The Battle of the Abyssal Plain

The personal diary of William, son of Finndo

I don't know where to begin.

It seems strange to talk about the time before Amber came to Chaos, because for a place where everything is in constant flux, my years here fade and merge into one. There are incidents, of course, that I remember (and ones that no-one will let me forget) but the countless battles fought in Diptera's domain differ in detail - weather conditions here, morale here - but overwhelmingly the same. Learn to make best use of one’s forces; focus strength where the enemy is weak. Dissipate where the enemy is strong. Fight the battles on your terms rather than his. And when all is against you, your troops are few, the enemy overwhelming? Fight on, because victory is as much a consequence of willpower as it is of manpower. Or as DeLambre once put it - "If he flinches, he dies."

The last battle in Diptera is the starting point then, because that was the only one that was substantially different. Our foes were impressive, our side ridden with doubt and dysentery, with mumblings in the ranks as to my competence. DeLambre had rounded up what passed for an officer corps and we had planned an interesting variant on the Golden Path to drive them towards the marshes that our few scouts swore existed to the East. First contact with the enemy was just before dawn - light enough to kill by, too dark for them to see how weak we were. And we drove them before us - their command lines cut down by archers, their supplies enflamed. It was an easy victory. Too easy, in fact. And yes; I'm aware of the cliché involved in trotting out that old canard but the forces we faced didn't fight - they faded. As swords fell and arrows flew our enemy disappeared into the morning mists and I found myself alone, save for loyal DeLambre, with nothing facing me but the wind - an abrupt end to a battle, even by Chaos' standards.

We waited, then, he and I. We had fought too many battles together to let discipline slip. Weapons were examined; Claideb and Der Rückenshild placated and clothes laundered. "Always take the time to darn a sock or sharpen a misericorde" - DeLambre again. And then we waited. Soon, the call came from Grandmother; to attend on her in the Thelbane and to dress well. DeLambre saw to my wardrobe and to the route to Thelbane and I practiced a neutral expression against the barbs that would no doubt come my way.

The Thelbane was filled according to protocol and shaped this day like a great cavern under the ground. I took my place behind Grandmother and stood to attention as a great host filled the hall - creatures that were to my certain knowledge not of Chaos - real where Chaos is illusion, solid where Chaos is mutable. Earth and Fire to the Air and Water I was used to. From the gossip I learned that a great battle had been fought at the edge of the Courts, and that Amber and her warriors had prevailed but that a storm of great power had forced them into the arms of the Courts - still nominally victors, but surrounded by a landscape that they did not understand.

This lack of understanding manifested quickly - even more quickly than I had made a similar (if somewhat larger) faux pas. From the floor of the great chamber a Pattern summoning began; Grandmother instantly hissed at me to interrupt as she pulled together the lines of power that would defend those she deemed worthy against the destruction that was about to be let loose. Shapes shifted and wings unfurled all around me as the floor separating us from the Abyss began to unweave.

Luckily, sense prevailed as I reached the floor and by the time I was amongst the forces of Amber the attempt to call on Pattern had subsided and shocked looks directed me to the culprit. One Constance, ward of Julian; names that meant nothing to me. Rather than waste time trying to unpick the question of who Julian was and why he was Warden of Arden when it had been Rhiannon's role, I merely warned Constance against the use of Pattern in this place; she, for her part, had worked out the wisdom in inaction, even if she had not realised the catastrophic consequences that were possible to the unguarded.

It seemed that many of the ambassadors of Amber were being sent to the Houses of Chaos - the Elders to the Great Houses, and the younger to the Septs. I did not hear where Constance had been sent to, but I did hear of one other name; Sorashi to Minobi Sept of Hendrake. Knowing that Hendrake and their Sept would deal with none but a warrior, and hearing that Diptera's final lord had died in the battle against Amber and his demesne dissolving like a dream, I sought Sorashi.

She met me and welcomed me at Stronghold where Countess Larsa took notes on how humans interact, especially with regard to reproduction. I am not sure if Sorashi realised the significance of the Countess’s loneliness, and why her questions were quite as direct as they were, but Sorashi dealt with them in good manner, and managed to put me at my ease with an aplomb that I envied. A diplomat sent to a warrior's house? Or was her dance in battle as graceful?

We spoke of those others of Amber - she appeared to know only of Constance, and her only because of the ructions caused in the Thelbane. She had heard that Constance was in Spectral - a Sept of House Karm and thus opposed to the Royal Coalition. Making our apologies to the Countess, DeLambre took us to Spectral; a place I had visited once before, and found as distasteful then. On our arrival it seemed that Constance had been as quick in her actions here as she had been in the Thelbane; she had assaulted the head of the house - stabbing him in some dispute over heraldry, from what I could understand. In the interests of good relations (they claimed) Spectral would not hold this against Constance or Amber, though when we came to see her she claimed that they had assaulted her, ripping the image of Arden from her mind against her will, stabbing her to see the colour of her blood and feeding her nothing for hours on end. A large part of me was sympathetic to one experiencing Chaos for the first time. Still, it would be untrue not to note that a small part of me was incredulous that someone could behave with as little grace as I had done previously - at least my errors were spread over a number of months.

Incredulity aside, we agreed that finding those other youngsters of Amber was vital if we were to thrive here - without our own House (House Amber or House Barimen? Grandmother always preferred the former) we would be greatly disadvantaged against Chaos and both Sorashi and Constance agreed to journey with me to find the others. DeLambre had heard that Caine's son was visiting Moloch and, as an Askaris Sept I hoped that my name would win us entry there. The Gatekeeper would not let us in without the name of Caine's son, and despite my carefully assessed desire to kill it and enter and search, the ladies demurred. At that point, I realised that the only alternative left to us - none of the names of our cousins (just how large is my family now?) were known to us, nor their destinations - was to visit with Grandmother and to introduce Constance and Sorashi to her.

My timing was impeccable; she was sat at dinner with Caine, one of the Elders of Amber and my Uncle, it seems.

Not just sat with him, of course. That would have been far too easy. It seems that the visit of an Elder of Amber to House Askaris necessitates dinner with all of the Chaos Ladies of the House. Imagine, as I said to DeLambre later, taking two young, attractive women to dinner with your grandmother, only to find that she had invited all of your great-aunts as well. Oh, and that any one of them could obliterate you at a thought. He riposted that he had eaten the way out of the stomach of his mother and fought off the depredations of the thousands of brood-siblings that were doing the same thing at the same time. I still thought he had the better of it.

We were invited to dinner and much was made of the fact that I had found two attractive cousins so quickly; with Uncle Caine taking part in the merriment. He did tell us that his son was called Dirk, but we decided that we would follow the leads he gave us to the others first, starting with Malastar Sept of Zephyra, again of the Royal Coalition. There we met with Havelock, son of Bleys (whoever he might be). Havelock knew of me when we were introduced; I wondered if the story of Diptera was being spread to all my cousins.

As we travelled on to Petrus Sept of Hendrake we began to discuss the family, and as we made our way in to meet two more cousins; Darig and Margrath - the news was broken to me that I had been away from Amber for substantially longer than I thought - despite the 150 years or so I thought I had been in Chaos, some three thousand years had passed in Amber. Grandfather was dead, little by-blow Eric had been regent, Benedict was still Marshall of the Armies, however, which was one of the few pieces of good news that I received.

As we discuss strategy - it is a agreed that we will work together and share information between us as this offers us the best chance of leaving Chaos and returning at some point to Amber - I realise that I have seen Darig somewhere before - either here in Chaos or in Amber (so many, many years before). He claims never to have visited Chaos, and is not of an age that I could remember him at home (and how strange it is to think of that word again). He is unwilling to speak of his parentage or his connection to the Amber Royal family too. And we are all of the Blood - this I am sure of. Amber would not trust negotiations to those who are tied to it only by loyalty.

We break and depart for the places that we will rest; our plan simply to meet after sleeping and to visit House Barimen, and to track down those of our cousins who we have yet to speak to. DeLambre guides all safely to their demesnes and, lacking Diptera, the only place that has been mine this past hundred and fifty years, I turned my path towards Askaris and the compassion of my Grandmother.