Animal Crackers

The personal diary of Margrath, son of Sand

I woke from a dream of Corilaine. Within the dream I was walking through my favourite woods, although they were not quite as I remember them. I walked along a border, a border between light and dark. To my right was light and to my left was dark.

I chose to walk in the dark, looking for what might be there and I was confronted by the eyes of a huge spider, larger by far than any I was familiar with. Then from behind I heard the sound of hoof beats, though these did not sound as I would expect. Turning I found an approaching white horse with a horn growing from its nose. This animal carried with it a strong spiritual element. A Unicorn!

Then I was aware that the Spider was advancing from the dark. Both animals were coming forward on a collision course. I stepped back, out of the way of the collision, and tripped. I found I was watching the upcoming clash from the ground. From that vantage I saw the Spider rear and the Unicorn charge. The last I remember before waking was the cloven hoof of the Unicorn!

Was this just a dream or a sending, and can anything in this place be just a dream? The most obvious interpretation of this is the conflict within, or over, me; between the power of Corilaine – in the form of the Spider – and the power of Amber – in the form of the Unicorn.

What the ending was is left open.

Now the question is, was this a vision from the core of my power or a representation of the struggle between the two Powers that are present in my life at this time? This will require more thought. We shall see if any further 'dreams' come.

Over breakfast I was made aware that the time for the ritual is nigh. During breakfast my wish to visit Houses Raven and Lanfranc came up and I felt these visits would be arranged but the ritual took precedence. I asked if there was a 'natural' area where I could meditate in preparation and when we had finished with our breakfast, Mokoto led me to a 'garden' – a quadrangle with a statue where others were meditating. I was left there to prepare myself for about half an hour, although what seemed to me half and hour could have been anything for others in this place.

At the end of this time Mokoto returned to escort me to the place for the ritual. He now referred to me by the title Daifu.

The room was again similar to the training room, vaguely triangular with rounded corners, and there were about eleven others watching the proceedings. Haruka Kakka was present in one of the 'corners' and, after I took my place in another 'corner', Hyobashi joined us.

Hyobashi started to hum and the watchers joined in with the humming. Hyobashi then pointed at me and I started my conjuration, bringing a spider forth. Hyobashi smiled at me and I had the feeling that I now needed to maintain its presence while the remainder of the ritual was performed.

Hyobashi and Haruka Kakka then performed their parts in the ritual. Haruka Kakka could be seen to be working in a physical manner, bringing physical attributes to the spider. The spider grew and a light came into its eyes. Hyobashi, however, was bringing more spiritual attributes into the being. Some of these appeared as dark tentacles which I was not completely happy with. As he brought in these attributes I could see that there was conflict between something that Hyobashi was bringing in and a part of the being that I contributed. I knew I had some influence on this conflict and I decided to allow the attributes that Hyobashi was bringing in to enter without obstruction from me.

It was obvious that the being was in some pain and I related this to what we would call childbirth, although that does not translate directly to what was happening there.

As Hyobashi and Haruka finished Hyobashi asked me to name the newly created being. I looked at this being and named 'him' Ibemo. By this time he had the appearance of a young sumo wrestler, much like the other inhabitants of House Sumi. Haruka helped Ibemo out of the chamber.

Hyobashi thanked me and appeared pleased with the results of the ritual. At this point he formally named me Daifu and informed me that I would be known so from this time on in this House. He expressed his hope that I would help in the teaching of Ibemo.

Hyobashi and the others members of House Sumi left, and Mokoto joined me. He informed me that he had had a wager on me summoning a spider during the ritual. He also told me that he believes that Ibemo will most likely choose spider as a first form when he reaches the point where he starts to experiment with altering forms. He also informed me that there was light refreshment waiting for me in my rooms, as he was sure I would want to rest after my exertions there. After this Chang would take me to a meeting that had been arranged at House Raven.

At this time Mokoto also informed me that an invitation had been received for me and a companion to attend House Zigo for an unveiling. There were no details of what would be unveiled, that was left to speculation until the event itself. As I rested in my rooms I also speculated on my choice of companion for this event.

After a time of rest and refreshment, Chang arrived to escort me to House Raven. On the journey I asked about the meaning of the title Daifu. He could not explain exactly as the term does not translate but it encompasses the terms father and parent. It is, however, more complex.

House Raven has the appearance of an encampment of small families, a blasted heath with approximately a dozen shelters resembling large tents. The majority of the people there appeared as women, but represented a wide range of skin colours and races.

Chang declared, 'Behold, Raven Lodge!'

I was greeted by a woman wearing clothes of raven feathers and with raven feathers worked into her hair, or maybe a part of her hair.

Observing her it became obvious that she was also not used to walking over the ground; more used to flight perhaps? She told Chang to hide behind a tree at the edge of the encampment. She entered one of the tents, which she refered to as a teepee, and invited me to join her within.

We talked. She told me she is Shaman Kikakak. She informed me that there are seven Great Spirits in total – Dragon, Phoenix, Serpent, Sphinx, Thunderbird, Tree and Unicorn. House Raven choose not to follow any of the Great Spirits, preferring to follow the Lesser Spirit of Raven. I observed that she spat when mentioning the Serpent as though she finds it repulsive, more so than the other Great Spirits.

We talked of my dream and she agreed with my assessment that it reflects conflicts and choices that I will have to resolve, between following of the power of Corilaine and the power of Amber.

We also spoke of the bubbles that brought undead William to the Zoodrome. She said that these were connected with a being called Alhazred and she advises that I forget about this Being and the incident as it could be very dangerous should I pursue these enquiries.

I could feel that we were coming to the end of our meeting and she plucked a feather from her cloak – or perhaps from her person – and I placed it in my bag, from which I drew a small piece of spider web which I gave to her. She said that she felt I would return to House Raven at some time, and she bade me farewell until then.

My impressions of the members of House Raven are that they are more comfortable and spend most of their time in the form of ravens. I can see the appeal of this, though the shamans of Corilaine do not have this facility but if they did I feel there are many that would spend more and more time in the form of their totem. I can see that this could become compelling and addictive to some. Interesting. I also feel that House Raven keeps much to itself. It is not a House that mixes or involves itself in the politics and intrigue of the Courts.

Kikakak also mentioned that they visited the field of the recent battle after the battle had finished. I have heard some mention of this practice of ravens visiting the sites of battle from the Raven followers of Corilaine.

I travelled back to House Sumi with Chang and on arriving there I sought the help of Mokoto with sending an invitation to the companion I had decided upon for the House Zigo event. My decision was to invite Isis and I was pleased that she agreed to accompany me.

I also offered my apologies to Mokoto, and through him to House Sumi and Haruka Kakka, for not choosing her to accompany me on this upcoming event. Mokoto assured me that there was no offence taken on my choice of companion and that Haruka Kakka was currently very busy looking after Ibemo.

The occasion of the unveiling at House Zigo.

Isis and I arrived last. There is precedence behind everything here at the Courts and this arrival after everyone else, it appears, is the drawback of escorting a Goddess.

The other drawback of this arriving last was that we missed some of the incidents that befell my cousins on their journeys and arrivals.

I was told that Havelock was ambushed or arrival with Beaugard. They were bringing a pair of paintings to the event and one of them was taken by the ambushers.

Also I am told that Sorashi was attacked by two assailants in the Garden of Delights.

The event was being held in the Hall of Revelation, though everyone was talking about the attack on Havelock and Beaugard, rather than on the unveiling to come. There was entertainment provided by an orchestra who seemed to have been brought in from Shadow. With the extent of possibilities to choose from in Shadow, I am not surprised that this sort of thing is practised. I would imagine there is much competition between the houses in this area, though I fail to see the point since as I understand things, you can find anything you desire in Shadow, so this is just a competition between the imagination of Houses.

Our host made an announcement on the subject of the attack on Havelock and Beaugard of House Cyril. They were bringing two paintings to be unveiled here, two views of the battle to commemorate the victory of Amber. One was to be a gift for Amber and one for Chaos. It appears that the painting intended for Chaos was the one that was stolen.

From the announcement and the talk, I gather that House Zigo were not in favour of the War.

I could see many faces I recognised at the event. All the cousins were there, as well as Sand and Delwin. Sand was accompanied by Argoleb of Atlantis but I did not get the chance to confirm who Delwin had brought there. During the 'evening' I talked to my mother about the delicate matter of her becoming a grandmother, something she had apparently already heard of before I managed to broach the subject. I cannot be sure of her feelings on this. I will have to see if she wished to meet Ibemo at some time.

I also talked to Isis about the Serpent and she told me that there is an aspect of the Serpent in her world. There are probably aspects of most of the Greater Spirits in many Shadows. I wonder why I am not aware of any aspects in Corilaine?

Hector of House Zigo made it known that he wished to speak to all of the cousins. My impression of Hector is that he is the most 'normal' person here, at least normal from my experience and I believe the experience of my cousins. He told us some things about House Zigo. Hector explained that he made a speech in the Thelbane about the War being wrong, for which he was exiled from the Courts. He explained that House Zigo are explorers and cartographers. They love Shadow and they did not fight in the Battle. He also explained that they were now the largest House among the Rim Lords.

Hector also told us that House Zigo would vote for Amber if the clause restricting passage beyond the Tree of Ygg was removed. This clause would obviously clash with the goals of the House in exploration so I can see why the removal of this clause would be the one thing of major interest to them.

Hector also told us we should have been gone ‘yesterday’. He explained the nature of the Courts to reinforce his statement: the Courts are currently mirroring us but if we stay much longer we will find ourselves cut off from everything, in our own bubbles of order within Chaos. This would of course, be very bad.

At about this time I noticed an oddity. I had to look twice but I could see that Bleys appeared to be becoming translucent. There were definitely things visible through him. Studying the rest of the room it became clear that Havelock and Delwin were starting to disappear as well. Next Darig started to fade. I was stuck by a momentary, sharp headache which I can see now was connected to the fading of various people around the room.

I asked Isis and she was also aware of people fading.

This was discussed among the cousins and it arose that some of us had two sets of memories of the Battle, which were coming and going, along with the headaches. When the alternative memory was gone it could not be remembered, but it was coming in and out and I felt that this alternative was becoming stronger. In the alternative memory Bleys died during the Battle. In fact all the people who were fading had died in the alternative version of the Battle, and this version had ended with the forces of Amber being captured.

Soon another aspect of this imposition of an alternative time line became apparent when we noticed that there was a shadowy figure in the room with us who was fading in with the alternative memories. Isis informed us that this figure, a female, was one of us and Constance recognised her as Deirdre. So the alternative time line contained a living Deidre, and from the forming of a red glow and the figure of a man of the dais - it also contained a living Brand!

If Brand was present on one version then we deduced that Random should be present in that version too, and we soon spied a shadowy figure, off to one side, playing cards with Mandor.

We talked with Hector about the effects we were witnessing and he told us that others have noticed this too. Also he pointed out that members of the Courts who died in the Battle were coming back in the alternative version of reality (if you can talk about reality in the Courts).

Havelock also talked to Hector about fish-faced troops he saw in a dream that he had, in which the Battle ended in the way it did in our alternative memories.

At this time we also became aware that there was some conflict between Caine and his companion from House Helgram, Imperatrix Verona. Caine was demanding she repeat what she had just told him about theoretical discussions within her House regarding the possibility of changing the past by sending an assassin, or someone similar, back to an event in the past to change that event and therefore to change the present.

(Of course this brings up the prospect of the present being changed so there is no need to send an assassin back, and speculation on whether the time line would revert back to its previous form – this is not necessarily something I think I should dwell on as I fear there is a distinct possibility of being sucked into a continuing loop which could lead to deterioration of mental faculties – and of course it might not work anywhere outside the Courts.)

Imperatrix Verona said that such an endeavour would require a huge amount of power and a mystic focus on the event in question. This focus could be the stolen painting.

Havelock asked about the power needed and we were told that it would need a blood sacrifice. He also restated that his dream and our alternative memories include troops on giant flying fish, rather than a lone assassin.

As the head of House Zigo made an announcement we could see that he was fading and starting to appear behind Hector, while Brand was becoming more opaque. The glow, as we had surmised, was the Jewel of Judgement around Brand's neck, and it became clear that any use of this item here would be highly inimical to the power of the Courts. Inestimably worse than invoking the Pattern, which we know has had devastating effect previously.

The head of House Zigo unveiled the painting and we could see that it was fading, a further effect of the impending change in the history of the Battle. We could hear Brand chuckle from a point beyond the painting. Beaugard is now able to remember two paintings, possibly commissioned by two different people.

At this time I called up my Sorcerous Sight and I could discern a power source forming or building somewhere. Unfortunately Isis could also see the power source in a different direction and I became aware that the power source I could see was moving. Thus is the problem with using line of sight within the Courts.

Havelock, however, was able to supply further information of the mention of Orca and the Duomo, which is the Temple of the Serpent, so it was decided we should head to the Temple.

Benedict took charge of us and sent Constance, Sorashi and Havelock to scout the Temple, along with two members of House Zigo. This was quickly followed by us all entering the Temple.

Inside, the place had the appearance of an amphitheatre. On the far side was the painting. Lined up in front of it was the being who I had seen before, who took the form of a mystical symbol. Next in line were ranks of the fish-faced demons (Tritons) and finally the High Priest of the Serpent standing over the altar, holding a blade over a figure who was presumably intended to be the blood sacrifice. The High Priest appeared to be confounded to see elders of House Zigo present.

The symbol-being was forming a magical sigil and the Tritons moved to engage our troops. Artemis shot at the symbol being, hitting it twice. At the same time as her second hit I cast Veil of Closure over its eye. The combination interrupted its casting; there was a bright flash of lightning and the power that was building appeared to earth back through the being, vaporising it.

At some point the High Priest left the Temple. After the brief fight the sacrifice was left standing, rippling through different forms and wailing about us ruining her grand exit. It transpired she was the last member of House Abal.

Havelock reclaimed the painting, which was intact, and I saw Beaugard clean a spot of something from it.