A Knight at the Opera pt2

The personal diary of Margrath, son of Sand, pt 6

I dreamt. I was at the Raven Lodge again, looking just as I had seen it before. A large, black bird alighted, turned into Kikakak, nodded to me, sat and invited me to sit also, which I did. She told me that a Goddess of Mothers had told her of a mother’s plight, lost in the Void. She said we must help her and that my part in that helping would be to call her spirit back from the Void.

She gave me some time to prepare and I chose to drop two spells – Exoskeleton and Cocoon – and replace them with Call spirit and Summon Specific Spirit.

Kikakak helped me in this hanging of spells by creating a framework for the spells. I must look into this further.

She then turned back into her raven form and flew to a tree. She flew around and about this tree in a way that was like walking the pattern, but not. We journeyed and when we had arrived it was in another place within the Courts, as the sky of Chaos still arched over our heads. Ahead there was a village of huts made of hide, unlike any I had seen before in Chaos.

As we approached this village I could see there were about a dozen residents, all black and all wearing rich, loose clothing. All bore scars of wounds received, some by their own hand, and all treated in some way so they had not healed normally. We approached one hut where a tall man stood aside and opened the door flap, ushering us inside, welcoming us as Lady and Lord, and telling us we had been expected. We entered the hut but the man stayed outside.

As we entered Kikakak turned back into her human form. The hut was dark and waiting for us was Sorashi and a woman lying covered in furs. The woman’s eyes were open, she had no hair and what part of her I could see was covered in serious burns. This was presumably the woman who had been/was lost in the void. Sorashi told us that this was the body of her mother, Deirdre. The body breathed but its spirit was gone, it was a living shell.

I prepared and Kikakak called back the framework she created earlier, from some place where it appears she had packed it away. This power is of the same order as the Pattern, and may be the equivalent power wielded by the mages of Chaos. This Chaos power is very hostile to the Pattern, as would be expected, as the Pattern is as hostile to the very place of the Courts. Unlike the Pattern though, this power is very conducive to magic, leaving me to the conclusion that the magic I know owes more of its origin to Chaos than to Order.

I inserted the appropriate lynchpins and Kikakak dissolved the framework and we cast Call Spirit, as we had the body present and we wanted to call the spirit of this body, not some other shadow spirit like the other Brand, created of the brief double effect that we met previously at the Opera House.

A spirit came to my call and asked why I had called her and who I was. In answer I pointed to Sorashi and told the spirit that I had called her for Sorashi. This seemed to be acceptable to the spirit and Kikakak started the ritual to reunite body and spirit. A black serpent coiled out and touched both body and spirit. There was an intense cry of pain which stabbed right through me, due to the psychic link that the spell had created, and I woke.

Back in my room in House Sumi, where I woke, I centred myself, then I checked the spells I had hung. I found there were after images of Call Spirit hanging around, but I had no copy of Summon Specific Spirit hung. I must assume that this spell may still be with the framework that Kikakak created, and still has held somewhere. This is a curiosity that I may have to look into sometime, as I do not seem to still be linked to the spell in any way that I can sense.

I took some time to refresh myself and those spells I still had hung: Floating Spider, 2 copies of Release Spirit and 2 copies of Command Spirit, and I added 2 copies of the spell I had learnt from Prince Sigebert – Bind Ty’iga.

On reflection it would seem this ‘dream’ was much more of a spirit walk and I am left with the hope that the calling of Deirdre’s spirit and Kikakak’s ritual were as real as my use of Call Spirit.

As I was finishing up there was a knock on the door and I found that it was Ibemo, he had come to ask me if he could learn my path of sorcery if he was to journey with me when I leave the Courts. I agreed and he told me that, naturally, he would have to have the permission of his House first. I pointed out that the process would be a long one, as where we would be going time would be running differently than it does within the Courts. No short cuts or taking time to practise and expecting no time to have passed for others.

I said goodbye to Ibemo and Chang arrived to take me to talk with Lord Mokoto. It appeared that he was in the mediation chamber, or some room very like it. He was sitting and I sat also.

He wanted to ask me how I would treat Ibemo if he should travel with me and whether I would be inducting him into the Eidolon that Sand and I are initiates of, by which I knew he meant the Pattern. He feels, and I had to agree, that the ability to access the Pattern that is shared by those of Amber blood, was not passed on during the ritual when we gave birth to Ibemo.

He felt concerned that Ibemo might ask me to extend my ability to pass on the ability to address the Eidolon, which he feels would not be in my ability at present. I had to agree as I would have no idea how to do such a thing, and I am not even sure that it could be done, unless it had been included in Ibemo’s makeup during the birthing ritual.

Lord Mokoto seemed satisfied with that. He thought that Ibemo should have a grounding in the path of House Sumi before leaving, but he saw no reason why he should not learn other sorcerous paths.

There is still the worry of course, that if the currently suggested plans for peace between the Courts and Amber were to be accepted, Ibemo would not be able to travel beyond the World Tree, though I think we should leave that problem until we reach it.

Lord Mokoto then brought up another subject. He is aware that I have agreed to join the Mature and Interesting Order of the Loquacious Nettle and that I have been invited to the upcoming ceremony where Zae of House Zigo will undergo induction to the power I have seen used by Kikakak. Another reminder, if it was needed, that news like this travels quickly around the Courts, and given the odd flow of time here, may be known to many almost before we are aware of it.

Lord Mokoto then bade me farewell and said that the next time we meet he will give his answer on Ibemo’s journeying with me, to Ibemo and myself.

After my meeting with Lord Mokoto, Chang took me to Novosad, the meeting place of the Mature and Interesting Order of the Loquacious Nettle. The building looks like a large greenhouse and we were greeted by people with green skin. These look as though they may be able to photosynthesise. Like many places in the Courts, demons are not allowed beyond the ante chamber in this building, so I entered the inner building alone. Within there were many plants, it was almost like being back in some places on Corillaine and instilled a sense of homesickness within me. The double doors to the inner chamber revealed a tentacled plant, the likes of which I should expect within the Courts, which introduced himself as Graham of House Oparin, he is the leader of the Order.

The inner chamber is a seven sided room. In the centre there is a plant which looks like a weed. The chamber is open to the stars of the Abyss.

Around the chamber there were five other people of various forms. Graham showed me to a place around the weed and we all sat, facing inward to the weed. Everything was still. The weed moved slightly. I am informed that this is the Nettle after which the Order is named. Graham said that if I waited in silence I might hear the Nettle speak and after a while of waiting as instructed, there did seem to be a gentle murmuring coming from the Nettle. The more I sat, the more definite was this murmuring, though at that time I would not have called it loquacious.

Those seated members of the Order represent Houses with disadvantages. These Houses are not numerous and have little power, and no powers of divination.

It was explained to me that the Order has no more than seven members, but it can have less. When they meet they ask the Nettle questions and each question has one word from each member, thus they can never be more than seven words long. The questions are spoken in order, by the members seated around the Nettle, then they must wait and listen for an answer. The answers always come in three words and, as I subsequently found, are not immediately clear.

They also said that they had chosen the replacement for the member who had recently been lost, by asking the Nettle. I did not pry into the question asked or the answer the Nettle had given, but I wonder if they were just directed to invite one of us, or whether they were given some indication that I would be joining them.

Three questions can be asked at each meeting and I was given the opportunity to phrase each question for this gathering.

The first question asked was, How can Oberon’s descendants leave Chaos safely, and the answer given was, Succession – Election – Funeral.

The second question asked was, What has happened to Amber, and the answer given was, Ragnarok – Return – Rebirth.

The third question asked was in response to the dreams of threat to Amber that Constance has reported. It was, Is Amber currently under a technological threat, and the answer given was, Unseelie – Abadon – Argent.

I was surprised at the result of this ritual, as it would seem that I could hear the answers given by the Nettle much more clearly than any other member of the Order. Whether this is because of my specific background on Corillaine, or because of my Amber inheritance? Maybe it was because they were my questions or maybe some other factor? I do not know. It will be interesting if I attend another meeting of the Order where the questions are phrased by another member, whether the answers will be as clear.

The first answer points towards the plans that have been discussed previously among the cousins and is clearer to me than the second and third answers. In the second answer none of the members were sure what Ragnarok means and in the third answer none were sure what any of the words mean, but all felt that they were names of places or people.

There was not much to this meeting beyond the questions and answers, and so I left and let Chang lead me to where Havelock was waiting for me, so that he could paint a trump of me.

There was little for me to do, other than pose, during the session with Havelock, and so I was minded to try to catch some insight into the art of creating a trump, but I do not have the grounding in the work to understand what little of what Havelock was doing that I could see. All the work was done by him.

I did however, ask him if he knew anything of the term Ragnarok, and I regretted asking almost immediately as he had a great deal to say, which also distracted me from my interest in the art of trump painting. He talked about myth from the Norse and the followers of Odin, of whom Bragi is a representative, and from whom Havelock received the poem he won at the races. Havelock linked that poem in some part to Ragnarok, but there was so much to take in, and this subject is obviously one of Havelock’s passions, that I feel we must all meet to discuss this later so that Havelock can do justice to this subject, and so that my cousins can investigate the aspects of this that relate to their own personal paths.

The Inauguration of Zae of House Zigo

I and my cousins were invited to attend on the assaying of Zae of House Zigo and her potential ascendance to the state of Chaos Lady, with all that that may entail.

This was a formal event and as such required the wearing of formal attire. It was held at the Keeper’s residence, which we found was the official residence of Suhuy. We arrived at what appeared as a hole in the ground, from with noxious fumes and vapours were arising. The place did not look inviting but we descended the stone steps which led down into the hole.

At the base of the staircase we found ourselves privy to another reminder that we were in the Courts. We were in a grand feasting hall. The walls were set with stained glass windows through which light was coming, although common sense told me that we were underground. Of course common sense does not apply in this place, something we are too quick to forget.

All of the major personalities of Amber appeared to be here, including Deirdre, though I am not fully cognisant of all of them, and they were standing around in groups, talking, as people do before a party, forming small groups. I moved to talk to Llewella and Sand but was shooed away by Llewella with the excuse that they were engaged in ‘girls talk’, although in line with that they did accept Sorashi and Deirdre into their little group.

So I moved to where William and Constance were talking and I passed on the answers that I had received from the Nettle. Constance was very interested in the mention of the Unseelie and she agreed that the two further words from the third answer may be places, but she had no idea about them, or about Ragnarok. She felt that these answers should be passed on to Caine and so we sought him out amongst the guests there.

We found Caine talking with Bleys, and William told them that Julian is being held in the estate of House Karm by a group calling themselves ‘Corporate Security’. Constance, Caine and Bleys then talked about Constance’s dream of Julian confronting those who wished to damage the forest, and her subsequent walk with Julian to the stables, and of her encounters there. She believes that her dream shows that Julian is imprisoned, much as William stated.

Caine and Bleys brought Constance to see that her previous visiting with Julian was probably not with him, but with a shapeshifter. They said that they had repeatedly attempted to contact Julian by trump since the affair at the Duomo, but that each time they had found that he was sleeping. This is a worrying state of affairs and is in line with him being kept captive by House Karm.

After my recent experiences with dream and the overlap between dream and reality, I wonder if it is possible, or if possible, wise, to summon the spirit of a sleeper while they sleep, or indeed while they are kept in an artificial sleep, in which it would seem Julian is being kept.

Also we discussed my meeting with the Nettle and the answers that it had given. Caine and Bleys were very shocked by Constance’s dream that had led to my second question and the answers the Nettle had given. They agreed that is should not be possible for a technological attack to be mounted on Amber, and this has increased their already overwhelming desire to return to Amber.

I now wonder if indeed Amber is as secure as has been thought, as we have no contact outside the Courts, apart from mine and Sand’s connection with Corillaine, and we do not know what had befallen the shadows out beyond the Courts, though some must still exist for the Courts to plan to import people from shadow for the Opera.

House Zigo arrived without a lot of formality. Three members of the House arrived and just mixed in with those already present, with no formal announcements or introductions, although we did not need introductions for the three – Hector, Cobol and Malafesia.

Wherren of House Zigo arrived separately from the rest of the House, but accompanied by Aunt Flora. They took their places as the table and we all moved to join them. The table was oval in shape, with a space in the centre, and I was seated next to Zae, who was at one end of the table. On the other side of me were Constance and then Darig. Around the table, on the other side of Zae, was Cobol and then a vacant seat. We were to find out later who this empty seat, and two more, were for.

Around the room there were archways which showed different orientations, not something to be so shocking after our time in the Courts. There was stained glass visible which swirled with a hypnotic pattern, which every now and again coalesced into a scene of conflict, of fights between various forms of knight against creatures that were more often than not, Dragons.

I wonder how much of an estate reflects the nature of the owner, especially an estate owned by such a one an Suhuy. Not a deliberate, conscious reflection, but a reflection of the underlying nature of the being. We should pay more attention to our surroundings.

We speculated that the three vacant seats were set out for Julian, who must have sent a refusal, and for Corwin and Fiona who appear to still be travelling here, but are caught up in the strange flow of time between the field of battle and the Courts.

I managed to talk to Cobol as Zae had not arrived yet and asked him about the absence of Julian. He explained that House Zigo see this refusal as a snub from House Karm as they were sent message that Julian was indisposed. House Zigo have their suspicions, which mirror ours, that Julian’s indisposition may be against his wishes. It was also explained that the vacant seats were for Havelock and in honour of the fallen.

There was not time for much more discussion as Suhuy arrived with Zae and we all stood to honour their arrival. Then Suhuy summoned food and we set about eating, although I noticed that Zae was not eating. I surmised that she was fasting, a practice familiar to me and a common action taken before a major magical endeavour.

Hector then rose and offered a toast to absent friends.

I could see that Zae was worried and she recounted a dream of the Opera. In the dream everyone entered and then the Opera House was no more and everything inside no longer existed either. This seems to have connections in her mind to the King in Yellow making a House no longer be.

She said that the Opera House has been there forever and everyone knows this, but that at the time of the Battle there was no Opera House, but that now it has been there forever. This is worrying for us and our future (past?) appearance at the Opera and we must not let our vigilance falter. Does this in turn mean that, like the attempt to create a different outcome for the Battle, a different present, the Opera House is part of a different past that includes all the remembered Operas? This place gets stranger by the day.

Something else was happening, figures were forming in the vacant seats. One seat became occupied with one of the fallen of House Zigo – Lantari, and one became occupied by Delwin. This must have had something to do with the toast to absent friends and this being in the house of Suhuy. This was much like the appearances before the attempted change of the timeline, but did not seem to be causing worry among the others.

The more worrying thing, although again this did not seem be eliciting worry from other guests, was the appearance of Brand in the third vacant seat. Brand was now seated between Cobol and Hector, who were talking to him, without problem as far as I could tell.

Then Brand reassured Zae.

I looked at Brand with my sorcerous sight and was almost blinded by the power coming from the Jewel of Judgement. The whole place is suffused with magic and all is linked back to Suhuy, as would be expected. Everything there was happening at his command.

As the food started to run out and the meal came to an end, Suhuy waved his hand and attendants came to clear the table. Suhuy gestured again and Zae entered the centre of the table. She turned to Flora and asked her blessing and Flora leaned in and kissed Zae’s forehead.

Than Suhuy led us from the table into the chapel warning us to ‘mind the step.’ as the floor changed and we travelled through several rooms into a small chapel. On entering he advised us not to disturb the incumbents and we became aware that lying between the pews were skeletons. Each skeleton showed signs of having been through frightful death and they exhibited various body forms. The windows of the chapel also showed scenes of horrible fates happening to various beings. Scenes and remains of previous applicants?

Suhuy then warned us that he was about to summon a Power and that some of us might be tempted to counter by summoning the Amber equivalent, which we must resist. Having heard of the effects of that summoning in other areas of the Courts, I cannot imagine how much more powerful such a summoning would be in this place, and I am glad that none of us did respond.

The proceedings were interrupted by a chuckle from the balcony and we looked to see Dworkin seated at an organ. At a nod from Suhuy, Dworkin started playing a discordant tune.

Zae entered in silence and came to where Suhuy stood at the front of the chapel. She turned to us and bid us all remember her as she was then, then she turned back to Suhuy.

Then the music started up again and we all felt an ominous premonition. All of us felt a need to reach for the Pattern, but none of us succumbed. Members of House Zigo were also changing shape, presumably to the forms that are more representative of themselves.

Then two women screamed and a horrible, reptilian face appeared on a wall. The face and head of a huge serpent then came out of the wall, followed by its body, and it took Zae away somewhere, though where I could not say. Suhuy then urged us out and we noticed that, as we left, the ghosts that had joined us at the meal were starting to fade.

We came out to a stone bridge, and our demons were waiting there on the far side to take us on to wherever the fates of Chaos dictate next.

As we were leaving Constance was trying to get us to listen to her ideas to somehow force entry into House Karm and rescue Julian, possibly using Julian’s horse.