"As long as (Nicholas and Finndo) show up, and don't start cheating, I won't have to get beaten up by Benedict."

Tuesday, December 27, 4

Ariana asks Lucien if there's anyone in Chaos who can fix her sword. Nope, magic disappeared in Chaos too. She asks if he's willing to spar with her. He reminds her that she's better than him, unless he cheats. That doesn't bother her, but she figures he'll probably be too busy, so she asks him to find a sparring partner for her. OK. Is there anything she should be careful of in the Courts? He's still figuring that out himself. The Courts have changed a lot since they last lived there. Ariana has noticed that there are a large number of half breeds. Yes, and the houses are 3-4 times larger than they were before. Large enough that one need not marry outside of the house, anymore. Ariana worries that the Courts could attack Amber with their greater numbers, while Nicholas is busy with Faerie. Lucien thinks that's unlikely to happen while Despil is in charge. And how likely is it that Despil will stay in charge? Well, Lucien is working for him now... True. He tells her to stay to the Ways for now, since she should be safe there. Although she might want to watch her back with Angelique. She'll warn the older children to stick to the Ways as well. She asks him to find someone to teach her what etiquette she needs to know. Not a problem. Lucien tells her he'll likely be gone for most of the day, but she can Trump him if there's a problem.

Ariana sends a note to Fiona, asking if she can take her to where Vincent is. Then she spends the rest of the day with the younger children, who are quite busy exploring their new home.

Ariana gets a note from Fiona that evening, saying that Whimsy has Vincent at Jesbyways. Ariana goes there immediately. A servant asks who she is and why she's there. Ariana responds that she's Lady Vetch, and she's there to see her son. He wasn't aware she had a son at Jesbyways. He's with Lady Whimsy. Whimsy? Lady Dahlia. Ah. The servant leaves for a time and then returns and leads Ariana to the west wing. Katherine, Whimsy's servant, brings Ariana to Whimsy. Whimsy then brings her to Vincent. He's alternating between feverish and very cold. Trump cold. Ariana's shapeshifting can't make heads or tails of it. She checks for Trump energy and finds a lot of it, more than there used to be. She realizes this is similar to what happened when Vincent was ill after the two planes of Trump merged. She checks for a presence, but his mind is very distant. There is a barrier erected in his mind as well, a rather thorny looking one. When Ariana examines it, one of the thorns suddenly grows out and hits her in the head. She cries out in pain and steps back. Vincent begins thrashing around. Whimsy strokes his hand and calms him. Ariana mentions that he'll need an I.V. soon, if he remains comatose. Whimsy says she was going to feed him some soup in the morning. Ariana says he'll choke if she does that. Whimsy gets all pissy about being corrected, refers to Ariana as Lady Vetch, and implies that she knows more about poisoning people than healing them. Ariana gets pissed in return, and says that Whimsy knows far more about poisoning people than she does. Whimsy says that perhaps Ariana would prefer to have Vincent at Vetchways. Ariana would, actually. He is her son, and not that she doesn't appreciate what Whimsy has done, but given that Whimsy has no connection to Vincent, it seems a bit odd to have him staying with her. Vincent starts to thrash around again as they argue. Whimsy goes to bind his hands, but Ariana stops her, saying that would be a bad idea. Whimsy looks annoyed, but doesn't try again. She summons two servants and has Vincent placed on a litter.

Ariana activates her Trump of Vetchways and suddenly appears in Castle Amber. The old Castle Amber, the way it was before Sand destroyed it. There is no one else around, other than the two confused Jesby servants holding an empty litter. Ariana tries to Trump Whimsy. The card is cold, but there's some kind of interference. She tries Vetchways, then her townhouse in Amber, with similar results. She shifts to her faerie form and tries to access the 'Tween, but it's not there. Faerie magic is gone, too. She shifts to her armored form and tries to use Pattern. Nope. She looks out a window, but sees nothing but blackness. No moon, no stars, just a black void. She checks to see if she can still detect her baby. She can, so she concludes that she's still in her own body. She checks out the hall of portraits and finds that the portraits match what was hanging in the old castle before its destruction. She asks the Jesbys if they know how to fight, but they just look scared. They seem to be in their teens.

Ariana checks her quarters in the castle, and on the surface it appears to be no different from the original. There are several items missing, though, almost as if the room had been reproduced from a quick surface glance. She breaks off a chair leg, and is rather surprised when the chair grows a new one. She senses a faint level of Trump in the chair, and everything else in the room, for that matter. She uses her sword to sharpen the end of the chair leg into a point, then touches the wall and tries to detect some kind of sentience. There seems to be something, but she isn't quite sure. She checks her sword, and it feels like the rest of the items she's found. She notices that there are no mirrors anywhere in the room.

Ariana leaves her quarters and begins exploring the castle. She continues to note a dearth of mirrors. She does start to detect movement out of the corners of her eyes, disappearing ahead and behind her. She moves the Jesby servants into a small room, shuts the door, and searches it to be sure that they are alone. Then she just listens quietly. She hears various settling sounds...and some unsettling ones as well. Like doors opening and shutting. Ariana touches the wall again and tries to make psychic contact. A breeze abruptly springs up and blows all of the lights out. Ariana tries to adjust her eyes to see, but there's no light at all to work with. She increases her hearing, but mostly just hears the servants breathing loudly. Finally, she switches to sonar, and picks up the two servants, and someone else, some distance away. What she doesn't detect are any walls, floors, or ceiling. The servants open the door to the hall, letting some light in.

Ariana suddenly hears a small voice calling, "Mommy?" It sounds like Ana. Ariana doesn't sense anyone in that direction via sonar, however. She heads for the part of the castle where she sensed the unknown person, although she can no longer detect them. She and the servants hear a blood curdling scream from Ana, and shortly afterwards they come across her body. She's stuck to the wall with a sword through her throat and her innards hanging out. Ariana keeps going. She hears Briana next, struggling with someone and telling them not to stick that in her. Ariana scans with sonar again, but doesn't pick up anyone. She keeps going, mumbling to herself that it's not real. Briana screams for a bit, then abruptly stops.

Ariana arrives at the location where she sensed the other person, which naturally is Brand's quarters. She searches it, and finds Briana's body in the bedroom. She's lying on the bed with her throat slit, and it looks like she's been molested. Ariana covers the body with a sheet. She switches her vision to infrared, but still only sees herself and the two servants. She cycles through the rest of the spectrum, with no better luck. She tries to figure out why she can see and feel the things around her, but not detect them with other means, and reasons that maybe someone is in her mind, causing her to think those things exist. She closes her eyes and focuses on erecting a psychic barrier. She hears more screams, close by. She opens her eyes to find one of the servants dead on the floor, and Lasker just finishing off the other. He licks his lips and backs out of the room. Ariana tries erecting a psychic barrier again, and feels her sword yanked out of her hand. She opens her eyes again and finds that Lasker has it. She tries impaling him with the sharpened chair leg, but he chops the point off of it. She recalls that her sword was of this realm as well, and reasons that it could be controlled in the same manner as everything else in the castle. She closes her eyes and concentrates again. She feels someone place their mouth on her neck, so she grows spikes out of her armor. The feeling goes away.

Ariana concentrates for a while. Nothing else attacks her, and she hears no more screams. The effort is rather draining, however, and when she reopens her eyes, the room is unchanged. She sends out another sonar ping and picks up something very close by. Just as she processes this, Sand bursts through the door and fires a crossbow bolt at her. Ariana dives to one side. The bolt goes right through her armor, but misses her heart. She feels her lung deflate. She dives into the bedroom, taking another bolt into her leg before she slams the door. She realizes that the bolt in her leg has severed an artery, and she's bleeding quite heavily. She begins healing the artery. Sand breaks down the door and aims the crossbow again. Ariana jumps through the window behind her, into the void.

Wednesday, December 28, 4

Ariana feels herself floating. She begins healing the damage to her leg and chest, then sends out another sonar ping. She senses something behind her. She spins and sees Vincent. He asks if she's all right. She looks at the hole in her chest that's still healing and says she will be shortly. He holds out his hand. She takes it, and he leads her to a solid, wooded area. He asks what's going on. She's not sure. She was trying to bring him home, and wound up here. He asks what happened to him. She tells him that Fiona resigned as a member of the Triumvirate. Ah, that would explain why Sand's gotten so much more powerful again. He says it's a good thing Ariana left the castle when she did, since Sand controls everything there. Ariana figured the dark void was better than Sand shooting at her. She asks if Sand is likely to follow her. No, Sand can't leave the castle. Ariana asks if there's anything she can do to help him deal with Sand. He's afraid that if she does, she'll be stuck there. Where? She's in his head, although somehow she's held on to her body. Does she know where Brand is? No. He looks distracted for a moment, and Ariana has the sensation of Whimsy kissing her, then Vincent throws her back from him. He looks shaken and says he thinks they shouldn't touch each other any more. He lets go of her hand and looks distracted. He asks where Brand is, then says, "Don't take this the wrong way, but put us together."

A few minutes pass, then there's a flash of white and Brand appears, startling Ariana into her spiky armored form again. He begins heading for a tower that's appeared in the distance. Vincent and Ariana follow. Ariana recognizes the tower as part of the Keep of the Four Worlds. Brand enters the Keep and heads straight for the Fount, jumping into the fire. Vincent follows close behind. Ariana suddenly feels an intensely sharp pain in her chest and screams. She looks down to find the point of a crossbow bolt sticking out of her chest. It looks like it's awfully close to her heart. She spins and sees Sand standing behind her, reloading her crossbow. Ariana throws one of the bolts she'd pulled out of her body earlier at Sand. Sand knocks it aside, but it gives Ariana time to get under cover. Ariana pulls out a dagger and throws it at Sand, but it goes right through her. Sand begins running for the Fount. Ariana pulls out another dagger and does the same, hoping to use the dagger to deflect any additional bolts from Sand. She feels slow, and notices that the tip of the bolt in her chest is vibrating in time with her heart. She tries to backhand Sand, but her fist goes right through Sand's head. She tries grabbing the hand that holds the crossbow instead, which is much more successful. As she struggles with Sand, her momentum carries her into the Fount. There is a flash of white.

Ariana wakes up on her side in Jesbyways, in the room where Whimsy had placed Vincent. She's lying on the floor and feels extremely weak. She concentrates on slowing the bleeding around the bolt, since she can't heal the injury until the bolt is removed. Lucien leans over her, with Whimsy standing behind him. Ariana smiles faintly and observes that at least she managed to stop the bleeding. She looks at the bolt and comments that she actually managed to get shot by a ghost, then everything fades away again.

Quotables:

"We'll just Hellsail." -- Felix to Gérard
"Do you really want to sail in Hell?" -- Lisamarie

"(Jack's) trying to get that whole human thing down. He's on to petty." -- Sean
"Yeah, wait until he gets to vindictive." -- Lisamarie

"Well, it's hard to use people if you can't get close to them." -- Alexandra to Jack

"Nicholas bought it." -- Alexandra to Jack
"Nicholas is insane!" -- Everyone

"And you're Nicholas' second. What do seconds do?" -- Maddy
"I have no idea." -- Ishmael
"Maybe you should look it up?" -- Maddy

"As long as (Nicholas and Finndo) show up, and don't start cheating, I won't have to get beaten up by Benedict." -- Ishmael to Maddy

"I'm not trying to defeat (Brand), I'm just going to pick up his unconscious body and throw him in a comfy bed." -- Whimsy to the group

"Note to self: always check definitions before you use words." -- Ishmael to the group

"We need to get an I.V." -- physician
"I don't understand what good ivy is going to do." -- Whimsy

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

All text on this page is © 1999 by Kris Fazzari, with the exception of the attributed quotes.

Last modified on October 20, 1999 by Kris Fazzari.