Day 2159 RSTE, 721 BPTE

My research was just starting to pay off; I had the kinks worked out of my spell, and I'd found a decent place to start. Well, at least a good one, if not overly decent. So I feel this tugging at my jacket, and I figure it's a monkey, right? Well only in a way. Turns out to be Bartleby, using the Logrus from what I've seen. He tells me to scram, that bad juju's going down. I don't want to. He gets insistent. I shrug and figure that I could use a vacation. So I call Mother on the Trump, and I have to say at this point that if you ever let me do that again with apes twiddling each other behind me I'll stick you back into some damn oyster...all right, that was uncalled-for. I'm sorry. Come on. I didn't mean it...

Day 2159 RSTE, 721 BPTE continued

I promise, okay? So anyway, Mom brings me home and she's just happy to see me, et cetera. Oh, forget it. Let's go find a party or something.

Day 2161 RSTE, 723 BPTE

What a bizarre time of it I had yesterday. You know how sometimes you see someone that just seems to be made of your dreams? Play along, okay? So you see this person, and all you want is one night to give this person the kind of pleasure they inspire in you, and maybe then you can die happy, knowing you've fulfilled your life purpose. Just keep still; even if you don't understand it, it's a point. Anyway, you think that nothing will ever mar this image, that it can always be remembered as a glimpse of perfection. Well, if that ever happens, walk away. Don't even speak to the person. Trust me, you'll be happier for the thought of it. Okay, so shortly after noon, the quake hits, and everyone scrambles for Kolvir. I choose this time to mention to Mother that Bartleby fingered Dad as knowing what's going on. Mother sends me on an errand, as she wants to talk to Caine. So Usires and I find him in the library. Well, and Laughter does too, by virtue of not taking a hint. But she's a woman, right? So respectfully I suggest that perhaps our blowfish might be calmer if there were less people holding swords in his near vicinity. She leaves in a huff. So I let Mother know we've got him, and that we'll meet her in a nearby sitting room. She starts in on him, and from the look on my cousin's face he caught no more of it than did I. She sends me for something, I forget what, and I think I brush something in the hall. Gee, what could that possibly have been? So rather than let Mother know what I suspect, I decide to be cool and find our spy myself. This is accomplished, but only after Mother has shed some unfortunate light onto her personality. She makes Laughter tell her something for her silence, and it's just got to be juicy from the look of it. So now this woman, who has been caught spying, and has seen too much, proceeds to assume that she's better at interrogating Barnabas than is Llewella. How idiotically presumptuous can one person possibly be? Okay, so she's obviously the warrior type, so she's probably not up on social graces. She's not a very good one if she out jumps her rank. She's also a mage of sorts. Also, presumably deficient, from the notable lack of forethought. She only leaves after I'm forced to extricate her damn sword because she's screwing up the whole thing. Damn it. I really wanted to like her, too. She's just so intolerably unthinking. She kicked me on the way out. For being so rude as to remove the unasked for impediment to resolving the situation favorably. Shit. She's probably still banging on that damned sword. At least I know how strong that pool is, if she hasn't found some way to fuck that up as well. People really don't seem to know their business from everyone else's around here. If it weren't for certain ties, I'd make myself adjust to Chaos. At least the people there obey certain social restraints. Amber is populated solely by infants... Like the one that got drunk and woke up in a barrel of rapidly deoxygenating water. I'd have given a lot to see Martin's face when he finally opened the damn thing.

Day 2162 RSTE, 724 BPTE

It was just so weird seeing her again. She gets older every time we meet. It's not that I've neglected her in any way, it's just that I sort of went into slow time on purpose. I couldn't take watching her grow up. That would just be too awkward. It is too awkward. It's like she exists just for me, reserved for my sake. Yecch. It's just wrong. I'm sure Mother had her reasons, and I can't fault the tremendous advantage which she's arranged for me, but if I can at least manage to be younger than my wife I'd feel a lot better about it. There is, however, little chance of achieving a desirable age ratio. Damn. Anyway. She showed me her coral garden. I shouldn't see her like this.

Day 2162 RSTE, 724 BPTE appended

Lyss is a great comfort, even with Norval's child, so how could I ignore her dilemma? Apparently, the fact that her dad was a Pattern ghost (for the Rose) had more than a slight influence on her being. As in, she is in many ways a ghost herself. With more mobility. And Norval's boy. So of course, now that Brand has resurfaced, he's set on destroying the Rose. Normally, this would concern me very little. I'd have been sad for Lyss, of course, but she'd have gotten over it and walked the One True Pattern. Life goes on, right? Wrong. Not hers. Not without the Rose. Apparently. So I announce that I have a solution for their defensive needs. Brand asks what that might be. I show him. He's not going to fall for that one again, which just about uses up my usefulness here. So I Trump Mom to tell her I'm staying here to help some more. She's against it, since she's always right, but me, I've got a Noble Purpose, so I've got to get myself killed stupidly or something. I mean, Brand will eventually succeed. I just sort of think that Lyss would appreciate someone to be there with her when it happens. Or maybe not. There's got to be something intelligent I could be about.

"Outrageous Fortune"
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Last modified on January 13, 1999 by Kris Fazzari.