Well, Castigir, it's been a while since I talked to you and so I thought that I would pop over and tell you of recent events:

No sooner had I FINALLY removed myself from that room when I felt a sudden pressure on my mind and then- _slam!_ my shields were down and Aldrik was inside my mind, I hate pushy people with trumps.. He said something along the lines of “This is Aldrik. I realize that you have sworn an oath of allegiance to Finndo and that this contact may place you in an awkward position. Pleaseunderstand that I, and those who support me, do not threaten Amber. I merely seek information regarding the current state of affairs in Amber. If you can provide this, I am in your debt. If not, I respect your decision and will not contact you again.”

Well, it wasn’t exactly what I expected but he did startle me a bit as I had just seen him disappear from the Throne Room and I definitely didn’t expect him to just Trump back at people that had beed forced to swear aleigance.

"Well Aldrik, I do believe that you ARE for Amber and all that _but_, I have sworn aleigance to this guy under duress and I couldn't get away. I will not go back on my word, however I shall do nothing to hinder or halt any actions that you and your group of rebels perform. As long as it doesn't target Finndo specifically I will also be glad to help you out."

After such a rude interruption I walked down the corridor and ran into you. Obviously I wasn't expecting this because I had never seen you outside of the Courts of Chaos before. Although I really shouldn't have been very surprised considering that the two poles do tend to attract us back for more. And so, since I was giong to troupe back down the mountainside to find Holdt, I thought I might as well have some company on the way. As usual, you were being retentive as usual concerning anything serious, especially to do with Trumps and how you got here in the first place. I was still rather surprised that you knew nothing about Amber and its events as Chaos is usually behind such attacks. So you haven't done well lately in your trading hey? Well, that does change how to look upon things. Vilorn is up to something again, whay am I not surprised. *grumble* Answer the question, dammit! stop acting like a politician! "Of course I can [answer the question w/out being annoying]... I'm typically accused of being cagey and evasive, though." Ain't that the truth.

Another thing that struck me, I would have thought that you wouldn't jump at the casting of a couple of simple spells that I cast in your presence. So when I located Holdt, you shouldn't have worried as his name came up in the spell. The dancing lights was funny though, I think you seriously was going to cast something at you! Learn something new every day. I love it when I do that. I'm a men of simple pleasures, don't expect me to react otherwise.

The battlefield.. I _hate_ returning to them, ther're always terrible and this one was worse, with all the bodies and wounded still lying scattered everywhere. Finndo's gonna pay for this one. After collecting Holdt from the field, I said my goodbyes to Castagir and vanished into the forest.I teleported back to the palace from there to freshen up. After I had made myself presentable, Tristan knocked on my door, and here I was, about to leave for my home away from home to refill my half-empty spell rack when I had another visitor. I was lucky for a short time in that we were talking about Finndo, but our conversation was cut short by him recieving a Trump contact. I hope he does contact me because that means that I have some allies against that Finndo.

As soon as Tristan left I teleported back to my shadow. With my use of Pattern, and my knowlege of the workings of my Shadow I accelerated the rate of time until it reached a point where about twentyfive hours there was only one in Amber. Boy I love Shadow quirks. And so it came to pass that Holt and my spells were reunited, as it is in he that I hang them on. I then checked on my Guardians to see if anything had occured while I was away. It was only a small, but still worrysome intrusion of an exceptionally good master of the Pattern. He had broken through the barriers surrounding my Shadow and made off with an entire population, the whole 750 of them. I don't really care that they had gone, onlt that he or she had made off with them had broken through. I decided that it wouldn't be too prudent to go after someone that could do that, so I just strengthened the barriers and set the Guardians on double alert.

Someone's really stirred up a hornet's nest somewhere out the because after only a week there, I also recieved a message from one Elaine of Llandsdorf. She sent me a letter via a convenient bird. The note read:

     Your Highness,

        I have recently run across an unusual problem in shadow, which I think
        may require the special skills of one of your blood to solve.  I am
        willing to trade such skills as are at my disposal.  If you might be
        interested, I am staying at the Excelsior Hotel.

                                        Evaine of Llansdorf

I decided that I would use the trump the letter contained to get to the hotel and see what advernture awaited.. It turned out that, of all things she was having trouble with her shadow. She was willing, however to pay top dollar and she had pulled in one of the big guns, Benedict. Therefore, I was willing to at least listen to her. We started off talking of her troubles and why she needed me. After her speech, I decided that I would help her in her search, as well os inform her of the events of that last few years, as she has been out of the loop for quite a while.

Thus it ends, for the second time.