Lance bows his head.  “I think I shall try to tread lightly in such matters, maybe find out more beforehand, try to do better.   I’ll find out what this place near Shadow’s Edge is, since you’re the second person that has mentioned it to me tonight.  Perhaps it’s some kind of destiny.  I’ll try to not start things that I cannot see through.   But your past self, we’ll talk about this, make better informed decisions, hopefully.  All the power in the world means nothing if you wind up hurting those you care about…and I do care about you.  Very much.  I just want you to know that, no matter what else did happen, or will happen.”

  He lifts his eyes, meeting hers.  He smiles.

  “Thank you, Brenna, for everything.  For whatever was, wasn’t, is, isn’t, and may or may not yet be between us.  For all the possibilities, the absolutes, the impossibles and everything in between…thank you.”

  Lance looks around as the silvery glow begins to fade.  The clouds!  He didn’t have long.

  “I have to go…”

He feels his mother focusing on him, sees her image growing clearer, reaching out.  He reaches for Flora’s hand…

"Good, you're back. If you'd tried to stay another 10 seconds, I'd've been mad at you." Flora sighs. "Well, I was monitoring you with your card-- with your permission, I remind you-- the whole time, so you don't have to fill me in. I'll... leave you to fill these ladies in as you will," she says meaningfully, gesturing to Brenna and Sarah. "...I'll talk to you a little later about what you think about what you saw and heard... and how you feel about it..."

Flora walks off, back toward the castle.

  Lance rubs his temples.

  "So, we've got things to talk about, and I have to preface it by saying that none of my family fully understands the Tir, how it really works, whether the visions it shows are omens, potents, glimpses of the actual past or future, or if it's all just things out of our own subconsciousness projected by us.  It has proven, in the past, to be very helpful to some."

  He takes a deep breath..

  "Up there, I spoke to one of my uncles, one long missing.  He intervened just as I was getting some information from one of the castle servants.  They were surprised by my being there, saying that there was a place far from Amber near something called Shadow's Edge, a place where I supposedly rule and seldom leave.  I've never heard of it before..  I was then banished by my uncle and fell through the floor of the castle's basement where the Pattern lays.  That's when my mom kinda screamed.  So, once there I met my cousin Merlin.  We talked about the Grey Men threat, Sarah's quest, and he too mentioned the bit about Shadow's Edge, so I think that may be something very important to learn about and perhaps visit.  Merlin confirmed that he left the throne of Chaos unattended for decades, and other powers have filled the vaccuum and taken over there.  Powers less friendly to peace between Order and Chaos.  Merlin made it seem like he needed someone to find him, and I told him I'd try when I could."

  Lance waits for Sarah and Brenna to process, giving them time for questions.

"But not written in stone. Got it," says Brenna. Sarah nods.




"Ooh ooh what'd he say about my thing?" Sarah asks eagerly.



"Makes sense, I guess... Your cousin Merlin from this Maybe-It'll-Go-Down-Like-This world has some answers, so you want to go find your cousin Merlin in this... universe. Multiverse. Sure, that's logical, I guess," says Brenna. "Because maybe the... real Merlin... will have answers to questions too. That apply to this... univ... multiverse. This is hard," says Brenna.

“Correct, Brenna, nothing set in stone, possibly somewhat distorted somehow.  Well, regarding your Gods, Sarah, Merlin said that he didn’t believe that they could leave their plane of existence without the outside influence of someone like a member of my family or a lord of Chaos.  He thinks it’s more likely that they have been either imprisoned or possibly killed somewhere within their own realm.  We didn’t have a chance to discuss it further, but from the previous conversation with the castle maid she had made mention of some sort of deal that Dworkin had made with someone in exchange for something permanent that ties in with the grey men issue, I have a bad feeling that it’s all tied together somehow.  I don’t know what the deal was, or with whom, but I’ll bet dinner that it was with whoever took over the throne of Chaos for some kind of new permanent boundary line being drawn.”

  With a shrug he continues.

  “Merlin made it sound like he had been rescued, but that it hadn’t been by me, but said that maybe this time it might be.  Again, things might not be a hundred percent accurate, but he is family, and if he’s in trouble I really should do what I can to help him, so it’s on the list.”

  Lance hesitates, gnaws at his lower lip.

  “There was one other encounter, and it regards you, Brenna.  Kind of personal.”
 

"Oh, no!!!" She thinks. "But... imprisoned? Well, I guess if that's the case, at least I wouldn't have to run around a bunch of different magical worlds to find them. Which might be good, because it sounds like there's a lot of those. So... I guess I should travel with you and try to find... a way of finding lost gods. Or detecting whether they're alive or dead. Maybe some sort of magic item? Or maybe we could try to find other worlds that have similar problems, and see how they've handled it?" More thinking. "...Or maybe if we brought your cousin Merlic to my world he could help maybe? He sounds... knowledgeable." (Yes, she mis-speaks his name as "Merlic.")



"Oh, all right, great, let's go find him! I'll help...!"




"Um... that sounds bad. Was it a prediction of my death?"

  Lance nods at Sarah’s enthusiasm.  “I think that finding your Gods will still be difficult, and our best bet is to find their home and work our way outward from there.  There must be clues, or evidence, or a trail of some sort.  Possibly even witnesses.  I think that finding them might prepare us better for doing the same with my cousin.  After all, if Merlin is in trouble, the players are likely to be powerful beyond belief.  We might be running up against an entire House or cabal of Chaos Lords.  Merlin did drop one breadcrumb though, and it was to find the tree near Shadow’s Edge and start there.”

    He shakes his head at Brenna’s question.  “Nothing so dire, or maybe worse, depending on how one sees it.  I saw what might or might not  be a future version of you.  She seemed healthy, well adjusted, probably in her mid-thirties, but people tend to age more slowly in Amber, so tough to pin down the age exactly.  Still very beautiful though.  Well, I asked her if we had ever dated, and she said we had for a while…but she felt that she was not the person I was ultimately meant to be with.  Eventually I left for some place where I ruled and seldom left near Shadow’s Edge.  She said I didn’t break her heart and that there were good times, but she ultimately considered herself maybe a little sadder and wiser about dating an immortal.”

   

"Well... all right, do you know where that is?"


 

"...Oh."

"...Um hey do you two wanna be alone right now...? 'Cause I could go um talk to Flora. Yeah. Keep her company on the way back to the palace."

Sarah hurries off in the direction Flora went.

Brenna remains. "How do you... feel about that... probability-untethered information?" she asks.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:31, Fri 23 June 2023.

  Lance indicates that he doesn’t know where Shadow’s Edge was but says, “Pretty far from here, I guess, but I’m sure we can find it.”

  After the other revelations and Sarah hurries off after Flora, he takes Brenna’s hands in his.

  “How do I feel about it?  Honestly, more confused and unsure than I did when I went in there.  On one hand, it’s great knowing that I did finally ask you out and that we dated and had some good times together.  It makes me feel terrible that things didn’t last, and I really hate the thought that I’d just leave like that.  It makes me doubt if I should have told you, but if I’m not entirely honest with you I’d be in the wrong too.”

  He sighs, “I certainly don’t want to see you hurt, and for all we know the vision there might not be accurate.  I mean, I really do like you, and have been trying to figure out if you feel the same about me.  I really don’t know what to do, other than to ask you how you feel about it? “

Brenna takes her hands back, and sighs. "You know what? It's been a long day. Ask me about this tomorrow."

  Lance nods, leads the way back to the castle. With every step he ran back through the conversations in his head, both the ones from the Tir and those he had had with all the women he currently knew and had ever known.  He hadn’t ever seemed to make it work out, and he was concerned now that he had ruined any chances with Brenna or Sarah by divulging what he had seen in the Tir.

  He wonders if there was some fate before him, if there was someone he was destined to be with.  He was full of self doubt.  Maybe Flora would shed some light when they spoke later.

  They walked back quietly, save for the sound of their footsteps, Lance’s armor, and the sounds of the crashing surf below.

Everything is quiet and awkward until Lance and Brenna arrive back at the castle. Uneventful, though.

(What next? Go talk to Flora now? Get some (more) much-needed sleep first? Talk to someone else? Something else?)

  Lance bids Brenna good night, then retires to his own room.  He strips off his armor, placing it carefully on its stand.  He looks out his window at the moon, mostly obscured by clouds.

  “You couldn’t have given me another hour to dig deeper, eh?”  He asks it. With a rueful chuckle and shake of his head.  “Just enough time to get just enough information to allow myself to really screw things up yet again.”

  He turns back, lays down on his bed.  He’s tired from the day’s exertions, but sleep still comes grudgingly.  He rolls over, sees his armor.  It seems to be watching him, judging him, so he rolls back the other way.  The tiredness finally takes him.  Tomorrow was a new day.  He would have to see what it brings, and what Brenna had to say after having time to process it all.

(Welp, roll for the REST move, I reckon.

Heal the special Pattern Exhaustion damage (double your value of healing) first... if there's any HP gain left over, then fix however much normal damage is left)

  And so comes the dawn, the chirping birds, and a mostly refreshed Lance.

18:41, Today: Lance rolled 4 using 1d4+1 with rolls of 3.  Lance, recovery .  X 2=8
18:40, Today: Lance rolled 8 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 4,3.  Lance,resting .

Lance awakens, washes, dresses, and goes down to the garden to have breakfast.

When he gets out there with his plate, a folding wooden table has already been set up-- Flora is there waiting. "Good morning," she says. She signals a servant, who nods and heads into the castle, apparently to bring Flora breakfast as well.

  “Good morning, mom.” Flora’s presence illicits a smile, despite Lance’s worries about having messed things up.  He kisses her on the cheek before sitting down.

  “Well, I surmise that Sarah told you that I told Them about the encounters up there.  All of them.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on it all…and your council.”

"Oh? I'm not here to tell you what to do, Lance. Honestly, I'm here if you need to vent emotionally. Your next move or two or three seemed clear to me by the time you were done talking to, ah, Other-Merlin."

  Lance nods.  "Yep.  Find Shadow's edge, find the tree there, find and rescue Merlin, Stop whoever is behind the grey men thing, find and rescue Sarah's Gods, find out what this place is that I supposedly come to rule.  Gotta push my emotional attachments back down for now, because it's gonna screw me up in trying to get stuff done.  Right now, love and romance are emotional quicksand for me."

"Isn't that often the way? One ambition sometimes undermines another, even when they're both held by the same person? Eric was a bit like that... Hell, Father, too, now and then."

"...In any event... Did I detect an order of priority in the way you listed those tasks just now? Or am I wrong, and they're not in a fixed order just yet?"

  “There was definitely an order of priority.  Merlin had said that I should begin looking for him at the tree at Shadow’s Edge, so I have to find those things before I can find him.  Now, I read Corwin’s memoirs, but nothing was mentioned regarding Shadow’s Edge, but he did mention Yggdrasil at the midway point between Amber and Chaos, and he also mentioned cutting off a limb and replanting it at the place where he started drawing his own Pattern.  Do you think either of these would be considered Shadow’s Edge, or is that something else entirely?”  Lance asks, hoping that his mother has some insight.

"I think you're right. You can ask Random if you want-- Merlin had much more contact with Random than with myself. But I still think you're right. It makes sense-- the edge of the border beyond which Chaos reigns more than the order that Amber's influence brings. Although I think Corwin's new Pattern changed the... the map... considerably in the middle... Fiona could doubtless explain it better..."

  Lance smacks his palm into his forehead.  "Fiona!  Unicorn save me, I still have to reach her and see if she needs assistance!  I'm days late already, but no telling how long it is there.  I never did figure out the timeflow differential.  Oh man, I really hope I haven't screwed up her stuff, but I have no doubt that she's more than competent to handle whatever it is without me.  Still, that has to go to the top of the list, after talking to Random.  At least a stop along the way to wherever Shadow's Edge is."

"Well, you should finish eating, but otherwise, it sounds like it's time for you to get going soon. But since we're still eating, is there anything else you want to discuss with me while you're still here?"

  Lance smiles and shakes his head. “You know pretty much everything that’s been going on with me.  But I’ve been a boot.  What’s going on in your life aside from your son being a hot mess?”

  Lance listens as they eat.  He didn’t know how long it would be before they had this leisure again.