The night before leaving with Reid, Folly walks in on Paige packing a satchel. "Evening love. Glad you bopped in. I'm going on a little hike with Spooky and Reid tomorrow. Don't figure I should be gone longer than a week, but figured someone should know. I know Spooky's writing Gerry a letter, but in case Worth worries, just let him know I'm on a quick errand and should be home soon, 'kay?" Paige is already cringing anticipating Folly's reaction.
"'Hike'?" says Folly, confused and a little suspicious. "Whaddaya mean, 'hike'?" Maybe it's all that sleep she hasn't been getting lately, but Folly doesn't fully grasp what's going on 'til she sees Paige cringe.
"Paige, NO! You can't!" she yells, far more upset than Paige has ever seen her. "What the f*** are you thinking?! Haven't you noticed all those people who keep leaving and NOT COMING BACK?" Folly grabs at the satchel, trying to unpack it.
Paige keeps hold of the satchel with one hand as best she can, and lays the other over Folly's in a reassuring manner. "And if we don't figure out why, if we don't figure out how, honey," Paige smiles softly, her eyes also upset, "then it will just keep happening. I'm not trying to run away, Folly."
She releases the satchel and uses the free hand to draw Folly into an embrace. "I'll always come back to you, Folly. You can't be rid of me that easily, and well, something tells me that Martin'll be back soon enough. Trust me."
"I do trust you, sweetie," says Folly, scowling. "It's the universe I've got a quarrel with. I mean, look, Brita's got more woods-sense than God -- and she's LOST in the f***ing FOREST. That's just wrong. How do we know that the universe isn't canceling people out as soon as they leave Amber?" Folly shivers, and Paige realizes this is the very fear that's been keeping Folly awake at night. "And if you're so sure they're coming back soon, why not wait 'til then to do... whatever-it-is? Um, what are you doing, anyway?"
[Paige]
"Brita and Martin are not lost. They're gone, searching for lost
people, who might've fallen in holes in Shadow, something that Arden's
always had. Lost people with no chance to find their own way more like
Brita and Martin. They'll... be... fine.
"As to me, well, we're taking a walk to the Shadow Amber Reid and Brita found on their way here and then coming back. We're trying to see the effect on other Shadows, because like it or not, that's what Amber's acting like. If it molds like Shadow and conjures like Shadow, I'm inclined to beleive it is Shadow. Like we stayed on the sloughed off skin of a growing serpent. You can still see the faint markings of its skin, but it's a hollow imitation. Slowly the people are either dying or finding the true Serpent to live upon." Paige shrugs, frustrated. "I don't know, but I do know that if I sit around another day, it's one day closer to that Apocolypse, one more day that citizens disappear. If we don't do something soon, it won't matter if we do anything, and I can't afford to give-up hope yet. And neither can you."
Folly shrugs off Paige's embrace, slumps into a nearby chair, and says, _I'm scared something terrible will happen to you and I'll hate myself for letting you go_, even if the words sound a hell of a lot like, "Fine. Go then. See if I care."
Paige's "Folly," sounds an awful lot like _I love you_. She follows Folly to the chair and sits at Folly's feet wrapping her arms around the little legs and laying her red locks in Folly's lap. "Of course you care. It's why I have a reason to come back." The stark honesty in Paige's voice is almost shocking.
Folly sits there looking utterly miserable for a few minutes before continuing in a slightly more subdued tone, "Please promise you'll be careful, though, OK? 'Cos if you die, I'll kill you." She manages a weak smile.
Paige looks her deep in the eyes. "Nothing could keep us apart, Folly. I promise. And I'm going with Spooky and the Old Guy, one's lived forever and the other sees the future. What do I have to worry about?" He tone is joking, and a bit forced, but she comes up on her knees and kisses Folly deeply, speaking of her love without words.
In the morning, Reid shows up at the top of the stairs leading down to the Pattern Chamber. He's equipped with various pouches full of things that might come in handy on the journey, including some art supplies and his flute.
He patiently awaits Paige and Cambina.
[Reid]
[Backtracking a bit, I had originally intended on asking Stoat to join us
in a guard capacity. If we can work that in without breaking the flow
(since we haven't actually left Amber yet) that would be appreciated.]
Cambina will remind Reid that the pattern is a state secret and that she feels able to dispach anything that could challenge a human.
Paige joins them in traveling clothes, with a pack for each of them of food stuffs and items Paige thought might be useful, including lanterns and extra oil. She's wearing a short blade, suitable for close quarters work and a stiletto on her belt. "I'm not Martin or Solange, but I can hold my own..."
Cambina has a thin walking stick. She shoulders her pack, as do you all. Cambina has a brief word with the guard at the bottom of the chamber, telling him not to look for them before the end of his shift and giving him a note for Venesch. Taking lanterns, you set out into the caverns.
Reid leads, adding and removing those items from shadow that he feels should be. His touch is deft and he works the shadow subtlely, making small, slow changes to achieve his goals. His choices seem to be artistically informed, which does not surprise either Paige or Cambina. He leads you deep into the caves and eventually, in a cave that is no longer beneath Castle Amber, to an empty chamber that matches the great chamber of the pattern. There are three things missing from that room: this room has neither a door nor a pattern and it has no great fissure through it.
Paige kept the best eye she could on Reid's changes without influencing them in anyway. She'll talk trump theory amiably with both of them along the way to ease the hum-drums..
Reid is almost convinced that he has arrived at the place he wished to take his cousins, but decides to take them outside to be sure. He leads you through a series of caves, rather like the caves under the castle. Instead of reaching a room with a stairs, you come to a cave opening behind a waterfall, which you realize you'd been hearing for some time. The cave is damp but not full of water, and it is possible to exit the cave without getting wet.
You exit to a wide ledge in a cliffside. There are many ledges up and down the face of the cliff, but none so wide as this. The waterfall from above reaches this level before pouring on into the lagoon below. There is a collecting pond at the bottom of the first falls which flows out to create the lower falls. The cliff overhangs the ledge so that the upper falls pours into the pond rather than down the sides. The sky and sea look for all the world to you to be Amber's.
The sun on the rocks and the spray from the upper falls creates a stationary inverted rainbow around the bottom of the falls. It would make a spectacular painting.
The entire place has an odd feeling of expectation to it.
"Yes, yes, I believe THIS would be the place, then." Reid nods, to himself as well as his traveling companions.
"Stairs with no magic staircase above; marker indicating the location of a non-existant underwater stair below; and not a castle or pattern in view."
"Well, save the last, it's what we have back home," Paige comments wryly.
"Like I said the other night, when I let the shadows shift me towards Amber, this is where they brought me."
"Here beneath the waterfall specifically or to this Shadow, here being the unique view you latched onto, so as to better return?" Paige asks, listening to the water.
"I was led to the shadow. This spot was a more personal intuition." Reid replies.
"Here is as good a place to camp as any," he says, indicating the ledge they're on. "If I recall correctly, it's about a half day's climb up over slippery rocks, if that's the direction you'd like to go. Down's not much different."
[Paige]
"Up for me, I think, unless you two have another idea."
[Reid]
"Up is good. There were times when we felt we were being watched, perhaps
from the caves. The only sign of life we found was a single hoof print at
the top of the falls.
"Cambina? Thoughts?"
Reid seems somewhat pleased that he was successfully able to shift to his chosen destination.
[Cambina]
"Ummm. Still thinking. The waters look like sunset over the harbor as
seen from Amber harbor, but Kolvir is noted for a distinct lack of
waterfalls. I'd say it was just a nice shadow except for the feeling I
have that it's more than that. You say that there are steps up there? Do
you think the moon will rise? I can't tell if I want it to lead to Tir or
not."
[Reid]
"When I was here last, the moon rose but there were no steps. Can't say if
that's changed or not."
[Cambina]
"So do we go up tonight? We'll lose a day if we have to go up tomorrow
and wait for moonrise. The lagoon is pretty, as is the rainbow, but up
seems more promising than down."
[Reid]
"We can go up now. I didn't know if any further investigation at this
elevation would be prudent."
[Cambina]
"Who was watching you, Reid?"
"Good question, to which I have no answer."
[Do I have any informed suspicions?]
"Perhaps whoever made the hoof print at the top of the cliff," Paige muses as she tightens her pack and takes a sip of the cool waters. Looking for an easy start to the climbing, she asks, "By the way, which way was the hoof print facing, Reid?"
"To be honest, I don't recall. Britta studied it more closely than I did, she being more nature minded and trained for such."
"A single hoof print, hmmm. One wonders if it were a horse, a goat, or perhaps the family patron," Paige muses as they climb. "You ever hellride fast enough to step foot in a different Shadow with each step, Reid?"
"Never quite had the need. Not sure that I could, actually. But still, I sense this is a destination more than a place one would just pass through..."
Cambina is pulling on shoes that look very good for climbing indeed. "No time like the present."
She quickly finds and navigates up the cliff, leading her two cousins. The moon is not up, but the landscape is not dark. The stars at night are big and bright... It all looks as if it were painted.
The crashing sound has been with you since you exited the cave, but it is quieter as you climb away from the upper waterfall. Still, it is a sound, which is good, because it is the only sound.
The most notable item in all the lush plant life is that you hear no noises that appear to be of animal origin. In fact, now that you think about it, you haven't seen any animal life at all.
A few hours of effort brings you to the clifftop where the moon is visible low in the western sky. You can see a broad, forest rising to the peaks of distant mountains The forest ends a few arrowflights from the clifftop, with a silvery river draped ribbon-like over the edge.
Reid indicates the steps, three of them leading out over the eastern ocean. Though there is moonlight, there is no stairway to the dreaming city. Cambina mounts the steps, slowly, one, two and three. Her foot rises, reaching for a step that is not there.
Paige grabs a hold of her friend, ensuring that her visions haven't taken her on a walk that reality's not ready to support, calling softly, "Cambina..."
Cambina stands, steadied by Paige, on the top of the three steps.
"Can you see it?" she asks quietly.
You can. The dreaming city is where it should be. The stairs do not appear.
"Ever hang-glide, Reid?" Paige asks with a wry grin.
[Reid]
"Um, Cambina? Have you been able to see the city from OUR Amber since
the sundering? I haven't checked, myself."
"Yes, but here it feels as if any moment something will click into place or someone will throw a switch and the steps will appear. Don't you feel it?"
As a tension breaker, Reid comically pats down his pockets. "Nope, I don't have a switch on me. Must have left it in my other pouch.
"But seriously, this does seem to reinforce my idea that this place is something OTHER than mere Shadow. I don't think anyone's ever been able to see the Dreaming City from anywhere other than Amber. If you can see it from home, and you can see it from here, there's definitely something amiss."
"Can we selectively shift for the stairs, without losing Tir?" Paige wonders aloud. "Without losing that something?"
"I don't think so. Do you know how when you aim for Amber, suddenly things click and it's like when you've got a good rapport with your fortune-telling deck. It's just right and if you did any more, it would undo something and it wouldn't be right anymore. That's what it feels like." Cambina doesn't stop staring at the city in the sky.
"It's like we're early. Or late. If we could get to Tir and if we could speak to people there and if we could find a vision of Oberon, we could ask him. He'd understand this."
"I only ever met him once, but yes, I think he would've. This place has such an air to it, but perhaps that's the answer Cambina..." Paige looks back to Reid before addressing the cousin upon the stair, a small smile on her face. "If this has taught us nothing else, cousin, it's taught us that we can't rely on powers or principalities, castles or kings. We have had to rely on ourselves and each other, at it's made us better and stronger for it, hopefully so this can never happen again.
"I propose we wait and see perhaps the rest of the night if that which is missing from the moment comes to find three errant travelers instead of two. If not, well, we'll all know this place," she chuckles, "or have Reid's painting as a reminder, and if there are changes at home in Shadow and we can return when it's time."
Cambina agrees and will either cast her cards all night or else play Chicago style bridge with her cousins. She stays up all night, watching the sky, sometimes from the steps. She examines the steps very closely, and you suspect that she will be able to compare these, flaw for flaw, with the ones above the Castle.
Paige quietly watches the cards.
Reid watches her cast cards with interest for some time before speaking. "I never understood what exactly you hope to be able to determine by using the trumps in a game of chance. You do it too, don't you Paige?"
He furrows his brow. "I mean, it's all math. There's nothing special about which cards turn up when. It's probability, and not in the sense that our family normally uses that word."
"But it is just like family normally uses it. If you have control, if you can clear yourself and open yourself to those probabilities, the most probable will show themselves in the cards," Paige answers with conviction. "With enough control, you can shape your questions and the correct probabilities will answer."
"But if you're controlling the cards," Reid counters, "then it's neither random nor unknown, which devalues the experience even more. I can manipulate cards just fine without having to resort to shadow play. That's why I've stayed out of the family poker games for the most part... it would be too easy to cheat, even without family tricks.
"Not to say the trumps themselves are without power. They are the embodiment of those depicted. But as a scholar, I can't place much faith in divination.
"Of course," he continues, "I never understood why some of my cousins insist on referring to shadows as probabilities. They're merely possibilities, in so much as they all exist somewhere. When we shift shadow, we're not saying, 'Golly gee, what are the odds of the sky being pink when I walk out of this forest?' It's more like, 'It's possible that I've walked somewhere where there will be food under that next rock.'"
He's clearly a little frustrated, but not so much to put him in a foul mood or unpleasant to respond to.
[Paige]
"Then what of affecting probability within a Shadow, or do we move
ourselves to a different Shadow everytime we do that. Each time I fix
a lover's roll of the dice so he'll win, am I really finding a new
Shadow with a new lover who happened to win that toss? If so how do
you explain the presence of you, Cambina and the rest of my cousins
there?" Paige seems very interested in his opinions on the matter, and
not put off at all by his frustration.
"I would say, yes, with every choice made, there exists a shadow where the other path was taken. Isn't that really all shadow is? As to the presence of family members, it's quite common for one of us to lead and the others to be dragged along between shadow. I propose it's even possible for each of us to continue to exist in the shadows we leave behind. We've certainly seen it happen to non-family. Just because your current consciousness has made the choices it has, doesn't mean that somewhere in your past, you created another you who is quite content in her choices as well."
[Cambina]
"No.that's not how it works. It can't be. If it did and if we were moving
between these probability streams, then we would inevitably meet ourselves,
and not just shadows, but actual selves with the actual power. Our fathers
could not be dead, because none of us could ever die. There would be an
infinite number of children of Oberon, because every possible union of a
historically 'lusty' king both would and wouldn't beget another one. And
he'd've slept with every possible woman. And not slept with them."
"That could still be true. But if there exists a world where Oberon never left Cymnea, then I would say there are too many differences between it and the world that I know for me to ever reach it through shadow paths in my lifetime," Reid offers.
[Cambina]
"I don't think that's true for all such losses. Some are very close."
Cambina says. She looks off at Tir, the unreachable city. She seems very
closed in upon herself, hugging her knees close to her chest.
"The idea that I could go find places where I hadn't made the mistakes with a lover and he still cared, perhaps it's just cynicism, but I have trouble believing such a Shadow exists." Paige smiles at her own self depreciating humor, "And even if it does, the Shadow lovers there aren't me and my ex-lover. Someone keeps telling me that we're defined not by our words, but our actions, so it's the decisions I've acted on that make me, well... me."
[Cambina]
"We communicate between shadows to a real person, a single real person. We
make and break instantaneous ties between the shadows. I suppose if you
want, you could say that we collapse a probability wave, but that's a
theoretical point, not a physical difference. Schroedinger's Trump.
"Now you could say this happens on a different scale, wherein all of Amber is duplicating itself every time someone is faced with a choice, but I don't see how it's relevant to what we do. It's like worrying about the giant who is dreaming the universe waking up."
[Reid]
"Oh, I don't worry about it. But the only real world, to me at least, is
the one that I know. I can't speak of others with any authority without
empirical evidence, so I usually don't."
[Cambina]
"Hmm. I once spent a decade or so convinced that the Cards were not
divining truth but displaying my biases. After a while, I decided to test
it. I found that if I was honest with myself then I received answers that
helped me. What you get is what you get. But I know that I know things
from the cards that I don't know if I don't cast. I have come to trust
them by purely empirical means.
"Call it sub-conscious desires causing me to subtly manipulate shadow if you must, but I think you're wrong. I can read cards in Amber, I can read cards in Tir, I can read cards in the pattern chamber. I felt a difference when I couldn't read because I couldn't do anything with the cards. And the power came over me again a few years ago and I could read again.
"I can't tell you how unnerving that was. It also convinced me that Martin was right and we can expect things to get better."
She clearly has conflicting emotions about her cousin, but neither of you can tell just what it is about him that brings those on.
[Paige]
"Divination isn't a science, nor is it linked specifically to the
cards. They're just the most accurate medium I've found in Shadow.
It's like looking at the world with one eye closed. You might
never see the whole picture, but considering the average person's,
Hells... even the average Amberite's view of that world, well... In
the land of the blind, the one eyed seeress is queen."
"That doesn't make her sight any better. She still may run into things on the other side," says Cambina.
[Cambina]
"Trumps are real things, tied to real people. I don't know what it is that
makes them as they are, but there is some sort of system to them and we are
a part of it.
"As to fortune telling, I think the cards are a focus for, not a source of, data. I have learned enough from them to know that they have value to me as a tool, but the ability to gain knowledge through reading them has to do with my nature, not their nature.
"If we have any more of that wine, we can discuss the next unanswerable question 'do shadows exist if we're not in them?'" She shifts a bit on the step where she has been sitting. "I'm cold. Anyone else want to have a fire?"
Reid moves around to collect the necessary tinder under the moonlight, clearing an area not far from the base of the steps for the fire.
[Reid]
"Tis not my goal to ask unanswerable questions. A wise ranger told me in
my youth 'Life is too short to ask What If questions.' It's true, I try
to collect as much information as I can, but I base my life on the
information I have, not worrying about the information I don't."
[Does anyone sleep?]
[Reid]
[nope]
[Not yet at least, but Paige'll prolly nod off once Cambina does, assuming that's after the city in the sky disappears, pillowing her head on her satchel, faint with the scent of Folly still.]
The sunrise is as breathtakingly beautiful as the sunset was, rising over a string of mountains to the west and a vast forest to the north, a forest so magnificent and primal that it might easily be mistaken for Arden, and not just by the casual observer.
[In the morning, the sun is shining. There is a beautiful view of the sea before you, there are mountains and woods behind you, and there is coast to the left and right of you. Do you all want to explore the place some more? What are you planning to do? Cambina's gotten what she really wanted, so what about Reid and Paige?]
"Well ladies, this is the unknown Amber -- pregnant with possibility, but no real clue as to what's wrong with our pattern or the Trumps." As he says it, Reid unconsciously puts his hand in his card pouch just to verify they're still not working. "I could show you the marker where the steps to Remba should be, but they probably won't be much more helpful than the stairs to Tir were, I wouldn't expect. We could jot down to where the city should be, but we can see from here there's not much there, and certainly no sign of life.
"Or," Reid continues, "we could poke about near the waterfall and in the caves a bit before heading back. What do you think?"
After some thought, Reid offers another possibility. "Paige, what about the Grove of the Unicorn. I never spent any time there in our Amber, but I wonder if it has an analogue here? Do you think you could find it?"
"I like the idea of poking around in the caves, but I don't have any hopes to find our missing reflection of the Pattern. Castle Amber had a great fall... and all the Regent's horses and all the Regent's men, couldn't put the Pattern together again." Paige chuckles after washing her face in the stream.
"The Grove? One supposes I could find it, if the analog, this gestating Amber has such a place, unless..." Paige produces her cards, shuffles once and after inverting the usurper, so it represents the Unicorn, shuffles and cuts again. A quick spread, not seemingly showing her what she wanted.
[Unless the GM's want to roll a card on that...]
[GMs]
Inspiration striketh not. Luckily, neither does expiration. You are still
before your sell-by date.
"Doesn't the legend suppose that the spring in the grove sprang forth from where the Unicorn's hoof struck the ground? If that were the case, perhaps we're in the analog's grove?" She shrugs, seemingly concerned over the cards, but knowing Reid's views, not ready to discuss it.
"I'm not an expert on legends. Cambina?" Reid replies.
"Nor am I. I'm an historian. However, if Nestor doesn't know more, he knows who knows. But the grove wouldn't be on the cliff-side. It'd be deep in that forest. It looks so...primeval isn't the right word. Archetypical. It's like Arden, but it's not. I can see why you'd want to come here, Reid. Thank you for sharing this place with us. Some would have kept it to themselves."
[Reid]
"There's enough about this place that remains unexplained. I still don't
have all the answers, so I thought I'd share the investigation."
Just watching the forest has made Cambina relax. "Have you noticed?" she says at last. "No animal sounds except us."
[Reid]
"I'd noticed that my first time through here. Except for the one hoof
print and the feeling of being watched, no signs of anything.
"But unless you two are in a hurry to return, I'd like to look for the grove. There have been enough other similarities with the Amber we know. I'd like to identify as many as we can before going back.
"I promised Folly that we wouldn't be too long. She's rather worried about our family disappearances." Paige smiles.
"I realized our Grove would be in the wood, but I was just playing with comparative mythology a bit, sorry." She begins to gather her belongings for the hike ahead of them. "How are we going? Along Kolvir and down into Arden or back down toward the waterfall and into the wood from there?"
"Six of one, half a dozen of the other," says Cambina. "Reid, what do you think?"
"Let's find the grove. It should only add a day each way to our trip, and it may add another piece to the puzzle. If Folly complains, you can blame 'The Old Guy'." Reid smirks -- an expression you haven't seen on him too often.
Paige sticks out her tongue in a very unladylike manner, smiling at 'The Old Guy'. "Well, I know the top of our hill well enough... Let's try it from here across the top of Kolvir." Paige hoists her pack up and leads off across the mountianside toward what she hopes will be an easier passage than climbing the cliff again.
[Reid thinks Paige failed her observation test... or the GMs weren't as descriptive in introducing the location to her... There is no Kolvir in this shadow.]
However, Cambina thinks that Paige meant "Lets try walking into this forest, finding the grove-equivalent, and then shifting shadow to come into Arden in such a place as to be in the forested area where we can climb above the tree-line and come at the city across the top of Mt. Kolvir, the mountain that holds Amber in her arms as a mother holds her child."
Once it is settled, or set to music, Cambina sets out. "I don't know if we need congruity, but I know this forest feels...incipient. And still. Have either of you heard so much as an insect? [OOC:you haven't]"
The woods seem full of giant trees, with a canopy far above you that lets through golden sunlight. The moist air causes dazzling effects and the forest has a number of streams running through it. It is rough terrain, but there are trees all through it.
After some hours of wandering and what lower waters would call 'being lost' and Cambina calls 'allowing the place to find us', you arrive at a clearing in the woods. The clearing is deep in the forest and you are not sure you could find it again, but it has what looks to be a natural spring of bubbling clarity. It spills out of a fissure in a rock and pours into a natural basin, clean and inviting. The clearing is wide, lush, and pristine.
"I think..." says Cambina, and lets the words trail off.
"Therefore you be." Reid completes her thought as he take the weight of his pack off of his shoulders and stoops by the spring for a drink.
The water is cool, clean, and refreshing. The basin is deeper than you would have guessed at first glance.
[Reid]
[How big is the basin?]
[GMs]
[Big enough to swim in, smaller than the Permian Basin. With a heater and
a wet bar, it would be just larger than a Dot Com Millionaire's Hot Tub,
circa 1997.]
Paige sets her pack against the rocks and with very little modesty strips out of her hiking clothes, probably while Reid begins serenading the trees. She knifes into the clear water with practiced grace, searching out the basin's bottom. She's obviously looking for fish and other marine life, but just really enjoying the calm and peace of this swim.
Reid is torn between wanting to try to capture the location on canvas and writing a tune. He opts for pulling out his bone flute and walking the perimeter of the clearing while playing a soft melody that seems to suit the place. He's taking it all in, processing what he sees and feels, and every subtlety is conveyed by a slight change in the song as he continues to internalize it. It may occur to Paige and Cambina that they have heard him play before, but they hadn't heard him compose.
Cambina sits, her back to a tree, and takes it all in from the edge. Her breathing slows and she seems very relaxed. She seems more at peace here than she has before.
[Reid]
"So, cousin, any thing besides the obvious peacefulness, strike you
about this place?"
Paige breaks the water's surface, looking for her cousins. "So maybe this is the higher plane reflection," she suggests. "Our baser, animalistic traits haven't been relected into the Shadow, yet."
Cambina grins. "I'd never considered that animals might be reflections of us. Something of a ghoulish thought, isn't it? 'Have you seen Uncle Julian?' 'Why yes, I just had his shadow for supper...' This place is has that same 'waiting' feel of the lagoon. Like something will be here, but isn't. Like any disturbance we make will be corrected if we leave. It seems very close to Amber in some ways.
"And the forest is just as enchanting as that one, but differently so,
"I don't know. It could be a trap. I know I'd be willing to have a hermitage here if I didn't have duties in Amber." She pauses for a second. "With your approval, Cousin Reid. This is your find, after all."
Reid grins. "Somehow, I don't know if the location would really like any of us building a summer cottage here. Still, perhaps it is a place I should visit more regularly, both to see if anything has happened yet, and also to get away from the problems of the city and the castle."
"So are we heading back then," Paige asks.
"I suppose there's nothing more to see," Reid concedes.
Cambina smiles back. She has a faraway look in her eyes. "I'm glad I got to see it like this. It'll be nice later to know what it looked like before everything happened."
Paige tosses a stray wet lock out of her face and looks questioningly at Cambina. "Are you implying that something's going to happen, or just your imminent anticipation of the stars coming right here?"
Cambina's regains the here and now and looks at Paige. "I'm sorry, did I say something?"
[How do you go back? Through the caves? through the forest? up to the tree line and over the Kolvir range? none of the above?]
[Reid]
Through the forest seems to be the most direct route, and one that would
be possible without entertaining any unnatural leaps in shadow.
[Paige]
[However... Paige is up for adventure, especially since the GM's won't
retcon our return, right? But if asked she likes the idea of trying to
walk up the Kolvir range.]
[GMs]
[This is still pre-gaming. Only you can kill yourself. We will not, yet.
Cambina will go any way.]
Last modified: 8 February 2002