Cod01 - Back from the Great Wide Open

"Purity League, eh? I guess it burns their broth that I was allowed access to the Logrus. Leaving the Courts without completing Seminary with probably fuel that too."

"That's alright. If I can help resolve the problems while I'm away I may redeem myself here."

Cody considers the situation in the Courts, still wishing that Coral can be reached.

"Well, I still think it's a strong theory that Coral may be the cause of the storms that are wreaking havoc around here. But I'll leave that with you.

Cody rolls his eyes at the insinuation.

"What the gaping Void are you talking about. I'm not going courting after any Cousin. I'm certainly not going to chase any Aunts either."

"For the record, you are very beaudacious yourself. But I have full command of my senses, and my hormones.

Cody gets a momentary paing thinking about one girl he carries a touch for and wonders if she is still alive.

Cody tilts his head and winces. "Here, I thought we were starting to get along, but you continue to condescend and take jabs. I'll remind you that your generation has had millennia to figure your own guano out. How's that working out?"

Cody accepts the proffered wine. "Don't mind if I do." Since no food appeared to be forthcoming, "Will I set off any alarms or or upset any delicate sensibilities if I fetch us some cheese and crackers?"

"As to dealing with the Shadow storms, I have no idea whatsoever. But I don't think that it's something that I can do on my own. I get the impression from you that appealing to Thelbane won't be beneficial. So, maybe I might find someone in the precincts of Amber to work with.

Disconcertingly, Cody is getting used to having the two cadavers nearby and shrugs at their hosts' lack of hospitality.

Cody holds up a finger to gesture that he needs a moment of silence to concentrate. "One moment while I go scrounge something up."

It takes a second or two before Fiona notices something, or more precisely a lack of something hovering in the k-space in front of Cody. A small speck that starts to grow. A small rift is forming with a slight sucking sound. An n-dimensional opening that grows to the relative size of a watermelon. If Fiona looks too closely at the Blackness it will feel like the light and colour is being sucked out of her eyes. "Don't stare directly at it, unless you know what you are looking at... for..." Cody warns.

Within the sucking darkness there are tiny dust like specks of light. The tiniest sparks swirling in that k-space. And other disconcerting movements. It's impossible to tell if there are small things nearby, or much larger things a unfathomable distances.

Cody reaches towards the thing and as his hand crosses a threshold it becomes a stream of supercharged plasma emitting it's own neon blue light stretching into an immeasurable distance. The blue matches Cody's eyes which are now projecting their own light into the void, guiding his plasmafied limb.

The rift opens a little more.

After a minute or two, Cody reaches in with his other hand. "Oh, this looks good." And in another moment Cody pulls out a glowing orb. The rift snaps shut with the sound of a distant whip crack.

Cody's hands rematerialize holding a heaping Charcuterie Board piled with assorted meats, cheeses, fruits, crackers and bread. He places the board on the table and gestures, "Dig in!"

"Up Kolvir, eh! Damned if I do and damned if I don't."

Cody gulps down a couple of fist fulls of food, "Pardon my boarding house manners," He says between swallows. "But I need to fuel up for a long journey."

"I very much doubt that anyone in Amber remembers me one way or another. I was cloistered away for the brief time I was there. Maybe a chamber maid in passing... To all and sundry, I was just a paige."

"Anyway. All the damning is at this end. Damned if I stay and get assassinated or worse, someone else I care about is harmed. Damned if I go and not complete Seminary. Not fulfill my duties there and at the Mission House."

"The only consolation is that I may have some part in fixing the Shadow Storms before they devistate DaggerWays. And the Courts."

"And, well... It might be pleasant meeting my other relations while I'm at it."

"I don't know what aspirations M-unit had for me, but I can assure anyone that asks that I have zero aspirations for the throne. Any throne."

Cody looks a little puzzled. "Oh, I guess that the next time someone takes me for a ride I should pay more attention to any shift in Shadows. It's never been a concern before."

"Then, again... The way I move through Shadow; time and distance aren't really objective measurements."

Saddened for a moment. "Baz had a certain charm. He kept me distracted."

Cody considers the revelation. "This really puts me at a disadvantage. Sort of awkward, being known and not knowing."

"M-unit told me to lay low. So I have. More or less. If I knew, I would have put in an appearance sooner."

"As far as the throne is concerned. All that politicking gives me intestinal distress."

"I think I'd rather have Suhuy's or Dworkin's job."

Cody considers his ~readyness~. "Regardless of time or distance, I think I'd like to make the trip on a full stomach..."

Cody pours another glass of wine and continues to eat from the charcutorie board.

Cody considers his transit. "I suppose that I should pay more attention to that sort of thing. Either way."

Looking at the pair of fresh corpses on the floor. "So, these two: Were they part of the summoning or are they warding the place?"

"In regard to, uh, career goals. Let me rephrase that..."

Contemplating, "I don't want to take over as custodian over an existing power. I'd like to forge my own. In balance with the other ones."

Cody builds a couple of sandwiches and munches down on them.

"Cousins? Well there's Lorelei in Rebma, but I already told you that. Anyone else? Maybe. I've met some people out in Shadows that have some connections in Amber..."

"Why do you ask?"

"So, casual homicide for the sake of convenience." Cody shrugs his shoulders as he considers Fiona's disdain for Benedict; slaughtering thousands in his war games; as hypocrisy when she also views people as disposable.

"Creating my own Power Base is a long term goal. Very long term. And, I stress, that my intention is to make it in balance with the existing Powers. Not competing."

"Anyway, in the short term, heading out to fix the current problem will be educational. The process of repairing something teaches me how it works and how to replicate, modify and otherwise build one for myself."

Give Cody more time to figure out if it's something that he'd keep to himself or share. Just with immediate family, a select few, more? Maybe have it revocable? ...

"Speaking of balance... Aside from Coral having the Jewel and the potential issues that that may be causing, there's also the possibly that the redundant Pattern that Corwin inscribed has thrown everything out of balance. Making something like that without knowing how it actually works is pretty reckless. I mean, under the circumstances it seemed like a good idea at the time, but maybe it needs to be contained or destroyed since the Amber Pattern has been restored."

"I'm just spitballing here since I don't know if anyone else has thought of these things and whether or not they're investigating them."

Moving on to idle conversation:

"Why would anyone bother to interfere with my life? I'm harmless."

Record scratch!

"Purity league? You said that Merlin is half-Amberite, which is common knowledge. But: Are you implying that I am half Chaosite? I mean... All Amberites can trace their roots back to the Courts. But... Me?"