The Envoy heads back to Amber with the tortured Dwimmerlaik in a holding room. The Dwimmerlaik is named "Aralund" (sp?) becomes increasingly frantic, convinced something bad will happen, worse than capture and torture and death. He tries to get his tormentors to get closer, then yells "Die, Mongrel!" an starts to melt. Everyone clears the room an he explodes, damaging the ship.
Meanwhile, Elodie is painting some trumps….
Silas takes the Envoy to a shipyard in the Phoenix Empire for repairs. While there, Jericho relates what happened with Dworkin and the Pattern of Death.
We find out that the Great Amalgam is the Dwimmerlaik name for Amber, Chaos and Shadow.
The dwimmerlaik hostage is now more frantic as Brigid continues to ‘examine’ them with my music, Jericho watching and keeping a close eye on them. Silas had them put the ‘examination’ on hold so that they can do so in a more secure location. Isabelle noticed that there is something is going off inside of the dwimmerlaik, that he is worried that something bad is going to happen and wants to escape on a conscious level. The party discusses at length what could be an answer for this fear. Could it be fear of becoming a religious athema? Could they fear pain worse than what we are doing? Could it be a fear of being disowned from their race? Suddenly, he breaks the ongoing musical torture, “I AM READY TO TALK!” The music ceases. Silas asks his name and they say that their name is Ariland. Thinking, ‘I am gonna die’, they say in a weak voice, ‘Closer..’ Brigid approaches, knowing no fear, only to hear them whisper, ‘Die, you mongrel bitch’ before melting. Everyone escapes and Jericho, trying extra hard to close the door what was being blown open. Upon closing, there is a massive explosion that shakes the whole ship. There was minor structural damage and there appears to be nothing left of him. The ship will not sink, but something may come in through the hole. The party, unwilling to put the party in a dangerous situation again so soon, patch up the hole temporarily and head to Dragonsport.
Elodie is, during this whole endeavor, is relaxing and enjoying normal life in her personal shadow. She is met by Clarissa, one who is rumored to be dead. Elodie and Clarissa have a long ongoing debate about the current ruler and Clarissa, after not getting access to the library, Clarissa leaves. Elodie wakes up afterwards, wondering if it was a dream or a psyche connection. After further analyzing what might have happened, she submits a report to Random about the whole thing.
Gerhardt, in the meanwhile, is writing his own thoughts on the ship and felt a boom as well as a shudder or cracking sound. The warning alarm and a notice of immediate docking. He goes down to the lower subdeck of the ship to confront Silas on what exactly happened. Upon entering, he noticed Silas watching the shipmates make temporary repairs and Natasha holding two beams up so the ship stays strong while the crew tries to fix the holes. He looks through the Eidelon, Jericho through Umbra, and noticed that it was done by an Umbral technique to either disassemble themselves or were disassembled by an unknown external force. Lowen attempts to capture the soul of the dwimmerlake but realizes there is none, reporting so to Gerhardt.
Upon analysing the party’s location, the closest empire is the Yvennal Empire where the party last left on negative terms and is not the most secure option. Silas decides to go to a different location where he has greater rapport, a specific dock in the Phoenix Empire. Everyone on the ship was called into a meeting by Jericho. He explains Dworkin visiting him. He clarifies that, from 3 days from now, he will return, but he is going to visit the pyramid, labryinth and the great amalgum to investigate stealthily. Jericho had a realization that the great amalgum is both the empires of chaos and amber while Brigid realizes the Labryinth is in the lower levels of the stairs and has never been completely mapped out because it, most likely, continually changes. The pieces of the map that have been made are being held by Lucian but he is not only difficult to access, but Lucian and Drake are not on the best of terms ideologically.
Elodie, in the meantime, was alerted by her key to the library that something is wrong. Clarissa is present in the library and snags a few books, a quill writing every book she snags. The secret hidden door is slammed after she leaves. She answered to see Random with guards. She informs him what happened and that Clarissa was alive. Random demanded answers, so Elodie called Gerhardt and they pulled him through to get answers as to how she’s alive. Gerhardt claims that she should be unable to enter amber so this was odd. A guard brings random the library cards that, upon further examination, is pattern-laced and might have been how she could gain access. Elodie informed that she might have had her words twisted and Clarissa used the loophole in order to get in. The books taken: poetry written in old high chaosian, books of laws from beginning of amber, a charter, annotated book of the unicorn, archival trumpset. She may, with these books, looking for ways to upset the current balance of power in amber by undermining the current administration to possibly place a different amberite in power, possibly Bleys. Random is going to attempt to track her down and see if Dworkin would aid in restricting access.
Drake, in communication with Jericho, agreed to send him as well as Silas, Lowen and Brigid through to the stairs so long as he could send 3 wardens to Yigg. Isabelle decides to stay behind and enjoy her virtual animal petting zoo so she can pull at least Jericho out should the Labryinth be too difficult to overcome. Silas, Lowen, Brigid and Jericho were escorted to meet Lucian in his realm, The Silence.
Elodie, in desperation to get more information, decided to split up from Gerhardt and check the library of Chaos. She is permitted access and would need permission from Merlin to go into the more exclusive parts. Before doing so, she double checks her facts. Clarissa was married to Oberon at one point but the end of the relationship was supposedly that she passed away. However she found a writ of divorce that ran concurrent. Fiona, one of Clarissa’s children and Brigid’s mother, supposedly visits a southern chaosian shadow on occassion. Clarissa is the only wife of Oberon’s that has dropped off the map. She did find the original marriage certificate: Clarissa Hilgram.
Gerhardt looks into his father’s library and realizes that he was analysing the annotated book of the unicorn to try and decipher the meaning. While doing so, he recieves a letter that was keyed to him by an impish character. It is from Clarissa and it states that she cannot physically be there to talk to him, but she would like to speak with him so if she can trump him it would be great. The imp takes a message back from Gerhardt, who states that he is reading through some books at the moment but would be more than willing to talk in a few. Continuing to look at the library, it discusses lists of trumps that exist and ones that are rumored to exist, but not able to gain a copy or access of. One of the more recent ones he was able to find was Lucien who happens to be Oberon’s younger brother. The note besides it indicates he moved back to chaos. Gerhardt boards a ship to Transylvania Polymastic University TPU.
Meanwhile, in The Silence…. Unadorned plain black door with silver handle. All light absorbed by the plain and simple environment. In order to hear other people talk, they need to hold onto each other. The silence is meant to be anti-sneak so nothing can happen without him knowing. A small black cottage made of black wood with black rustling grasses is present with no sound to meet it. Lucian is wearing a button up shirt, slacks, mop of black hair and has an intense look on his face. There is some food here that seems to have come from outside and some wine. We sit around the table in a circle (L to R) Lucian, Brigid, Silas, the escort, and Jericho. He greets us and asks about what we have discovered about the dwimmerlake. According to Lucian, there is no understanding on how they were pushed back. The Labyrinth is Lucian’s and he has pushed them back himself, but he hasn’t been able to check as much from the shiftings and changings of the labyrinth. Jericho and Silas gave a brief description of the pattern to Lucian who is wondering how to apply such to other worlds and make it easier to protect themselves or other worlds. He does explain the pyramid, known as the Impossible Pyramid, as the connector of 4 different worlds. Luther knew more about the pyramid but he was lost in the great war and not seen since. The 4 worlds that are connected are Attali [medieval, high magic], Betinien [hunter/gatherer, not a lot of magical energy], Desnada [bronze tech, high magic but between twins], and Gonoram [advanced steampunk, blizzards and hurricanes and maelstroms]. Luther mastered the pyramid a while ago. There is supposedly a central room that connects to all worlds. It is a significant travel which is why Lucian himself hasn’t went there, but he has directions to get there. One of the Gossamer Lords supposedly is a threat to the political sphere, Bastiano. He has slowly been accumulating power, influence and worlds. On the way, we are asked to go to a cemetary, the polyandrian, on the way and have a lady of gossamer’s essence transferred there. He gives us his librarian’s , Lady Kitabu, icon and Brigid gives her theirs. Once given the chest containing Lady Tsinan’oshtra essence and getting outside The Silence, they escort the box to its resting place. It takes various shortcuts and goes through various worlds including Lady Vala and Lord Bastiano, but it makes the passage quicker. The box levitates on its own towards its crypt but we are warned to not stray too far off the path. This location was the last and worst battlefield of the Great War. The scene is wracked with excessive damage and unstable to a great degree. Brigid attempts to listen to the crypt’s music, but its so loud and painful that she falls over and silently screams. Natasha carries her so they can continue to follow the box. Natasha steps off the path to acquire a weapon, but it is partly broken. She has to kill som ecreature to get this.
Elodie gains access to the Chaosian library and the restricted section after her father, Nightwing, wrote a letter about her status. She notices many names including Celeste, Dworkin, etc. in the reserve copy of the creation saga. It mentioned that Dworkin had 2 sons, Oberon and Merovee. It is assumed that Clarissa is staying with her younger son in these ancestral lands. Knowing her father has had issues with Oberon and went out into shadow often, she assumes he may know about such. He agrees he has heard about many things but knows nothing outside of such but does promise to keep an eye out for those things.