Lance digs into the first course with gusto.  It is wonderful, and he says so.  When Vialle asks them to tell her about themselves, Lance gives Ballad a grin.

  "Ladies first, Ballad." he says gallantly, then hanging on her every word as he finishes his salad.

Ballad is very hungry now, the silver apple she ate from the drowned moon’s marsh and the coffee and snack she allowed herself in the city being insufficient. She gives the servants who bring the first course an ardent look, the of look kind to make one feel swoony, make one’s knees go jelly, one’s heart go kerthump — and thanks them in a husky voice. Then she digs right in! Happy. Food!

But, look. She’s an extrovert, and when the conversation ball is tossed her way, she picks it up. “Thank you, Lance. Aunt Vialle, what would you like to know about us?” Ballad is all vibrant goodnature, an undercurrent of gladness (food! food and company!) running beneath. “Or if you don’t know where to begin, why! Please begin with telling us about yourself, and I’ll use that as a model to spin you a tale or three. I like to get to know people, to hear what they think about themselves--there’s a small soemthing about me! My thoughts on the castle... I haven’t had a chance to converse yet with many, but Trent, one of the dungeon’s guards, is a treasure.”

Yes. She'll throw Trent some good word of mouth. Sorry, Lawrence. Ballad wants to keep you to herself for now.

  When Lance's turn comes around he says, "Well, I grew up on Earth, in New York City.  I was raised in an orphanage.  Mom said she did that to hide me from any that might try to do me harm.  I became enamored of fencing and sword fighting, and spent my time getting pretty good at it.  Found my way into the renn-faire circuit, and doing some training and fight choreography for Hollywood.  Mom found me just last night while some grey skinned alien thing was trying to murder me, and brought me here."

  Lance smiles, breaks a roll in half, and adds "Since then Flora took me on a quick tour of the castle, we met Ballad in the dungeons, and we three did a little sightseeing and shopping in the city.  It's amazing, beautiful, breathtakingly wonderful....all of it!  What can I say other than that since coming to Amber I've fallen in love."

  He throws a quick glance at Ballad as he says the last.

"Oh? And why is he a treasure?"




This makes Vialle a little sad. "The Black Road War, and the harm that Brand did Martin, did indeed cause..."

She pauses. "But you are very new to Amber-- none newer, really, I suppose. Are any of the three things I just named unknown to you...? Or do you already have a grasp of such things...?"




Vialle nods. "In your blood, naturally, as a grandson of Oberon."





"Ah. Yes. The gray men. Thank goodness that they did not succeed."




Vialle cannot possibly catch the quick glance, and yet there is something about her face and mouth that seems to have picked up on the implication anyway, presumably hearing something in the way Lance said what he said, because there's a tiny smile that hovers as if waiting in the wings, but which doesn't quite become visible. "...Ah. Yes. Many in the Golden Circle think of Amber as a place where-- with certain huge exceptions-- things seldom change, for many years and decades if not for centuries or more. But the truth is that Amber is a place where can be found... a great deal of vitality and energy."

And she moves her head just a teeny, tiny bit toward Ballad.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:45, Fri 16 Oct 2020.

  "I'm sorry, but I've never heard of the Black Road War, or Brand, or Martin.  The only things I know about Amber and our family are what I've seen today.  I have to confess near total ignorance on who my relatives are.   Mom mentioned something about some infighting that had taken place in the family some years back, but she didn't elaborate on any of it.  The only thing she told me that it was very bad and if put between any relatives' differing opinions to defer to the wishes of King Random.  Seemed like excellent advice, so I swore fealty to him when I met him earlier in the library.  If you'd like, I'll do the same with you, Your Majesty." Lance say earnestly.

Vialle smiles. "The king and I appreciate your trust, Lance." She turns and faces Ballad. "Ballad, what about you? Would you be able to give your cousin a brief history lesson, or shall I lecture for a class of two?"

Of Trent, Ballad merely says, smiling so's her dimple appears (and certainly, Vialle can hear the change in Ballad's voice. Ballad is expressive in all senses, not merely visual), "He's very nice and very helpful and is very dedicated."

Eat eat ea--oh. When Vialle asks Ballad whether she might give the history lesson, Ballad takes a sip of whatever's in her cup, and says, "Certainly, Aunt. But stand ready to sweep in with more detail, if you will. I may have things wrong, and my biases will show, although I'm happy to have them challenged!"

She sounds honest, too. Ballad regards Lance thoughtfully, before beginning.

“Brand is our dead uncle. He was temperamental, brilliant, and — unhappily for his siblings and the whole wide play of shadow — unfamiliar with the phrase ‘too far.’ Or if he was familiar, he just didn’t choose to care.

"Martin is our cousin. He’s Uncle Random’s kid by Princess Morganthe of Rebma. Rebma is the city below the waves, Amber’s closest rival power. As soon as Mars could, he walked the Pattern and disappeared into Shadow. You’ll see, Lance. Shadow is a beguilement. Especially when you’ve just begun walking through it. There’s so much! But I digress."

Ballad sounds inclined to be fond of Martin and ardent when she says how Shadow is a beguilement.

“The Black Road War is the result of a clusterfork of family intrigue, worthy of at least a five-volume set of history. Grandfather abandoned his throne without a word leaving no structure in place for succession, so Uncle Eric stepped into the role of Regent—and briefly King—supported by my Dad, Uncle Caine, Uncle Gérard—for most of the time—and your mother, too. But we are blessed with numerous uncles and aunts, and other factions popped up, like mushrooms on a dead thing. Brand was at first part of one of these, but he struck off on his own—that whole issue he had with ‘too far.’”

“The Black Road cut through all Shadow, slicing inexorably toward Amber from Amber’s ancient enemy—the Courts of Chaos, which wait beyond Shadow. And strange, eldritch creatures travelled the Black Road, monsters and beasts and fell armies. The Black Road caused injury wherever it passed. If you were unlucky enough to live near the Black Road, you bet your last hope it was awful. And the Black Road came into existence because... well, to be honest," and here Ballad smiles, a sizzle-spark of a thing, only touched with self-awareness. "I’m not completely sure. Something Brand did to Martin, using Martin’s blood, which damaged things. And maybe a blood curse spoken by another relation of ours helped speed it along. Eric died fighting for Amber. He was succeeded by Uncle Corwin, who oversaw efforts by most of our aunts and uncles to save Amber and shadow, although by that time I believe some were working in Shadow toward similar ends. I know Dad kept busy.”

“Brand is responsible for our Aunt Deirdre’s death. Uncle Caine, who truly was the most loyal, the most ruthlessly courageous of our uncles, slew Brand. Grandfather died trying to fix what Brand had done—his funeral procession crossed all of Shadow, to the very edge of the Abyss, and all Shadow trembled." (She's a raconteur, a storyteller. A piece of charisma. She can't help but embroider the tale to better suit a telling. Her description of Caine is earnest.) "And then the Unicorn came mincing out of the Abyss, the symbol of Amber’s leadership dangling from her shining horn, and she knelt before Uncle Random and so Uncle Random was named King of Amber.”

A pause.

"Aunt Vialle, anything I didn't get right? Or anything you'd like to add? You were more in the middle of things than I was, weren't you? You and Uncle Random.

"Well, there are others," Vialle gently corrects. "Caine, for example, and Eric, for another, and Osric and Finndo, if one wanted to go very, very far back. But go on..."




"--Ah..." says Vialle. "Another small clarification: You are right that the Courts of Chaos were, and are, Amber's ancient enemy. But I feel it should be made clear that no one at the time knew that, save Dworkin and Oberon. It came as a huge shock to Random and his siblings that anyone else could move through Shadows in any fashion remotely like their own. They had no idea, at the time, that the Courts existed."





"Ye-es," says Vialle. "Brand went to the center of the Pattern, called Martin on a card that Brand had drawn of Martin, and then stabbed Martin that way, instead of just taking his hand and bringing him through. Getting family blood on the Pattern damaged it... and drove Dworkin somewhat mad... In any event, what happened to Martin started leading to many of the royal family who had children hiding them away..."




"More, yes. Although I didn't enter into things, as such, until Eric was dead. Although Random did walk the Pattern to try to kill Eric for blinding Corwin, and he was captured. I asked to join my husband in his captivity, and was allowed to do so. But-- save for what Random told me of his family-- I was not truly 'in the middle' of very much at all until the Unicorn chose Random, and I became queen."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:31, Mon 19 Oct 2020.

  Lance takes all this new information in, wide-eyed and blinking at the rather massive implications of it all.  It was more than just some nasty family infighting, as Flora had made it seem.

  "Wow!  That's a lot of stuff to take in.  Now forgive me if my questions are foolish, but is this Black Road thing still a threat?  What happened to these Courts of Chaos people, and are they still a threat we have to be concerned with?  Also, who all are the rest of our relatives?  My mom didn't have a lot of time to teach me all this, what with the stab wounds and dumping the body and getting me here while trying to not have me freak out."

“Let’s consider,” Ballad muses. “I'll let Aunt Vialle take the question about Chaos, as what I know of it would fill a thimble and I've already used up most of that thimble-full. But I can try and name our kin for you.

"The living relations are Fiona, Llewella, Benedict, Corwin, Bleys, Gérard, Dad of course, Random. Dara. Our generation includes Martin, Merlin, Rinaldo, and anybody else who has been kept in the shadows. I feel as if I’m forgetting some names.”

Nonchalant interest when she mentions Benedict, Corwin, Gérard; keen interest when she mentions Fiona, Llewella, Bleys, Merlin; a wary warmth for Random, fondness for Martin, and she says Rinaldo carefully, as if it were an eggshell between her teeth she must not break.

“The dead are Oberon, and I’m afraid I can’t remember your grandmother’s name but I believe she’s deceased. As Aunt Vialle mentioned, Finndo and Osric died long ago. Brand, Eric, and Deirdre all perished during the Black Road War." Brief pause. "And Caine was killed more recently.”

"It is still a threat, but the forces of the Courts of Chaos have refrained from using it to trouble Amber or the Golden Circle... although it remains to be seen if this business with the gray men is the start of trouble from that quarter."



"A truce was declared. They may be taking steps to break it, or they may not, and the trouble may come from some new quarter."



"...Correct," says Vialle.

  "So, when you say that Uncle Caine was killed more recently, I take it this wasn't some form of accidental death?  Did the grey men get him?" Lance asks, rubbing his belly, thinking of the wound he had recieved.  It was still a little tender, but it seemed to have closed up nicely.  Hearing how blood on the pattern could cause damage, he certainly didn't want to risk anything catastrophic in the morning.

Vialle sighs. "...No. It was more bad feeling in the family, although... arguably understandable. Rinaldo is the son of Brand, and was hidden away-- like yourself, but for a different reason-- until he reached adulthood. Then, Rinaldo killed the man who had slain his father-- namely Caine. Everyone was rather unhappy about it, but it fulfilled old rules about blood vendettas. The fact that Caine had killed Brand, who had-- to some degree-- helped the Chaosites to attack Amber-- Brand, who himself, as his final act, murdered Deirdre-- Brand, who committed who knows how many other acts of treason against Amber-- well, none of it exactly addressed what was the main issue in Rinaldo's mind, which was that he'd killed the man who killed his father... which was perfectly true."

  Lance puts down his salad fork.  It had been delicious, and he was looking forward to the next course.

  Brows furrowed he says, "Well, that might be a tradition, but it doesn't really leave the family in a good spot, does it?  I mean, Brand killed Dierdre, Caine killed Brand, Rinaldo killed Caine...where does it end?  Now if Caine has a child hidden away somewhere and that child kills Rinaldo, well, it just goes on and on, right?  I should think that such things would be outlawed, capital offense kind of thing so that it doesn't just perpetuate itself?"

  Taking a sip of water he adds, "I mean, I get it.  If someone hurts or kills someone I care for, I'd be angry.  Maybe even angry to kill.  I'd expect to hang for it though if I followed through on it, not be excused."

Vialle sighs. "You're correct in your observations, but the situation was additionally complicated by two things: First, Rinaldo was and is the reigning monarch, through his mother's side, of Kashfa, a small Shadow kingdom that is nonetheless a recent part of the Golden Circle... so this was quite the diplomatic incident, and had the potential to get worse. The second complication was that Rinaldo... did quite a masterful bit of plea-bargaining, helping Random and Amber in the struggles they were having at the time... which, itself, were even more complicated, involving the conflict between Amber and Chaos... not, precisely, between the residents of the Courts of Chaos, but the Pattern and the Unicorn versus the Logrus and the Serpent, which are their respective opposing forces in Chaos... Is it complicated enough for you yet...?"

  Lance chuckles, "You almost make it sound as if the Pattern were sentient...wait..is it?"

"For a few weeks, there were signs that this could be true. Merlin, Corwin's son, reported even more evidence that this might be so... There are some who find it hard to believe." Vialle makes a face that's hard to read. "Personally, I am not among their number."

  It was food for thought.  He would have to see what tomorrow brought. "So, my mom thinks that I should walk the line of the Pattern tomorrow.  Something about doing so allowing me to move through shadows.  I have to admit it makes me a little uneasy.  She said that people have died doing it.  Anyone have any tips, because, well, I'd rather not die and all that."

"Not being of the line of Oberon, I have never walked the Pattern," says Vialle. "Ballad? Have you walked it? If so, any advice...?"

“Don’t turn back, don’t stray from the path, and don’t be afraid of a few sparks,” Ballad says. A romantic, but make it pragmatic, at least when she's advising others. “Don’t ask the Pattern to do with you what it will. Sentient or not, there’s no reason to expect it has your best interests in mind. Use the facilities first. Be at your full strength. It’s an ordeal and it’s always good practice to respect an ordeal, but let your heart be easy. As long as you can put one foot in front of the other, you’ll do just dandy, and afterward you'll have more of wonder and self-reliance.” Her eyes dance, and it wouldn't be right to say she's reverent; she is absolutely not. But if Ballad worships anything besides thrills and experience, it's wonder and independence.

A beat.

"Aunt Vialle, what kind of person is Rinaldo? I'd like very much to meet him. And all my relations. But especially the ones who've already been attacked by the grey men and survived. I'm glad," and she seems to be addressing this part to both Vialle and Lance, "the grey men attacked, since it shook me out of secrecy, and so I get the pleasure of you two and this meal, but I can't stop myself wondering if anybody managed to learn anything from their attackers."

"And I'm hoping to visit Rebma. I've always wanted to, since I first learned about it. Do you ever visit? Do you have any tips for how to behave as a visitor?"

"...Charming, above all. Very possibly the most charming person you'll ever meet-- and I expect you to live for thousands of years, or possibly many more than 'thousands.' Rinaldo is amazingly likable. Also clever and manipulative-- and I don't think he'd deny any of those... because he's too charming to deny them. He might not even deny 'conniving,' although he'd downplay it-- no, he'd convince you that 'conniving' is a virtue by the time he was done talking. If there's nothing that Rinaldo wants from you, he's simply a pleasant, charming, gracious, very casually friendly man... although he'll likely talk to you much more if there is something he wants from you. ...Does this help you form a picture...?"



"I don't go back to Rebma often. As for tips for how to behave... Mm, just try to accept that it's a city filled with people, and not the most fantastic, incredibly strange place you've ever been, and that you can hardly believe it exists... It rather marks one as a tourist."

  Ballads advice is comforting, as is her very presence.  It had been a whirlwind of a day. Being attacked, meeting his mother, learning of Amber's existence, suddenly having extended family, many of which sounded wholly dreadful.  And there amid it all was Ballad, so radiant, so beautiful, so amazing.

 "Rebma?  Where's Rebma?" asks Lance, allowing his lack of knowledge to show.

"The gateway to Rebma starts just a few miles from here, at a certain spot on the beach... Rebma is the literal reflection of Amber, a magical mer-kingdom beneath the sea, where the water is breathable and doesn't ruin paper (though everything is quite moist). The castle and city of Rebma look just like the castle and city of Amber, but mirror-imaged. The Pattern below Rebma's castle is just like the one here, but mirror-reversed, although it still works in the exact same way. The layout of the streets of the city of Rebma is the same as here, only backwards, and so on. One of the royals lives there, named Llewella. She doesn't like to interact with the royal family much, but everyone respects that, just as they respect Benedict's incredibly strong aversion to having anything to do with the succession of Amber's crown. Not that that's an issue anymore, with the Unicorn choosing Random."

By now, the main course is served-- some sort of roasted bird, squab or pigeon or something, with a vaguely apricot sauce and a hearty dark bread and honey-butter.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:34, Fri 30 Oct 2020.

  The food is of course delicious, and for the first minute or two there is naught but sounds of satisfied eating.  Finally Lance says, "This is wonderful.  So tasty!  I've dined in some wonderful restaurants over the last ten years, but this is just amazing."

  More eating.

  "So, I suppose I should ask...as members of the royal family, do we get specific responsibilities assigned to us, or is it more of the following of our whims kind of thing so long as we don't do anything to tarnish the family image?"

"No. The king rules. He may appoint family members to positions... but Random doesn't really do that unless the person is willing. The precedent is Oberon. Gerard-- like his brother Caine, when he was alive-- is in charge of Amber's navy, because those two family members did, and do, love the sea anyway. Julian guards the forests of Arden, because that's just in his nature anyway. Fiona is in charge of magical issues because she's got the most talent with such things, with Bleys presumed dead and Dworkin going wherever and whenever he chooses, and doing whatever he feels like doing at those places and times. To put it another way, if there's a job you feel like doing that no one else is currently doing, it'll probably be yours, if Random doesn't think it's too dangerous, or barring some other reasonable objection... So to respond to the final part of your question, yes, it's rather up to you, as long as you don't cause trouble with Amber's diplomatic relations in the Golden Circle."