"Somehow, I can't see (Gérard) prancing around as a faerie."

Thursday, December 29, 4

Ariana wakes up feeling very tired, both physically and mentally. Her chest is heavily bandaged and there is an I.V. hooked up to her arm. She looks around and notices that there is a servant sleeping in the room. She also realizes that she's not in her bedroom. She checks on her condition and finds that the heart muscle has healed, but the surrounding tissue still has a hole in it. It seems to be healing slowly. She cautiously attempts to speed up the healing process, but stops when she begins to feel dizzy. Mentally, she doesn't feel different, but she's tired. And her bladder is demanding attention, which is what caused her to wake up. She wakes the sleeping servant for help with that. She tries to secretly remove her I.V., but the servant picks up on it and asks her if she's removing it. No. The servant says she's a demon and knows when Ariana is lying. Now she'll have to send for someone. She pulls on a cord, and a young man arrives in a white coat. He asks to see her arm. No. They can do this the easy way or the hard way. Why do either? She needs the nutrients from the I.V. She's not sure that's all that's in there, so she'd like to be without it for a while. He says she can't have it out for more than an hour. Ariana agrees. She asks how long she's been unconscious. A week. The man speaks to the demon quietly in a language that Ariana can't understand and then leaves.

Ariana still feels very tired. Not wanting to sleep through the hour, she decides to talk to the demon for a while to help stay awake. She begins by asking the demon what she likes to be called. Millicent. Ariana asks what things have been like in Chaos since the last time she lived there. Millicent talks about what things were like under Zane. Did the war touch the house badly? Not really. House Vetch stayed out of it until they were sure who was winning, then joined that side. Millicent adds that things are much more open in the Courts now than the Lord remembers. Ariana is sure he'll adapt. Millicent agrees. It wouldn't do to have an unfit ruler, after all. Ariana doubts that House Vetch has ever had that problem. Not according to the stories Lady Angelique kept of the Lord. Millicent says it was clear that she cared for him, and she would not allow his memory to fade. What sorts of stories did she tell? Mostly of the glory that he brought to the House, and the prosperity that came with it. Now granted, the House was much smaller in those days, or so she's been told. Ariana mentions that the Hendrakes had a vendetta against the House at the time. And yet the House survived. True, although Ariana isn't sure she'd call that prosperity. Millicent says that life without danger is dull. Better that life be exciting and short than long and boring. Is that the House's motto? Many of the House members believe that. Ariana thinks there's a happy middle ground between the two.

Millicent asks what else Ariana would like to know. What is Chaos like now? Despil is King, the houses are still mostly intact. The balance of power has shifted towards those who supported Nicholas, namely Helgram, Sawall and Vetch. Zane's reign lasted for 800 years. During it, Helgram resisted Zane and was nearly decimated. What made them resist Zane so openly? Because Zane killed Constance, Adam's wife. Ariana is sad to hear that, observing that Constance was a lovely woman. Millicent says that Adam loved her greatly. Did Adam survive? Yes. Ariana comments that it would be hard to recover from something like that. It depends on what house you're from. Really? Well, some houses, like Vetch, accept that life is short, and that you simply move on. Ariana wisely doesn't mention that Lucien took 2,000 years to get over Loryn's death. Ariana asks who heads the other houses. Does Fenar still control Borge? Oh no, Fenar was killed in the war. This news doesn't make Ariana unhappy. Despil's brother Jurt rules Sawall, Adam rules Helgram, Lucretia has recently taken over Borge, Claire rules Jesby. None of the Heads of Houses from Middlecourt appear to have made a play for the same position in Chaos. Ariana asks what Claire is like. The closest equivalent Millicent can think of is Flora of Amber. Etiquette is one of Claire's specialties.

Millicent mentions that the Lady Cymnea has recently returned, although they're not quite sure what position she's going to take. Ariana says she had tea with her just the other day. What's she like? Well, she seemed perfectly polite at tea. Since Ariana's prior acquaintance with her was when Cymnea was trying to kill her, her opinion is probably a bit biased. Oh yes, Millicent has heard those old stories of Cymnea's conflicts with Amber. They are not quite so old for Ariana, she remembers them quite clearly. They are ancient history in the Courts. Ariana imagines that Cymnea has changed somewhat since then.

Ariana hears footsteps coming down the hall. She asks if Millicent knows the status of her son, Vincent. She doesn't, but she can have someone check. Ariana also asks her to leave word with Lucien that she wishes to speak to him. The young man enters the room, saying that Ariana's hour is up. He smiles and asks if she's feeling more cooperative now? She doesn't suppose that she has much choice in the matter. He insists that they are doing this for her own health. She is the lady of their house - they cannot do her harm. Ariana allows him to put in the I.V. and quickly falls asleep.

Ariana is woken up some time later by a Trump call. She doesn't feel like she's been asleep for very long. She groggily focuses on the contact and sees that it's Felix. Millicent appears to be reading, so Ariana asks Felix psychically what he wants. He got a note from someone named Lasker. Ariana's eyes widen. The note said that Felix needs to talk to Gavin, because if Lasker can't have Ariana, Tamaryn will do. Ariana says that Lasker is a vampire and asks if Felix has contacted Tamaryn yet. No. He wanted to know who Lasker was first. Ariana explains that Lasker is responsible for the vampires that have been troubling Amber, and that Lasker was originally set on her by Brand when they went to free Miranda. Lovely, another problem caused by Brand. Ariana adds that Lasker is quite powerful. Eek. Ariana's not sure why Lasker wants her, though. Maybe he needs a shapeshifter? She's guessing that Lasker has Gavin trying to find her. Gavin's working with him? That seems to be implied in the note. Felix says he's going to talk to his wife now. He hopes that she feels better. Well, a crossbow bolt through the heart takes a while to recover from. Has Lucien helped? She believes so. Can't he help more? That's a very good question. For some reason he didn't, which makes her wonder. Felix suggests that maybe Tamaryn can help. Ariana asks him to have Tamaryn call her when he reaches her. Felix thinks Tamaryn may contact her anyway, just to figure out what's going on. He thanks her for her help and breaks the contact.

Ariana checks on the baby, and is relieved to find that he seems to be OK. She tells Millicent that she needs to talk to Lucien as soon as possible. Millicent pulls a cord and sends someone off with the message. After 20 minutes or so, Lucien arrives. Ariana explains that Felix Trumped her and told her that Lasker is trying to find her. Lucien thinks she'll be safe while she's in Vetchways. Ariana points out that Lasker can travel through Shadow. Yes, but slowly. And the Trumps he has from Brand? Lucien doubts there was a Trump of Vetchways in there. What if he Trumps her? Lucien says he'll make it so she can't receive any Trumps. She says it's probably just as well that they had to leave Amber, since Lasker will have a much harder time reaching her in Vetchways. Lucien admits he's much more confident of his ability to protect her here. If nothing else, he can use the Logrus, which is handy for tossing things about. Now, he understands that she was voicing suspicions about her care? She looks a bit guilty, and points out that if it's really been a week, she hasn't healed as much as she would have expected. He explains that's because she was injured both physically and psychically, which made it very difficult to heal her. It took a lot out of him to heal her heart, so he thought it best to let her heal the rest naturally, both for her and for him. She asks if Sand is in her head. He hasn't detected her there. Is she in the baby? He can't tell. She looks worried about that possibility. How are the children? All right. They know that she's been injured, but he spared them the details. And Vincent? Still at Jesbyways. Why? Lucien hasn't had a chance to go get him yet. Is Sand still in Vincent's head? Whimsy doesn't believe so. Ariana asks to see Vincent when he returns to Vetchways.

Ariana says she's sorry she missed Finndo's tea. That's OK, he sends his regards. And the war between him and Nicholas? Nicholas is no longer on the throne. He abdicated to Random. What? How? He arranged a duel with Finndo and lost. But Finndo didn't kill him? No, because that's what Nicholas wanted. So Random took over while Nicholas was subdued? Actually, Nicholas left Random in charge before the duel. Where is Nicholas now? In a nice padded cell. Not being left to rot, she hopes. No, he's receiving treatment. Leaving people to rot comes back and bites you on the ass. So they can return to Amber? Yes, Random sent a note to the family members saying they were welcome to return, and apologizing for what happened. So the older children can go back to the University? They're already there.

Ariana mentions that she tried to speed up the healing process, but stopped when she felt dizzy. Lucien looks unhappy and tells her she shouldn't do that, as it might set her back. She comments that she didn't know that, since no one told her, and gives him an accusing look. He points out that he has a house to run. She knows, she was just pointing out that waking up in a strange place surrounded by strange people made her inclined to try. It felt wrong, so she stopped. He asks if the servants' treatment of her has been satisfactory. She says that it has, not mentioning that Millicent fell asleep on the job. He says he has been dropping in, but she's been boring company...although he has been enjoying the quiet. He grins as he says the last bit. She attempts to elbow him, but stops when it hurts. She figures he probably has to get back to work. No, once he learned that she was awake, he freed up his schedule for the evening. He uncovers her feet and begins massaging them. It feels very nice, and Ariana relaxes a bit.

As Ariana thinks back over her recent experience, she realizes that she was naked when she woke up after escaping from Vincent's mind. She asks Lucien if she's remembering correctly. He says she is, and explains that all of her clothes and other belongings were left behind when she originally vanished. She doesn't understand how Sand was able to hurt her. He thinks the mental damage came because she believed the bolt was real. Ariana says that doesn't explain how Sand hit her through her armor, since Ariana believed the armor would protect her, not knowing that it wasn't real. Plus, the last bolt hit her from behind, so she couldn't believe in it since she didn't see it. Maybe Sand Trumped the bolt in. Ariana thinks that sounds more likely. She tells Lucien all of what happened to her in Vincent's mind, including seeing Ana and Briana killed so horribly. Lucien assures her that Ana and Briana are fine, it was just Sand messing with her mind. That's what she kept telling herself, but she still feels better knowing that they're all right. She motions to her injury and comments that when she was shot, she didn't think Sand had actually hit her heart. Lucien says that was disbelief. She thinks shock is more accurate. She tells him that she grabbed Sand to stop her from following Vincent into the Fount. And that's when she exited? Yes. Was she in contact with Sand at the time? She was holding onto the arm with the crossbow, to try and keep from getting shot again. That explains why Sand isn't in Vincent's mind. So she's probably in Ariana's? If she is, she's lying low. Ariana notes that when Sand took over Vincent's mind, his mental strength increased. Can Lucien detect anything like that with her? He lays a hand on her forehead and says she feels the same.

Lucien goes back to massaging Ariana's feet. She asks what the children have done this past week. He jokes that he didn't really spend much time with them, commenting that they're such a time sink. Then why does he keep having them? Because they make her happy. Oh, and he doesn't like them at all? He says of course not, but he's obviously teasing. He notes that now that she's awake, he can move her back to her room. Why was she here? He wanted her to be away from the general hustle and bustle. He continues massaging her feet, and Ariana soon drifts off to sleep.

Ariana wakes up to find that Lucien is gone, but he's left a Trump ward for her, along with her Trump deck. This comes in handy when she gets another Trump call. When she IDs the caller as Gavin, she uses the Trump ward to block the contact, then sends Lucien a note telling him that Gavin tried to Trump her. Then she Trumps her children in Amber and suggests that they use their faerie form if they are in Amber at night, given the recent vampire activity.

Ariana gets yet another Trump call, this time from Alexandra. When Ariana takes the call, Alexandra tells her that Tamaryn is turning everyone into faeries, and they're tearing the castle apart. Why is Tamaryn doing this? Alexandra doesn't know. Ariana wonders if it's because of the vampires. Alexandra doesn't understand. Ariana explains how vampires can't see faeries. Alexandra didn't know that. She tells Ariana that Benedict is chasing Tamaryn, so she thought Ariana should know in case they wanted to handle it in the family. Ariana observes that if Benedict is involved, it is in the family, since he's Lucien nephew, and therefore Tamaryn's cousin. Ariana and Alexandra are both surprised that Tamaryn is acting so irresponsible, given that she's half faerie normally.

Ariana Trumps Lucien and asks if he knows what Tamaryn has done. Yes. He figures it's an Amber problem. She mentions her concern about Tamaryn's behavior. He says Tamaryn didn't spend too much time as a true faerie in her life, so she's not used to it. Ariana mentions that Benedict is chasing Tamaryn. Lucien figures that should be entertaining. Maybe Benedict will spank her when he catches her. Ariana finds this image interesting and giggles at the thought. Lucien tells her to stop doing that, or she'll hurt herself. She asks how much time passed in Amber while she was unconscious, and learns that it's only been a couple of days. Lucien had her recovering in a part of the Ways that was running faster. He's pleased that she hasn't been difficult about staying in bed, and offers to set up a scrying pool for her, so she has something to watch while she's so confined. Ariana is happy to have the distraction.

Quotables:

"I examine the note carefully." -- Gavin
"The note doesn't appear to be booby-trapped." -- GM

"(Gavin) earned his money the old-fashioned way. He found it." -- GM to the group

"There's nothing worse than an impotent wizard." -- GM to Alex

"Does my danger sense go off?" -- Felix
"No, your pin does not think the note will jump up and bite your face." -- GM

"Lousy bitch is ruining my life, and she isn't even here!" -- Ishmael to the group, referring to Whimsy

"Of course he meanders, he can't see where he's going." -- Sean to the group, referring to Meander

"I'm not sending my wife to be a witch in Chaos." -- Ishmael
"I can understand that, the commute would be a bitch." -- Meander

"Somehow, I can't see (Gérard) prancing around as a faerie." -- Tamaryn to Felix

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

All text on this page is © 1999-2000 by Kris Fazzari, with the exception of the attributed quotes.

Last modified on January 31, 2000 by Kris Fazzari.