Duck Soup

The personal diary of Margrath, son of Sand, pt 9

In House Sumi I dreamed. In the dream I met with Delwin on the edge of a wood. He was resting on a style and ruffling his hand through the hair of what I initially thought to be a hunting dog, but which on closer inspection turned out to be a wolf. Delwin was armed with a crossbow and as I approached the wolf growled at me.

Delwin expressed his worry about my mother, Sand. He feels that the delay over the funeral is causing her serious concern, which I have to agree with.

He is aware that something has happened to Amber, though what he could not be sure of. As for Corillaine he does not know. He also had a feeling about the Far Realms, although he felt that untouched was not the right word to describe what had befallen them, rather the word ‘unscathed’ may be appropriate. This says to me that the effect that spread through Shadow has perhaps touched the shores of the Far Realms, like the waves of a sea touches an island, but leaves it intact.

However, Shadow is not Amber or the Far Realms, but is a reflection of Amber, and if Amber has changed then Shadow will have changed as well.

We also talked of Babylon, Abaddon and Argent. Delwin thinks Abaddon is one of the circles of Hell or some similar place. He also said that his grandfather brought up the subject of Argent the other day, presumably when Delwin appeared at the gathering in Suhuy’s domain honouring the appraisement of Zae.

Delwin also mentioned that there are a lot of undead in my future, which should come as no surprise as we may well be facing House Karm over their treatment of Julian, and they are specialists in necromancy. Delwin also mentioned that ‘not all undead are bad’ though he did not expand on this. It waits to be seen which undead are not bad and how we are to tell the difference.

I asked Delwin if he wished his body to be taken back to Corillaine and re-buried and he felt there could be a question over whether that could be done. I am not aware of the specific burial customs in the Courts, and I am sure that these change over time and are as set and permanent as was/is the Opera house. Burial here may involve consigning the body to the Abyss, in which case we could only perform a token burial on Corillaine unless we again delve into the Abyss to retrieve the body.

Delwin also made a point of our family history making us not like others of Corillaine, and he implied that we may not follow the journey of others that lead to becoming an Ancestor, which could remove the necessity of being re-buried on Corillaine.

It would seem, from how I understand these things, that our Amber heritage makes us more ‘real’ than those that arise solely from Shadow, and also we would have to find what has happened in Corillaine, and how those now there explain what has happened, to know how we are treated. Given the varying time flows there is no way of knowing how much, or how little, time has passed in Corillaine, until one of us returns there.

At this point I woke from my dream, back in House Sumi.

As I rested and meditated on my dream I thought about Constance and her meetings with Julian, and my thoughts turn to the question as to whether she has talked to a real Julian since he has been domiciled in House Karm. My thoughts also led me to wonder if there is some way of contacting Julian, by treating him as though he were a spirit or ancestor.

Elsewhere it might be possible to divine the location of a spirit, or indeed of a person, but with the altered and variable geography of the Courts, that would be useless. However, it may be possible to task a Ty’iga with finding Julian’s location and current condition. This would though, be very dangerous, not just because it involves dealing with a Ty’iga, but because there is the likelihood of House Karm having knowledge of these spirits and being warded against them, if not having the ability to take control of one.

I attended breakfast where Ibemo invited me to sit opposite him. While enjoying breakfast I noticed that his eyes are of two different colours. One is green and one is brown, which, I note, is the colour of the eyes of most of the members of House Sumi. Also, while most members of House Sumi have round, moon-shaped faces and muscular bodies, Ibemo has a thinner face. In a world of shape-shifters this is an interesting appearance and I have to wonder if it is a deliberate choice of Ibemo to show ‘his’ mixed heritage, or an unconscious one. Each ‘day’ I am finding that I know less and more about the Courts.

I also received messages: from Mandor asking me to join him at Woodstock, and from Lord Argoleb inviting me to come and start our training (I must remember to ask him about the separation of body and spirit and about Argent and Abaddon), and also invitations from the Houses of Toltos, Karlin and X concerning meetings to discuss links between out heritages. I must find out more about these houses, especially the most Grey and Self-Effacing House Karlin, for although the House does not appeal I am intrigued to meet Borislav of that house, merely because he is, among other titles, ‘Bearer of the Doohickey of Destruction’.

As the invitation from Mandor may be concerned with the position of Darig, I felt that that was the most important so I had Chang take me to Woodstock.

When I arrived many of my cousins, including Darig, were there already and those that were not arrived soon afterwards. Darig I am happy to find has received a pardon from the High King, which has been negotiated by Mandor.

Mandor then broached the subject of House Karm. He gave us a demonstration of what security means in the Courts by having William leave the room, and demonstrating that the doorway now leads to blank stone. When you are aware of people within your domain and have control over that domain, there is no need to have more than the ability to confuse them by changing the layout and it would be entirely possible, given our reliance on demons to guide us around the Courts, to isolate us somewhere where we could never escape on our own.

If I were to apply sorcery to dismantling the wall it would be possible but would take time and I would have to overcome Mandor’s defences and his strength as a sorcerer. As Sorashi commented, ‘their domain, their reality’.

Mandor suspects that the best way in is to be invited in by a member of the House. He pointed out that House Karm is a large House and if they have broken the rules of hospitality in respect to Julian, there may be some within the House that might be inclined to help us.

We decided at this point that it was wise to speak in private, beyond (?) the hearing of Mandor, so we travelled to Brú na Bóinne with William. There were two demons outside the House playing what looked like pat-a-cake. They stopped as we arrived and we informed them that we were intending to meet outside the house. After a while Melvin came out to greet us and offer us refreshments. We asked Melvin to go back inside and leave us to discuss some matters in private, which he was happy to do.

Havelock then told us of a trump reading he had performed, with the question on how to release Julian from his affliction. There were cards talking of negotiation and misrepresentation. The hidden influence of the chariot reversed indicating one who rides roughshod over others and a message via William that the chariot must not be allowed to ride over Julian. There were also cards referring to Havelock and William, and The Tower, which Havelock interprets as either a physical place or the fall of House Karm. The final card related to planning and the pivot was the card of the Pattern. This endeavour may hinge on how the Pattern is used or not used.

Havelock was persuaded to perform a new reading with the question ‘What is the nature of Julian’s affliction?’ This brought up lies, deception, nightmare or dreams, negotiation and the hidden influence of the Knave of Wands/William reversed.

There was also a card reading performed on the question of how we could use Morgenstern to find Prince Julian and the straightforward answer to this was that we can’t but that he is a good means of getting away, though I suspect this may just apply to Julian.

We talk of dreams and I mention the message I had of there being many undead in my future, which is greeted with little surprise as we are facing a House of necromancers, although now I think that there was no mention from Delwin on how far into my future the undead were and that I failed to stress Delwin’s consideration that not all undead are bad.

Sorashi has been invited to judge a duel that will be fought between Melvin and another, and before we entered Brú na Bóinne to speak to him, Sorashi also announced that she is a shape-shifter, a fact that did not produce any real level of surprise.

Inside we found that the duel was instigated at the Opera – for an event that we all have memory of but that cannot have happened according to our world views, as the Opera House has never now existed, this event does seem to be a focal point. At some point Melvin met his opponent, who said something about Sorashi which Melvin took offence at, he replied to his opponent, she replied to him and Melvin challenged her to a duel.

It was felt that there should be some preparatory practice before the duel took place and so Constance and Melvin agreed to a practice duel. Seeing how this was going, William stepped in and attacked Constance in the hopes of firing Melvin into defending her, which worked as Melvin switched his attention to William and managed to land a blow on him, at which point the sparring was stopped. DeLambre then appeared offering bandages for William and offering a cloth to Melvin in a manner that appeared to be out of character for the usual manner of demons in the Courts.

Following this Darig also sparred with Melvin and in the course of the sparring landed a blow on Melvin’s arm. This was just a small cut, a pinprick, but with the intent of instilling some for of fighting spirit. The duel will tell if it has been successful.

We also talked about the information I had received on Abaddon being a circle of Hell, one of the Far Realms. I had forgotten that there is a representative of Hell here so it might be interesting to talk to them at some point, if a meeting can be arranged.

We also touched on Babylon being an odd far realm, known locally as Earth. Odin is known there and is obsessed with Ragnarok and there is rumour that He may have been using Babylon as a training ground in preparation.

We then decided to split up as I had promised Sorashi I would come to her new property, the Alhambra, to see what damage it had taken through lack of maintenance, and assess what I could do to repair that damage.

On inspection of the building it consists of a framework with a layer stuck over it, to form the outward appearance. The outer layer was designed to be easily replaced for re-decoration, while the framework is a more long term structure.

As we had been told, lack of maintenance of buildings like this, which are conjurations in an innately chaotic and magical environment, are subject to decay and need constant repairs. This building had been left without any attention so the level of decay was serious in some parts. The framework needed serious attention and the covering was in a condition that meant a piece could easily detach from the framework and fall off. The level of repair would need a team of sorcerers working full time to bring it up to a good condition. However, there was some repair I could make and as Sorashi had to attend the Garden of Delights to judge the duel, she warned me of the possibility of attack and left me to do what I could.

The main focus of my repair work initially was the gatehouse and courtyard, as these are the places of first impression for those visiting the place. I started on the gatehouse and worked there for what seemed like a few hours to me, although it could have been much less or much more.