Blueprints of the Dawn of Amber

 

Suddenly, I felt the sensation in my stomach. Pain lanced through me as the tentacles shot out into shadow, latching on to yet something else. Slowly they began to drag something towards me again, as I gritted my teeth against the agony. I believe if I could have moved, I'd have fainted.

Around me things grew brighter and brighter, as the cave slowly phased into a wodded scene with a clearing. The last of the cave, and I realized now the last of the bedroom, faded away, leaving me in the clearing alone. There wre three figures there. One was a hunched over figure, one a small child, and the last a young middle aged man in red robes with red hair. Could this be the same as the guy I couldn't see in 01's bedroom? Hmmm.

The kid ran off to play in the woods, banging rocks together. He was semi dark haired and fairly nondescript. The others I suddenly recognized as younger versions of Dworkin and Lothos. Ewwww. I was rather startled to notice that Lothos seemed to be slightly older than Dworkin, by about a noticable 10 or 20 years. They were talking, so I moved in closer to listen.

Lothos was speaking, "I don't know D, there's just, something about that kid I don't like. I don't know what it is, I can't explain it, I mean, I got no reason. It's just, he's not right in the head. He's just not right. I much prefer the first one. I like him much getter. I don't understand at all why you had to send him away. I don't get it, I just don't get it."

I looked over at the child. He was wacking trees with rocks, knocking out chunks in a very destructive manner. I almost had to agree with Lothos on that one.

"No" Dworkin shook his head, "this one, this one is ready for it. The other one I have other plans for. It'll be good, we'll get together. We'll do it, combine our resources."

Lothos gave him a dopey grin, "Oh, I'm all for it, you know, father and son get togethers. Build a new home and all that, it's wonderful, but, I just . . . I don't know, I can't get back to this whole concept with this place. Why would you want to be so limited and so focused? I mean, you're limiting yourself by locking into one kind of power. I don't konw, I just don't think it's worth it, I really don't."

Fascinated, I walked up to where Lothos was standing and reached a hand out to him. It went right through, and I sighed. Over by the trees, I noted the child was pulling the petals off flowers.

Dworkin got up and walked into the woods. While he was gone, Lothos picked up a small rock and threw it at the kid. It hit him in the back of the head.

"Awww, why'd you do that?" the kid whined at him.

"What're you talking about? I don't know what you're talking about Bobo. I didn't do nothing." Lothos replied, grinning.

"You did it, you did it" the kid whined.

Lothos growled at him, "Aw, shut up and go wreck something."

The kid glared at him and went back to playing, destroying things. Interesting.

Dworkin returned, smiling. He sat down and opened up a book he was carrying that looked like some sort of artist's portfolio. I moved forward to look. The book contained what appeared to be blueprints.

Dworkin gestured toward the plans, "Look, I'll put the castle here, see I like it cause we can put lots of bathrooms here, and we can run tunnels through here and it'll really work out great."

Comprehension began to dawn on me as to just what I was witnessing. I glanced around at the forest, and damned if it didn't just seem to have the depth and color of a younger Arden. I looked up and around, and there on the horizen was a virgin Kolvir. I'll be damned, the dawn of Amber...

Dworkin started pulling out a number of drawings and layouts.

"I think I'll put the element here" he indicated a spot on one page.

Lothos shook his head again, "I don't understand why you want to bother doing that at all, it's a complete waste of effort to even try to inscribe it. I don't care what, you know, IT said, it sounds stupid."

"No, you don't understand. It has to be done, it's the process. It will change things and it will be for the better" Dworkin told him.

"Yeah?" Lothos asked, "For who? I think it's a bad idea, I think it's a real bad idea." I glanced down at the plan they were arguing over. It was a full layout of Castle Amber. Where they were pointing to the 'element' there was an image on the paper that could only be the Pattern. Around it were a lot of strange symbols. Some were text, strange letters and some were just symbols. None of it was comprehensible at all, though it seemed reminiscent of some sort of formulae.

They flipped through pages, discussing various options for various castle levels. While they did this, I tried 01's trick. I slipped into the form of Lothos and tried to get into synch with his body. It was difficult to do, but eventually things lined up more or less right. Suddenly, I felt heat beginning to build up. It got much stronger, painful, so I backed out. I walked over and tried it again with Dworkin, seeing if I could perhaps interact through him instead. The heat began again, intensifying much too quickly, so I backed out. I glanced down at my arm, and it was slightly blistered. I sighed. It seemed I couldn't interact here at all. Well, I was sent as an observer, nothing more. Ah well then, observe and report it was.

I sighed again and leaned against a tree to watch, waiting for whichever member of our group I may be observing to figure things out and find their way clear of the scene. I looked around, watching Lothos and Dworkin and the kid, who was now throwing rocks into the trees and trying not to be obvious about it.

Dworkin was discussing plan designs enthusiatically while Lothos looked on, bored. They eventually flipped back to the sheet with the Pattern design, and Lothos got more interested again.

"I have a better idea" he said. Holding out a hand, a pen appeared. "What if we do this?" Lothos started drawing on the page - it looked similar to the original pattern design, but seemed to be the inverted mirror image. He scribbled notes in similar unfamiliar symbols. Then he touched the image with his hand, and it broke up into quarters and shifted around. I stared, facinated. After a few seconds, the image started shifting and changing.

Dworkin watched a moment, "Well that's interesting, yes, but not stable enough. No, it's not stable enough. I don't know, I'm going to have to go with the original idea."

Lothos protested, "It's better, it's more versatile."

Dworkin shook his head, "No, no, I don't think so."

They continued to study the designs, arguing. Lothos obviously preferred his improvements, and argued for them.

I glanced over at the kid. He'd wandered up to a tree and stuck his tongue out at it. Odd kid. I walked over there. The kid had gotten a thoughtful expression on his face, still staring at the tree, and started talking to it.

"Cause I have a good sense of what will be" he was saying. He picked up a rock and threw it at the tree. It stopped short of hitting, however, intersecting with something I couldn't see and fell to the ground. My observer, perhaps? I moved closer to investigate.

"Hey kid!" I called, but there was no response. I reached my hand into the space where the rock had stopped, but there was nothing there as far as I could tell. I reached down and tried to grasp the fallen rock, but as usual, no go.

The kid began talking to the space again, "Huh? I don't like you, I'm going to make you go away!" Saying this, he ran back to the other two.

"Dad, dad, dad, dad, there's a bad person over there. Can I make him go away?" he pestered at Dworkin.

Dworkin looked up, distracted, "What? What? Yeah, yeah, fine, whatever." He turned back to his drawings, ignoring the kid again.

The kid turned back to the tree, with an expression of intense concentration on his face, his hands balled into fists, eyes squinted up and teeth bared in a fierce grin. Even before this display, my mind was reeling. Dad he'd said. To Dworkin?

Lothos turned on the kid suddenly, stalked over to him and backhanded him to the ground. "Bobo! Now is not the time. That comes later" he scolded. Bobo? Dad to Dworkin? By the Serpent's Eye, that little brat is Oberon!

Dworkin came running up behind Lothos, grabbed him and spun him around. "Don't EVER touch one of mine", he screamed in his face.

Lothos shrugged it off, "Fine. Whatever. He doesn't know his time."

Dworkin kept his hold on Lothos, furious, seeming to be all but smoking. She started to concentrate on him with a fierce intensity. Lothos started perspiring, wincing and trying to pull away. Dworkin's concentration seemed to intensify.

Lothos growled, "Do you really consider HIM to be worth our friendship? I don't think so. Maybe the other one, but not this one. This one is just wrong."

Dworkin only got madder, concentrating harder. Lothos started cringing. Suddenly he shot out a hand and hit Dworkin hard, in the head. Dworkin reeled and stumbled back.

"That's it, I'm done" Lothos snarled. "I'll talk to you when you have some common sense." Lothos stepped back and reached out with his hands. A tear opened up and he walked through, like a rip through shadow.. Dworkin regained his feet and glared at where Lothos was vanishing. The hole slowly closed behind him.

I began to feel sensation building in my stomach again as the scene turned to a freeze-frame. I looked around, addressing my unseen patron. "You know, I don't mind, but it would be far more interesting if I could see them all. I don't even know who that last invisible person was. Just a thought you know"

Go on to Chapter Twenty, Part Four

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Lady Corvina I of the Courts of Chaos