Eastwards of the castle, one passes through a thicket of blue spruce. Next to ponderosa pine, blue spruce makes up the most of Kolvir’s tree life.

Then Kolvir slopes gently upwards, and one is alongside the northeast wall of the castle.

More nearby, though, is a trellised area, and the walkway through it leads to a series of formal gardens. They are very much like the gardens found in eighteenth-century Japan (in the Earth Shadow), and Benedict, who tends them, is trying to expand them further.

Directly behind the castle is a park-like area of benches and walks. The royal family comes often to stroll, to think, even to become inspired. It's also where Gerard tries to get his football games going.

Beyond the walks is a rather small artificial lake. Past it, Benedict has begun another Japanese garden.

The first was more of a (rectangular) zen garden... the new one is more circular, slightly reminiscent of the Pattern in the way its paths are laid out.

Beside it, to the west, is a formal garden of the kind that was popular in eighteenth-century England in the Earth Shadow, very proper and prim.

Around the northwest corner of the castle, to the west side, one can see that to the southwest are some sort of ruins.

Below, on a grassy hill, are the stables.

Facing the southwest wall of the castle is an area filled with flowers, trees, and gorgeous shrubs. Here Flora can smell some of the many flowers she loves from the Earth Shadow...
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:45, Tue 09 Mar 2021.

  It is in the flowery garden facing the southwest wall that Lance takes his breakfast on the tenth hour of morning of the seventh day.  He eats in quiet reflection, seated on a small bench while watching the hummingbirds and bees and the butterflies as they dance among the flowers.  They remind him of a certain cousin, and the metaphor seems to fit.  Oh, lucky flowers!  All too soon though the fluttery things move on to another bright bloom, leaving the first one alone.

  There he sits for quite some time, eating his breakfast, taking in the sights and smells.  He trims a handful of suet from around the breakfast meats, to save for the bird by his window.  His 49ers sweatpants and red t-shirt are slightly incongruous with the bastard sword and dagger that he wears, and the colors do attract a butterfly or two, but they quickly realize that he is not the flower they sought!and leave him for sweeter nectar elsewhere.  Balladflies, he begins calling them in his mind.  The word seemed to fit them nicely.  They were beautiful, seeming to appear out of nowhere, and their appearance brings joy to the heart until all too soon they flit away.

  He hears bells chime the eleventh hour.  Nearly time to go change and clean up, so as to be presentable for his one o’clock lesson with Flora.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:21, Wed 10 Mar 2021.

  Lance lingers a bit, enjoying the sights and scents of the garden before returning his plate and taking his suet offerings back to his room to leave for the bird.  A distant bell chimes the noon hour.  Time to prepare.

Walking down the hallway of the castle,  Ariadne saw Lance.    She gave him a wave and walked over to him.
"Lance!!  How are you?"

  Lance stops, smiles, “Hey Ari, I’m good.  How are you, and how is the acclimation to Amber going?  Do anything interesting lately?”

Ariadne smiled wryly
"I think i am.  I'm finally healed up from getting stabbed by those grey jerks, a week ago.  And I've been training with Jon and Jade with some castle combat experts.   And I'm planning to try to walk the pattern in a few days."
She cocked her head with a half smile
"I've been hoping to catch up with you.  You're the only 'fellow Earthican' I have around here.  As far as adapting to Amber, I'm still feeling like I'm on a vacation in a really immersive theme park.  I'll admit that I'm getting a bit homesick for Earth on occasion "

In reply to Ariadne (msg # 6):

  Lance chuckles.  “Flush toilets and endless hot showers are the things I miss, but other than that, I’m looking at putting down some roots here.  Guess that I never felt like I fit in back on Earth, and while Amber hasn’t been easy so far It feels more like home. “

  He nods when Ari talks about her upcoming walk.  “Jade told me that you and Jon are both gearing up for it, and asked me if I would be there to cheer you two on when you walked it.  Told her I would, but at the same time, I think it’s a potentially added distraction that could be dangerous..  I can tell you, it was a bitch and a half.  Almost didn’t make it, and if I had had anyone else there I might not have.   I should’ve waited until I was fully healed up before I did it, but I really needed to just get it done, one way or another.  Anyway, I plan on being there when you do it, unless you don’t want me to.”

Ari nodded and smiled.
"Yes, a nice hot bath can be fun if you have company, but when you're alone it can just get tedious and repetitive.  Especially when I know that some poor servant has to lug the water up there in the first place.   I always feel a little guilty about that."
She looked thoughtful.
"I definitely want you there, Lance.  Why wouldn't I want that, big guy?  We all need to support each other, after all.   In fact, I'm trying not to not be annoyed that you didn't wait for us.  But I'm sure you had a good reason.  But our little crew of cousins all need each other,  surrounded on one side by murderous grey dinks, and on the other side by royals who are all older than stone."
The short haired woman grinned playfully.
"I'm almost embarrassed that this place, with so few entertainment options and distractions, has kept me from hanging with you for so long.  I apologize for not trying to grab you for a heart to heart before this.  I'll admit that I was perfectly at home on Earth, but i'm happy to talk to you about our transition.  We might be the only people who really understand each other.  I keep getting blank stares from Jon and Jade, though I've been working to teach them Earth idioms."

  “Having servants is pretty freaky, I gotta admit, and the lugging water in and out has been a project I’ve been working on.  Playing with designs for workable plumbing, but have to go back to the drawing board for a bit.  Turns out that any kind of drilling holes in the castle walls might screw up the castle’s magical defense system.  So, I’ll rework it somehow.  If you’ve got any ideas, I’d love to hear them.  Thinking a manual pump might work somehow.”

  Lance let’s out a sigh. “Well, let’s just say that Jon and I aren’t on great terms, and it’s really unlikely that we ever will be.  He and I had a bit of a blow out the other night, and it got pretty ugly... ended with him saying he’d declare me his sworn enemy if I showed up at the walk... stuff like that.   I just don’t want anything to do with him.   I know that he and Jade are really tight, and you’re pretty close to them both, as is Ballad, so it makes it really awkward for me to be around the group.   You all were having fun together and I was not fitting in at all.  To top that off, I pretty much wrecked any possibility of a relationship I might have had with Ballad, so I’m mostly just taking time to work on my own stuff and finding my center.  But hey, been making good use of the time.  Went out into shadow and killed a couple of grey men, at least.”

  Another sigh.  “When I’m with the group I feel like the fifth wheel, and just don’t fit in.  Maybe it’s the way I grew up, always the odd man out, used to being alone even in a crowd.  I’m working on it, but so many changes and adjustments at once, and it’s a lot to take in.   That’s why I had to go do my walk.  I needed some space and perspective.  I needed to know that I really was Flora’s son.  I needed to start proving my worth and earning my keep, and I really needed to get away from Amber, and Ballad, and everything here until I could start proving myself.”

Ariadne nodded thoughtfully about the plumbing problem.
"I'll admit that I've never bothered to learn how plumbing worked on Earth, where expert help was just a phone call away, let alone how to install one here in 'Ye Olde Times Manor', so the only ideas I have is some kind of Warner Brothers style water tower on the roof or something.  But I suspect these royals are all about aesthetic and old fashioned values or whatever. "

When Lance talked about himself and Jon, as well as Ballad, she looked shocked and annoyed, and pinched the bridge of her nose in obvious frustration, and sighed in an effort to not say something she'd regret.
She looked at her cousin intensely, with an expression that was genuinely supportive, but also filled with an urge to smack the tall blond man.
"Wait....what!?!?!   You and Jon are...'sworn enemies'???  What kind of backwards medieval bullshit is that???  We're from Earth, Lance, we don't have 'sworn enemies'!  Well, except for gluten and telemarketers, maybe.   What happened, exactly??  Look, you and Jon (who I apparently ALSO have to grab by the scruff of the neck for a long chat about macho bullshit), are entitled to your own feelings and emotions, or whatever, but unless you've forgotten, we kind of ALREADY have 'sworn enemies', remember???  Those grey dinks who tried to murder us all for no good reason.  We need to stick together.   Look, I've heard that the older generation was constantly at each other's throats, as befitting a bunch of spoiled, entitled royals, but WE need to be different, dammit! "
She sighed again, putting a hand on Lance's shoulder.
"And what's this about Ballad, now??  I had heard rumors that you had some kind of a crush on her, but that's not that big a deal.  God knows that all of our cousins are absolutely gorgeous.   Hell, I don't even like guys and even I was impressed with you and Jon.  We're not a bunch of college kids having childish squabbles here.  This is a serious place.  We can get past our differences and learn to live together.   Hell, we're all flawed people, after all.  Me and Jade almost came to blows when I first met her, but we've gotten past it by accepting our differences and dealing with it. "

Ariadne looked Lance in the eyes, earnest and sincere.
"I'm sorry that I've been too distracted with my own personal drama to pay attention to what's been going on with you, but I'm here now.  Talk to me, man.  What can I do to help?"

  "I really don't know what was up with Jon the other night, and I'm sure he'll tell it differently than I will tell you now.  I was on my way back to my rooms coming from the library, looking forward to a quiet night of reading and healing up from having the shit beat out of me first by the Pattern and then some giant corrupted venomous bat-squirrel thing out in shadow, and then two grey men out there.  Anyway, as I'm about to enter my room, Jon pops up and wants to go out drinking and celebrating me having walked the Pattern.  As I was still carrying some wounds, and definitely not in a particularly celebratory mood, I told him I wasn't feeling up to it and suggested we do it another time.  He got kinda insistent about it, and when I refused a second time he got himself all puffed up, poking me in the chest, insulting me and calling me a coward and looking like he wanted to start swinging at me and shit.  Then he goes and challenges me to some half-assed duel at dawn to coerce me into falling into line with his wanna-be commander-in-chief training regimen bullshit.  I told him that my blades are reserved for the enemies of Amber, and that I won't draw steel against any member of this family unless they are a threat to the kingdom, and certainly not for some stupid-ass duel to massage his already over-inflated ego.  He then really fuckin' lost it and starts saying that if I show up at the Pattern walk he'll consider me his sworn enemy and an enemy of amber and threatening me, blah, blah, blah.  I just walked away."

  Lance shakes his head, laughs a little.  <Blue>"You know, when I first met him, I thought he was all that and a bag of chips.  I was a little envious of him, especially the way Ballad seems drawn to him.  Eventually I realized that he's a player.  He may not even be aware of it, or trying to be like that, but he definitely is, and it's not the type of person I want to be around.  Every time he opens his mouth a compliment or a dozen drops out, and it just smacks of insincerity.  It's like he's hitting on  everything that moves, and buying lavish gifts, and then he comes across more like a greasy used car salesman.  Looking back at a lot of the things he's said, I think there's a lot of backhanded compliments and condescending bullshit."

  "I was still a little annoyed with him for trying to buy drinks for the guys who insulted Jade in the bar instead of smacking them.  Then he goes all nuts on me when nobody else is around to see it because I told him I didn't want to go drinking with him that night.   Next day he's slipping apology notes under my door and saying he's sending one to the King to put into the official history.  I think in the hallway that night he let slip his true colors thinking he's better than everyone because his dad was King, and expecting everyone to do what he says, and heaven forbid if somebody doesn't like him, he'll try to find a way to get their blood on his sword.  I don't like him, I don't trust him, and I really just don't want to be anywhere near him.  If it was just him making the walk, I might not bother going, but I'll be there for you, and because I promised Jade that I'd go.  I know how bad it can get on the Pattern, and if anyone gets stuck or in trouble out there I'll walk that damned thing again to go help them.  I swore to protect the family.  Even shithead, but dear God, please don't tell him that.  If he wants to declare me his enemy, that's his fucking problem, not mine."

  A long sigh. "Then of course, the thing with Ballad.  That one is totally on me, my fault entirely, not hers at all.  It's not just a crush.  I fell for her like I've never fallen for anyone.  Hard, like the devil being cast down out of heaven kind of hard.  The minute I met her.   I've never felt anything like it.  I mean, I've dated, had a few girlfriends, but it always felt so empty, and then along comes Ballad and it's the most intense I've ever felt about anyone.  Shit, I even searched genealogy records to see if marriage between half cousins was a thing, and turns out it is here.  Anyway, so I'm head over heels, and it's not at all mutual.  Like I was trying to say in the bar, I got shot down, crashed and burned and exploded in the wreckage.  Too many pitchers to articulate it though.  And I see Jon making his moves on Ballad despite the fact that he has Jade falling swooning all over him... and Ballad is just being Ballad, and she and I are on very different wavelengths, and I'm just not what she wants, and anything that even reminds me of her hurts like hell and I'm just trying to work through it all.  So, now you know why I've been keeping myself scarce.  I'm not trying to be a jerk, although I suppose it probably comes across that way.  It's just that I'm trying to cope with a lot of shit, and I don't want to be a downer on anyone's good times, or have anyone feel responsible for me, so I'll just keep foraging out into shadow to work on the grey man issue on my own."

Ariadne nodded, eyes narrowed as she thought, trying to take in every detail of what was turning out to be an incredible soap opera, even by her standards.
She sighed with a wry grin and shrugged.
"I can understand one of these people rubbing you the wrong way.  I mean, these Amber types are just...odd.  Like, foreign even by our standards.  And Jon is from, like, the Fairy Realm or something equally weird, like the Feywild, or whatever.  So it's important not to take them too seriously.
No offense, but it sounds like we need to get you two in a room together to hash this out.  It sounds like he was just being an emotional idiot, and perhaps he's learned his lesson, but you need to not treat him like an Earth person who has consistent motivations.  Like I said, these people are weird, but they're not our enemies.
We can't 'deal with issues on our own'.  That's what the grey jackasses want, so catch us out alone and pick us off one by one.   I mean, I'm happy you managed to kill a couple out there, but we can't count on that being the case every time. We need each other, Lance, and it's dangerous to believe otherwise."

She shrugged again.
"I don't know about him being a 'player', but that's probably just his weird culture speaking.   Certainly our cultures from Earth can seem a bit odd to these people.  Jade rubbed me the wrong way a few times before I just came to the conclusion that she has a weird way of looking at things.   This is a different world, like, literally, with different rules and ways of doing things.  So we can't limit our reactions to it as if they were Earth folks."

Then she smiled uncertainly.
"As far as Ballad, I'm not sure what to tell you.   I mean, we haven't had a chance to get to know each other, so I don't know your story and trauma, but I understand falling in love and feeling empty inside.   I remember falling head over heels for a stunt coordinator when I first started working in Hollywood, out of college.  I did some clumsy flirting and was told in no uncertain terms that I was barking up the wrong tree.  I was embarrassed and felt like crap.  But, you have to get over it and move on.
But still, you can't let something like that, as mortifying as you might think it was, keep you separated from the rest of us.   Ballad is possibly one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen, and I've worked with professional movie stars, so I'm sure she is more than accustomed to men swooning over her.  You have to forgive yourself and move on.  Sometimes, these things don't work out.  That's life, my friend.  It sucks, but we can survive it."

  Lance cocks his head and listens while Ari talks about reconciling things with Jon and the dangers of the grey men.

  "I think putting Jon and I in a room together would be a bad idea, really.  At least anytime soon.  Maybe best if there's some time to let it all scab over, y'know?  Right now though, I've got too much more important stuff to focus on than Jon. I learned a little bit about what his father was like, and I didn't much like that either.  Apparently he and Corwin had some kind of fight that left Corwin wounded and incapacitated, and so he wouldn't get blamed for possible fratricide he dragged him out into shadow to Earth and left him to die in the middle of the Black Plague.  Then there's the burning his eyes out when Eric crowned himself King and Corwin was his prisoner thing.  While we're not our parents, a lot of times we inherit a lot more than we realize from them."

  "The grey men are a real threat, I know, and the danger they represent isn't lost on me.  On my last trip out I learned that they don't speak, ever.  They communicate with some kind of telepathy between each other, and they're hard-core fanatics that would rather die than fail, and their goal is capturing us, rather than just killing us.  I don't know why just yet, but it smacks of possible family involvement.  Turns out that our family is actually descended from the Courts of Chaos.  Grandpa Dworkin and the Unicorn broke with them and founded Amber, and they hate us to this day for it.  Now we've got our cousin Merlin, Corwin's son, on the throne over there but he's AWOL supposedly.  Add to that cousin Rinaldo, Brand's son, is the King of some Golden Circle Kingdom named Kashfa.  He killed uncle Caine as retribution for Caine killing Brand who was responsible for your mom's death and giving our ancestral relations a way to reach Amber via something called the Black Road."

  Lance takes a deep breath.  "Now I don't know how Rinaldo wound up as a local King, but apparently there's an outlaw named Dalt who is on Amber's number one most wanted list running around freely in Kashfa and Rinaldo just lets him, so we've potentially got trouble from there too.  Cap it off with an uncle who once had his own designs on the throne, Bleys out there somewhere, and we've got a real cluster."

  "The earth perspective is somewhat different from here, I admit, but still, insulting people, threatening people, trying to coerce them...bad behavior is still that, local customs or not.  You asked about how I grew up?  Well, when my mom was pregnant with me she ran into a family member in a place where she absolutely didn't expect.  It freaked her out so badly that she hid away until I was born and placed me in a Catholic orphanage in Brooklyn so that I wouldn't be found.  That's where I grew up.  It was a place nobody would look for a scion of Amber.  The nuns had no idea what they had, and working from their messed up world view they thought I had the devil inside me because I was different.  Every time I manifested my strength or speed they'd beat me, then I'd heal incredibly fast and it made them even more sure of it.  I had to play it down as much as possible just to keep under the radar.  I was never adopted out.  Saw kids all around me go, but never me.  I thought there was something horribly wrong about me that nobody wanted me. I lived there until I was old enough to get a job at sixteen and emancipate."

  Lance rubs his eyes at the memories. "They had taken us to a renn-faire once when I was little.  I loved it, especially the swordplay.  I studied it, and it was my only real escape from my reality.  Read every book and reference the NY library had about it.  Forms, styles, all of it.  Practiced it up on the roof by myself when I could get up there.  When I got out on my own they gave me two hundred bucks and wished me luck, said they'd pray for me.  I lived in a cardboard box in an alleyway for two months, worked my ass off as a dishwasher and pizza guy, bought an old beater station wagon from my boss.  That was my big upgrade in living conditions.  School in the morning, work every afternoon and night...sixteen hours a day on the weekends, saved everything, bought a used pop-up trailer.  After I graduated high school I got my first gig at a renn-faire, quit the job in the city and started working the faire circuit full-time.  Worked my ass off there too, eventually getting into the bigger performing roles.  Got noticed, did some Hollywood stuff doing swordfight choreography.  I finally got rid of the station wagon, got a slick little pickup truck, fixed up and repainted the trailer and sword fighting was my whole life until the night the grey man showed up with Flora hot on his tail.  All modesty aside, I'm really fucking good with a sword.  Might be the only thing I'm good at, and I've really gotten used to being alone.  Thirty years of not fitting in and being the odd man out.  Now suddenly I'm a Prince with this huge family and servants and ancient ancestral enemies. It's gonna take a while to break a lifetime of habit."

  He smiles a little wistfully.  "So Flora brings me here, I meet Ballad, really fall in love for the first time ever, and because I'm a dumb-ass go and get my heart broken.  Again, not gonna be a quick fix, and it's gonna take me some time to work through it, and I'm doing the best I can.  I had originally thought about vanishing off into shadow forever and putting it all behind me, but it's not the answer.  So instead I'm just working on trying to improve myself, feel better about things, and learn some new stuff while working for Random and trying to deal with all of it."

  A bell chimes the quarter hour.  "Speaking of which, I have an appointment with my mom coming up, so I gotta get moving.  Not sure how long I'll be, but probably all afternoon.  Maybe you and I can catch up more tomorrow morning, or something?"

Ari made a sympathetic face and nodded,  her expression full of sympathy, though her eyes were still a bit guarded.  She'd heard lots of hard luck stories in Hollywood,  after all, and not all were true.    But she gave Lance the benefit of the doubt.
"I'm so sorry,  my friend.   I'll admit that I had it a bit easier than you while on Earth.  I was also taught by creepy catholic nuns.  But mine were at a private school, so the abuse was more subtle and watered down. And i had my father in the picture.  I'm still annoyed at him for keeping this from me, but at least he was there.
And while I've also felt like an outsider for most of my life, I managed to find other oddballs and miscreants to hang out with,  so i suppose I can't understand that level of loneliness and what it might do to a person."

She shook her head thoughtfully
"But be careful about painting someone with the proverbial 'sins of the father'.  We're American,  remember?  The whole point of our country,  in theory,  was so we could be ourselves and not our parents.  Especially since Jon, like most of us, never knew his birth parent growing up.
And while heredity might work weirdly here, like how i seemed to have inherited a love of axes, don't read too much into it. "

Ariadne put up her hands in a gesture of reconciliation.
"I get this urge sometimes to 'fix' people.  I used to be sort of good at it on Earth.  Or, at least,  being confident in my physical Aptitude,  i was never intimidated by people,  which helped some people who had severe issues.  But in this case, I won't presume to know what's best for anyone.   Just know that I'm here for you, Lance, if you ever need a sympathetic ear or a shoulder to cry on, either metaphorically or literally.   Please don't let another week go by without checking in,  okay.   I know that it feels like time sort of stands still here, but a lot can happen in a week in this crazy place."

Perhaps a bit impulsively,  Ariadne leaned forward and tried to gently hug Lance, not something she often did with men, though she'd stop if she sensed he was uncomfortable.

In reply to Ariadne (msg # 14):

  Lance returns the hug with one arm, afterward holding up the handful of suet that he had been keeping well away from Ari's clothing with his other arm in explanation.  "It's for a bird that nests near my window."

  "I know, I should probably give Jon more leeway, and maybe I would have had things not cosmically imploded with Ballad like they did.  Trust is earned though, and he took a lot of steps backward on that road with me the other night.  He made no effort to hide about how poorly he thinks of me.  You know, that first night here I had horrible nightmares about the two of them together, you know, together....and they were laughing at me.  Probably more my own insecurities than her jumping at the chance to go riding alone with him in the moonlight.  It's just that I'm having some real trouble finding my footing, and the incident at the tavern as well as any others probably made you all look at me as damaged goods too.  I suppose I am...well...more like a work in progress.

  Lance prepares to go.  "Thanks, Ari.  It means a lot.  I'm gonna be around, at least for a few days.  I already have a mission lined up helping aunt Fiona with what she's working on, so probably be out of touch for a while then.  Make sure you get some good rest before that Pattern walk though.  I went into it an emotional wreck, still carrying some wounds, and I nearly died.  It's a real bitch, but you'll get through it.  I'll be there for you, and I'm sure everyone else will too.  I gotta run though... if you're not ten minutes early you're late, right?  We'll catch up later or tomorrow.  Promise."

If Ariadne was disappointed by the half hug, she didn't show it.  She smiled ruefully
"I spent years taking out my insecurities on other people, so please don't make the same mistake.   Ballad is a naturally flirty person, even flirting with me, despite having no real interest.   Don't read too much into other people's actions."
She gave Lance a wave as he prepared to go
"Okay,  so if you're not feeling up to coming to the Walk, it's totally cool.  I understand completely.   However......"
She wagged a playfully threatening finger at her cousin,  smiling.
"You make damned sure you keep in touch, goofball.   Don't make me track you down again.  I'm here for you.  Always. "

Day 8, 9:00 am
As is his new custom, Lance takes his breakfast out in the garden after his sunrise run, once again saving some suet for the bird outside his window.  He takes his time eating, sometimes walking about to examine or smell a flower of particular interest.  He seems in an excellent mood, something that had not been in abundance for the better part of a week.

  He’s singing softly to himself as he goes about his breakfast.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:54, Sat 03 Apr 2021.

The gardens are quite the popular place right now. They're a bustling hive of people out for casual, nonchalant, totally-just-by-chance-remembered-an-errand-taking-me-in-this-direction strolls...

In fact, hey look, there are three young women now, castle staff enjoying a break and maybe spying on Lance. Possibly. They're certainly in deep discussion, which seems better served by glances in Lance's direction...