Lost Anya

The synopsis of an Amber adventure from The Doom that Came to Amber

It’s five months since Albion when Lord Danesh, Master at Arms of the Palace Guard comes to his superior, Lady Bathsheba, with news that Lady Anya has gone missing.

She was supposed to be covering for her mother whilst Fiona is off in shadow. Fiona’s job as Magistra Templi is twofold; a) she officiates in certain ceremonies central to the Church of the Unicorn & b) she keeps tabs on all other religions that impinge upon Amber’s interests. The latter involves exterminating anathema religions, punishing heresy, (both very rare), and maintaining political and diplomatic relations with all the licensed temples in the City, (and some unlicensed ones as well).

Anya was ‘doing the rounds’ with some of the newer temples. According to Lord Danesh, she was due to visit the temples of Arachne, Doppaz Rampant, Ganesha and Mira. She and her guard of six men are now three hours overdue. Danesh has despatched squads to search the streets but with no results is now informing Bathsheba as Captain of the Guard, in charge of Palace security.

Danesh is puzzled. Lady Anya is of no special importance and the people like her. Everyone knows who her mother is and not many people would be willing to cross Fiona. Finally there have been no reports of disturbances anywhere near the routes she could have followed. She and the guardsmen just seem to have vanished! If pressed, Lord Danesh will admit he suspects family!

Bathsheba dragoons various cousins to do the rounds. They learn that Anya vanished after entering the Miran temple, which is currently under a non-reciprocity dispute. Temples are only allowed in Amber if the Church of the Unicorn is allowed to establish a church in the originating shadow, in this case Mirabeau. But Mirabeau is a monotheistic state and refused reciprocity.

It seems Mira is a goddess of Trump so Bathsheba drafts a team composed of Alaric and Aylwin (because they both know something about Trump), Michael, Morwaith and Nathan.

Eventually direct contact is established with Mira herself. Her religion regards anyone who can draw Trump as priestly material and when Anya drew her mother’s trump while in the temple, Mira herself trumped her directly in to Mirabeau along with her guards. Alaric and Aylwin negotiate: both are intrigued by what Mira has to offer and in return for Anya’s release they offer to make compacts with Mira in return for promoting her religion in Amber.

Technically this is treason, but no one asks questions once Anya’s released and Alaric and Aylwin keep quiet about it.