Ariana's log, Chapter 122

"Let's try cutting (Gavin's) head off and see if the (feeling of danger) stops."

Wednesday, August 30, 2994

Ariana goes looking for Ishmael. He's not in his quarters, and none of the pages have seen him, so Ariana Trumps him. He answers her and comes through. She asks how Vincent took the news. Well, her bastard husband told Vincent that Fiona eats Chaosian souls, which didn't help. Ariana chuckles and asks what Ishmael told Vincent about his change in instructors. That he was better than Ishmael, so Fiona would be teaching him now. Ariana says she's not sure what excuse she should give Vincent for taking his picture. Ishmael suggests telling him the truth. Has he heard from Whimsy about what happened to her? Yes. Jack took her to Faerie and spanked her. Ariana asks if Ishmael has talked to Alexandra, and learns that she apologized this morning. For what? The dance they had. Ishmael says to ask Alexandra for details.

Lucien is absent when Ariana returns to her quarters, although he's left a note for her. He's having brunch in Middlecourt, and will be back around mid-afternoon. Ariana makes arrangements for the basement to be dug for her summer house before winter sets in and the ground freezes.

Just before lunch, Whimsy Trumps Ariana and comes through. They begin walking down to the dining hall with Ariana's kids. Whimsy notices that Vincent is absent and asks Ariana where he is. He's with Fiona. Whimsy comments, "Poor thing," causing Morgan and Shannon to look nervous. Whimsy and Ariana talk about Jack. Ariana asks what happened when Jack vanished with Whimsy. He took her to Faerie, showed her the Faerie Ring, offered to marry her... They reach the dining hall before Ariana can reply to this last bit.

Flora and Random are the only elders at lunch. Nicholas is missing as well. When Gavin enters the room, Alexandra, Flora, Random, Ishmael and the children are the only ones who don't stare. Whimsy invites Gavin to sit down next to her. She mentions that her danger alarm is going off. Has he done anything today? Nothing unusual. He saw his tailor. Ariana asks if he picked up anything unusual. Not really. Nothing he didn't have before. Ishmael wants to cut Gavin's head off. Whimsy excuses herself.

After lunch, Ariana asks Random if he's talked to Nicholas about her hospital proposal. Not until after the coronation, probably. He asks what caused the commotion at lunch. Ariana explains that Gavin is setting off people's danger detectors. Random makes a note of this.

Felix looks pissy, so Ariana invites him to spar with her and Ishmael. The fighting styles break down as follows: Ariana - smartest, Felix - strongest, Ishmael - fastest. No real surprises there. Ariana explains to Ishmael what was going on at lunch. Ishmael wants to break into Gavin's room, or Trump him, or something. Ariana suggests that talking to Benedict might be in order. Ishmael tells her to go right ahead. Felix asks how the Ygg project went. OK. There were no attacks.

Ariana and Felix's items warn them of danger. Ariana draws Morglyph and sees something black go into the tracery of the Pattern on the blade. The group hears someone stop outside the door and investigates. It's Gavin. The blackness leaves Morglyph and goes into Ishmael. Ishmael picks up Gavin and goes to slam him onto the floor. Suddenly, his arm stops its motion and releases Gavin. Then Ishmael begins smacking himself. Felix grabs Ishmael's wayward arm and pins it behind his back to stop him. Spikes grow out of the arm, spearing Felix through his hand. Felix releases the arm and Trumps Tamaryn, who comes through and heals him. Ariana tries Trumping Fiona, then Bleys, then Caine, then Vetch. None of them answer. Ishmael, holding his spike-covered arm away from his face with his other hand, yells to Trump Whimsy. Ariana doesn't have Whimsy's Trump with her. Ishmael has one in his pocket. Ariana retrieves it and Trumps Whimsy. She answers and comes through. Ishmael breaks his arm to stop it from killing him, at which point the other arm starts twitching. Whimsy hands a flat, red, palm-sized stone to Ariana, then tries to casts a spell on Ishmael, but the energy is sucked into the stone. She tells Ariana to leave the room. Ariana does so and examines the stone more closely. It has the faerie rune for fire inscribed in it, and is bound in leather with a small cold iron ring at the top. Obviously, one of the Faerie Wards. Whimsy casts another spell, then comes into the hall and gets the stone back from Ariana. Ariana asks where she got it. She'll explain later.

Whimsy Trumps Fiona, explains the situation, and pulls her through. They re-enter the practice room. Ariana sees that Whimsy's spell turned Ishmael to stone. Tamaryn says that Gavin has summoned a demon. Ariana puts a hand on her sword. Tamaryn tells Ariana that if she attacks Gavin, the demon will kill her. Fiona questions Gavin and learns that Brand gave him a book, which he copied. Did he summon a demon from it? He denies this, but Fiona doesn't believe him. She tries to free Ishmael, but the energy goes into Whimsy's stone again. Whimsy leaves the room. Fiona frees Ishmael. Ariana sets and heals his broken arm. Fiona draws a circle on the floor and begins trying to bind the demon. Pieces of it fly out of Gavin at the others. Ishmael isn't sure if he should run through Fiona's circle, so he runs around it instead, to no avail. Everyone is caught except for Fiona, who is protected by her circle, and Ariana, who has Morglyph drawn. The demon piece heading for her flies into Morglyph instead. Rather than be controlled, Whimsy takes a sleeping potion, while Ariana puts Ishmael and Felix to sleep and keeps an eye on Tamaryn. Fiona eventually gives up on her binding efforts, at which point the demon pieces in Whimsy, Ishmael and Felix fly back into Gavin. Fiona brings up a large amount of Pattern energy, prompting the rest of the demon pieces to re-enter Gavin. Then Gavin fades out. Ariana asks where Fiona put him. A Shadow pocket. Ariana wakes Ishmael and Felix up, then neutralizes the sleep potion in Whimsy's system. Whimsy checks to make sure she still has her stone. Fiona tells Whimsy to walk with her and they leave.

Felix discusses the Ygg trip some more with Ariana and Ishmael. They tell him it was pretty boring. Felix mentions the disappearance of Vixen. Ariana relates how Vixen broke Whimsy's nose and then took off. She also tells Felix that Vixen tried to kill Eric's unborn child. It's obvious that she's very distressed by this. She adds that Ronan is missing, and she's afraid that Vixen may be responsible for that as well. Eric and Iseult are searching for him. Felix tells Ariana that he's directed Irene to Foster to talk about marrying his sons to her daughters. Ariana doesn't think Foster will be up to handling that yet. She asks if Felix warned Foster about the Pattern's effect on fertility. No. Ariana thinks he should. Ishmael asks what they're talking about, so Ariana explains, then goes back to her quarters.

Lucien is writing at his desk when Ariana returns. She asks how his brunch went. Quite well. Who was he eating with? Luther Hendrake. Why? He's the Head of a powerful house. How was her day? Oh, same old, same old. Has he seen Vincent? He's still with his tutors. She asks why he told Vincent that Fiona eats Chaosian souls. To give him the proper respect for her. And what did he tell the children about his own soul? Oh, Fiona took it long ago. Figures.

Ariana goes looking for Bridget, who's in her quarters sewing. Ariana asks how she is. All right. Ariana's concerned that Bridget is unhappy. Bridget admits that she doesn't want much to do with the family, but she won't leave because she won't deny her son his birthright. Never mind that it's technically her birthright, too. Ariana suggests that Bridget could live in town. She's working on it. Ariana offers her help, but Bridget says she's handling it. Ariana gets the feeling that Bridget doesn't trust her anymore, since she's family. Ariana doesn't stay long, but looks in on Brendan before leaving. He's still really cute, and seems to be doing well.

Ariana goes into town to talk to Kira. After catching up with each other, Ariana asks if Kira might be willing to befriend Bridget, thinking Bridget will be more comfortable with her. Kira is interested when she learns that Bridget is a seamstress, and promises to look her up. Ariana returns to the castle.

Not long after Ariana gets back, Vincent returns from his lessons. She asks him how they went. Pretty good. Fiona talked to him for most of the afternoon. Ariana explains that Fiona has his missing drawing. He knows, she gave it back to him. She also told him that it's really a Trump of him. As far as Ariana can tell, he doesn't seem to know that he was giving himself nightmares with it. Ariana asks why he chose to draw the woman in his sketch. Because he was seeing her in his dreams. She seems to like him, and he trusts her. She said she's going to be coming to him soon. She can teach him things that Fiona can't. Has he told this to Fiona? No. Will he consider it? OK. How long has he been having these dreams? Since he was seven. Does he know who the woman is? No, but she told him Ariana wouldn't like it. She asks if he wants to know. Not given how Ariana's looking. Then he asks if the woman is his mother. Yes. He kind of figured. She asks him to let her know if he has any more nightmares. He argues that she'll just worry if he does. She'll worry anyway. Not if he doesn't tell her. Mothers know. Dad always manages to fool her. About what? Oh nothing, gotta go. She questions him further, but he won't say anything more, so she eventually lets him leave.

Ariana looks for Lucien, but he's gone. She tries using her ring, but he's blocking it. She Trumps him and asks where he is. Halfway between Amber and Middlecourt. Why is he going back? He left his purse. Very funny. She tells him to stop running away. He points out that he's been doing it all of his life. She pulls him through and tells him of her conversation with Vincent. How long has he known Vincent was dreaming about Sand? He won't say. Since Vincent was seven? No, he didn't know it had been going on that long. He's known since Vincent was ten. Ariana is upset that he didn't tell her. As he said before, he will protect her from hurt. She tells him he's being overprotective. He says that's the pot calling the kettle black. Meaning what exactly? That she's overprotective too. Like when? Maybe not with him, but with the children. She says that's different. She is not a child. No, she isn't, but he will protect her, even over the children. There was nothing she could have done in this case. How do you stop a ghost? She asks if he thinks Sand means Vincent harm. No. Dying seems to cause ghosts to lose a lot of the drive they had in life. Do all Amberites become ghosts? He's been haunted by one who wasn't able to get off his death curse. Ariana points out that if he'd told her about Vincent's dreams before, she wouldn't have had such an extreme reaction when she found Vincent's Trump of Sand. Well, that did occur to him, right after her head hit the floor. What does he think about Sand's offer to teach Vincent? He thinks it's a good idea, since Fiona can't teach him dream Trump. Does he think Fiona should be told? No, because she'll get pissy about Vincent learning something she can't. He'd told Vincent not to tell Fiona. She wishes he'd told her that. He's sure that Vincent will figure it out. Ariana says she'll talk to him again. Has Shannon been having any dreams? Not that Lucien knows of. Why does he think Sand is leaving him alone? He isn't sure.

Ariana tells Vincent that she doesn't think he should tell Fiona about Sand's offer, after all. He guesses that she talked to Dad. Ariana admits that he pointed out a few things she hadn't considered.

Ariana and family head down to dinner. Ariana receives a Trump call shortly after the meal has begun. It's Grayson, and he looks panicked. Ariana pulls him through. He tells her psychically that Nicholas wants him to walk the Pattern, and he doesn't want to. Why? Because Jack's curse was that he'll lose his ability to use faerie magic if he walks the Pattern. She asks for the exact wording of the curse. He tells her, then says that if he doesn't walk the Pattern within 24 hours, Nicholas will throw him in the dungeon. Obviously, Nicholas wants to get rid of Jack before his coronation. Jack's offered to take him out of Amber, so he can escape if he wants to. But he realizes that if he does, he'll never be able to come back again. Ariana says she'll do what she can. She could ask Nicholas to give him another day or so to think about it, but Nicholas can be pretty stubborn. Grayson says that Nicholas reminds him of Zane. Ariana points out that they're related.

Whimsy asks to speak to Grayson after dinner. Ariana says they both need to talk to her. She asks Grayson if he minds if she shares this with Lucien, in case he has any ideas. He has no objections. Ariana psychically tells Lucien what's going on. He thinks Grayson's gotten himself pretty stuck.

Ariana, Grayson and Whimsy meet after dinner. Ariana explains the situation to Whimsy. Whimsy asks to speak to Grayson alone. She wants to introduce him to someone. Grayson is reluctant. Ariana isn't happy about this, either. Whimsy says she's being an overprotective mom, at which point Grayson agrees to go. Ah, reverse psychology.

Ariana returns to her quarters and finds Jalana struggling with some needlework, the boys playing a war game with cards, the two younger girls playing with dolls, and Lucien reading a book. Ariana gives Jalana a bit of encouragement, then sits down next to Lucien and psychically apologizes for getting so upset with him earlier. She admits that she would have worried a lot more if she'd known from the start that Sand was visiting Vincent in his dreams. At least now she knows it's been happening for a while with no apparent harm. However, she still thinks he should have told her sooner. A year would have been enough time to convince her that nothing terrible was going to happen. He can see her point. She also has a favor to ask of him. Given that she isn't going to report what Grayson told her to Nicholas, if Grayson does leave Amber with Jack, she'd prefer not to remember that she knew he had that option in advance. He offers to teach her how to selectively edit her memory. It's rather an assassin's specialty. Ariana wishes she'd known that was possible when she learned of Avalon, since then Brand would never have learned of it from her. Lucien says he's sorry, then tells her to stop feeling guilty about it.

Ariana asks Lucien what causes some people to become ghosts when they die. It appears to be up to them. How did he find out about them? He's being haunted, remember? Who's haunting him? Roderick, a bastard son of Osric that Lucien killed over a thousand years ago. Ariana asks if the vision she had in Tir-na Nog'th about why Osric and Finndo were sent to their deaths is true. Yes. Their mistake was in siding with Cymnea. Why did he kill Roderick? He doesn't know. At some time in the past, he erased from his mind who ordered the assassination, and why. Roderick prevents him from forgetting the incident entirely, however. He appears from time to time and makes snide comments to Lucien, just often enough to ruin good days. Lucien has gotten so used to it that he'd probably feel lost without Roderick. Ariana figures he'd better not ever let Roderick know that, or he might finally leave. She observes that she probably doesn't want to know what Roderick has said about her. Nope. It occurs to Ariana that Roderick has probably watched them having sex, and this disturbs her. Lucien tells her not to let it get to her, since it will just make Roderick happy. She's unhappy about the fact that it bothers her more than it would have in the past, and blames that on what Brand did to her. He hugs her and tells her not to let Brand win, either.

Ariana and Lucien watch the boys at their card game for a little while. Morgan is beating the snot out of his brothers. Ariana is happy that at least one of her kids is showing an interest in strategy and tactics, adding that it may as well be the one who will be getting Morglyph. Lucien would rather see Morglyph melted down into scrap. Ariana says she wouldn't be carrying Morglyph if it weren't for Jack's presence in Amber. Lucien thinks cold iron would be equally effective on him. Perhaps, but until she's sure, she'd prefer to keep carrying Morglyph. She plans to bring both it and Alastor with her to Chaos, of course. Is he bothered by the idea of her going with Nicholas? No, he thinks her chances of surviving a war in Chaos are very good. She's hoping she'll come across Hector while she's there, since she doubts he'll survive an encounter with a Pattern blade. True, since Hector has Logrus. So only those with Logrus are affected by Pattern? Well, they're the only ones who will flame. She's still impressed that he could bear standing in the center of the Pattern while he was disguised as Martin. He reveals that as Martin, he had the blood of Amber. So he could have walked the Pattern in Martin's form and survived? Yes. Did he? Not at that time, but he did take the Pattern in the past. When? A long time a go, when he was young and foolish, shortly after he first was able to master an Amberite's form. It was one hell of a rush. So if he shifted into that form now, he'd still have a Pattern imprint? Yes, and if he took Benedict's form, he could fight as well as Benedict. He can literally become a person, provided he can handle the change mentally. He has to be stronger psychically than the person he wants to imitate, though. And if he isn't? He'll believe he is that person, with no recollection of his true identity.

Ariana asks if Lucien knows when her ring warns her of danger. Only if he's monitoring it. He got out of the habit during the five years he spent in Faerie. Why does she ask? She wasn't sure if he honestly didn't know how her afternoon went when he asked her earlier. He didn't know. She tells him about her encounter with Gavin's demon. Lucien's heard of that kind of demon. They are, or at least were, illegal in the Courts. They're very dangerous, and the only way to get rid of them is to reverse the summoning spell. They're not as effective at possession when they're split up, but they are impossible to hurt under those circumstances. Ariana comments that the demon is good in one sense. If Nicholas puts Gavin on the front lines when he attacks Chaos, it should make quite a mess. Lucien actually nearly giggles at the image, and admits that doing that probably wouldn't please Zane at all. Ariana asks why Morglyph didn't repel Gavin's demon. Because neither Pattern, Logrus or even faerie magic have any effect on that kind of demon. They can possess anything. They are very old and only respond to certain demonic magics. Ariana comments that she's getting tired of trying to learn how to defend herself against everything, since something new always seems to pop up. This is why Lucien gave up on defense and just learned to roll with the punches. Ariana concedes his point, but observes that she's not very good at rolling with the punches. He suggests they keep working on her shapeshifting.

Ariana asks if Lucien has ever shapeshifted to imitate her. No, he's never had a reason to. She jokes that if she should die, he could be both mother and father to the children. He'd rather sell them. She threatens to haunt him if he does. He says that would be a rather desirable consequence. She thinks she'd drive him crazy. He disagrees, saying it would be far better than the alternative. She points out that she'd be reborn again, eventually. He comments that actively haunting him might prevent that. Given that, would he really want her to haunt him? If it kept her around, yes. Will he do the same for her, if he dies first? He says that she's still very young, so it would be better if she just got on with her life. Not from her perspective. He thinks she should be able to let him go and move on. Besides, he's not sure that if he came back, he could resist the urge to do something foul to her consorts. She's willing to risk it. Besides, it's hardly fair for him to ask her to haunt him, when he doesn't want to do the same for her. He argues that he's far too old to wait for her to reincarnate again, find her, and then court her. She hugs him and asks him to promise he'll come back to her if he dies, one way or another. He'll try.

The boys ask their parents to join in the card game. They agree, and Lucien doesn't pull any punches, beating the snot out of his sons. When Ariana realizes he's not holding back, she doesn't either, and thrashes Lucien soundly. The children are delighted to see this, and the boys deliver numerous taunts about Dad being beaten by a *girl.* Lucien handles it all very elegantly, and seems to be enjoying himself as much as the children are. They all have such a good time, in fact, that the older children are allowed to stay up an hour past their usual bedtime.

After the children are in bed, Ariana brings up the conversation Lucien had with Jalana while she was gone. She wants to know if Jalana told him what happened to Ariana's wedding ring while he was in Faerie. Doesn't she think that's prying a bit? No. He'd rather not talk about it. Why? Father-daughter confidence. She says it won't bother her if Jalana did tell him, she just wants to know if she needs to tell him or not. Tell him what? About something stupid she did while he was in Faerie. Jalana knows about it, and if she told him, then Ariana doesn't need to. Lucien says he can't answer her when she words in that way. Ariana rephrases her question, asking if he knows what she did with her wedding ring while he was gone. Yes. She looks relieved, and says she suspected he knew when he accused her of being hypocritical after she called him overprotective. She asks if he's terribly hurt. Not terribly. He admits that there are still many levels where they don't understand each other's motivations.

Ariana checks on Vincent to make sure that he's not having any nightmares, then asks Lucien if she's being overprotective. Yes and no. Everything is potentially dangerous. Ariana thinks living in Amber has made her too paranoid. Lucien points out that isn't a phenomenon linked to Amber alone. True. Ariana checks on the kids once more and then goes to bed. She lies awake listening for any sounds of nightmares for a while, but hears nothing.

Quotables:

"I may hit on the avatar of Faerie, I may kill my relatives, I may invite all manner of disaster into Amber, but I will *not* wear a leather miniskirt to dinner." -- Whimsy to the group

"Have you found a place to have (your kittens) yet?" -- Gavin to Angel
"In the center of the Pattern." -- Kris

"Can I then root around in my own head and root out that which is not normal?" -- Gavin to GM

"If you can't find me, I've probably been kidnapped to Faerie again or beaten senseless by my mother." -- Whimsy to Nicholas

"There are items that warn of danger. Mine has warned me of things like assassins, when my mother got poisoned, and when I got married." -- Whimsy to Gavin

"If you don't come up with a good excuse, I'm going to take your head off. Nothing personal." -- Ishmael to Gavin

"Let's try cutting (Gavin's) head off and see if the (feeling of danger) stops." -- Ishmael to Ariana and Whimsy

"Gavin has a bigger psyche than me." -- Ariana
"That's unfortunate." -- Ishmael
"Don't look at me." -- Felix

"I think (Fiona's) trying to bind Gavin's head." -- Tamaryn to Felix
"Wouldn't it be easier if it was off of his shoulders?" -- Ishmael

"There's still a large smoke spot on the floor." -- GM
"I don't care, it's not my room." -- Whimsy

"I'm not looking for chicks right now, I'm looking for Iseult." -- Ishmael to GM

"You're only 16? Oh shit, I'm a criminal." -- Ishmael to Alexandra

"Outrageous Fortune"
Game Logs for Sessions 1-115 | Character Logs for Sessions 116+

Last modified on June 3, 1998 by Kris Fazzari.