Morwaith’s Conversation with the Unicorn

In The Doom that Came to Amber

Morwaith rises bright and early on the morning of 18th Bull 3658, five days after Beltane. He orders a quick but substantial breakfast and leaves the castle at dawn ‘cos he’s got to move fast if he wants to catch a Unicorn.

Morwaith will gather himself a sturdy horse from the castle stable. A dark coloured great horse, gelding by preference, whatever is closest. It needs to be large with stamina, but therefore will surrender some speed.

It’s no one’s personal horse [unless you want to ‘borrow’ someone’s particular steed – Morgernstern is not in the stables ;-)] so it’s really just a horse – seems healthy to you, anyway, and you know enough about horseflesh to judge.

Pack for a trip into the wilds, with some sort of shelter and rough weather clothes.

First Morwaith will ride down to the glade of the Unicorn on the edge of Kolvir. Here he has come closest to the Unicorn before and here he will meditate upon the Unicorn and his previous encounters. This is not just a physical journey, but as a devout of the Unicorn it is very spiritual.

[Would you mind listing previous encounters, these are news to me and Unicorn sightings are particularly rare - there’s evidence that Gerard saw the Unicorn for the first time with Corwin in 9PiA.

On a previous occasion Morwaith travelled to the glade and encountered an elderly woman. The impression received was that this was the Unicorn or possibly some agent. Morwaith believes this to have been the Unicorn or a very direct messenger. I think it was before or during the Albion affair.

That one I recall. I think it was more recent than Albion but without a diary for Morwaith, I can’t say for sure.

Else Morwaith attended Unicorn services in the time before Timon, when he lived on Kolvir (or a like place) with Dworkin. This is why his faith harks back to those days. In those times I understood the Unicorn presented herself at some festivals to receive sacrifice and that these were held at the grove. If this is the case then Morwaith has seen her a number of times. If I am mistaken, I do not know what Morwaith is doing worshipping the Unicorn because it is these incidents around which his faith is based.

You were born in 475 DC, Oberon outlawed the old style of Unicorn worship in 511 so your very earliest memories would be as you state above. However, it’s not like she made a habit of it - let’s say it happened once!]

Then holding these meditations on the Unicorn as a search parameter and well relaxed, visualise the Pattern in mind and try to view through it; searching the near shadows if possible for a sign of the Unicorn.

Meditating on horseback isn’t easy so you dismount, tether the horse to a tree and assume the lotus position.

You’re still practising with the Patternsight but you can bring it to mind within a couple of minutes and you don’t need to walk it to search nearby, which means you can keep it up for a reasonable time. Feeling entirely calm and relaxed, spiritually receptive, you start scanning the area.

The trouble is Kolvir is very, very real and Patternsight cannot see through real things. Therefore, you can’t see anywhere that you couldn’t before and, since the Grove of the Unicorn is in a dell, your vision beyond the lip of the Grove is poor indeed.

All the near shadows are less real than Amber but, even so, remember you couldn’t see into the volcano of Kolvi in Eden. As it is, Kolvir itself is the heart of Amber. You’re just a couple of miles from the castle and therefore from the Pattern, so things are about as real as they can get and that eclipses vision elsewhere. You could probably achieve something along these lines but it would take practise and the Real World would keep getting in the way. It’s the visual equivalent of not being able to walk shadow this close to Amber.

However, while not allowing you to see through the real trees and rocks around, it does let you see what there is with greater clarity, almost as if seeing through polaroid glass or a special colour filter. Some things stick out that weren’t apparent before: the dew on a fern, the iridescence of a lizard scuttling away under a stone… a single cloven hoof-print by the spring close by. By squinting through Patternsight and lens [I assume you mean your conjured object] you think you see further hoof prints but you’re not sure.

Finally realising that sometimes Powers can’t beat simply getting off your arse and looking for yourself, you wander over to the spring. There it becomes clear that the Patternsight merely spotted a particular hoof-print that caught the light in a certain way. When you stop to look closely, other hoof-prints lead out of the Grove on the north side, up hill.

Hopefully I can at least follow a trail even if my hunting skills lack other refinement (age of mark, speed of deposition and the like).

It’s not difficult to follow. If you’d stopped to look around before going for the meditation and Patternsight, you’d probably have spotted the trail immediately.

You follow the trail uphill but after about a mile the trail leaves the grass and runs over hard rock, where you lose it.

Rather than gathering the Pattern to mind Morwaith reaches for the Pattern lens. Glimpsing through it he tries to achieve the same clarity of vision that happened in the grove. Using this he scans the edges of the rocky area for further sign, holding in mind his vision of the Unicorn.

Patiently, he scans the rock surface from side to side, moving progressively further away in his search for spoor. After several minutes of intense scrutiny, he finds nothing and reaches to put the lens away with a deep sigh of disappointment.

It’s at the moment he’s actually removing the lens that he glimpses a brief flicker of light. Hurriedly putting the lens back, he looks upward, much further than he’d been searching. After a few seconds, he catches it again, a brief mote of silvery light that flashes for a fraction of a second high up the mountain, near the peak of Kolvir. Must be really close to the flat area where all the excitement of Beltane happened.

Morwaith remounts and heads for the peak, using the quickest route he knows. This after all is close to the area he inhabited in his youth. There will be no stop to search along the way as the path he believes is already apparent. If it is necessary for speed to dismount and climb the mountain he will do so.

You don’t catch any further glimpses of whatever it is on the summit and when you crest the last rise and view the flat area of the peak, you’re almost not disappointed to find no sign of your quarry.

Now he is here Morwaith surveys the ground carefully for spore. Hopefully after this search he will be rested and again scans with the lens.

You look but find nothing. However, you’ve not been searching long when you hear a woman’s voice behind you chuckle gently.

“Have you lost something?” Her voice is deeper than a woman’s wont, as deep as a man’s, though clearly very feminine.

Turning, you see a tall woman dressed in white with hair you can only describe as silver, giving her an aged appearance the rest of her belies. In contrast to the rest of her appearance, her eyes are shockingly dark, almost black. “Perhaps I can help you find it?”

Morwaithe turns, bowing and says “Milady, I was searching for Unicorns. I recall from my youth that one was well thought of in these parts. As I have been absent for some time and only now return, I seek again another glimpse.”

She laughs; deep, clear and rippling, it flows over you like water. “People who chase Unicorns catch them so seldom the phrase has lately become a euphemism for pointless ambition.” She gestures to her side and her direction of movement. “Come, knight, take a turn with me and tell me why a man of such obvious intelligence chases Unicorns.”

Morwaith moves as bidden to her side. “It is often, milady, that faith steps ahead of intelligence. Recently I have returned from long exile to find the kingdom I left in disarray. There is no order in this new world. Princes and princesses dress as gods and fight for power and much that is the legacy of the old king haunts the land.

“It is always that in times of trouble even men of intelligence turn to their faith, if they have it. The worship of new gods leaves me cold; the divine cannot be born within time. The blood of Oberon gives power, but not divinity. At founding Amber had one goddess, she who predates the Pattern and only one goddess deserves my worship. This is why I am looking for the Unicorn.”

She comes over initially as mocking, though genuinely amused rather than critical. “And how does a god dress these days? For that matter, what know you of what Oberon’s blood may confer?”

Without waiting for an answer, she goes on, a tinge of bitterness entering her voice. “Think not that Godhead should be that eagerly sought; worship, old or new, may be a trap to waylay the unwary and many gods may seek other careers.” Her tone then softens and she directs a more gentle glance toward you. “But come, tell me what you would say to any Unicorn you might find.”

“In the recent past I have encountered many who consider themselves enemies of the Unicorn; many who have spoken badly of her and none who openly speak well of she who, in my youth, I glimpsed. I have visited the churches that bear her name and talked to clerics who mouth her devotions, yet in these places I have not felt that which, as a child, coursed through her worship.”

He pauses and smiles. “Understand, milady, I am not an old man chasing his youth, though I admit I miss those innocent times.” Now shaking his head. “I would offer to the Unicorn my service and assistance against her enemies. Previously I have chosen sides badly, but I cannot question this faith in her and so it is by her side I stand for good or ill.”

Her manner becomes gravely questioning. “Innocent?” She nods in acknowledgement of your words. “Faith is the kernel of the numinous and even one such as I can appreciate genuine expressions of belief.

“Yet you evade the question, I think; She of whom you speak receives the true and honest service of many and, despite your concerns, her worship grows. Why do you not, like they, offer your service within the temple?”

“Milady, I have said what I seek and what I found in those temples. If they are the home of the Unicorn then maybe my search is a vain one or maybe I should keep searching for the Unicorn I recall. I am no templar with trappings of liturgy. If the only Unicorn is that of the temple then it is time for me to climb down from the mountain, from here that was once her sanctuary. In the heart of the faithful is a subjective image of the divine.”

Once more he shakes his head, stops walking and looks towards the field’s edge. “I have been searching for the Unicorn of this place, the forests, the trees and the old ways. Milady, there is nothing so foolish as an old fool on an old fool’s quest. Thank you for pointing to my folly.” He starts towards the path down.

“Morwaith?” Something about your name, so gently uttered, makes you halt and turn. “You forget yourself. If you would offer yourself to her service, know that she is here, about you: in the forests, the trees, the temples and the towns – in the old ways.”

Her eyes, so dark and deep, seem to bore into your soul, laying bare your innermost secrets. But her voice is all gentleness and you feel she loves you despite, perhaps almost because of your faults. [Jim, read Corwin’s reaction near the end of Courts of Chaos.]

“You call yourself ‘innocent’, ‘old’ and ‘fool’ but in your heart you know you are none of these things.” She reaches a hand to you, smiling. “I know you, your history, your heart and your soul. You wish to be old but have been robbed of experience and are like to a babe. That grates, does it not? You are not an old man seeking his youth but a young man seeking his age. Neither are you a fool, for in that shortened span that has been your lot you have assayed Powers and Arts, mastering talents truly unique. You could not have found me had you not.

“As to ‘innocence’: did you come here just to pledge your devotion? Did you not hope for something in return? You say you are dissatisfied with the temple rituals, well so are many, I most of all. Have you considered that the Unicorn of your youth may herself be constrained by the Unicorn of the Temple? I cannot change them but perhaps you can?”

Her voice, still gentle and loving, now has the faintest note of pleading; she needs something from you. “In return, what would you have from me: knowledge, power, respect?” In tones of invitation amounting almost to a compulsion, she finishes, “Ask me, I implore! Mothers live only to be needed by their children.”

Morwaith drops to one knee. “Goddess, I see know how Oberon chained you with temples. Given time I will change this and bring worship of the more primal kind. If you were to give in return I would seek knowledge, for with knowledge comes power and with power, respect. You hold the knowledge of parts of the universe such as the void that I thirst for. Let me learn at your feet and be an apostle for you in the world.”

She visibly winces at the use of the word ‘goddess’ and her voice comes out harsh; you didn’t think she could sound like that. “Speak not that name to me; the most reviled of sons who imprisoned father, brother, children and wives - aye, and his mother, in the narrowest cage of all.”

Then her voice becomes gentle again and she smiles down at you. “Come Morwaith, you must stand in my presence for we are alike, you and I.” She gestures for you to walk with her. “You crave knowledge? Then know how all this came to be…

“Most people are what they believe themselves to be; my grandson, Gerard, is the strongest because he and all others believe there are none stronger. But you and I are different. You are what you are because you were fashioned so by your creator and later whittled by others, notably Timon.

“Like you, I have been fashioned by others. It was the one you know as Dworkin who first tricked me. I was wild and free and, despite being as old as anything in the Universe, curious and naive. The poisonous dwarf deceived me into becoming the focus for his Grand Design, offering his creation as the ultimate sacrifice, first making me the ‘Goddess’, at a time when I could not know what that meant.

“At first I revelled in the attention, bathing in the sweet blood of sacrifice that flowed as the Oisen in torrent. But to be a Goddess means you are constrained by the beliefs of the faithful and Oberon used that faith to fetter and tame me, turning a wild Primal Entity into the sweet, cloven-hoofed little thing of legend.

“I tried to escape but I was tied to the Grand Design; my power had gone into it and I was nothing without it. Still, it was power of a sort; the most gilded of cages, perhaps, but when Brand marred the Grand Design, I felt it as a pain in my heart.

“With the Grand Design’s redrawing, I had hoped Oberon would set me free but instead he sundered me from the Grand Design and now my only existence arises from my worship in the minds of the people. Thus I am also what others believe me to be, a shadow of what I once was.

“Both of us seek a way out: I must extend and change my worship to attain the freedom I once knew while I know you crave your rightful position within the family.

“You offer me your service and I accept but can offer you no power for I no longer have any to give, but power can be seized from another; Timon’s essence still exists and it would be just and fitting that he should be so used. It would be difficult and dangerous but it is the quickest way to regain that which he stole. In return, yes, restoring the Goddess’ worship to its primal essence will be a good start and perhaps, one day, together, we will escape into the void.

“What say you?”

Morwaith stands slowly “To revenge myself and reclaim what was stolen from me, that I would do with willingness. I thought the thief extinguished or I would have sought his downfall sooner. M’lady I would know more.”

“No, he was not slain, but still suffered a downfall, trapped much as you were; not in a card...a mirror. Then, centuries later, long after your own release, the one you know as Dworkin transferred Timon’s essence to the same card that entrapped you and, for all I know, lies there still. You will need great power and skill to do what you have to do and you should not act rashly.”

She looks away south, over Garnath, perhaps admiring the view. “While you are about your endeavours, you will probably not be able to avoid talking with him. You should be aware. As with all those who meddle with the Art of the Mystic Image, he is subtle and not to be trusted. Should he converse with you, keep your wits about you and remember what he did to you.”