The Alhambra

The personal diary of Margrath, son of Sand, pt 4

In the aftermath of the combat at the Duomo, there were casualties discovered, amongst them was my uncle Delwin. In the conflict he was bitten by one of the fish demons, and has lost the right side of his face and his right eye. The bite also pierced his skull, leaving parts of his brain visible.

Mother was insistent that Delwin should be transported to House Lanfranc where she is guest, so that she could take care of him and aid in his healing. Mandor and Pfalzgraf Wherren have said that they will clear this in council so that there is no problem with Delwin being elsewhere than he was intended to be. I have come to House Lanfranc with them.

The time before our departure is a little hazy as I was focusing on uncle Delwin. However, during this time I remember Wherren making an announcement that he wished to make a formal alliance with Amber; also I remember thinking that the after-effects and side-effects that we experienced due to the divergent time lines, had passed. Also during this time Havelock approached me with a request to draw my Trump. He has extended an invitation to me to contact him at House Malastar.

When Sand, Delwin and myself have arrived at House Lanfranc and were settled in her quarters, she confided in me that she had dreamt of Delwin falling to a fish demon in the alternate time line and she feels this shows there is some thread of destiny or fatality involved in this attack.

She also confided that she fears Delwin will never recover completely and that the fears he will lose the will to live. We both agree that the best place for him would be to be back in Corilaine.

While we were discussing Delwin's condition, Prince Sigebert, of House Lanfranc, knocked on the door and inquired about Delwin's condition.

He asked if there was anything he could do to help and I replied that the best thing that could be done would be for us to return home. Prince Sigebert replied to this that the road to Amber was gone but that if he could, he would allow Delwin to return home.

This brings up an interesting point. Obviously Prince Sigebert does not realise that we three do not call Amber, home. This could be useful information and leads me to speculate just how many on the inhabitants of the Courts know where we have lived. It has also been obvious for some time that Corilaine, in some manner, exists. Getting there may prove difficult though as the whole of Shadow may have been re-written, so it may be necessary to find new paths.

Prince Sigebert also asked if I would like to receive the spiritual training that I won from him at the races. I declined at that time, although I did ask if this training could help Delwin in any way. The Prince replied that he could not say. He also said that if there where anything he knew that could help, he would use it himself.

I asked leave to stay, to help Sand with Delwin and he said that he would arrange for my demon, Chang, to take this news to House Sumi, so that they would not be troubled by my absence.

Some time later, if that can be a concept within the Courts, I accepted the Prince's offer of spiritual training. He took me to what appeared to be some form of magical workroom where he explained that House Lanfranc's spiritual practices involve dealing with spirits known as Ty'iga. These Ty'iga are pure spirits of the Abyss whose bodies dissolved into the Abyss aeons ago. Though again I am not sure what that term means here.

The Ty'iga are pure forms, but there are others in the Abyss which are not pure. One of these was the entity that we encountered at the races.

Prince Sigebert told me that House Lanfranc and its members appear as they do to reflect a form that would be comfortable to Sand during her stay. This adopted appearance is not limited to House Lanfranc and perhaps extends to all the denizens of the Courts that we have met during out stay. Nothing is as it seems.

The Prince then showed me his true form. His body slumped and a bright, glowing form emerged. This is a spiritual form, befitting for a very spiritual House.

In his teaching, the Prince led me through what I can only describe as a series of mental tests of strength, which he said closely resembles a mental tug of war, though I am not really sure what that term means. It was an interesting experience and appears to have left me with certain mental facilities in a raised state.

The Prince has also taught me the spell Bind Ty'iga. This spell is useful when dealing with Ty'iga as it can be used to make the Ty'iga perform a task, and that task may be to leave, thus removing it from somewhere or someone that it has chosen not to leave.

Ty'iga are individuals and each has its own desires and interests. House Lanfranc deals with Ty'iga by offering them physical experience through the use of bodies. These bodies can be the sorcerer’s own body, but that is dangerous as a powerful Ty'iga can end up in control while the sorcerer is captive, just a passenger in what used to be their body. The safer way is to provide a body that has been magically conjured, as I conjured the spider body for House Sumi. Bodies tend to burn up with use in a very short time, though again that is presumably subjective, depending on how the individual perceives, or creates, time.

The Prince related to me an example of a dealing with a Ty'iga where its desire was just to have a physical presence so that it could experience and create music.

The Prince told me that House Lanfranc only deal with the pure spirits of the Abyss, not with the unpure spirits. They are not the House that deals with the undead.

I was also told that what we have encountered as demons are meldings of spiritual and physical and that some may not be aware of this duality. Though I did not think at the time to ask whether he meant some demons are not aware of this, or if others in the Courts are not aware. I suppose some members of the Courts do not concern themselves with such matters.

Prince Sigebert and I also spent some time discussing the similarities between aspects of our respective paths. I also learnt from our talk that sorcery and shape changing, along with poisons and dancing, are expected to be learnt by all Lords of the Courts. It would appear that sorcerers are a lot more common among the members of the Courts, at least than on Corilaine.

With there being no sign of change in Delwin, and mother assuring me that she would contact me should there be any change, I left House Lanfranc and returned to House Sumi.

When I had returned to House Sumi I took some rest and dreamt of bubbles in the sky, undead William and the duel between undead William and Darig.

My feeling is that there is definitely a link between Darig and William and I was also sure that there was a woman weeping, somewhere behind the scene. Who could she be?

I have found that while I was dealing with Prince Sigebert – or not as may be, since it all could have happened in a moment or and aeon for others – the bodies of Brand and Deirdre have been recovered. Brand's body is dead but Deirdre’s body is alive but has no soul. Also that Brand's shade has been seen in the council chambers.

Chang delivered to me a message bearing the seal of House Zigo. The cousins have been invited to Pfalzberg, House Zigo, to formalise the alliance that was previously announced, just before I left with Delwin and Sand.

It would seem that Sorashi has inherited House Abal through the act of killing the last member of that house, namely the woman who had chosen to be the sacrifice for the ritual in the Duomo.

I had an interesting chat with Constance about dreams, though with no real conclusion.

I also find that when Brand's body was recovered from the Abyss, it was with a broken Jewel of Judgement. I do not know enough about the Jewel of Judgement, but I would have thought from what little I do know that it is unique. So the question must be, what did the Unicorn give to Random? Maybe one day we will find out, but I doubt that day will be in the near future.

It was decided that Havelock would go to House Cyril and that the rest of the cousins would go to House Abal to see what Sorashi has inherited.

I took some time to check with Sand by Trump on Delwin's progress and to update her on the events that have transpired. There is no change in Delwin.

I also took the time to hang Cocoon, 2 copies of Release Spirit and 2 copies of Command Spirit. I wondered about hanging a copy of Bind Ty'iga but decided against it. I am not sure now whether this is prudence or a desire not to deal with these spirits through some form of fear. I will have to resolve this soon as we may need to facility to deal with these spirits before long.

The time arrived for our visit to Alhambra, the location for House Abal.

At the gates we were greeted by a faceless demon dressed in blue and yellow. The name it is known by is Asfar. Sorashi asked it to show us around, which it proceeded to do.

Through the gateway, Asfar took us to what it called the third courtyard. Here my sorcerous sight showed me a six foot bronze plug or shield that is spirit bound. Asfar led us then through the Court of Pillars and the Court of Lions and through to the garden where there is a magical tree. What this tree is I have not had time to investigate, all that I know is that it is magical. There was also a long reflecting pool in which the reflections were not visible to my sorcerous sight, and overhead a representation of the Abyss.

We were then led to the Treasury. This room had an impressive ceiling, with chests and barrels filling the chamber, and gold spilling across the floor. This gold is not magical.

Also, very deliberately, on show in this room were certain objects.

The coronet of Nasr: which was silver and spiky; a Hand of Glory in the form of a five fingered glove; a weapon bearing three spiked balls; a whip with nine hooked tails, which looked poisoned; a black lamp, a bronze lamp and a differently designed gold lamp.

All of these items where magical and ranged in power from the hand of glory which was the most powerful, through the Coronet of Nasr and the gold lamp down to the weapon, the whip and the other two lamps, which were all of only moderate power.

Next we were shown the Gallery. This room is majestic and ornate and hung with hundreds of paintings. At one end of the Gallery there are twelve portraits, all of which are magical. One of these was of the woman who was destined to be the ritual sacrifice until we changed that. As these portraits are approached they animate. The portrait of the sacrifice introduces herself and curses Amber for the slaying of her family by foul means.

Each of the other eleven portraits tell of their deaths. The eleventh portrait talked of Dworkin breaking the Hegemony, while the twelfth portrait talks of being a Rimlord to the Yellow Emperor.

The final room we are shown to was the Arena. Sorashi has decided to leave this room until another time. Asfar told Sorashi that to become truly mistress of House Abul, she must face and defeat the Chimera, one of the legendary beasts of Chaos, and until that time she will not be fully safe within the House. On hearing this Sorashi decided that it was best not to stay within the House.