TearIndex | Time Under Chaos | Player Characters | Tear Tear Name: Solitaire Helgram All castles have ghosts. Some more than most. In Castle Amber, there are ghosts in every shadow and lurking down every corridor and stairwell. They are the soft whispers behind the walls, the cold drafts in the library, and the flickering lights at the end of the hall. They are treated like old friends and unspoken fears. Those not to be named, but forever spoken of. Most are nothing more than the product of frayed nerves and imagination. And yet others are of a more terrestrial origin. Ghosts like Solitaire Helgram. A figure well-known but easily forgotten, Solitaire’s presence in Castle Amber has always been one of brief glances and distant laughs. The girl with the violet eyes, she is better known for her love of strange teas and biscuits than a love of conversation. Both a child of Chaos and of pleasant manner, she is treated equally with respect and contempt. But mostly, she is ignored. A ghost. And little more. Tear*, as she prefers to be known, was born to loving parents. At least, she is told she was with some frequency by her uncle. In truth, she does not recall her mother and father at all, except for a few broken memories. A musical laugh. A man’s smile. The soothing lullaby of a heartbeat. The warmth of protective arms. And a touch of tears. Always tears. According to Uncle Gloomy, her father had been an artificer in the service of Amber. Her mother had been a low-ranked diplomat from House Helgram from the Courts of Chaos. As the story went, they met in a bookshop in Five Corners. Ingling Street. Sunset. They had both reached from the same book from opposite sides of the shelf. Her father, Casnodyn, was the first to surrender the book after a brief tug of war. A gracious victor, Baroness Melantha Helgram, offered to buy him tea in compensation for his loss. Once he gazed into her violet eyes, Casnodyn could not have refused her. Charmed by his shyness, Melantha wanted to know more of this human. From that point forward they were inseparable and by the fall they were married. Tear came into the world not long after; born beneath the falling leaves of the next autumn. Melantha and Casnodyn doted on the little girl shamelessly. They constantly showed her off to whoever would listen and took her everywhere with them. This unshakable love would be her shield in the end. Regrettably, their love for one another would be their downfall. In the summer before Tear’s first birthday, an anarchic branch of the Church of the Unicorn, the Unicorn’s Blade, began targeting Chaosian nobles to avenge past wrongs. As Casnodyn and Melantha returned from an evening stroll with Solitaire, the three were set upon by assassins seeking to cleanse Amber of its ‘filth.’ Casnodyn, merely human and martially unskilled, fought to defend his wife and child, but fell beneath their poisoned knives before Melantha could get away. Desperate to save her daughter, the Chaosian noblewoman wrapped Tear in her arms and weathered blow after blow. Even her shape-shifting powers could not protect her from the venom on the blades. But at least, her daughter remained safe beneath her body; bathed in Melantha’s blood and tears. Melantha, still alive when the city watch found them, was hastily returned to the Courts of Chaos, where there was the slim hope that their healers might stop the poison in her veins. To this day, Tear does not know if her mother is alive or dead; something she has wondered upon constantly. It was thought best that the half-breed child not risk the trip to Chaos. So, she was given over to the protection of her uncle, Gilliam. Uncle Gloomy, as she calls him, was a clock-maker that lived in Five Corners. He raised the little girl as his own daughter with help from others in the neighborhood. Right away, Gilliam realized his niece was not like most children. She possessed a keen understanding of all things and could read almost before she speak. By five, she was already helping him in the shop. By six, she began building clockwork constructs and toys, much as her father had before her. Soon, she was speaking several of the local and foreign languages and studied every book she could lay her hands upon. And then at ten, the nightmares began. At first, Gilliam thought she was suffering memories of losing her parents. But these dreams were something much, much different. Tear became increasingly remote and thoughtful, as if she were trying to figure something out in her head. And, indeed, she was doing exactly that. Although she would wake up screaming at night, she fought to immediately go back to sleep. Somewhere in her nightmares, the young girl knew there were answers waiting. Like threads in a torn tapestry, she had to weave them together to make sense of it all. As the chill of autumn returned, Solitaire fell into a deep sleep. For two full days, no one could wake her. Gilliam became frantic, begging Amberite doctors to help his niece. To the medically-oriented mind, she appeared to have inexplicably slipped in a coma. But finally, a physician from the Courts answered Gilliam’s call. He took one look at the girl and fell to his knees in shock. Gilliam thought the worst until the physician looked up at him with tears in his eyes; that is until he realized they were tears of awe. The doctor informed Gilliam that the girl had fallen into the Dark Sleep; a dangerous period when a Chaosian embraced the Logrus. Even the most trained mind could hardly grasp the complex intricacies of the Logrus. For a child of ten to fall into the Dark Sleep was unheard of. For that child to ever wake up again would be a miracle. And yet, Solitaire did just that a day later. News of miracles travels fast in Amber and this one was no exception. Ignored by the nobles until now, Solitaire found herself invited to Castle Amber. A daughter of a Great House, they treated her like the royalty she truly was. The young child became enchanted by the magnificent castle and its strange people. More importantly, she became enthralled with the Great Library and its vast marvels. The girl gained special attention from one noble in particular; a cold, young man with steel blue eyes. He took the girl under his dark wing and began to teach her such wonders that the girl’s head brimmed over with information. Tear, having lacked a Chaosian peer in her life, fell under his influence without question, devoting herself to his every request. And so, Mandor, Prime Minister of Amber, gained a loyal apprentice. Even better still, he quickly discovered that like Heron and Hippocrates, Solitaire was a child protégée. She could easily grasp arcane theorems and equations that would baffle Sorcerer’s centuries her elder. She possessed a natural affinity for the Logrus, understanding its subtle nuances with an uncanny intellect. For the last ten years of her life, Solitaire has known nothing but the Logrus. She has studied and experimented with the Elementals, lived and breathed mage-craft ceaselessly. Her mentor has tested her to the breaking point and back, playing on and feeding the girl’s voracious appetite for knowledge. The results of this training have impressed even him. Whatever the Chaos Lord’s true motivation for this ‘kindness’ remains unseen, but in Tear, Mandor has created the perfect tool. Innocent and frighteningly powerful, the young woman is blind to the intrigues and dangers around her. The need to learn instilled into Solitaire by her Master continues to drive her like a well-tuned engine. But all engines wear out. And Tear is finally beginning to wear down. A woman grown, she can now see the world beyond the books and Logrus formulas. She’s become curious as to what lies beyond the city and castle walls. She has touched the essence of Shadow, but has not ventured out into it. She has seen love, but never known it herself. Tear is the ghost that has never lived. And now, she desires to do just that.
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