A coiled snake

    Getting Up to Speed


    We appeared by the side of the road leading up to the keep, the desolation unchanged since my last visit. Cerridwen looked around briefly, her only comment a startled, "Oh." I wondered why she seemed so surprised. Perhaps she been here before the climatic change?

    "It is rather dry, is it not?" I observed.

    Cerridwen affected a disinterested air. "Just like at home. Let's go to the castle where we can make some changes."

    "Very well."

    "That seems to be the center of things, after all."

    "Yes, indeed." Not all that hard a conclusion to reach, when it was the only manmade structure within view.

    We walked up the hill and entered the keep, it too looking no different than before. I was, perhaps, a bit tense, half expecting Blethius to put in an appearance, but thankfully, he remained absent. Although...I could not shake the feeling that he was watching us, all the same. I wondered if Cerridwen felt it. I rather hoped that she did not, since I had not seen fit to warn her about him. If I had, I might have had to explain what he was guarding, and while she might have a Pattern of her own, I was not willing to risk that she would not be interested in acquiring another one.

    After a bit of searching, we found some intact furniture in one of the sitting rooms. Cerridwen sat down in one the chairs and relaxed, saying, "First thing we need to do is alter the time flow to be more in common with normal Shadow time."

    I took the seat opposite her, agreeing, "Quite."

    Cerridwen closed her eyes and was silent for a while, although she appeared to be concentrating. I did my best to follow what she was doing, but sadly, I was unable to do more than sense that it involved the Pattern. After a while, she stated, "That's accomplished," but made no move to rise. She finally stirred a short time later and sat up slightly. "OK, I've set growth to return to the place. It should start raining shortly."

    "Oh wonderful." I had not been expecting her to fix the environment as well, but I certainly did not mind.

    "That should pretty much put it in a state where you can investigate more thoroughly. Do be careful, though," she warned.

    "Oh?" Had she detected the Spindle during her efforts? It was certainly possible, given that she had been using the Pattern.

    "Strange energy emissions in this place."

    "Really?" I responded, doing my best to sound surprised. "How odd."

    "Oh, I'm sure," Cerridwen said sarcastically, rolling her eyes just a little.

    I had to smile a bit at that. She knew me too well. "I will, of course, have to investigate that."

    "Oh, of course."

    "Thank you ever so much for the warning," I added.

    "It's the least I could do."

    She obviously knew there was more that I was not telling her, but she did not press the matter. No more than I had pressed her about certain aspects of the Tir. It was one of the reasons we worked so well together, I suspected. We knew when to respect each other's...privacy.

    Cerridwen considered me for a few moments. "I have a question for you."

    "Yes?"

    "If you had, say, this sorcerer captured, held in prison, bound, that kind of thing..." Her voice trailed off for a moment.

    "Mmm-hmm?" I said encouragingly. This sounded interesting. I wondered who she was holding.

    "I'm trying to find a use for him, but I just don't know what to do."

    Hmm, that was a good question. What could one do with a sorcerer? "Does the Tir need a new battery?" The one she had been using before had not appeared to be in the greatest of shape.

    "I had considered that, but it seems to operate pretty well without a battery, and since, you know, this hypothetical sorcerer isn't Abyssal... Well, not yet, but..."

    I nodded in understanding. "Ah, yes, why waste him? Hmm, you might be able to...well, I mean, since you are not using him as a battery for the Tir, why not use him as a battery for yourself?"

    "That's an idea. Perhaps I could accelerate some healing processes by using him."

    I smiled. "Exactly."

    "Or I could use him as an organ donor."

    "True, although there are certain rejection factors, I would imagine."

    "Oh, I doubt there will be."

    I was not so sure, but it was not an area that I had a lot of expertise in. "There are so many uses one can have for a sorcerer, after all."

    "I wish I could find the books on how Mandor did what he did, binding those the undead sorcerers into the steel..." She stopped momentarily, searching for the word.

    I finished for her. "Into the spheres?"

    "Yes."

    "I had heard about that. Yes, now that would be very useful, because then you could access his magic. I do not suppose there is any way to suck the knowledge out of his brain easily the way you have him imprisoned?"

    Cerridwen shook her head. "That's such an iffy thing to play with."

    "Hmmm."

    "From what I've heard of that, you can get into some pretty dangerous territory by doing that."

    Indeed. It was not something I would do without a great deal of caution. "You would not want to get stuck or anything."

    "No, more than that, you wouldn't want to acquire memories that might alter your own personal view point."

    Also true, although I personally thought that was much more likely if your mind was weak and undisciplined. "The trick would be to get the knowledge without the underlying memory, but that is awfully tricky."

    "Hmmm." She pondered that for a moment. "Well, anyway, if anything occurs to you along those lines, you get back to me."

    I nodded. "Right now, the best one I can think of personally is the battery idea, until you come up with something else."

    "Yes, for now I think I'll just keep him imprisoned." She was silent for a moment, before commenting, almost as an afterthought, "Oh, Sarah's gotten in over her head."

    I blinked a bit at the change in subject. "I understand she is, ah, pursuing an old...enemy."

    "Well, yes, but Sarah...there have been disturbances. They're starting to appear on either end of reality."

    "And you think it is connected to her?" I was not sure how they could be. She was simply toying with Gawain in Arcana, after all.

    "I think that Sarah's tapped into something that perhaps she would have been better off having left alone."

    That did not sound good. "What sort of disturbances?"

    "Faust...Faust will be finding out about it shortly."

    Faust...I knew that name. One of Fiona's children, if I recalled correctly. How was he involved in this?

    Cerridwen continued, "Something's destroying the foundation of Amber."

    I tried to pretend this concerned me, although in all honesty I could have cared less. "Oh how terrible."

    Cerridwen picked up on my tone. "It could actually be terrible. It would upset the balance of things, and then who knows where all of our powers would end up lying?"

    I had the urge to remind her that my powers were not based out of Amber, but I thought better of it. Cerridwen guessed where my thoughts were heading anyway.

    "I mean, the last time the balance went askew, you saw what happened to magic."

    "Hmmm." I frowned at that reminder. "That is true, but would the Circle not be a more stabilizing effect on that now?"

    "The Circle is partially Pattern, is it not? If the Pattern is destroyed, what might therefore happen to the Circle?"

    I sighed. I had managed to forget that inconvenient little fact.

    "For that matter, the Logrus has partial Pattern potential in it now. What would happen to the Logrus if the Pattern were destroyed?"

    "I keep forgetting that it has that nasty little infestation in it."

    "Yes, yes, yes." She waved a hand dismissively

    "So, what are these manifestations?"

    "I can't...I really can't say on a lot of things, but I can recommend that you definitely need to look into what Sarah's doing, even if Sarah just prefers you not to."

    "Oh dear." That could be rather difficult.

    "Because I really strongly believe that she's gotten into a position where she's going to hurt herself."

    "Hmmm. Does Shaenan know of any of this?"

    "He'll know shortly."

    I smiled. "So you have not said anything to him yet?"

    "No."

    "Hmmm. Interesting." Which meant that she was giving me the opportunity to be the first to inform him. The question was, did I want to?

    "She has disturbed something powerful in Arcana. And that something powerful has started to reach out and attempt to take control. It's taking territory unto itself."

    Indeed? Gawain must be finding that rather vexing. "I would not think there would be anything with that kind of power in Arcana, other than the Circle itself."

    "Well, here's the thing. For all three of the great powers there's an intelligence guarding it, yes?"

    "Yes." That was no great secret.

    "We have assumed that there is no intelligence guarding the Circle because we haven't seen it. I suspect that Sarah's tapped into it."

    "She has found its...sentience."

    "Its Avatar."

    "Who could the Avatar of the Circle be?"

    "I hope not Gawain."

    Perish the thought! "No, of course not, that would involve a lack of sentience." I paused for a moment. "Well, I do thank you for the information."

    "Yes, and, you know, of course, you didn't get it from me."

    "Of course not. Never." We both smiled at that.

    "If you need help, do call on me."

    "Thank you."

    "I'll render what aid I can. I would like to see Sarah and yourself come out of this whole affair unscathed. If at all possible."

    I smiled again. "I share your feelings on that particular matter wholeheartedly."

    "Until next," Cerridwen said and got to her feet. "I think I'll be heading back now."

    I nodded, and rose as well. "I do appreciate your assistance in this."

    "It's no problem." And with that, she chanted a few words and was gone. Yes, she had definitely been here before. At least long enough to know the trick of how to leave. I decided it did not bother me. Even if she wanted to investigate the Spindle more closely, I had a feeling that Blethius would not allow it. The trick would be persuading Blethius to allow me to do so.


    Chaos Rising logo
    Melanie's Page | Melanie's Journals


    All text on this page is © 2000 by Kris Fazzari.

    Last modified on February 17, 2000 by Kris Fazzari.