To Dance With the Devils

A Beginning

Amber, the Eternal City, has always been ruled by King Oberon. Through a succession of Queens - and extra-marital dalliances - he has sired many Princes and Princesses of Amber: Benedict, Elison, Eric, Corwin, Caine, Dierdre, Fiona, Bleys, Llewella, Brand, Florimel, Julian, Gérard, Gisette, Random, Lucien, Excelsior.

Oberon had been gone from the Eternal City for some time, and there was starting to be worry. Some of his children began jockeying for position, wondering if Amber would ever again have a the strong hand of Oberon to rule it. Then one day, Oberon returned from Shadow with a woman: a woman from Chaos, who Oberon announced would be the new Queen...

The Wedding / The Story of the Queen

Gizette, in her capacity as courer, was carrying invitations to the Royal Wedding to the GoldenCircle Kingdoms, encountering a cool reception nearly everywhere except Remulus. When she arrived in Khaladan, she met military resistance: the palace guard was very hostile to her as a representative of Amber, and would not let her pass. Gizette felt threatened enough to Trump Bleys. Bleys came through wearing a rose, and immediately reaction to the situation with indignation, and the righteous belief that the upstard Khaledonians should be slaughtered for not showing proper deference to superior Amberites. Suddenly, a strong female presence psychically attacked Gizette. She and Bleys Trumped away to attend the wedding.

Several things happened at the wedding. First, a powerful logrus user was detected. This happened to in fact be Excelsior, reaching for a trivial item, but that was not known. In response the Castle was turned upside down looking for him/her/it but no trace was found, though Dierdre was knocked unconscious. Meanwhile, Oberon had decided to round up the Ambassadors of the GoldenCircle and begin brutally killing them.

At this point Gizette had decided that the new Queen of Amber was certainly causing this behavior in Oberon, and decided to take her away from her King by grabbing her and flying her out of the Castle and into shadow. In a very deft move, Excelsior grabbed ahold of Queen and courier alike with a Logrus tendril and came along for a ride.

After a long flight through shadow and a number of blows, eventually the conflict was declared over, and all concerned made their way back to Amber. The Queen trumped into the throne room while the others decided to catch their breath and walked back to Amber.

Betrayal / Exile

After returning to Amber, Gizette, the Boy, Lucien, and Elison were greated with a horrific sight; Oberon sobbing, surrounded by the dismembered pieces of his former wife and newest Queen. Evidently, after returning to the castle, she had demanded too much from Oberon as recompense for her kidnapping. Giving a King of Universes orders is never a good idea. After witnessing the aftermath of this, Gerard approached the King, questioning him on if his erratic behavior was over. Gerard quickly found out that it was not, when Oberon began to attack him. In a panic, Elison trumped Benedict and brought him in as the only person capable of fighting off the mad king. While Benedict was arriving on the scene, a rose was discovered on Gerard's person. Benedict appeared, and their battle was epic, but in the end Oberon's experience and mighty strength prevailed against his most martial of sons. Both combatants wounded from the fight, Benedict and Gerard trumped away to heal their wounds, while Oberon stayed standing long enough to declare them both exiled from Amber.

At this point, Elison found a rose penned to the inside of Oberon's jacket, and an investigation into their exact nature was launched. It was revealed that the roses amplified, to the extreme, the emotions of the wearer. Oberon and Gerard likely did not even know that they were being effected in this way, since they feeling would've felt natural to them. The roses themselves were delicate creations of pattern energy, almost too ephemeral to examine at all. It was concluded that only a great artificer with the full power of the Pattern could possibly make these. Of all the Princes and Princesses of the Realm, only Lucien and Brand possessed the necessary skills (though many thought Fiona could be a candidate as well). Lucien said he didn't make them.

While that was happening, Elison had gone to see what had become of Benedict and Gerard. She found Gerard in the later stages of recovery (they had gone to a fast time shadow). Gerard said that Benedict had left a couple of weeks ago, and he was unsure of where he had gone. Trumping to Benedict, she found him amongst a vast army of chaos. Benedict had decided to bring down his father, and was taking over the chaosian forces to do it. In vain, Elison attempted to convince him that this was the wrong path. She also, by calling on their shared friendship, got Benedict to submit to a search. In spite of his odd actions, no Rose was found on him.

Bleys & Brand / Bleys & Benedict

The group of concerned Elders went to find Brand, the only other possible source of the Roses. They eventually walked to Brand's personal fortress out in Shadow. Brand was refusing all trump contact, and they had just begun to work their way through his traps and fortifications.

Gizette also followed up on the condition of Gerard. While with him, she felt a strong phychic pull from Amber Castle. Upon investigation, she discovered that Bleys was missing from his room, and a note had been left. He was evidently distraught, and several roses were found in his room. She quickly trumped Lucien, and joined the others at Brand's castle, where the note had indicated Bleys was headed.

With added urgency, they quickly forced their way into Brand's inner sanctum. There they found Brand with a grevious sword wound from the mighty Werewindel. As they summoned medical equipment to keep their brother alive, Brand was able to impart the knowledge that Bleys was headed for Benedict, under the belief that he had caused all of this, that he had created the Roses, and that it was his responsiblity to fix it.

Gizette, like a bolt of lightning shot across the universes towards Benedict and Bleys. Elison and Lucien eventually trumped there (Benedict was not answering), and Excelsior once again grabbed onto Gizette's leg. Swooping in across the army, Gizette witnessed several second of the fight between Bleys and Benedict. Both armed with Pattern blades, both committed to the cause and the rightness of it, they went at each other as no kinsmen should have to. In an effort to stop the fighting, Gizette with the help of Lucien attempted to grab Bleys out of the fight. Unfortunately Benedict was taken along for the ride. Bley's downfall came after Benedict realized the connection that bound Gizette and Bleys was far deeper than anyone had suspected, and he went for a killing blow to Gizette. Bleys interposed his own body, and stopped Benedict's blade with his heart.

With only seconds left of Bley's life, Gizette and Lucien tore apart the very nature of shadow itself to send Benedict and Bleys to the Abyss. After some investigation, it was found that time did not exist there, and Bleys was caught just before the moments of death. Quickly using Lucien and Excelsior's connections in Chaos, they found a legendary surgeon who would save Bleys, but not with out the price of an Amberite's life blood. Excelsior made an arrangement, and kept it secret from the others that satisfied Lord Merganthe, and Bleys was brought back from the Abyss.

The Death of a King. Long Live the King

After the gutting of Bleys; Lucien, Excelsior, and Gizette decided it was time to find out who exactly was behind all of these Roses and strange happenings. With all the evidence still pointing to Lucien, they dug into the makeup of the Roses. Eventually they decided to start shadow walking to the source of the Roses. After going in circles near Amber for a time, they came upon the Grove of the Unicorn. Here they found some Roses (I believe), and began to get a clue for who had done these things.

Meanwhile, Elison had managed to extract Benedict from the Abyss and place him in a prison shadow contained inside a locket she wore. After some soul searching and talking with Benedict, she returned to Amber to give Benedict to the King and finally have and end to the strife and war. Upon receiving the locket with his feared foe safely inside, Oberon immediately brushed aside all the work that had been done. He was finally going to be able to return to the life that he had wanted to led, and nothing, not the mauling of Bleys, not the rise of an army in chaos by his own son was going to change this man or how he lived his life. Elison, decided to have an end to this insanity at last, threw herself upon the King and took him over the side of the castle battlements.

Unbeknownst to Elison, the group at the Grove of the Unicorn had decided to wake something around the same time. Lucien prepared to do his worst with his awesome eldritch weapons and the power of the primal pattern, waited out of sight while Gizette attempted to contact the person responsible for the Roses they had found. Fairly quickly, a large psychic presence was felt approaching. The presence grew enormous, overpowering as it approached and the three prepared for the worst.

Elison, being extremely skilled in the usage and manipulation of Trump, managed to get away from the certain death that awaited her on the rocks of Kolvir. After doing so, she freed the imprisoned Benedict, and they both joined up with the others waiting for the result of this summons.

When the unicorn arrived, most were surprised. She spoke to Gizette's mind (being already in contact with her) and revealed that all of this had been arranged by her. She had decided that the rule of corruption by Oberon was finally too much and that something needed to change. She saw Benedict as the true Amberite, loyal and good in all ways, and she set out to put him on the throne. The roses where one way in which she worked, but now that the King was dead she could reveal her true intentions. After listening to the unicorn, Gizette turn to Benedict and proclaimed him the new King of Amber.

Sister, Where Art Thou?

While everyone prepared for the coronation, Lucian launched an investigation into Oberon's death. The trail led to Elison, who, in her grief at killing her father, made no attempt to conceal her guilt. Lucian clapped Elison into chains made especially to hold her, and dragged her to the castle. There she admitted her crime to Benedict. Benedict was distraught, and replied that as King, he would have to execute her - but before his coronation he was merely her brother, and could exile her instead. Elison was allowed to leave, and departed to her Shadow of Dernier, under stricture never to return to Amber.