthy mind always seeks knowledge, seeks truth. At a stretch, I'd say that the current situation-- the end of Oberon's various bindings, new configurations of power due to new Patterns, etc-- makes possible new opportunities. That, in turn makes it possible for the efforts of our minds to lead to the truth. And whatever that truth is, whether we like it or not, will determine how the Fate plays out, whether we've gotten in completely over our heads, or if we can head off disaster."

Brennan makes a non-committal noise in the back of his throat. "Anodyne, inoffensive, not particularly enlightening. Except maybe the part about how First may be caught up in that Reversed Winter card."

He looks to Ambrose, eyebrow up in inquiry.

Ambrose frowns, examining the layout as the other two offer their analysis "I agree with both of your comments, especially the sky signs, which I think are key for the Moonriders. But our father taught me two ways of interpreting the middle row, so I'll throw out that alternate method here: Drowning In Armor and Winter, both reversed, are competing interests. So if we read Winter reversed, lack of experience, as First, and Drowning in Armor reversed, as warranted caution, then perhaps we have an insight into what they think of us: First throwing herself to our side as a hostage, seeking a marriage with Edan, or now another of us, versus the concern that the Moonriders in general hold about us. I would say the Marshal, but I don't think he's wary so much as openly hostile.

"I'm also not sure where the return of their Queen plays into the question of their prudence, but that's almost certainly a factor." Ambrose looks to Brennan to see what he thinks.

"That may cut both ways," Brennan says, referring to Ambrose's interpretation of competing interests. "To the extent we have factions of our own in this regard-- which we do-- they break mostly along age lines. Every Elder I've spoken to at any length on the subject is on the extreme caution side. King Random-- who I haven't spoken to-- might be an exception, since I believe he was born after the sack of Amber and has a standing policy of trying to forgive and let live. But I can't imagine being under that spell has exactly endeared her to him. On the other hand, in the Gazebo, I didn't count noses but there was vocal support for peace, love and harmony amongst us young whippersnappers.

"As for the Queen, how do you mean? From their perspective? I couldn't begin to guess, but it's something we'll have to keep our ears open for, I guess. From our perspective, the plot to force everyone into swearing fealty is probably the one truly unforgivable thing-- that's neither accidental, nor temporary desperation, but a long-term plot for subjugation. It's hard to explain how caution isn't warranted, after that."

"Aye," Raven agrees. She shifts, crossing her arms, and stares at the cards. "If that Winter reversed is First, then I can make sense of that Spring as new blood and new ideas, but then I ain't so sure what that Knowledge is referring to. Them re-learning Ghenesh too? Some secret about it, or their queen?"

"Their Queen has been without a body for--probably millennia?" Ambrose shrugs. "A long time anyhow. Having her present to direct their actions in person, or in a person, may be different for them." He repeats the shrugging motion, and scoops up the cards.

Jerod heads outwards through the castle, making his way to the balcony and the waterfall. The page Jerod had accosted had indicated Martin was in the general vicinity, apparently admiring the view.

Stepping out into the sunlight, Jerod admits its a very nice view, especially with the waterfall, the glinting of sunlight from the falling sheets of water, roaring past.

It's also hard to overhear a conversation, Jerod observes to himself, having spotted Martin leaning against the balcony's stonework. Rebman habits die hard.

"Nice view." he says to Martin as he steps up, leaning on the stonework himself.

"I remember when there was nothing here but the view. Kind of miss it," Martin answers. He has a bottle of very nice whiskey with him, its contents already somewhat diminished. "I didn't drink alone," Martin tells him. "Brennan brought it. We have the situation ironed out between the two of us, if Edan is all right with it. And I think he will be. Did you catch the news about Folly?"

"Some, not all of it for sure." Jerod says, nodding approvingly at news of Brennan's efforts, motioning to the bottle. "Is that available?"

Martin passes him the bottle.

"From the bits I've gathered, we're looking at a potential change in governance. I'd rather have all available details if possible."

"I don't know what's going to happen. She said we're still married, but that was before it was a hundred percent certain she's pregnant. So she's staying here, which she's wanted for a while, and I'm bailing with Lark. I don't think Folly is lying but you know as well as I do how things change when you're not expecting." Martin snorts, like that was funny. "Or when you are."

Jerod swigs at the bottle, noting approvingly the quality of Brennan's choice. Another reason why his sister liked him probably.

He listens as Martin speaks, not saying anything...knowing that given what's happening, there isn't really a hell of a lot that can be said. This is something Jerod hasn't had to face given his relationship with Carina, a connection that has lasted a few decades.

He takes another swig, handing the bottle back. For all the politics and nastiness and ruthlessness of his upbringing, with two parents driven to make sure he would be able to achieve his goals, to survive, Jerod had something that Martin didn't in his youth...certainty of relationships. So to find that certainty and commitment during the Sundering, in a time of chaos, after everything Martin had dealt with prior to that point...only to watch it seem to disintegrate when things were going better...

He doesn't know if he can give Martin advice on how to proceed...so he gives his friend what Jerod does have. Certainty.

"I would doubt that she's lying." Jerod says simply. "Not deliberately at least...but there's lots of ways to lie to ourselves and not know it."

Martin nods, once.

"Listen...there's crap to be taken care of with the Klybesians...that rutter Ossian wants to chase after sounds valuable....so I'm going to tag along to make sure he doesn't get himself killed...plus he actually asked which shocked the hell out of me. Assuming he doesn't get distracted or pulled in another direction.

"And given all the other stuff you've had thrown at you...Marius and Edan and ..." and he blows out a breath in frustration. "You get out here...go with Lark, get your distance. But remember one thing...you need something...you need ANYTHING...

"Call...I'll be there."

Martin balls his free hand into a fist and taps Jerod's upper arm lightly with it. He nods, twice, and says, "Thanks. I'm hoping things will go easily, but--I don't want the rest of Lark's childhood to be like mine was. And I know Folly wouldn't, but the other option is--if the gamble pays off, it could work, but then I'm in the same boat with her, deliberately, that I ended up in with Meg, and I won't do that. So she's coming with me for a while. After that we'll see.

"You were right, though. It's all bullshit compared to keeping the universe running, which is our family. The people are the universe. It's the same thing." Martin shrugs. "And I knew this was going to happen, not the pregnancy, but the rest of it. I thought Lark would be older, but I knew she was going back to him. So it's not like I'm even surprised. It's a shock, but not a surprise."

Jerod's expression is Court neutral at Martin's comment about Folly. Martin knows him well enough to know that Jerod recognized a similar outcome was highly probable. He may be a pushy Prince type, but Jerod's not blind.

"I've been through worse, though. I'll get through this." Martin raises the bottle to Jerod and has another swig before passing it back.

Jerod takes the bottle, collecting another swig and engaging in the now routine back-and-forth of the bottle. "Years back..." he says, and he pauses before smiling a moment. "Crap, it was years back.

"Anyway, years back I gave Folly a little advice...about her being with you and vice versa. The whole there will be difficulties and problems, stay with it, don't go to bed angry...stuff we've heard and said ourselves to others lots of times.

"That time has passed by. And you're right, you'll get through it, you've been through worse. Now though, you've got a few more people to help if you need it." he says. "I mean, you're kinda stuck with me and all so get used to it...and you gotta admit if you only had one person to be stuck with you couldn't do much better than me." he says, with just the right amount of flat tone sarcasm to make it work, looking for the Martin *snort* before continuing.

Martin does, in fact, snort. The corner of his mouth makes a twitch that might be the the edge of a smile.

"Point being...you got others...a gaggle of them were off when you left to see Random...spotted them pretty quick looking to back you up. So when you get wherever you're going, don't forget that.

"By the way...where are you going?" he asks.

"I haven't decided for sure. Somewhere that's safer for Lark than the last place I took her-- you know, the one full of zombies? Anyway, someone mentioned a ship that needs fetching, and that sounds like we could manage it," Martin says.

"Yeah, places filled with zombies aren't usually on my preferred visits list." Jerod says. "The ship...yeah, that's likely to be only a minor way to get into trouble. One of those loose ends to get fixed...which makes me realize how many I've got still dangling.

"Speaking of dangling stuff, since you're going to be disappearing for a bit, is there anything I should watch out for that you might be interested in? Ossian's rutter will be keeping him occupied, but he mentioned about testing out some Pattern skills...so for sure at some point a volcano is going to appear." he says, collecting the bottle to take a swig. "So while I'll be there to give him pointers, and make sure he doesn't totally wreck the Shadow, you never know what might come out of the woodwork when the Pattern starts getting tossed around."

"Well, while we're thinking about zombies: if you get any information about Montage, or whoever is running around with his face, I'd want to know about that. And--I don't think there's anything you can do, but I need to talk to Gerard about making sure Violet is protected. Folly likes her and I'm sure Dad does too--" Martin doesn't even bother not to roll his eyes at that "--but depending on how things go, it wouldn't hurt her to have more royal friends. You know?"

"I'll keep an ear to the ground for the Montage imposter. For Violet, you got anyone in mind who might need to be warned off?" Jerod asks. "Part of me thinks they'd be stupid to piss you off, but we both know the number of stupid people increases in relation to proximity to power and an absence of immediate danger."

Martin's not stupid...he knows that having said what he said about Violet, if Jerod finds any non-Family pissing with Violet when he's around they're likely to end up dead or crippled.

"It's probably paranoia but we haven't found Silken." Martin frowns. "And now, with everything we've learned about the Klybesians, we need to. Before she can turn over any of Lucas' kids we don't know about--or be compelled to."

Jerod nods, also frowning, though more negatively. "Yeah, definitely something to keep an eye open for. I'll be sure to do so. With luck, chasing down this rutter might give us some advantage we can use."

"Yeah, you do that. I'll see if I can't wrangle a card of me in case you need a quick exit. Folly may have one," Martin says, not sounding hopeful. "Or Merle. I'm going to have to get over my reflex to never answer the damn things."

"You and me both. I was of a mind to waylay her here and agree to sit for a card to be made. I think just asking that would shock her into agreeing," Jerod says with a slight smile.

"As it is I'll bug Ossian for a couple, push one your way once they're done."

"That sounds great. But if you're going to get out of here before dinner, we're not going to have time for any of this." Martin shakes his head. "Command performance dinner, without Brennan, to discuss all this with new cousins. I know my father doesn't think things through sometimes, but this is a doozy. I wish I could find an excuse to get out of it."

"If we can't get the card, then we can't get it. We'll work out an intermediary if needed to get stuff passed around if needed." Jerod says. "And yeah, this dinner is going to be real big. You want some advice if you get pulled in to explain the deal? Treat them like you treated us when the Sundering hit.

"Give them enough info so they know they're involved, like it or not...and then let them know they're not alone if they need some help. At that point, they make their own choices...just like we did."

That lightens Martin's expression a little. "Thanks for the vote of confidence. I know I can do it. It's just going to be awkward if Folly announces about the new baby in the middle of dinner too. But I'll get through it either way: nobody is going to die, even of embarrassment. Now get out of here before we get really sappy or something." He offers Jerod a fist bump.

"We're never sappy. We're Rebman boys." Jerod says with mock gravity, returning the bump before heading out.