I sat in my room grasping a note penned by Quinn in one hand and a Trump of Sand in the other. I had just returned to Amber. Jessica was out front drilling her troops. I could hear her instructions to them through my open window. I had narrowly escaped combat training myself, claiming that I had important leads to follow up on. True enough. I had cause to speak to Mandor and Sand, and now it appeared I had cause to speak to Quinn too. The note didn't go into much detail, saying only that she wished to speak to me about her investigation. I'd check into it, but I felt drawn to making contact with Sand first.

I held the card and concentrated. I felt only the slightest wisps of cold. I cleared my mind and tried to send a feeling of benevolence and harmlessness. It was probably a wasted effort. I doubted such emotions could be transmitted through an unanswered Trump call. Never-the-less I was clearly being blocked. What was Sand's fear? I tucked the card away and took up the note. Where was Quinn's room? Ah yes, right next to Luke's, or should I say Corwin's? I strolled over and knocked on the door. No answer. I jotted a note of my own on the back -

You were here and I was gone.
Now I'm here and you're gone.

and slipped it under her door.

I might have time for combat training after all if I couldn't find Mandor. On my way there I ran into none other than Quinn.

Quinn apprised me of the interference that she and Mandor had encountered while searching for Frakir. Through contact, I passed her the feeling of interference I had encountered while searching Merlin's past. It was one in the same. Quinn planned to search the castle room-by-room looking, not specifically for Frakir, but for the interference. She wondered if I could do the same, thus cutting the search time in half. Alas, my spells are not geared this way. I suggested, instead, that I cast Visions from the Anterior of the Mind on her to see if and where she would locate Frakir. That way we could avoid the interference altogether. She agreed. I cast the spell and the visions began spinning past me. I saw both of us searching rooms that I did not recognize, then I was gone from the search (how odd), then the visions became dulled and faded. I could feel a chaotic element scrambling the visions. The interference was working its way into my spell. How thorough this scryguard must have been. It even clouds Quinn's future! I worked on pulling just one more vision from the spell before it broke up.

Quinn was standing at a door with Mandor. "Whose symbol is this?" she asked him. I tried to examine the door, but it was too late - a fleeting glimpse and then it was gone.

I sighed.

She looked at me with a little skepticism. I smiled. Did she think me a charlatan or a joker? Very well. It was time to begin the search.

The search began in Random's room. Quinn assured me that we had permission for the deed. She began casting her spell - a strange one indeed. It was unlike any spell of my own or any I'd seen Bleys or Fiona cast. There was a sort of mysticism to it, as thought Quinn was asking for unseen entities to aid her. Meanwhile I stood guard lest the murderer, or even Jade or Luke, come barging in on Quinn in her pre-occupied state. Luckily the guard was unnecessary. We searched Random's room, Llewella's, Nathaniel's, Flora's, and were just finishing Merlin's room, still with no sign of the interference, when I received a Trump call from Connie. I pulled him through and explained what we were doing. Connie began a monologue about all of his recent activities, which began by detailing his visit to Jasra's castle (he made no mention to her about my possible relationship to her.) and continued on about his trip to Tirnanog. The story quick grew amusing as Connie stumbled and stammered his way red faced through a scene in which they saw a shadowy reflection of Quinn having sex with Random in the throne room. Even more amusing was that Quinn was as embarrassed as Connie. I just found the notion quite whimsical. Tirnanog may be prophetic or merely a collection of unrelated images. What's more everyone seems to be overlooking the possibility that its sights are controlled by the Dreamline. Suddenly I received an urgent Trump from Bleys.

I asked Connie to take my place as guard and went to do battle with Chaos.