The ship, the "Unicorn" is damaged. Some of the masts are down. Floating above Amber city is a shifting image of the real unicorn and the leviathan. It turns towards me and reaches out a tentacle/horn to touch me and grows bigger as it does so. At the chest/core of the being a green light appears and eventually engulfs the being and everything disappears.

I check Vaughn. He is alive, pulse steady but slow.

Trump Fiona - no answer

Trump Dierdre - "Vaughn has passed out can you trump him there?" She is surrounded by a chaos of servants and Amberites. She asks that I call back in two minutes.

Several of the crew are also unconscious. I have them brought up on deck. I also have the first mate assess the damage and report back to me. I check that we are well anchored. Several ships are missing. I have the ship’s master trump the harbor master to send the injured men through.

I give Dierdre three minutes and trump her again. I hand Vaughn through and give her the damage report. Dierdre is not surprised that Vaughn was damaged.

Talk to Ander. He wants to move the damaged ships back to the shipyard for repair and send some health ship with them as tow and security.

Trump Caine - He was already on his way down. I give him my assessment of the damage and Ander’s plan to move the damaged ship someplace else to be repaired. "You can stay and help or you can go to your mom in the infirmary if you like." "Mom is in the infirmary?" I stammer. "Yes." Caine replies. "No one told me!" I yell. "You haven’t been in touch." "I trumped Deirdre twice!" "She’s been busy…" I cut him off.

I trump into the great hall and race up to the infirmary. Mom and several others are there. Theseus is noticeably absent. I rush to her side. She is stable. I try to trump her again to no avail. (I do however finally understand what mom was trying to explain when she described trumping an unconscious person.)

Dierdre enters the infirmary. I stand and get somewhat larger. I start to say something, stop, try again, and stop. I finally gets out, "You could at least have had the courtesy to tell me that my mother was among the injured." "…I’m sorry, I thought you knew." Dierdre replies. "How could I?" "I’m sorry." Dierdre tries again. "What are YOU planning to do about this?" I demand. "It appears that all of these people died on the other side. We are still working on how to help them." I blanch and take a better look at the other patients. Quinn jumps in and adds "I tried to reach your mother psychically, but I couldn’t get through. It looks like Random is less deep so I’ll try him next."

62 - Meg goes to the dogs

Quinn "I’d like to talk to you after I check Laura."

I just nod. Ander comes in and they talk a bit. When Laura wakes up Ander comes over and sits by me. We have a typical conversation.

A- "Hey."

M- "Hey"

A-"How’s Fiona?"

M- "Quinn says that she’s in deep."

A- "What’s being done?"

M- "Quinn is researching it."

A- <<Pregnant Pause>>

Quinn is worried that Osric might walk the Pattern in Fiona’s absence. He wants to know is as a shape shifter I can detect other shape shifters. I’ve never tried. He suggests that I study one of the tracking hounds that they brought in earlier. It’s worth a try and it will keep me out of Quinn’s hair.

Quinn is also worried about them kidnapping mom again.

I say "Again?"

...and he gives me the whole story of the attack and rescue of Fiona. He suggests that we move her to Arisia to be safer. I ask if he is planning to move the others too. He thinks they will be safe enough. They aren’t the scariest. I have to admit he’s true. Mom is the scariest.

The only think that I can think of if to somehow get in and force mom to shift and heal. I don’t know if I can even do that but if she starts going down hill I will surely try.

Quinn then speaks of Annex another shape shifter in the family. He was on Osric’s side but came through and really helped. I check the molding or scrying devices and I talk to Quinn.

I leave to go find Stumpy the tracking hound. It takes me about half an hour to figure out how he does it. I then modify the process so that it will work in a human-type form. I try to improve the form. It will always need some sort of horn.

Dierdre stops by and tells me that Ander is looking for me. She asks how the detection form is coming. "It’s working fine. I wish there was a shape shifter that I could test this on." "I’ll see what I can do." Dierdre says as she leaves.

I head back to the castle to see what Ander wants.

63 - Just trying to keep busy

I knock at Ander’s door.

M-"You were looking for me?"
A-"Are you free tomorrow? I need to go to town."
M-"Sure!"
A-"Great!"
M-"What time?"
A-"Sometime before noon."
M-"OK but not too early."
A-" Say mid-morning in the library."
M-"I’ll been there."

I leave him to his paperwork.