Post by Admin on Sept 17, 2020 21:04:02 GMT
She stood above the world below as if a god, one eye covered in cloud, the other shining with a baleful red light. She wished to turn away from the destruction but a part of her mind told her to wait, watch, see the results of your actions for just a moment longer before fading back into the darkness.
One foot was on a wrecked shadow world the other on a different world whose life was slowly draining away. A thought twisted by rage ripped apart the veils between worlds and destruction was wrought.
Looking down to her left revealed a place flooded with water still rising, death, destruction, and wrack covering the new sea. A small glint of light caught her attention: a battered ship not of her causing had come into the place, drawn by her releasing of forces beyond control. She blinked and the ship had begun to pull on threads of the Pattern to remove it from the world.
Goodbye, unknown cousin, she thought and looked at the wreckage, at the world she could grab in both arms and squeeze down into a small globe. She remembered. Remembered how it all came to this - memories of the flight from the Courts of Chaos, the battles amid various factions in and under Shadow, of fearsome machines bent on her destruction, and of nieces and nephews and their wrath.
This all began after the explosion; or before, things had been muddled and messed up for so long it is now impossible to say when her story had begun, what. What had seemed to be an accident of conception during one of Oberon’s visits to Deiga she now suspected to be part of a greater long-term scheme by her biological father and Dworkin. Why else choose her for the burden of the Jewel?
But this part of the story starts with Corey. Merlin chose the name and was quite insistent about it even though it wasn’t among her preferences. But it seemed to mean so much to him and he was under a lot of pressure in the early days of taking the throne.
She relented.
But even before that was the birth. Embarrassing, really, lying there while Merlin, her nephew, lover, and father to her child, Corwin, her half-brother and brother-in-law, Luke, her husband, nephew, and cuckold, Jurt, brother-in-law and, if some rumours were true, nephew and finally Deirdre her half-sister in the real world but just a ghost of the Pattern now, doing the delivery. Yes, just a normal bunch of people milling about while my child is being born. What the hell kind of family is this anyway? Had I just resisted prying into my past none of this would have happened. I was fine living my normal life until that visit to Amber. That’s when the thoughts began to appear in my dreams: meet Merlin and befriend him. Have him show me the Pattern under the city to free me to walk the device and then go to where my wish was. But was it my wish? How did such a crazy idea come into my mind?
There was a little cheer when Cory was born and all in attendance gave gifts but no matter how kind and however safe the place was not practical for the young child. And so a few days later Merlin found a small cottage not far from the darkzone. Coral suggested the Golden Circle but she was outvoted as the others thought it was too close to Amber and those who would risk all to remove that gem from her eye. The risks still existed near to the Courts but the Logrus users were covetous yet fearful of the Jewel’s interaction with those of Chaos. Also, Merlin had the powers of the Hellgram to provide protection.
And so the family decamped to a cottage resting in the middle of a shadow-wide graveyard. Of course, it wasn’t just the family, oh no, there was a regiment of guards, a handful of sorcerors, a gang of Hell Maidens, and about four dozen servants to attend to young Corey and mother. Plus, on a typical day many dozens of lords, delegates, messengers, diplomats, and various functionaries around the place dealing with Merlin’s affairs of state.
Affairs, yes, Julia and Jurt had begun to spend more and more time at the cottage. All friendly and helpful - at least Jurt seemed to be. Julia was keeping up appearances, holding her nose when the diaper needed changing, being sure to have other duties in the Courts when Corey needed burping.
It was those duties she had. Really none at first but as Merlin gained a greater and greater hold on his position Julia seemed to also grow in importance, taking on more and more responsibilities requiring her to go back to the Courts with Merlin for days at a time. Jurt didn’t seem to notice how close his supposed girlfriend was becoming with her ex-boyfriend.
Once Merlin and Julia reached the point of scheduling private ‘retreats’ to a cabin on the shores of Crystal Lake, Coral had had enough. Corey’s father hadn’t shown any interest in him for some time by that point, so Coral packed a few things, secured Corey in his carrier wrap and snuck out of the cottage and fled into shadow.
But where could she go? Staying near the Courts of Chaos was an invitation to return to the gilded cage. Near to Amber ran the risk of capture and having the Jewel ripped from her head, and she didn’t imagine her siblings would care if she died in the process. Only the vast expanse of Shadow was open to her. Maybe out there she could avoid agents from either side of things and find a safe place to raise Cory. Maybe….
One foot was on a wrecked shadow world the other on a different world whose life was slowly draining away. A thought twisted by rage ripped apart the veils between worlds and destruction was wrought.
Looking down to her left revealed a place flooded with water still rising, death, destruction, and wrack covering the new sea. A small glint of light caught her attention: a battered ship not of her causing had come into the place, drawn by her releasing of forces beyond control. She blinked and the ship had begun to pull on threads of the Pattern to remove it from the world.
Goodbye, unknown cousin, she thought and looked at the wreckage, at the world she could grab in both arms and squeeze down into a small globe. She remembered. Remembered how it all came to this - memories of the flight from the Courts of Chaos, the battles amid various factions in and under Shadow, of fearsome machines bent on her destruction, and of nieces and nephews and their wrath.
This all began after the explosion; or before, things had been muddled and messed up for so long it is now impossible to say when her story had begun, what. What had seemed to be an accident of conception during one of Oberon’s visits to Deiga she now suspected to be part of a greater long-term scheme by her biological father and Dworkin. Why else choose her for the burden of the Jewel?
But this part of the story starts with Corey. Merlin chose the name and was quite insistent about it even though it wasn’t among her preferences. But it seemed to mean so much to him and he was under a lot of pressure in the early days of taking the throne.
She relented.
But even before that was the birth. Embarrassing, really, lying there while Merlin, her nephew, lover, and father to her child, Corwin, her half-brother and brother-in-law, Luke, her husband, nephew, and cuckold, Jurt, brother-in-law and, if some rumours were true, nephew and finally Deirdre her half-sister in the real world but just a ghost of the Pattern now, doing the delivery. Yes, just a normal bunch of people milling about while my child is being born. What the hell kind of family is this anyway? Had I just resisted prying into my past none of this would have happened. I was fine living my normal life until that visit to Amber. That’s when the thoughts began to appear in my dreams: meet Merlin and befriend him. Have him show me the Pattern under the city to free me to walk the device and then go to where my wish was. But was it my wish? How did such a crazy idea come into my mind?
There was a little cheer when Cory was born and all in attendance gave gifts but no matter how kind and however safe the place was not practical for the young child. And so a few days later Merlin found a small cottage not far from the darkzone. Coral suggested the Golden Circle but she was outvoted as the others thought it was too close to Amber and those who would risk all to remove that gem from her eye. The risks still existed near to the Courts but the Logrus users were covetous yet fearful of the Jewel’s interaction with those of Chaos. Also, Merlin had the powers of the Hellgram to provide protection.
And so the family decamped to a cottage resting in the middle of a shadow-wide graveyard. Of course, it wasn’t just the family, oh no, there was a regiment of guards, a handful of sorcerors, a gang of Hell Maidens, and about four dozen servants to attend to young Corey and mother. Plus, on a typical day many dozens of lords, delegates, messengers, diplomats, and various functionaries around the place dealing with Merlin’s affairs of state.
Affairs, yes, Julia and Jurt had begun to spend more and more time at the cottage. All friendly and helpful - at least Jurt seemed to be. Julia was keeping up appearances, holding her nose when the diaper needed changing, being sure to have other duties in the Courts when Corey needed burping.
It was those duties she had. Really none at first but as Merlin gained a greater and greater hold on his position Julia seemed to also grow in importance, taking on more and more responsibilities requiring her to go back to the Courts with Merlin for days at a time. Jurt didn’t seem to notice how close his supposed girlfriend was becoming with her ex-boyfriend.
Once Merlin and Julia reached the point of scheduling private ‘retreats’ to a cabin on the shores of Crystal Lake, Coral had had enough. Corey’s father hadn’t shown any interest in him for some time by that point, so Coral packed a few things, secured Corey in his carrier wrap and snuck out of the cottage and fled into shadow.
But where could she go? Staying near the Courts of Chaos was an invitation to return to the gilded cage. Near to Amber ran the risk of capture and having the Jewel ripped from her head, and she didn’t imagine her siblings would care if she died in the process. Only the vast expanse of Shadow was open to her. Maybe out there she could avoid agents from either side of things and find a safe place to raise Cory. Maybe….