The Journals of Morgan,

Prince of Rebma and Amber

For the Campaign: In the Dark -- Entry 9:

In the Service of King Corwin

During our recovery time in Cassis proper, Corwin left us to our own devices for the most part. We did begin to notice oddities or quirks in Corwin's behavior. He didn't quite seem to be himself, evidencing mood swings and sometimes appeared to more driven than was normal for him anyway.

Once we had healed sufficiently, Ian and I headed off into Shadow and began recruiting troops of our own. We planned to keep in regular contact with one another via our Trumps. Each of us would contact the other every sundown in whatever Shadow we were in at the time.

Ian's first step was to go off in search of some fire-breathing, flying dragons that he could convert to his cause. Once he achieved that, he planned on seeking out more recruits. For my part, I went off looking for some aquatic races, mermen to be exact, to recruit from. I figured that my Rebman heritage would serve me well here, for I could go places Wrinoc couldn't; probably wouldn't even think to consider recruiting from.

One thing we both noticed was that our Shadow shifting abilities weren't quite what they were in Amber. It was a feeling akin to a dragging or slight resistance to our efforts before they started working for us. We theorized that while our Pattern powers worked here, they weren't attuned to Corwin's Pattern and that was causing the drag we felt.

I succeeded in my goal. I located a place that could have been viewed as a distant reflection of Rebma, if Rebma could cast Shadows here, which it couldn't. Well, I think you know what I mean. In order to find them, I had traveled far through Shadow, ending up nearer the Courts than Cassis. The inhabitants were humanoid, but gilled, capable of existing both below and above the seas. The place was called Aquila, and the people, Aquilans. There skin ranged in tone from blue to green, matching the colors of the seas. They'd developed good quality armor out of whale bones and sharkskin, and they used spears, tridents, daggers and nets for the most part. They used dolphins and porpoises as mounts.

I spent some time among them, getting to know them and converting a number to my cause. I used whatever tactics seemed best at the time to do so. For instance, I introduced a crossbow capable of not only working above and below the seas, but one that didn't break down from water immersion and corrosion.

I also traveled to other, close by Shadows and recruited sea elves; selkies - intelligent sea otters; scrags - sea trolls; sahuagin - intelligent, but cruel humanoid sea creatures; nymphs; whales; dolphins; kraken; and many other undersea races to my banner.

Once I'd recruited what I thought were sufficient numbers for the initial stages of the war, I led my troops off in search of Wrinoc's forces. Once I located Wrinoc, I began shadowing his troops, attempting to gather some intelligence data on him and them. I reported my results to Ian and Corwin.

Once Ian had trained something upwards of a hundred or so dragons, he went off in search of a Shadow of Mongol-like warriors, where they'd devoted themselves to conquering their world without destroying it. Ian had also set things up so that they believed their ancestral leader would return one day on the back of a flight of dragons and lead them to new worlds and enemies to conquer. As it turned out, he ended going far into Shadow as well to get what he wanted.

It was called Khurgon or something like that, and the people their had managed to attain a higher technological base than that of Shadow Earth. They had rail guns, gauss rifles and the like. Ian set about recruiting a large army there. Once he had them, Ian led through Shadow and began harrying Wrinoc's forces from one flank, while Corwin attacked them from another.

At first, Ian followed Corwin's directions on where and when to attack Wrinoc's forces. Corwin knew of my troops as well, but Ian and I decided to hold them, use them as something like a hole card for when we really needed surprise or a decisive victory. Ian's plan was to harry or force Wrinoc's troops into onto a beachhead, were once the battle was joined, I would lead my forces up from the sea and fall on Wrinoc's rear elements, creating havoc among them. And though I informed Corwin of my spying missions, I didn't necessarily seek or follow his guidance on where and when to conduct such missions. I'd learned to do that on my own. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, I and my troops took out small units of Wrinoc's that got too close to the sea or too far from their main units.

I'd also recruited some land based allies in my travels. Their purpose was to spy on Wrinoc's forces and attempt to infiltrate his ranks. I wanted to know what Wrinoc knew, what he planned on doing about it, and how Ian and my actions were affecting his. I moved between my land and sea based forces, collecting reports and moving them to stay apace with Wrinoc.

Ian and I were involved in these things for years before we began to see some successes. And the first ones we saw were in the intelligence I'd gathered. I was mildly surprised to discover that I wasn't the only one spying on Wrinoc and his troops. They weren't as organized or skilled as my people were, nor did they belong to Corwin or his generals. I also got indications that were also people from widely varying Shadows moving among or with Wrinoc's forces, i.e. a small groups of humanoids moving among a force of preying mantis type creatures. I wasn't quite sure what they were doing, yet. I kept most of this information between Ian and myself. I rationalized that I hadn't gained enough information to reach definite conclusions about the situation yet, so it wasn't necessary to inform Corwin about these anomalies just yet.

Ian's initial successes with his troops were great. It was almost as if Wrinoc had no idea about their existence. But then the enemy began to adapt to the changes in forces and tactics arrayed against him. We were successful in stalling Wrinoc's advance towards Cassis. This enabled Corwin to recruit and field a large force of his own. Corwin wasn't happy that we'd gone so far out into Shadow to recruit our troops, but he didn't hold it against us for too long.

We also had some contact and interaction with Uther. The kid was basically okay, a bit of a jarhead, too loyal to the military and his old man, but nothing we couldn't work with. Except for his 'Gotta impress Dad' attitude. That got old for me real quick, Ian as well apparently. In the course of our campaign, Corwin would let us know what Uther's plans were, and then we'd decide on whether we wanted to assist him or take advantage of the coming attack to strike elsewhere. We learned that though Uther was young, he was no slouch when it comes to war and combat. Indeed, it seemed the kid was better than either of us in some respects.

To that effect, when began setting up commando teams from the elite of our forces. We'd planned on using them to stage raids and assassinations on Wrinoc's troops. Our biggest problem was that Wrinoc and his troops were highly mobile and used that ability a great deal. I was getting good intelligence off him, but almost always from a Shadow he'd just left. Another problem was that Wrinoc liked to stay on the offensive, he was always trying to attack Corwin and/or Uther's forces somewhere. And he'd begun attacking from different locations simultaneously. So, he had to have people working for him that were capable of crossing Shadows on their own. Who they were, we didn't know; yet.

Other things we began to notice were that Wrinoc preferred to use races that were nonhumanoid in nature, or when forced to use humanoids, looked the least Amber or Cassis -like as possible. And that Wrinoc didn't keep all the forces he'd acquired. Moving through a slice of similar Shadows, he recruit large numbers of troops, but when he came to a new type of Shadow, only kept the best ten percent or so of his previous troops.

I directed my spies to try and learn how Wrinoc was moving his forces through Shadow, especially when he wasn't always with them. Ian went out, found and starting using nuclear weapons on Wrinoc's troops, but this became harder and harder to do, the closer we got to Cassis. He finally decided that he was going to try to create a firewall of Shadows, called the 'Ring of Iron' by bombing a large swath of them in Wrinoc's path with a combination of nuclear, chemical, antimatter and chaos based weapons. I sent in our commando teams to take out Wrinoc's supply depots, staging areas, and the like.

And then I decided to waylay some of these other spies and try to find out who they worked for and their bosses goals. Ian came along with me on a few of these find and grab missions. It turns out all these agents knew was to spy on Wrinoc and report back to a shadowy figure. They didn't know who their employer was, and they acted as individuals for the most part. Rarely if ever did they act in teams. This was puzzling, to say the least. It seemed as if their network if it could be called that was set up by someone was didn't really know how to run a spy ring.

We interrogated several of these spies, not always with success. I'm sure Fiona would be proud of us if she ever learns of some of the tactics and methods we used on these Shadow creatures. I knew I wasn't, but we had to learn as much from them as we could. In all cases, these spies ultimately reported to a shadowy figure, but try as we might, we couldn't get a clear picture of this person. Yes, we'd gone from traditional interrogation techniques to direct mental manipulation or mining for information. We sifted through their memories, trying to find and 'replay' if you will, instances of when they met their boss, the shadowy person. It became evident that this mysterious person deliberately tampered with his agent's memories. One time, I even tried viewing an agent's memories through my vision of the Pattern. That netted me mixed results at best. I learned that our mystery guest was using something akin to Trump powers to manipulate his agent's minds. Also, magic of some sort was being used as well in dealing with the agents. However, doing this also fried the agent's mind.

From what we learned, Ian and I thought the mysterious person might be Merlin. We knew Merlin had come to Cassis with Corwin and then later apparently taken off on his own, to Corwin's disappointment. Neither of us had a Trump of Merlin, as far as I know, none existed of him. So, we set about trying to find a way to contact Merlin. We settled on reading several agent's minds to see when they were to next meet their boss. Settling on one agent, we conditioned his mind to ignore our presence. We got there ahead of the agent and waited for him to arrive. He did arrive on schedule, checked to make sure he was alone and then fell into a trance-like state. He then moved to a trash can, lifted the lid and found a Trump. Once he appeared to be in contact with the subject of the Trump, we moved forward slowly towards the agent. We got a glance of the back of the Trump as we approached; it was black with some sort of silvery figure or design on it. We couldn't see it well enough to say what it was, though we could say it wasn't the Unicorn of Amber.

We closed to the man's side saw the card bore a silver circle of some sort on it's back. Once the man initiated the contact, Ian reached out and grabbed the man, intent on going through with him if the man or his boss tried to step or pull through the contact. The agent tried to close the contact, but Ian yanked the card from his hand. The agent, still in his trance state, went through the motions of closing the contact and putting the card back in the lid of the trash can. We let him do this and then depart the area. We still had the card after all. Ian and I headed back for the nearest of our bases and studied the Trump card.

The figure on the face of the card looked a great deal like Corwin, only younger and not quite as physically fit. I knew that face, it was Merlin's. The device on the back was a circle of thorns done in silver on black.

Entry 10:

Merlin, Son of Corwin

Ian and I sat down together to discuss what we were going to talk to Merlin about. I thought I'd be the obvious the one to initiate the call, afterall, I'd met him before and Ian hadn't. But Ian wanted to do the deed, so I let him, offering to back him up as needed. We decided to try and get his view on what had happened here in Cassis, what was currently happening, if he knew anything about Random, what he knew about the storm, what he knew of Wrinoc, what he knew about the Courts of Chaos here, and if he knew a way out of Corwin's realm. It was possible that a way existed out through the Courts, if they existed at all here.

And then we fell to discussing some of the things we'd learned since we'd arrived in Cassis. It was my thought that Corwin's current mental state was causing his Pattern to create an enemy for him to fight. His enemy's name led me to believe that; it was close to being a perfect reversal of his name. Add in the fact that Wrinoc had begun to adapt to our forces and tactics faster than he should have, that he managed to avoid complete defeats of his forces whenever we acted in tangent with Corwin; and we began to believe either Corwin's subconscious or some part of him or his Pattern was relaying information to Wrinoc.

Before talking to Merlin though, we decided to give some of our theories, particularly the ones about Corwin a field test of sorts. We staged a battle against Wrinoc, one we never told Corwin we were planning. And it went better than the most recent battles that Corwin had been involved in. Corwin caught on to us as well, and quickly. He wasn't happy about it; the unauthorized attack that is. But we convinced we saw an opportunity to attack that was too good to miss, and that the window of opportunity was too small to bring in Uther and himself.

We broached the subject of our 'Ring of Iron' project and learned that Corwin had spent most of his time doing something like that already. Corwin sounded like he might finally be ready to carry the war to his enemy directly. I was none too sure of this considering his mental state though.

Ian and I having finally decided on a plan of action concerning Merlin, Ian to initiate the call, myself in a support roll, got Merlin's Trump out and activated it. We were immediately pulled through to wherever Merlin was. And frozen in place. Where we were, we didn't know. It looked like a cave of some sort; though it could have been an artificial one or a basement. Wooden beams held the earthen ceiling up. Merlin was sitting down on a chair in front of us. Oddly, I still felt like we were in a Trump contact; that cool tingly feeling was still around us. A mental query to Ian, we were still mindlinked though not just through the Trump contact, indicated he still experienced the contact feeling as well.

What do you mean, 'still mindlinked'? Well, it seems that through our habit of tackling difficult problems together and usually linked to the other's mind via Trump or Patter, or both; we'd developed the ability to 'link' at will. All we needed was physical contact between us to set it up. Sometimes, it was harder to remain unlinked than linked. We'll have to consider the pros and cons of this, if we ever get back to Amber.

Anyway, there we were - 'statues' in front of Merlin when Ian thought to me; "Well... I hope he can send us back." I hoped so too.

Merlin stared at us for a moment or so, then stood up and moved to us. Taking the card from Ian, he said; "Well, gentlemen... I'm going to let you go. I'm going to release you from the binding." He pointed a warning finger at us; "Don't attack me." I wasn't sure if that was to be taken as an order, or a request. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and viewed it as a request. Besides, we hadn't come here to attack him.

Merlin sat back down in his chair and suddenly, we could move again. Behind us was a door, several crates and a few chairs. We pulled up chairs and sat down in front of him.

"Merlin?" Ian asked. When he nodded, Ian added; "Ian, son of Gerard."

I nodded to Merlin; "Morgan; you may remember me."

He nodded back; "Uhm... sure. I remember vaguely when we first met, but yes, I know more of you now."

"We need to talk;" I said.

"Good;" Merlin replied. "Talking's good." He nodded, agreeing with me.

"Yes;" I said. "It does have it's benefits from time to time." I wasn't sure if I liked him or not yet.

"So..." Merlin ventured cautiously. "Why are you killing my people?"

"We'll stop;" Ian said quickly.

"We were trying to find out what they were doing;" I said.

"We didn't know who they were working for;" Ian added.

Merlin looked at us; "We need to end this war. We don't need to make more war; you're just making it worse."

"We've begun to realize that;" Ian said. "That's why we had to find you."

Merlin sighed, in relief perhaps. He looked tired, wornout. "Well, I'm glad somebody's thinking rationally." He scrubbed his face with his hands. "Corwin just doesn't get it. He thinks the harder he fights, the more it'll go away. He doesn't understand, the more he fights, the more it stays."

"I'm aware of that, deeply aware of that;" Ian replied calmly.

"Great;" Merlin looked up at us. "Then all you have to do is turn your forces away from the battle and towards Corwin." He must have noticed the decidedly odd looks we were giving him because he went on quickly. "Because once Corwin stops fighting Wrinoc, there won't be any more problems."

'Yeah right;' I thought. "That... doesn't seem logical;" I said. "If that were the case, why haven't you done that?"

"I don't have access to the kinds of resources you people do;" he snapped back quickly. "My best opportunities have been to gather information. And even that's piss poor." Now he sounded a bit disgusted; with himself, us or the situation I wasn't sure.

"And it kept getting worse, though you've promised to stop now."

Ian shook his head; "We can't do that." Merlin looked at him in disbelief.

"What's the link between Corwin and Wrinoc?" I asked.

Merlin sighed; "All I know is the more Corwin pushes things, the worse they get. If Corwin would just stop, I'm convinced the situation would just dissipate. He refuses to believe that, I didn't want it to come to blows over it but that's the case."

"I'm doing my best to try to disrupt both sides, so that everybody would stop fighting as simultaneously as possible. "But, I just can't muster the necessary resources."

Ian looked at him, saying softly; "Merlin, we can't go home without solving this problem. Because if we left and then came back later, the devastation would be unspeakable."

"We want to go home;" Ian said looking down at his boots. "We don't know how long we've been away... Morgan's mother's dying... the King's missing..."

"Random's missing?" Merlin asked us. He didn't know?

"Has been." I said.

"For a while." Ian joined in. "He has never actually returned to Amber from Chaos."

Merlin looked at me. "Who's your mother?" he asked suddenly.

"Moiré, Queen of Rebma." I said automatically.

"Hmm..." he grunted noncommittally.

I was puzzled as to why Merlin would ask who my mother was out of the blue like that.

"And we need to get back for other reasons too." Ian said. "We have duties there."

"How did you get here?" Merlin asked. He was starting to sound more and more like his father all the time; always asking questions and rarely answering ones turned towards him.

"We were attempting to find Random;" Ian answered. "It led us to a storm. When we escaped the storm, we were here. We were not in Amber's universe, we were in this one. Corwin's."

Merlin's expression turned thoughtful. "How did you try to find Random?"

"We Trumped him;" Ian replied.

"But we were using the Pattern of Rebma as a booster;" I added. "Normal attempts weren't working."

"Well... yeah;" Merlin said. "So...?"

"We used the Pattern to turn up the volume, so to speak;" I said.

"Shocking;" Merlin muttered. "It didn't work..."

"Corwin's didn't work that way either, the normal way;" I added.

"Benedict and I tried to get through to Corwin, and basically got to the same storm Ian and I ran into. But we fought our way back out of it to Amber..."

"That's interesting;" Corwin's son replied.

'Hadn't he tried leaving this realm at all?' I wondered. Gathering intel is one thing but not acting on it or trying to get to someone who could was beyond my grasp.

"Wonder what that means..." Merlin went on.

"Probably means that wherever the storm is, it's atleast between Amber and this place." Ian said. "And probably the other side of the storm is where the person we're looking for is."

"Oh... that could be..." Merlin muttered to himself. "That should be..." He looked at us; "We should look at this, eventually."

"What do you know of the storm?" I asked.

"Oh, just that it comes from Wrinoc;" Merlin stated. "I thought it was being generated by the conflict; being produced by Corwin and Wrinoc." He looked away from us. "I know Corwin thinks Wrinoc is doing it. But it's clearly not his doing... I thought it was being created by this greater Shadow friction."

Merlin turned back to us, a thoughtful frown on his face now; "But if what you say is true, I wonder?"

Then he returned to his original topic. "We need a resolution. To resolve it, you just need to stop fighting."

"Uther won't stop;" Ian said. I had to agree with him there; the kid was too gung ho to stop fighting unless his father told him to. "Corwin won't stop;" he added sounding tired and a bit disgusted now.

"That's why you would have to stop Corwin;" Merlin countered. "Wrinoc's not going to stop, but once Corwin stops, Wrinoc will loose luster, interest. Everything will just fall apart. I'm sure."

"Except that then Corwin will be fighting us;" Ian replied. "which doesn't get us home. He's not going to forget, not going to forgive us..."

"But as soon as his problems with this entity are over;" Merlin interrupted him; "As soon as his problem with Wrinoc is over, you can just chose to stop. I don't think Wrinoc can choose to stop, and I don't think Corwin will choose to stop, but if we can get them to both stop fighting one another long enough for Wrinoc to loose power then you can just pull out of the conflict."

"Of course that might still leave you with the problem of getting home if the storm isn't...isn't what I thought it was." He shrugged his shoulders; "But it would solve the other problem."

"Which problem is that?" I asked, having grown a bit confused at his logic.

"The whole Corwin - Wrinoc thing... raping Shadow as it were;" Merlin answered.

"We've already fought in this war, I know not a very long time;" Ian said slowly; "But for too long..." Ian was clearly tired of the war, so was I, and wanted to simply go home.

"I've already told you how to do that..." Merlin said to him.

"Only by earning Corwin's enmity;" Ian countered.

"That's no big deal;" Merlin said lightly.

We just stared at him. He didn't know his father all that well then if he thought that.

"He does seem rather displeased with you already, for some reason;" I said, trying to gauge his reaction.

"I disagreed with him;" Merlin said, seemingly not bothered by it. "I told him what he was doing was stupid, that he should just forget this whole Wrinoc thing. And the more he fought against it, the worse it got. Which I told him would happen, but he didn't believe me. He wanted me to walk..." Merlin made a dismissive gesture with his hand; "Oh, never mind."

"He wanted you to walk his Pattern..." Ian said quietly.

Merlin ignored that comment. He looked at us; "So... there you go guys. What do you want?"

"Why should we believe you?" Ian asked. He looked at Merlin; "You are from Chaos, Wrinoc's probably from Chaos..." Merlin tried interrupting, but Ian kept doggedly on; "Now you want us to leave Corwin, he was our only ticket home..."

"He can't get you home;" replied Merlin, giving Ian a sad look. "Why would he be able to get you home? And if he could, why would he bother? What's in it for him?"

Merlin had a point there. If we did go home, or atleast get out of Cassis, Corwin would lose two warriors in his war. Two warriors capable of causing lots of destruction and mayhem throughout Shadow. Only one other of his troops could do that, and he was but a kid... little imagination, little experience in Shadow...

"Well... generals for his armies..." said Ian, perhaps thinking along the same lines I was.

"Yeah, generals for his armies for as long as you're here." Merlin added, pointedly. "Literally, for as long as you're here. When this war ends, there will just be another war. He'll always have someone to fight..."

"Why can't we walk away... take our people with us off into Shadow..." Ian said tiredly.

"Sure, you can do that..." Merlin said with a hint of disbelief perhaps in his voice. "That just leaves the destruction going on throughout Shadow going on. And it's getting worse."

"Right now it's being handled, because even though Corwin is opposing Wrinoc, you are opposing Wrinoc. Your conflict with Wrinoc has no affect on the stability of what's going on;" Merlin continued. "But as long as Corwin keeps opposing him, the stability of everything is going to just keep grinding against itself."

I wasn't sure I understood all of what Merlin was saying here, but I thought I caught enough of it. We all paused, thinking about the situation, and other things no doubt.

"Is it going to work?" Ian asked slowly. "We can't just walk away;" he shrugged his shoulders; "Well, we could but apparently that's not enough."

"You could just walk away... save your own skins, sure;" Merlin replied.

"The bottom line...;" Ian asked. "How does this affect Amber?" I think he was reaching a decision. One I'd already come to.

"I don't know;" Merlin said. "I've never been to Amber, couldn't tell you."

"How does it affect this Pattern?" Ian countered. I think he was just trying to get some technical details from Merlin. Ones I wasn't sure he had. "Basically, it's his responsibility. I'm not sure whether he has the right to necessarily mismanage it this badly, but I'm also not sure I'm the person who has the right to tell him that he is."

"Yeah, well he won't listen to you if you do;" Merlin said. "Trust me."

"I understand his lack of..." Ian's voice trailed off.

"Have you been back to the Courts since you came here?" I asked suddenly. I was looking for a way for us to get out of Cassis. If Corwin couldn't or wouldn't do it, there had to be a way, somewhere, somehow.

"Uhm...." Merlin replied. "Once. Just really early on, briefly after Corwin and I had our falling out."

"How can we get from here back to Amber?" Ian asked, picking up my train of thought. "Do you know how? Can we go through the Courts?"

"I suppose that could work;" Merlin said speculatively. " I mean I haven't been there in a long time." He shrugged his shoulders; "It was there. I've never been to Amber. Sure, you want to go to the Courts, we can go there. We can see what it's like, I'm getting more and more curious about it myself."

"About the Courts?" Ian asked. "Didn't you grow up there?"

"Yeah..." Merlin said, giving Ian a curious look.

"It's changed?" I said looking at him and Ian; "How long have you been gone now? Fifty some years now?"

"More like sixty-five, seventy;" he admitted. "We had our falling out about thirteen, fifteen years ago."

"And the Courts were still the same when you went there? Same people?" I asked

"Well, I didn't go to the Courts;" Merlin admitted. "I... as I understand it, if Amber is anything like Cassis, you can be in Cassis but not in Cassis. You don't have to be in the castle to be there, be in the city to be there. Well, I've been to the Courts, but I haven't been home, 'quote unquote'. All right?"

"So this is your solution to the problem?" Ian asked Merlin. "Turn our backs on our enemy and face our allies? And defeat them?"

"To keep them from fighting Wrinoc's forces long enough for those forces to dissipate;" Merlin countered. "Which they will and start doing as soon as you can keep Corwin's forces from opposing them."

"I mean, in reality, this is also asking you to put yourself in between the two;" he added, recognizing the large element of risk we'd be facing if we agreed to do this.

"We could kill Uther;" Ian said suddenly. I wasn't sure if he meant that as a part of the plan, or as a possible accident of the plan.

"Sure;" Merlin said. "You could kill Uther." He didn't sound too attached to his younger half-brother.

"That would definitely put his forces in disarray;" Ian continued. "We would have to move in to close the gap. We wouldn't necessarily have to kill him..." Ian frowned thoughtfully.

"We'd still have to face him though;" I added. "Corwin."

"I think;" Ian began but Merlin interrupted him.

"Deadly and lethal force in a lightning stroke, but you could kill him;" Merlin said.

"What if we merely incapacitated him?" Ian asked.

"I don't know..." Merlin said. "I don't think Corwin would make a distinction."

"But if we merely made Uther disappear..." Ian suggested.

"Grab the kid;" I said, suddenly remembering Corwin had another son here as well.

"What if..." Merlin shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe Corwin would believe that you didn't kill, maybe he would care, maybe he would think there's a difference in that."

"Maybe you can make him disappear;" Ian suggested to Merlin.

"Oh no, no;" Merlin immediately replied. "Believe me, I've tried."

"Why not?" Ian pressed.

Merlin looked away for a moment or two, obviously looking for a way to answer the question. "Here's a hypothetical for you; Could you draw a Trump?" he asked us.

"Certainly;" Ian replied. "It wouldn't work and it wouldn't be very good."

"And that's because you're not good at it, but you know that you could do it;" Merlin stated.

"Sometimes you have to try it to learn, but I know I'm not capable of incapacitating Uther."

"You're not capable of Trumping him taking control of his mind and making him step through and slaving him to your will?" Ian asked.

"Really slowly, yeah." Merlin replied cautiously. "I, Merlin, am unable to incapacitate Uther."

"In other words, you cannot take any direct action against him?" I asked.

"Oh, I can try..." Merlin said; "I'll just fail." It sounded to me like he had tried this tactic, several times.

"He is a lot like his father;" Merlin added after a moment.

"Could we, if we manage to expropriate Uther, could you keep him confined somewhere?" Ian asked. "For enough time for this whole matter to end?"

"I would be willing to try;" Merlin said. "I can't guarantee for certain, but probably. I think I've got a good shot..."

"Do you have a Trump of the Courts?" Ian asked.

"Sure, you wanna go?" Merlin replied quickly.

"Can we get home from there?" Ian said.

"How would I know that?" Merlin asked.

"Or do you want to get back here?" I asked Ian. I was catching on to his line of thought now.

"If we go there, and try to see if we can get home from there; can you get us back here?" Ian asked Merlin. I nodded. We had to see if we could get out before doing anything else.

"Oh yeah;" Merlin said confidently.

"Then we need to go there now;" Ian stated.

"Sure;" Merlin agreed with us.

Merlin pulled out a Trump, concentrated on it for a moment and then looked up at us; "Gentlemen?" He held out a hand to us. We grasped his and went through the contact.

Entry 11:

In the Courts of Chaos Again

Stepping through, I immediately recognized the place. Yep, we were in Chaos all right. Same weirdly moving landscape, architecture and skies.

"Have you ever been to the Courts;" Merlin asked Ian.

"Nope;" Ian said quickly.

"Don't look at the walls;" I told him.

"Don't look at pretty much anything;" Merlin added.

"Don't stare at the floor too long either;" I said.

"Everything, even the carpets tend to shift;" Merlin said to him.

I'd been here often enough to know how the Courts could play with one's sense of balance, reason and sanity if you couldn't adapt to it and I was just trying to warn Ian. Apparently Merlin realized this as well.

Ian stared around for a few minutes, then pulled out his Trumps and shuffled out his father's and concentrated on it. After a few minutes of this, he said; "Merlin, help me."

Merlin moved over to him and placed a finger on the card. I did so as well.

The contact came then.

"Father!" said Ian at about the same time Gerard was saying; "Ian!"

"How long have I been gone?" Ian asked Gerard.

"You've been gone?" Gerard asked, his confusion evident.

Ian looked down at his 'Mongol' armor and then back at his father.

Suddenly Gerard nodded; "Oh that's right! Alis did mention... she just told me yesterday... Is everything okay?"

"What's going on?" Ian practically yelled.

Gerard looked dumbfounded, understandably so I thought. And then I thought, 'Ian's close to losing it. Really close. We've got to get back to Amber soon, for his sake.'

"I don't think I can return now to Amber;" Ian said tiredly.

Again, confusion on Gerard's part; "Okay, why?"

"Because I have to kidnap Corwin's son;" Ian said with a straight face. "Hold him hostage; stop a war I've been fighting in for ten years; that's cost hundreds of thousands of lives."

Ian really was close to losing it, I realized, blurting out what's gone and what we're planning out of the blue like that. His expression was troubled, riddled with pain and doubt.

"I could bring you through..." Gerard offered, even though I'm sure he didn't understand a tenth of what was going on here.

"That wouldn't solve the problem here though, it would merely be avoiding it;" Ian said.

"How is it your problem, son?" Gerard asked him.

"Because I accepted it as my problem;" Ian stated. Have to give him credit for sticking to his word.

"That sucks;" Gerard said bluntly. I had to agree with him there, it did. But we were stuck, so to speak.

"Well, boys;" Gerard said to us; "uhm... what can I tell you... You made your beds, is there any way I can help you?" He still didn't have clue one as to what was going on but he was willing to help us. I liked him for that quality.

"Is Benedict available?" I asked. Hell, if we were going to fight Corwin, I wanted the best warrior I could get me hands on for advice if not outright aid.

"Unfortunately, no;" Gerard said looking at me. "He's very much tied up with securing certain locations hereabouts."

"Have you heard from Random yet?" I asked.

"No;" said Gerard. "Have you?"

We shook our heads no. Ian added; "We attempted to use the Pattern of Rebma to contact Random and that's what got us into this mess." Well, it was a start on explaining what had happened to us, not the best of starts, but a start nonetheless.

Gerard really looked confused now; looking at both of us and at Merlin too. Scratching his head, he asked; "So... how does Corwin fit into this?"

Ian sighed loudly; "Okay... here goes." He proceeded to tell Gerard how we'd used the Pattern to boost a Trump call to Random.

"That's sounds dangerous!" Gerard commented rather late in warning us.

Ian continued with how we ended up in a monstrous storm, how when we escaped the storm we found we'd ended up in Corwin's Pattern realm. How we tried to get back to Amber but wound up in Cassis, Corwin's realm instead. Where Corwin offered to help us return if we would help him fight an enemy of his, who was attempting to overthrow him.

"Oh..." Gerard ventured. "Was he a member of the Blood?"

Ian commented that we really weren't sure of that, nobody has seen Corwin's enemy up close; adding that Corwin didn't appear to be sane. Corwin made us generals but in two years of war nothing's changed. Ian went on by saying Merlin says the only way to stop the war is to stop fighting... By that he means separating Corwin from his enemy by placing our armies in between theirs, Merlin says it will all just go away then.

He finished with; "And, no, it doesn't make any sense to me either! But it's the only hope I have right now of getting out of Hell!"

"Well, I'll bring you home son..." Gerard offered again. "That's no problem."

I was tempted to shove Ian through the contact then and there; he was as close to the edge as anyone I'd ever seen. I wasn't in top mental form myself, but I felt I could keep going for a while yet. See this thing through to the end, whatever that might turn out to be.

"You know..." I ventured softly to them both. "We could really use Fiona's help right now."

Ian went on to say he'd done more horrible things for Cassis than he'd ever done for Amber, and that Corwin is mad.

Gerard tried to take it all in, asking us to bear with him for the moment. Then he asked where we were currently. Ian told him that we were in the Courts of Chaos, getting ready to go back to Cassis.

Gerard had us run through the sequence of events that led us where we presently were, which we did. Gladly. We got through all that and Gerard seemed to have grasped the majority of it, for which I thanked the Unicorn.

Ian asked if there was anything going on in Amber. Gerard replied that Andrew was discovered to be Bleys' son. Ian and I just looked at each other. "Good for him;" Ian said. "Another fucking Ball;" I said.

Gerard asked about the storm and what, if any, relation it might have to the conflict. Ian said Merlin thought it was a by-product of Corwin's conflict, but that he thought that though the storm might have been created by the conflict, he thought it had something directly to do with why Random and the Jewel have not returned to Amber.

Merlin, who'd been maintaining a small link in the contact, had been searching through his Trump cards and looking around, added; "You know, I'm not saying I'm wrong, but now that I'm actually here, and I've had a chance to get a better sense of what's going on; I think the storm's bigger than just the conflict, but that the conflict is only making it worse."

I asked Merlin if he was saying that the storm appeared to be some sort of confrontation between the two Patterns; Amber's and Corwin's. He alluded that that might be it, but couldn't be sure.

Gerard said he wanted us both to come through right now. We disagreed; Ian saying he couldn't abandon his men. They argued for a bit, but I knew we were both staying here. Gerard finally gave in, telling us not to go anywhere till he called back. Presumably, he was going to consult with some of the Family on this. 'Good,' I thought; 'we could use all the advice we could get.'

Gerard broke the contact, and Ian stood there beside me, numbly watching Merlin do something with his Trumps. A few minutes later, Ian said he was getting a call; and I sensed it almost as fast as he did. Our minds were still that close together, we weren't even in physical contact at the moment.

Ian took it. It was Fiona calling; Gerard was standing behind her. They were in her study in the Ways of Barimen, here in the Courts.

She smiled at Ian, smiled like a master does to an apprentice who's been caught doing something he shouldn't have. "Ian;" she said. "It seems you've had much more need of your sword than I ever could have."

She turned to me, still smiling; "And Morgan, how are you?"

"I've been better, thank you Fiona;" I acknowledged.

"I understand that your quest for Random has gone awry?" she said.

"You could say that I've hit a few snags, yes;" I replied. "Has Gerard filled you in?"

"Yes;" she replied. "Would you bring me through please?"

I said; "Sure;" and brought her through. Gerard remained in the study.

Fiona turned to regard Merlin for a moment before nodding her head at him. "Merlin."

Merlin merely waved a hand in greeting. He still seemed to be concentrating on a card or something.

She looked at us for a few moments, not saying anything.

Finally, I asked her; "Do you need the whole story again?"

"From you, no." she replied. "From Merlin." Her head turned in his direction once again.

"Corwin and I went to his Pattern, stayed there for awhile, he started having some sort of problem out in Shadow that required his attention, he wanted to quell it to keep his realm peaceful forever." Merlin began.

"The more he opposed it, the worse it got;" he went on. "Uhm... about that time the storm started erupting and began growing larger and more constant. And there you go, clearly if you stop the war, the conflict dissipates."

Fiona nodded; "And I understand you have some misgivings' about the storm in that context now?"

"Well, yeah..." Merlin said. "Actually, we do." He looked to us for support.

"We think Random might be in the storm;" I said.

"We think Random might be the storm;" I added.

Fiona says; "Merlin, may I?" She was holding out a hand towards him. He nodded and held most of the cards he'd been looking at up in a fan pattern. She looked at them for a few minutes, touching some with a finger, shuddering at a few of them.

Finally she said; "If Random is in the storm, he might as well be the storm. Nothing could survive that."

"What about the Jewel?" Ian asked.

"Which leads me to believe Random is not in the storm;" she continued.

"Then why can't we find him anywhere else;" Ian countered, his voice growing louder and angrier. "And why the hell is nobody trying."

She sighed, looking for the right words to say. "As far as we know, nobody has ever drawn another Pattern before. Corwin seems to have upset the balance. It's obvious."

I felt Ian's anger rising again.

"What do you think is happening right now?" she asked him. "Either it's as you surmised, that the two Patterns are indeed vying for power over what's real and what is not. One is static, and one is also static and they're fighting to see which static wins out."

"Or;" she continued; "There are two realities, only one can exist, both have equal claim and they're tearing each other apart, right down the middle. For every point of Order, there is an equal point of Chaos. Right now, they're sharing the Chaos, probably broken across the most similar lines of Order."

"So, you're saying that the middle of the storm is another Abyss?" Ian asked her.

"I couldn't even venture a guess as far as that;" she replied, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Try for me;" Ian said to her.

"Well..." Fiona hesitated. "The middle of the storm is becoming nothing..." she started.

Ian interrupted her; "Which by definition, that would be the Abyss."

Fiona gave him a dirty look; "Look, I just heard about this; work with me here."

Ian was unimpressed; "You know what, I don't really care. What does all of it have to do with Random?"

"Why did we get tossed into the storm when we tried Trumping him from the Pattern?"

"If it's a contest of power between two realities, then I want Amber to win;" Ian stated. "And Amber's not going to win if it doesn't have a king with the Jewel of Judgement sitting on the throne."

"If it's that kind of contest;" Fiona said. I think she agreed with Ian there. "On the other hand, if it's not that kind of contest, they're going to tear away from each other, eventually splitting down through Chaos, creating an independent Chaos for Corwin's realm. Leaving us with our original one."

"Well why don't we create a new Chaos then?" Ian asked her. I gave him a strange look at that suggestion. "We've created a new Pattern, it must be possible."

Fiona ignored his suggestion. "There will be a rending of Chaos, just as there has been a rending of Shadow all the way down. Chaos being a little more real..."

Ian interrupted her; "So, you're telling me the storm's acting like a giant zipper and it's unzipping the fabric of reality into two pieces?"

She looked at him for a moment, then nodded. "Yes. Once that's done, they will resolve into their natural order of Chaos and the Abyss at one end, infinite Shadows and then respective Patterns."

"Well, why can't they be like on opposite sides and balance each other out?" Ian asked. He shook his head, attempting to clear his metaphysical confusion. "Anyway, why can't we increase the amount of chaos in Chaos?"

"We could speed up the process, theoretically, but that's been the process that's going on." Fiona told him.

"Well, why does it have to be?" Ian asked.

Fiona was growing exasperated with Ian, I could tell by her expression and tone of voice. "Why do our hearts have to beat?" she asked him.

"Because without them, we'd die, and someplaces they don't." Ian sighed. "And there are many whose hearts don't beat anymore."

Fiona regarded us for a moment. "Corwin, you say, is going mad."

"He's not himself;" I agreed with her.

"He's not the same Corwin from day to day;" Ian stated.

Fiona looked at Merlin.

Ian continued; "His son, I can say, is only marginally sane himself. At best, he can be described as obsessive."

Fiona appeared to be lost in thought; "Well...."

Ian kept right on asking questions; "Why can't you just change the Pattern so that it doesn't interfere... change his Pattern... change our Pattern... so they don't interfere with each other."

"Well..." Fiona began again. "The only way anybody's ever done that is a: with the Jewel which we don't have, or b: with our blood and unless you want to offer yours..."

Ian was teetering on the edge of madness himself now. I knew that, and more importantly, Fiona knew that. Fiona suggested, strongly, that Ian and I go back to Amber for some rest. She said that in the true grasp of the situation, Corwin's war was insignificant. And Ian looked at her as if she'd just betrayed every ideal he believed in.

I, on other the hand, was beginning to understand her line of thought. The war didn't really matter, sure lots of Shadow people had died, were still dying because of it, but we couldn't win it, only stop it. So, we needed to work on the larger problem; the Patterns. There were two of them now, and reality as we knew it, only wanted one.

Fiona said that and I agreed with her. Ian told her to solve it then and she said; "Bring me Corwin."

"Bring you Random;" Ian countered.

"One problem at a time;" Fiona said thin lipped. Ian was getting to her, I hoped he wouldn't push it too far. "Random is not here."

"Fine;" Ian snapped then looked at Merlin. "Merlin, can you get me to Corwin?" Madness lurked in his eyes now. And I thought I knew what he had planned; if I was right, it was something I could go along with.

"How close do you want to be?" Merlin replied cautiously.

"Obviously not that close with you on hand..." I started, but got interrupted by Ian.

"No, I think he'd provide a very useful distraction while I cold cock him from behind." Ian said.

Yep, that's what I thought he wanted to do. Thing is, if done correctly, it stood a good chance of working.

"I want to be within touching distance;" Ian said to Merlin.

"You've got a Trump of him don't you?" Merlin asked Ian.

"Yep;" said Ian.

"Then why do you need me?" Merlin asked him simply.

"Fine;" replied Ian, digging through his Trumps for Corwin's.

I groaned inwardly, I knew what Ian was going to do. And that he was going to try it right now.

"Fiona, we're going to need your help;" I said, turning to look at her.

She rolled her eyes at us, obviously thinking we'd lost what little reason remained to us.

"If you want him we'll go get him;" I told her more confidently than I felt at the time. "But we're not going to be able to hold him."

"I only regret the necessity of this expediency, but we have no choice;" she sighed tiredly.

Ian began concentrating on the Trump. Fiona said looking at him; "Ian please let me do it."

"You can't bring him here..." Ian said.

"No;" she agreed, "But it would be more distracting if he saw me on the other end of that card right now."

"Well, how do I jump him then?" Ian asked her.

"You will be with me in the contact;" she told him calmly. Ian agreed with her, handing her the card. "Put your sword away;" she told me.

"No;" I shook my head at her. "I might need it to parry Greyswandir." She nodded at the wisdom of that thinking.

She stood in front of us, facing us, the card held out before her. She reached out and touched Ian's foot with one of hers. I stood to Ian's left side, because our minds had grown so close, I would be in the contact as soon as Ian was. Aermacil was in my right hand, hanging down at my side, ready to parry if it became necessary.

Fiona gave us a strange look at our arrangement, but she didn't say anything. Probably saving it for later, when she could interrogate us at her leisure.

"It was a bad couple of years;" Ian offered cryptically. She nodded and we felt only what could be sympathy coming from her.

Fiona started the contact; "As I soon as I open this, as soon as he's distracted, go through. You will be behind him."

Ian nodded; "Okay. And forward then? Push him forward then?"

Fiona simply said; "Subdue him."

We nodded at that, we'd give it our best.

She added; "If the contact is broken, you will be recontacted." We nodded again.

Entry 12: Knights take King; Family Meeting.

The contact came, Corwin stared at Fiona and we went through. Ian immediately made a grab for Corwin. Corwin was trying to turn and draw Greyswandir. I lunged forward in an attempt to parry or bind his blade down to one side, away from Ian. It worked, Greyswandir fell to the floor with a clatter and Corwin began to scream, raging in anger. Ian just held on to Corwin, not letting him go. I reached down and collected Greyswandir with my left hand, looking for any of Corwin's troops.

Soon enough, I felt a Trump contact; it was Fiona. "Hello" I said fairly calmly to her. She reached out a hand and gestured for us to come through. We did, gladly, for Corwin was still screaming and kicking in Ian's grasp. As Ian and Corwin went through, Corwin kicked out and hit Fiona's side. She stumbled back. Ian head butted Corwin, trying to knock him out or atleast slow him down.

Ian tried to wrestle Corwin's arms up and behind his head. Corwin was still kicking and screaming the entire time. Corwin let his balance go, falling backwards to try to launch his heels into Ian's groin. Ian twisted to one side, going down on the ground with him. I stepped in and used the hilt of Greyswandir to punch Corwin in the solar plexus, knocking his breath out.

Corwin, barely breathing, barely struggled as Ian maneuvered him into an armlock and pinned him to the ground.

Looking up at Fiona, he said; "You can talk to him now, Fiona."

Fiona hobbled over to us, looked down at Corwin and kicked him in the head. Hard. "I'll talk to him later, he's unconscious now." Ian maintained his grip on Corwin, just to be safe.

"Did this stop your damned war Merlin?" Ian asked before he realized Merlin wasn't there anymore.

Fiona began sorting through her Trumps, Ian maintained his grip on an unconscious Corwin. I sheathed Aermacil and moved over to remove Corwin's swordbelt. I then sheathed Greyswandir, and slung the belt over one shoulder. I was halfway tempted to hand Corwin's sword to Fiona and say; "Here, put this in service to Amber;" but I restrained myself. The adrenaline was still pumping through me and judging by Ian's coloring, his was still flowing full steam as well.

Fiona settled on one Trump and shortly thereafter, Gerard, Bleys, Benedict and Llewella stepped through to join us in Chaos. We had an impromptu Family meeting going on it seems.

I nodded to Llewella and then held out a sheathed Greyswandir to Gerard. "Here, Regent;" I said.

"It's Steward now;" he replied. "But thank you." I nodded back.

Gerard just watched his son squeezing Corwin, not saying anything. I tried to talk Ian into letting Corwin go, but he wasn't listening to me or to anyone right then.

The 'Elders' turned to face one another in a loose circle and began talking. I gave up talking sense into Ian for the moment and joined them.

"Well, this is the situation;" Fiona says to them/us.

Gerard was beginning to look queasy. 'Must be his first time in Chaos;' I thought. "Don't stare at anything, Gerard, just look at us." He did that and began to look a bit better.

Bleys looked preoccupied, Benedict and Gerard glanced around. After a few moments, Benedict began moving in Ian's direction while Gerard moved so that he could keep an eye on all of us.

Benedict stood above Ian, looking down at him. "Hello, Ian;" he said calmly.

"Hello uncle Benedict;" Ian replied.

"What are you doing to Corwin?" Benedict asked him.

"I'm holding him here;" Ian said.

"Would you mind if I took the honors?" Benedict asked calmly. He kneeled down by Corwin's head, Ian said nothing just watched him.

"Would you mind if I looked a little closer?" Benedict asked nodding towards the bruise that had appeared on Corwin's forehead.

"No;" Ian said.

Benedict quickly checked Corwin over to make sure he was going to survive. Standing back up, he asked again; "Do you mind?"

Ian was still on the edge of losing control and killing Corwin there in front of everyone. I could feel his rage, his anger, his hope that if he killed Corwin he could make it all go away even if he damned his own soul in the process.

I walked over to Benedict's side. "Ian, let him go." I said to my friend/cousin/partner.

"No;" Ian said forcefully.

"Whatever's got to be done will be a group decision;" I told Ian slowly, trying to reach out and soothe his anger. "It's not our fault."

Benedict started to move, I wasn't sure what he was going to do, but then Gerard, who'd snuck up from behind Ian somehow, grabbed his son and held his arms. Ian went limp at his father's touch. Benedict, as it turns out, was just moving to Corwin's side to make sure Corwin's arms stayed attached to his body and in a relatively normal position.

Gerard lifted Ian over his head and stood up, moving away from Corwin. My gaze followed them and I ventured; "I think he's okay now, Gerard. Relatively speaking anyway."

Gerard looked up at Ian, who slowly nodded back at him. Gerard just nodded and held Ian over head for a while. Benedict was binding Corwin's arms. Bleys and Fiona, having moved off to one side, were quietly talking to each other.

Eventually, Gerard set Ian down and I asked the group if we could try to get Random now.

"Well;" Gerard stalled looking over to the redheads.

I looked at them as well. "Why don't we try that group Trump thing?" I asked them.

"Well..." Bleys began. "We could do that, probably leave Amber completely defenseless since we're all here right now. The situation is so much more complex than just going there. We don't even know where Random is. We're confidant that he's not in this rapidly collapsing reality bubble."

"What rapidly collapsing reality bubble?" Ian asked right before I could.

"The Cassis multiverse;" Bleys said. "We are reasonably certain... we know he's not here. We do not believe he ever entered here. We have no such assurances that he is not in Amber's."

"The very worst that could have happened is that he did get caught in the pure chaos of the storm and got rendered down into his component parts." Bleys added. That being the case, the Jewel will have already returned to the Amber side of things."

"A better case scenario is that he's alive somewhere with the Jewel. We are pretty sure that the Jewel is in Amber's multiverse because it's not diminishing."

"But we don't really know where Merlin is right now;" Bleys said looking at us. "You said Corwin had another son..."

"Two;" I replied.

"Two?" Bleys repeated, a bit surprised.

"Well we don't know if the other kid's a son or not;" I added.

"Corwin does have two children;" I said.

"But you did say that one of them had walked his Pattern?" Bleys asked us.

I nodded my head; "Yes. The other was still too young."

"He needs to walk the other Pattern;" Ian said.

"Oh, no, no, no;" Bleys said quickly. "He doesn't need to, it would be very interesting if he did. I'm sure it wouldn't kill him. Of course he would become a being of power."

"I don't want Uther to become a being of power;" Ian said. I had to agree with him there.

"Ultimately, what it comes down to is this;" Bleys continued. "This Pattern is clearly flawed and did not have enough to sustain it's own reality on a level Amber's has. As long as Corwin was there, he was able to push it back a bit, but he got distracted."

"So, in the distraction..." Ian began.

"Oh, it's done;" Bleys said; "He's unconscious, he's out. He's here in the Courts and away from his center. Right now, what seems to be happening is that we've set up the process of collapsing, which in turn speeds up the process of distancing."

"Since there is someone in there who has walked that Pattern, it shouldn't completely... dissipate, it should retain a modicum of size, it may even retain some Shadows, but if nothing else... as long as Uther lives, possibly even propagates and has his children walk, maybe somehow, somewhere, sometime they exist."

"Will it be like a closet next to the room of our reality?" Ian asked. "Will it be someplace we can visit?"

"No..." Bleys frowned thoughtfully. "Even now the part of Chaos that joining the two is being rent asunder."

Ian pulled out Uther's Trump and showed it to everyone. "Then doesn't he deserve a choice?"

"If you'd like;" Bleys said after a moment or two of silence.

Bleys picked up the Trump and looked at for a moment before looking at Ian; "He doesn't know me, you realize? Would you like to ask him?"

Ian took the Trump back. "Can I have help?" he asked Bleys, who nodded and moved lend his strength to the call.

"Uther;" said Ian. The contact was hazy. Ian told Uther what was happening in Cassis, and that we could bring him through to Amber, if he wished. Uther said he couldn't leave his father. Ian told him that if he wanted to go to his father that he had to come here. When Uther asked if that meant Corwin was here with us, Ian said yes, we have him.

A smile lit up his face at that. He said that if stayed in Cassis and Corwin stayed in Amber, he would get to be King. He said we'd just made his day. He then wanted to know if Corwin could come back sometime to reclaim his throne. Ian said anything's possible but that it would very difficult for him to try. Uther then wanted to know where Merlin was, Ian said he didn't know and then Uther broke the contact. Seems the young pup was a true Amberite after all; he wanted the throne, even the throne of a small, diminished realm such as Cassis would become.

When Ian, Bleys and I got done with Uther, I asked if we hadn't ought to look into finding Merlin. Make sure he's all right. We were hoping Merlin would have a Trump of Corwin's other son, but then we also weren't entirely sure of Merlin's motives either. One of the things Merlin could have been doing at that moment was walking Corwin's Pattern in Cassis.

But then Gerard's big arms fell gently on our shoulders and he turned us back toward the group. "It's time to go home, guys. It's time to rest."

"We need something to stabilize my mother's condition until Random is found;" I persisted. After all, when all was said and done, it was for that reason I'd gone on this damned quest.

Gerard's hand tightened on my shoulder; "Condition?"

"Moiré's dying because Random's not in Amber;" I said.

"I'm not going to stand here and talk about this;" Gerard said authoritatively. "We will talk about this when we get home."

"Fine;" I said. It was my turn to use that simple word that can convey so much meaning.

Fiona, Corwin and Benedict had already left by this time we noticed.

Bleys pulled out a Trump and we wound up in Bleys' manor house.

As we were walking away, Gerard asked; "She's dying?"

I nodded; "She's getting progressively sicker. Ask Llewella if you doubt me."

Llewella nodded and said; "I hate to say it but something has to be done."

"I have to be kept informed;" Gerard muttered. I could see why he'd say that, but I also didn't really think it was his business. Until we brought him into it, it remained strictly a Rebman matter.

Gerard looked at Ian; "Now that you're a little bit closer to one of the hundred situations I have to put up with, do you see why I don't want to be in charge of this crap?"

"I obviously have to talk to Moiré, now;" Gerard said. I nodded at that.

Ian invited me to stay at his manor, but I declined, saying I had people of my own to see. I was thinking of Moiré' and Aeron. And that I wanted a good sleep, under the sea once again. Ian pulled out a Trump of his wife and got lost in talking to her. I'd see him tomorrow, perhaps, or the next day, but for now, I wanted to go home. So, Llewella and I Trumped back to Rebma.

To Morgan's Personal Information

To Morgan's Journals: Prelude & entries 1-3

To Morgan's Journals: Entries 4-8

To In the Dark: Page