You know, I'm beginning to think that Jove is cursed.  Every time I'm 
near him, I seem to get into trouble.  I wonder if that explains Coll's 
abysmal luck as well.  Ah yes, Coll, another one of Jove's trusted allies who 
turned on him.  I wish Jove had listened to me when I told him to go 
through to Coll instead of bringing Coll through to us.  To be honest, I 
probably shouldn't have contacted Jove at all, but I wanted to find out how 
he was, and what had been happening while I was gone.  I also needed to 
tell him that Random was responsible for his courtship trial failure, not 
Park as we had assumed.  I'm really fed up with Random.  He was the one 
who allowed Jove to court a Chaos woman in the first place.  He should 
been prepared for the possibility that Jove might become obsessed with 
someone new.  But he wasn't, and when it happened, he dealt with it in the 
worst possible way.  God almighty, Jove and I wouldn't even be in this 
situation if it hadn't been for him!  The only reason I agreed to participate 
in the assassination attempt was because of Park's insult to Amber!  
Assuming I live through my current incarceration, I won't soon forget this.  
It does point out to me that I've put off establishing an information 
network in Amber for far too long.  I made a start with Sebastian, but it 
needs to be expanded.  There's too much going on that I don't know 
enough about.  Like where Father is currently.  He didn't even attend my 
funeral.  I'd like to believe that he would show up unless important 
circumstances prevented it.  Random indicated that he was on some 
important mission, but I wonder if Random has any clue where he is at all.  
Not that Random has a clue about anything.  I warned him that disguising 
me as Oliver was not a good idea.  Oliver is well known for his skill with 
the Pattern, and, to be perfectly honest, I've spent as little time as possible 
in that area myself.  There's no way that anyone who knows Oliver would 
be fooled for any length of time.  I'll admit, going to the funeral without a 
disguise was a bad idea, but I/we weren't really thinking very straight at 
that point.  It's very disorienting to be reacting with someone else's 
feelings.  Waldhiem did such a good job on the transformation that, if I 
didn't think about, I almost thought I was Oliver.  I had no idea that 
someone could be shapeshifted so thoroughly!  It makes we wonder...  If 
someone was shifted to look like another person with close to the same 
abilities, would we ever know the truth?  Waldhiem claimed that it would 
be difficult to pierce the disguise with either Pattern or Logrus, although it 
could be done.  Now, as long as a shapeshifter avoided circumstances that 
would put him under such scrutiny, they might be able to fool us forever.  
On the other hand, as I found out, if the two psyches are not very 
compatible, it causes almost as many problems as it solved.  Like in the 
fight with Coll's men, for example.  A good fighter reacts almost by instinct 
in hand-to-hand combat.  But my instinctive reactions were all Oliver's, 
who isn't much of a fighter.  I kept wanting to use Pattern abilities that I 
don't have, and had to focus to remember most of my weapons training, 
which slowed me down immensely.  Of course, to give Coll credit, it was a 
well executed trap.  I doubt I could have escaped even had I been 
operating at my normal capacity.  There will be a reckoning, however, I 
promise you that.  In the meantime, it seems that I have exchanged one 
Chaos prison for another, all in the space of one day.  With a brief interlude 
to watch myself get buried and Sebastian steal Allyra.  Teenagers are so 
fickle!  I'd like to believe that she'll see through Sebastian's facade.  And if 
she doesn't, well, she doesn't have the intelligence I credited her with.  
Still, it is a pity.