Brita is lingering in the hall, waiting for her brother....or Ambrose....or both. She is splaying her hands back and forth in the water - lazy figure eights as if treading water while her feet remain at rest on the floor.
Ambrose comes out of the chamber a few minutes later, having made his farewells and obesiances to the remainder of the group. He brightens visibly on seeing Brita. "Brita," he says warmly. "I'm glad that's over, and so successfully, too. I felt as spent by the end of it as Silhouette looked, and that from the sheer worry about her and the mirror."
Brita nods in agreement, but says "I was Curious to see What the Mirror Would have Reflected on The Pattern, but the Risk was an Unknown."
"I'm fascinated by the intersections of different magical--or I suppose I should say universal powers. I'd like to develop a theory about them. But not at the cost of one of our cousin's lives." Ambrose's expression is sober. "I hadn't realized what it was going to be like. How many Patternwalks have you watched?"
"Actually, Only this One, Unless one counts the Partial Walk of Uncle Pinnabello that I Witnessed." Brita cocks her head. "This was Different than Being On The Pattern. Knowing what I Saw; Wondering what She Saw." Brita turns to Ambrose, "My Trials helped me in Getting Over my Past. What about Yours?"
Ambrose nods, "Yes, exactly that, although perhaps not as you mean. It was a struggle for me against multiple forces. One was my desire as a sorcerer to combat the effects with my training in the recondite arts, which would have been disastrous. Another, the most significant of the others, was my father's teachings, which would have led me to hesitate and therefore be lost. Not to mention," he adds, with the slightest touch of black humor, "that my father's relationship with the Pattern was, to put it kindly, 'at odds'.
"I suspect that I will, eventually, become at one with my dual nature as sorcerer and Lord of Amber, but it's still sometimes difficult to know which set of reflexes to use. I have to overthink many problems, even today, to tell whether I should approach them as a sorcerer, as a scion of Amber, or, occasionally, still, as a god."
"Yes, the God Aspect can Sometimes be Useful," Brita agrees. "What are You Doing Next," she asks.
"I have committed to remain here for a time, or at least to base my work here, and to serve as a court sorceror to the Queen. She wants my metaphysical insights. I'm probably going to need a Shadow base to work on translating my father's papers. That might be one of your mother's facilities, since she has the places in Shadow that would be conducive to working with my father's code wheels. Other than that, I have no specific, immediate plans."
He looks keenly at Brita. "Do you have plans? Or commitments elsewhere?"
"My Brother and I Were to Go Seek A Dragon. I do not Know if That will Occur Soon or Await Other Things. Until Then, I will Remain Here."
"Dragons aren't entirely safe things to seek out," Ambrose observes, but not as a warning, since Brita is obviously capable of taking care of herself. "Why do you want to seek this one out?"
He gestures to her to move along, and [assuming she follows] they make their way down the halls of the palace of Rebma, with courtiers bowing and withdrawing from their path as they move through it toward the family wing where both of them are housed.
Brita begins to move, although her eyes stray back to the entrance to the Pattern at least once. "No, Dragons are Not Safe, But it May Be Necessary to Understand the Link to Dragons in All of Reality to Better Understand what Risks we Face." She grins at Ambrose, "I Go to Protect My Brother - Not that He Needs It, but it Will make Me Feel Better."
"That's a comprehensible reason--or pair of them--to face down something as dangerous as a dragon, or a half-giant, or some of the other things my father described meeting out in the madlands," Ambrose says agreeably. "And I can certainly understand the need to protect one's brother, although it tends to run the other way with me and Brennan. I just provide the code-wheel translation services for our father's papers. Speaking of threats to reality." The last sentence is added a bit drily.
Brita is earnest as she says, "What You Do is Important, Like Understanding the Dragons."
"When you get back from the business with the Dragon, would you like to visit your mother's laboratory?" Ambrose asks. "She gave me leave to work there, and I'll need to use the code wheels again soon."
"Certainly," Brita responds quickly. "Her Laboratory is a Good Location for Experimentation, besides being Intriguing in its Own Right."
Ambrose smiles broadly at her. "Excellent. I shall very much look forward to it."
A small group of guards arrive from the streets to escort Signy through the city and up to the glassine spectacle of Rebma's Jewel Palace. With the armed honor guard, a single huge Triton cruises effortlessly above the street as if a banner of protection.
The galleries of the palace are cooler, darker, but full of wonderful light and some dancing flames. Mirrors high up in the walls bleed waves light.
Signy and her men move through the city, taking in the new surroudings, only partially succeeding in not lookin like first-time visitors to Rebma from the surface. As they reach the palace, Signy nudges her men, pointing to the highlights of craftsmanship in its construction.
After a complex routing through passages, Signy is delivered to a well-protected doorway at the end of a large suite of outer formal spaces. The door is metal and twice the height of the tallest escort. It stands ajar sufficient to enter the room beyond but not see inside.
An escort scratches at the textured metal door surface with his gauntlet.
And then there is Celina stepping into view and holding out her arms with a large smile, "Signy! I hope your journey here was a pleasure and not a necessity. It is good to see you have time to visit us. Please come in."
Celina wears a brassy necklace, matching bracers, and tanga. Her hair is braided up. The brass flows as she moves, draping her neck and shoulders, her hips, with a thousand links of thumbnail sized scales. It looks very old and every scale has a different engraving.
A warm smile breaks out on Signy's face, and she strides forward, starting to open her arms in response.
"Thank you for the welcome. We were heading out, and I decided to see this city of yours."
She comes up just a step short of Celina, pausing, suddenly thinking that embracing the Queen of a Reality like a fellow soldier that she ran into at a tavern might not be appropriate.
Celina extends the beat of Signy's full stop for a single moment, like a rehearsed opening to a dance, then she completes the move by full body contact and a encircling hug of the arms. The pressure is full on and strong as the blood of Oberon. Celina laughs low.
Once the Queen steps back, she looks at the two companion men, assessing. "Informal introductions are in order. Who have you brought with you? Do you have time to chat before you tour the marvels of Rebma?" Celina figures that if Signy doesn't want the dismiss her fellows, or do Family gossip now, that's just fine. Tradition holds it is for Signy to go first but tradition doesn't demand the gossip is before hospitality.
Signy gives an infectious grin. "These are the two people that have known me longest, before I ever knew about this family. My teacher, Brother Tomat, and the leader of my warband, Red Fox Claws."
She indicates each man with a nod of her head.
Celina nods once.
Tomat's bow is courtly, Red Fox Claws' somewhat tardy bow is awkward.
Signy is still new, though she does remember her early lessons in the Family protocols. "I don't have any pressing demands on my time, as long as you're willing to put up with us."
"Oh, yes," Celina offers with a smile.
[Signy] glances at her men.
"Would you mind bringing our gear to our rooms? You should definitely check out the city, and see where the good bars are."
It's phrased as a request, but Signy doesn't seem to be expecting much dissention from either of them.
Celina gives the officer escort a significant look and adds, "Severius ap Ytes, please honor our guests by showing them the uptown sights today."
He nods. "Of course, your highness. Honored visitors, please come with me."
He leads the two men off into the palace, engaging them in pleasant conversation about nothing as they disappear from sight.
Celina uses her full body to ease the door back a few more inches. It must be heavier than it looks. "Come in and have something to eat and drink. No doubt you came directly from the Fire Gate to the Palace. How long was the trip? Don't let me keep you long if you double-marched here. You'll need to rest your men." The young queen seems quite eager to keep Signy as long as possible despite her words. News from the outer world must be at a premium.
Signy moves in to join the Queen, looking curiously around the suite as she enters.
"Thanks. The trip wasn't all that bad, just a couple of days. I Trumped to Paris, and left more or less straightaway to come here."
She pauses, frowning slightly.
"We did stop at the caverns midway here. That was...unexpected. There was a woman in my dreams, but I don't think she was just a dream. If that makes sense."
Celina turns to face Signy looking intrigued. "You saw a person? Could you describe her?"
Signy frowns, remembering.
"She wore a white robe. She just kinda hung in the air, with wavy red hair. There was some sort of white...ribbon that came off of her and stretched out into Shadow, but I couldn't tell where it went."
Celina seems even more interested. "So I suppose it might be awkward for me to ask, but a hostess does like to make conversation memorable...." Celina smiles, "are you well disposed to ribbons, slyphs, or redheads, Cousin? For I too have seen things in the caves but not to compare to what you have seen. It makes me think we all see just a little."
Signy offers a sober smile. "After our rescue of the Queen, where we saw the King kneeling to the Marshall, and we left with the Queen and a silver chain, I'm not inclined to dismiss these things out of hand."
She pauses, before giving the Queen a sideways glance. "I don't really know much more. The woman didn't really seem to notice me that much, despite my calling to her. I didn't spend too long trying to talk with her, since I was worried that in my ignorance I might cause more harm. She seemed to notice me some towards the end, and it felt like things were starting to shake some, so I used the Pattern to force myself out of the dream."
Celina taps her chin, spending some time sorting her thoughts. She sighs. "Well, good then. I also found myself in dreams there, though I did not see a redheaded queen. I did see a queen on a throne and found myself under her attention. I came away with scars. But that was mostly of my own desires. So a dream that is not really a dream describes it well. Did you come away with anything?" Celina sits and invites Signy to make herself comfortable by a wave of her arm at the various organic looking furniture sculptures.
Signy picks a seat next to Celina, leaning forward in her seat so that her knees almost touch hers.
She runs her hand through her hair, frustration in her voice. "Just a lot of questions. Who is she. What was at the other end of that ribbon. Is she being kept from Rebma, or is she chained near it for some reason."
She rattles off the list quickly, just hitting the highlights.
She thinks on Celina's words, before a thought occurs to her. "Did you have your vision before you became the Queen? I wonder if the woman that appears there is somehow linked with whomever is on the throne...."
"Yes, before I became queen," Celina admits. "It does not appear to be linkage to this throne, though there is a connection in other manner, so one could argue it matters to Rebma and I would agree. Our Family is often connected to variations of the theme of royalty, doomed or otherwise." Celina pauses gathering the hints and scraps of the Ghost Queen. She shrugs in frustration. "Well, there is and was a threat of some kind to Amber, from long ago, another Throne. A queen there who may be related to us all, perhaps even through the Unicorn. This queen sent the Moonriders against Amber and nearly took the Realm down. You have more experience with the Moonriders than I do. Somehow, in ways no one has explained, this Moonrider Queen either overreached and trapped herself, or more likely, she was imprisoned in the Realm of Tir. Tir was once as vital a realm as Rebma or Xanadu, but is now a Ghost City. I am supposing that between True Cities is a balance point between Patterns, and she is stuck Between, so she has some wiggle room at that Balance Point. They call her the Queen of Air and Darkness."
Celina looks at Signy. "I think you and Edan volunteered to seek out the Moonrider problem? I'll help as I can."
Signy mulls over Celina's words. "So...." She pauses, thinking things through again just to be sure. "So you're implying that whomever I saw was the Queen of the Moonriders? Presumably if she was the Queen of someplace that had a Pattern, then she must be Family somehow, no?"
Signy absently drums her fingers on the arm of her chair.
Celina nods once.
"I'd somewhat forgotten about the Riders. Uncle Bleys gave me a pointed suggestion towards the Tree, and I was hoping to go back and spend some time studying it. Though that probably should wait for a bit, unless you can think of a direct connection."
"Well, from what I have heard, the Queen of Air and Darkness is ....extremely dangerous. I'm not that eager to see you rush off to figure it out alone." Celina leans back. "If Edan was here, or Bleys, we could consult. But I have no Trumps. If you wanted to talk to them, you would best speak to Llewella, and ask to borrow a Trump. Of the Tree, I really know nothing. I cannot advise. However, I can say that long trips in shadow are likely to put you away from the many interesting things happening near the center. Uncle Huon surrendered to me." Celina implies that Huon is more interesting than the Tree, but does not appear relieved by this, she laces her fingers together giving Signy a chance to ask more questions.
Signy gives a wry grin.
"I was starting to get a little nervous that I'd somehow managed to start something I couldn't finish. I'm just glad I didn't have to come here to apologize for breaking something that I shouldn't have."
She sighs quietly, and gives her cousin a sympathetic look.
"And I'll bet that having Uncle Huon surrender is as much a blessing as having my father surrender. Where does he fit in the Family tree?"
Celina smiles and looks a bit puzzled at the parallel between Huon and Weyland. "Well... Huon is prince younger than Corwin and older than Random. I don't think his mother ever held court in Amber. He feels at odds with the Redheads. But he owes an apology to Bleys, if that worthy will accept it. I also think Llewella is older than Huon. That's a guess based on the way they seem to regard each other. Huon got on Oberon's bad side. I think that meant Bleys was sent to deal with him and that was how Huon got exiled into a shadow he could not escape. Julian and those who came after might not have really known Huon in their younger years." Celina looks at Signy. "I did not realize that your Father was at war with .....you? Or does surrender mean this is settled?" Celina lays a hand on Signy's thigh. "Just tell me it is none of my business if you like. Or I'll swap you questions about my parents and we can drink all night and throw things."
If Signy notices Celina's hand she doesn't immediately show it.
"No," she shakes her head. "It's not settled. We had...differences of opinion, and our conflict became rather forceful. Red Fox Claws was one of my warband during the conflict."
She grimaces, before offering a weary smile. "It's not so much painful as it is...unresolved. And I have a feeling that there's a lot more to the story of my father and the Family than I can guess at. He was the one that made the Pattern blades, and I don't think that this is something that would be entrusted to just any smith from Shadow, no matter how skilled they may be."
She sighs. "How well did you know your parents? Dierdre leaving was my first real memory, and my father has a lot that he hasn't even hinted at with me."
Celina nods with a pained expression. She gets up and moves to a shelving sculpture of metal and bone. Taking up several bulb shapes with rings atop their narrow ends, she returns to sit down next to Signy.
She spends ten minutes explaining how drinking and eating are accomplished in the realm of water. How you never laugh in a way that bubbles will escape your mouth. How wine bulbs work and more importantly the right way to collapse them slowly and evenly.
She solemnly splits the four bulbs between herself and Signy. "My sweet aunties raised me when my mother was lost in a storm. They were not really my aunts. They owned shipping. Mom was a brilliant captain in the Seaward. She worked for them since she was a deckhand. As a captain she had never lost a cargo or been boarded by pirates. She had a reputation for luck, and actually had gathered several pirate bounties for the government. When the Big Storm took her ship and all, I was maybe two years old. I did not remember her at all. I had pictures. I had her things. I had her tiny jewelry box. I had a cheap sketch of her she'd gotten done at a festival before I was born. As a little girl these were my treasures. The ladies, my aunts, took pity on me and saw me brought up as their ward. It was an easy life. Safe and secure. Good schools and good friends and humble origins."
Celina looks at Signy. "That was what I knew when I came to Rebma on a travel grant to study government. Lies. All lies." Celina twists the ring on the bulb and takes a long drink. She holds the bulb up in a salute. "Except I still believe half of it, even tho' I know it was all designed as a nursery tale."
Celina smiles a bit. "My real mother was Moire, Queen of Rebma. As clever and slippery a women as ever lived. She held the throne for hundreds of years without ever discovering a way to connect to the Pattern of Rebma." Celina smiles in admiration, lopsided. "She built the lies of my youth. She designed me as an orphan, being wary of raising me otherwise. What enemies she feared on my behalf I do not know even now."
Celina sighs and continues. "I came to Rebma and was dazzled. Such a City. The Queen was charming, knowledgeable, and rather layered in mysteries and promises of secrets to learn. Court was as complex and dangerous as things never imagined in books. Various things happened to put me in a good light. I got noticed. I earned privileges and became her ward. Moire took a shine to me." Celina looks a bit embarrassed. "I never suspected what was really going on.
"Forward a few years, now I'm a Lady of Court. I have no plans to return to Seaward, tho' of course I think I shall. An envoy from Paris shows up in Rebma. Moire is said to favor Corwin of Amber and correspond with him. The Amber troubles are serious. King Oberon is dead. Things on the surface have a way of murking up life in Rebma. I am tasked with escorting the Ambassador to the city tour. A job that was already in the hands of the Lady Loreena. Well, let's skip that. I get sent to Paris.
"In Paris, King Corwin reads Moire's missive from my hand. He passes it around to a few other men who are present. They all stare at me, then at him. They toss a few confusing comments to the King. Who then lets me read the letter. I am his daughter-----by Moire. She asks him to look after me for a bit, since things in Rebma are going to be dangerous."
Celina takes another drink. She squints a bit looking back at that scene. "So this is the moment when everything changed. Everything broke. The universe was beautiful but I'd always admired the sheet draped over it. I saw a shape. I knew nothing about myself or my parents. Nothing real. Nothing but beautiful lies."
Celina turns and looks at Signy, smiling now. "I got better."
Signy listens to Celina's tale, completely absorbed and not even daring to move as she speaks.
After she finishes, it's a long several seconds before she blinks and looks away momentarily as she twists open one of her bulbs. She raises it in a silent toast to her cousin before solemnly draining half of it with only an initial moment of fumbling with it.
"All of us have these stories, don't we?" Her flat tone removes the actual question, makes it a statement.
Celina taps her bulb once and nods slightly, watching Signy's face.
She sits, looking inward for a moment.
"Dierdre left when I was very little. I remember her leaving, but not much about it. Marius hadn't been born yet, I didn't even know that I was going to be a sister. I don't know why she left -- I don't recall them fighting, but at that age I might not have even noticed. Weyland would never talk about her, and eventually I quit asking.
"I grew up, and worked along side him in the smithy. We had the Dvarts to help us, and he taught me his craft. We butted heads on occasion, he could be short and tempermental when the mood hit him, but when we were in the middle of a project and at the forges working together, those were probably the happiest my father and I were together."
She casually drains the rest of the bulb.
"One day, we had guests arrive. Some of the people in the retinue were...odd, things I'd never really seen before. I found out we were having company just before they arrived, when Weyland informed me that Madoc was coming and I was to leave with him to be his wife. Then, I just assumed that this was just his response to whatever thing we were butting heads over at the time, but in hindsight I don't think that had anything to do with it. Weyland is a Master Smith, and he is a cold and merciless businessman. My engagement to Madoc was merely the negotiated price for something larger for him, though I'm not really sure if it was Weyland's condition or Madoc's."
Celina stays composed at hearing this, but her toes curl with tension.
"I engaged in the usual impetuous oneupsmanship that I did at that time, doing my best to thumb my nose at both of them with any slight I could manage, no matter how petty. For my pains, after Madoc left without me, Weyland locked me into my rooms in the Tower, and I stayed there until the Black Road appeared and in the disruption I was able to get free and join Red Fox Claws and the Band. We spent our time fighting the things on the Road until the War with Chaos ended it, and I took the Band against Weyland."
She twists open another bulb, and raises it in a mock toast. "Time moves differently in that Shadow. Red Fox Claws was a young warrior when I left, and he's an older leader of men now. I've heard that Weyland was out in Madoc's realm, and his old Tower is now a ruin. I wonder if he was there to salvage an old deal, or to strike a new one...."
She trails off, before taking a more measured drink of the wine.
Celina's voice is a husky whisper, "That's terrible. You thought you had a father, then discovered you were a valued object of his agenda. You never had a mother? No one to...." Celina stops herself and takes a long drink, emptying the first bulb. She throws it hard across the room. Despite the weight of water around them, it reaches the other wall with a thud, bounces and rolls back near her feet. She curls down, head closer to her knees, pressing the cool second bulb to her forehead for a few moments.
Celina sighs. "All of us have these stories. Each is more terrible than the last." Her words are clearly said but the voice is but a whisper still. She sits up slowly, speaking a bit more strongly. "You are so strong, Cousin. You are welcome to make Rebma your home, or your workshop, if that is your pleasure. I suppose it has been many years that you have been... sleeping under stars. But if there is value to having a place of your own things. I offer it to you."
Signy shakes her head. "I think all of us have had to be strong, and all of us probably have our parents to think for our scars. How many ended up like poor Pinobello, caught up in a game that they didn't understand and were consigned to be pawns, moved and sacrificed for someone else's game?"
She twists open another bulb, before raising it to Celina. "I was strong enough to hit back. How much stronger are you, that you've not come back here to hit back, you came back to protect?"
She takes a drink, before offering a rueful smile. "I certainly know that it's very easy to strike out with the hammer, or to find out part way through the process that your materials are flawed. Creation is hard on the heart and soul at the best of times, doubly so when you can't see straight because of anger or have to move softly and slowly around impure materials."
Celina recalls striking out at Corwin, threatening Moire, and arguing all night with Khela. She flushes with embarrassment that anyone would think she is calm of spirit. "That's well said. It gives me much to think on. Here, the Pattern is the heart of Creation. The impure materials in this case would be ...us." Khela's face sears to life in her mind and then she must close her eyes.
Celina nods and opens her eyes. "As a girl, an orphan, you don't express your anger, and you don't create a storm because you want to be 'worthy'. So my temper, it actually frightens me. I am working slowly to understand my impure points." Celina sighs and opens the next bulb. "Moire fled Rebma when Huon attacked with a large force accumulated across shadows. She went to Paris, but while she spoke to Corwin there, she quickly slipped away. She may have some shadow traveling ally, but those are hard to come by. We think she is nearby, waiting to see how the rebuilding of Rebma proceeds. I am queen upon Khela's death. I'm sorry if you had not heard. I have no intention of giving over Rebma to Moire again. And Huon has asked forgiveness of his attack against Family. I granted it with support of Random and Benedict." Celina's expression says that last was very hard to do.
Signy smiles. "But the Pattern is both a forge and and hammer and anvil, and does much to reshape us and hammer out some of the impurities."
Her gaze turns inward as she thinks back. "You already stepped up and mastered your first challenge, and granted Huon forgiveness. I still don't know what I would have done if I had managed to actually take the Tower and Weyland," she murmurs.
She sighs, and drags her vision back out and to the present. "The city itself seems quiet. If no opportunity is forthcoming, would she leave, or attempt to make one?"
Celina thinks on that. She takes another draw on her bulb. "Would Moire make opportunity? Yes." She thinks also about Lucas. "But then again, she has Florimel looking to make case for the death of Lucas. If I were to suppose a strategy for Moire, it would be that Moire must consider clearing Aunt Flora's wrath in some way before she hopes to settle down and become a factor in Rebma again." Celina sighs. "Have you met Silhouette? She would agree with you about Forge, Hammer, and Anvil. She is here as well."
Signy pauses for a moment, thinking, before twisting open a new bulb and taking a drink as well. "I'm afraid I don't know Aunt Flora that well. Is there anything that Moire could offer her to buy her off?"
She perks up slightly at the last bit. "I have met her once, in the smithy at Xanadu. She said we would meet again when we left. I trust she is well?"
"Thank Lir, she is very well." Celina smiles. "She walked the Pattern of Rebma and survived." The energy in Celina's voice makes Silhouette's health of obvious concern. "She'll be about after she recovers." Celina gestures in the direction of Paris. "Flora is not someone I know well. However, I doubt she could be turned aside by promises from Moire. I do not think Flora would consider Moire an equal, and she loved her son very much."
Signy brightens at the news that she survived the walk, before falling again.
"So much for being able to do anything other than go over ground you've already covered. I don't appear to be adding much to help you out."
She leans back in her chair a bit, before reflecting. "I wonder why more of our generation never rebelled against the elders, given their... gentle ministrations as parents."
"Oh, on the contrary," Celina resettles herself for a long talk, "we are some of us, you included from what you have said, rather rebellious in several senses. I expect there was less of it in our Elders because Oberon crushed those who displeased him. So for that, as I seek to be better than the example of my mother, so too, may some of our aunts and uncles wish a different approach with their children than the ministrations he routinely handed out." She shrugs, "Or that is wishful thinking on my part.
"As example, you recognized a line had been crossed by your Father and you went to war. Brennan escaped nefarious plans of his father and fled into shadow looking for the means to fight back. Hannah loves her parents but was the rebel against the entire system of authority that trapped her people. By reputation, Paige has done everything and anything to be free and curious and explore every shadow for her pleasure, regardless of censure. Martin fought free of his Legacy in Rebma and refuses to return there. Khela tried to introduce political reforms into the monarchy and paid for that with exile. Merlin overturned the training that was to set him against all of Amber, and it is hard to imagine how difficult that must have been, raised in Chaos itself."
Celina studies Signy. "Lots of courage and defiance. I admire them all. And really.... if you want to help me in that way, just coming around here in your adventures on a regular basis, letting me know about Family, these would be huge gifts. A queen doesn't get to wander far from her responsibility."
Signy looks briefly ashamed of herself. "It's easy to assume that the only way to rebel was the path I took."
Her eyes dim slightly, as she thinks on the various points of the conversation.
Celina looks openly curious as she considers other rebellions that Signy might have started or created. She gives her attention to Signy in full measure, leaning closer and sliding lower in her seat a bit more. There is a moment where the seat snugs closer to her and she becomes more the seat's dear friend. Or that's what it looks like.
[Signy]
"I can certainly come by with news. I've been thinking more and more
about the forge, and the need to spend some time doing some honest
work, and having a workshop with some smiths to oversee would
certainly keep pulling me back a fair bit."
She takes a drink, thinking over her plan.
"And if there's other things that I could do for you besides just visiting every so often, you have only to ask. I presume that King Random would not mind overmuch if I do that assuming he has no pressing need for me at the time??"
"A forge can immediately be made available, and your mastery of it can be public or private between us," Celina nods. "Rebma is much more skilled with metal and bone than nearly anything in the Seaward. I have not traveled shadow enough to comment about a wider scope. I think it is given that when jewelry and fine crafting of delicate utilitarian items needs to be beautiful, then even Amber seeks answers in Rebma."
Celina adds, "It is not desirable for me to intuit King Random's mind overmuch. However, Uncle Random would certainly like to be bothered less by Family requests and also keep me doing more of his 'keep Family happy' chores." Celina smiles and starts laughing. "Did you see what I just did there?" She leans her head back and giggles covering her mouth.
Signy's face flushes briefly with delight. "I'll have to see if he can get me a list of the master smiths in Rebma, so I can talk with them," she mutters to herself. "Plus, find suppliers, and some good apprentices...."
She blinks, and tries to put the plans that she wants to make on hold for now.
"You know, you did just say that it wasn't desirable, not that you wouldn't do it," she notes with a mischevous look on her face. "Plus, if you're careful and only read it when it works for him...."
Celina laughs but keeps the hand shielding her mouth...and curiously no bubbles escape. Her eyes dance. "Uncle Random has a sense of humor I think. I'm not sure what sort of category that humor would be archived into, but judging from the rest of the family men I've talked to, it is bound to be... cosmic. He'll let us have our fun unless we get caught." She chuckles.
Composed a bit now, Celina waves a hand in Signy's direction. "So be it. I'll see that the list of master smiths is sent to your chamber tomorrow. What else do you need?"
Signy looks pleased. "I thank you, Cousin. I'm looking forward to this."
She leans forward, closer to Celina, resting her elbows on her knees, her hands clasped lightly. "One thing I was wondering -- earlier you'd mentioned the Moonriders. Do they have some connection to Rebma?"
"I do not think that we escape any connection," Celina says. "So what I mean is that the Family history connects us all. If there are broken or deceased Pattern realms, these are as much a part of everything as ...as the four-legged mother of Oberon. Amber will always be connected with us, even though its part in things has changed."
Celina pauses, realizes her bulb is empty, and reaches out with her foot to flip another bulb from the serving tray up into the water. Before the drink can fall from the top of the small arc of motion, her toes are under it grabbing and with a precise twitch, tosses the bulb along to her left grip. "What you mean is do the Moonriders have a reason to seek Rebma or a history here? Well, no, I do not think so. We are positioned relative to Amber, Paris, and Xanadu. As Amber drops from the Pattern sequence, then we are firmly between Paris and Xanadu." Celina stops in twisting the bulb open to drink. "Except in moving between Pattern cities... it does seem that there are gray balances, modulation waves, places where we can hear or see a path to ..." Celina sighs, "Oh pearls, I'm just jingling along now. Why do you ask? Do you have a thought about the Moonriders?"
Signy realizes that her bulb is also empty, and reaches over to snag one and open it, though without the artistry of her cousin.
"A thought? Ye..no. I.... I'm not sure." She takes a drink from the bulb, measuring her thoughts. "At times it feels like everything's related somehow, if I could just see a little more of the pattern I could fit all the rest of the pieces together into a complete picture." She pauses, and then fails to suppress a giggle at her choice of imagery.
Celina nods and looks very thoughtful.
"If Floaty Woman's linked to the Moonriders, then why is she somehow tied to something just outside your door, so to speak? Why the kidnapping of the Queen, unless King Random or Xanadu have something to do with their goals, whatever they are. Who killed Cambina, and why?"
She grimaces in distaste, before taking another measured drink.
"It is not clear to me how Vialle came to be in their hands," Celina speaks slowly as if she is still puzzling over some things Signy has said. "But regardless, it shall go against them. Likewise if it becomes more clear that the Moonriders had anything to do with Cambina's death, I wager they will be removed from existence. Floaty Woman will have no followers at that point. Cambina was a hard loss. There are knights of the realm who will measure that price against the Moonriders and all their tricksie time dodges will not save them."
Celina sighs. "As for why she had to die? Death is no mystery, Signy. Death is no answer, nor does the why of it make the loss then just." Celina squeezes the hard bulb with a worried look on her face. She frowns, her manner changes. "Cambina may have known her death and had no intent to share it. If such a thing is failure, I do not think she would have left Amber unguarded by her death. Rather I expect it was a possible outcome of something Amber needed. Better ask, did Xanadu and/or Amber prosper somehow from Cambina's death. What would we point to that remains in trade for that death? I would like to know, also."
Celina adds, "Do you know that we may deliver boons or dooms when we expire?"
Signy nods slowly. "I remember Eric used his against Chaos, according to her book on the war. Though at the time I had taken it as more of a rhetorical device. There wasn't any grand and immediate doom that fell on them at that time. I take it that it's more than just some poetic words, though?"
She takes another drink, and then blinks. "I wonder what Dierdre's was," she muses. "And if it was boon or doom."
"Yes, Cousin," Celina says with wonder in her voice, "poetry but also fate and will. In passing out of Reality, we make waves. Without knowing your mother, I cannot even guess. But I know I too wonder about it. And what Cambina did. And what my granddam, Moins may have done." Celina fiddles with the drink bulb but goes on, "We may die alone, but it will matter."
Celina points back at Signy, "So also consider, if Floaty Woman lives, it may be because she was too strong to kill and chance her blood doom. And then, it may be the Pattern itself that holds her to some separate Order out of time. The ultimate banishment. The Hand of Oberon in that I think."
Signy gets a curious look on her face as a thought hits.
"For a family that is so strongly bound to Order, we certainly do seem a pretty chaotic bunch. It's amazing that anything we've built has lasted as long as it has."
Celina's face does not react to this, but a shadow of sadness dims the light of her eyes.
Signy drinks a little more, examining the thought a little more, before letting it go.
"I guess if you're helping to set me up with a forge, it would only be fair to see if there was anything that you might want made. I'd thought to make a sword for the guardsman that escorted us into Rebma, but if there's anything Your Majesty had her eye on...?"
The mischievous glint in her eyes takes the formality out of the title.
Celina smiles and laughs. "Well.........." Celina spends the next twenty minutes describing a delicate piece of ornament that she would like to wear to certain events.
It is clear from Celina's description that the glove is a weapon, not just a symbol or pieces of jewelry. It is intended to be the loveliest asset to Amberite strength for personal defense. The chainmail will deflect blades.
Signy nods, asking some pointed questions to clarify some points around style and function. She doesn't taken any notes, but is clearly committing the conversation to memory, often going back to remarks much earlier in the conversation.
Last modified: 4 January 2014