I managed to come up with a spell that might locate Edward.  
Etienne popped in right in the middle of it.  The man has lousy 
timing.  I barely managed to maintain control of the spell.  Luckily he 
was over his Logrus madness.  I explained what I was doing and he 
agreed to run interference for me in case anyone else decided to 
show up.  I got the rest of the spell of without any problems.  The 
question is, will it find anything?

	We heard some sort of alarm and went to investigate.  We 
missed the fight, but given who was involved, I'm not all that 
disappointed.  It seems Brand and a shapeshifter disguised as Julian 
attacked several Amberites in the audience chamber, including 
Benedict.  That was unwise.  "Julian" was subdued.  Brand left.  
Benedict declared that Brand was probably still in the castle and 
then departed to take care of the castle defenses.  For some reason, 
Rachel was wearing the Eye.  You remember, the one Markus I and I 
were combing the Abyss for?  How in the Serpent's name did she 
manage to get her hands on it?  Shortly after Benedict left, Nicholas 
announced that Brand was walking the Pattern and brought most of 
us down there, except for Rachel, Markus and Morgan, who stayed 
behind to try and unfreeze the King and Queen.

	It felt like using magic on the Pattern would cause a nasty 
backlash, so I opted to play the role of observer.  Etienne decided to 
take a more active role.  He shot Brand repeatedly.  It would seem 
Bartholomew was incorrect.  Blood will damage a Pattern other than 
the Primal one.  Brand escaped, of course.  Of interest is the fact that 
Etienne continued firing even after the damage to the Pattern 
became apparent.  I wonder why?  Was he intentionally trying to 
damage the Pattern, or did he simply not care?  Needless to say, he 
blamed the whole thing on Bartholomew and got the Hell out of 
there.  And do you know what?  Everyone bought it.  They started 
yelling at Bartholomew, even though Etienne had done the shooting.  
Marvelous.

	I teleported back to the audience chamber, where I found 
Rachel unconscious, and Markus in possession of the Eye.  I explained 
what had happened, making sure to place the blame squarely on 
Bartholomew's shoulders.  Hey, Etienne is an ally, of sorts, while 
Bartholomew is merely an ass.  Besides, if he was stupid enough to 
keep spouting that insane theory of his, he shouldn't be surprised 
that he was made the scapegoat when it was proven incorrect.  
Markus was not pleased to learn of the damage, and left to try and 
fix it.  Rachel regained consciousness shortly afterwards and was 
most displeased to learn that Markus had the Eye.  She believes she 
has a superior claim, and that Markus is beneath her trust.  She 
would not elaborate on this, however, and stormed out when Morgan 
and I refused to help.  She's hardly going to get much support when 
she has nothing more to back her than vague and unsubstantiated 
claims.

	Morgan Trumped Markus, and pulled most of the Pattern room 
contingent through.  Apparently Markus wasn't able to do anything 
with the Eye, but he feels that Corwin will know how to fix the 
damage.  Naturally, they were most interested in hearing about my 
trip to Avalon.  We traveled to Suhuy's grounds, and Markus did 
something to get a lock on Avalon so that Nicholas could transport us 
there with the Pattern.  Better him than me.

	Merle was surprised to see me again.  She addressed me as 
Gwen, even though I was going by Melanie on my last trip.  
Interesting.  I wonder if she knew originally.  Markus was taken to 
another room with Corwin and Nicholas immediately began spying on 
them.  And he was complaining about my behavior in Amber's castle!  
I shouldn't be surprised.  What else would you expect from Brand's 
son?

	Bartholomew has a means of contacting Nicholas and Morgan, 
even in Avalon.  Whatever it was, it wasn't Trump.  Nicholas didn't 
want to explain and directed me to Morgan.  I'll have to ask her 
about that some time.

	Corwin told us Markus was done, and Merle assisted us in 
leaving in the same way she did last time.  Nicholas transported us 
the rest of the way.  Given the problems I caused the last time I 
journeyed, I suggested we get the Hell out of there.  Especially since I 
noticed an increase in Abyss storms.  Well, at least Mom won't find 
any traces of Spikard use in this mess.  Nicholas took care of the trip 
back to Amber as well.  My second trip to Avalon, and this time I 
didn't have to exhaust myself in the process this time.

	Markus appears to have been able to free Random and Vialle.  
Interestingly enough, neither Markus or Random appeared to have 
the Eye.  Did Corwin keep it?  I wouldn't be surprised.  I would, if I 
had the opportunity.

	I paid another visit to the hall of mirrors.  There was a 
gentleman portrayed there who fit my grandfather's description to a 
T.  It was Oberon, naturally.  I certainly won't be asking him any 
questions about what he was doing in Chaos.  Speaking with the dead 
has never been my forte.  Although with Brand and Bremen's return, 
the dead don't seem to be staying that way, so maybe I'll have a 
chance to talk to him after all.

	Caine attempted to interrogate the shapeshifter.  My 
examination leads me to believe he is an advanced shifter who's lost 
his persona in Julian's.  Which means he'll be useless until we break 
the persona.  Julian (the real one), tried beating it out of him.  Like 
that had a chance of succeeding.  Resume True Form caused him to 
scream in pain, but affected no other change.  He called me a Chaos 
bitch.  I tried again, but put the power of the Spikard behind it this 
time.  The shifter caught on fire.  I must say, I found that very 
satisfying.  They put him out, but there was no other change, other 
than an increase in the breadth of his insults.  If they kill him the 
end, I'd like to have a piece of him.