Animal Crackers

The personal diary of Darig, son of Corwin

I return to House Petrus and sleep a deep and dreamless sleep. I breakfast with Nico and discuss our plans. I need to attend House Aesir as I have a debt to pay to Agneta of the Golden Hair. There is a message inviting me to a reception at House Zigo, Nico suggests that she should advise me on making an invitation to an escort for the evening suggesting that she does not think that it should be her. I decide upon Belissa Minobee of Hendrake. With Nico's help draft an invitation and notice that she does not seem to think much of House Zigo as they did not fight in the battle. I consider if a workout is worth the effort before going to Aesir, which will probably be workout enough.

I have just called Coprolith when Mandor is announced. He is carrying a sword-length box and wishes to talk in private. A meeting room is arranged and we settle down. The box, unsurprisingly, contains the strange rapier from last night, he advises me not to touch it as it is primed to seek Amber blood. This shows that the creature that wielded it last night was not a lord of Chaos as they would have been able to control the timing of this aspect as opposed to it just following the nearest part of my body.

He says that I should keep the sword, as it is the only spoils of a fight in which I was victor. His researches have discovered more about the sword but in return for this information he would like the precise wording of the poem that was recited at the coronation: he has, it seems, never been able to get a definitive version ether due to imperfect memories or refusal. I supply the information but changing a word, just in case it ever comes back to me. The Norns apparently, though a traditional part of the Chaos Coronation, had been instructed to keep their predictions favourable so they left it to ‘me’ to say the bad stuff. He says that he will send me a transcript of the other prophecies if I will keep him up to date on the matter and I include that transcript here with a minor change to the second and last of ‘my’ lines…

To Augustus

I, Urdr, say

Long life; long reign;

King from this day

Verdandi sees

War, woe and pain

but Amber falls

within your reign

Prophesie not

I, the last Norn;

Skuld yields to one

yet to be born

Augustus Swayvil, King on High;

You gained your throne [by] lie and knife.

But spurned are they who set you high;

Unmourned is she who gave you life.

Long shall you reign while justice sleeps;

Yet heavy weighs a stolen crown.

Thy mother’s ghost unshriven weeps;

Your rule’s course lieth ever down.

So fear friends who now wash your feet:

Yourself shall fall to knife and lie

And in your dotage and conceit,

Die with my dagger through your eye!

And so back to the sword: as I surmised the blade is treated so as to cause agony from even a minor cut. Mandor does not think that the thing that held it was William, even from a shadow (though that is an option), but something shape-changed and controlled to believe it was William and driven mad in the process. The sword seems to be Chaos workmanship but not obviously from any house. Amblerash, Karm, and Ophir all have smiths capable of such work, as does Zigo, though they do not usually make weapons. Other houses such as Seraph & X also might have access but something about the sword suggests contact with Barimen though probably not recently, so not Melvin.

William is announced and enters with our permission. He says how much he enjoyed last night. Mandor is pleased the two of us took such an active part in the gambling; with that the discussion goes on to my winnings, the prize from Unman is likely to be a succubus (guessed as much).

The subject returns to what I was fighting last night and why. There is the possibility that I was the target because someone ill-informed thought that I was Benedict's son, a fairly simple mistake if they knew nothing of me before the battle. The other option is that it is a subtle attack by Swayvil fearing the past/future attack. There have also been the attacks on Constance and William.

After Mandor has gone we also discuss who we are taking to the reception tonight. William is having his date chosen by his grandmother. We discuss the shadows that we have seen, William has not been in Amber for 3000 years, I have never been at all, though I have visited Olympus, Babylon, Rebma and Tir-Na-Nogth.

William asks to accompany me on my trip to Nebelheim, the Ways of Aesir. As our demons lead us there it looks much like a castle of cloud built on a cloud but the door at least is of wood. We announce ourselves and are, slightly grudgingly let in. Within it looks like a Norse settlement and those within are dressed as Vikings though they do not all look Nordic.

We are taken before Jarl Woden who sits on a throne with Agneta standing beside him. The hall has many empty benches and I recognise the cause, the most consistently human-shaped group of the Chaos horde had been the berserkers who had smashed up beyond our left flank forcing urgent deployment of the rangers. They were badly mauled by the deployment of Bleys' cavalry, the mood here is unsurprisingly not friendly.

Agneta asks what she thinks I can teach her. I say I will not know until I have seen her fight. Commenting that if I cannot teach her something then she will have my head, she attacks. She is good, I expected nothing less; strong, skilled in attack but weaker in defence, it is quite testing to keep her at bay without taking a limb off. She leaps seeking to kick my shield down, a trick we were taught by Scaitha when young, I avoid but the memory makes me laugh with the sheer joy of combat. The laugh may have been a mistake as Agneta thinks that she is the butt of the joke.

I call a break and point out that there is something that she can be taught, she needs to strengthen her shield work. Taking this wrong she goes and gets her father's shield, visibly too heavy for her. We start to fight again, I put most of my effort into the attacks that make her use the shield and, overburdened, she starts to wear down until Woden calls a halt. He says that they have all learned something, they lost too many for lack of use of their shields. Agneta has learned not to borrow her father's shield if nothing else.

House Aesir seems to have warmed to us somewhat and we are invited to feast and so we do, stinting on the mead only in comparison to the berserkers as we have a reception to attend.

After the feast we make our excuses and leave. William instructs the demons to guide us home by a time slow route that we might have clear heads. We part, I drop by to see Havelock but he is out.

Later, bathed and dressed in my colours, I meet Belissa Minobee to escort her to the reception. She is a tall iron-grey lady dressed in elaborate but obviously functional armour. We arrive at the reception venue to find the place has been in turmoil. Havelock and his escort, Beaugard, the artist of the pictures due to be presented tonight, were attacked and one of the paintings was stolen.

Sorashi too has been attacked and Wendy the demon with her killed with drastic consequences for the house that was hosting her.

The reception is held in the Gallery of Revelations, a large lounge with exotic sculptures and paintings all around. A chamber orchestra that seems to have been recruited from shadow plays in the background.

Pfalzgraf Wherren of House Zigo stands up to speak. He has had paintings commissioned to celebrate Amber's victory. The house did not take part in the battle as they felt that the establishment of Amber and the other far realms was the best thing that had happened.

I circulate, talking to as many people as possible. After a while I reach Sorashi and William and we can update each other on our days. We discuss Melvin: why he is worth saving and the fact that he has to walk the Chaos equivalent of the Pattern. From what he said before it is not death that he fears but madness and mutation which seems to have been his brother's fate. I also discover that Caine is not pleased with me for directly declining Mandor's idea of my killing Swayvil.

Constance joins us and we discuss the assassination attempts on the family, the weakness of Swayvil and what the effect of Eric's death curse many have had on it. Also discussed is why Chaos fears us, it seems more subtle than any nervousness that we might blast large holes in the fabric of the Courts by use of Pattern.

We continue to circulate and have an interesting discussion about weaponry with Belissa, William and Maria Winter, William's guest, a nice lady but as cold and deadly as a sword blade.

Continuing to circulate I meet up with Havelock. He has been studying the void. There are, it seems, bubbles of possibility that can be plucked from void and made reality, the concept is not simple. He has been with House Cyril, the artists who have provided the artwork to be unveiled tonight. He also tells me of the dream that he had last night in which the forces of Amber were defeated by a force of fish mounted cavalry suddenly appearing on Bleys' flank and breaking the momentum of his charge.

The next person I talk to is Hector, one of Zigo's other nobles, who explains that the house is numerous and strong and delights in the exploration of shadow – he has even been to Amber, though in disguise. They have supported Amber from the start and their vote is unquestioned if the issue of being able to travel beyond the tree of Ygg is settled. He is supposed to be in exile for stating house policy but is protected by the strength of the house.

Hector also advises us that we need to get out of Chaos as soon as possible. Cymnea, alive and active here is all but forgotten in Amber, we are in a different reality with different rules and, once the novelty of our presence has worn off we will become trapped, each in our own bubble of existence dependant on the fading goodwill of others to leave it.

Something strange is happening, I can really not notice much myself apart from a strange feeling that there is another party casting a shadow over the reception. Constance and Margrath say that Bleys, then Havelock, then Delwin, then I, are starting to fade as another reality intrudes upon us.

There is some frantic discussion about what should be done and then Imperatrix Verona, Caine's date for the evening, stands up and declares that this effect is being managed by the use of some sort of Mystic image, the Chaos name for Trump directed at changing the past so that we would be prisoners, having lost the battle. This is fairly obviously the picture that was stolen and the reason for the theft.

Pfalzgraf Wherren stands up again and pledges all the resources of his house to deal with the people trying to change reality. As he speaks even I become aware of the red glow growing behind him on the stage, it is, according to those that see more, the Jewel of Judgement about Brand's neck.

To attack those who would change the future first we need to know where they are; some of the sorcerers seem to have an idea of direction and Havelock estimates (apparently based on a game of chaos chess that he watched ?!) that it must be the Temple of the Serpent. The party, including many of the more warlike guests, empties out and heads straight for the Temple. The Amberites obviously need to take a longer route that will sustain our lives.

On our arrival scouts quietly enter the Temple whist Benedict and Wherren take charge. House Zigo divide into four battle groups and we wait for the scouts to return. On an order from Benedict we burst into the temple. The design is just like that of a Dorican theatre, we have entered at the top of the back row and are looking down on a large force of fish-mounted Tritons, over fifty strong, waiting before the painting. A ceremony seems to be activating it like a Trump.

Bances, the High Priest, and a creature in the form of a metal symbol seem to be carrying out a ritual and a sacrifice waits under a samite sheet. More ordinary demons are scattered among the seats and they are the first to notice because we start killing them. Wherren and I are next to Artemis as we enter, she is the only one with a bow so I suggest killing the High Priest but Wherren says no.

Once through the doors we form up, Benedict leads us in a wedge down the nearest flight of stairs as the Zigo and others spread out around the edge or move more slowly down the seats. With Bleys at his left, me to his right we cleave through the demons on the wide staircase. Initially William and Maria are beside me but when we are more than halfway down the Tritons become aware of us and goad their mounts into leaping upon us; they leap like fishes from a pond and come down at us from above. Maria dives elegantly beneath them and William, less elegantly, follows.

The first fish arrives, I take its face off with my axe and Benedict decapitates the rider with ease. For a few moments, being the obvious target, it seems to be raining fish. I see Julian off to the left catch the fish's bite on his armoured gauntlet and hack the rider down but before the three of us the fish are filleted and their riders fare no better.

As the tide of fish ebbs I can look about me, the creature casting the spell is being hammered with arrows by Artemis and the spell seems to be breaking. William and Maria are on the central floor, despatched fish floating up around them but a mob of dismounted Tritons is on the attack. William is impressively efficient. Maria is an elegant joy to watch. On another flight of stairs I see Melvin making a good account of himself, his nervousness seemingly gone.

Havelock too is in the arena, he has attacked the largest of the Tritons and appears overmatched but Bleys goes to his aid and takes the big ugly in the back. The high priest has fled, the metal magician is down.

High up in the cheap seats a final few Tritons are being dealt with. They had attacked the less skilled fighters and seem to have done some damage in their final moments. At the edge of the seats I can see one of the Zigos with the whole front of his face torn away, apparently by a fish bite, Delwin is being lifted from the ground and Julian seems to have had his hand crushed inside his gauntlet.

Meanwhile the sacrifice seems to be demanding to die for reasons of honour, she declares that she is Zilaph Calipha of House Abal and she must be with her dead family. Someone, Sorashi I think, obliges.

We pause to tend the wounded, collect the dead and trail back to House Zigo to assess the situation. Havelock collects the picture that the battle was about as we leave.