B.T.V. -- Session 06 Prelude: A Lord of the Hour's Dialectic; A Lord of Law's Epiphany

"Strayhorn."

"I hear you Shadow's Dragon."

"You hear and do not bow. Obeisance is still not in you."

"I cannot grant what is not mine to give."

"I see you have taken Time Dragon's offering."

"Only as I received yours."

"I wonder at your assured nature in a Realm of those who are always perplexed."

"The benefits of higher education?"

"You grew in the lanes of Duskentown. You had no formal training."

"As you say, Dragon."

"You have become bold as well as certain of your place in things."

"Your veil has been lifted from my eyes. I would be a fool not to look at what is revealed."

"What do you see, mortal?"

"That you and the Time Dragon are well suited."

"That is nothing that some could guess at without the sight you have been granted. You can do better."

"Shall I tell you of what I see of the mighty or the mere?"

"Both."

"You test me. I should feel slighted, I think."

"Begin with the mighty."

"Rank hath its privilege."

"Spare me your wit. I have no need for the wit of fools. Speak of what you see, Strayhorn."



"I am suddenly reminded of a saying about the blind and those that need to be shown things by others who are equally in need of a cane and dog. Nonetheless..." Strayhorn took one deeper breath and began, "The mighty and majestic king-in-waiting, the Patriarchal-Crossed, Vaxus has welcomed his Master, the Dark Dragon. He has learned new things from the Noble Thought of Darkness too. I have seen this. It came to me through the veil's parting. He does not care about Axildusk and while I wonder why he does not, I see that he looks further afield. The Time Dragon has made it clear that there is nothing to be done by any beyond Axildusk. Vaxus does seem busy enough. I wonder at what he might be doing but I cannot see that far. One vassal of Vaxus, Jade makes his play at Axildusk where I would have expected the Patriarchal One.

"You see farther than I might have thought possible. You have learned this much of Shadow Ways."

"I serve your interests as best I can."

"Shadow is best served by those who serve themselves."

"I don't care for that motto. It makes you, Dragon, to be a mere passenger on a coach with others aboard, some with tickets and some stowaways. There's baggage lashed crudely atop the coach's roof, half of which doesn't belong to anybody onboard -- and of course, there's the coachman that can't be named who serves his own interests by driving the coach where he wants and not to the destination on the stubs of the passengers."

"A lengthy and yet incomplete metaphor. You forgot the beasts that pull the coach along."

"The Time Dragon will do. For a metaphorical coach, one black horse is sufficient."

"You are insulting to others than me. I find your equanimity, appealing."

"There is more than one way to serve a master."

"He and I still wonder if you can serve two masters in one way. If Time won't tell, then know Shadow assuredly will."

Strayhorn decided to change the subject, "On to the mere you asked me about... I have seen past the skirts of the veil to the presented version of Axildusk. I brought my person into Adrilankha, that city of turmoil that is given a position of prominence. There I spied two former Spires. That they are both draegeran should not surprise me and even so I'm still surprised that they have brought themselves into the World of Shadow. As it is their birth-right, I will adapt to accept their being there.

The first I saw is Syg Orticyst. He is something of a sorcerer. He's known to be able to use blood to see a person's fore-bearers. I expect that this is a misunderstood use of your kingdom. The second is Faawne. He is a great militant of the House of Dzur. His return will put the cat amongst the pigeons -- if that's not too rude a way of describing the other sixteen Houses. I find his light-heart a relief from the more sombre elements Adrilankha is home to.

I also met up with the Amberites, who unlike the other Principal Orders, have taken to the city. I suppose they can't help being attracted to Adrilankha. It is their kind of place, after all. Finndo is the elder and only prince not in Amber. He makes straight into the work of finding the splintered remains of his bloodline. A man most driven and singular of action when he gets some momentum. I have read on him a kind of hesitation that is a great part of him. If not for this, he could have been more. The rest of the Principals of Amber are gone to dust or pieces a bit larger than dust. To Finndo's credit he has not dragged the other one with some claim to being a Principal into his efforts. Instead, Finndo has left Selador to find his own perspective on the city of empire.

Selador I have briefly caught up to. I spoke to him of your kingdom, reminded him that his family has had some congress with Shadow over the days and nights they have been afforded. He was polite. He might have been attentive. It is hard to know as he has none of his father's forceful and obvious nature. In this, Selador must take after his mother."

"Circumspection is not Law's alone. The first king of Amber is renowned for his ability to be this way. The one named Corwin is a cypher even to his own brethren. Benedict's stratagems could not be perceived by others. These all kept their thoughts, self-contained. Selador has been giving thought to your words. I can tell you this much."

"I'm heartened to hear it. As to Amber's leading family, Shadow has had more to do with them, than I have. I happily stand corrected."

"Where do you stand among these you have called mere?"

"If I must, I am more of a mind to stand between them all than with any one of them."

"You sounded certain when you arrived. Now you seem merely unsure. I am displeased with this course. Find another."

"With displeasure... I would see what comes of Finndo's archaeology."

"Much better in choice and attitude, Strayhorn."

"I feel as though I have only managed to get to the course you wanted on the second attempt."

"It might have taken you a few more goes."

"I will take solace in that."

"Let me hear you say, 'My will be done'..."

Elsewhere yet still within

Shadow.


The once and future enemy. But current ally?

It is difficult to consider that dark and ambiguous substance as neutral in disposition to oneself. The wars of light and darkness. The union of shadow and chaos. The absence of illumination to onset of ignorance.

The serpent does not live in the light. That is what one was taught.

Is one to abandon the history of realms for the conjunction of thoughts and what they have made?

But that is what must be done. One’s learning is predicated on the marginalization of assumption. One must look upon this rising ethereal power for what it is now. And not what is has been.

Truth must always prevail over lie. Lie is the truth of chaos, the tip of the serpent’s tail that grows to consume all it touches, until it finally consumes itself.

Arrogance and ego must be contained. One knows wisdom is fluid and a ziggurat whose peak can never be reached. Only climbed. one must accept one’s understanding of shadow to be both cumulative and as amorphous as the subject itself.

And so,

We have been brought to Axildusk, the mainstay of shadow. We are tasked with an unknown. It is plain the circumstances are both desperate and dire, the consequences of our actions wonderous and terrible.

The dragons have made this. one must have faith in our own Akkadia, the Thought of Law, that one’s pillars of understanding are NOT completely abandoned for this trial of conflict.

Adrilankha, CENTER OF THE DRAEGERAN WORLD. THE CURRENT MAZE ONE MUST NAVIGATE.

SIMON Balasz, A LOCAL FIGURE WHO WILL BE ONE’S COMPASS.

FINNDO. AMBERITE. COUSIN. TETHER TO MY FATHER’S AMBITIONS. MY FATHER, GERARD. THE KING IN AMBER.

LYRA, A DRAEGAREN OF THE HOUSE OF DZUR. A SCENT ONE HAS CAPTURED, OR BEEN CAPTURED BY.

AND MORE AND LESS, FOR ONE’S CURRENT CRISIS IS WELL BEYOND THESE SUBTLE MEASUREMENTS. A VISIT FROM A SPIRE—WHO IS ALSO DRAEGAREN AND STYLES HIMSELF A SURROGATE MENTOR—OFFERS OPPORTUNITY WHERE NONE WAS BEFORE, PROMPTING ONE TO ADVANTAGE. STRAYHORN IS HIS NAME.

ONE MUST TOOL SHADOW TO OBTAIN LAW, invert one’s assumptions. What was up may now be down. Left is right, right is left. A quicksand of shadow squalor in which one must find a clean thoroughfare.

One’s familiarity with the sacrament, mother, training, history, and magics, rewards but half the key. The other half, so long abjured must now be considered. Father, amber, pattern, the unknown, and the untraveled.

I retain my body’s natural accoutrement. my sacred blade, Massartu, and the mastery of honour duelling. a cantrip or two, and one remembered spell of my mother’s round out what I have brought to Axildusk’s challenge.

To this, I must add the sanctums of law now currently denied or diluted. Again, the words repeat in my mind. One must tool shadow to obtain Law.

My greatest gifts, ziggurat form, the literacy of shapes, and Encyclopedia Lawcanus, the literacy of memory must be re-learned, re-worked, re-configured to match the current circumstances.

For better or worse, one must allow for the spire’s suggestion and grasp his offer.

one opens one’s mind, seeking the subtleties of the inbetween, what is now the natural, made of shadowscape and shadowsky. This is one’s brick and mortar. One shall build.

First the ziggurat, shadowpiece by shadowpiece, shadowstone by shadowstone, the axil-cosmos a rectangular stepped tower.

Mine to walk. Mine to enter and exit. Mine to fold in weal and woe.

One understands now. The ways. One is the traveller.

Heights and falls now offer steps.

Walls now offer doors

Doors now offer openings

One may fold the roadways to step across distances.

One may access pocket chambers.

The ziggurat is complete.

One now brings all energy and attention to the Lawcanus. Letters of memory. Symbols signifying meaning. It is a fog of shadow. Senses leaking black currents. One cannot see. One cannot hear.

There is only Shadow.

But there is shape to Shadow. There is form. The ziggurat had taught one that. One finds it, a road leading to nowhere. And in the nowhere one finds sight and sound. Shapes and noises. One must focus now. The mind. thought. One’s own. And others. To touch another’s thoughts.

Whose thoughts does he touch?

Within the thought lies a book. One opens it and reads . . .

Illumination. Understanding.

One may communicate mind to mind.

One may understand letters, read or spoken, magical or common, as if they were birth speech.

One may see in distance as if present in person.

The Lawcanus is complete.

One rests. One sleeps.


There is more, both within the ziggurat and the Lawcanus, but those mysteries remain secreted behind the veil of trial and tribulation, only to be revealed by the time and space of AxIldusk.

Selador's words transcribed by A. Fraser
Strayhorn's words are his own