I go to talk to Flora. I need to discuss my mother, my thoughts on attempting to get back some of the missing family members, and this festival I’m hearing about. At first she is abit guarded when I ask about my mother, but when I tell her that I’m not blaming her, just seeking information she opens up. Like I’d blame someone for not getting in the middle of a centuries old vendetta. People are strange sometimes though. I have had clients blame me for finding out their spouse was cheating when that’s what they hired me to do. So the caution is understandable if misplaced. Turns out Eric stole me from my mother, who seemed to be a normal Flora’s Earth human. It is not possible to tell though as Flora’s Earth was dissolved in the unraveling.

The festival is in about 2 weeks and family members are expected to sponsor some events. I pick a couple from a list Flora gives me and create 2 of my own: a scavenger hunt and a token hunt. I stop off at home to have the tokens made. I don’t want them easily counterfeited and figure if I have them made out of plastic, someone will have to go to another shadow to even attempt it. I hide them a day before the festival starts and then take a page through to be sure they are findable.

While preparing for the festival, I talk to a number of the family to put together an effort to get the missing ones back. I even go talk to Brand who lays out how it should be done, warns that it will probably take several hours and gives me a list of stimulants we can use. I try to get him to help, but he doesn’t think he should get close to the pattern, even via trump. Though the unicorn is no longer blocking his trump, he feels the pattern is enough Dworkin that efforts he makes may backlash. Too bad – would have been a lot easier with his psyche behind us.

The festival goes off without a hitch. I go in resolved to have a good time. We are asked to make our presence felt and wear a coronet. I seek out Nebbelherr because otherwise I’d go with family, and that minimizes the impact of the family presence. Besides, he seems to know how to have a good time and I’ve learned form experience, if you are uncertain how to do something, consult an expert. He is charming and not very competitive. He is as nice to the powerless as to the powerful. That goes a long way in my book. The night we have sex, I go home afterwards. He IS still a dragon after all.

When the festival is over I finish gathering people for the attempt to get Gerard back and test to see if it can be done. We need a trump artist who knows the person well to lead. Mykal and Flora both know Gerard well, but Flora is still Gimpy, so Mykal takes the lead. I call Merlin away from his parties in the Chinese-like shadow to help. He knows Martin fairly well and I want to go after him next, so he needs to watch what Mykal is doing. Vialle, Flora, and Delwin, are connected in via Trump, Frost, the once Iron Golem, has a store of fount energy to contribute, which she channels to Merlin for conversion before it is passed to Mykal. Julian and Thera are on the sidelines thinking good thoughts. Mykal, Merlin and I head to the center of the pattern and the work commences. After ~4 ˝ hours, and a stim patch on Mykal, we make contact and Mykal brings Gerard through. Archi trumps us first out of the pattern, then upstairs so people can rest.

Now that we know it works, we make a list of who to go after and in which order. Julian demands we go after Caine next because that’s his other full brother. What kind of reasoning is THAT? First of all this is NOT his project and he has no authority to make demands. Yes he is the warlord – this isn’t war and no-one here (except maybe Thera) is in his army. Second he had the easiest job, contributing the LEAST, Vialle has suffered FAR more, and contributed FAR more. She has lost both her husband and son, with no hopes of getting the husband back at all. Julian is insisting that we accommodate his desires before he is willing to even THINK about other people’s needs. In addition, we all swore fealty to Random and his last words to us were “Take care of Vialle”. Most defiantly not “Take care of Julian” I would have remembered that. Retrieving Martin would go aways towards comforting Vialle. I highly doubt Caine could have the same effect. So in addition to being self-centered, he is also an oath-breaker. Is this the kind of behavior that indicates a good King? Am I the only one to see this big red flag? I had Llewella third as we owe Mel for having this idea in the first place, and Llewella is a major mental hammer. With her helping, we can get this done easier and with less risk. Minimizing risk and repaying a political debt, will retrieving Cain do these things? No, but Julian wants his brother now! (Doesn’t matter that he was unwilling to walk the pattern himself to make the attempt.) Again I ask: Is this behavior you want in a future King? I don’t. (I am not sure I know anything he HAS done in this emergency. When Vialle collapsed it was Delwin who stepped in. Moving the armies around and quelling disorder could have been handled by any competent commander – I even know a few runners who could have handled it.) I will swear fealty to Amber, but not Julian. I have lost what little respect I had for him.