Ann’s Diary part 20: The Awakening
in Brave New Worlds
The Awakening – New Year’s Day 3659 – (the
University, New Amber)
I awoke on a bed
within a room, within a University and a new home in a
I am unsettled,
for as much as I had to acknowledge that I was in essence as unnatural as my
husband, or indeed as the Pimpernel, I am unclear as to how this could be. This
is a riddle that I will attempt for a second time – in my spare time from being
a University Chancellor and a medic.
I have bitten
the bullet, as my Canadian friends would say. I went to offer my help and
skills to the Admiral of the tall ships I could see. For it looked like the
Navy I had served in – and I missed the sea. Crippled, busy and misogynistic
this Admiral [the last is familiar] and I did not state my case with charm, but
nor am I used to being referred to as ‘a little girl’.
I went to see
the King. He seemed a little arrogant – I suppose it goes with the title. He
wanted to know where and what I was and, more important to him, what could I
do. I didn’t understand some of his questions – they may have been more pointed
than I realised but he thinks me a suicide even when I haltingly told him of
the more recent events around me. He ridiculed my faith – even though I have
questioned it myself, but it was strange to be told that Heaven and Hell were
but a shadow of this place called Amber.
I talked to him
about the University and the skills it develops to assist his administration.
He seemed neutral but we must work to win his affections. The King thinks me
insane or shaky at best. I’m not mad. I am very embarrassed and angry at having
been gulled by Dark so very easily and I am angry with Alaric for taking a
decision from me. I had so much to say to him that must now remain unsaid. Life
goes on.
I found myself
in the company of
Peter has taken
me to see things throughout his area of the City and I have had our students go
out to his venues to play and perform and develop their arts in front of more
critical audiences. I have been to a tourney and set arms and legs, all without
my modern treatments. I thank Our Lady that my experiences in more primitive
places have stood me in good stead.
I
had many conversations with