I suppose Gregory would say this serves me right.  He's always 
told me that pit diving was going to get me in trouble.  How was I 
supposed to know this would happen?

	I've found things before when diving, but never anything like 
this.  The box was powerfully warded, but not to keep people out.  It 
was very strange.  I took it to Suhuy, hoping he could tell me about 
it.  He offered me my own shadow for the contents, sight unseen.  Of 
course, I just had to open the box after that.

	There was a ring with a large, white Opal inside.  I'd never seen 
anything like it before.  Suhuy called it a Spikard, but he couldn't tell me 
much else about it, other than it was very old.  So I put it on.  What else 
would you do with a ring?  Well, I probably should have had it 
checked out first, but anyone I brought it to would have stolen it and 
killed me in the process.  The rush of power I got from the ring is 
indescribable.  I need to figure out how to use it, and quickly.  Suhuy 
warned me that people will kill me for it, and I can't figure out a way 
to hide it.  I can make it invisible, but the power flare stands out like 
beacon in the darkness.

	Suhuy suggested talking to someone with experience in these 
matters.  Unfortunately, the only people he could suggest were 
Mandor Sawall and the King.  I'm positive Mandor would kill me, and 
you can't exactly walk up to the King of Chaos and say "There's this 
problem I'd like to discuss with you."  At least I can't.  So I left Chaos 
to try and figure this thing out.  I couldn't even stop and say good-
bye to Mom and Dad.  I hope they're not too worried.

	I found out I can use the Spikard to travel between shadows.  I 
used it to take me to someplace lifeless and started to work with it.  
It seems to be some sort of spell amplifier.  It has links to dozens of 
places, some of which have spells stored in them that I can access.  
But it doesn't seems to speed up the racking or creating of my own 
spells.  I wish I'd paid more attention to Suhuy.  I guess I blew up a 
few too many things, because a bunch of Chaos riders appeared and 
advanced on me.  I know they were trying to take the Spikard.  I had 
it take me someplace safe.  In the process of leaving, it generated 
some kind of shadow disturbance that knocked my pursuers over.  
Good.  With any luck, by the time they recovered it was too late to 
trace me.  I hope.  I have no idea how much of a trail the Spikard 
leaves when I use it to travel through shadow.  Geez, I hope I didn't 
mess up Suhuy's office too much when I left.

	The Spikard has a funny idea of a safe place.  It brought me 
clear across reality, to a forested shadow near Amber.  This is 
supposed to be safe?  I've never been this far from Chaos in my 
entire life.  I feel so alone.  As far as I can tell, this shadow is lifeless, 
which is good.  I wish I had a scrying spell.  I'd like to check and see 
what happened to my pursuers.  Well, at least I have my books, so I 
can try to create a scrying spell.  But first, I'm going shapeshift to 
something other than my true form.  This close to Amber, I don't 
want to be wandering around as myself.  I'm glad Suhuy made us 
practice some different human forms.

	I picked the red-headed female form.  I could have used one of 
my male ones, but those are harder for me to maintain.  Besides, 
most men seem to view females as less threatening, and that's what 
I'm aiming for.  Young, pretty, and innocent.

	It's a good thing I picked another shape.  An Amberite popped 
in.  He was about 6 feet tall with reddish brown hair, blue-gray eyes, 
and a black cat around his neck.  He introduced himself as Nicholas.  
He wore the insignia of Suhuy's school, and I can think of only one 
Amberite who attended it.  Brand's son.  The one who was outlawed 
and killed several people while escaping from Chaos.  Lovely.  I 
introduced myself as Melanie and tried to look as harmless as 
someone with an artifact of power on her finger can.  There must be 
some way to disguise it.  I'm sure Nicholas noticed it.  He very 
pointedly did not look at it.  He offered to take me to Amber.  As if.  
I'm not that stupid.  I told him I was fine where I was, and he 
eventually left.  Praise the Serpent!  I waited about ten minutes, to 
be sure he was really gone, and then I got the Hell out of there.

	I found another barren shadow further away from Amber and 
I'm going to continue trying to figure out this thing.  If it can access 
stored spells, it must have access to places to store spells.  I hope.

	I suppose I could have brought Nicholas back to Chaos.  There 
is a reward out for him, and the prestige I'd get couldn't hurt.  But I 
wasn't sure he was the one until after he'd left.  And I'm not ready to 
go home yet.  Not until I've mastered this thing.  Assuming it can be 
mastered.