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Post by Admin on Sept 17, 2022 4:38:57 GMT
The little catamaran pushed through Shadow towards Amber through cold rains and snow, gales and waterspouts, fending off shoals and deadly shores. The weather has been bad everywhere in Shadow, but the closer to Amber one sails, the worse it gets.
A damaged boat and waterlogged Maeve limp into the port of Amber under a steady drizzle. Flags and pennants hang heavy with water, and the usually busy harbour is now somnolent even at midday. She sees her cousin Calvera's banner hanging above the naval fortress on the shore, and a few ships also display his orange and black tiger jack. The few visible people on the docks and promenade walk quickly, heads bowed under hoods, hoping to escape the rain as quickly as possible. Far up the mountainside, barely visible in the mist, is the great Castle Amber with Florimel's pennant hanging from the castle wall.
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Post by Maeve on Sept 17, 2022 6:20:55 GMT
Meave jumps from her litte damaged boat to the pier and tows it. When she had reached the Waters of Amber she had hoisted colors, flying the Unicorn and below it her own colors. Water heavy the flags now barely flap in the wind.
She takes in everything the people, the athmosphere ad the weather, looking up to the castle she frowns and sighs.
Maeves picks up her kitbag a from the boat, hanging a cutlass at her back, changing her sailing shoes to boots, moving a short sailing knive from her left clave to her belt in the process.
She walks down the piers towards the harbor master's office. She is dripping water, wet from tip to toe she doesn't care further for the rain. Time for changing clothes will come later.
Does the Royal Family keep a stable in the city?
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Post by Admin on Sept 18, 2022 15:25:16 GMT
There are horses that can be borrowed or taken and the castle will handle the bill.
The harbour master breaks away from a conversation he is having with another woman and looks up at Maeve as she enters.
"Lady Maeve, you have returned to us." he says pleasantly.
The other woman stares at Maeve with great interest.
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Post by Maeve on Sept 19, 2022 6:28:07 GMT
"Thank you for your welcome Harbormaster." Maeve returns friendly and politely.
"I just came in with my ship. Unfortunately, she is taking in water, and I was not able yet to find the cause for it or even to fix it. Since I do not want my catamaran blocking your harbor if it sinks, I'm asking if you can spare a man to check the ship and make some first preventive fixes until I find some time to evaluate the problem."
Maeve musters the woman in the office with equally interest, even so she should be used as member of the royal family to cause interest. She tries to figure out if she has seen this woman before or someone who bears a resemblance.
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Post by Admin on Sept 19, 2022 17:53:03 GMT
"Certainly, Lady. I will have it towed immediately to the naval pier, and they can get to work on your ship."
There is a resemblance of the woman to someone Maeve knew in Amber when she visited. Something to do with the dock or ships. Speculation is not needed when the woman introduces herself.
"Lady Maeve, I am Captain Barrett of the Dawndancer. We are pleased to have another of your family who is skilled in nautical matters back in the city. Prince Calvera is a competent leader, but I do not feel that he is fully versed in the ways of the sea."
Maeve remembers the Barrett's are a family of traders operating out of Amber through the Golden Circle and beyond when the shadow paths allow.
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Post by Maeve on Sept 19, 2022 20:12:37 GMT
"Certainly, Lady. I will have it towed immediately to the naval pier, and they can get to work on your ship." Maeve again thanks the Harbormaster politly. There is a resemblance of the woman to someone Maeve knew in Amber when she visited. Something to do with the dock or ships. Speculation is not needed when the woman introduces herself. "Lady Maeve, I am Captain Barrett of the Dawndancer. We are pleased to have another of your family who is skilled in nautical matters back in the city. Prince Calvera is a competent leader, but I do not feel that he is fully versed in the ways of the sea."Maeve remembers the Barrett's are a family of traders operating out of Amber through the Golden Circle and beyond when the shadow paths allow. "A pleasure to meet Captain Barrett." Maeve greets the Captain with a polite nod. "For anyone it would be hard to be compared to such exceptionally sailor as Prince Gerard. That Prince Calvera has taken up this duty shows that he can and will fill this gap and he will fill it competent and dedicated." She continues with a tone of complete confidence and trust in her cousins abilities. [For Maeve the Royal family has to stand as one before the people of Amber, no matter what really might be going, whatever her feelings might be.] Beeing troubled by the recent storm and nearly unending rain Maeve inquires courioulsy. "Captain, has you been on the Golden Circle trade routes recently. This rain, this storms. Your observations might provide me with a different angle of view."
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Post by Admin on Sept 23, 2022 15:45:10 GMT
"You refer to Prince Calvera, the general who has accomplished much in land battles. The Prince-Admiral Calvera can barely tell a topmast from a capstan. Still, as long as the Amber officer corps are maintained to their usual high standards, he should be well propped up by their efforts.
"The storms range as far out as I can sail; not that I take my fleet out much these days. Things looked promising this morning, but the harbourmaster's charts here have dashed my hopes. If it isn't wind and rain, it's fog, great waves, or weeks of dead calm in freezing rain"
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Post by Maeve on Sept 23, 2022 16:44:09 GMT
"If Prince Calvera is as good as commanding officer as everbody says , then he knows when to listen to advice of officer who knew better them him. The crown will make sure that the navy will persist ." Meave replies in her best diplomatic manner.
[Do not make a family member look bad outside the family, that sheds a bad light on the crown, Maeve reminds herself.]
[Maeve has a feeling that Prince Calvera's new position is no coincidence, somewhere he can do some good for the crown, but depends on officer loyal to the crown.]
Maeves gives the Harbormaster and Captain nod. "Thank you for your insights Captain."
Next stop is a public stable, where she takes a horse and rides up to the castle. Leaving the horse with a stablehand to return it to the city, she enters the Castle.
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Post by Admin on Sept 24, 2022 20:46:37 GMT
The entryway is a near riot of castle staff running about tending to guests who grumble about delays in seeing the Regent. Some are Lords and Ladies Maeve recognizes from her previous visits to Amber others are rougher guild masters and trade union representatives. All glare at the other groups while gauging their rank in this chaotic social organization.
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Post by Maeve on Sept 24, 2022 22:41:18 GMT
Maeve makes her way towards the stairways to the upper floors catching the attention of a servant on her way.
[And she manages to make it look completely normal to turn up in the castle wet from tip to toe, beautiful and royal.]
She asks the servant to inform the Regent and Princess Llewella about her arrival, and that she is at the regents disposal whenever the regents demands.
She inquires if family lunch is already over and if it is over she orders something warm to be brought to her room.
Then she tries to make her way to her room to change into something dry.
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Post by Admin on Sept 27, 2022 19:46:12 GMT
"The Princess Llewella is out of the castle at the moment. The Regent will call upon you when your presence is desired," the Steward tells her.
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Post by Maeve on Sept 27, 2022 21:05:52 GMT
Maeve goes to her room change dress, hides two dagger under her dress (easily reachable). She eats something.
And then she goes on Castle tour. The Castle looks different from the last time she was here.
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Post by Admin on Oct 1, 2022 7:34:29 GMT
She sees that the place is different, starting with the sad discovery that her rooms had been destroyed in one of the explosions, and she now has a new apartment, larger but in a poorer location in the castle. Two explosions it was, one involving Merlin and the Jewel of Judgement and some strange manifestations of great powers, the other was the assassination attempt by Leonil and Hammett with demolished a large part of the upper reaches of the mansion taking out Random, Vialle, a large portion of the library, and numerous essential castle servants.
The tour is helpful for her to learn about all the new rooms, corridors and staircases that the castle was rebuilt with. It still looks less than planned but somehow comes together in interesting, eye-pleasing designs. That damned armour from the dead uncle Stephanos still can't seem to be mounted in a corridor without tripping everyone who passes. The man should have skipped a meal or two during his years defending the Southern Marches.
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Post by Maeve on Oct 1, 2022 8:36:19 GMT
There is one thing Maeve does first in her new apartment, she covers any mirror. Beeing of Rebma she prefers mirrors not being able to stare at her.
Maeve shows good old Stephanos the respect he deserves and when his armor does it usually trip on bypasser behavior, she helps tp put it up and together.
Since Maeve is not one to sit idle. The storms and the bad weather really troubles her.
Does Amber keep weather records?
She would like to look through the weather records, when did it start, how the weather was in the time before all started.
She looks if there might be a repeating pattern and/or a concentration of certain weather phenomena on certain regions of Amber (Golden Circle).
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Post by Admin on Oct 3, 2022 2:20:45 GMT
The library is quite barren to Maeve's eyes. Much was lost in the explosions and so little has been replaced.
"Eh, weather? the bent and aged Anson Mellish-Purbright, third assistant to the second librarian's secretary says when asked. This fussy, low-ranking member of the castle's servants is now the head librarian since all the other librarian staff were killed in the last explosion. He scratches his head in thought.
"Used to be a nice, large section on the weather for seafaring and such concerns but most of it was lost. Some have been found, pages scattered all over the mountain and city collected up. Let me see."
He scampers about the shelves and returns with a pile of partially burned paper bound together with string. From what Maeve can discover and from her memories and tales told to her, the constant rains in Amber are a new phenomenon, great storms were rare in the past and when one would occur the Jewel of Judgement would be used by Oberon to calm the skies.
"Good to see one of the family returning to the library," Mellish says, disturbing Maeve's concentration. "Yes, no one seems to come here anymore, not like in the old days. Why back then Princes Gerard and Corwin would always be about reading this and that about every topic under the sun. Your mother too, the lovely Princess Llewella would also spend much time here when not in Rebma. But now? None of them give it a thought. All too smart for their own good, I'd say. Can't teach them anything. Think that they know it all. If that's so then why did poor King Random and lovely Queen Vialle have to die?"
It seems that the man will continue droning on far as long as Maeve is in the library.
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