Chapter Eighteen

Insights of an Android

  My vision swam into focus, and I realized that someone had garbed me in something white. White? All my generic things were with me, as was Ravenwind and Frakir. A quick, cursory inspection told me that my trumps were gone. There were a number of concerned looking humanoids about me, all dressed in white clothes, reminding me of some sort of religious order. They smiled ingratiatingly, and gently motioned me to follow them. Mystified, I let them lead me into a great hallish cathedral type place. There were dozens and dozens of statues here, and all of the looked like 01. Each one had a plaque of some sort, and each bore a different weapon or tool. They led me up to one where a dozen more of these people seemed to be holding some sort of vigil, with candles and praying and the whole bunch. I looked at the statue. It was 01 on a pedestool all right. What the hell?

01 grinned at me. He had to be kidding, fashioning a shadow where he was worshipped as a god? Well, different strokes, I guess.

"What are you doing on a pedestool?" I asked him. "Do these people honestly think you're a god? 01, what is this place?"

He stepped down from the pedestool. "You are seeming much better. You were very injured when I got to you."

"Very injured?" I asked him, "How injured?" I wondered what he'd seen, and how I'd gotten here, and more importantly, what happened to Brand's trump.

"You were dying, apparently, bleeding very badly" he replied.

"Ah well" I sighed "I shouldn't have pushed."

01 pulled out a packet of trumps and handed them to me.

"I kept these safe for you" he told me. I stared.

"Thank you 01, that was nice of you," I said slowly.

"The cloak would not stay" he added.

I glanced at Ravenwind, and smiled "Well, no, he wouldn't."

I stared at 01 for a moment in silence.

"You pulled me through, patched me up and kept my trumps safe?" I asked him.

"I pulled you through and kept your trumps safe. I had these people take care of you," he gestured to the white garbed people who were kneeling reverently at his feet. Heh. I thought about this for a second, and realized that there were few people I could have counted on to do the same, without wanting something for it, or at least taking the trumps. Interesting. "Then I owe you," I said to 01, "a favor, and a very large one. You have apparently gone to great effort to save my life."

01 looked at me, surprised.

"If you so desire, it is not required." More and more curious. None of my relations would have been so quick to dismiss a perceived favor owed, regardless of the cause. "I have promised I would help you solve your problems. I will make sure they get solved if it is within my ability. I owe you one." I told him.

"I would like to choose, if you feel such a desire," 01 said, hesitantly. He clearly looked surprised.

"How can I pay you back?" I asked him.

"All I would ask, is that you would treat me as a trusted friend, and give me the opportunity to be such" he decided.

"Hmmm" I nodded, he certainly had the right to ask for something of that scope, "I owe you a fair chance. But" I cautioned "you must give me a fair chance too."

"I've expressed more than a willingness to do so, I have just noticed that many of the others we travel with want me to give them a fair chance, and do not want to reciprocate for me" 01 told me.

"You've more than earned your fair chance" I assured him. "I wish I knew exactly what happened to me" I observed.

01 looked at me curiously. "What happened? he asked.

"I was trying to use a trump. I was using Logrus to push through a trump contact."

01 gave the impression of frowning. "A trump of what?" he asked.

I hesitated. I didn't want to share that, but I did owe him. "I do not wish to withhold information from you, but it is something that is extremely private, and I wish to keep private at this point. Perhaps at a future point I will be willing to share it, but at this point I am not. I will not share it with anyone at this point, really, except you, because it is something that is personal."

"To you?" 01 clarified.

"To me" I agreed. "I cannot guarentee that it will not have any effect on the people around me at some point if I am successful, but at this point it is personal to me. Without telling you specifically what I was doing, that's as much as I can probably explain."

"If you wish I might be able to help," 01 began.

I waved him off.

"I was trying to reach someone who it would not be good for me to let be known I was trying to reach."

01 considered this, "I can understand that."

"Now you begin to see. Because that person was unreachable, I tried to push to reach them. You saw the result."

"It could be that I have information that might be of help, but if you really do not wish to tell me I cannot guess if I could help," 01 informed me. True enough.

"The only way I could do that I told him was if I had a guarentee that it would go no farther. A guarentee from you..." I emphasized, unsure still that this was wise.

"Yes" 01 interjected.

"On your word that you will not repeat this" I finished.

"I fully expect that anything I tell you, unless I otherwise mention, will be kept between us as such, anything you share will be kept between us unless you otherwise mentioned," 01 assured me.

"On that I'll give you my word. Then the sharing of information here will go no farther, to that I agree." I took a deep breath.

"I am trying to reach Brand." I told him.

"I do not have information on him" 01 said regretfully.

"I have just seen him" I confided.

"I saw someone you were trying to reach on that contact..." 01 began.

I cut him off, "No, when we were separated, and I went flying through shadow, someone reached out and stopped, and put me down safely" I explained.

"And that was Brand?" he asked.

I nodded

"I am not surprised at this." Well, duh, I look in the mirror every day too. "I'm trying to find him, I tried to push to get through on his trump. That's what I did to myself, before you found me. Now you see the problem."

01 frowned again. "People think Brand's dead because he fell into the Abyss" he said carefully.

"I am aware of this. I've been Pit-diving most of my life, I'm familiar with the Abyss. I live in Chaos."

"I have been to Chaos" he offered.

"I studied with the Pit-divers, I spent a great deal of time in the Abyss." I informed him. "I have been to the center of the Abyss..., I am not certain it is the same Abyss..."

"There's only one Abyss" I said. "The Abyss, the Rim, Chaos...I think."

"Yes, I just thought it might be different then what my power is" he said thoughfully.

"Well, going into it and drawing from it may be two different things. Of course in the same manner as everyone in my family tree, I've gone the way of sorcery and the Logrus. I don't know the other half of my family, although I have my suspicions that.....well....they're blatently obvious." It's hard not to get bitter over this. I wish Dara would have just told me and left it at that.

"Corwin?" 01 half asked, half stated. Ah, he's making assumptions because I'm Merlin's little sister. That's all I ever seem to be to anyone, Merlin's little sister. Here he is, new to the scene, and he falls into the same trap as everyone else. Well, good, maybe that's what everyone else will assume too, Merlin's little sister, another little Corwinite. I'll bet Dara even named me similar to Corwin on freaking purpose. Sigh. I hope she got her money's worth of enjoyment out of this. Maybe I'll just darken my hair to black and pretend. Nah, if you got it, flaunt it.

I snorted at him "I don't look like Corwin. I look like Brand."

"Like Brand?" he asked, seeming to want clarification. He must really not know his way around the Royal family, either that or he plays dumb really well.

"Well that's who I look like" I sighed at him.

"When you went into the Abyss, what was it like?" he asked me curiously. I considered. It had always been a changing experience for me.

"I understand the experience is different each time, according to the Pit-Divers. It's a popular occupation in Chaos. We recover things, objects, artifacts, magic, art, history, their purpose is to recover things that were lost or gone, that have gone into the Abyss. I was interested in information, so I took up surfing and diving. Surfing is riding the currents over the Abyss. Pit diving is jumping in to find things."

"And have you not went to the center of the Abyss when you were there?" 01 pressed.

"No, usually divers don't, although I could probably learn to surf there, I haven't gone that far yet. Most never do." I mused.

"It's just, when I went into the Abyss it was different then how you describe it, it was similar to going to the Pattern or the Logrus" he explained.

"You can walk the center of the Abyss? Can you take someone there with you?" I asked.

"I''ve only done it twice. The second only recently, but I do not know" he answered. "Have you ever tried to take someone with you?" I wondered,.

"I have not" he admitted.

"And now you have successfully essayed the Logrus?" I was not surprised that they were, in fact, compatible. I wondered about the Pattern, though.

"Yes" he stated.

"Fun, isn't it?" I quipped.

"I have not had an opportunity to fully develop an understanding of it" he replied.

"I'll help you" I told him.

"I could very well use your help" he admitted.

"I would gladly trade you information on the Logrus for help with Abyssal power, and specifically perhaps in activating this trump, It may be attuned to that" I said.

"I am not sure that that would be the case" 01 warned.

"It's a very unusual trump, it doesn't act like other trumps."

"What's it a trump of?" he asked.

"Brand" I told him. It does not work like other trumps" I continued.

"Ah, you have Brand's trump" he confirmed.

"Yes, I have it" I told him. He should have realized that. "It doesn't get ice cold then give a clear picture. It starts to get cold, then it begins to give off a vibration. If you push into it, it vibrates the person holding it. Basically, when I tried to use it, I shook myself to pieces trying to activate the damn thing. Injarda-o's never heard of such a thing", I added. "I didn't tell him what I was doing, just described the strange trump reactions."

"I have learned that Injarda-o does not know much about trump" 01 opined. "What we are told is what Injarda-o thinks about trump."

"That could very well be" I observed, remembering how many questions he didn't answer

"Injarda-o will not listen to my viewpoint if it disagrees with Injarda-o's or Timtallagay's. Much can be learned with his abilities, he has the power but not the knowledge or imagination to experiment." I couldn't fault him there, that was obviously true. I decided to tell 01 what had proceeded my rescue.

"When I was separated from everyone and falling through shadow" I told him "a hand reached out an grabbed me, stopped me from falling and set me down gently. I looked at the hand on my shoulder, and it looked like an old hand, much like Mr. Happy, you know, the L guy." 01 looked confused for a moment, then nodded at me in comprehension.

"At first I thought it WAS him" I continued, "but then I realized when I looked at it closely, it looked like that was overlay over another hand, and the clothes that I thought were tattered and old weren't really. Behind me was a rip in reality, and when I looked carefully at him, I was sure it was Brand. I don't know what the connection is, or why, but now that I've seen that much, I'm going to have to push."

"If he is connected in some way with this...with Lothos..."

"All I've heard from everyone is not to deal with Lothos, Scourge of Shadow, because he is so unpredictable and dangerous, all I've heard is he's dangerous, he's dangerous, he's dangerous, he's unpredictable, he's dangerous, he's dangerous, dangerous, dangerous...I ask, HOW is he dangerous. He can do anything he wants I'm told. Well, weren't these same things said about someone else?"

"That's Brand?" asked 01

"That's what they said before. Before the Patternfall War."

"Until recently, Lothos was imprisoned. He was imprisoned by Oberon." 01 said. "I've heard such" I confirmed, wondering where he was going with this.

"But, when he was first released, he had blond hair, and was taller then." he finished.

"Now it's red" I commented.

"When he was first released he may have been in more of a true form" 01 noted.

"He could be a shapeshifter. Everyone else is" I observed.

"But his first release could have been more of a true form, and now he may be imitating Brand" 01 pointed out.

I thought about this. Too devious for a logical mind, eh 01?

"I have to ask. Suhuy and Dworkin built you?" I directed at him.

"In part" he responded.

"I know Suhuy and Dworkin were part of it, there's more? Was it a big collaboration?" I pressed.

"Apparently all of them" he replied, but he had a quizzical look on his face.

"Suhuy lets things slip occasionally" I offered as a means of explanation. "I knew he meant at least Dworkin with the royal 'we', but all of them? Who are all?"

"Brick and Carachel" said 01.

"Brick?" I answered "Who's Brick?"

"The one who inscribed the Abyss" 01 told me.

"Inscribed the Abyss?" I echoed.

"Suhuy inscribed the Logrus, Dworkin inscribed the Pattern, Brick inscribed the Abyss, and Carachel inscribed Trump" he explained.

I absorbed that. I guess I just thought that the Abyss had always been there. Huh.

"What is this Center that Injarda-o keeps talking about?" I asked him.

"I don't think Injarda-o knows" 01 stated. Oh yeah, I had my hands full if I thought I could make any peace between these two. "Have you not noticed that Injarda-o cannot explain?"

"What does this Brick look like?" I asked suddenly.

"Brick is a shapeshifter" 01 replied.

"Never mind" I sighed "I know better than to ask. I grew up with shapeshifters."

"I'm sure they're all shapeshifters" 01 commented.

"They must be" I agreed. "But they must have a base form"

"Does Suhuy? Does Dworkin?" he asked me.

"Yes, and yes. Dworkin is usually an old man, Suhuy almost always appears in Chaos form. He hates coming out of demonform."

"Brick appeared in a human form" 01 noted.

"What did the human form look like?" I asked.

"An oldish man" he answered.

"Like Dworkin, an oldish man?"

"Yes" 01 agreed.

"I guess they all have the same form, but with slight variations, yeah, yeah, yeah" I said dryly.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, I know I was thinking about everything said, though I can't speak for what was going on in 01's head/circuits/whatever.

Then, out of the blue, he asked about Gwen, "What experiments do you plan on doing with Gwen?"

"Genetic" I answered, startled by the question. "We're trying to track down parantage by genetic comparison" I explained. "We're doing DNA analysis trying to find out who was related to who. That was the extent of it."

"I can tell quite honestly that Gwen and Injarda-o are hostile towards me, have hostile feelings toward me" he observed. Interesting, a paranoid android with hurt feelings. This is a first. Well, not really.

"The hostility has been engendered" I told him "by your apparent demand for constantly having everyone share information, but from their perception a lack of willingness to share yours. You want them to tell you things and won't tell them a thing. This engenders hostility and a lack of trust."

"I have told them many things, and I have been willing to..."

I cut him short there. "You are extremely adept at talking in circles. No, you are. Your empirical data manages to make a logic circle around the issue without touching on it at all." I told him. "You're very careful not to say anything while saying a lot, and that's not gone unnoticed, they're not stupid, just slow" I added.

"Yes" he said primly, "and I notice that Gwen is not quite as adept at subtleness."

"Gwen is very straightforward" I told him, "it goes with the hair, it's a temper thing. You find a red-head, you find a bad temper. That's how we work."

"I notice Gwen is not" he continued "good at, is not adept at, hiding that she knows something."

"Of course not" I smiled at him "you piss off a red-head, we scream at you, that's how we work. Then we stop getting subtle cause we're too busy screaming." I don't think I'll mention that after that we spend the next 20 or so years plotting the perfect revenge to pay back every wrong dealt to us in kind. I don't think that really needs saying.

"I was more inclined to share information, and to do so was logical with what information I had. I could tell that Gwen was holding back..."

"Everyone is holding back" I noted dryly "you don't understand. It's in our nature."

"Gwen would not admit to it" 01 went on stubbornly, "but insisted that she was saying everything."

"You are an android" I asked for confirmation.

"Correct" he responded.

"You're completely sure?" I asked again.

"Yes" he answered, a bit perplexed.

"There's a machine under there" I went on.

"Correct" he answered again.

"Suhuy thinks it's interesting that you think you're a machine, and he put it that way" I told him. "I'd say work that one out. However, to be, more or less a biological probduct."

"Suhuy might not call me a machine, he might call me more of a, construct." 01 clarified.

"I think Suhuy needs a vacation, but..." I commented. "In the normal by-products of the Princes and Princesses of Amber and Chaos, and the progeny they spew across the multiverse, their normal attitude is to horde information, lie to each other and hide things, and distrust others. They have to be like this, because the minute they are open and friendly and share information, one of their other realtives comes along and uses the information and kills them. It's not only, well, you seem to think that everyone should just share information. You scare people when you say that, because obviously somebody put you up to it, or you're up to some private agenda, and when you have everything you need you're going to go off and screw them over with it. That is how they perceive you."

"I would not" 01 protested.

"The point is that is how they perceive you" I reemphasized. "Whether or not it is your intent, it is how you are perceived, because they are raised in an atmosphere of suspicion and hostility. When you spend your entire life.....let me give you an example." Time for 01 to learn Court politics, I think. Tari-in g'ami laburt a Dara. (An evil curse on you Dara) To think I would be talking politics!

"In my family, everyone of my mother's children was specifically bred for a political purpose to be used as clout against someone else." 01 looked unnerved. I laughed. "You must see. Merlin was BRED to sit on a throne, his father was chosen and calculated and picked and specifically he was bred to sit on a the throne. He was not made for want of procreation, or for love between two people, or for wanting to even share something, he was created, intentionally, to serve a purpose. Coldly, emotionlessly. He was raised, told what they wanted him to hear, taught what they wanted them to be taught, so he would react in a predictable fashion when the wanted him to. These are not people that are given to share information and trust one another. And once you have gotten to a point where you find this is why you came into this world, that these are the parents you have who did this to you, you find there is very little you can trust if you cannot trust your own mother. Do you understand now?"

"Yes" said 01 rather quietly.

"Gwen is a product of a Chaosite and an Amberite, she doesn't trust anything. Why should she? God knows what purpose she serves. As far as I know, I was bred for a political purpose and that purpose is no longer valid. So I serve no use. Isn't that nice? I hate my mother. She hates me. I am apparently useless to her political aspirations." I sound bitter, even to me.

01 considered this. "Well you must know" he said "that I was also created for a purpose."

"Obviously" I answered him "but you weren't 'bred' to suspect."

"No" he admitted. "I wasn't bred, I was created to serve a purpose."

"You don't know your purpose?" I questioned him. "You don't know the purpose your programming leads to?"

"I just told you" he said, confused.

"Are you free willed?"

"I am free willed" he stated.

"Within a structure of programming? Do you have certain things that you must do?"

"I have programming" he repeated.

"Do you have certain programming that compells certain behavior?"

"I have experienced compelling programming, but none that is overwhelming" he explained. I noted that he was reluctant to discuss this, or to volunteer any information that wasn't directly asked for. Either he wasn't going to be as cooperative as he said, or he was a really fast learner. I tend to believe the former, but I promised him a fair chance and a clean slate. Not to mention, I was still a bit mystified why he didn't just take the trumps and leave me to bleed to death. I must confess, his motives remain beyond me.

"I'd love to know what they were thinking when they put you together" I mused.

"I was created to be independant."

"Heh. I was apparently created to act as a political pawn in a game that Dara was playing." Yes, I appreciated the irony in this. "I don't know what that game was as I won't play, but if my suspicions are right I was probably designed as leverage against Brand should he get too powerful. That's all I can figure. And if what just happened, what I think just happened, apparently he has."

I sat in silence for a moment. 01 regarded me.

"I've often wondered about all of it" I muttered.

"I will, of course, assist you, as much as I can" he offered.

"You don't have to, if I'm right he could be a dangerous person to find." I sighed.

"And I have every intention of setting foot to the Pattern" I told him.

"I share that intention" 01 told me.

"I firmly believe that whoever my father really is, he's one of Oberon's, and I fully intend to walk the Pattern."

01 looked very earnest, "As do I. I would also like to learn magic."

I smiled at him. "Your goals are similar to mine."

"Still, I am not seeking to learn my parentage" he observed.

"You are seeking to master all forms of power" I told him. "In that we agree."

"That is, in a way, correct."

"I can help you with sorcery" I offered. "I can help you with the Logrus. I can't help you with the Pattern, I haven't learned it myself. But you can help me with the Abyss, too."

"I would suggest" he said "that you might also consider, though it might go against the grain which I do not want to do, but I would suggest Tekvar as a possible ally."

I figured it would come to this. Ah well, can't be helped. "I don't have a problem with Tekvar now, once I realized what his surly attitude was concealing. It was the fact that he knew the location and condition of my nephew."

"That was at the request of your nephew" 01 pointed out.

"That is why my attitude towards him changed" I replied.

01 elaborated, "He may be willing help with your goal, but it is not for me to decide what I can say about him to you or you to him."

"I may be able to afford some capitulation from Gwen and Injarda-o as to their aggresive standpoint" I offered.

"I have tried to fix things. When I first met them, I refused, as is the custom of my...what you would call shadow...to withhold information of a technological nature to those who did not possess similar levels of technology." Well, that didn't sound too deliberate. Not, of course, by those semantics.

"Those laws may not apply to those of Amber or Chaos" I told him carefully.

"I know that now" he replied "but then I did not. I told them this when they were inquiring about my light sabers."

"It is in the nature of our people to be suspicious, as I told you."

"And I have then intended to rectify that. I attempted to help Injarda-o with his trump, by showing him how to create..."

I interrupted him, as I had the beginnings of an idea. "I can try to rectify the situation if you will put a little trust in me. Occasionally, if I know that they are being particularily beligerant about something, I will call on you for your opinion and knowledge. If you provide it, it could change their opinion. Provided, of course, it does not betray the trust I've granted you. It will look to them as if you're cooperating."

"I will attempt to do such. If such information I provide does not cause any compromise" he added.

"I'm very good at this game" I told him. "I couldn't have survived Dara and not be very good at this game. She's a terrible person, really."

"Then I will attempt to help. I was trying to, so you know, construct a device in Amber to create holograms. Projections through this would allow Injarda-o to make holographic trumps, considering this might enhance his trump abilities, I can tell you the implications of such."

"I have a question" I said softly.

01 chose to continue his thoughts, and I didn't wish to interrupt again. "Injarda-o blatently refused, stating that it wasn't necessary and that only one performing art could be used at a time."

"I have realized just now, when you use a trump and you push with your own abilities, the trump goes grey" I reminded him. "Do you have a way of using an image on a trump to push to where that image is without corrupting the trump?"

Hmmm, perhaps I can get 01 to travel to the Abyss, activate his powers, and trump me from there. Then we could see how the trump reacted. I wonder what makes them vibrate? "That I do not know. Well, it might be that I could. I assume you mean to contact Brand." I nodded as 01 continued. "It might help with that. It might assist, I don't know. If it ruined that trump, though.."

"No" I agreed "I don't have another, I only have one."

"If it ruined that special trump, you don't have another. That is why I'm saying I'm reluctant to simply attempt it."

I nodded again. "Under these conditions, without knowing, I would be reluctant for you to try it too, I have but the one trump. Until I get a copy I am not willing to...well, actually I don't know what it does now that I've bled all over it."

"I have three of you as well, two of which I'd be willing to experiment with" 01 laughed.

"Oh, here, have another one" I threw a trump at him. "I have a whole deck of them. Suhuy keeps a shoebox of my trump by his front door. He has a lot of time on his hands to be making that many copies of my trump." I paused. "No, until I can get a copy of this particular trump" I gazed at Brand's image "I am not willing to experiment with it. But, you may be the best person to try to punch through. You may be the one who can reach through."

01 nodded back. "And I would be willing to do so, if you wanted me to."

"You realize it is dangerous" I cautioned him. "Because if you do reach through, and you reach someone who is unwilling, for whatever reason, to be contacted or be friendly. Then again, if you do so, I will remain in contact with you."

01 shrugged. "And it is very dangerous to walk the pattern, and I have every intention of doing that as well" he replied evenly.

"What might happen" I said thoughtfully, "is if in fact I am an object of, at least some, lack of animosity, perhaps my being with you would make it less risky. I don't know. I don't know what I saw. I don't know if it was true. I did knock myself onto the ground bleeding shortly thereafter, so. But I want to believe it. It's a very difficult trump to reach." I thought for a few minutes.

"Unless" I supposed "Lothos, Scourge of Shadow, is blocking trump, or at least certain trumps." I hesitated, "What an interesting thought. It is said it's dangerous to draw a trump of Lothos, Scourge of Shadow, because he's monitoring all trump contact. What if I had someone duplicate my trump of Brand? If they are somehow linked, would it have the same effect?"

"If Lothos, Scourge of Shadow shows up" 01 philosophized.

I gazed evenly at him. "By the way" I commented offhandedly, "I have a trump of you."

"Where did you get it?" he asked, looking startled.

"I have the only one" I replied.

"That is not quite accurate" he corrected.

I sighed. "I have the only one in this group" I clarified.

"Where did you obtain a trump of me?" he questioned again. Guess he's worried that Injarda-o finally succeeded.

"It was given me by one of your makers" I reassured him.

"Suhuy" he said decidedly.

"Well" I responded, "he IS my uncle. At least he isn't distributing copies of you." I smiled. "Now that I am no longer standing at distinct odds with you, I will give you that information. And I am keeping it to myself, noone is going to have a copy of it." 01 still looked disturbed. "He has given me a trump of myself as well, though it is a bit incorrect."

"My uncle has a wierd sense of humor" I agreed. "He's made hundreds of trumps of me so he can spread them about the multiverse. I have 24 copies of my trump alone."

"That is where I got these" he explained. I shrugged. I sat in contemplation of the trump I was holding for a moment, not trying to activate it, just gazing at the picture. Almost to myself, I mumbled, "I can't be wrong, dammit, he caught me. He's got to be out there somewhere. He caught me, and I saw him. I couldn't have imagined it."

"Everything that I've learned about shapreshifting would suggest that it could have been someone else" 01 mentioned.

I shook my head, "One would consider that, that would be a form that would be taken in very poor taste, all things considered."

"But are you sure?" 01 questioned.

I felt a sorrow, and a sense of loss, realizing I knew exactly what inspired me to believe.

Softly, I said "There was something in the eyes, that I coudn't imagine being Mr. Happy, or anyone like that. Those were not insane eyes. He looked very sad, and he was fading away through a rift behind me. I tried to catch his hand, he looked sadly at me, and then the rift closed. Strange."

"He may have been sad. But, in Corwin's tales he also seemed very angry" 01 pointed out.

"Corwin's a blithering idiot" I snapped.

"It may never have been him. It may be that someone like Lothos held him captive and was posing as Brand. After the Patternfall War, it may be that Oberon imprisoned him, and the real Brand was let out of his cage."

"If your theory were right" I said very slowly, "IF there's any basis in reality, and we can find ANY proof, will you help me prove it?"

"Of course" said 01. "Given that this part is true, there would have been great risk taken."

I just stared at the android. "That's a hell of a theory 01. That's a HELL of a theory, 01."

"It would occur to me that once one could shapeshift..." he said.

"One could assume any form..." I supplied.

"And pretend to be any one" he finished. "Even if there was only one shapeshifter, that would be all you'd need."

"You would think that, you would need someone very well versed in magic who could shapeshift if they were trying to fool, like Fiona and such."

"More directly, someone with Mr. Happy's abilities..." he suggested.

"Mr. Happy could appear to be anybody" I agreed. "And, even I must admit, that the journals in Amber castle did have a bit of the taint of meglomania to them."

"Perhaps Brand was trapped? He was trapped once, according to the journals, in a castle. Perhaps he was trapped again?" 01 surmised.

"I read Corwin's drivel" I answered him, disgusted. "I'm not terribly impressed with my brother's father, and the dramatic angst he threw around himself."

"But perhaps" 01 continued, " that was really him, at the time, and later he got trapped again, by Mr. Happy."

I was incredulous. "What, and Mr. Happy took over his form and turned an interesting political ploy into a seriously psychotic situation, by Corwin's version. So then, who got shot?" "Mr. Happy" 01 replied.

"So you think Lothos, Scourge of Shadow, took a couple arrows and dropped into the Abyss?" I asked, rather sarcastically. This would do nothing for my personal vendetta against Caine...

"And then came back out, looking like himself again" 01 agreed, "where Oberon caught up with him and caged him back up."

"Leaving one totally bewildered but not guilty Brand wandering around, taking the blame?" I asked him.

"Or still trapped" 01 pointed out, "everyone thinking him dead."

I was uncertain how 01's logic circuits worked. "Why would Mr. Happy want him?"

"He's using his identity." 01 explained.

"Why?" I asked him. "That plan is over, why wouldn't he let him go then?"

"Perhaps" 01 theorized further "he no longer remembers or cares that he's trapped."

Narrowing my eyes, I asked him "The how'd he reach out and grab me?"

01 frowned. "He may not be quite as well trapped now, or free and hiding."

"More importantly" I commented, "then the how, is the why? Why save me? Was it a shapeshifter playing a very intelligent trick? Someone playing on the one thing getting my attention..."

"Or perhaps a father reaching out to a child?" 01 asked quietly.

"Not like anybody in the world needed any great effort to get MY attention, they'd just have to pick up one of my 5,792 trumps wandering around. Aw damn! That's what I should have done! When that rift was open and I couldn't grab his hand, I should have chucked a pile of my trumps through!" I grumbled.

We sat for a time, throwing around different aspects of his theory, and trading insights, but it didn't feel right to me. 01 may in fact be on to something useful, or even partly true I thought, but he didn't have it quite right. It didn't feel right. But what if Brand were used, or badly misrepresented? What if there was a very different truth behind Corwin's angst-ridden tales of woe. What if Corwin were loony-tunes and it wasn't anywhere near the truth? Dammit, there was no real way to know, and those eyes were going to haunt me for a long time. There's no way Lothos, Scourge of Shadow would have gone out of his way to be gentle, or helped me, or set me down somewhere safe. Not a chance. And there was no insanity in those eyes. Perhaps it's time I found an excuse to visit Kashfa. And I need to get Merlin's trump back out of Gwen's castle, dammit. He needs to be informed about Prescott.