Quinn's Diary -- Sessions 31 to 40 Quinn's Diary -- Sessions 31 to 40
"...those mysteries, which Heaven will not have the Earth
know."
-- Coriolanus, Act 4, Scene 2 (Wm. Shakespeare)
So, I was stuck in the supposedly inescapable prison of Utumno with third degree burns ALL OVER, in a techy-looking cell with my hard-ass cousin Kethos. Kethos fed me, for a favor-to-be-named-later and because he was bored. I did the healing and painkilling spell I'd worked out (minor modifications) during the feeding. I slept.
Itching woke me up. The spell had accelerated my recovery to the point of scabs. Scabs all over. If you've never been scabbed everywhere,,take my advice: avoid it. The scabs were about ready to come off. I thought about removing them by hand, one bit at a time, strettchhinng... No. (Although it would have provided Kethos with some entertainment) I worked out another spell and crumbled the scabs into powder.
I ate again and drank most of the water. Another healing spell. I didn't notice at the time that I was overdoing the painkilling aspect and it was starting to affect me. Anyway, I decided to arm Kethos next and made him a rapier out of the carbon and steel in one of the chairs. Braided diamond fiber bonded to a steel hilt. Kethos named it "Chair" and started looking at me funny.
I'm not sure how the Relative Finder-Commo-Mapping spell went weird. The unicorn icons should not have animated without me thinking about it, but they did. I got so citght up in other aspects of the spell that I forgot to put in a sequencer, so all ten contactees were talking to me at once. What the hell, it worked. Nice that Deirdre and Breann were loose and had found Ander. Very surprising that Victor and his kids were relatives of mine. I wasn't too surprised that other family members were imprisoned in Utumno. I didn't know what to do with them, but I wasn't surprised. Edward was not hostile, so far as I could tell, and it would have been remiss to leave kin in Utumno. As it turned out, he and his Chaosian friend were very helpful.
Lora is a talented girl. She can also be really annoying.
So the groups coalesced outside my cell. I consulted with Lora and Edward's friend Lanton, too fixated on my old Escape Plan B to note the changed roster of available forces. Fortunately, Edward insisted on showing us a guard tattoo, the Key to Utumno. And some of the others DID know how formidable a group we had become.
I didn't have to do much on our way to the prison's chief sorcerer. I helped Ander out of his daze and froze a few strategic guards and wizards. Mostly, I tried not to slip on the blood slick or trip on the corpses.
The chief sorcerer geeked right away. Who wouldn't? He gave us our tattoos, which are going to be a pain in the ass to remove. They'd be very easy to track and the Utummoids may well be vengeful. Breann, incredibly,, wanted to go back down and talk to Delwin. Edward was extremely upset, apparently thinking that there was some possibility we would actually do it. We left. I got to examine a sort of Logrus Lensequivalent and acquired its energy signature. It looked like a migrane given form. I got us out of there. At Ygg, Kethos called home and had his scouts executed for failing to detect Anax. Cold, very cold. Breann couldn't get ahold of Theseus. Dead? Captured? Busy?
Amber. Megan was back! I'd forgotten she existed and so had everyone else since the I civil war'. Nice trick, Fi.
Deirdre was VERY UPSET about Benedict and the Jewel. She wanted badly to kick the shit out of someone and I was the logical target. Instead, she controlled herself and stalked off to her rooms.
Fi asked what had happened and who she had fried. I told her about Anax. Breann eavesdropped and giggled. Fi passed on a message: Call Mom. I did and fund out that now I'M wanted for the murder of the old Master of Ceremonies. Pictures posted everywhere. Breann giggled uncontrollably.
I got fried, imprisoned and exhausted trying to get her, her mother and her brother out of Utumno, and all she could do was giggle at my misfortunes. In front of me. Very nice.
As for Osric and Brigid, I think I just lost my inhibitions against mass destruction.
I was staggering with exhaustion and barely remembered to tell Fi about the tattoos.
She took my impressions of the magical part of the application process and trudged off to the baths. Servants helped me clean up and guided me to my bed.
Fiona woke me up to remove my tattoo. I felt a little better by then. We talked while she worked. After a while, my Dworkin Trump Ball moved. It had grown to soccer ball size and was actually an egg. A Wixer-griffin egg. Fi seemed to think that this was a good thing. Or maybe just an amusing thing. The Trump helps it imprint on me. Hopefully it will be of some use. And capable of being housetrained. And, by the way, I've been volunteered to be Assistant Court Wizard. Tech support. The job looked better when I did it when I felt like it.
Fi woke me up again, this time via Trump, to tell me that Edward was Bleys' son. Who cared? I just wanted to sleep. Evidently, she and Dee are worried that I'll run him down to the Pattern room. One lousy mistake and they never let you forget.
Dee woke me up early in the morning by entering and leaving some fruit and salve. She joked with me, so I guessed I was either forgiven or too useful to alienate. Probably forgiven.
Ander Trumped me mid-morning and wanted to fence with me around noon. I was really surprised and said yes. He hadn't thought it through, so I tried to make things interesting (inflict pain as well as receive it) by catching his gaze and freezing up his muscles. Then I'd whack him with the flat. I caught him up on current events and told him about Victor and Vic's kids. Offered medical help for Vic's wife when needed. I've done several rejuvenations, both technological and sorcerous; it's not that hard.
I'm glad that Miriel has cast her lot with Amber. It's nice to have her around and she's damned useful as well. Hopefully it will not be hazardous to he health. Hm, if she likes an informal court, she will not like the Noldor court at all.
Riot quelling is not my thing at all. Interesting that they have heard of me and seem to find me impressively mysterious and spooky. Come to think of it, that's just the effect I work for in Endor.
We're on track for combat support with me, Fi and Lora. I'd like to inflict one major defeat, then head out and find the source of the damned ammo Corwin brought. Before someone else does.
We had a Plan. It worked, too.
I convinced Mom to spread the rumor that I had found the source of Corwin's gunpowder and was about to ship more, lots more, to Amber.
Fiona and I worked out maximum area Illuminator and Twilight Honeycomb spells. The damned things took about thirteen hours to hang, each.
I extended the rail line from Endor to the edge of Arden. Mom said the Mori were acting smug. I made a lot of Endoran powder pink and started it on its way. Fiona and Miriel made enough Trumps and Sketches to keep everyone in touch. Dad met the train with an army and a wagon train.
The Mori attacked and got Illuminated. Breaking it cost them most of their mages since stressing the spell caused the stress-point and the person closest to it to glow brightly, and the troops had instructions to shoot anyone who glowed especially bright. Clever me.
They didn't have enough mages left to break the Honeycomb as cast by FIONA and me.
I teleported Deirdre in -- she's a hands-on Regent -- and Lensed around looking for someone to help. Helped Dad and Dee. Razored the Mori rallying point.
They had several people of higher caliber than we had anticipated. At least three or four as good as Breann and two better than Dee or Dad. I helped Dee kill one of them. Brigid, thank goodness, was not there.
All in all, a battle that DID survive contact with the enemy. On our side. We can be proud.
The day after the battle I spent the morning Editing Aretia. No more Shapeshifting. Moved the little founts of magical power around. More Shapeshifter detectors. Programmed the main AI to watch for Twilight effects. Added one-shot railguns and gamma-ray laser cannons disguised as taxis. (I tweaked things so the Aretians wouldn't find out about those. They'd worry.)
My subordinates at QED were carrying on brilliantly --a bit too brilliantly. They had a sorcery research lab set up at our headquarters, one of the few places with much ambient magic. Most of the places with much magic were QED facilities. The rest were at my residences. The Aretian givernment found this suspicious, to say the least. So I arranged for the foci to shift and go on shifting periodically according to a plausible pattern.
I sent out a memo advising that no QED personnel with cyberware or nanodevices vital to their well being travel out-world via the ShadowRail as it went places where such things did not work.
I lazed around the Castle recovering until Ander Trumped me for a medical evac of one of his dwarfish shipbuilders. OK. The ships are vital to the naval side of our war efforts. I took Max the victim and his pal Shin-shin to the hospital the Khazad go to; the Verenese look like dwarf-kin to me. Shin-shin was terrified, even more so when I gave him basic Anglish and orientation via spell. (It will fade in a few weeks unless he uses it a lot.) I advised the doctor to keep Max sedated when he's in the vat. A quick call got me a QED security sergeant who'd worked with the Khazad to settle Shin-shin.
Back in Verinau, Ander thrust me into the Vari situation as his elf-expert. I'm not sure whether the Vari are real relatives or shadows of them. Some of them know Twilight tricks, which indicates the former. They were shocked by the memories I shared of the Baron's zombie army, outraged to the point of instant holy war.
Helping us out against our nautical necromancer will present the Vari with the pportunity to study the new ships, to make their own, to make contacts and alliance with Us, the 500 pound gorillas of this neighborhood. It's good for them, sort of.
Dee Trumped me to attend Edward's Pattern walk. So he's IN. He made it, of course. Fi wouldn't have let him try (Bleys' son and all) if she wasn't pretty sure he could do it. I asked Fi what he was like, since she had to have cleared him, what with enemy shape-shifters and everything. She indicated that he's a young Caine, devious and suspicious but not interested in harming us. Fine. Dad gets along with Caine very well. How hard to take can Edward be?
While Edward slept I returned to Verenau with Elrohir to check out our maybe-relatives. He picked up their dialect much easier than I. Hopefully he can gently explain to them that there are more Evils out there than Vari.
I Edited Verenau to speed its timeflow to double Amber's --Ander had indicated he was worried about how long everything was taking. He hadn't asked, he probably didn't know it could be done. I spelled the keels of the first four ships as Ander HAD requested. Spells designed to enchant the Air Pattern into them, granting them favorable winds always. Ander had already imbued them somehow with fireproofing via his Forge imprint. Probably had to walk around them singing for hours.
After all that I was beat. Back to Amber and sleep.
I met Edward in Dee's office and spent a couple of hours going over shadow-shifting theory and practice. Mostly visualization tips and dos and don'ts. Ander interrupted with a Trump call to place an order for more ship enchantments and to contact Gerard. I lent him a Trump and told him it would be a couple of days on the magicking. Let him know that I'd sped the place up. Not sure if he knew it could be done, though he got a look on his face that I interpreted as either trying to figure out how to do it or marvelling at my gall, altering HIS shadow.
Edward did great. It was interesting watching him re-think WEALTH. He was completely unreadable when I explained Blood Curses, mentioning that I'd never actually see one happen and that that was the OLD Pattern.
Ran into the Trump anomaly back at the Castle. Hope to hell that Brand isn't alive. Why did it just suck the clock in? Not that there were other loose objects around.
I'm prepared for the Great Gunpowder Hunt. Again. Outside of Caine, or even including him, I should have advantages over every other searcher I can think of, since Fi hasn't left the Castle much.
I Hellrode across the realm in search of the source of Corwin's gunpowder. Well away from his old haunts, naturally. Snowflake, my trusty steed, was as good as the stablemen had advertised and we proceeded without incident.
Eventually, I arrived there. "There" being a white-skyed, white-oceaned world of incredible fragility. All natural too. Maybe Dworkin could have managed it, I think. In time. Unfortunately, someone else had been there too. It would be a race -- well, no. Fiona and I could seal this place off in hours -- I could do it myself in a day or two -- and there is no one to oppose us, no one with both a current Pattern imprint and the mastery to use it but Fiona, me, and maybe Deirdre. Well, Dworkin. And with no Magick and low, low technology, they'd have to bring in an army to do it with hand tools. Which is not quick.
So, anyway, I picked up a sample and then Dear Cousin Breann trumped/kidnapped me to Caer Beatha, the original and present Rebma. I always knew 'Rebma' couldn't be the real name.
I evaluated the situation and saw that it was time to leave. They agreed, even Dear Cousin Breann. Random appeared, compelled to the gills and utterly ignorant of who he really was. All I know about how to undo that sort of thing is General Theory. General Theory says "Get An Expert". Fouling up someone's brain is easy to do and hard to repair.
So we left via a six-Shadow teleport and it almost killed me. Fortunately Megan, my Angel of Mercy, saved me and even made me fairly comfortable. Comfortable enough to trump Sensei Fi and get out of there. Too bad the girls have to sleep in the dungeon, especially Lora. And Megan. But is mere justice for Breann, after her laughing at my difficulties after Utumno.
Uh oh. The dream of Mom in trouble felt something like Theseus' damned broadcast meaningful shared hallucinations. I'll have to Trump her to see what's up.
The Ring gadget is horrific. How can it be so powerful? How can we get rid if it? I considered volunteering to accompany the girls to Caer Beatha, but I'd just be one more hostage. I'll just ignore it and move on to things I can do.
So: Whiteworld
Disaster averted!
Benedict arrives out of the blue, Circlet 0f Doom in hand and asks Fiona if she wouldn't
mind if he took it away. She'd have traded her right hand (she's left handed) to get rid
of the damned thing.
I had a moment of panic thinking that Dworkin might have arranged Benedict's blinding. The Circlet had annoyed him at one point. But Fi is right: NOBODY would blind Ben and then hand him a mountain of power. Even Dworkin would not be safe from a vengeful Jeweled Benedict.
Couldn't Trump Mom. Some new kind of Trump interference. Can't even have Fi check it out, since she and Mom seem to have developed a dislike for one another at some point.
Lora reminds me of me in her charming delight in the Art. Strong little thing, too. Don't think I could have powered the stone golem atop Kolvir as long as she did, sans Pattern.
I'm pleased the party idea went over so well. We can all do with the chance to let go, plus it's good PR for the townspeople.
Interesting that Caine was so surprised by the Trump sails and all. Perhaps he assumed that Ander's efforts were of no importance. Fiona certainly enjoyed his reactions.
The party went well, per se. I think the townsfolk were reassured that the royals were on the ball and that we are recruiting from Shadow.
I'm curious as to why Mom would shanghai Breann and company rather than me. I suppose that either the Tir is still too hot for me or she wants a military specialist technically unconnected to the Noldor. Interesting technique. Unfortunate that all the people I had in mind for being my bodyguards while I edited Whiteworld's gateway Shadow are now gone.
Finished the evening, and some of the morning, with a delightful woman named Donata. It has been a while.
Ah, Donata. I feel much, much better now. Intelligent, playful, sexy. I wonder if she's interested in an affair?
Altogether the most productive day I've had in a while. The Ass-kicking of the Mori was close, but a one-shot event. This should pay dividends for years or even decades or centuries to come. I even got a nice compliment out of it. Fiona said my Chumley bureaucrat shadow barrier is fiendish.