Chapter Nineteen

Pieces Falling

 

I was shaken from my theorizing and contemplation by an impinging trump contact. Frankly, with the number of my trumps out there, I had no idea why I wasn't getting one after the other. I warned 01 I was getting a call, and opened up to it.

"Hello?" I thought.

An image of Dworkin in his workshop sprang into crystal clarity. Involuntarily, I felt my spine straighten. Dworkin stared at me, not unkindly.

"You should talk to Suhuy" he said. "He's giving out far too many of your trumps. I just found 6 of them." He waved a bunch of trumps at me.

I grimaced. "He says he has a shoebox of them and he's using them as personal calling cards" I told Dworkin.

"Yeah" he commented "they all have his email address on the back." Oh, my head.

"You should talk to him" he repeated "it's not very nice."

"I know but..." I started to say.

Dworkin went on, "Watch what happens when I do.....this." He took 5 of my trump and spread them out in front of him. Reaching out, he touched all 5 at once, and a stab of blinding pain shot through my head. I groaned.

"He has great respect for YOU sir" I tried. "Perhaps it would be possible, that is if you were willing, to pursuade him..."

"No" Dworkin waved me off "but you can have these." He handed the 5 trumps at me, obviously keeping the one he was using.

In my most polite tone, I told him, "Thank you, you're very kind." I sounded lost even to me.

Dworkin chuckled and broke the contact.

I sat with a sigh, looking at my new five trumps.

01 looked thoughtfully at me.

"If you let me know whenever there's an unplesant trump call" he suggested, "I may be able to reach through and destroy their card."

I grinned at him. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

He suggested that perhaps I should apologise to Suhuy, in a surprise manuever, to get him to stop. I was shocked, apologizing being such a foreign concept. It was, well, only done at home as a political maneuver really, and what would Suhuy think I was up to if I offered an apology out of the blue? I couldn't imagine , , , is that how they do things in Amber?

"It could be construed as a sign of weakness" I told him.

01 was silent.

"But" I added "ah hell. It's worth a shot I suppose. Then again, if I'm trying to find obscure and hard to locate people, being the ultimate contact point for everything in the cosmos might not be such a bad thing."

I laughed and continued, "Maybe the person I'm trying to locate will end up with my trump!"

"And contact you?" 01 asked.

"I can't imagine him needing it to call" I said sadly. "But at least it's an entertaining thought."

After a bit more discussion, we decided that we should get in touch with Tekvar, see if he was alright, and discuss with him whether or not it would be ok to inform Merlin regarding Prescott. Frankly, unless Prescott had a really good reason why not, I fully intended to inform Merlin. At this point, too bad for the kid if he was avoiding his father.

As he got ready to open the tunnel, 01 turned to me.

"I just wanted you to know, I did look through your trumps while you were recovering." Slick bastard! I would've done the same.

"Also" he continued, "I did overhear all of your and Gwen's conversation in the rainbow shadow place."

"I figured as much" I told him. I hadn't been sure, but it was nice to know. I explained to 01 that Ravenwind was one of those things we needed to keep secret between us, and he agreed to do so. I still hadn't mentioned Frakir to anyone.

01 opened his tunnel, and we fell through to Tekvar. He was in a pleasant setting, but upon arriving I found myself gasping for air. This atmosphere was apparently methane. Quickly I let my shifting take over and change me into something that breathed methane.

I turned to 01, "Good thing that was me and not someone ELSE you were trying to kill!" I joked.

We sat down near Tekvar, and began talking to him. We explained things, reiterating the past few hours of conversation we'd had.

Suddenly, I felt a trump contact. I warned 01 and answered the call. There was apparently noone there. I saw a picture of a church tower with a clock, nearing midnight. There were bells and chimes ringing in the background, and then it faded away. Mystified, I described the whole scene to 01, who had no insights to offer.

We continued talking to Tekvar, but noticed that he was not responding in the least. He just continued to stare straight ahead, not paying any attention to either of us. We eventually figured out that he could only interact with those who were touching him, and that he couldn't get much sensory input otherwise. Facinating reaction to the Logrus, I thought. It turns out after essaying the Logrus, Suhuy put a bag over his head and told him to stay put. Guess that Logrus-whip ride through shadow didn't sit well with the new initiate. Ah well.

I felt another trump contact. I answered, and suddenly, I got hit with a strong bout of energy. I felt dizzy, and then realized that 01 was looking at me funny. He looked terribly amused, and told me that he advised against such blind acceptance of trump contacts.

"I don't know how to screen trump. Why?" I asked him.

"You look like a stick figure with streaks of color." he told me with stifled laughter.

"Mr. Happy" I stated, disgusted. I tried to shift, but it had no effect. I looked down at myself, but I couldn't see the changes that he could.

"I want to try one thing" 01 said.

"Go ahead" I told him. "I have nothing active, go for it."

01 turned on his lightsaber and experimented with it for a few. The blade sagged, and acted like a whip.

I watched for a moment, then shuffled out Suhuy's trump and concentrated on it. Eventually, Suhuy answered me. I asked him to do something about the stick figure thing, and he was sarcastic at me. He told me he thought that I'd done the spell, and he snickered and removed it. I asked him to stop spreading me around. He told me that I'd wanted to look into trump, so he was giving me lots of oppotunity. Thanks Uncle.

I turned back to 01 and Tekvar, but felt the beginnings of another trump contact. This was a bit much. Hesitantly, I answered. It was Injarda-o, with Timtallagay over his shoulder.

"Where are you?" he asked.

I looked at 01, "Where are we?" He shrugged.

"I don't know" I told Injarda-o. "There's a lot of methane."

"Eww, do you want out?"

"No" I answered "I can breathe methane, right now. Why, what's up?"

"We've just been out of touch for some time, we decided to see what you were up to" he responded.

I shrugged. "What are you guys up to?" I asked.

"Um, we've been hanging out and talking, mostly."

"To each other?" I was just checking. After all, Tim was there.

"Yes" Injarda-o answered, startled.

"Who all is with you?" I asked him.

"Timtallagay and Gwen."

"Ah you found her too" I was relieved. I hadn't realized till then quite how much I missed her. Ah Gwen . . . I doubt I could ever tell you. "Good."

"Yes, ages ago" he told me. "How long has it been for you?"

"A couple of days" I let him know.

"It's been longer for us."

"I ran into some difficulties" I explained "and was in trouble."

"Ok" he said, "did you solve it?"

"I received assistance, and I am now...welll...I hesitate to use the word ok because my trump is all over the place, but other than that I'm fine." I answered. "I'm no longer under serious stress, if that counts. Would you like to get people together?"

"Are you with anyone?" he asked.

"01 and Tekvar" I responded slowly, not sure of the reaction.

"Well" he said, "there's three of us here and three of us there."

"Yes" I acknowledged.

"I'd rather not come into methane" he expressed.

I turned my attention to include 01 and Tekvar. "Would you like to go through where they can all breathe?" I asked them. "They would all like to talk."

While I was waiting for an answer, Injarda-o suddenly cut the trump contact.

Since we now had the time, we began reexplaning things to Tekvar, while being in physical contact with him since that was the only way he could hear us. We explained the situation, and presented the options of going somewhere else, where we could recover and potentially assume an oxygen breathing form.

01 chose a shadow where we would all be very popular, bordering on worship, and treated very well. I shifted into my chaos form, as I prefered something that adaped faster to new atmospheres. It took us several tunnel jumps to get there.

I noticed, when we arrived, that something flashed around Tekvar's neck. It was a bright, coursing rainbow flare of light, in a pulse. It came from around his neck, from the horsehead amulet. It was pulsing and corsating with light.

"Nephew?" I asked. There was no response.

"Orenstein?" asked 01. He received no response either.

"I suppose if Injarda-o hasn't called us, I can call him" I mentioned.

"This place has a very, very quick timeline" 01 told me, "give them some time. This place has about 3 months to 1 hour Amber time."

"Sounds like a good place to get some rest" I yawned.

The amulet flashed again, and started throwing off little tendrils of rainbow light that faded a little ways off. I touched Tekvar so he could hear me, and described what his amulet was doing.

"Orenstein is flashing bright rainbow lights and throwing little light tendrils" I told him.

"Oh" he said.

"Is this normal?" I asked him.

"I don't know" he responded. He sounded vague and confused.

01 questioned him on what he could feel and sense.

I explained to him that essaying the Logrus caused temporary insanity, and that this condition of sensory deprivation would most likely pass in a few days. They hadn't been told this, and were a bit surprised to learn it.

Tekvar told me that Suhuy gave him a blindfold some time after the paper bag, and advised him to wear it.

I shrugged. I never did understand all of Suhuy's motives. Time for some sleep.