Only A Flesh Wound

Meanwhile, Reid gets his deck back and wanders off to THE TREE, sits down and produces his flute for some relaxation. He wants to recharge a bit before the next major Trump activity.

Cambina comes with, perhaps looking for some of that coffee she was handing Martin a few minutes ago. He hands her a cup, and looks expectantly at Jerod and Reid to see if they want any.

Jerod rubs his temples, having had more than enough trump contact for one day. When he sees his sister, he nods, grateful for the cup.

"You will all need to eat now, will you not?" asks Merlin. "I will prepare some food."

Martin says, "I've eaten what you think passes for cooking, Merle. You start a fire -- a cooking fire -- and I'll check the saddlebags." And he moves to do so.

"The cheese and eggs are at the bottom of my pack." Jerod says as Martin heads over. "They're wrapped so they'll be okay."

After a bit, when his head has cleared, Reid joins others around the fire and scopes the food scene. "Sustained trumping always makes me hungry..." to no one in particular.

Corwin seems a little preoccupied to the more sensitive among you. Perhaps he's brooding.

So Jerod doesn't notice zip...:)

Merlin kneels on the ground away from the tree, and begins whispering in a low voice, making strange, arrhythmic gestures with his hands. Neither Corwin, who is still on guard, nor Martin seem to think there's anything odd about this method of starting a fire.

Jerod watches for a moment, curious as to what Merlin is doing. And he waits to see what happens.

The result looks something like a gas flame, except it's more green than blue, and has no visible source of fuel.

Merlin looks at Martin and says, "Why did you want me to start a fire when our cousin Cambina had already started one?"

Martin looks mildly slack-jawed, and it occurs to you all that he must really be on his last legs. "Oh," he says. "Yeah, we'll cook on hers." And Merlin dismisses his flame with a single gesture, looking a little befuddled, but the sensitive among you get the sense he often is. Corwin shakes his head, mildly amused. "I'll cook, you rest," he says to Martin. Martin nods.

"And I will watch," says Merlin agreeably.

After Merlin puts out the flame, and Corwin starts to cook, Jerod asks Merlin. "How did you produce that?" he asks, motioning to where the flame had been.

"By sorcery," says Merlin in an elongated, questioning tone that wonders what he has done wrong now.

"Ahhh..." Jerod replies. "Interesting. Perhaps we can have a drink after this is all done. My father told me a little about it, but I've not seen it all that much...except when someone was trying to kill me with it, that is."

Corwin proceeds to cook a little dinner for the lot of you over Cambina's fire based on the cheese and other supplies that are in various people's packs. When Reid wanders over, he may partake of it.

While Corwin is cooking, Martin curls up the roots of the tree and naps. Cambina sits nearby, listening to Reid's playing, and perhaps dozing.

After you've eaten, Corwin says, "We need to contact the main body of the army, even if we're not ready to bring everyone through."

"That would be Uncle Benedict then?" Jerod asks.

Reid perks up.

Cambina says "We may open a number of channels. Let's tell them we're here."

Corwin already has his deck out and a card in front of him. "Corwin. At Ygg, with Merlin and some more nieces and nephews. They want to help bring the army back. Yes. No, I haven't seen them. OK, we'll try that next."

Corwin closes the contact with by putting a hand over the trump. "He says that he's not with the Army right now, and suggests we contact Caine. You all know about Caine, right? Not actually dead? good. Oh, and two of your cousins are missing from the march back."

Jerod begins sifting through his deck, pulling out Caine's card. "Uncle Random advised us." he says. "It will be good to talk to him again..." before he begins concentrating.

As Jerod is shuffling out Caine's card, Merlin says, "Who?" to his father, and Corwin replies, "Daeon and Lilly." Merlin frowns.

The initial contact, like the contact with Julian, is difficult. In addition to the other problems, Caine's mind is distracted, and it takes a moment for Jerod to obtain a firm grasp on his attention. "Who?" he asks sharply.

"Jerod." he says simply. "It's good to hear the news --"

It's about here that Caine cuts Jerod off. "Are you in Amber? Do you have a doctor nearby?"

The visual image of Caine comes clear. He's kneeling, apparently over someone. His shirt is off; it looks like he's using it to tourniquet or bandage a serious wound. Caine's spattered with blood, and there's quite a bit of hubbub around him.

Reid considers playing trump antenna again, eyeing Jerod's success making contact, but decides to wait until actions that require his assistance seem imminent.

"Cambina...get ahold of Brita. We've got wounded." Jerod says to his sister.

"I'm at Ygg...we can pass you through to Amber. Medics are waiting." and Jerod holds out his hand to bring others through.

Reid scowls, feeling like a 19th wheel, and gets out of the way.

Cambina already has the card out and has been quietly concentrating on it for a few moments. She pictures her blonde cousin in her red jacket, green eyes sparkling. Shortly the image forms clearly.

"Brita?" she says. "We've got more wounded, can you take them from me?"

Brita, standing in the tent listening curiously to Aisling and Solange talk cousins [she can't understand the drooping streamers and look of utter shock from Aisling as she thinks the more cousins the merrier], suddenly goes still with a far away look in her eye.

"Yes, Cambina," Brita says loud enough for Conner to hear her (and the others who are probably closer), "we are ready for more wounded." and she reaches out a hand at the same time she moves towards a nearby empty cot.

[Moved to the main list because Caine is in contact with Yggside. Yay, Caine!]

Caine's eyes flick from Lilly's bloodstained robes and blade to Daeon's wound, noting the latter's naked and unarmed state.

Letting her guard down, Lilly sighs heavily, "It is a long story. Several of them in fact. But first what can I do to be of aid?"

Caine says, "Call your father."

Lilly nods. She repositions herself slightly away from the organized chaos surrounding Daeon before shuffling through his cards to find the right one. (Hopefully they aren't too blood covered. If so she'll try to clean them off as best she can on a clean patch of her clothing...). Once the card is in hand, she takes a deep breath to clear her mind. Then she focuses her energy on the card awaiting a response from Benedict.

Her father's presence comes to Lilly, like wine. "Lilly? Where are you?"

"I am with Uncle Caine. I believe Daeon and I managed to keep the armies from being attacked. However, it had a price... Daeon's blood. Caine is treating him and hopefully he shall survive."

"Am I needed?"

"I believe things are under control." Lilly pauses for a brief second. "You should know that his injury came from my hand. It was neither a defensive nor an offensive act, simply one that needed to be. I will give you the details when there is an appropriate time."

"If the army is in no danger, come to me." He extends his hand, his only hand, should she wish to take it and come through.

With a simple nod and nothing in the way of hesitation, Lilly reaches toward her father firmly grasping his hand.

Benedict brings Lilly through, and she is standing with him and his striped horse in a sward of purple grass under a silvery sun. A creature that's half-kitten and half-pot-bellied pig as painted by Escher is watching the scene from a stalking-spot in the grass some ways away. It should not be able to attack from there in a single leap, but Lilly is not sure that is the case.

Lilly eyes the creature. Being a bit more on edge then usual her hand instinctively goes to the hilt of her sword. (As she moved away from Caine to trump her Dad she would have wiped the blade on whatever semi-clean piece of her clothing she could find and then sheathed it... Mind you this would be totally out of character for Lilly and a good indicator of her stressed out mental state.) She says nothing. Her thoughts have become more mired in her perceived failure now that she is in the company of her father.

Benedict would immediately notice the state of disarray Lilly is in. Normally her appearance is very neat and tidy. Even after the battle she managed to look somehow unscathed. It was almost as if she hadn't fought at all.

Benedict unhurriedly takes a canteen from his horse's saddlebag and hands it to Lilly. "Tell me what happened," he says.

Matching his unhurried nature, Lilly takes her eyes from the cat pig and accepts the canteen. She nods but does not yet speak. Instead she takes a moment to calm herself and gather her thoughts.

"After the armies were settled, I decided to get some rest. I slept but not particularly well. My dreams were haunting and I awoke with a feeling of something being very wrong. Wrong with the universe at large, not just something easily taken care of.

"Once I awoke I refreshed myself and went out to check on things once more. There I was greeted by a strange creature made of stone. He would later tell us that he was called Hob.

"Hob demanded payment for our trespassing upon his peoples land. It was that or war would be declared on us. I did not want to simply dismiss this creature and invite attack because I had no way of knowing his strengths and weaknesses.

"We had only begun to negotiate when cousin Daeon approached. He was unclothed. Completely unclothed. He carried a knife and a trump deck. That was all. Coming up to the two of us he made a somewhat veiled threat to Hob.

"The way he worded the threat caught the rock creatures attention. He spoke of the two stories that would be told of this day. One where we were heroes and one where we were villains. Hob said he would accept stories in exchange for our tresspass.

"Now these rock creatures evidently veiw storytelling as a sport. We were to go against their champion, Daeon as the storyteller and I as his second. The stories only end when one person can no longer go on. But they can be stopped by any means.

"I accepted this challenge. I figured if nothing else it woulod give me time to learn things about these strange adversaries. Upon acceptance Hob throw a hanful of stones into the air and they formed themselves into a great colleseum complete with audience and King.

"We were introduced to the King and told that this would not be a fight to the death. The King also asked if there was anything that we needed before we began. I suggested privately to Daeon that perhaps some sort of covering might be appropriate but he declined.

"So Hob, their champion, and his second, took the stage first telling a tale that, though veiled, sounded rather like your life story. Then Daeon decided to tell one concerning me. His facts were rather off and I wasn't particularly pleased but it wasn't somehting I would have challenged him over.

"Then it was again Hob's turn. I suppose his story had something to do with Uncles once again though I do not know them well enough to tell you which. Perhaps it was a story a Julian, that would have been appropriate I suppose.

"As Daeon's turn approached, he came to me. He told me to be ready to use my sword. He had an idea for getting us out of there. He asked that I act swiftly and without thought, to trust him. Remind me never to do anything around him without clearly thinking it through again regardless of his requests?

"Anyway, he told a strange tale. A tale of tales if you will. He talked of how every story has a beginning, a birth, and an end, a death. Then he announced that the end of this contest had come. But he did not want to look upon it as an end but a beginning. For it to be a beginning. In order for there to be a beginning he said, there must be a birth. In order for there to be a birth, a man and woman must come together and there must be penetration.

"It was at this point where he told me to come forth and peirce his side. I did as he asked. I was trying to basically create a flesh wound. Deep enough to look effective but shallow enough to keep him from serious damage. This is something I should have been able to do."

For the first time in this telling Lilly pauses and takes a drink of the water. Admitting she might have done something wrong was very difficult for her. Still she trusted her father and he needed the truth. With a heavy sigh she continued.

"As the blade peirced the skin, he leaned into it. The rocky terrain caused a shift in my balance as he did so. I believe he also twisted in a strange way. The result was a deep wound that gushed blood.

"Daeon remained on his feet for near a minute. How he managed this can only be explained by his parentage I suppose. I am not entirely sure what he was saying, my mind was focused on the trump deck he dropped at my feet after I stabbed him. I do know he was throwing his blood around though. I can only suppose it was a god thing.

"Uncle Caine's trump was on top of the deck. I didn't bother to try to shuffle through it. I was able to contact him. As Daeon collapsed I heard Hob say that they would accept his blood as payment and that he should be more careful where he left but not to worry, they would take good care of it. Strange flowers were blooming in the spots where it landed. I remember that as well.

"It was then that Uncle Caine pulled us through. He obvioulsy noted the condtion of my clothing and unsheethed blade. I told him only that it was a long story. The seriousness of Daeon's condition kept him from inquiring further. He then suggested I contact you.

"And here we are."

Lilly pulls out her blade to begin cleaning it as best she can.

Benedict is silent throughout, nodding as necessary. As is his habit, he lets Lilly finish without interruption.

"Hmm. As to Daeon's requests, it is of course wise to determine in advance if you will follow another's lead in a crisis, and if he lives I think you know your answer. However,if a man, even a Prince of Amber, insists on following a path that leads to his own destruction, then no amount of common sense or family duty can turn him from it. Your late Uncle Brand should stand as a lesson of that for some time."

To this Lilly nods. It was a lesson well remembered by all of the Amberites.

"I have the following questions: Was the unease related to the stone creature or incidental? What was your assessment of the stone creatures? Do you think some property of shadow or magic made you cut Daeon more deeply than you wished to? And what made you think the creature's tale was about me?"

Taking a moment to process, and thus remember each question, Lilly gives thought to the first one. "No. At first I did, when Hob first approached me it seemed obvious that these creatures were causing the disturbing dreams and feelings of unrest. But now that I think on it, I do not think so.

"The dream I had was a mix of images, a snowcapped mountain peopled by giants, a man holding a dying boy in his arms, a woman running through an empty city fleeing a fire, a man and a woman sitting crosslegged on pillows while drinking from tiny cups. They were very diverse. And there was this sense of urgency, unbalance, and quickness to the dream.

"The feelings of foreboding were not just connected to the armies or this place. They crossed shadows, extending far into order I believe. It seems as if it might be beyond the scope of the rock people.

"Mind you they seemed to know much more about us then we did about them. The King of the rock creatures referred to us as ordered ones. Hob seemed to know mine and Daeon's parentage. He know Daeon was something of a godling. And he seemed more inclined to deal with me.

"I learned little about them actually... "

Lilly's voice trailed off. Something clicked in her mind. A remembrance sprang forward that had not been there before. It was something so important, so intriguing that it was a wonder she had thought of it until now.

"Dara. That is the name of the Chaosian who seemed displeased with us, is it not? This could all be partially her doing. As we journeyed through the trump contact I heard laughter, just as we have heard before on this trip. Somehow I had forgotten that. Your questions reminded me. That would explain much."

The woman falls silent as she weighs the possibilities of chaosian interference. Of course it was possible. And it made sense. The remainder of her father's questions fall from her mind as she contemplates this.

"Dara..." Benedict speaks softly, gathering his words carefully. "Dara is not the most stable of my children's children. While I wish she were safely in Amber or The Tecys, she seems to have opted for Chaos. If you see or hear from her, contact me immediately. She has, at best, a mixed record of support for our family.

Lilly again nods in agreement. She trusted her father's judgement on this matter. He should know better then she when it came to her extended family considering she only found out about their exsistence a short time ago.

"We should be off. We will have to attend your Uncle's coronation, but I presume you have no objections to stopping at home first? We should see how many years have passed there and how they have fared. It may have been a difficult defense."

"None at all father. Lead on." There was a calmness in her voice that arose from the shock of realizing that years may have passed for her friends and family while it had been mere days for her.

"They are fine men and women, they will do well." He pauses, but continues. "You know we will outlive them all? It is both a blessing and a curse to live what our friends and lovers would consider 'forever'."

She doesn't bother to answer. This fact was not something she had ever been told and yet it did not surprise her in the least. Her foster parents had often commented on Benedict's unchanging state. Now she had the answer to that mystery.

Finding out that she would outlive all of those she grew up with by not just years but generations should have been something of a shock. But after the events of the last few days, nothing could surprise her. It was just another piece of information to file away until she could properly think it through.

Benedict's arm shoots out and Lilly's hand goes to her hilt, but her father has reacted faster. The pig-cat is snarling, held at arms length by her father, its stealthy attack foiled. He snaps the creature's neck like it was made of paper and pulls out a knife.

"This will cook up nicely and fortify us for the ride. In all probability a horse for you will be along shortly. But dinner first. And I have not forgotten the rest of my questions for you. You may answer them after you fetch firewood."

Lilly's eyes lingered on his face for a second or to longer then she had meant them to. "Yes, father."

She kept as near to Benedict as possible while gathering the wood. Earlier events had left her with a slight fog in her head and she was comforted by his presence. If there was anyone she trusted without question it was her father.

Jovian and Julian speak privately for a few moments, discussing strategy. The discussion seems heated at times, perhaps covering old, contentious ground. It ends with Jovian and Julian heading back to separate dragons.

Julian reaches Hoshith and asks Kourin and Hoshith to carry him. They mount and the two of them speak quietly while they are waiting for Jovian and Canareth to give the order for the wings to lift.

The order comes and the score-and-a-half dragons, now no longer carrying their wounded passengers, take off into the too-bright sunrise.

Jovian takes the wings high in the air, dizzyingly high, quickly losing the detail on the ground below in the fog and distance. The wings re-form in a high, cold double-V formation with the sun warming their backs.

Julian looks at Jovian and nods. The dragons fly forward and Jovian begins to feel for shadow to shift. It is still difficult from here, but it is no longer fragile. Jovian starts to burn the fog away, and then thinks otherwise, letting it re-form and making the shadow colder. Eventually the fog dies as the ground loses it's warmth. Soon there is snow, great expanses of white on the ground with tall broom-like trees rising above them. Jovian is startled by a flock of flying things--not birds, but things, flying. When re regains his composure they have shifted again.

The dips and rises have gone from rolling terrain to hills and now to mountains, snow-capped, low and smooth. Jovian concentrates on the mountains and they grow taller and younger. At one point Jovian is sure he smells the sea, or a coppery version of it.

After much travel and about where Jovian feels confident enough to do so. He looks down. He has succeeded. Below him, on the lower slopes of the mountains, are vast herds of beasts. Furry, long-necked animals with barrel chests, they bleat and run along the foothills. The almost make a patchwork blanket on the foothill, and their fuzzy coats come in many colors.

//What are those?// asks Canareth, obviously interested.

//Unless something has gone horribly wrong, those are food, bronze boy. Not the herd beasts we're used to, but they should be tasty enough.//

Jovian scans the surrounding foothills as they roll down and away, bluish greenery dotting some of them in ways that look promising. And timber a little further. Excellent. //Please ask each of the queens to catch one beast to feed the riders as well as the ones they get for themselves. And then let's put down closer to those trees over there; I've decided that some of those plants will be edible and flavor the meat nicely.//

//There might be one or two left over for you,// Canareth responds.

//Love you too, ya big lug. Let's get some dinner.//

//I have told Hoshith. They grow herd beasts large in this place.//

The dragons, while a little unused to hunting with their riders astride, nevertheless make short work of half a herd of the shaggy beasts. They deposit the 'spare' animals in a heap near a stand of trees below, then go a decorous way off to devour their own kills, raw, with the fresh blood dripping down their...

Ahem.

M'hall and V'laren manage to resist the temptation to eat the meat without cleaning and dressing it first. One of the local plants does indeed smell like garlic, and while its base isn't familiarly bulbous, letting some of the broad leaves smolder in the roasting fire imparts a promising savor to the meat. Bushes are also to be found that produce tart yellow (but seemingly ripe) berries with a mildly annoying number of seeds.

After a layover of moderate length, man and beast alike are satisfactorily fed and Jovian is again beside his father. "Feeling a bit better? It occurred to me that you didn't eat anything at the wake." His tone is conciliatory, though it stops in a different zip code from contrite.

Julian is resting, leaning against a local tree deemed too green to make good firewood. "I had other business at the time," he agrees with a pleasant neutrality that seems removed from previous disagreements.

A moment of silence. "It may be better if I make my own way back to Amber once we cross the border. I have duties of my own to attend, and your command of the necessary skills to return to Amber should be sufficient."

"I'm sure you'll be needed in Arden ahead of the army. We're definitely close enough that I can find my way from here; I can feel it." He shakes his head, as if clearing it. "It's good to feel time normally again. Damn, that was disconcerting."

Julian looks at Jovian as if he has said something a bit strange. "Jovian, what passes for a sun in this place has not moved since we arrived. The shadows have lain just this way all the time I have sat in the shade of this tree."

And for all that Jovian can feel time, it's true.

"I noticed that," Jovian responds tightly. "Nevertheless, that's a visual cue, something I can shift directly. You know how I am about time, though. I can feel time here. That's not something I'm able to shift directly; it's a quality of place I can't impose and it's coming back. I take it as a very promising sign."

He nibbles moodily on a few more of the tart berries. "If you still think it's all going to shit and crackdust the minute you turn your back on it, then don't turn your back on it. But at least tell me straight."

"That description could apply to so many things, Jovian. I won't leave until we're more definitely in shadows that behave properly, unless your sister calls. I gave your brother my trumps and I cannot provide the same safeguard to you. Perhaps a few hours along when we are more sure of shadow. We are close, but there is a long distance between Chaos and Amber."

Jovian gets up and sets about doing camp-breaking things, kicking dirt over ashes, wrapping up leftover meat to travel and the like.

"It's almost stable. We're close."

Julian sits, apparently uninterested in the proceedings while the dragonriders prepare for another leg. Jovian finds his father and tells him it is time to leave.

"We are close. About a half-day's flight. I'll need to tell you where to land. And I'll need to do more of the shifting."

"More of it?" Jovian says. "I thought you'd been doing most of it."

"Did you? For the most part I have been stabilizing things and fighting the natural tendency of Chaos to just fall apart. We are still too far out for safe travel."

The cool detachment of Julian's comment complements the soft irony of Jovian's. One could almost imagine that there was no tension between father and son. Almost.

"How abruptly do the rules change? All at once when we hit some point, or is there a gradation?" There may be the faintest challenge to the tone, a whispering undercurrent of daring Julian to speculate on how much his son can handle.

"If that question were answerable, this would not be Chaos," Julian replies with an air of finality.

Caine comes through the connection in with the familiar rainbow effect behind him. He looks around, looking for a hand to be out for him or a medic to be at hand. Caine is shirtless and covered in blood. In his arms is a handsome youth who is unconscious and pale. Caine is holding a formerly white cloth firmly in the lad's gut wound.

The youth is completely naked except for his own blood. He holds a flower tightly to his chest. The flame in the flower's core pulses quickly.

Jerod does not let go of Caine's hand but instead turns, re-directing his momentum (without adding anything to it) so that Caine is now walking towards Cambina - the movement is very smooth and without any thought - he trusts that by the time Caine takes his next step, Cambina will already have her hand up and waiting to pass Caine through.

And Cambina does, passing Caine through to Brita.

Paige offers a quiet, "Why don't naked men come through my Trumps?" to Folly before noticing his injured state and immediately chastises herself for it...

Aisling's look is surprise, horror, and a faint twinge of happiness, though at what exactly it cannot be determined, if you even catch it at all.

Alerted by Brita's announcement Conner has a hospital bed and medical staff standing by. Taking in the blood stained condition he wastes no time. "Bring him here." Conner instructs. Assuming Daeon is brought, Conner quickly examines his injuries while the medical staff readies a transfusion of blood.

He has a single extremely serious sword wound in the side; looks like someone skewered him with a very sharp sword and twisted it. He has lost a lot of blood; what presumably used to be Caine's shirt is ruined.

"Damn." Conner mutters. "Someone knew what they were doing."

The scent of blood is strong from the wounded man and when Brita sees the staff setting up for transfusion, she touches Conner's arm and says quietly, "Does one of Amber require Amber blood?"

Conner shakes his head no. "It is best but not required."

Aisling makes sure she is by the bed, and looks Adonis over herself; making sure he's still alive. Then she slips to a position where she can kneel next to him, close to his wounded side. "This is exactly where I am at my best. I can lend my skills, patch his holes in moments, and I know exactly what I am doing," she says with confidence and a slight amount of question, directed at Caine and Conner. Presuming they don't grab her and throw her out, then she will proceed to start weaving her hand and perhaps the thumb of the other around Adonis's wound, looking very distant.

The GMs can probably describe how this appears better than I.

Conner is convinced by the confidence in her voice and steps back to allow her access to Daeon but stays nearby to watch what she does.

Caine watches, but doesn't interfere yet.

Aisling smooths over the wound like molding putty. There is a strange blurring effect to and around the area of the wound. It's effective and, to some of you, perhaps nauseating.

Conner has that first year medical student look on his face, where he is clearly fascinated and disgusted at the same time.

While Aisling is working, Conner's team gets him on an IV for a blood transfusion.

Conner reaches down to check his pulse and other vitals.

Solange looks on for a moment in intense fascination, before realizing that she should probably do something more helpful than stand around gawking. She looks around to find something useful to do.

"Wait, Ossian -- did you say something about not having a Trump of someone? If it's someone who was in the Family deck before the Sundering, I've got those with me."

Ossian makes a thumbs up sign to Solange and says "Good."

Paige crosses from Folly to Caine, "Prince Caine, rumors of your death seem to be exaggerated." A smile and an extended hand, "I'm sure you get that alot, though. I'm Paige, Bleys's daughter. Welcome home." There's some unidentifiable edge to her greeting, but she seems sincere enough.

Caine wipes his bloody hand on his pants and takes Paige's, bowing over it. "Niece. You have the advantage of me."

"Are there more wounded such as this? Some late engagement?" she asks.

"That's a good question," says Caine, "And one I would like answered. Along with a number of others. Where are we? And can I get a shirt?"

Solange rummages briefly in a basket of linens and pulls out a man's shirt.

"Will this do, Uncle Caine?" she asks, holding it out to him.

Folly sees the commotion on the other side of the tent and figures out that whoever just arrived must be seriously wounded. She rises and crosses to them, still strumming her soothing tune, and stands close enough to see the proceedings without getting in the way.

She scrutinizes the features of the wounded youth, mentally comparing him to the portraits of the Elders hanging in the castle library. It takes her only a moment to conclude that he must be one of the sons of Julian.

Her music changes, then, becoming a song of the forest, an ancient melody in which the creatures of the wood call out to a departing youth, begging him to stay with them a while longer. Her voice, when it joins with the strings, lilts as gently as the warble of a songbird in spring.

Paige looks over from her conversation with Caine and gives Folly a smile. _You never cease to amaze me, love._

Brita is standing to one side watching Conner and Aisling around the wounded young man, her head cocked to one side. "What is that flower he is holding?" she asks the group at large.

Adonis' eyes open as if he has received an electrical shock. It is not clear that he even sees the people in this room.

"Look and see if there's something for the patient, while you're there, will you Solange?" Paige says, taking a cue from Daeon's movement.

He lies, looking bewildered and depressed but not exactly cognisant, his gaze on somewhere distant.

Aisling comes more into the now, paying closer attention to him and easing off on her dabbing at the wound (now mostly patched).

After a few seconds, the focus of his eyes comes in from some stellar distance as a look of horror passes across his face. He looks down at where his wound used to be. His horrified expression turns to utter revulsion as he abruptly pans up to Aisling before recoiling violently across the bed, his left arm and shoulder contacting Conner as he tries to slip a needle into Adonis' arm. [I assume Conner has to be on the opposite side to Aisling for reasons of space.]

Aisling, too, recoils at this, going back on her heels and scrambling backwards out of his range if he chooses to reverse direction and come at her.

Immediately but seamlessly, Folly's music shifts, taking on the character of a lullaby, something that might be used to calm a frightened child. In contrast, the look in her eyes is a bit desperate as she looks at Aisling, then the wounded youth, then back to Aisling again; there is something primal going on here that her music can hardly touch.

Conner [presumably - feel free to retcon if this ain't the case] tries to restrain the naked boy but finds the firelilly in his face as his patient holds it as far away from the vile chaos thing as possible. Conner has to grasp the flower to stop it going up his nose, only to find Adonis isn't holding it any more.

The flower, black and red and beautiful is also, when thrust into Conner's face, quite hot. While it is like a candle rather than a torch, Conner pulls he head back and bats it away. It goes flying across the tent. More about it later.

Adonis starts tearing frantically at his wound as he slides off the bed, wailing dementedly. [Don't know if Conner can keep his feet, here, but this is probably a bit of a surprise and Adonis is a handful]. The IV has torn out and he's digging deeply into his body with both hands at the site of the swordthrust on the side away from Conner.

Aisling keeps backing, white as a sheet.

This is where Conner attempts to restrain Adonis and calls to whoever is nearby to do the same.

I think Solange's attention would be drawn by the commotion and she'd be right there grabbing his wrists and trying to keep him from damaging himself. She's dealt with hallucinating people before, she's alert for trouble.

Solange looks at the patient, sees the disturbance, and immediately drops the shirt and grabs for Daeon's wrists, as decribed in the previously-sent post.

Conner does lose his footing, but not his composure and he grabs at Adonis' arms calling for help from his compatriots. Solange, who was already reacting, is there first. Sliding to the ground, Solange grabs at Adonis' wrists. Both find out the sheer power of the slight youth as he throws you each back and away. Neither of you is hurt, just rocked back.

Adonis resumes digging when Caine steps in. He grabs Adonis in a wrestler's control hold as he must have done many a time with rougher members of Amber's Navies. Adonis is a handful, even for Caine, and while he can't get at his side to dig further at his wound, neither is he completely under control.

Caine swears a sailor's oath and says in a remarkably calm voice, all things considered. "Someone should knock him out. Now."

Paige has to this point stayed back, along the lines of too many chefs in the kitchen...

There's a tearing noise, sort of like when you rip a leg off a chicken, and blood splashes up the side of the bed. The gush is nowhere near as forceful as before but, after all Adonis must have lost already, Conner is amazed there's still so much left.

The tear is not so bad, but it will get worse if he keeps struggling in Caine's hold. Adonis fights hard. It does not pour forth the blood required to make Adonis pass out, but the state of it has yet to satisfy whatever need he has to open it up again.

Paige turns to get fresh mundane bandages...

Unable to get at the wound, Adonis' electric black eyes for a second lock with Caine's. Then, still straining against his uncle's hold on his bloody hands, the boy's intense stare moves down until it locks on the blood ebbing from his side.

A look comes over his face of ferocious determination, as if he's willing the wound to open further...and it does, though the cause is probably the physical struggle with Caine rather than pure willpower. Some people might be unsure, however.

Brita's voice sounds almost cold as she says "Aisling? Do you know this one? He doesn't seem overly enthused by your presence or assistance."

Tears are running down Aisling's face, and her backing has been halted by the wall of the hospital tent, near the door. "I do not know anything about him," she says with a big catch in her voice, and self-recrimination can be heard by anyone of midwater and up.

Folly gives Aisling a sympathetic look. Her fingers continue to work the strings of her mandolin. "You didn't mean him any harm, love. It's going to be OK."

Brita nods, making a decision. She turns, steps forward, and - while he is bent forward concentrating on the wound - delivers a sharp blow to the side of the young man's head - hopefully enough to knock him out.

[I don't know Brita's stat's, obviously, but I do know Adonis' and I presume she'd err on the side of caution when wacking him over the head. That being the case, the following applies. Please, anyone, contradict me if I'm wrong.]

Brita's blow knocks Adonis' gaze out of line for a second but Brita is briefly surprised when he shakes his head and returns to his preoccupation with maiming himself. Then she delivers a second punch and suddenly Caine's strength finds no resistance.

It is then that the cries of the remaining medical staff come clear. "Fire! Fire!" they shout. At the back of the tent, a low table of bandages, gauze, and alcohol is burning merrily, with flames licking the canvas wall of your shelter. Depending on the quality of the tent, it will either burn slowly in the corner or very quickly indeed.

Paige produces a thin stiletto from her sleeve and quickly cuts the ties on that canvas wall, from the outside if the flames are too high for her to reach over, where it meets the top of the tent.

She'll then solicit somone's help in getting that wall over the flames, hoping to smother it as best she can, hoping that it's probable that the canvas is still a bit damp from this morning's dew and doesn't catch too quickly.

Solange, believing as hard as she can that good hemp canvas doesn't require any flammable rainproofing, goes to help Paige.

The fire fights back, but you eventually get it out. It's very clear that fresh supplies will be needed. And a fresh tent. This part of the vale now smells of acrid smoke.

Meanwhile, Conner bends back down to look over the wound and starts to bind it in a more traditional manner. "Why would he want to reopen his wound?" He mutters in puzzlement. He looks up. "Aisling who would know anything about this guy?"

Aisling is no longer there. I leave it to the GMs to decide who has a high enough Air to note when she left, the in wild chaos of knocking out psycotics, cutting up tents, putting out fires, and staunching the bleeding of aforementioned psycotics.

So far as I can tell, Folly and Caine were the only ones who could have possibly been facing the tent's door.

Caine replies. "His father. Did someone say they had a deck of cards?"

"That'd be me," Solange says, getting the deck out of her pocket. She offers it to her uncle. "Would you like to do the honors?"

Caine looks briefly at Adonis, who is currently as peaceful as Caine has seen him in a bit. He must have decided that Adonis is not currently having a crisis.

"You have my thanks for your help. I am Caine, Prince of Amber. I do not recall meeting you, but I arrived in urgent circumstances. Whose deck is this? And has anyone told me where 'here' is, yet?"

He picks up the shirt that Solange provided. For all that he has been in what must have been a nasty struggle with Adonis, Caine is, you notice, freshly shaven and smells of cologne.

[Solange]
Good cologne, I hope. I have always had the sneaking suspicion that Caine might wear some sort of fragrance I find vile.

[GMs]
Hard to tell over the acrid smoke of the burned bandages, sailcloth, and the alcohol. You do not hear anyone whistling "The Mariner" and he is not carrying a seabag jauntily thrown over his shoulder...at this moment.

"It's my own deck, Your Highness. I'm Gerard's daughter Solange, and I'm glad to finally meet you."

Caine nods.

"'Here' is Heather Vale, in the Forest of Arden. Do I understand that the young man is a cousin of mine?"

Caine keeps an eye on Adonis, making sure he makes no move to wake up.

"He calls himself Daeon and he's Julian's. We'll call his father shortly. He was at the Abyss-side battle with us, as was Aisling, as a matter of fact. Someone should go see if she's all right."

Folly is across the tent before he's even finished the sentence. "I'm on it," she says over her shoulder as she exits the tent.

"He was stabbed by Benedict's daughter, who has yet to explain that to my satisfaction.

"Can you introduce the rest of your...associates? Starting with the young lady with the powerful left hook, please."

[Solange]
"That would be Brita, Princess Fiona's daughter. The young lady who just left is called Folly, and we've been operating under the assumption that she's a relative, but we're not certain of her lineage. Paige has already introduced herself. Our medical expert here is Conner, who turns out to be Fiona's son, and the other young gentleman there is Ossian, who was a ward of Prince Brand's at one point." She takes a deep breath. "That's all the family present. And, if I forgot to say it earlier, welcome home."

"I am Brita, daughter of Lord Vidar of Asgard and the Princess Fiona." Brita says with a slight bow to her uncle. "The brilliant doctor here is my brother Conner," and at this point a bright smile bursts across Brita's face as she gestures to Conner.

Conner smiles back then turns to Caine. "You probably recognize me me vaguely from a naval conference. I was a Captain under Gerard a while back."

Caine looks no more surprised to learn about Conner's heritage than he did about Solange's. "Thank you," he says to all three at once, then dons the shirt Solange has provided for him.

Conner then turns back to fixing Adonis. "Any sign of the flower that caused the fire?" He calls over his shoulder to the fire brigade.

"No, sir," say several of the brigadiers in ragged chorus. They are now moving the wounded to other tents and are going in and out.

Caine starts outside himself, gesturing for the three family members to follow him. "He should be out for a little while. Do we have anything here that can hold your cousin long enough for us to find his father, or do Brita and I have to keep playing orderly?"

Paige busies herself with figuring out what was destroyed and what new things will be needed.

Making a list she places a hand on Ossian's shoulder, unless he seems bothered by the idea and relays the needs to Vere.

Ossian is of course not bothered.

His attention is split between talking to Vere and seeing what happens when Caine arrives: "Things are happening right now, actually. I think the man who just stepped through with a wounded man in his arms is Caine."

"You'll here from me when I know something new. By the way; it seems your sister has a Random Trump. I'll talk to him."

Vere nods. "Very good. I will leave progress reports to His Majesty to you and the others actually on sight, then."

Vere cocks his head to one side and listens while Paige lists the equipment and supplies they need, then repeats the list verbatim for verification. "I shall see that it is sent immediately," he says. "If there is nothing else I will be about that immediately." He waits for a few seconds to see if either of them has anything further to add, then breaks the Trump contact.