WayDownUnderTheOceanWay Down Under the Ocean"You already have it, Dagny. In your pocket." Vialle replies. Indeed, the thick cardboard trump depicting Corlianus is in Dagny's pocket. She didn't notice it but when she withdraws it, it comes away with enough lint to suggest it has been in there since she changed clothing. I ask Dulcinea, "Ready?" and, if she approves, make contact... Dulcinea gives a glance at the blind Queen and then takes Dagny's hand. The contact comes easily, even more easily than the last time. Corlianus smiles as the contact is resolved. He is in a different room, but the same watery landscape awaits Dagny and Dulcinea again. "Greetings and salutations again he says. "Please, step into my humble abode. I understand if you want to hold your breath in crossing, but that is not truly necessary." he adds. "Hello again," I smile. "We are ready. Goodbye, your Majesty," I say to Vialle, and reach through to Corlianus and, with his help step through the Trump, taking Dulcinea with me.... With a hand forward to take Corlianus', and a hand behind to help Dulcinea through, Dagny navigates the passage through the call. Dagny feels water press around her body as she exits into the room that she had glimpsed previously. The realm around her, and she herself is, undeniably, underwater. Globes, not unlike those she has seen in Amber are the main illumination for the room, and from what Dagny can see through the open-frame window, for the world beyond as well. The walls and furniture appear to be, at first glance, to be made out of a greenish-brown coral, with anemone and other sea plants here and there amongst the furniture giving accents of color. Corlianus steps back as Dagny and Dulcinea enter into the room fully and waits with a patient smile on his face. Dulcinea, besides her, empties her lungs in a burst of bubbles. "Welcome to the Kingdom of Rebma." Corlianus says with a smile. I followed Dulcinea's lead and, as I took in the room, slowly let all of the remaining air out of my lungs. I hesitantly drew another breath before responding, idly wondering if I did start to drown, if I had enough time to draw a Trump and get out of there. It also occurred to me that the pressure of the water on the bottom of the sea ought to have flattened us already, and we all seemed to be alive. This was undoubtedly one of the weirdest places I'd ever been to, and I'm even counting my little jaunt through what I called the Land of the Purple People Eaters. There is not a lot more pressure and effort in breathing water, if any, than there is to breathing air. Dagny's lungs seem to expend the same effort. "Thank you for inviting us," I reply. I proffered the box to Corlianus. "A small gift from us to you, for your hospitality." "A gift was truly not necessary. It is an honor to serve a scion of a Noble House of Rebma, especially one that has ascended to be the consort of the King of Amber." Corlianus protests. "However, it would be rude for me not to accept this." Corlianus takes the box and opens it without hesitation. "This is a welcomed gift" he says, brandishing it as if he were drawing in mid-air (or mid-water). Dulcinea stifles a giggle. He returns it to its box reluctantly. "Your problem was that your cousin is trapped in a blocked shadow, his status and fate unknown. And you need an artist's services to break through that block and retrieve him." Corlianus says. "Is that about the size of the problem?" "Yes. The biggest complication, though, is the involvement of the Omphalos. They have conquered part of the Shadow, and Valerian and I were investigating--leaving, actually--as the Trumps shut off. As I understand it, however, they do not have much knowledge of Trump magic, so we're not sure that it's they who have blocked the Trumps, or how they did it. Who else could it have been though?" I looked to Dulcinea for input. "Have I forgotten anything?" As she replies, I pull out my Trump deck and shuffle out Valerian's card, ready to present to Corlianus upon request. "Trump is a greater power." Dulcinea says. "Almost the equal to the Pattern, or the Logrus. It takes power equal to that to reliably block a trump. Or so Hadrian has told me." "It is true." Corlianus says, taking the trump and studying it. "Interesting artwork on this card, I would like to meet the artist sometime." he says. He looks up at Dagny and Dulcinea. "The question becomes, before I start, is how much you want to invest yourselves in this. I can try this alone, for a start, but it might tip our hand. On the other hand, if one or both of you help me, it will be a stronger attempt right away, but there could be risk to the two of you, as there is risk in any trump contact, especially if there is a block." "I have committed myself to this, so if you prefer not to risk yourselves, it would be wrong to ask two such as you to do so." Corlianus says. He runs a free hand through his hair and then bows his head. Dulcinea opens her mouth to speak... Before Dulcinea could respond, I spoke up. "I'd never ask someone to do something I wasn't willing to do myself. I'll help first. If you need more power, we can bring Dulcinea in. At least, hopefully, we'll be able to determine what kind of a block we're dealing with here." Dulcinea closes her mouth, releasing a small cloud of bubbles. "All right." Corlianus says. "Honors upon your House, Dagny, for wishing to risk yourself thusly. I promise not to take undue advantage of the mental connection between us. On my honor." He puts a hand over his heart. "With that said, shall we begin?" he offers his free hand to Dagny. "It's not question of honor. It's a question of duty," I replied in all seriousness. "And as for your taking advantage, the thought never even entered my mind." I didn't add that if he did decide to try poking around in there, I certainly wasn't going to be responsible for any repercussions he may experience. I took his hand and met Dulcinea's eyes, exchanging what I hoped was a look of grim determination. "Ready." With a couple of nods, and taking Dagny's hand, the world and attention of Dagny moves away from the underwater room of coral and anemone and into the image of Valerian. Dagny can feel Corlianus poking at the barrier, not quite yet drawing her strength just yet, but sharing the link enough that she can see him poking at the wall, the barrier." "This was not made by trump blocking trump, Dagny" Corlianus' voice comes to her ears, like a radio play "This was put in place by a different power source entirely. I'd recognize it if it were Trump...but this is a raw unknown power at work, sort of like making waves on a beach by sweeping it with your arms" "Do you believe it is centered just around Valerian, or around all Trumps? Do you think we can break through?" I "Its around the shadow..." Corlianus says, gesturing and letting her feel him press at the wall. "It covers that entire world, not just a piece of it. In some ways, its actually easier to block a whole world than just center a block around one person. Less variables to worry about, its simpler in some ways." "And yes, if you're ready, I am going to try and break through." he continues. You might want to be ready to grab your cousin, since this will definitely be noticed, and responded to. I don't know enough about this odd power to know how, only that it is obvious that it will be." "And it couldn't be some sort of natural occurrence, right?" I didn't pretend to understand all of the ins and outs of magic and Shadow, and just wanted to be sure. "I'm ready when you are." "Trump blockage is rarely a natural occurrence" Corlianus replies aloud. "And when it is, it is not inconsistent, since you were able to use Trump earlier." "Corwin's Pattern, maybe" Dulcinea puts in. "I think I would recognize a Pattern, since we live with one here." Corlianus says. He then says mentally to Dagny, "Ready. Be prepared to reach for and grab him if you get the opportunity." And so the work begins in earnest. He begins to draw on Dagny immediately for power, working on that trump block with a will, like opening a crate with a crowbar. Dagny feels her energies tapped more and more. She can feel the rift in the wall being pried open. Dagny can sense a mind...Valerian's mind, on the other side. That trump block energy is still there, and grabbing him just might like be grabbing a hard boiled egg from a pot of boiling water. But he is there, within reach. The strain of Corlianus' effort is something that bleeds through, too. He is making a herculean effort to do this. In the back of my mind I considered that I might blow Valerian's cover there, but getting him out was a tad more important.
I reached for Valerian, found him, and yanked.... Valerian takes a few moments to actively turn his attention and grab Dagny in turn. In the meantime, she already has hold of him, pulling him through the block, across the connection, and into Rebma. The force of Dagny's yank causes Valerian to nearly bowl her over as he tumbles onto the ground. Corlianus falls back, in a state of palsy, shaking uncontrollably. Dulcinea has rushed over to him, trying to stop the effect. Valerian is in better shape, giving off a soft moan but showing no other side effects. As far as Dagny, her hands, up to her wrist are nearly numb with freezing cold, as if she had grabbed blocks of ice from her freezer and held them in her hands for several minutes. I sit Valerian down in the nearest chair--"Stay there!"-- and, ignoring the pain in my hands for the moment, I rush to the nearest doorway. Dagny's hands have difficulty in manipulating Valerian. Fortunately the buoyancy of water works for her in getting Valerian moved. "Hello there! Anyone! Quickly!" I call out--surely Corlianus has servants might know how to tend to him, or find someone else who can. I hurry back to Corlianus's side, at a loss as to what to do next. Are his eyes open? Does he seem conscious? Dagny hears a tail slap as a large figure starts swimming toward the room from the far side of the house. His eyes are open and he does seem conscious, although stuck in this strange reaction. "I think his mind was touched in that contact." Dulcinea says to Dagny. "Like some sort of psychic attack on him." Dagny has noticed the palsy is slowing down, wearing off, but it is a slow process at best. He does appear to still be breathing. "Who calls?" the figure in the doorway has arrived. Its not a human, not with half of his body a fish. He is most definitely a merman. He muscles his way into the room, but stops in shock at the sight of Corlianus. "He managed to break through a Shadow-wide Trump block, and he's hurt. Is there somebody who can help him?" I hold one of my hands up to my face to see if they are actually as cold as they feel. I clap and rub them together to try to get some circulation going. Dagny's hands are slowly warming, the circulation is returning sluggishly to them. The triton swims to Corlianus and Dulcinea. "I will bring him to a physician." the Triton says. "He is responsible for my life." He bends and takes Corlianus, still trembling, into his arms. As Dulcinea seems to be tending to Corlianus, I head back over to where Valerian is sitting, and crouch down so I am more at eye level with him. "Valerian, you all right? What happened?" "Trouble." Valerian says. "Thanks for getting me out of there, Dagny. they put up some very strong blocks" he says. He gives a glance at the trembling Corlianus. "Extremely strong." "We've got to talk to Random. Maybe Moire, too The Omphalos are on the move and are using Paris as a springboard to launch Doors at the poles. That's what they were doing when you pulled me out. I was going to try and dart through one." Distantly, outside, there are shouts and cries of alarm. "What beckons?" the Triton, holding Corlianus in his arm, says, at the sound. He stops at the doorway. Dulcinea looks at Valerian. "The Omphalos wouldn't...?" Valerian looks at her and Dagny. "They might." "Oh crap." I looked at the trembling Corlianus cradled in the Triton's arms, then to Valerian, then finally to Dulcinea. "Dulcinea, get Valerian out of here, he needs to tell Random and Vialle what's happening on the other side of the Shadow block. Take them" I nod to the two Rebmans, "with you." To the Triton I say, "Please, go with her and keep him safe. She'll take you to Amber now, and someone can help him there. Quickly!" "I cannot go to Amber" The Triton says. He looks at Dulcinea. "Your word he will be treated well." "My word as a Princess of two lands." Dulcinea says. "Deal" The Triton says. "We'll be back Dagny, with reinforcements." Valerian says. "One way or the other." I start shapeshifting my body into something more battle-ready--tougher skin, small but sharp spikes on the exposed parts of my extremities--and draw my sword. I fully intend to find and kill them all, and head in the direction of the cries. Dagny catches the glow of a trump from the room as she heads out in a more armed and armored form. In short order, she's outside of the house and in the streets of the City of Rebma. Rebma is not a clone of Amber City, unfortunately, and the geography is strange. The fact that people are on street level, and swim above it is different, along with all the sea life. Fighting in this enviornment was going to be interesting. I'd have to compensate not only for the drag of the water on my movements, but consider that I can be attacked from above as well as face-to face. Of course, that meant that I could attack from above too. I paused for a moment to slip off my shoes and web my toes to help propel me faster. Man, that looked weird. The fact that all of this life is disrupted, with sea turtles, fish, dolphins and strange squid like creatures swimming away from a disruption somewhere in the city. That, along with the cries, are signposts for Dagny. What she finds in her way, down one of the streets, is a group of guards, 70% female, armed with spears, knives and tridents. They are at ground level, and have two vertical layers of guards, forming a cube of guards. "Civilian!" one of the guards turns to look at Dagny at her approach. "This is a Military operation" I really didn't have time for this. I brandished the Royal Seal ring Random had given me. "Not a civilian! I'm Dagny, princess of Amber, and I'm going to kill the Omphalos. Let me pass." The guard looks at the ring, then at Dagny and then at the ring again. She makes a face. "At least you're the right gender" she says. "But it is on your head if you want to get into that mess." There is a rumbling sound of a small explosion that washes over Dagny, and the guards. Dagny is nearly bowled over by the unfamiliar event. "Let her pass. Let the Queen sort it out afterwards." the guard says, and a small hole is made in the guards' defensive formation. I pause in my stride to ask, "what mess is that, and what do you mean by the right gender?" The guard looks at Dagny. "There is an incursion by hostile forces, origin unknown. We don't believe they are from Amber, which is why we are still having this conversation." "And as far as right gender...you're a woman of course." she says, as if that explained everything. "Um, okay." I was a little taken aback by her comment, but didn't have time to go into this further. "Those hostile forces are the Omphalos. If your Queen is not aware they are here, she should be told immediately" "That is who has asked for the defenses to be organized." the guard says. "That, and the Court Sorcerer's daughter. Their identity will be passed on." The guard shouts instructions to one of the guards under her command. " Now, if you will excuse me." I strode ahead into the fray. Past the cordon of guards, Dagny finds a zone of relative peace to swim/stride through before she sees the true fray ahead. In a large Rebman plaza, there are dozens of Rebmans, swimming around and engaged in combat with a mostly ground-bound force of soldiers. These soldiers and mages are not dressed for Rebma, and while the Omphalos soldiers are clearly outmatched (and not understanding three dimensional fighting), there are plenty of them, and their mages are active, the flash of magical spells striking at the circling Rebmans. There's definitely room for Dagny to wade in. Do I see Binoculars Lady? In the interim I will make a beeline for the nearest mage and dispatch him or her immediately, striking down any Omphalos foot soldiers that get in my way. After the first mage is finished, on to the next! There is no sign of any of the Omphalos soldiers or higher ups that Dagny recognizes from her time in Paris. Either time in Paris. There are plenty of soldiers and mages. Into the fray, the soldiers and the Rebmans are surprised at Dagny's arrival on the scene. It takes the first couple of rounds of combat for Dagny to get her sea legs, as it were, but the Omphalos are clearly doing the same thing. Given Dagny's greater level of skill, it turns out to be in her favor. The nearest mage, though, sees Dagny coming, as Dagny has carved up several soldiers to do it. Dismissively, she casts a spell , a large, concave shaped blue barrier appearing between her and Dagny. Dagny can get around it to the mage, of course, although it will be slow, and it will allow the soldiers to swarm around her. Toward the center of the plaza, however, she can now see the glow of the open Door, disgorging more soldiers. How high is the barrier? If the mages still aren't thinking third-dimensionally, to paraphrase Doc Brown, can I launch myself upover it? That might be quicker than going around. If not, I'll swim up anyway and get the lay of the land, as it were, and throw myself into the nearest knot of enemy soldiers before coming back around to the mage. The barrier is a good 15 feet high, its not that much of a swim upward. Jumping fifteen feet in the water for Dagny is not practical, though. Swimming upward allows Dagny to join the Rebman soldiers who are enjoying and using the third dimension to their utmost advantages. Some are using tridents to try and poke at the Omphalos soldiers, others are raining javelins down on the soldiers. One of the mages, not the one who Dagny was targeting, points up at Dagny and speaks in an unknown language. The intent and body language is clear--Dagny is recognized at some level. More concave shields like the one which Dagny's first target used start forming around these mages, too. Again, they aren't completely shielding the mages, but they do provide at the very least, a speed bump to Dagny dealing with them in turn. That's right, bitches, Dagny's here, I thought sourly. And I ain't no Colonel-Commandant this time. My presence is hopefully providing at least some sort of distraction, calling the mages' attention away so the Rebman soldiers can pick them off more easily. "Would you rather I saved you for last?" I shout at the mages. "No dice--I eat my dessert first!" With that, I'll round the nearest shield and take out the mage cowering underneath. One less spell-lobber down under the ocean. The Mage tries to shift the shield, but the shifting of the large translucent barrier is slow, much slower than even Dagny can swim. Around the barrier, the mage is rather vulnerable to Dagny's strength and skill of arms. She dies. Messily, leaving a fulminating cloud of red blood in the water. Backlinks |
