A Knight at the Opera pt1

The personal diary of Margrath, son of Sand, pt 5

I awoke this morning, or evening, or whenever it was, I am sure the time doesn't really matter as it's all relative to the observer. Whenever, I awoke from a dream of my uncle Delwin. In the dream, which had more of a feel of a sending from the feel of his presence, Delwin appeared wearing his colours and in a dark, slightly echoy place. Strange, now I come to write of it I do not remember noticing whether his face was whole or still in the condition that his body is in.

In the dream he talked of Sand and the preparations she is making. It would seem that she had decided that keeping him in his current state is not the right thing to do, and she is preparing to sever the conduit with Corillaine that is keeping him alive. She is preparing to let him go, whether that will be back to the Great Spirit or not, I cannot tell at this time. Perhaps if he does journey back there he will find some means to contact my mother or myself.

In the dream he gave me three warnings for those of us of Amber descent who dwell here at present.

The first warning was that this place is dangerous for beings of order like us to remain in. Although we have faced a major crisis, the next crisis will be worse and we must seize the initiative. The longer we stay the worse things will be for us. I conjecture that this relates to Order being corroded or consumed by Chaos, and that the longer we stay the less ordered we will be, and the more likely that we will succumb and dissolve in the flows of Chaos.

Secondly he warned of dark things stirring. Spirits walking and talking which should be quiet, but that we may yet need them and that our worst problem is our prejudice.

Thirdly he warned of something dark coming. We must change nothing, that the past is now and the future is here. Changes in the past may have repercussions like the ones we have seen caused by the attempts to change the outcome of the battle. Whether it will become possible to do this again I am not sure, and since we have seen the potential outcomes I feel we would be better taking my uncle’s advice, but there is always the temptation to make things 'better' such as changing things so that Delwin did not meet a fish demon in the 'past'. We must attempt to accept what is and what we perceive has happened and not try to force things to have happened as we may want them to have happened.

Awake I became aware of a trump contact from Sand. She is, understandably, very upset as she had also been visited by Delwin. He came to her to tell her that she must let him go, and I am now happier to let him go, knowing that it is his desire.

My mother and I then talked about Delwin's warnings and in doing so the fear is there that I have given her ideas about changing the past, that she may not have had on her own. Time (whatever that is here) will tell.

I have ascertained that she also understands that another, worse crisis is coming and that we must move past our prejudices. From our talk we both believe that by letting Delwin go, he has escaped. Sand wonders if we will also escape from this place to return home and I reassure her that we will return home, but I do not share with her the fear that I have, that we may escape in just the same way as Delwin has.

There was a knock on my door and I answered it to find a member of the House waiting outside, possibly a junior member as he has a full head of black hair, rather than the scalp-lock worn by all the other House members I have seen.

He calls me Sire and I am confronted by Ibemo, grown much more than I would have expected. It appears that I truly have not gotten used to the flow of time here, and I suppose that he can have had any length of time to develop since I have last seen him, although that development could just be a factor of shape-shifting abilities.

Ibemo is full of questions about 'his' heritage, about Corillaine, about Amber and if I can confirm that he is of the heritage of Amber. I explained that I was more familiar with Corillaine than Amber. He told me that he would be honoured if he could accompany me on my journey to return to Corillaine and Amber. He explains that he believes that in his form, or the form he now adopts, he would find it comfortable to be in these places.

I said I would be honoured for him to accompany me also. Although I will have to speak to members of this House, as I have no idea from his development, what age he is considered to be and whether the rules of the House would allow him to leave. Also there is the problem of how far into shadow members of the Courts will be able to travel. 'He' also seems confident that I will be travelling back to Corillaine or Amber, something of which I am not so sure. And if I do, I believe it will be in the company of others from Amber, so I will have to see what their feelings are on having my 'child' accompany us.

I must see if he and his 'grandmother' want to meet.

The other reason for 'his' visit is to give me an invitation from Mandor to visit him at Woodstock.

I noticed that as Ibemo turned to leave, his hair was turning blond. I wonder if this is natural for 'him', a part of 'his' development, or a sign that he still needs to learn control of 'his' form. I wonder also if this is a characteristic of the House and may be a reason fro the members to favour shaven heads.

After Ibemo's departure I contacted Sand again by trump to see if she wanted to meet, so that we could mark Delwin's passing. I could tell that she was very agitated about something she had just learned and that she does not want to discuss over an open trump channel. We agreed to meet later, in person, and I broke contact.

I called for Chang and he lead me to Woodstock where I found my cousins had also been invited, along with Dirk.

While there I found that cousin Sorashi has now moved to House Indra. Mandor also offered his condolences for my loss. I am not sure if this is genuine concern or just a show of what he wants us to see.

Havelock proposed a toast to the Fallen and we were also informed of some news from the High King, which I believe had already been communicated to my mother and was the reason for her agitated state. The High King has decreed that the funeral of my grandfather, Oberon, is to take precedence over any other funerals and must precede them. This means that not only must we wait for the time to be right for Oberon's funeral, we must also wait until that has occurred before we can consider Delwin's funeral. For the time being Delwin has been extended to honour of lying in the chapel, next to Oberon.

Then we came to the main reason for Mandor's invitation. We, the cousins, have been offered admission in orders of knighthood of the Courts. There are seven orders, each with an opening for a member.

Mandor explained that the orders of knighthood serve to allow members of different Houses to come together with others of common interest, though it waits to be seen just what the interests of these orders are. These orders serve to prevent the Houses from becoming more isolated. Also we were informed that without the orders, the Courts could not have met Amber on the battlefield. The orders are only open to lower members of the Houses, for instance should Mandor's father die, he would become House Lord and would no longer be eligible to be a member of an order, and so would have to resign his place in the order he is a member of.

Out of the various, strangely named orders I have opted to join The Mature and Interesting Order of the Loquacious Nettle. We shall see what this is all about and I feel that this cannot hurt our attempts to at least understand the inhabitants of the Courts, if that is possible.

We also received another invitation. Zae of House Zigo has been accepted by whoever decides these things here, to ascend to the level of Lord and we have been invited to attend her inauguration. Another insight into the workings of the Courts.

During the conversation Havelock came up with an interesting suggestion, that we hold an event. Since the Courts seem to enjoy events, this may again work in our favour. He suggested something along the lines of a ball where, as at the Races, we could mingle with other members of the Courts and others currently staying here.

We were interrupted by a knock on the door which Mandor answered. Outside there was a floating eye, which, on seeing us, morphed into Hector of House Zigo. He gave Mandor some news that obviously disturbed him. Mandor explained that the High King has declared that there will be an Opera, which Mandor does not like at all. He warned us that Operas are a strain on the endurance and that we should come well prepared with plenty of provisions and that we should be well rested. Apparently Operas bring in actors taken from shadow, to perform, but such performance is not all play-acting as there are real deaths. Members of the audience can be brought in to the performance.

Mandor confesses that he does not like this, and does not like Operas at all. He finds them too tortuous even for him. I wonder if he sees this, coming at this time, as a move against him in some way, a way of disrupting his plans. We shall see.

As Mandor bade us farewell he said he hoped we survive the Opera.

Outside (if anywhere here is really outside) we decided to visit the Opera House, so that we could at least see where this spectacle was to be performed. On the way we discussed various things: Delwin's warnings, the nature of time here in the Courts and Darig's prediction at the coronation.

We also discussed a list of the major Houses that Havelock had obtained through the use of a scope at the House where he is staying. This device exhibits more of the nature of time in the Courts, and maybe goes beyond that. The list is from some point in what to us is the future.

On this list the Houses and their number of Lords are listed. House Alhazred is the biggest of the minor Houses, and has five Lords; House Ascaris, largest of the major Houses has six Lords, while House Zigo has five Lords on the list, which is the number they currently have. This may mean that the list is from the very near future or that is it from a time after the inauguration of Lady Zae, and that she does not survive her inauguration.

The troubling thought that now comes to mind is that this may be something we must not change, that if this means Lady Zae fails in her inauguration, we must do nothing to change that, although this is a future event not a change of the past, and we cannot even be sure that the list is not from some time where Lady Zae is a Lord, but one of the other present Lords has fallen.

It is really confusing working within this environment of Chaos.

At the Opera House

We decided to split into three groups to explore the building. Constance will go with William, Darig will go with Havelock and I will go with Sorashi and Dirk.

The place is designed with a stage in the centre and tiered seats arranged around it, but separated from the stage by an area free of seats which William thinks is for demons. There is a passageway running around the building, at the back of the seating area, for access. From the passageway there are corridors, labelled for the minor Houses, which lead to the tiered seating. Also there are stairs leading up to thirteen boxes, which provide seating areas for the thirteen major Houses. There is no direct access to the stage from the seating, but there are tunnels under the seating area which lead to areas under the stage, from which the stage area can be reached.

Again we can see from this arrangement of seating that the Houses who visit the Opera are not inclined to mix with other Houses, or are not allowed to.

Our group decided to explore the passageway around the House and then to spiral in through the seats, towards the centre stage. In the passageway there is a strong smell, the smell of brimstone and unwashed body, the smell of demon. Dirk prepares himself for potential conflict. Sorashi meanwhile, says sorry to me and then shape-shifts into a partial tiger form where she has the head and claws of a tiger. I let the two to them take front rank.

I suppose I should not be surprised at Sorashi's ability but I was a little taken aback at the time. I know so little about those who are descendants of Oberon that there are probably many more surprises to come. Shape-shifting will probably turn out to be the least of them, and after all in the Dream, and in dreams, the adoption of other shapes happens quite frequently.

We continued onward cautiously and I had the feeling that, whatever it was, it had been there to see us and that it would soon rush off so the decision was made to take the initiative and rush it. We found a misshaped demon in sackcloth, scurrying around on all fours, which Sorashi was able to catch. This demon turned out to be the usher of the Opera House, Hugo, who was curious about our being there, and Dirk and I let Sorashi talk to him.

He told us about the ghost that haunts the Opera House. It has been seen walking the place in a humanoid form, in the manner of Barimen, the way of Amberites. Hugo says the ghost is dangerous and he said he thought he had seen it going in the direction of the stage. We made our way to the stage to find out that the ghost had been there, had not harmed our cousins, and was Brand, or at least a Brand.

Brand claimed that the Duomo incident somehow brought an alternate world together with our world, an alternate in which he was alive. When this happened he used the power of the Jewel of Judgement to stay in this world when the alternate reality faded, or separated from our reality. I suspect that that alternate still exists but that it's entanglement with our reality is what has faded, but that is something that requires a lot more thought, and discussion with people back in Corillaine who may be more familiar with alternate realities. This train of events would possibly explain, though, how the Unicorn was able to give the Jewel of Judgement to Random, while this Brand still has a version of it.

I would not like to see what might happen if the two Jewels were brought into proximity, though a part of me would be very interested in that as it might give a much greater insight in the nature of reality itself. Or it could just blow everything to pieces.

At one point Darig heard something, a chittering, off stage in the empty area. Constance created light but there was nothing to be seen. However, on the stage I was aware of a spirit or magic, though of a form that I am not familiar with. This was the magic that is peculiar to theatre, and it lingered in the stage area. This happens in places where there has been great emotional release, so given what we have been told about the Operas, it is not surprising that it should be there. I feel that given the time this is something that I could commune with, and that may be something which comes in useful at some point.

Having explored the Opera House as much as we could, we decided to leave and split up. Havelock was planning to visit House Heirophus with Constance, and I decided that I would go with them. House Heirophus deals with divination so it had some interest for me, but not as much as House Raven had. So we headed, with the guidance of our demons, to Taroccha, the seat of House Heirophus.

Taroccha is, not really surprisingly, a house of cards and the main door is a trump of the Fool. How appropriate.

Inside we meet an old man, Archdeacon Gelion, who does not seem to be quite sure of his own name. Constance was very interested in talking about dream and whether it was possible to enter someone's mind to manipulate their dreams. Her interest stemmed from the dreams she has been having of Amber, but not an Amber she recognises; an Amber where there are distinct changes and where flying machines can be seen which have not been seen there before.

These dreams were decided more likely to be portents of threat to Amber, rather than an attempt to manipulate Constance's dreams.

While we were there, there was a commotion outside and Dworkin entered calling the Archdeacon Damien. Who was actually mistaken about the name was unclear, though perhaps neither were. Dworkin was more interested in talking to Havelock about Benedict, although he did acknowledge both me and Constance.