Murray/Sable
May SY117
Vialle.
In her time in Amber, probably one of the kindest people I had ever met. In her exile with Random a picture of stoic fidelity.
Funnily enough, the idea that she had sold her eyes for power just didn't sit true with what I remembered of her, and what the likes of Joanna and Morgaine, who both knew her better than I, had said.
I was surprised and saddened when I heard of her assassination, at the apparent hands of Razi, the so-called "High Hooligan of Amber" - or at least, that was what I remembered her as from the days before I went on vacation. Because of my positive feelings towards Vialle, I was willing to help Michael Donovan by performing a forensic examination at the scene of her death, to try to find out who had killed her. The fact that clues pointed to Paolo didn't comfort me, although they made a certain amount of sense - given that she was one of the major figures of Rebma, and he seemed to be trying to de-Rebmarise the place.
As would be usual in the case of a forensic investigation, I took various samples from the crime scene, for later analysis. It was only later that the idea of keeping the samples viable occurred to me. And at that point, I also started my other project related to Vialle's death - that of locating her soul. It was a project which I revisited several times thereafter.
What I didn't expect - although perhaps, with hindsight, I should have - was the response from Random and Michael: to whit, the destruction of Kashfa. That angered me. I lost some good friends when the Shadow died, as well as a brother, two nephews and nearly my mother. In fact, if truth be told, it was the destruction of Kashfa that led to my staying out of the Trillium War.
Yes, I know that given the provocation of the loss of loved ones, many of the family would have leapt at the chance to extract revenge in a mass vengeance trip, supported by the majority of the rest of their relations. And I know that in the past I have been quite happy to extract vengeance upon those who have hurt me. In this case, though, I had people I cared for on both sides, and taking revenge at the behest of my mother and Brand on the one hand, against my daughter and grandchildren on the other, was an action I was unwilling to take. Hence I let the Trillium War take its course, only stepping in when Joanna's life was threatened.
And as for Michael, I must confess, I didn't care whether he lived or died by then.
With the death of Trillium, and the later death of Michael, the problem became what to do with Random. I know a lot of the family would favour the idea of wiping him from the face of creation: putting him out of their misery. However, I am wary enough of killing family, especially after my own forays into that particular pastime, and deep down, much as I'm ashamed to admit it, I sympathise with Random.
Why, I hear you ask? What about Random could probably engender sympathy? Especially given that such an admission is tantamount to treason in most quarters at the moment. My answer. To be honest, I've never had the problem with him that so many of us have had, and I suspect I would equally lash out if something happened to Claire, and so in that regard, while I could not condone his actions, I could understand them.
So what to do? Especially with the indications that after Trillium fell, Random linked up with Llewella once more to try to raise forces against...pretty much anything, really, but most specifically Amber. Llewella, I have decided, has got to the stage that she has made her own bed and now she has to lie in it. Others would say the same of Random. However, if it were possible to break up that alliance, without killing either party, it struck me as worth a try.
And the method? That was more a matter for serious thought. However, as I saw it, the possibility remained that even as Vialle's death had sent Random over the edge on a revenge trip, her restoration might neutralise him as a threat: especially if she could persuade him to back off. And to be honest, my guess was that she was about the only person who could. Therefore, I redoubled my efforts to seek once more for Vialle's soul.
Had she died within Sable, it would have been a much simpler. As Creator it would have been rather more easy to find her than it was in the Amber-Thelbane universe. But she had not. She had died at Ygg. And therefore the area which needed to be covered in the search was rather larger. That meant that I had to think of some imaginative ways of locating her. Especially as with the entirety of Shadow to choose from, she could have gone anywhere, or been in waiting to reincarnate in any of the major powers.
I considered for a while, and came to the conclusion that there were certain places where she might be more likely to be. Somewhere near Random was one. The ruins of Trillium were another. Rebma - either the Axis version, or the Amber version - was a third. Of course, none of these were ideal, as they involved my pursuing my investigations in Amber Shadow. Finding Random wasn't exactly likely to be easy either.
In the end, I decided to use the Trump I had drawn of her long ago as the focus, given that it was the closest I had come to touching her soul, and from there, using a combination of magic and my better-than-average command of the Pattern, I started my search once more. I based my operations out of Murray, but where necessary I ventured into the lands of the other Great Powers, although I kept such sorties to a minimum.
It was during investigations within the far reaches of Axis and Amber space that I noticed an inconsistency with the Patterns of the two remaining Rebmas - the fact that while I would have expected to see some trace of my handiwork within one or other of them, it was not there. Even with whatever Chesceni had done to bring Rebma into Axis, at least traces of something that fundamental should have remained, but they did not appear to have done. It was certainly curious, however that matter could wait until later.
As it turned out, I found Vialle on the boundaries of Amber Shadow, near a location where my investigations indicated that Random had recently passed: from where, and to where, I decided not to pursue at that time, although I filed the location away for future reference, in case it might prove to be useful later. I felt her rather than saw her - a lost soul, hunting for something she could not find, reduced to almost a poltergeist or at best a ghost.
I focused the Pattern, at least as far as I could outside of Murray Shadow, and by a combination of that and magic, helped by the ring my father gave me for my wedding present, I gently surrounded the soul and reeled it in. I could feel it struggling, but I continued, all the while trying not to discomfort it any more than was absolutely necessary. Then, once it was in proximity to myself, I closed the net more tightly around it, and transported it and myself back to the safety of Murray, and thence to Millbank.
Once I was home, of course, I could bend my will to the problem of communication, and by use of my link to the place of my birth and the creation of my universe, I slowly let the soul have its freedom, and gave it shape. What resolved in front of me bore something of a resemblance to the Vialle I had known, although I could see other, past lives interwoven with that. And then I concentrated some more, and gave the soul the freedom to speak - or at least, to communicate on a mental level.
"Who are you...why do you make me suffer?" she asked, her mental "voice" loaded with pain. That saddened me. I had not wanted to hurt her.
"I'm not sure if you remember me," I answered, "but I assure you, I did not mean to make you suffer."
She paused a moment, as if thinking, and then said.
"Robert of Sable. I had not realised that you were one of those who wished to harm us."
"I am not," I replied, "my actual wish is to help you, and to that end I have been looking for you for some while. I apologise for the rather extreme measures I had to use to bring you here, but I wanted to speak with you."
"Why? So that even after my death you can torture me and bait me by telling me how evil everything we stood for was, and how wicked my son Michael is?"
"No," I answered, "so that I can try to help you."
She laughed. A cold, bitter laugh that didn't fit at all with my remembrance of her. Still, I knew from my experiences with Andrew that death changes people.
"Why should you help me?" she asked, "and even if you wanted to, which seems unlikely, what could you do? Could you give my husband back his throne? Could you bring my family back together? Could you restore Morgaine to us?"
"Why do you assume I'm lying?" I replied, quietly, "as far as I know, I have never consciously harmed you, your family or Rebma..."
"What of Morgaine and Andrew?"
"That was a situation I tried to rectify and failed to do so," I answered, "pretty catastrophically, I'll grant. However, even with that, I would have considered myself Rebma's friend, and I didn't particularly consider you or your husband as enemies."
"So why do you bring me here?" she demanded, "bring me before you like this and force me to speak with you?"
"How much are you aware of since you...died in Ygg."
I saw a flash of pain pass across her "face", and could feel her sadness.
"I know that Trillium is gone. And that my son no longer lives."
"However, your daughter-in-law does, as do your grandchildren - both Richard and Emma, and the new child that is on the way. They are under my protection in Sable."
For a moment her expression lightened, before returning to one of sadness. "I will never see them."
"Actually, that might not be entirely accurate," I answered, "which is part of why I went looking for you. Do you know that Random is still looking for blood? That even as we speak, he is plotting to attack his enemies, along with Llewella, and is likely to throw himself on the pyre of war with Paolo."
"I'm sorry, Robert. I don't know what you want me to say, but I agree with what he's doing."
"What he's doing, is going to get him killed," I answered.
"Then we will be together again."
That, of course, is the problem with trying to talk to spirits, and to reason with them. Their logic isn't entirely the same as ours.
"Do you really want him dead?" I asked, "especially as I might have an alternative."
She looked at me, and I saw the pain leave her face, to be replaced by surprise and possibly hope. "Such as what?"
"Such as trying to reunite you and him...but in body, not spirit."
"My body is dead... or do you mean to force me to reincarnate?"
"That is certainly one possibility...and Joanna's unborn daughter might be an appropriate vessel for that to happen in," I answered, "but there is another. If you had a body - your own body, or something as close to it as made no difference - would that be a preferable solution?"
She looked at me for a moment as if I had taken leave of my senses, then answered: "My body is dead and buried. How can it come back to life?"
I looked at her then answered, "I'm not entirely inexperienced with these matters - I think it would be possible to make a replacement: I did a scene of crime investigation of your murder, and in the course of that I attained certain samples which would make what I'm proposing possible."
She stared at me for a moment, before saying: "Is that not the sort of thing you Cornelians claimed was one of my son's most heinous crimes?"
"Not entirely," I answered. To be honest, I wasn't sure how close to the wind my idea was taking me, although Vialle wasn't strictly family, which probably gave me more leeway than if I'd proposed it with, say, Random's DNA.
"Why would you do this?" she asked, finally.
"Because when you were alive I actually cared about what happened to you: you were always kind to me in Amber, and I have not forgotten that. Also, as I've said, I was never Random's enemy in the way that others were, although he very nearly prompted me to be so with the attack on Kashfa."
Her aspect became fierce.
"Why would he attack Kashfa? What crime are you accusing him of?"
"He and Michael let the Shadows attack Kashfa in revenge for your murder," I stated, my tone matter of fact.
That seemed to catch her by surprise, and for a moment she seemed to de-focus. It took an effort of will on my part to bring her back, and when I did, I saw her expression had changed. She seemed upset and guilty.
"He killed those people out of revenge for me? But I would not have wanted him to do that: I wanted to put our point across peacefully, which is why I was in Ygg."
"Nonetheless, that was his motivation. Revenge is what is driving him now. And revenge is going to get him killed. And as far as I can see it, you're the only person who has a hope in hell of stopping him before that happens," I answered, "unless you want him to die in that way."
She paused a moment, before answering, and then shook her head.
"Not if there is another way we can be together," she answered, and for the first time I began to see the Vialle I remembered.
"Give me a little time, and I hope there will be," I replied.
"And what do you want in return?" she asked, finally.
"I'd like you to stop Random going along with Llewella's scheme," I answered, "to try to persuade him to break off with her, so that you and he can retire somewhere quiet and stay out of things. I'd even be willing for that to be here, if it stops him going to war with the rest of the family."
"I cannot promise that I would be able to do that," she replied.
"No... but you can promise to try. For both your sakes, and the sake of Joanna, Emma and Richard. Just now they need someone to fill the void left by Michael's death, and I think you could well be that person. If you will let me help you."
She paused again, thinking, and then nodded.
"If you can do what you say you can, then I will try to live up to my side of the bargain."
"That is all I ask," I answered, "will you agree to stay here while I prepare things. I know this isn't a world familiar to you, but it is safe...at least as far as anywhere is."
"You will release me, and let me wait of my own free will."
"Of course," I answered, and slowly and carefully unwove the bindings I had placed around her. I watched the shade become more faint and then disappear, but when I reached out for her, I could tell that she was still there.
"I'll be back, Vialle. I promise," I said, "and soon." And I made my way towards the Hedge Maze and Sable.
Once home, I got my own Jewel out of its hiding place, then went to my laboratory, and found the samples I had taken from the Ygg Embassy and preserved. Collecting them up, I went to one of the alternate locations I occasionally used for research projects - a Shadow just outside the Commonwealth by the name of Venturi - increased the time flow and went to work.
The process was a modification of the one I had used to keep Dominic alive during his formative years, mainly involving genetic magic, some lesser application of magical technology, the use of some of the higher grade skills I had learned as I improved my shapeshifting, and occasional input from the Jewel. Even so, the process took several months to complete, but eventually I had achieved my aim: a living, breathing body of the woman I had known as Queen of Amber. And one, I was surprised to realise, that had the potential to see: whatever had damaged her eyes in her former life did not appear to be genetic.
Of course, all it was at this point was a shell. It would not truly become alive until it had been reunited with its soul. Still, I looked at my handiwork, saw that it was good, and returned with it to the chamber of my Primal Pattern. I left it in Anglia's keeping for a short while, and returned to Millbank.
"It is done," I said, trying to focus on where Vialle's soul was. I could feel it on the edges of the estate, coming towards me, and once I sensed that it was in the same room as I, I reached out and once again brought it towards me.
"So little time has passed," she said as the shade which had materialised before once again appeared before me.
"For me it was longer," I answered, "are you ready?"
"As I ever will be, I expect," she replied.
"I will need to take you. Will you trust that I don't wish you harm?"
The shade seemed to shrug.
"You cannot do more to me than has been done already," she answered, "unless you were to destroy my soul altogether. However somehow, now, I do not think that is your intention."
I concentrated once more and brought the shade to me, before bringing up the Sable Pattern and the relevant spells which took me down into Anglia's chamber.
"Hello Robert," Anglia said, "I trust you do not wish me to kill the one who keeps you company?"
"Not on this occasion," I answered, and crossed to where I had left the body I had made. The last time I had tried something like this, I had done it by walking the Pattern. This time, however, there was no guarantee that to do so would not destroy Vialle's soul: after all, unlike Andrew, she was not of my bloodline, and not an initiate of the Sable Pattern. Therefore another method would be necessary.
I freed the soul from my grasp and saw the shade materialise beside the body, looking at it with some surprise. Then I sat down cross-legged beside body and soul, reached into my pocket and withdrew the Jewel as a focus, and then put myself into a trance and set to work. In my mind's eye I started weaving the silver threads of life and started to use them to bind together body and soul.
How long I sat there I do not know. All I was aware of is that eventually the threads seemed to be shining with their own light, and when I opened my eyes I saw Vialle sitting before me. I was also very, very tired.
"Robert?" she said, her voice hesitant, and I felt her eyes meet mine - although whether she was seeing in the normal sense I couldn't be certain.
"How much do you remember?"
"Things are very hazy," she answered, "I feel to have been away for a long, long time. In addition, rather embarrassed as I am to admit it, I cannot remember how to stand."
"I suppose that isn't entirely surprising," I replied, "the body I have created for you has a lot to learn, and you have a lot to remember. I am willing to act as both teacher and jogger of memories - again, if you are willing to trust me."
She looked at me for a moment, and then gave a slight smile.
"Until now, you have told me the truth," she replied, "therefore, I am willing to do as you ask."
"Thank you," I answered, getting slowing to my feet, my weariness a huge weight on my soldiers. However, I stretched out my hand to her and helped her get to her feet.
"First, some rest. Then, we can began to get to work."
With some of my last reserves of strength I brought the Pattern to mind, and transported us both to Millbank. Sable, and Joanna, Richard and Emma, could wait until Vialle was more herself.