Terisa’s Diary part 21: The Council of the Realms

in Brave New Worlds

21^st Goat 3659

It turns out that while I was transporting food (a change from holding the horses but just as necessary!!) arrangements were being made for a summit meeting of representatives from the Pattern realms. A pre-meeting meeting was being held in Paris, Ann (Alaric’s wife, well widow I suppose, and almost the sacrifice at the re-making) has been there before and most of us will stand out somewhat but I’ll worry about that when I get there. She still looks dreadful, I look for any small improvement when I see her at breakfast each day but there is none as yet.

Peter takes Ann and I to Paris through a Trump call from Flora. When we arrive, there is a man in the room whom Peter addresses as 'Prince Merlin'. I am pleased that Flora survived the re-making; after helping her in the psyche duel we became quite good friends. Peter Trumps through the others: Aylwin, his half sister Anya, Bathsheba, Luke and Morwaith.

Flora offers us suitable clothes. I find a 'dress and jacket', unlike anything I have worn before but apparently the height of fashion, and tie my hair back. It is a black dress that only comes down to my knees with a matching jacket. White piping alleviates the black but I much prefer my own clothes. The shoes are apparently a basic black court shoe but they would be out of place in the courts of Teran or Mordant and would be no use whatsoever in a forest or park. I keep my own necklace as it is my focus and I don’t want to be without that.

Flora tells us we are in a suite in the Paris Hilton Hotel and suggests a tour. Peter asks whether there are sufficient floors to hire one for each Pattern Realm for the summit and it appears there would be. We leave the suite and take the stairs down to the foyer. It is daylight outside (about mid-day someone says) and there are ‘check-in desks’, ‘computers’ and ‘telephones’ plus lots of strange gadgets and outfits. I try to work my way round to Ann to talk to her as she has been here before.

Peter recognises a man in the foyer whom no one else seems to know. He introduces himself as Omar. He had been wondering how to get in touch with us. Apparently he was a friend of Alaric’s (not necessarily a selling point) and was also related to Khitan, an ambassador who had been in some trouble in the previous Amber (also not good). He had been at the re-making ceremony.

Flora was trying, somewhat unsuccessfully (unusually for her) to say goodbye and get him to go away when he said he had news of Dark. Flora gets a key and suggests we all go to the banqueting hall to see the meeting room and have a little privacy. She leads the way and it really is a magnificent room with a big oval table in the centre.

Flora asks Omar about Dark. Apparently Dark is very keen to talk to everyone as there are too many Pattern realms at the moment and the number must be reduced. Our views over which should stay and which should go will influence what will happen. Flora points out that we all have different allegiances and it turns out that Omar has his own Pattern realm (but doesn’t seem able to use Trump, I wonder what happened there?) although Morwaith thinks it is somehow not a ‘full strength’ Pattern realm like the others.

Dark apparently dropped Omar off in Paris and it is unlikely that it was a coincidence so he must know about the meeting and the pre-meeting meeting – has anyone invited him or he will turn up like Carabosse, the evil fairy in Sleeping Beauty, and put a curse on us! Then again, maybe he’s done that already!

Flora suggests lunch in the hotel and Merlin goes to arrange it, resulting in 2 waiters bringing menus round. They are in a strange language which some of the others (Ann & Aylwin) can read so I leave it to them to sort out the food.

Morwaith explains that the people we remember from before the re-making are either alive now or were dead before the re-making, similarly with places. We have all noticed gaps in our memories. Morwaith's particular concern is over Roger who was very attached to the old castle – old Amber & Rebma apparently still exist and Martin, it appears, is still alive.

The food turns up after about half an hour and Morwaith invites Omar to join him, which Flora clearly isn’t happy about. Further discussions of the realms and any order of priority is left for the main summit meeting but I suspect people will be looking to make alliances and pacts before then.

From my conversations with Mother, she doesn’t think Rebma still exists as the Primal Pattern was erased and therefore its reflection must have been erased as well, so what is going on? If they don’t exist why can we remember them?

As we start eating, Flora asks what we think of the food? Fantastic (at least I can think with my mouth full even if I can’t pronounce what I’m eating!) - even better when the wine arrives – and the venue. I think it is a fascinating place, but decide to stay out of the discussions about the summit.

Whilst discussing the forthcoming meeting, Anya says that Julian has no intention of attending it and has no interest in the ‘petty politics’ but she would like to attend. Julian has no aggressive intentions to any realm and has seen no evidence of external threats so intends to keep himself to himself.

There is some urgency to get it all sorted out but there are still people to contact and arrangements to make – a time scale of 2 months is suggested to ensure we track down everyone, there may still be realms we don’t know about yet.

There is mention of Dark having a circus; when Morwaith spoke to him via Trump he was in a circus tent. The tent belonged to ‘Cougar & Dark's Circus’ – Ann knows this as an evil circus, harvesting souls, I’m not sure where she heard about it though.

Aylwin starts to make a list of all the family members who were at the ceremony to try and work out how many realms there are now – we don’t know how many partial realms there are either (like Omar’s) associated with people who are not ‘family’.

I had the chance to have a long talk with Bathsheba: she was so busy with the war before the remaking I had barely exchanged more than a few words with her previously. She was particularly concerned about Ann’s skeletal appearance and her obvious lack of appetite during our current meal – she only had a small salad whereas the rest of us stuffed ourselves with typical Amber appetites. I said I would talk to her back in Amber and try to get her eating properly.

Peter said a group of them, including him and Ann, were going to Faerie to rescue Prince Benedict and asked if I wanted to go along with them. I immediately said yes as having seen how different this place was I wanted to see more of the new worlds – after all, we don’t know how long they’re going to last!!

It was decided that the summit meeting would be on New Year’s Day, the Festival of Founding for the original Amber, which was three months away. This will be Halloween in Paris, Babylon where we are now as time does not move at the same rates in different places. Sounds like an auspicious day on all counts.

As the meal progresses I realise Asmark is drawing a Trump of Omar; apparently Alaric was not the only artist. It turns out that lunch is being paid for by the King of Argent (via Flora) but the rest of the stay will be at our own expense. Once we sort out our rooms, Aylwin shows me how to use Pattern to get the right kind of money (neat trick!!). Flora will be leaving that evening so if anyone has anything private to discuss with her they better do it sooner rather than later but I have no need to speak to her.

As we will be waiting a couple of days before we go to Faerie, Aylwin offers to show me more of Paris and we agree on some shopping and sightseeing plus opera in the evening. Aylwin seemed quite keen on some of the other, more racy, entertainment on offer, but I preferred, from my limited knowledge, the grandeur of the opera.

I ask Peter about preparations I need to make for Faerie and he asks about weapons. I have not previously needed weapons but am quite happy to learn. Everything is so different now and it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. I decide a small crossbow would be useful, as used in Mordant and Teran, so will have to ask Aylwin or Ann whether I can get one here or should go back to Amber?

Before I go to bed I link up to Mother for a quick chat about the day and my intended trip to Faerie which I am really looking forward to but I forgot to ask if she had a crossbow I could borrow – I’ll ask next time.