Gabriel's Diary
Chapter 2 June 24, 2000
© 2000 Ameer Tavakoli
Or
How I somehow managed to miss everything…
It begins with a walk down the hallway. Somehow that seems so innocuous.
Granted, I have been down that hallway many times before and never thought
anything. Certainly I have never experienced paranoid delusions, nor have
I seen glimpses of things from nearby shadow veils hunting me. But all of
that was yesterday….
Today I am walking down … well, perhaps hallway is too strong a word. A stack
of stones held together by tree roots and vines would be a better description.
While the imagery lends itself more to a forgotten temple than a hallway in
amber. But this Is Amber, and the temple is not forgotten.
I was walking ahead of Gregory. The thought being that troops loyal to Benedict
would think twice before shooting me, the son of Julian might be accidentally
shot if he were seen first. Of course, being the son of Brand doesn't lend
itself to too much respect in the eyes of the guards, either. But that is
all right, they will learn.
However, their training lies in the future, and I must deal with that contingency.
My defensive wards were beginning to ebb, and I decided now would be an opportune
time for me energize them. Now, I know that magic has been unwieldy as of
late, but I was in control of it, so I just ramped up the energy with a little
trickle. I could tell that something was wrong when Gregory came up and began
to rap on ward, that combined with the fact that I had summoned a large tree
instead a small energy field was my first indicator that something was wrong.
While I could have taken the time to figure out what had gone wrong, I felt
that time was of the essence, and so I merely let the spell go. Both Gregory
and I were confused by the way the spell had gone off, but our conversation
was cut short by the sound of gunfire towards the armory. We raced down the
corridor (as quickly as we could given the roots at our feet) … we could hear
voices behind us, but we wanted to figure out what was going on as quickly
ass possible and decided not to wait for backup. As we approached the intersection
of the hallway the armory is in, I could hear heavy breathing. Looking through
a hole in the roots, I could see a silvery reflection, on the other side of
which was a beast that was of the form of a man-cat. It was about to pounce
upon me, but when it hit the reflection (or was it a barrier) there was the
sound of breaking and the reflection was gone. This was the same sound I heard
when I dissolved my defensive spell. Perhaps the origins of what is going
on are somewhat sorcerous in nature?
I asked Gregory if he had ever seen or heard anything like the beast I described,
and he answered to the negative. A very important question I must ask (being
a skeevy bastard) … could I tell that he was lying? I won't press him on the
issue, and he eventually confessed to talking to the cat-beast in the armory
with some familiarity, but I just wanted to know if I knew he was lying then
in particular.
However, time was of the essence; we raced towards the armory door. Upon
opening it, I discovered the body of a guardsman who had just been shot. I
immediately began to do what I could to bind his wounds and heal him, while
Gregory raced to see who (or what) had shot him.
I could tell that binding the wound would not be enough, so I immediately
began to cast a healing spell. As the energies coursed their way through me,
I could see Gregory in the back of the armory having a conversation with someone/something.
I asked if everything were okay, and received a positive response. I then
turned all of my attention to the wounded guardsman. The spell went off without
a hitch, and his wounds healed almost immediately … but the spell was too
strong, and it not only healed him, but also made all of his cells … young
again, and they wanted to grow. As the guardsman actually began to grow in
size in front of me, I seized all of the sorcerous energies available to me,
and began to control that growth and bring the guard back to what he ... should
be.
I could hear Raj and Magni, possibly others outside the door, but I could
not open it for the guard's condition was critical. The spell finally worked
after much effort, and I was letting the guard down and was beginning to release
the energies when Raj and Magni forced open the door.
That was when (again) I realized that things had not gone as I had planned.
My spell not only made the guard grow, but channeling the energies themselves
changed my own form to that of a … ent. I wonder if I had channeled the energies
longer if I would have turned into a tree, or if I had moved as far along
as I would. It was difficult to control the forces to bring me back into my
own shape. It seemed that the nature of magic was such that it wanted me to
be in this new shape. I was barely able to bring my own form back, but even
so, I am changed. My skin is an ash gray and my hair still green.
Not only that, but the room, the door, and the hallway around me had also
succumbed to the change.
I wonder if my hair grows towards the light?
But I digress.
While all of this was going on, I missed the fact that the beast that shot
the guard was in the back of the armory. While it may not have been the beast
which tried to attack me through the reflection … by its description, it is
at least of the same race.
According to this beast, there are three groups acting in Amber. Julian brought
a set of allies in to deal with what Amber had become. There are also the
malicious beasts that always had operated in Arden, but now were acting the
same here, and there is whatever it was that actually invaded us.
Apparently, the fey have made agreements, but all of the agreements are with
Julian, and they do not hold with the rest of Amber. With his death, all of
those treaties are null and void.
One question in my mind is that Julian was able to bring the reinforcements
in extremely quickly into Amber castle. Almost at t = 0. How did he know things
were going to turn in this direction? We also heard that all of the dark fey
were running towards Amber even before things turned bad as well. Somehow
a message was sent out that changes were afoot. If we can find out who and
how that message was sent or perceived, we will be much closer to figuring
out how to fix this situation.
All of the family, i.e., the youngsters got together and had a pow-wow. I
should point out that Carl had also appeared in Amber. Everyone in the city
is completely oblivious to the fact that Amber castle is overrun with enemies.
Again, I wonder how Julian was able to bring in hellhounds and other things
to assist him without the people in the city finding out what was going on.
With all of the elders gone, so far as we know, we decided to establish a
chain of command. The person with the most seniority after the elders is Martin.
We decided unanimously to elect him as regent, and Carl and I are put in charge
of contacting him.
The rest of the family has taken it upon themselves to put the castle in
order. A group of guards in sent to empty the armory of weapons. Search parties
are also being sent out to gather lost guardsman.
At this point, I was fairly confused. Another member of the family (apparently
a daughter of Flora) appeared, and she was escorting Aedan. Giselle looks
very much like Flora except much more fey. What else can I say?
From what I understand, things in the Fey realms have also gone to hell,
bounding merrily along in a handbasket.
I would comment on it, but I didn't really understand anything that she said
about the people or the shadows involved. Not, to be honest, did I really
care.
What I did listen to was the description of what was going on with regards
to the use of magic. Apparently, whenever she uses magic over there, stone
appears. It makes me wonder if the use of magic in either realm makes the
shadows that much close to the other. Depending on where you are in the continuum,
you will make things change and shift.
As Carl and I were headed out to make the trump contact with Martin, I was
dealt a mortal insult by Giselle who said something to the effect that I had
better be tutored in magic or else something bad might happen. If I had not
already turned myself into a tree, I think I would have killed her on the
spot. Considering what had happened, however, I was still basking in the glow
of humility, and perked an ear to see what they could teach me. When Gregory
said that there was nothing he could teach me, that glow went away and I walked
away … confident in my abilities once more.
Carl and I went to his ship in the harbor. The goal was to get far away from
the castle in order to minimize whatever damage trump energy might make. I
pulled out Martin's trump, but just as contact was made, the contact broke
off. Not only was that trump dead, but all of the trumps were dead. The only
other time I have seen this happen, was when someone was using the Jewel of
Judgement. There was no major growth of trees in the cabin.
So the Jewel exists, either that, or something very similar to it is out
there somewhere and … more importantly, someone is using it. As far as I know,
very few people are attuned to it. There is Corwin, Dworkin, and Brand. As
per Dworkin … "apples?"
Carl decided to hellride to get Martin, while I trudge back into town on
my way back to the castle. I manage to get a hold of 25 city guards and bring
them up as reinforcements, and promptly handed them over to Raj to do with
as he saw fit.
While I was doing all of this, I missed the hellride Carl made to where Martin
was.
As I was on my way back to the castle, I also missed the search of Random's
apartments, the finding of the elders, the finding out that that there was
a fight in the pattern room, and I probably missed something else as well.
What I did not miss, were the three trumps that were found in Random's suite.
Aedan gave them to me, and I went into my quarters to meditate on them, and
rack spells. I would like to do a trump reading (with trumps being dead and
all) to see how those three trumps play in accordance with Random (i.e., the
question being when Random was alive, not with him dead).
At around 2:00AM, trumps became active again. I wandered outside, and trumped
Carl to let him know that trumps now work. I then went off into a side room,
and (unbeknownst to Simone) performed a second reading of my trump deck with
those three people tossed into the shuffle to see what these people were in
relationship to Random. I am doing this particularly to see if trump energy
being present if that makes a difference. Brand may or may not be impressed
by this experiment, but I must know if there is an answer.
I shall have Magni be involved (if he is so inclined) with this for two purposes.
1) He wanted to learn more about the powers, especially Trump
2) I could always use combative backup.
I am fairly convinced that the shadow veils are very thin here in Amber castle.
Perhaps this explains Julian was able to move so quickly into the castle with
reinforcements. Whether the veils are also thin in the city is a different
question. As there have been no major incidences that we have heard of, I
suspect the city is safe from all of those influenced. In the morning, I shall
have an appointment with Corwin about the Jewel of Judgement and "stuff."
I then intend to check on my dwellings in the city, and there I shall attempt
to contact Brand about their knowledge of the Jewel of Judgement.
What I do know of the powers and how they effect things so far:
1) Trump energy will cause the plants that are already here to grow, and
move towards whatever is using the power.
2) Sorcerous energy will cause the caster to change form into a more organic
(read plant) form.
3) Pattern energy will cause plants to grow in the wake of the person actively
doing so.
Whether all of this is true now that the Jewel (or whatever it was) did its
thing during the evening … I do not know.
That is something else I intend to examine in the morning.
-Ameer Tavakoli-
aka Gabriel
PS: Last, but certainly not forgotten from the first session: Gerard was
able to employ an incredibly powerful Trump gate that gated him and other
through into my vicinity, and then out. As far as I knew, he could not do
that. I will have a conversation with Brand about this effect (not who did
it) but more in theory, and see if he can tell me how it is done, or how to
go about making it happen.
PPS: Looking at my character, I have the appearance of being a little skeevy.
However, wanting to kill people for being rude seems perfectly justifiable
in my mind.
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