Archi

In search of information regarding the basic care and feeding of elementals, Archi heads to Rebma. Not wanting to disturb people or make this a formal visit, he takes the stairs from Amber and plays tourist before making his way to the palace. At the palace he talks to Lady Brialla about the elemental in the Zephyr and some of his history. She suggests that there might have been some family influence in getting him the ship, and that the witch that taught him shape changing may actually have been trying to kill him instead.

Archi and Brialla head to Amber to give her a look at the Zephyr. After a tour of the ship, Lady Brialla goes tot the figurehead and seems to nap. Archi takes the opportunity to change into dry clothes. When Lady B ‘wakes up’ she comments that the Zephyr is stronger than most elementals and that while generally happy, she (Zephyr) has some requests to make of Archi. The Zephyr wants some materials to allow for some cosmetic changes, and for Archi to repaint the figurehead and perhaps add a bit of gilding. Lady B is not certain if the last is teasing or not. They head to lunch discussing the basics of elementals.

After lunch Archi is introduced to one of the resident maintenance wizards who tries to teach Archi several years worth of contacting and training elementals in 1 afternoon. Dinner is shared with Llewella and Melissandra. Part way through there is an emergency call and Llewella is called away. Mel uses a blue gem analogous to the Jewel of Judgment to get download of problem (detailed below). Archi is drafted into damage control.

Sam

Sam and Fiona trump to Merlin when Corwin starts walking his pattern backwards. Sam acts as psychic anchor for Merlin as he is having serious problems due to his tight ties to Argent. Fiona is livid with Corwin for not thinking through his actions before carrying them out. She postulates that the infestation will not disappear, but cascade into this set of universes. She trumps out to consult with Random and Dworkin. When she trumps back, she takes Sam and Merlin into a reality storm where Random and Dworkin are trying to contain the effects of Corwin’s destruction of his pattern. Dworkin reads Merlin to watch progress of the destruction. Random (with the Jewel of Judgment), Dworkin, Fiona and Sam make an attempt to contain the storm but fail.

Fiona calls in assistance. Blaise, Llewella, and Gerard show up and start scrying while Random and Dworkin move closer to the center of the storm. Random’s parting comment ‘This may take awhile, take care of Vialle’ is not comforting, Dworkin’s comment ‘we won’t get them all, catch what leaks through’ is less so.

More elders show up. It is found through experimentation that time slows down as the storm center is approached. This experiment takes 4 days.

Large shadow storms appear as Random and Dworkin work to insert Argent shadows between nearby ones. Small pieces (< man sized) of the infestation are unable to handle the pattern destruction and die, hunting expeditions are formed to handle the larger pieces.

The storms rouse the curiosity of the Caosians, who sniff around the edges of the storms. This causes a problem as Amber’s creator, king, and the jewel which gives him power are all missing for an unknown period of time. It is decided that a shapechangers will be needed to be a stand in for Random. Andre likely to get the job as he will not likely be missed and is good enough to do the job.