Amberites Asea

"Shall we Trump him?"

Ambrose pushes off from the wall where he's been leaning. "What are our other options? And would someone please summarize the conversation for those who came in late?"

Brita nods in acknowledgement of Ambrose's comment but responds to Ossian's original question, "I would Still be Hesitant to Trump Our Uncle as it would Alert him to the Fact that we Have a Trump. For Another Option, When I Receive my Ingredients from Cousin Meg and her Son, I will Be Prepared to Try Tracking our Uncle and the Army. While not always Advisable to Approach an Army Unawares, we will be Coming in from the Rear."

Ossian looks at Ambrose "In short, Merlin thinks Huon has set up this place so there will be a war here. But he will likely release Meg's son if we ask him."

Ambrose frowns. "There's a lot of that going around. Did he set it up that way deliberately or just leave it that way when he was done?"

Meg snorts. "He gave one side guns, and not the other. I think that counts as deliberate. Probably so that there'll be a nice bloody war, and us insignificant locals that survive will get better with these guns of him and be much better food for war when he next comes back."

She signs. "I need to calm down before I could try talking to him."

He turns to Meg, "And how long will it be before we get those ingredients Brita has asked for?"

"The herbs? Just a moment. What isn't in the kitchen will be in the garden."

Meg opens the door and leads the way out to the kitchen.

Ossian follows. He seems quite at peace with magically sneaking up on an army with guns. Almost smug, in fact.

Brita notes as they exit the room, "Your Son was Retrieving some Additional Items for me. Would you Know the Room on which we Scried Uncle Huon and our Cousins? Is it Accessible? If Not, a Private Locale Nearby would be Acceptable."

With a few words from Meg, the group is able to get all the components Brita needs for the spell she and Ambrose are going to attempt. Meg believes the group can get access to the council chamber they saw in the scrying; it's reasonably private, which is probably why Huon was using it.

With the herbal components she asked for, Brita also gathers a small scarf, some string, a mortar and pestle, boiling water, and a small mug. The four cousins gather in the council chamber. Brita begins to set up her spell near the door.

She takes the tea for sleep and the tea for alertness and mixes them in the mug, pouring the boiling water over the leaves. She stirs the mixture and says 'Het Water Suddert te Zijner Tijd'. [Water simmer in Good Time - should keep the water warm for 2 hours; a simple trick for the Goddess of Pure Water and useful in the frozen Asgard winters.]

She crushes the large blue morning glory and small white moon flowers which Morris collected and puts the fragrant mixture into the scarf, tying the small bundle to one end of the string. She kneads the bundle a little to get the smell of the flowers to permeate the make-shift bag.

The tea's fragrant aroma starts to drift around the cousins as Brita marks an eight pointed star in chalk on the wooden floor before the door. She places the mug in the center of the star and then stands over it. Taking the free end of the string in her hand, she says "Stand Back for Now" to the others, closes her eyes, and begins to swing the bag in a counter-clockwise circle around her head.

Brita quickly finds a rhythm with the bag and string and begins to chant.

"West of Night and East of Day,
Back through Time, Scent the Way.
The Sea, The Rock, The Formless One,
First Mixed Together and Then Undone.
Trail the Rock From Out This Place,
First through Time, then through Space."

The scents of Day and Night swirl around, melding and filling the room. As the words lay down the spell, the buzz of the spinning string becomes the only sound. Brita's breathing becomes timed with rotation - out for five, in for the five, out for five, in for five.

The spinning continues for about twenty minutes and then Brita suddenly shoots her left hand out and back to stop the bag over the SW quadrant of her circle. She turns to face that point of the star, bringing her body around in alignment with the bag without opening her eyes. She then starts spinning the bag again, this time clockwise around the circle. At various points, she moves under the whirling bag, turning this way and that within the star and the encircling scents. An hour into the spell, Brita stops the bag and reverses the direction again. This time, the spinning is a blur and Brita does not move other than slight twitches of her nose and a couple nods of the head. Once again, Brita stops the bag over the SW quadrant. She opens her eyes and turns to her cousins with a deep breath.

"I have Found the Vestiges of Our Uncle's Trail as he Departed Shadow Abford. Through the Scents of Time, I have Tracked him. His Trail Leads Quickly to Water."

Ossian follows Brita's ritual with great interest, and seems to wholeheartedly approve. He bows his head, before saying "O, Water Godess. How Long is this Trail of Your Making Open?" Ossian's voice is almost mockingly serious, but only almost.

Brita finds that the spell is not strong enough to work beyond the veil of shadows, and thinks she's lucky to have learned anything.

Ambrose looks in the direction the object was pointed. "I do not think there is anything in that direction except the sea."

Brita nods at Ambrose's comment and responds to Ossian, "You Misunderstand. I was Not Able to Create a Solid Trail through Space. I was Able to Catch his Scent - a True Rock of Amber. Given that His Trail Leads to Water, we could Utilize Ship Skidbladnir to Find him."

As always, Ossian seems unfazened by his mistakes. "Good name. Wait. Will you conjure a whole ship?"

"Conjure? There is no Need. Ship Skidbladnir is Here." Brita draws forth what appears to be a small box of wood. Ossian, with his painters eye, notes that the grain of the wood changes direction at various points, creating lines that make it look like the wood is folded somehow. Brita adds, "We just Need a Large Enough Waterway."

Ossian looks at Ambrose "How much time would you need to help me looking for my mother?"

Ambrose does some mental math. "You told me it would be about fifty years back? Even if we got the props and components out of Uxmal without any trouble, it could easily be weeks." From his expression, it's clear to Ossian and Brita that he understands that the two options are incompatible. "I'm sorry, Ossian. We'll come back and do it when we're not pressed for time."

Ossian nods. "It's ok." He turns around looking at Meg and Brita. "When do we leave?"

"As Soon as you Want, Cousin Meg," Brita says as she turns to her cousin.

"I suppose there's no point in asking how long we'll be gone, is there?" Meg sighs and smiles at these crazy people. "If you can spare me a little time to pack some clean scarves and other little items, and tell my family I'm off again to bring Jacob home, I'd be grateful. Otherwise I'm ready to be whisked off again."

Ambrose says to Brita, "I'm ready now."

Ossian nods. "I'm about ready too."

"We have Time for Packing. I will Go to the River and Ready Ship Skidbladnir." Brita nods to the others and heads out.

Once Brita and Meg are on their way, Ambrose begins cleaning up Brita's sorcerous preparations and disposing of them properly, which in some cases seems to mean magically.

"How much trouble do you think we're about to get into?" he asks Ossian. "This scheme sounds worse and worse the more I hear of it."

"Well, Merlin did seem to think Huon was rather friendly. Then, I guess, Celina did the negotiations. I think she's not half as hot-tempered as Cousin Meg. We will have to keep an eye on her; she's quite fast with that knife she carries in her basket.

"I am rather optimistic, though. We will have to make things up as we go along. Trying to sneak in on Huon... He should have some way to detect us."

Ambrose pauses to do some quick spell that gets rid of some of the herbs that Brita used.

"Depends on what kind of magicians he has with him. But yes, we should be cautious. I'm less worried about the sneaking part than I am about what she'll say when she finds him. If we walk into his army and mouth off to him, we'll need a quick spell or trump to get ourselves out of there." He looks meaningfully at Ossian.

"Hm. That's true. I'm a bit worried about sneaking up on an army with new shiny guns. " Ossian ponders "I'll see what I can do about an escape route. I do have an emergency Trump, but that will leave us somewhat stranded."

[OOC: He's thinking of what location he can make the fastest sketch of: His room in Amber, Family Carpers home in Abford, or the Orphanage. Given that he is in Abford right now, of course. GMs?]

[OOC: If he went to the orphanage, it would be the best place. Familiarity and being there.]

Ambrose makes a thoughtful face. "If the place your Trump takes is doesn't block sorcery, I can get us back to Amber or Uxmal. Or anywhere else I've been. Uxmal would be fastest."

Ossian opens his Trump case and retrieves the Beach Trump from it. "I can't see why it should block sorcery. Do you want to have a look?"

"Please."

At any rate Ossian will want to look through the Trump to see that the Beach looks ok. He would prefer there not to be any Huonian battlecruisers stationed nearby.

There are no Huonian battlecruisers.

Submarines, then.

None of those, either. At least none with periscopes sticking above the water.

Ambrose looks through as well. "As best I can tell, local ambient conditions don't block Sorcery. It's not a sure thing, but I don't think it's a terrible risk to use this as our backup."

Ossian nods. "Good. Then we have an escape route. We will have to handle Meg by improvisation, I think."

Ambrose says, "I think you're right. Although a quick silencing spell wouldn't go amiss at times either." A wry grin softens the words a bit. "Let's go find Mistress Meg and be on our way."

Ossian grins back "I would count a quick silencing spell as improvisation, Uncle."

With that, Ossian gathers his few belongings. And off to the the boat...?

As Brita leaves the room, she describes to Meg a spot on the river not far from where the training camp was located. She says farewell to Morris and then searches out Jenna, whom she finds behind the house in a little garden. "Mistress Jenna, I Wish to Return your Head Scarf. I am Leaving and May not Return. Thank You for its Use." She holds out the neatly folded scarf to Jenna.

"You're welcome," Jenna replies. "Good luck in your travels." Her smile doesn't conceal the worry in her eyes.

Once the task is complete, she will head to the spot in the river and, after ensuring that no one is around (with some minor Sorcercy if necessary), opens Skidbladnir on the water and boards the ship to await the arrival of the others.

The fair breeze that the boat summons springs up. Brita feels that she can guide the boat much more easily now than she could before, either sorcerously, if she can figure out how to control the winds, or by using the Pattern.

Meg spends some time with her family, explaining that she must leave again to bring Jacob home. She offers the loan of her house to any of the family who would like to use it while she's gone, to aid in keeping it clean and aired out. To her boys alone she explains that Huon has left and won't be back for decades. And that he had left some of those rifle things of his with Renady, so that when he comes back, they'll be plenty of folk with lots of experience of killing and war. She advises them to be careful and make plans to stay safe. Huon is not a nice person. In fact, most of this family she's found are not nice, and recognise only power and blood ties. So unless she can get some respect, they'll come tramping through Abford whenever they like.

She sends servants to her house to pack some clothes and other comforts and after talking with her family she follows them to pack a few final things herself.

She includes some coin as well as personal items.

Then she sits and writes a note.

J,

I don't know if you're alive or not, of if you've left Abford, but if you're here, I'm sure you've heard gossip that I'm alive. It's true, love, and more besides. I've found some relatives, or people who say they're relatives, and Huon's one of them. Those men Ossian, Reid and Marius that we were suspicious of are more of them. They come from a far away kingdom in another world, and have magics beyond belief. Huon's an outcast from them, and going to war on them, taking good Abford boys along with him to die.

I have to go off again, because he's taken Jacob with him, and I don't know how long it will be until I'm home again. It's a mess. We know where Huon might be heading, and we may be able to track him, but I suspect he's so far ahead that we won't catch him until too late. I cannot think of a good plan, but I mislike all the plans we do have. I'm out of my depth and do not understand the magic of these people enough to know what might be best to do.

I miss you. I find myself slipping back to what it was like before you left St Trista's when all was wrong with the world and there's nothing I can do to fix it except get angry and that just makes things worse. I don't want to go back to being a victim again, beaten and then beaten for crying out, and it makes me so angry that there's nothing I can do that I worry the anger may blind me.

But they have my son! My poor little Jacob, who I swore I would protect when he was just a babe, and now he has a babe of his own on the way. And I cannot see what I can do to get him back that will not put him in more danger. I want to cry tears that flood the world, I want to stamp and break the earth beneath my feet, to ease this pain. Yet all I can do is follow after kindly and well-meaning stranger relatives who I may not be able to trust, and who seem to have little more idea of what to do than myself. It is the blind leading the blind.

Oh love, I fear you won't believe me, but I swear it's true. I half don't believe it myself, but I have woken up too many mornings and found it's not a dream.

If you get this letter, know that I am thinking of you, and please take care. I think that Huon has left rifles with Renady. He will not be back for decades, and when he does come back it will not be to 'protect' or cherish, but to siphon off more young men to be his troops, and he wants to them to be better skilled with arms next time. What better way to ensure that than to ensure that we are wracked by war and conflict in the meantime? I fear Renady will attack soon, and I do not know how Abford is to survive.

I have told all my boys about the rifles in Renady. I will be back as soon as I can, but that may not be for months, or longer. Take care, my love.

Your Daisy

She folds up the letter and hides it in the backyard as per usual.

Then gives the final orders for her packing, for the packing up and storage of her remaining personal items while the house is in use by one of her sons, and other last minute details. Then she makes final farewell from her family, and joins Brita and the others.

Meg having taken leave of her family, and Ossian and Ambrose having made their preparations, they join Brita on the river in Skidbladnir and take leave of Abford.

Following the magical scent, or perhaps the Pattern-scent, of Huon, they go down the river and out to sea. None of them are strong in Pattern, but collectively they are able to follow the signs and force changes of shadow.

It is about the fourth day out when it happens. Everyone is on deck, talking and enjoying the ocean breeze, when there is a rip in space and a figure familiar to Brita steps through. He is tall and his legs still have the wrong number of joints.

Ambrose says something in Uxmali that sounds like it might be a swear word. Then he names the newcomer, his tone suggesting that's an obscenity too. "Cleph."

The rift has not yet closed.

[correct me if the rift is not fixed]
Brita brings the Pattern up in her mind and heart, directing the boat on a hard turn - not enough to overbalance anyone, but enough to bring the boat around under the rift so that it moves sharply away from Clef.

"Cleph." Brita's voice is brittle with the ice of the highest peaks of Jutenheim.

Ossian moves closer to Meg, and tries to detect if Ambrose or Brita does any Pattern work. He also places one hand upon his rapier.

[Note that Ossian probably hasn't heard the name Cleph before. But he's pretty good at anatomy, and should be able to add some of the pieces together. Hm. I wonder if Ossian knows anything about how to use Pattern to fight chaosians.]

[Brand didn't train him in that, alas.]

Ambrose gets between Meg and Cleph. "What do you want?" he asks, eyes narrowing.

The boat is beginning to turn, but Brita is struggling to move it so sharply on such short notice. She knows it will take the efforts of another Pattern-user in conjunction with hers to make the boat turn as quickly as she wishes.

Cleph grins. His teeth are pointy. "I've come for something that's mine."

Brita continues to use the Pattern, but she also plants her left foot firmly and adds a pushing motion with both hands cupped close together at the thumbs and moving from right to left. Her hands slide back horizontal to the deck and then turn and push again, right to left, in a rhythmic motion. Waves begin to lap over the right side of the boat, assisting in the turn.

The parting is now somewhere to the side of the boat.

As Ossian sees what Brita is trying to do, he brings up the Pattern and tries to help turning the boat. At the same time he mutters to Meg.

Pattern is very hard to use here, as if Ossian had gone very far away from Amber.

"Now might be the time for kitchen utensils."

Ossian hears the sound of metal against leather indicating that something has been drawn.

Loudly he says "I don't remember picking up any lost belongings lately. But I could be mistaken."

Ambrose says a word and his hands become bright red. He swings at Cleph. Cleph dodges and kicks forward from his knee, scoring on Ambrose, but not disabling him.

The air smells of electricity.

Ossian draws his rapier, and steps towards Cleph. Ossian will fight stylishly and cautiously, trying to keep the rapier between himself and Cleph. He will try to thrust at Clephs many-jointed legs.

Since the rift is now at the side of the boat Ossian will try to use his Pattern to resist any shapshifting Cleph might try to do. (He has no idea if that works, but it might be worth a try)

[Note: Priority one for Ossian is to defend himself and his relatives, not keep the Pattern up.]

With the rift away from the boat, Brita draws a small knife and moves to the side away from the rift. She is trying to work her way around Cleph so that Ossian, Ambrose, and Meg are on the other side of him from her. She is cautious, however, not to get too close at this point. The Pattern is held firmly in her mind's eye.

In response to Ossian's move, Cleph draws his wicked blade--which looks differently-shaped from the last time Brita saw it, somehow--and goes on the attack. There's a quick exchange of blows between him and Ossian.

Ambrose is clearly biding his time for a strike.

Brita is trying to edge her way around Cleph when she sees it. Clearly Ambrose sees it about the same time she does.

Meg screams as another rift opens behind her and a female arm grasps her to drag her through.

Cleph grins hugely and presses his attack.

Brita immediately changes direction and, ignoring Cleph, launches herself towards Meg. Her intent is to grab onto Meg and knock her at an angle to the side of the rift as she shouts the Command to collapse Skidbladnir, dropping the support from under Meg's (and everyone else's) feet.

The boat collapses quickly, leaving those caught flat-footed in the cold, salty water of the deep ocean, far from shore. The waves are large and slow, but for those suddenly in the water, serious. Ambrose loses the spell he was preparing. Cleph disappears below the surface.

[The Smith, Reversed]

[Brita is swearing softly at this. Since I don't swear, I'll just say this is soooo typical of my luck ;)]

Brita slams into Meg's legs and succeeds in knocking them hard against the edge of the rift in reality. Brita hears a sickening crunch, followed by a moan from Meg. The leg Brita tried to grab is slick with blood and the Goddess of Pure Waters does not maintain her grip. The smells of Blood and Dara fill her nose as she hits the surface of the water. The last she sees of Meg is the Veil between worlds closing.

Ossian swears colorfully as he hits the water. He drops the rapier (it's too heavy to swim with anyway). When he surfaces again he looks around for Brita and the others, and shouts "Brita, the boat! Can you get it back?"

He tries to watch out for Cleph in the water.

[GMs: Trumps are useless in such a wet place, aren't they?]

Drat. Drat. Drat. Brita is swearing mentally as she plunges under the water. A quick kick and she resurfaces with the Command to reopen Skidbladnir on her lips.

[My assumption is that the boat, even in collapsed form, is wood and floats]

[Yep, it's a magic boat, it follows magic rules.]

As the boat reforms slightly downstream and Brita begins to make her way towards it with sure strokes, she scans the water looking for Ambrose, watching Ossian, and keeping an eye out for Cleph.

[Note: you're four days out from Abford, so you're on the open seas. There's no downstream here.]

[Yes, all at the same time. She's doing that free style stroke with your head above water that they teach you in rescue swimming.]

[Dr. Beard would be proud.]

Ambrose is swimming towards the boat. He looks as if he's been burned and Brita smells charred flesh and blood.

Cleph rises out of the water like a dripping wet, fully clothed, incorrectly-jointed Botticelli Venus. He seems to be standing on the water, or on something below the water. He's scanning the horizon for something.

Ossian is swimming towards the boat, keeping low in the water (hoping that Cleph does not notice him. Ossian is not keen on fighting a shapeshifter in the water)

He looks for any signs of Meg.

There's no sign of Meg. By the time Ossian gets to the boat, he sees that Ambrose has grabbed the gunwale and is holding on. Ambrose is hurt.

Ah, some luck! His attention is not on her. Brita begins to tread water. The motions of her legs produce alternating circular currents, leaving her arms free to follow a deceptively simple repeating pattern starting wide and pushing in with an odd almost figure eight wave centered on Cleph's form in the distance. Her chant is virtually silent, but it quickly becomes visible as the air chills before her. Crystals begin to form in the water as she speaks to it of Mountain Heights and Winter Depths. The crystals elongate, gathering more water into their tapered forms as they float in an arc on the increasing waves around Cleph's perch. Finally, Brita's arms spread wide around her arsenal and then come violently together, pushing the water and the icy spears up and forward with a rigid wave of water at Cleph.

The wave pushes towards Cleph and runs into him, pushing him backwards. He stays on his feet and lets it drive him away. As the wave diminishes, Brita can clearly see that he's on a filmy. From some distance, Cleph laughs. "I would stay and engage you, but we have already rescued my sister's daughter!" He speeds towards the rift in the shadow, still open to somewhere else.

Ossian rushes towards Ambrose and hauls him up carefully. Ossian seems calm, but when Ossian speaks, his voice is almost breaking "Did they take Meg?"

Ambrose has a headwound, and keeps wiping blood from his brow. "Thanks, Cuz. I think she did. Dara was trying to take her when we lost the boat. Where is Brita? Did they take her, too?" Ambrose's concern is evident in his voice and he struggles to the edge to look over it.

Ossian swears loudly, his voice breaking. "I think I heard Brita." He looks for Brita in the water, and will try to bring the boat closer to her if he sees her.

Brita is swimming on her back towards the boat, still looking back at Cleph as he disappears through the rift. When she glances back up at the boat behind her, she looks pensive. When it is clear Cleph has gone, she flips over and makes quick work of the distance between her and the boat. When she is close enough, she yells up to Ambrose, "Who is cleph's Sister? And are You Both Well?"

"I'm hurt. We need to get back to Uxmal." Ambrose wipes the head wound, which Ossian doesn't think is that deep despite the amount of blood flowing from it, with the back of his hand. Both Ossian and Brita can see that the palm of that hand is charred.

He frowns. "What about Dara?"

Brita immediately begins to steer the boat towards Uxmali waters. Once the winds are pushing the sails in the 'right' direction, Brita gathers some water in a bucket and does a quick spell to chill it to a soothingly cool temperature for Ambrose's hand. "Is that an Answer to my Question? Could She be cleph's Sister? I Believe it was Dara that Took Meg through the Rift."

Ambrose nods and starts to say something, but Ossian speaks up.

"We also need to talk to the King. Soon." Ossian says with a tired voice. "We can't leave Meg with Dara, can we?"

"Unless we get help, I'm not sure we can get her back," Ambrose observes, sounding equally tired. "And we have to tell Fiona."

Brita nods in agreement as she pulls her deck out of an inner pocket. "We will Call Mother and She can Relay to the King." Brita pulls a card from the deck and gazes down on the red tresses of her Mother. /Mother/ she calls mutely as she concentrates on the card. The tone of her calling carries her annoyance and frustration.

"Brita?" Fiona is in a laboratory of some sort. "Where are you? Are you all right?" She is already offering her hand to bring Brita through.

Ambrose mouths to Ossian: "And Brennan."

Ossian looks at Ambrose with a sigh. "Yes. He will not like."

"Mother," Brita looks grim but she does not extend her hand yet. "We Lost Cousin Meg to cleph and Probably Dara. Cousin Ambrose is Hurt." She glances at Ambrose and then at Ossian. She focuses back on Fiona, "We need to Speak with the King. Is Cousin Brennan still With You? I can Send Cousin Ambrose and Cousin Ossian Through, but I will need to Collapse Ship Skidbladnir before coming Through myself. Assuming, of course, you Are Where we Need to Be." Her eyebrow goes up in question as she looks back at Ambrose and Ossian.

Fiona frowns. "You'll need to come to me, then, all of you. I'm not in Amber right now, but I can trump Random. Brennan has gone on his way, but we can get hold of him as well." She gestures with her hand for Brita to pass the others through.

Ossian lets Brita hand him through. He smiles a bit tiredly at Fiona when he comes through.

Brita hands Ambrose through after Ossian, then has her Mother wait as she gets back into the water to collapse and collect the boat before she finally grasps Fiona's hand.

Once Brita is in Fiona's lab, the portal closes.

The laboratory is someplace with what Ossian at least recognizes as some higher-than-Amber technology. She's doing some kind of biological research, as best Ossian can guess from the equipment in the room.

For the moment, she's clucking like an annoyed mother hen, examining Brita, making sure she's well.

Once she's finished looking Brita over, she checks Ossian, tsking at his wounds.

Finally she looks at Ambrose. Her delicate eyebrows arch. "Lightning in the water?" she says, a bit incredulously.

"I was on the deck when I cast it," Ambrose replies, a bit defensively.

Fiona tilts her head dubiously. Then she turns to Brita and Ossian. "It will take me a few minutes to heal Ambrose, and then you, Ossian. Make yourselves at home, or do anything that is needful."

She hands Brita a case, which from the size and shape of it is obviously her trump case.

Brita nods to her mother as she accepts the case. She steps to the side of the room, avoiding a rather odd assortment of vials and tubes, and begins to sort neatly through the cards. She pulls out Random's Trump, noting the position in the deck before she begins to concentrate on the card. Her back is to the wall.

"Who calls?" says the voice of the King. As his image clears in Brita's mind, he wipes his mouth on his sleeve. Behind the King is a stunning view of the upper falls of Xanadu.

"Your Majesty, it is Brita." Brita's tone and the change in scenery behind her indicate the formal bow that accompanies the greeting. [fun to do with a card in hand] "I am Calling to Report that we have Lost Cousin Meg to Dara and cleph. They Attacked us after we Left Shadow Abford. Cleph said Something About having Retrieved his Sister's Daughter on Capturing Cousin Meg."

Random blinks twice. "OK, that's some report. Is Marius still with you? And who is Mr. Bendyknee's sister? That's our first big clue as to who Meg's mother is. What are you doing next?"

"No, Sir. Cousin Marius is Not with Cousins Ossian and Ambrose and me. We Are with my Mother, at the Moment, Healing Injuries." Brita glances at the three across the room. "I Believe, we Were Going to Mirror Reality Rebma. We May Continue. We are going to Contact Cousin Brennan as well." Brita is still in 'report to authority' mode.

About midway through this recital, a hand lands on Random's shoulder and Martin is in the contact. He looks displeased. "I think you need to bring me through." He extends a hand to Brita.

Brita does not immediately extend her hand. Her voice carries across the room as she says "Your Highness-Cousin Martin, Why would you Wish to Come Through? We have Left the Point that Cousin Meg was Taken and have Not Decided to Stay here with My Mother." Brita's gaze slides past the card towards Fiona. There is a question in her eyes not reflected in the typical raised eyebrow.

"Dara and Rebma is a bad combination, and one I have a special interest in," Martin replies. "Besides, I don't need to know where you started from. It's just likely to be faster to the Tree from wherever you are than where I am." He wiggles his hand at Brita impatiently.

Random smiles somewhat bemusedly. "Go ahead and take him, Brita. Or ask Fiona if you feel that's necessary. The Prince has my warrant to investigate this matter."

Brita's hand immediately reaches out to Martin at Random's words. "Welcome, Your-Highness Cousin Martin to..." she cocks her head to the side quizically, "Actually, I do Not Know Where we Are, but Welcome, Regardless."

Martin takes her hand and, just before he pulls himself through, says "Let my wife know where I've gone, please, and keep an eye on her until I get back." to Random.

"We'll all be fine here. Piece of cake. Don't forget to write!"