Amberites do seem to come and go around here.  I came across 
an interesting scene in one of the drawing rooms.  Marcus and 
Nicholas (is one ever present without the other?) were talking to 
another man, who introduced himself as Raphael.  He claims he's 
looking for his father, Corwin.  He's a little late, since Markus told 
him Corwin hasn't been seen in quite a while.  He explained the 
missing King and Queen by claiming they're on vacation.  A fairly 
plausible explanation, provided no one asks where the other elders 
are.  Apparently Raphael hasn't seen his father since right after the 
war, and when Corwin didn't return on schedule, he decided to look 
for him in Amber.  Markus welcomed him to Amber, but I noticed 
Raphael earned an escort similar to my own.  I'm sure they're merely 
for his protection.  Not.  I think he almost spotted me, for he looked 
in my direction before leaving.  What did he pick up on?  It can't 
have been the Spikard, since I think you either see it or you don't.  
This was more uncertain, like he thought I was there but couldn't be 
sure.  Thankfully, he left without investigating.  I've got to remember 
to be careful around him.

	Marcus and Nicholas spent some time after Raphael's departure 
discussing what to do about him.  And me.  They were considering 
giving Raphael a Trump deck, just because he claims to be Corwin's.  
Maybe I should have claimed to be an Amberite when I arrived.  I 
can't believe they'd give an entire deck to someone based entirely on 
his word that he's a relative.  They seemed to find it odd that he 
didn't ask for one, but maybe he figured that would make them less 
suspicious.  Who knows?  They've finally realized that keeping me 
under guard is almost impossible.  Good.  Besides, Nicholas said I 
could pretty much go where I wanted to.  He certainly didn't mention 
any off-limits areas.  And it's his fault I don't feel safe wandering 
around visibly.  Markus apparently wants to play nice with me, in 
exchange for later favors.  I wonder what he wants from me?  Or is 
he using me the same way I'm using him, as a possibly useful ally for 
the future?  It's hard to say, but I think I trust him the most of any 
of the Amberites so far.

	Who knows what else they might have said, if someone hadn't 
set off the Pattern room alarm?  They both left to bother whoever 
was responsible.  At least I'm not the only one who's stumbled across 
that thing recently.  I had no desire to follow them down there, so I 
went up to my room and tried to Trump Dad.  No luck.  I figured it 
was one of those occasions where conditions make the link more 
difficult, so I asked the Spikard to take me closer to Chaos.  This was 
a mistake.  I wound up in the Abyss.  Lovely.  Next time I've got to 
remember to be more specific with that damn thing.  I asked it to 
take me out.  No joy.  The Abyss mutes it's power somehow, so it 
can't build up enough of a charge to be affective.  Wonderful.  I tried 
one of my racked spells.  Still nothing.  Trumps didn't work either.  
At this point, I was starting to get worried.  The idea of being 
trapped in the Abyss forever is somehow not very appealing.  Thank 
the Serpent that Logrus still worked!  It took a while, but I finally 
pulled myself out.  I wanted to drop to my knees and kiss the 
ground.  Then I noticed that I wasn't in Chaos.

	It's never occurred to me that there could be something on the 
other side of the Abyss.  I always figured that if you fell in, you'd 
keep falling forever.  That's the definition of an Abyss, isn't it?  Well, 
I was wrong.  At the other end of the Abyss is Avalon.  Trumps don't 
work there either.  Corwin was quite curious as to how I got there.  I 
said I had an accident in the Abyss.  Which is true.  It's not like I was 
planning to make this trip.  Corwin mentioned that it requires lots of 
power to reach Avalon.  I told him Raphael was looking for him.  
That moved the conversation away from my unexplained presence.  I 
guess Raphael really is his son, since Corwin recognized the name.  He 
asked me to tell Raphael that he can't leave Avalon now.  He didn't 
have any suggestions for how Raphael could come to him, other than 
traveling through the Abyss.  And I really wouldn't recommend that.  
He hadn't heard about Brand's attack, so I gave him the details.  I 
may not think much of Amberites, but Brand is far worse.  Besides, if 
the information helps him at all, he's bound to be a little grateful.  He 
invited me to stay, but I didn't want to press my luck.  Maybe I'll 
return some day.

	This woman named Merle was pretty interested in the Spikard.  
She examined it and said it's integrated itself with me somehow.  She 
even showed me what it looked like.  It was pretty neat.  She used 
some sort of spell to transport me into the Abyss when I was ready 
to leave, but this time I appeared closer to Chaos.  I pulled myself 
out with Logrus and wound up on the steps of Hendrake.  I'm glad 
Derek didn't see me, I must have looked a sight.  I Trumped Dad and 
had him bring me home.  All I wanted at that moment was to go to 
my room and sleep for a week.  Traversing the Abyss takes a lot out 
of a girl.  Dad was glad to see me, as was Mom until she took a good 
look at me.  She didn't like the Spikard at all.  She actually ordered 
me to take it off!  Like I was still ten and she'd caught me with 
candy!  Naturally, I refused.  I'm 25, for Serpent's sake, I don't have 
to take orders from her anymore.

	I really should have left when she manifested the Logrus.  
She's much better with it than I am, and I was pretty exhausted.  
Maybe that's why I didn't run away fast enough.  The next thing I 
know, I'm in some strange room in what looks like Castle Amber 
with the Spikard on a string around my neck.  It was turned off.  
How did Mom do that?  I've been trying to figure it out for days.  I 
was still exhausted, so I slept again.

	When I woke up, the King was standing there offering me food.  
It occurred to me that these were his quarters in the castle.  I was so 
embarrassed!  I bowed and apologized immediately, but he didn't 
seem angry.  It turns out Mom is an old friend of his.  Why have I 
never heard this before?  All this time I'm trying to figure out how 
to ask for his help with the Spikard, and I could have had Mom set 
up a meeting.  Of course, Mom probably would have slugged me with 
the Logrus as soon as she saw the Spikard.  I've never seen her act 
that way before.  What got into her?  The King insisted I call him 
Merlin.  I guess he's picked up the Amberite tendency for 
informality.  We talked briefly, and he's willing to talk to me about 
the Spikard.  He mentioned something wasn't going well, and asked if 
I knew any love spells.  I wish I did.  Unfortunately, I haven't found 
any in the Spikard, and I never learned any while studying with 
Suhuy.  I was engaged, after all, so why would I need a love spell?  I 
wonder what he wanted the spell for?  He could have any pretty 
much any woman in Chaos just by asking.  Weird.  I polished off the 
food and fell asleep soon after he left.  No wonder Corwin doesn't 
want to leave Avalon, it takes forever to recover from the trip.

	When I woke up again, I found a note from Merlin suggesting I 
rest.  It feels like that's all I've been doing recently.  He also left me 
his Trump and invited me to contact him if I needed to.  I plan to do 
that real soon now.  I need to figure out how the Spikard was turned 
off, and, more importantly, how to turn it on again.  I feel almost 
naked without it.  But before I do that, I want to go back to Chaos.  I 
may as well take advantage of not having this blaring beacon on my 
finger.  I want to find out what's eating Mom, and spend some time 
with Derek.

	Morgan knocked on the door, looking for Merlin.  She was quite 
surprised when I opened the door.  I didn't volunteer why I was 
there, and she wouldn't say what she wanted from Merlin.  I also 
didn't know why Merlin is in Amber in the first place.  His presence 
here is rather odd.  Especially given Brand's recent attack on Chaos.  
Why didn't anyone tell me?  I should have been there fighting him, 
not running around Castle Amber!  I had to find out about it after the 
fact from Morgan.  I really need to go home.  I don't belong here, and 
I think I've found out all I'm going to.

	After Morgan left, I searched the castle for Merlin with the 
Logrus.  I figured as long as I avoided the thing in the basement, I 
was OK.  I didn't find him, but I did find a Amberite meeting in 
progress.  Morgan spotted me somehow, and told Nicholas.  Busted.  I 
decided not to wait for the welcoming party.  I didn't think they'd 
believe I was looking for Merlin, and I'd been planning to leave 
anyway.  Dad's Trump was still non-functional, but Derek's worked.  
I had him pull me through and talked with him about Brand's attack.  
Derek was apparently with Mandor in a diversionary maneuver, so 
he missed the main attack.

	Derek filled me on the latest news in the Courts.  It seems the 
difficulty in reaching Chaos is due to some strange Pattern energy 
that leaked through when someone traversed the Abyss.  Oops.  
Fortunately, they don't seem to know who did it, and I did my best 
to look clueless when Derek told me about it.  It still doesn't explain 
why I couldn't reach Dad the first time.  Unless I'm not the only one 
who was Abyss-hopping today.  The juiciest piece of gossip is that 
Merlin is trying to court Morgan, of all people.  I guess that's what he 
wanted the love spell for.  And why she was looking for him.  And 
why he's in Amber.  I don't understand why he'd want her over all 
the women in Chaos.  I hope he gives up on this insane idea soon.  
Can you imagine having an Amberite as Queen of Chaos?  Merlin's 
half-Amberite as it is!

	I Trumped Dad to let him know I was back in Chaos.  And to 
ask why Mom nailed me.  He says Mom believes the Spikard is evil, 
so she brought me to Merlin to have it removed.  I'm thankful she 
was satisfied with just turning it off instead of taking it from me.  
Why does she think it's evil?  The only problems I have with it are 
due to my lack of experience with it.  Mom gets some strange ideas, 
some times.

	Dad also mentioned the strange Pattern energy.  I asked if they 
had any idea who was responsible, and he suggested I ask Mom, 
since she's helping to deal with it.  I also asked what my connection 
to Vialle is.  Apparently Mom knows her too.  I had no idea Mom was 
this well connected!  Dad says he'll have her call me when she gets 
back from dealing with the Pattern energy.  In the meantime, I think 
I'll just hang out here with Derek for a while.  We haven't seen much 
of each other recently, and I want to hear more about the fight with 
Brand.