Home Alone (Aiden)

Aiden appears in the wooded foothills near the castle. The sky looks beautiful as the sun sets. Behind him the guard tower immediately dispatches a pair of armed riders in white and green livery towards him. Takes less than a minute and they arrive, whereupon he gives the pre-arranged signal to let them know he's not under duress.

"Hey mates," says Aiden to the mounted guardsmen. "I'm headed on to the castle. Could use a mount if you have one to spare."

One salutes and dismounts. "Take Argent, my lord. He is as steady a steed as we've got."

"Thanks, mate," replies Aiden stepping into the stirrup and swinging up into the saddle. "How goes everything on the homefront?"

"A few new royal cousins, my lord. One's nice enough, but weird. Then there are the twins--the really, really weird."

At that Aiden gives a large grin. "Well we've all got a few kangaroos loose in the paddock, don't we? Thanks, again" says Aiden pulling over the reins and nudging the horse into a trot. "Be seein' you."
Aiden kicks the mount into a fast canter heading along the path toward the castle.

Five minute later, Aiden shows up in the main courtyard where liveried attendants take Argent. He heads inside the Castle.

And the first time he turns a corner, he faces a hallway he's heard of but never ever seen before now. It is long, and upon the walls are embedded mirrors. The hallway itself seems rather dark but the mirrors give off a mild light, enough to create a spooky effect. Roughly one hundred feet in is an opposite entrance, where Aiden can see the door to his private apartments. Which are quite some distance away from here.

Rounding the corner Aiden comes to a sudden stop. "Now how 'bout that...," he says quietly to himself.
Well you always HAVE wanted to meet the Hall of Mirrors. Why not?
Removing his hat and running his hand through his hair, he says aloud, "Why not indeed?" Shrugging slightly, Aiden replaces the fedora and enters the Hall.

Within the hallway, nothing feels any different. The lighting effects continue, but other than that oddity nothing seems unusual or out of place. But as Aiden passes by each mirror, he sees his own reflection begin to change. A quick examination of shows the same clothes, the same hair cut, the same everything. But in the glass--!

His reflection shows him slowly donning different dress. Shirt becoming doublet. Hands now sheathed in gloves. A cape swirling from off his shoulders.

At the very last mirror, he turns and sees a sigil worked into that cape, repeated over and over in the material. Two unicorns. One red. One white. Rampant. Facing one another. And then the cape furls behind him as if in a great wind, as if becoming to vast wings--before slipping off his shoulders and somewhere up into the sky. Gone.

He's at the end of the hallway now. But that isn't the door to his chambers before him. Yes, he is still in Castle Amber, the architecture remains exactly as it has always been, but Aiden doesn't know the castle well enough to precisely identify where the Hall of Mirrors had led him...

"??"
Two unicorns facing...symbolizing what? Something I do? Something I'm supposed to do? Something I become..... to unite both houses? Why do symbols always have to be so...symbolic?
Coming to the door at the end of the hall and touching the wood of the frame. Hello 'Door That's Not My Door'. And where might you lead? Aiden reaches down and ever so slowly turns the handle.....

The door opens and there stands Mint in a meeting room with Random, Vialle, Bleys and Fiona. Benedict stands over by the window.