Second Coming (The Kier and Creampuff)

Random turns out to be in one of Castle Amber's gardens, a relatively small courtyard full of flowering bushes in ornate clay pots, with flowering vines climbing the walls of each side. Center is a small fountain which to one side, on the grassy surface, is a tent. Within that tent Random, Vialle and Benedict are seated at a table, having breakfast. Several liveried servants are nearby, two of them bringing a pair of chairs.

Kierenne follows her brother and pet through to the castle, "Good afternoon, Aunt Vialle. Uncles. Thank you for bringing us through." She looks down at her town suit, worn for some unknown period of time and covered in gargoyle gore. "I fear we're not really suitable for a polite breakfast, though I am quite hungry."

"Um... oh. This is Creampuff. We found her on our journeys, and took a liking to her." Then she draws her sword again and uses the back of the blade to knock Creampuff unconcsious. "And then we were in that explosion, and when we woke we were only just then healing, but Creampuff was unharmed. This, therefore, must be an imposter who has killed our beloved Creampuff in order to gain access to Castle Amber." She glares at the fallen form, then places a carefully aimed kick to break ribs but not kill. "You will pay for that, spy."

"Uncle, where is the woman, Branwen, whom we left with Fiona? Once I am cleaned and fed, I would very much like to speak to her. I can deposit this in a cell next to hers, while I'm there."

Slightly taken aback by Kierenne's rough treatment of Creampuff then explanation.

"Spy? Yes, it does makes sense now. She should have been killed..." Kieran starts to draw back to kick Creampuff, but then says, "The woman who was plotting against the throne, crown, and Grandmother, this traitor would make a nice cellmate." Expectations of grand and massive torture that he sees in store for the woman and spy tinge his voice.

Kieran bows to the assembled nobles, "My apologies for not taking time for a proper greeting, but things have been a bit hectic lately. Distortion of trumps in shadow, finding a leader of our foes, and being exploded may have eroded my manners a touch."

Random stares at his niece and nephew for a moment, then says "You two clearly have a lot to tell us. And you've also been through a great deal. Why not go get dressed, and by all means take some food with" he points to the side table laden with breakfast stuff. "When you're done, meet us back here and tell your tale. Benedict, will you please take care of...whatever that is?" He indicates Creampuff.

"Of course," he says with a bow.

"Thank you, Uncle." She moves to the table and grabs some food, then heads back to their rooms. Some random servant she passes in the hallway gets volunteered to bring the hot water for the bath to the room. [Does Castle Amber have indoor plumbing?]

She strips off the neoprene once they are alone, and begins to scrub the gargoyle guts and days of dirt and grime off. She scarfs some food while her brother scrubs, and digs out some more relaxed clothing.



Once again, she brings everything important with her, in case she's transported to another world again without notice.

Then, when they're ready, she follows her brother back to the courtyard.

"Thank you for waiting, Aunt Vialle, Uncles. I feel much better, now. I have to ask, how much time has passed here since the ball in Rebma?"

Scarfing down food while his twin washes, he sorts through acceptable clothing.

Our normal wear is fine, but all this being thrown around, those robes would not be suitable. Maybe this...

After she's done, Kieran scrubs the gore from his bare skin. "Love, could you get my back, I can't seem to reach a spot, and it feels like some bit of something is stuck there."

Afterwards, full, refreshed, and, in theory, ready for anything.

The mask is required, but it leaves my head uncovered still, this should do nicely.



A jacket should do, with something durable as pants.



Looking in the mirror, he adjusts the jacket, getting it fit right across his shoulders. Bending and stretching some to make sure the outfit will allow for unrestrictive movement.

Lifting his mask, with a thought it shifts



Settling it in place, feeling it's weight, he turns to Kierenne, spins once, and spreads his arms.

A small clasp at neck of the hood finishes the look.



Taking Kierenne by the arm, the twins dressed properly, return to the garden.

When they reach the garden, Fiona has joined the group. She wears clothes that look as if she's been travelling--sturdy boots, practical trousers and a strong vest. A cloak, quiver and arrows in her colors lie to one side. Benedict on the other hand has gone and with him the Morlock.

Fiona gives them a hard look as they enter.

"It has been nearly 72 hours since the ball at Rebma," says His Majesty. "I know we all eagerly await news of your adventures!"

72 hours? We only rested once, and that wasn't for very long.

With concern Kieran blurts out, "How long were we exploded?"

Random just gives them a look. "Exploded?" He shakes his head.

"Time flows differently in Shadow," says Fiona. "Everyone knows that."

"Yes, well," Random continues, "the prisoner has been interrogated by an expert, one who uses potions to extract the truth. Apart from anything else, that is so handy if a prisoner turns out to innocent of any real wrong-doing. In this case, she was an employee. Some one who never thought to meet one of the Family," one can hear the capital letter, "and was worried what he employers might do to you. Hence her warning. Turns out she was hired by a small group from Fergus' home Shadow and they gave her that monocle, which is a kind of Trump. Or, was. Well, part of it still is. Or might be. Anyway, someone else hired her to release those clay birds out of that box at predetermined times. Both are under investigation right now."

"Where did you two vanish to, anyway?" This from Fiona, sipping a cup of tea.

"But who are her employers? What did she expect them to do to me, and why?" She pauses for a moment. "And how did she recognize me as Amber's royalty? She saw me only a few days after my existence was known. She must be part of some kind of network that has ties here in the castle, or even very fast ties with Rebma. This is a serious conspiracy!"

"You as much as told her who you were," says Fiona, "at least according to the transcripts. And they weren't looking for you particularly, but for anyone in the Family." She sighs. "Do you always jump to conclusions like this? Honestly, a lot of what you say remains a possibility but you're acting as it were fact!"

"Kierrenne," says Random, "and Kieran. What happened to you? Where did you go?"

"We were all worried," says Vialle.

"From what my darling told me, they have a group in Begma who were coming, we must respond with overwhelming force. Destroy their cabal of treachery, hunt down their leaders. Kill enough of them that they'll not think again about evening threatening Grandmother's brood."

Looking to Benedict, "I'm sure you could plan this better than I could, it would be an honor to watch you organize, muster, rally the troops for this endeavor, if you would be so inclined to allow me to watch and learn from you.."

But where are they?

To the King, "Where are they, what has the spy network brought to light?"

A moment of waiting for a reply, Kieran is really into this now, he interprets the silent barely a moment as confusion.

"My apologies Uncle, but any ruler worth his blood has a network of spies through other kingdoms, and even through Shadow. The confusion seems out of place when we have such serious matters to attend to, like crushing our foes completely."

"Of course there are spies," says Fiona wearily. "Half of them are on multiple payrolls, including ours. Nothing new, then."

"And for the record, I'm not going to declare war on an ally without a better reason that your suspicions based on second-hand information," adds Random. "Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for an answer to my question. What. Happened. To. You? Theories later. Decisions later. Information now."

Kierenne sighs dramatically, clearly carrying the weight of several worlds. "Fine. I'll stop what I'm doing to update you all. I was in Begma like Mint asked me to be, to meet up with the rest of them when they got there to the chapel of the Unicorn. I used our Trump, and I was going to use my time to learn more about the religion."

She glances at Fiona, "We're part Unicorn. Did you know that? Why did nobody tell us that? I mean, a whole relgion just to worship me." She considers her audience. "Well, and the rest of you as well, I suppose. But mostly me."

"Begma is where that Bran person I had thrown to me was at, there were people coming to try to capture Kierenne, or any member of Amber's royal line. They want our blood, Winnow told me that. We know where the enemies are."

Why do they hesitate? They know where the enemy is. The rightful rulers should lead the army and stomple the flonq out of them. How dare they rebel against Amber.

"So, you know about Branwen and her instructions to kidnap and molest us. Me. And that monacle was some kind of mind-control device. I swear she... well... I don't know. I think her suppressed psyche rose up and caused some kind of palsy spasm... something like that. The monacle came off, and she warned me. Warned me about the man who'd just arrived at the party. But then the monacle got itself back on, and she was calm again. So, I threw her to Kieran through the trump, and I was going to confront my supposed attacker, but then Kieran showed up. So we both went after that man. He had on some kind of bear cloak? He said his name was Prospero."

She stops to think, but then is interrupted by her brother...

Picking up his twins line, "Kierenne approached him as he was one she was told about, I was behind him, when she confronted that bastard about the people bent on destroying Grandmother, he quickly cast some spell, everything went black and bats were all over and we ended up in a Shadow that looked like the business end of a bad hangover."

He stops to get the story straight mentally before continuing, when his twin picks it up seemlessly.

"Wait... we attacked him first, right? I should have struck off his arm, but he had some kind of armor on. Could the bear skin have been that strong, I wonder? No, that's silly. How could you kill, much less skin a beast with skin like that? Hrm... well, suffocation, for one. Poison. Drowning... that's just suffocation using water instead of solids... um... okay... but how to cut it into a cloak?"

She pauses for a moment. "Oh, well of course, it could be grown as a cloak. I never saw the underside... it could have been equally as furred because it was simply a creature that looked like a bear's skin." Then she gasps, "Oh Kieran, what if the cloak were still alive? It could be like Fleshrender, healing itself, growing stronger... oh, excellent. Yes, I must have one of these living outfits."

"You asked him about it, I was behind him listening, he was being all trying to be mysterious about it, then we tried to subdue him. That cloak didn't cover his legs where I attacked, and Fleshrender should have cleanly parted his legs into parts. It didn't even hit him. He had magics all over, probably like their stronghold did."

"When I struck at the same time you did. I must say the coordination must have been breathtaking to see. Totally thought we had him by surprise until he opened his cloak and those damn bats took us otherwhere."

"I think with time you could figure out how to magic anything to be as protective as his was. But we did figure out how to get past that." Kieran's voice seems to savor the idea of settling up with Prospero.

"Oh. Not a super-bear shaped like a cloak. Oh well. I'll make it anyway. Maybe not a cloak. Maybe I'll just do a jumpsuit?"

"Anyway, we did surprise him. If he hadn't been in the cloak... or armor, I guess... he'd be bleeding out right there on the path. But instead, he pulled us into the shadows and we were in the other world. Stupid ass ported us onto a hillside. He set that up, just to force stature... he lands on the flat rock and stays standing, we appear on empty air, then fall onto the lower slope and stumble and fall. I'm sure it did that intentionally, too. I bet that spell would only take him to that one spot, too. So he picked a spot where his enemies would stumble. What an ass."

"And he said that he'd been there before, and talked about how it was a haven for the enemies of Amber. They'd been searching for literally ever for a place that couldn't be tracked and couldn't be easily gotten to. But he got there easily enough. And I'll be getting there soon enough too. And then, Prospero will die by my hand or my brother's. The Kier will not be made fools of, nor dumped unceremoneously on hillsides by their kidnappers."

"Those little people and the morlocks discovered that, to their great regret. Well, Creampuff was such a sweety. But she probably regrets meeting us too. Since she's dead. Murdered by that impostor. Where is Benedict? What did he do with my darling Creampuff's killer?"

She looks at the faces of Random and Fiona. "Fine. Story first. Revenge later."

"Right, so he vanished again in his disgusting blob of oozing black shadows, and left us there. We tried to find our way out, but with shadows being so tricky, and the static in our heads, it was really hard. So, I reached out to the warp and weft of the place and figured out the compass of shadows."

"Then I took a nap. That took a lot out of me."

"Yeah, the Morlock things learned that lesson quite well. The midgets did, but we didn't have time to play war with them, realizing that we had to return here."

"But, while you were resting, I watched the tunnels, then once you got up, you were still woozy, we found that enemy city, but deserted. Lots of skeletons, humanish, 6 fingers, you know the type. But all the dwellings were abandoned. There was still this white noise whenever we trumped each other in the same shadow, going outside that shadow was impossible for trump communication much stepping through."

"I experimented with it, and when I stepped through to Kierenne, I was one room over from my destination. I could have landed in a wall. Whoever set up this disturbance has to have ill plans for Amber, otherwise why would they hide from your benevolent rule? Why make a place that interrupts the Pattern and it's powers?"

"We continued using our trump communication as a test. If it got worse, we were twisting Shadow the wrong way, if it got clearer, we were making progress. We found a large enemy castle in the middle of this enemy stronghold. The disturbance wasn't changed, but on the chance we could learn something, we investigated quickly. Anything that we could learn of our foes will be of use in the coming war."

Turning his head to his twin, "Do you think I'd have healed if I had ended up inside the wall? How much would be needed sticking out to survive? This bears thinking about."

"He probably dropped the key thinking we'd be stuck there and it would be a sign of torment. Symbolic. 'I have the key to your freedom. This is just a token to show you I'm in charge'. Pompous ass. Claimed people hid there because of the distortion. Damn traitors."

"But yes, that was the domed place, just past the city of dead things with 6 fingers. I felt your hand when I stepped through but held nothing when I arrived. I agree, we must find out how and why it happened, to see if it's usable before we destroy it and those who seek to do violence against Grandmother's family. I can almost hear him," Kieran continues in a snobbish squeaky voice, "Don't mention unicorns. You wouldn't believe me why this is here."

Resuming his normal voice, "He misjudged us, as we misjudged him. Next time, we won't make that mistake. We broke free of his trap, destroyed their castle, and fought our way here. We must kill him, slay his allies, and destroy all who wish harm to Grandmother."

"And that's it, really. I mean, we walked a lot. Went through a bunch of shadows of no import. In one of them we found Creampuff. The real one, that is. In another, we found the midgets. They tried to attack us, but it's almost not worth mentioning. We left shortly after. Actually... I am somewhat proud of how I blocked all those crossbow bolts. I'd never done so many at once, before. But, that was just playing around. And we walked, and walked."

"Then we came across what looked to be a copy of Castle Amber. At least, from a distance it did. Once we got inside it, there were these gargoyles. Kind of cute, really, but they kept attacking us. The place was only halfway done, and had no doors inside it. It was almost like it had 'naturally' formed into a shape that just looked like this castle. Still, we went to the Pattern room down in the basement, just to see if there was anything special about the place. Larger gargoyles, and they'd lain eggs on the actual surface of the pattern itself. There was no power there, just a pretty design on the floor with some eggs stuck to it."

"So, when we explored the rest, just to confirm nothing else special about it, we did find that in one of the upstairs rooms there was a huge explosion when we went in. I mean, huge. I felt it nearly destroy me. Then I was lying on some kind of world of sand from horizon to horizon. Twin suns in the sky, surrounded by some dead vermin from the fake castle, and Creampuff."

"Well, Kieran and I had been seriously injured. I don't know how long we lay there healing, but the damage was extreme. The vermin from the room... I wonder how they managed to enter the room without triggering the explosion? Must have been size or weight triggered... or our Amber blood. Anyway, the vermin from the room were lying dead on the sand, and we'd been hurt in the extreme, and there's Creampuff. She'd eaten the corpses of some of the vermin, but was otherwise unharmed."

"However, that shadow was far enough away from the distortion's center that my trump worked to Uncle Random, and he brought us all through. And you know the rest. Knowing that the real Creampuff couldn't have survived that explosion, much less been unharmed when we were so badly mangled, I brought the imposter back here so that we could capture it. I didn't want to try it there... it must have traded places with Creampuff in that world or in transit... I couldn't take the chance that it had aid somewhere nearby. But once here, I was surrounded by family; even Uncle Benedict himself. Capturing the murderer was easy, then."

Finished with her report, the girl glances from Random to Fiona, waiting for comment or praise, though really how could they make any comment other than praise?