A Simple Plan

The rest of our journey back to Chaos was uneventful, and everyone quickly disembarked upon our arrival. I intended to return to Skeltland with Sarah, and indeed she was anxious for me to do so, but Cerridwen requested that I remain with her in the Tir for a little while longer. Having no pressing matters of my own to deal with, I agreed. It was after we had set a course for Amber that I learned why my presence had been requested. Cerridwen intended to trap an Amberite by the name of Katrina, in much the same manner as had worked so successfully on Meridian. My role, as before, was to control the Tir, moving it away after Cerridwen departed, then returning at a designated time just long enough to spring the trap. The plan appeared to hold little risk for me, and so I consented to help.

The first part of the plan went like clockwork. Cerridwen disembarked in Amber and I departed the area, returning at the designated time. I watched in secret as Cerridwen returned with two others, one of whom I recognized as Despil, much to my surprise. Cerridwen had not mentioned that the Emperor of Chaos was to be involved in this little plan. The woman I could not identify. Chasing after them was a second woman, and this one I did recognize. I had seen her once before, when I departed the Tir for the first time. The redheaded warrior woman who had stood with Cerridwen and another redhead of a more scholarly mien. I presumed that she must be Katrina. Interesting. She and Cerridwen had seemed friendly enough when I first saw her. I wondered what she had done to earn Cerridwen's enmity since then.

I moved the Tir away from Amber the moment Katrina stepped on board, closing the trap quite neatly. I then retired to my quarters, my role in this matter finished...or so I thought. Cerridwen came by briefly with the woman I had not recognized, introducing her as Emily. I was quite surprised to learn that she was the daughter of Katrina and Gawain. Given that she was helping to trap her own mother, it seemed there was little love lost between them.

Once Cerridwen and Emily had departed, I returned to scrying on our guests. You can imagine my surprise when Katrina abruptly attacked Cerridwen with an object I later learned was the Eye of Chaos. When the dust settled, Cerridwen lay comatose and Katrina had been turned to stone, courtesy of Despil. Unfortunately, his actions were too little, too late. It took a great deal of my willpower not to lash out and shatter the statue of Katrina. Had she succeeded in killing Cerridwen, perhaps I might have. We had worked well together, Cerridwen and I, and I found myself displeased at the thought of our alliance ending so prematurely. But careful observation assured me that she yet lived, and so I let Katrina's statue be. Cerridwen would not thank me for robbing her of her vengeance...if she ever recovered. There be nothing I could do, I retired for the evening, my mind full of questions as to what I would do next. Of one thing I was certain. I intended to claim the Tir for as long as Cerridwen was indisposed. Who better to do so, after all? Who else knew the secret of how to control it?

I received a visit from a rather stricken Emily in the morning, informing me that Cerridwen had been grievously wounded by an intruder named Katrina. I pretended shock at the news, and asked of the intruder's fate, learning that she been imprisoned and was being turned over to Chaos for trial. I found this rather unsatisfying, but at least she was not being released. Emily was obviously quite distressed, not only because her mother was the one who had injured Cerridwen, but because she had raised Cerridwen herself. So, essentially, her mother had nearly killed her foster daughter. I found myself feeling a bit of honest sympathy for her, much to my surprise. I know all about what it is like to have a...difficult parent. Then Emily brought up a problem I had not anticipated, although in retrospect it was obvious that I should have. With Cerridwen's...incapacitation, I was the only person on board who could return the Tir to Chaos. A bit inconvenient, that, given that I wished to keep my presence a secret. Still, there was no reason why we could not mislead everyone into thinking that Emily was controlling the Tir instead of me.

It was a quiet trip back to Chaos, the general atmosphere understandably subdued. Despil departed with the statue of Katrina once we arrived, but Emily chose to stay behind and care for Cerridwen. I had obviously mixed feelings about this, but she did not seem inclined to interfere with my activities, nor I hers. For the most part, we simply avoided each other, except for the few occasions when I looked in on Cerridwen.

In the week that followed Cerridwen's injury, I devoted myself to further exploration of the Tir. Naturally, I began with the basement area that Cerridwen had warned me to avoid. I had obeyed her wishes thus far, not out of fear, but out of the suspicion that Cerridwen had told me to avoid the area merely to see if I would disobey her. Given her current condition, however, I doubted she had any way of knowing if I took a look around. Like Amber, the basement contained a door to the Tir's Pattern room. Unlike Amber, the door was guarded by Ty'iga. How annoying. I had been toying with the idea of trying to walk the Tir's Pattern, but decided it was not worth the effort, at least not now. There was still a chance Cerridwen would recover, after all, and a pile of dead Ty'iga in an area I was supposed to avoid was more than I cared to explain.

The real find was further down the hall, however, in a well-warded room that stood out like a beacon to me. Naturally, I had to investigate. Imagine my surprise when I peered inside and saw a comatose man secured to the wall. There was something familiar about him, and after a closer study I was finally able to identify him as Osric of Amber. I also realized that he was abyssal. He appeared to have been chained there for quite some time, and it did not take me long at all to realize that it was his abyssal nature that enabled the Tir to traverse the Abyss. How clever of Cerridwen. Or had it been the previous owners of the Tir who had originally trapped Osric? I could see why Cerridwen had wanted me to avoid this area. If Osric were freed, either on purpose or by accident, it would get rather messy. I left him as I had found him and returned to the main part of the castle.

With my curiosity satisfied as to the basement, I decided to avail myself of the opportunity to walk the Magic Circle again, since it was still conveniently attached to the Tir. My second walk was every bit as enlightening as the first, and I repeated the process several additional times throughout the week, always varying my path to cover new ground. The rush of knowledge was almost addictive, and I found myself wondering what effect repeated exposure to the Circle might have.

I did not spend all of my time on the Circle, of course. Concerned that someone might learn of Cerridwen's injury and view this as an opportune time for an attack, I did some investigating of the Tir's defenses. I was gratified to find that all of the outside windows and doors were defended by ghosts, who fortunately deferred to me in Cerridwen's absence. In addition to this, I altered the Tir such that it could not be entered by means of Pattern, Logrus, Trump or sorcery. I believed these precautions would be sufficient to eliminate any chance of an unexpected invasion. In this I turned out to be sadly mistaken.

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Last modified on March 30, 1999 by Kris Fazzari.