"Well, ah, the Chaosites have their own, er, corresponding version of Dworkin, a very old Chaosite who's good with magic named--"

"--Odile!"

Odile blinks, and turns. A man Lance has never seen before has come around the corner behind Odile.

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A fiery-bearded, flame-crowned man, dressed all in red and orange, and he bears a sword at his right side, and a cautious sort of deviltry dances behind his blue eyes... His chin is perhaps slight, but the beard covers it. His sword hilt is inlaid with an elaborate filigree of a golden color... He wears two huge rings on his right hand and one on his left: an emerald, a ruby, and a sapphire, respectively.

Odile turns. "Oh, Prince Bleys."

"What the hell is this?" Bleys asks. He mumbles some words and gestures at Lance. "...Oh," he says. "I thought you might be some new sort of Pattern ghost, but... you're created by Tir-na-nOgth, aren't you? How strange. ...Do you... want something...? Or-- have you come to tell us something? To warn us of something...?"

  “The Grey Men, they threaten all.  Where are they from?  How do they fit into Dworkin’s deal?”

  Damn!  This was the man that Flora had been spooked by!  Lance needed answers, but Bleys might just be a block to them.  He knew that Bleys was an amazing swordsman from Corwin’s memoir, so Lance dared not cross even this ghost of him.

"Or are you-- in some other Shadow right now...? This is amazing... I thought that Lancelot spent all his time in that Shadow he rules, near Shadows' Edge..." Bleys frowns. "I'm... not sure what I should say to this... apparition. What it's safe to say... I wish the king were here... Look, if you're really harmless, and not some sort of trick, I suppose I won't be giving anything away by saying that the Gray Men had permission from-- hold on." Bleys gets a funny look on his face, and Lance realizes that it's because someone is calling Bleys right now with a card. "...Who is this? Oh, Delwin, it's you, good-- listen, is this an emergency? Because I have some sort of Tir-na-nOgth spirit here demanding answers to questions, and I'm not sure what to-- Lancelot. Yes, Flora's son." Bleys listens. "Well I can't--" More listening. "I wondered about that, too." More listening. "Ah, about Dworkin's old deal with Chaos, and I was just about to mention that the whole Gray Men thing was because of having perm-- Don't? Really? Well, if you say so..."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:36, Mon 05 June 2023.

  Lance listens intently.  The ramifications of what the spirits of the Tir were revealing in part, they were the kinds of things that shook the very pillars of existence.  If Chaos had an equivalent to Dworkin, did the whole of Chaos have counterparts in Amber, or did Amber have likenesses in the Courts?  Furthermore, Dworkin having possibly given permission for the grey men to have encroached?  Could Dworkin have sold out the family?  Amber?  A shadow that Lance rules?  By Shadow’ Edge?  He’d need to look into all that.  And he was speaking to Delwin?  But Delian was dead, wasn’t he?  No, Delwin was missing, Sand too.  It was Osric and Finndo and Mirelle that were dead.  No time for speculation though, not now.

  “Bleys, listen to me!  The Grey Men threaten all of existence, even Amber itself!  You must tell me their source, who commands them!  You must tell me of Dworkin’s deal!  What about permanent…shadows?” Lance hazarded a guess at the last bit.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:37, Tue 06 June 2023.

"I don't think so, wraith. Begone."

He gestures, and Lance falls through the floor...

(Lance can almost hear his mother screaming, somewhere far below and behind him...)

...Or at least it FELT like Lance was falling through the floor. And yet it also seemed faster and less-real than that. And when he comes to a stop, it's not like falling to a stop-- it feels like he fell from a height of maybe a foot and a half, if that (even for that, it was gentle). In only a second, Lance is... in the Pattern Room, under Castle Amber.

...And yet... somehow, it's dimmer, more washed out-- oh, this is Tir-na-nOgth's version of the Pattern Room.

And Lance is not alone.

There's a man Lance doesn't know exactly, standing next to... a floating circle of light about three feet wide. "I don't know, Dad," says a voice from the circle. "Is this really the only way-- hold on. Look behind you."

The man turns. He's got dark hair, a somewhat slim build. He wears... purple and gray? It's hard to tell with the weird lighting in here. "...What's that? A Pattern ghost?"

"No," says the circle of light. "Or if it is, it's not like any we've seen before. It's connected to Tir-na-nOgth, actually."

"Eh? Why is it here-- Hell, I'll ask it. Hey, spirit. Why are you here?"

  “A fair question.  I’m here seeking solutions to a problem that threatens all of existence.  By the way, my name is Lancelot, Lance for short.   Florimel’s son.  It looks like you’re about to walk the Pattern, so I’m assuming you’re family then?  To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?”

  Lance decides that politeness might count here.  The man looks familiar, but not quite, and his colors are wrong, and the circle of light was odd.  There had been a voice, but he couldn’t see the speaker.  Some kind of gate, perhaps?

"My name is Merlin. This is Ghostwheel. I am indeed family. And so is Ghostwheel. What problem do you seek a solution to?"

  “Merlin, Corwin’s son?  The King of Chaos?  Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty, cousin.  The threat that I’m working as unwinding is the Gray Men, armies of them.  They are killing and enslaving entire shadows.  Do you know anything about them?”

  Lance sketches a bow to Merlin.

  “Hello, Ghostwheel.  Did I hear you call Merlin your dad?”

"Yes... former. My brother's in charge, now... unfortunately. But... if you're in Tir-na-nOgth right now... how is that even possible?"

"It's his armor, dad. And his weapon. They're a little like Grayswandir."

"Ah. Well, anyway, as I was saying... Your reality... is probably a little different from mine. In yours, I might still officially be king..."



"Um. I do know some things, yes. But... well, um. I feel like there's a limit on what I can say that will be useful to you. I'll say this-- in my reality, some of your cousins worked out that there was no point in trying to stop the Gray Men directly-- the key was to stop who controlled them. And, ah... In mine, that person was a couple of people from the Courts. Of Chaos, I mean. Um... How long since you first walked the Pattern, Lance? You have, right?"



"Yes, that's right," says Ghostwheel. Whatever Ghostwheel is, it seems a little shy suddenly.

  Lance nods. “I first walked the pattern around two weeks ago, Amber time, and just again yesterday.  I figure our realities might be a bit different, but not drastically so.  Word is that you might be MIA.  I can see what I can do about that, if you like.  You  didn’t abdicate, did you?  Was it a coup?”

Merlin sighs. "...It has been pointed out to me-- more than once-- that I have been-- the descriptors range from 'lax' to 'incredibly irresponsible' --in my expectations of what would happen if I left the Courts of Chaos on the back burner for as long as I did. I don't have nearly as much to say in my defense as I would like. So, I mean, I didn't officially abdicate, but is it really a coup if you leave the place you're ruling and don't come back or even communicate for decades? When the people you're supposed to be in charge of think you're way too much of a bleeding-heart peacenik in the first place, I guess I shouldn't have needed a crystal ball. I don't know. I've been through everything I could say already, and don't feel like doing it now. But yeah, in my reality, the Gray Men threat was pretty minor compared to the way things are now. If you feel like it, Lancelot, maybe you should come find me in your reality. It wasn't you who came and got me in mine, but it could be if you feel like it. Maybe things would turn out better. Although maybe they'd turn out the same. Start by finding the big tree that marks Shadows' Edge, and you can go from there--"

A mental voice sounds in Lance's head. "Lance?" It's Flora. "Cloud bank coming in from the east. You've got time, but you no longer have all night."

  "As soon as I have a chance, I'll come looking for you.  Easier now that I have a face and a starting point.  Got a few other things up first though.  I have a friend, Sarah, that I'm helping quest to find the gods of her world.  They all seem to have vanished.  That's up first, followed by helping Fiona with something in a desert cave.  Don't know what that's all about, though, but I expect it's gray man oriented.  I don't expect you know anything about those two bits, eh?  By the way, I have clouds coming in, so if I vanish suddenly that's why, it's not me being rude."

  With time growing short, Lance didn't think he was likely to find out anything about his romantic life, but maybe...if he hurried.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:38, Sat 10 June 2023.

"I don't know anything about your friend Sarah, but I can tell you that godlike beings in Shadows can almost never actually leave them... That takes a Chaosite, or a royal Amberite, or help from one of those two groups. Sounds more to me like your friends' gods are probably hiding, dead, or imprisoned somewhere in their own Shadow, if you ask me... Although if destiny has led you and this Sarah's paths to cross, it sounds to me like either she needs you to learn the truth, or else she needs you to take her traveling so she can get the wisdom she needs to find out the truth for herself...

As for Fiona and the Gray Men... meh, if your reality is anything like mine turned out to be, I suspect that as long as you don't let them actually kill you, I think you'll find that the Gray Men aren't really the problem you think they are. They're just pawns in a larger game..."

  “Thanks, Merlin.  Hey, before I go, I don’t suppose you have any trumps you could spare, like of you, or the Courts, or Amber, or anything like that?  There seems a genuine lack of them about these days.” Lance asks hopefully.

  He didn’t know if he had time to look for the answers to the question or his love life, but he wanted to try once he was concluded with his cousin and whatever Ghostwheel was.

Merlin raises an eyebrow. "Sorry, friend, I've learned not to loan those out unless someone's falling off a cliff or something..."

"It seems to me that you have at least six relatives that can draw the family cards," Ghostwheel tells Lance. "Maybe you should trade favors with one of them in exchange for drawing you some?"

  “Six?  Wow, I thought that only Fiona and Jade knew how to do that.  Well, that’s family for you, right.  Secrets wrapped in mystery, wrapped in mistrust.  Anyway, thanks again, Merlin.  I’ll work on sorting this all out and find you as soon as I can.  Take care.”

  Lance waves and tries to head upstairs.  Hopefully he could make it to his own room and maybe get an idea of who’s been sleeping in his bed, or might be in the future.

"Then you most likely haven't met the others yet," says Ghostwheel.



Lance leaves the Pattern room... and encounters the guard at the desk near the stairs...

It's Brenna. "...Lance!" she says, astonished. She looks older... like, 35ish? Still good, but different...

  Lance stops, surprised to find Brenna here, guarding the stair.  It is among the most solitary of posts that the guards in Amber have, and Lance becomes concerned as to why she appears here.

  "Brenna?  How...how are you?  What brings you to this post?"

"I grew up on an asteroid in deep space. Being down here doesn't bother me like it does the others. Is that what you meant? Why are you... blurry? Except for your armor...?"

  Lance smiles. “Kind of a long story and being here right now I’m really short on time.  In a nutshell, I’m me, from another point in time, so the things I should remember I don’t know yet…so, I need to ask you… have we, you know, dated or anything?”
This message was last edited by the player at 17:35, Mon 19 June 2023.

"Um... yes. For a while. Then we didn't. ...Maybe I shouldn't have told you that. Or maybe I... This is weird."

  Lance shakes his head.  "It's okay to tell me.  I'm trying to figure out if I should ask you out, you know, in what would be the past for you, the future for me.  I mean, there's a lot to consider.  I just don't want to mess up your life or make things bad for you, but I really like you, and you're really smart, and nice, and beautiful...and we've been through a lot together.  It's weird, you know?  I'm not afraid of facing down an army of grey me, or zenomorphs, or T-rexes...but because I don't want to mess up your life or make things awkward between us, I'm kinda terrified of asking you out...so any advice you'd like to give me would be welcomed."

"Oh, Lance..." Brenna sighs. "This is so like you." She sighs again. "I mean, I don't want to make a chronal paradox or something, but I guess we've maybe already started, so... Um... I dunno. There were some nice times, but I think maybe you're... meant... for someone else, romantically? You... well, a few years ago, you went looking for a Shadow of your own, and... you don't come back very much-- really, you don't even leave it much... anymore. I'm pretty sure you might have found someone there. That's the thing about... the royal family... Sooner or later, you all realize that you have the power to just go looking for-- or making? --the kind of world I mean Shadow I guess that's perfect for you, personally... And then you find it... some of you get tired of it after a few decades, or centuries, and some of you don't seem to, so much. I don't know if I can blame you. Any of you. Maybe I'd be the same way. But... I mean... someday I'll be dead... and you'll still look twenty-something, then, I think..."

  Lance listens intently.  When Brenna finishes he says, “Three questions, Brenna.  First, did I wind up breaking your heart?  Because you know, I don’t want to do that. Second, if you could go back in time, would you do it all over again, or would you see it changed?  Third, if you could change anything about us, what would you change?”

"...First... I don't... I wouldn't say that, no. I was left... sad, for a time, but wiser. Second... wow... I... um... I don't know. I just don't know. Third... I... I just don't know. I don't know if there should have been an 'us' or not. There's not right now, after all... I'm afraid that's all I can see right now."