The two women leave the room, to the amused expressions of their elders. The hall is normally busy, as pages and servants rush around attending to matters.

"So," Skye says as she comes up beside Saffron several doors down from the sitting room. "I am tempted to ask why they need us to hang around here underfoot, when they can clearly handle all this on their own. Apparently you and I are the only ones surprised to find Deirdre alive. Gerard didn't even blink when I told him, and Random already knew when I went to get him. How, I don't know, since Gerard didn't have the opportunity while we spoke through the Trump." She tilts her head to one side thoughtfully. "Also, Gerard's abilities have been wildly underestimated if he saw the blade that damaged your mother's armor on the field of Patternfall, all the way from this end of Everything. And I get the feeling Julian has just been humoring me all these years I've been in Arden. Like I am some small child playing dress up as a soldier."

The first sign of real anger starts to leak through her voice as she continues. "If your mother was well enough to travel, I would suggest taking her to Scythia. Where the Elders are not so condescending and omnipotent, and the healers would actually — oh, I don't know — heal."

Saffron huffs, and a candle lights itself as she passes. "Callous," she growls unhappily. "Did you see how callous Random was? No wonder Mom never liked him much." She glares at a tapestry on the wall as she continues onward down the hallway, marching through the singed smell like she can't tell it's there. "And armor!" She stops dead in the middle of the hall and turns to face Skye, scowling and waving her arms to emphasize her point. "ARMOR doesn't help with the liquefaction when you hit the ground! It just keeps you from becoming a flat pancake!" She spins on her heel and continues to stalk down the hall, the tapestry visibly smoldering now. "And what was that? 'Oh, we heal fast, and she'll heal faster, no need to splint anything'? That doesn't even make sense! Healing fast and healing straight aren't the same thing! And Gerard completely missed the point!" she finishes, stopping to turn and look at Skye again, hands on her hips. "How was I assuming he was talking over me? I was trying to figure out why there had to be four people in the room!" She huffs again, and smoke starts rising from a nearby table.

Skye eyed the physical representations of Saffron's temper with the blase air of someone used to such displays. She finds them much less alarming here then when they show up at the house. As she watches the table behind Saffron, start to smolder, she hooks an arm through the thoroughly cheesed off other woman's and steers her down the hall. If she stays there, the chances of the table going *poof* are very real. Best to spread out minor damage over a large area, is Skye's opinion.

She waves her free hand in a gesture of annoyance. "I know!. I also can't believe he called you girl. I realize they are older then most dirt, but we are not children. I am really quite put out with Gerard." Skye looks over her shoulder behind them to make sure they aren't being followed before adding; "Random, on the other hand…. there's a reason he gets along so well with Corwin." The way Skye manages to make the man's name sound like a foul curse dripping with venom and disdain really is rather artistic. "But I was rather surprised at how flippant he was being. They are not stupid, but to act like it was no big deal that your mother was laying there near death, and having no hint of compassion is just beyond the pale."

"I am put out with both of them," Saffron snaps as she lets herself be led along. "No wonder no one can stand the rest of the family. Just imagine the childhood conversations. 'Ooo, look, Corwin fell out of a tree and broke their arm. Let's grab his elbow and flop the wrist around and laugh at how funny it looks when there's a joint in the middle.'" She scowls at an inoffensive painting for a moment, and then mutters a Scythian curse under her breath that Skye hasn't heard her use before. "Bastards!" she adds. "It's a bloody miracle any of them survived to get on the throne, if they all take such 'good care' of themselves."

Skye leans in a gives Saffron a quick kiss at her temple. "Frankly, I think you handled yourself admirably. I kept waiting for Random's hair to catch fire. It would have given me a chance to break that atrocious vase in there over his head. To put the fire out, of course."

Saffron huffs again, with perhaps a little less emphasis, as Skye kisses her temple. "I wouldn't have set his hair on fire. Maybe his pants. That might have been amusing."

As Skye leans in to Saffron, she catches, in the corner of her eye, a ghost of an image in one of the mirrors along the hall. Maybe it warped a little from the sheer fury Saffron was emitting, or maybe not. It seemed to be a woman with ash blonde hair, but there was no one of such a nature in the hall - in honest fact, with Saffron's rage being so clearly obvious, there was only the two of them in the hall.

Skye freezes beside her, her gaze caught by the mirror over Saffron's shoulder. "Hey," she says quietly. "Anyone with ash blonde hair in the family tree?"

"If there is another ghost behind me, I am setting it on fire," Saffron answers very seriously, without turning around. "I don't know of anyone, but that doesn't mean there isn't, since 'not able to keep their equipment properly in their pants' numbers among the many character flaws of the men in our family."

"I'm uncertain that ectoplasm burns," Skye answers, narrowing her eyes and field of vision to see if she can get a better look. "But the mirror she's in might."

"A mirror?" Saffron makes a face, but otherwise stays still, as though she's not entirely sure she should turn around to look. "Great. An additional complication to make my day even better. What is she doing in the bloody mirror?"

As Skye narrows her vision, the person disappears, as if she were never there. Skye frowns. "Gone. I don't much care for the notion of being spied on from mirrors. There are too many of the blasted things in this rock pile." With a further furrowing of her brow, she moves up the hall towards the next
mirror to make sure it was showing only what it is supposed to.

Saffron trails after her, glancing into the first mirror finally. "There was an atmosphere to it, if that helps," she offers grumpily. "Didn't notice until it was gone. Maybe we can at least move Mom to the house so we can sleep somewhere that isn't going completely insane."

"Skye?" Saffron says, halting. "Remind me to add this to the list of things to discuss with Aunt Fiona." She slowly moves closer to the mirror. "There's some sort of Power here… and it's not Pattern and it's not the same as what caused our lovely flaming friend yesterday." With extreme caution, Saffron touches the glass of the mirror with one finger.

Skye turns from checking the hallway when Saffron speaks. She stiffens when the other woman reaches out to the touch the mirror and resists grasping her shoulder instead.

"Is that wise?"

Wise or not, Saffron's hand touches the mirror's surface. Fortunately, nothing untoward occurs. The precise nature of the Power is hidden from her, and its imprint is fading quickly from the glass and silver of the mirror.

"Probably not," Saffron agrees. "But since it didn't actually eat me, it wasn't completely stupid either. I'm not sure what it is, Skye. It's not Pattern, and it's weaker than Pattern, but…" She shrugs slightly. "If I thought it would do any good, I'd take the mirror with us, but I don't think it'll be worth it. It's fading… Maybe I can get a better idea before it goes." She proceeds to try to do so.

The only thing that happens is that she gets a better sense of the Power involved. And it was a Power, different from, and slightly weaker than, Pattern, but a Power nonetheless. There's not enough left to get anything other than a sense of 'readiness', as if the mirror has been primed for use with the Power in question. However, having felt that readiness, Saffron is fairly certain she'll be able to recognise it again in the future.

"Right. We're taking it with us," Saffron says abruptly after a moment. "And a blanket or something to wrap it in." She starts taking down the mirror.

Skye gives her an incredulous look, but seeing the other woman's determination, she sighs and looks around the hallway for a handy banner or something. "You realize Flora is going to have a conniption at your impromptu redecorating."

"Good. She can annoy Random," Saffron answers. "It's like it's been primed for something; I'd like to study it, but mostly, I don't want to leave it alone in the middle of a hallway."

"Does that mean we need to examine all the mirrors in the castle?" Skye asks with a sense of dread. "If one has been primed, who is to say more haven't? And for what purpose? To spy? As portals for transport?" She furrows her brow in thought. "Were there mirrors near the locations we saw the apparitions?"

Saffron groans. "I didn't even think of that…" She glares at the mirror. "Maybe we can get them all covered temporarily. I don't know if that'll do any good, but it's better than nothing. I'll probably still have to look at them, though, especially with Auntie Fi out of town." There's a sigh, and she looks over at Skye. "I don't know yet, and I don't remember. I hope not. I don't want to deal with ghost or resurrection mirrors again - the Shadow versions were annoying enough."

Skye gives her a sheepish smile. "Sorry sweetheart. We'll take this one and then grab a page to go forthwith and cover all mirrors in the common areas and empty bedrooms." She cross the hall and unhooks a banner. Spreading it on the floor, she stands back to allow Saffron to lay the mirror down before folding the fabric around it.

The mirror is very heavy, even for one of Amber's Royal family, and very well set upon the wall. This doesn't stop Saffron, but it does make the removal of the mirror difficult work. It does come off the wall, however, finally.

As Saffron finally removes the mirror, Skye notices something odd about the wall behind it - something about the stone and its construction catches her attention. A slightly longer examination, and Skye notices a small pebble lodged in the otherwise smooth mortar. There's enough of a gap between the pebble and the mortar that it probably isn't well set in.

Aside from the pebble, there are cracks along portions of the mortar that seem to Skye's eye to be too regular for age or settling.

"Oh… hello," Skye says with a lilt of curiosity in her voice. "What's this then?" She steps over to run her fingers along the cracks. Then she silently draws one of her blades and holds it ready. "You might want to move your prize off to one side," she warns before poking at the pebble as if it were a button to press.

Saffron snorts. "It's hardly a prize." But she obediently drags the mirror off to one side.

When Skye pokes at the pebble, it moves in, just like a button. A section of the wall moves backwards with it, until that section lays just behind the wall proper. There's no further movement, but Skye easily figures that it must slide now that it's not blocked by the rest of the wall.

Looking over her shoulder, Skye quirks an eyebrow at her partner of mischief. "This could be useful," she says with a waggle of her eyebrows. "Feel up to exploring? Stash the mirror under a sofa or something until we get back."

"Well, that's new. Of course I'll come, but I wonder if…" Saffron trails off, staring at the mirror. "Would it be crazy of me to suggest that maybe we saw a woman in the mirror because there was a woman behind the mirror?"

"Any other day, I would say yes," the Ranger admits with a shrug. "But after today? Not at all."

"Oh good." Saffron turns the mirror around and closely examines the back of it.

The mirror's back is opaque, as with any other mirror she's seen. It seems unlikely that the image could have come from behind the mirror.

It takes a little bit of trial and error, but Skye quickly learns the right pattern to move the piece of wall - sideways just a bit, then up, then back to the other side, before letting it slide down. The space revealed is about five feet square, with a ladder on the back wall, leading to a trap door in the ceiling of the space.

Moving to the middle of the space, Skye peers upwards and then hums under her breath. "Trap door," she informs Saffron. "I'll go first."

She pulls a dagger from her boot and clenches it between her teeth before mounting the ladder, carefully testing it with each step to make sure it's stable. At the top, she stops and presses her ear to the crack between door and ceiling to see if she hears the sounds of human activity.

"The mirror seems to be physically normal," Saffron offers as she leaves it and follows the ranger.

The trapdoor is well fitted to the ceiling, and shows no sign of swelling or other maintenance problems, but there is dust on the floor and the rungs of the ladder, showing that no feet have rested on either. Nor can Skye hear anything through the door, whether due to thickness or nothing to hear, she can't tell.

Glancing back down at Saffron, Skye nods to let her know she's going ahead. Then she braces one hand against near one edge of the trapdoor and pushes it up slowly. Just an inch or so to allow her to see into the room. Once she's fairly certain it's empty, she'll go ahead and open it all the way.

Saffron waits… about as patiently as she ever waits, shielding her eyes against what she expects will be a faceful of dust as she looks up.

An inch is not sufficient, as Skye quickly learns. The trap door is thick - a good three to four inches of solid stone - and has to be pushed entirely out of its hole before it will tip at all. Once it's out of the hole, however, it tips very easily, stopping at a slight angle to the floor, and letting Skye look into the area.

What she sees is a narrow corridor running perpendicular to the hall below. From the layout, she can easily determine that it could potentially provide access to Fiona's chamber, Eric's old chambers, and Llewella's chambers. A quick glance along the corridor shows four spaces that could probably be additional trap doors.

"Oh, ho!" Skye grins. She turns to look back down at Saffron. "Go back. I want to shut the entrance to this before we go further. "I want to see for sure where it goes without alerting every adventurous soul in the place. I think I can get to my rooms from here."

Saffron looks up at her curiously. "Reaaally. So what we've got," she starts back down, "is a mirror that's been enchanted with an unknown power and is a pain to move… a secret door that opens onto the back of it… and a trap door that opens up near your rooms." She shakes her head. "How comforting. I'm sure I've said this at least once today, but… we're sleeping at my place again - if we have to carry the couch with Mom on it down there ourselves."

Skye follows her, dropping the last few feet instead of climbing down. "Yeah. Looks like we could get to Fiona's and Llewella's too. There's also some other trap doors to check out to see where they start."

She slips past Saffron and starts working on closing the door to the hallway.

Saffron leans up against the wall. "I think," she says, sounding grumpy again, "one of us should call Gerard or Random and let them know we'll be delayed getting back. Much as I'm worried sick about Mom, these new developments are probably a little more important than sitting there watching her sleep…"

Skye smirks as she looks for how to close the secret entrance. "One would think. But then again, considering His Majesty's mystic ability to know what's going on by divining it from the very air, I'm sure he is already aware."

The entrance closes easily, and there's a handle on the inside that will allow opening it from within. With the door closed, however, it's very dark within, at least until their eyes adapt to the very little light coming from a single eyehole in the door.

"Well, we can do that after we find some decent light again," Saffron amends. "And I think you should probably make the call, or I'll end up even more cross. Maybe you should be brief to the point of confusion - after all, if he already knows, he won't be confused."

"Later," Skye says with a decided hint of smugness in her tone. "Right now, I have you alone in a dark room that no one can find us in." She grabs the sorceress and pulls her against her. "I would be a bad
girlfriend if I didn't take advantage," she whispers before claiming Saffron's lips and proceeds to kiss her with searing intensity.

Saffron wraps her arms around the ranger and returns the kiss - and actually relaxes. There's even a smile, about the time they come back up for breath. She chuckles, very softly, and offers, "Beat me to it, really."

"I am a Ranger. We're always first into action," says Skye smugly. "And we apparently now do it in secret passageways as well as the bushes." She gives Saffron a more sedate kiss before letting her go. "I am tempted to have my way with you right here." She laughs softly. "It would confuse people, trying to figure out where the moaning was coming from."

Skye gives Saffron's hand a squeeze then returns to the ladder. She moves faster up now that they know what's above them. When she pulls herself out into the hallway, she turns to give Saffron a hand up. "What should we do first? Check the other trap doors, or see where this goes?"

The lack of light from the opening into the hall makes things a little more difficult, but after a few minutes, their eyes adjust, and they realise that there is some light, coming from somewhere. It's enough to let them make their way through, but not enough to see more than about five feet around them.

Skye grumbles wordlessly. "So. Make our way to my rooms and fetch a lamp, or check the other trap doors and hope we find a lamp wherever they open to?"

Saffron glances at her sidelong. "Well, I could go talk to our uncles again," she says, a hint of good humor in her voice. "Let's grab a lamp, or at least a candle." Their voices echo quietly - clearly not loud enough to be heard through the stone walls, but still a little eerie.

With a soft hum, Skye continues down the dim hallway. "I rather hope there are peepholes or something. I do not care for the idea of stumbling into Aunt Fiona's rooms uninvited. That strikes me as dangerous."

"Probably," Saffron agrees as she follows the ranger. "I'll keep a magical eye out, just in case. I should be anyway. There's no telling who has used this passageway, and I'm the one to spot any magical traps, Aunt Fiona's or otherwise." There's a moment's pause, and then she adds innocently, "It's a shame it's so dark. I imagine the view from here is wonderful."

"Oooo.. naughty," Skye laughs softly. "But I'd rather find out where we dare before we start making people believe in a couple of randy ghosts; as entertaining as that would be."

"Tsk. No sense of adventure," Saffron says with a soft laugh of her own. "Hold on; let's stop a moment and let me start looking around for traps. The way this week is going, if we keep walking and talking about it, we'll wander into something…"

Skye dutiful stops at once to allow Saffron time to do her thing. "That will probably dump us in The Nothing, or some such nonsense."

Saffron sighs and shakes her head as she starts her magical scanning. "I hate when the universe decides to play philosophical jokes." After a moment, she says thoughtfully: "Remind me to scan downstairs. Looks like we're clear in here, though. Lead on, sweetheart."

"Yes, m'lady," replies Skye cheerfully. She continues down the corridor toward the rooms that were once Eric's, but she had claimed for herself.

The corridor is small, but the two have no trouble navigating it, though single file is the only option. Before they reach the section that Skye thinks is above Eric's chambers, they pass another. Based on location, it's probably right next to the one sitting room on this level.

Skye makes a note of the location. "We'll check that after we have a light. There should be some listening holes around these, I would think. And peepholes. A spy would want to check before entering an area."

"So would family," Saffron answers with a smirk in the deep dimness. "I wonder where else has hidden passages around here."

Saffron stops dead. "What on earth?" She edges a bit closer to the image to look at it better. "Skye? There's a Pattern drawn on the wall here…"

Skye is immediately back by her side. "There's a what?" she asks in surprise. "What's on the other side of this?" She looks around and frowns. "Damn. I suppose I'll go check out the sitting room then?"

"That should be Llewella's room, right?" Saffron asks, pointing at the other side of the image. "It's kind of halfway between. Is there anything halfway between?"

Looking thoughtfully at nothing, Skye hums. "I don't know. A dividing wall? I'll have to go look. I can pace off how far this is to the trap door, the walk that once I'm in the sitting room." She titls her head and eyes the wall warily. "Could someone use this to Pattern teleport somehow?"

Saffron frowns at it. "I don't know. More things to ask Aunt Fiona, I think. At least this is a recognisable Power…"

"Don't go anywhere," Skye says as she moves towards the trap door they just passed. She opens it cautiously and peers inside.

"I'll even not poke anything this time," Saffron answers agreeably. She waits, studying the wall and the surrounding spells.

Skye sighs and lowers herself to the floor. "Ok. If I go through here, I am going to be below the design you see. Which means it is either high on the wall or between floors. I'll keep the doors open so I can hear you if anything happens - and vica versa."

With that she finds the ladder and lowers herself to the floor to begin looking for the door into the sitting room. The trap door leads down into a dark area that, to Skye's ability to tell, is almost identical to the space behind the mirror through which they entered.

"Okay, sweetie," Saffron says absently as she studies the design. "If you find pen and paper down there, would you bring some up?"

"Sure..," Skye's voice drifts back up.

There is a little light entering the room from the sitting room - it looks to be coming in from a small hole just about eye height on an average man, about 5'9" up or so.

The sitting room is empty. A quick look through the hole shows Skye that it's the Crimson room, where Bleys enjoys spending his days when he's in residence, even though his quarters are closer to the Blue room.

Skye finds the way in and quickly collects what Saffron requested. She doesn't interrupt Saffron's study of the thing, just simply puts the items in the other woman's hand and goes back down to pace out where the Pattern should be on the opposite side of the all.

Skye steps out in the sitting room again and counts out the same number of steps from the door equal to the number of steps from pattern to trap door. Or tries. Skye's steps run out at the wall about two paces before the 'pattern' - as close as she can pinpoint it.

Skye comes grumpily back up the later. She drops the trapdoor in place. "Wall," she says as she rejoins the sorceress. "Like I thought." The Ranger looks at the space in front of her annoyed girlfriend and back at Saffron. "Alright. So to inscribe a Pattern, one needs to have the Jewel of Judgment, right? Is this inscribed? Because my father - who used to hold the Jewel - used to have the room down here."

"It's inscribed, but it's not quite… right." Saffron frowns at it in annoyance. "If I keep poking at it, we may take a short trip to who-knows-where. We could try calling Aunt Fiona, but I don't know that I want to call her from right here. Number one, secret passage that we know nothing about. Number two…" She gestures with the paper at the design on the wall. "Not pleased about making a call next to that."

Skye hooks an arm through Saffron's and nudges her away from the shiny thing. "Then stop poking at it, and let's get to my rooms and you can call her from there."

"I think I heard Corwin mention something about designs like this taking you places," Saffron explains further as she lets her girlfriend lead her away. "He was talking to Aunt Fiona about it, if I'm right. Anything else interesting in the sitting room?"

"No," Skye scoffs. "It's just Bleys' favorite sitting room. The Crimson Room. You should take that into account when deciding the importance of that Pattern, I think. That room isn't even close to his suite. The Blue Room is. Then again, it could just be his vanity that brings him over here."

Saffron chuckles quietly. "I'll ask Aunt Fiona if she knows, just for the sake of research."

"If Fiona doesn't know about, I'd be tempted to try it," Skye muses lowly. "Assuming Fiona would be honest about that." It isn't a big secret that Skye trusts the remaining members of the redhead cabal only slightly more then Corwin. "Maybe it was an early experiment of Brand's - or even Oberon's. There really is a good chance it was Father. He would have been operating with less information then Oberon, which would explain why it's not quite right. We can always come back to it after we try and sneak your mother out of this madhouse, and I chat with the shape shifter. If he's still here when we get around to it."

"Or an experiment of Dworkin's. Or that woman we saw. Or it could have just been here all along," Saffron suggests. "I really don't know." She slows, and then stops suddenly, her fingers tightening against Skye's as she tugs her to a halt too. "We should check the places where the ghosts were - not just for the mirrors, but for more of those. Maybe they're related. Or maybe not…. But it's worth checking."

“Why would Dworkin do that when there was already the finished product?” Skye asks reasonably. She stops when Saffron tugs at her, stepping back half a step. “If you think we should, then we will. Assuming there are secret passageways in those places. But keep in mind they just vanished rather quickly. Too quickly to open a secret passage and close it before we got to the place, and the energy in those places was different, yes?”

"I wasn't thinking that they went into the passage," Saffron said slowly. "I was thinking about the power. There's too many unusual powers floating around… there's nothing to say that there isn't another drawing on a wall somewhere that *isn't* the Pattern like that one."

Skye’s eyebrow curls upward. “We’ll be doing this all day, you realize? Possibly longer. After we get the light, we’ll check out the other doors back there and see where they go. I’ll be really creeped out if we find any more of these rogue Patterns. Just so you know.” With that, she tugs Saffron along to continue on to her rooms.

Saffron sighs. "I know. If it takes a week, it takes a week. But we are *not* sleeping here tonight. And neither is Mom." She obediently starts walking again. "I'm not creeped out… but I'm not *thrilled* either. That's not supposed to be there."

Returning to her rooms is easy enough, and the two quickly ensconce the mirror next to a dresser. Saffron's senses seem a little more sensitive than she's used to, however, and as they walk, she can clearly see the magic used to erect the castle. Not so much in the spells themselves as in the lingering traces of magic.

Skye quickly finds two lamps, and takes the opportunity to change into jeans and an "Arden Rangers: When You Care Enough To Send The Very Best" t-shirt. If she's going to be skulking around in dark passageways, may well have on something she doesn't mind getting dirty. She also finds something of Saffron's in the closet and goes to cajole her into changing out of that spectacular gown before they proceed with exploring and kidnapping Deirdre.

Saffron is frowning and looking around at the walls. "Great," she says grumpily. "Now I'm seeing magic in the walls. Old magic, not the new stuff. I guess because I was looking for magic. It better not continue all day, or I'm going to get annoyed…"

Skye arches an amused eyebrow "Get annoyed? You already are annoyed, my little spitfire. Now, change clothes so we can investigate the rest of this passages. We still have to snag Deirdre and I need to go by the infirmary. How are we going to snag her anyway? I suppose I could go to the house and Trump you, or you can call me as soon as you're alone with her…"

"Go to the house and Trump me," Saffron says firmly. She takes the clothes and obediently starts changing. "If I have to, I will grab your hand, lay down on top of Mom, and roll us off the couch and into the house. I don't think it will be that big of an issue, though. I can't imagine Random's still there, and I can probably shoo anyone else out."

The clothing change completed, the two have whatever time they wish to plot their deed.

After lighting the lamps, Skye closes the secret entrance to her rooms and they slip back into the passageway. “OK. So we go back and investigate the other trapdoors we found, and then we’ll go check the places the ghosts appeared for mirrors or secret doors, yes? Then we go to the Infirmary, and then I shall go back to the house and call you to kidnap your mother. Have I missed anything?”

"Yes," Saffron says, straight-faced. "You've forgotten to allow time for the hissy fit I'm likely to have if today's trend continues. And dinner, which is going to consist mostly of chocolate."

As an afterthought, she adds, "And calling Aunt Fiona. And I wonder if we shouldn't take the mirror with us."

“I’ll pick it up before I go to the house,” Skye assures her. “And hissy fit, chocolate, and Fiona can wait until after we are away from this madhouse.”

"I'll do my best," Saffron answers with a wry smile. "You know as well as I how hard it is to keep certain things under control."

As if on cue, adding to the madness, Skye feels the tingling of a Trump contact. Just a touch, as if the person were merely concentrating on her card while fanning the deck, but it lasts longer than it normally would. Skye stops in midstep and frowns as she pauses to see if anything further is going to occur.
Saffron halts next to her, looking curious. "Sweetheart?"

"I'm beginning to hate Trumps," she mutters. Whatever the Trump touch was, it seems to Skye that it was, indeed, transitory, as nothing more happens as they travel. "Nothing. Someone just spent a moment focusing on my card before moving on, I think."

"Ah," Saffron answers, smirking. "How disappointing. I was rather expecting it to be our next insane situation; it's been a whole ten minutes since the last one."

With a snort, Skye moves onward again. "Come along, Alice. We still have rabbit holes to go down."

Now that they have light and the passageway is somewhat familiar, the pair move quicker as they make their way back to the place where the multiple trapdoors lay in wait. “Maybe these will be just boring old passages,” Skye opines. “Then we can get this over with and move on to other things.”

"That would be nice," Saffron agrees. "I would even settle for non-boring passages, as long as they don't have more Pattern drawings and magic mirrors."

Aside from the drawing on the wall they have to pass, the pair see no other representations of Pattern. There are drawings on some of the walls, but they appear to be little more than graffiti. They can see a stylized flame, what looks like a sword, and an apparently unadorned ring drawn on the walls. Each is actually set above, and just a bit to the side of, a trap door.

Saffron eyes the drawings. "I wonder who's responsible for these?"

Stopping briefly to study them, Skye points from one to the other. "If we are talking about people, I think the flaming sword is Brand because it fits his name. I am going to guess that the ring is Bleys - based only on the fact that he wears so many. But if they are supposed to be indicators of where they go, we'll just have to look for ourselves. Which would you like to start with?"

"The fire, of course," Saffron answers with a bright smile. "As if you didn't know."

'There was always the possibility you would save that for last," Skye protests. She wrinkles her nose at the sorceress then kneels down to open the door. Then she pauses. "On the off chance that this is something to do with Brand, would like to have a look and see if either of these are booby trapped in some magic way?"

"Of course," Saffron replies, and does as requested. "No booby traps that I can see," Saffron remarks after a moment. "And the graffiti doesn't mean anything either."

“Excellent.” Skye opens the door and holds her lamp down to see what’s below before climbing down.

The trap door leads to yet another hidden alcove, almost identical to the one they entered from. She can't see any light coming from outside, not with her lantern, so it's impossible to tell if there's a peephole there, but it's probable.

Setting her lantern down on the edge, Skye swings down onto the ladder and lowers herself into the darkness. She gives her eyes a moment to adjust before searching for a change in light levels on the wall that signifies a peephole.

Saffron moves the lantern back away from the edge of the trap door. "See anything?" she asks, leaning down.

There is a peephole, as expected. It shows nothing, however, except the back of something. Possibly another mirror, possibly a painting. It's small enough to let some light in from the sides, but big enough that it's not easy to tell what it is.

Grumbling, Skye climbs back up the ladder enough to retrieve her lantern. "Something is hanging over the peephole. We shall have to open it to see what's on the other side." With that she heads back down to look for the panel release.

Saffron sighs. "It had better not be another magic mirror," she answers as she starts down the ladder after her girlfriend. "Here, I'll hold that for you if you give me a moment."

"Could be a magic painting," Skye jokes from the bottom of the ladder. "Which Random already knows about."

"If the paintings start talking, we're moving to Scythia," Saffron says, not entirely joking. "I might even let you wedge me into some proper Scythian armor, as long as you promise not to chase me around the practice grounds again."

Skye looks up from her examination incredulously. "Not chase you while you're dressed in tight leather? The day that ceases to occur is the day one of us has fallen into a coma."

"I didn't say you couldn't chase me," Saffron objects mildly. "Just not around the practice grounds."

Skye leers over the top of the lantern, looking both sexy and sinister somehow. "But that is where all the interesting equipment is."

"As if you need equipment," Saffron smirks. "Aren't you supposed to be looking for something?"

A sound came through the peephole, of people moving past. Possibly several, possibly only a couple, but loud enough to make Saffron's words a little difficult to follow.

Skye holds up a hand for quiet and leans her ear against the peephole. She doesn't want to open it if people are just on the other side.

Saffron takes the lantern from Skye's hand as quietly as she can manage. Then she leans up against the back wall to wait.

Whoever they are, they pass by quickly enough, and Skye can't hear any further sounds from the hallway.

Whoever they are, they pass by quickly enough, and Skye can't hear any further sounds from the hallway. Skye doesn't say anything as she takes back a lantern to look for the opening mechanism. When she finds it, she slowly and carefully opens the door. She doesn't want whatever is on the other side crashing to the floor. Saffron continues to wait. She figures she'll be told when it's safe to do something again.

The door opens slowly, revealing an empty hallway and - yes - a painting on the other side of the door. It's a painting of a tall blonde woman dressed in gold and green. No one Skye knows, but with all the paintings, that's not surprising. The painting is small enough that it doesn't hang up on the door jambs, instead hanging easily even as the door swings open.

Stepping through into the hall, Skye gestures to Saffron. "Do you recognize where we are?" she asks

Saffron follows and obediently looks around to see what there is to see. "I wonder who that's supposed to be," she says as she glances at the painting.

The two quickly realise that they're in the second hallway of the floor, one neither has been in, as there's been no need. Their own chambers are above, and their parents' chambers aren't in this hall.

Skye notices, as they slide out from behind the door, a slip of paper tucked into the back of the painting. It's well enough situated that only the movement of the door reveals it.

"And what have we here?" Skye murmurs. She carefully lifts the edge of the frame and takes out the paper to see what it has to say.

"Don't know," Saffron answers, glancing at her. "I think we're by the rooms of your favorite person…"

"If I pick the lock, do you think you could set them on fire?" Skye mutters darkly.

"We might catch Uncle Gerard's rooms on fire," Saffron answers. "Or someone else's we like." She glances up. "Or technically, we might catch our own on fire…"

"Nah. Consider that fire in the study earlier. It just burned the nearby flammables." She looks up from the paper consideringly. "Of course, I would be their first suspect."

The paper, unwrapped, reveals a small plaque that looks as if it might once have belonged on the frame of the portrait. It reads simply 'Maryam, beloved daughter of Amber'. There is also some writing on the paper. It is less flattering, reading 'and temporary beloved of most of Amber, Finndo included'.

The writing on the paper is legible, but clearly not that of one well schooled in letters. Most likely a servant or some such. There's no clue why the plaque is so hidden, nor why the hateful words on the paper were written.

“The painting is Maryam,” Skye says, looking down at the paper. She can’t decide whether to be amused or offended on behalf of said woman. “Beloved daughter of Amber. Apparently close to Finndo.”

"Hmm. Well, that's a little before our time…" Saffron answers. "And one more thing to add to the list of things to do, I think. If we're going to be finding random family members we didn't know about, we'd better hit the library and see what we can find."

Wrinkling her nose, Skye steps around to the front of the painting to get a better look at the woman. “How about you go to the library, and I’ll go talk to the shifter? It will cut our list of things to do before escaping.”

Saffron sniffs, mock-offended. "Oh, fine. Destroy my hopes of digging into forgotten archives and sneaking in a good make-out in the stacks if you must."

Skye smirks good naturedly and continues studying the painting.

The woman, on closer inspection, shows a family resemblance, most closely to Benedict, sharing much of his features, though softened and feminine. There are elements that remind Skye of Oberon, though, and others that most likely come from her mother.

It takes a moment to notice, because it's de-emphasized in the painting, but Skye is able to pick out a weapon in the background. Likely hers, it's a tall, leaf-bladed spear. The colours are muted - probably intentional to keep it in background, so it's impossible to tell much more.

“Another warrior maid,” Skye says. She points out the spear in the background to Saffron. “And she looks remarkably like Benedict, does she not?” She hands Saffron the paper she found behind the painting. “Daughter or niece, do you think?”

"She does," Saffron agrees, moving to inspect the painting as well. "Why daughter or niece? What about sister? I mean, it's no secret Grandpa got around a bunch, and nobody seems to like talking about his brothers…"

Skye wrinkles her nose. “Perhaps because I don’t care to think about Finndo being a little too fond of his sister. That’s Corwin’s shtick.”

The sorceress rolls her eyes and shudders theatrically. "Please. I know, remember? I'm just saying it's possible she's an aunt, and that the 'beloved' part is just platonic."

She leans over to look at the paper in Saffron's hand. "I dunno. Looks sarcastic to me. If she was beloved by everyone, why's her name plate stuck behind the picture so no one can identify her? Maybe you can look at the family tree while you're in the library." Skye pulls the door open and sticks the name plate in her pocket. "Come on. We have another rabbit hole to explore."

"I didn't mean she was beloved by everyone. It does clearly say Finndo," Saffron answers, following. "Maybe she was his favorite sister, only not in that way. And there's just no way to know why that was behind the frame. Maybe someone did it as a prank. A petty, childish prank - which probably means it was one of the uncles - but it could be a prank."

Skye's sharp ears pick up the sound of people moving down the halls nearby. There's no guarantee that they're headed towards the two, but there's no guarantee they won't, either.

Giving Saffron a gentle shove to the center of her back, she moves the sorceress into the dark and slides silently back herself. She pulls the door gently closed behind them. "Up," she whispers with a gesture towards the ladder.

With a nod, Saffron heads back up the ladder.

And that easily, the two are back in the crawlspace / secret passage, with another section yet to explore.

Getting to the final ladder is easy enough, but Skye quickly finds that the secret door is either no longer working, or has been sealed, and refuses to open, though the peephole still exists, and is actually letting in light.

Oddly, the light seems brighter than it should, and has an odd cast of colour

"Skye?" Saffron asks as the door doesn't open. "What now?"

"Not a lot we can do about it," Skye shrugs, but she looks irked at the as she runs her fingers again over the door edges. She finally leans in and tries to get an idea of where they are from the view in the peephole.

The peephole reveals an outdoor scene - something that clearly should not, cannot be, given their position. The sun is a brilliant sapphire blue, pale compared to Amber's own, and the sun shines down whiter. What Skye can see immediately is a copse of trees, tall and broad, most with leaves that Skye herself could not span with her arms outstretched.

The branches of the trees are broad enough to hold houses - which Skye knows by seeing one, or a portion thereof, near the limit of the peephole's vision.

The Ranger leans back, gaping at the wall. She rubs her eyes and leans back to look at it again. "Mother of all," she breathes. Skye steps back to make room for Saffron. "Look at this."

The dark-haired sorceress obediently moves up to look out the hole, but she can't resist slipping an arm around her girlfriend as she does. "What - " she starts, stopping as she focuses on the scene outside. "Oh my. No wonder it won't open…"

Saffron steps back and frowns thoughtfully at the door. "I think," she offered, "that if we sawed open the door right now, it wouldn't go there. But if we open it right… There are markings here, and here, and over there," she roughly points out the sigils, "that show up to magesight. They're not glowing, and the door is closed. But it seems reasonable that if we activated them, made them glow, the door might open… It's just a guess, though."

Speculating silently a moment, Skye looks through the peephole again before sighing. “On the one hand, I would really like to open it and go through. But it also represents a possible vulnerability in Amber’s defenses. Since passages like this don’t normally come into being after a place is built, this doorway is old. It’s probably something Dworkin or Oberon did. Maybe one of the early wives even.” She bites her lower lip thoughtfully. “What are the chances you could seal it again after you opened it?”

"I have no idea," Saffron answers. "I'm not even sure I can open it; I haven't the foggiest idea whether it can close again afterwards. It may not even be a proper door; it's vaguely Trump-like, though it's not a Trump, so it could just teleport us somewhere."

Skye eyes the portal again warily. "Real-ly. If your mother wasn't currently under the tender mercies of people who think she should just sleep it off, I would be all for further exploration into this. But since she is, I think we should leave it for now, and come back to it later."

Saffron nods in agreement. "Let's go."

Skye gives it a last look, then they ascend the ladder and make their way back to the original opening they came through. She checks to make sure no one's out in the hall as best she can before she clicks the mechanism to open the door. "Let's leave the lanterns here," she says lowly to Saffron as she sets her own against the wall and out of the way. "They'll be here next time we come in. Maybe."

The hallway is quite clear as they exit, and Skye is easily able to close the door leaving little trace of their passage - though if they still intend to take the mirror, the peephole will be visible.

Eying the visible giveaway, Skye wrinkles her nose. "We have to hang something here." She looks around the hall for another small thing that she can move. Not finding what she's looking for - at least, none that wouldn't be noticed as missing, she ducks into nearby sitting rooms. Another mirror will be excellent, but a painting will work, and there's a painting in a nearby sitting room that might work. The room isn't one of the larger ones, so it doesn't get used all that much, and there's a painting behind a plant that might not be missed immediately, so she settles for that.

It doesn't cover perfectly, but at least it covers the peephole.

Skye steps back from hanging the painting to make certain it's straight. She makes a small adjustment before giving Saffron a smile. "Right, so what's the plan? I'm off to talk to the burning man, and you're for the Library?"

Saffron nods, returning the smile. "Come meet me in the library - and would you please check on Mom on your way? I would, but I'm likely to shout at people again…"

“Probably for the best,” Skye laughs lowly. She pulls Saffron into an embrace and kisses her deeply – but not nearly long enough. She pulls back and smiles. “Don’t get lost.”

Saffron returns her smile with a slightly breathless one of her own. "I wasn't planning on it, sweetheart. You don't either."

“If you finish before me, I’ll probably be in the infirmary,” Skye smiles. She kisses Saffron on the forehead, gives her bum a squeeze, and then saunters off towards the study they left Deirdre in.

"You remember I'm going to the library, right?" Saffron calls after her with a laugh. Then she, too, sets off.

Saffron halts and considers the woman's retreating back for a moment. Then, muttering darkly under her breath about too many possible unknown family members, she continues on to the library.

The library remains, as always, a haven of silence and peace, the walls covered with shelves, themselves filled with books of every description and age. No one seems to be within now that the other has left.

Saffron starts searching the library, looking for her research topics of choice: family and the castle itself. Of particular interest are blueprints, geneologies, and personal accounts. Of secondary interest is what isn't there: books that are mentioned but not present in the library, gaps in sections where there might be useful books.

Short of remembering what Fiona and Dworkin - and a few others - have said about what's in the library, finding books that are supposed to be present but aren't will be a sisyphean task in itself, for a library without any kind of catalog or check-out system.

Finding gaps in sections where books would likely be proves more useful, as there are more than a few. Some deal with architecture and the history of the castle, some with the history of Amber particularly, and there are a few gaps where books on family history would reside. The books she can find there relate to all the currently acknowledge and/or living princes and princesses.

Behind a section apparently reserved for Benedict and his many martial accomplishments Saffron sees a book hidden against the wall. Difficult to see even for her, it's clearly hidden, as opposed to being misplaced.

The book itself seems to be a journal or diary, with the name Alais imprinted on the cover.

"Hmm," Saffron mutters. "Come here, you." And she starts moving books to get to the mystery journal.

It's easy enough to get to, once she's seen it, and opens readily enough - the lock, if ever there was one, is gone.

It does indeed seem to be a diary, attributed to a girl named Alais. It takes reading a few pages, but before long, it seems that Alais is a daughter of Oberon - and calls Benedict her little brother. She also mentions two older brothers, though the names are harder to find. Eventually, Saffron learns that Osric is the eldest, then Finndo, then herself and finally Benedict.

One entry in particular gets her attention. Apparently, Oberon (Daddy) brought them with him from home to an island in the mist. He put Osric in charge and left them. She writes in detail about watching an entire land form around them, mentioning that Bennie was probably too young to realise what was happening.

"Old, old, old," Saffron mutters to herself. "Interesting." She tucks the diary under her arm to finish later and starts looking behind the rest of the books in the family section.

Most of the remaining books in that section are also diaries and journals. Aside from the one she just found, none of them present any children who aren't on the official rolls. There are a few books on genealogy, but nothing that shows more than they already know.

It looks like any controversial books have been removed, and controversial passages in others have been redacted. Finally, though, the search pays off - more or less.

Lodged in a dull and otherwise unremarkable journal written by Gerard of his travels in a Shadow named Yassan - most of which seems to be about the arcana of trading with them, going in depth on the cost of the items when he picked them up previously and the amount he could sell them for while considering taxes and other costs, individually itemized - is a card. The right size for a Trump, the picture is not very good - childish, almost - and there's no coolness, but the face is very definitely the one on the hidden picture.

On the back of the card is a code. F5-3W-2LC-3B.

Saffron studies it thoughtfully. It could be directions, or an index, or just a random collection of letters. "Now what are you?" she finally asks it. "F five three W two L C three B." A pause. "I swear, if reading that out opens something..." She glares around the room suspiciously.

Nothing opens, and no books come flying off the shelves. However, studying the code, Saffron recalls that the castle has at least six floors above ground, though only the bottom four are often used. It could be a floor designation. Of course, it could be something else entirely, too.

Saffron frowns at it for a while longer before sticking it in the front cover of the diary and sticking both under her arm again. It could be a floor designation in the castle. It could also be a floor designation in a backwater Shadow a thousand years ago, a lock combination, or maybe even directions through Shadow. She couldn't be the first Family member to wonder if there might be a way to write down conscise directions to a Shadow. She'll show it to Skye when they meet up again; maybe the Ranger will have some additional ideas.

She continues to investigate the books on her family until she figures there's nothing else to find, and then starts looking for likely places that a librarian might hide impolitic or forbidden books. No librarian she knows would actually throw them out if given half a chance; they have to be there somewhere. And given the lack of books about anyone not currently acknowledged, books about anyone else must be forbidden.

A complete search would take days, but Saffron's mind can immediately cut off a number of unlikely paths - 'purloined letter' options, hidden bookcases, etc. - and after no more than a few minutes of testing, using half-recalled overheard statements, she finds a concealed door in the wall of the library.

It's locked from the other side, but that proves only a minor inconvenience. Magic isn't easy in Amber, but it's not impossible, either, and the latch turns, letting her look into a vertical shaft with a ladder going up and down. It seems to go down only one, maybe one and a half levels. It goes up as far as she can see.

There's nothing hidden immediately within, but the shaft is clearly the best bet for finding hidden books - assuming that the librarians wanted ready access without being seen leaving the library.

Saffron looks down for a moment, but it seems more likely to her that "up" is the way to go. Going down means going into the more populated areas, and it seems to make more sense that the naughty books would be in less populated areas. At least that's the way *she'd* always operated, if she didn't have the naughty stuff hiding in plain sight. Which reminds her that as a teenager, she'd had a cache of trashy romance novels under her bed until the mortifying day her mother had found them and started reading them herself. She laughs quietly to herself and starts making her way upwards.

The ladder goes up for what feels like at least two levels before she finds an access panel beside the ladder. Another can be seen up one level more where the ladder ends.

A careful peek through the access panel shows Saffron a suite. It's hard to determine whose it is. There are books on a wall across from her, but also a large, heavy-looking sword hung on the wall, next to a heavy looking suit of armour fitted for a woman of some height.

Saffron opens the panel just a bit farther, enough that she can poke her head in and look around, although she doesn't actually enter the room yet. After a moment of squinting at the books to see if she can read titles, she turns to mentally weighing the height of the suit of armour against various people, including her mother and the mystery woman she'd encountered outside the library, to see if it looks right for any of them.

The armour is a little larger than Saffron's memory of her mother, but possibly could fit. The mystery woman, though, is more likely a better fit for it.

The books are an eclectic lot. Quantum physics side by side with Alchemy and Astrology, Chemistry sitting beside Thaumaturgy, Military History next to The Prince, and Shakespeare.

Saffron mutters a thoughtful, "Hmm." She has clearly found someone's bedroom, but she is in the market for long-missing relatives' bedrooms, not possibly related new peoples'. As she carefully closes the access panel and continues upward, she makes a mental note to mention this to Skye later.

The ladder does indeed end at the next panel, as she though. A careful peek through the panel shows her what looks like a storeroom, filled with chests and crates. The room is suffused by the smell of books.

Jackpot, Saffron thinks smugly. She opens the panel and moves into the room, looking around to see if there's any sense of organization to the place.

A quick poke through the nearest chests tells Saffron that if there's any order at all, it's age - the nearest ones seem to be fairly new (within a few hundred years, anyway) while the ones farther from the panel seem to be a little older.

Saffron starts tracking backwords, looking for the oldest books. Those might be old enough to have the information she's looking for - and if not, she suspects they'll have enough information to tell her if they're too early or too late...

There are references within the diary to two people who aren't listed in the family rolls. First, someone named Alais. Mostly with regard to a gift she gave him for his fifteenth birthday - a tan vest that he seems to have quite liked.

The other, someone named Maryam, who seems to have held some kind of caretaker status over Benedict. The entry is in a much later diary, and indicates that Maryam had been exiled from Amber, and that Finndo took that very poorly, even to arguing publicly with Oberon. Oddly, Benedict's references to Oberon in his diary are all by name, never calling him 'Dad' - even though Saffron has heard him refer to Oberon as Dad almost all the time.

Saffron frowns thoughtfully at the diary. If Maryam was just a caretaker, why is there a portrait of her hanging in the castle? She pulls out the diary marked Alais and flips through to the end, looking for references to Maryam there.

The pattern holds, and the oldest - or at least, oldest seeming - books are at the far end of the room. There are several diary type books in that last row - or what would be the first row if coming into the room from the barely visible door on the wall.

Most of the diaries look like they were put aside simply to save space, since at least one entire chest is filled with diaries with Benedict's name on them.

Saffron picks out the oldest of Benedict's diaries and flips through it, desperately hoping it will be more interesting than Gerard's had been. She isn't interested in trade rates, or for that matter in accounts of battles; she's looking for missing relatives and hidden passages.

If there's nothing of interest in that diary, she moves on to other, similarly old chests and old books.

It takes a bit of digging before Saffron finds her first reference to Maryam, talking about a party held in Benedict's honour, shortly after his thirtieth birthday, at which time Benedict was presented to the court as the child of Cymnea and Oberon, and his caretaker, Maryam, was absolved of her duties and allowed to retire.

That, in itself, seems normal enough, except that Alais then writes of the aftermath, with Benedict railing at Oberon in private for his treatment of Alais and 'our mother'. Alais writes that she convinced Benedict to remain, as it would serve him better, and that she would do better away from Amber.

The next entry that mentions Maryam comes just before the end, as she writes of their preparations for leaving. She writes that word has come of Finndo's death on the battlefield, and her mother's reaction. The final words are 'It is clear now. We stayed as long as we could, but with father's death, there is no longer any protection from Oberon's wrath. Maybe, in time, when Ben achieves his fullest skill, but never, so long as Oberon lives.'

"All right, now I'm really confused," Saffron announces to the room. It helps her sometimes to talk out loud - usually to Skye, but in this case, the books will have to do. "Is Uncle Ben the son of Cymnea and Oberon, or is he Maryam's and somebody else's? And where the heck is Osric in all of this?" She smirks. "And while I'm asking questions of empty air, what does Alais look like? We found the painting of Maryam... There's got to be something here somewhere."

She starts rummaging through chests, looking for some sort of account of the family tree from about the same timeperiod.

It takes a bit more digging, but she eventually finds another diary of Benedict - he's fairly young, about 13 or so - where he shows that, at least as a teen, he had some artistic talent and temperment. There's a sketch in the diary titled Alais. It shows a girl in her late teens. Her height is impossible to tell, but her face clearly shares elements of Benedict's - at least, as Saffron has seen it.

"Okay, clearly related," Saffron mutters. "And Maryam looked related in that painting..." She pauses, frowning thoughtfully at the diary. "Oh, they didn't. Tell me no one's been tying the family tree in that kind of knot, and it was just something Grandfather came up with because Uncle Corwin was playing footsie with Mom too much," she requests of the page. "Please?"

Scowling, she delves into the chests again, still looking for the earliest family tree she can find. Even a written genealogy would work.

The search is initially fruitless - at least as far as an official genealogy goes - but she finds evidence at least that Maryam, however well she's looked on by Amber's people, isn't considered a princess of Amber, though she clearly bears some relationship to Oberon.

In another chest, she finds a paper listing Maryam as a Lady of Chaos, from the Ways of Barimen.

"Appropriate that Chaos enters into it," Saffron mutters to herself. "It's rather muddled and confused. So what does that make her, then? She seems to be related... Great-Aunt, maybe? I should organize these chronologically, see if I can find the really old stuff." She looks around at the room full of chests of books. "Or maybe not. But there's got to be older stuff in here... even if Alais left and took her diaries with her, there should be more of Uncle Benedict's, or maybe Osric and Finndo's. Probably not Grandfather's; he never much struck me as the 'dear diary' type."

She continues to search, looking not just for family trees now, but more generally for the oldest books she can find.

Those seem to be among the oldest in that room. Perhaps there is another room with older books, but the oldest book she can find is one that matches the diary found below for age - a small book, one that could fit into a large pocket, no more than a hundred pages, if that. The writing is old and faded, and appears to be ancient Thari.

Saffron, of course, can read it, but even then, it's difficult. It appears to be a personal Shadowbook, a notebook kept by some wizards to hold their researches and notes on the magics they've researched. Whoever wrote this one was a Grandmaster, at least.

Curious, Saffron flips through the book further, looking for something to identify the writer further.

Before she gets too deep into the book, she gets a Trump call. Thanks to her training, she knows that it's Skye.

Saffron opens herself to the contact with a small smile. "Hi, sweetheart. I found some interesting books... but I'm not really in the library anymore. You didn't look too long, did you?"

Skye makes a face and holds out her hand. "The shifter were still in the Infirmary where he was supposed to be. Bring me through and I'll tell you the rest."

"That good, huh?" Saffron answers wryly. She takes the Ranger's hand and obediently brings her through. "Did you check on Mom?"

"I did," Skye says as she looks around with a raised eyebrow. "She is awake. She asked me to stay and talk for a little while. Gerard says she can't be moved while her internal organs heal. She said it had only been a few hours since she fell with Brand."

Saffron huffs a little. "We'll move the couch, then. I'm glad she's feeling better." She looks around at the chests full of books in the room. "I found some interesting things in here. Apparently this is where old books go when they leave the library - or at least some of them..."

"Really?" Skye asks mildly. "Find anything good? Oh. Before I forget. Your mother wants me to go find her axe when we are next in Shadow, and she thinks we should tell Random about us so he doesn't try and marry one of us off. Gerard had already told her about us. Which was not his place to do, but it is done." She frowns. "Not that he could have possibly been doing more than speculating."

Saffron crosses her arms. "Our uncles seem to have a bad case of 'psychic' this week," she observes, sounding irritated. "I'd fully expect Random to just nod and say, 'I know,' if we were to try and tell him. I found some of Benedict's diaries, and one by a person who is apparently his sister Alais. Also, a cryptic card, that Gerard writes boring journal entries, and that the lady called Maryam whose painting we found was apparently a Lady of Chaos and possibly Benedict's nanny." She takes a deep breath and adds, "Uh... how did Mom take it? I don't think I ever really got around to telling her I like girls..."

Skye blinks as she process all that. Then she smiles. "She doesn't mind. She just wants you happy. And speaking of Random," Skye scowls. "He apparently knew to come because there was an eavesdropper. But Deirdre didn't know if it was on the room or the call."

Some of the tension in Saffron's shoulders eases. "Oh, good. I was hoping... well, you know." She huffs a little. "Figures there'd be an eavesdropper. I'll have to pay attention next time we make a call..."

"Why would Benedict's nanny rate a portrait?"

She shrugs. "Artists will paint anyone. But I'm not entirely sure yet if she's just a nanny. She's of the House of Barimen, apparently... and Finndo and Benedict seem to have been quite angry at the way in which she was retired when Benedict came of age. And here, look at this." She picks up a diary from an untidy pile by her feet. "Uncle Ben's. He doesn't talk about Grandfather as 'Dad' in here like he does now; he calls him by name."

"That's interesting," Skye observes as she reaches down for another of Benedict's diaries. "Maybe Benedict's not Oberon's." She smiles slyly. "Maybe he's Finndo's and Maryam's."

Saffron nods. "I thought about that, and it was considerably more creepy before I found the book that had her titles in it. I can't find an old enough family tree to find out, though. Maybe he was fostered out in Chaos?"

Her girlfriend snorts in amusement. "Maybe. It's interesting for a topic of speculation, but I am not sure it's important enough to pursue right now. I'm more interested in what we saw behind that door. What's this card you found of Gerard's? Does it do anything?"

"No, it's just interesting," the sorceress answers. "The topic and the card both, really. Here..." She picks up another diary and extracts a card from the front."

"Ah, our mysterious nanny." Skye gives it a skeptical look before flipping it over. "Is this a code?" she asks, intrigued. "Did you find anything like a key to it?"

"Only if the trade details of a particular Shadow are of interest," Saffron answers. "It didn't look like a line-and-page key, so I left the journal in the library."

"It looks like a location code," Skye frowns thoughtfully. "Of course, it could be anything, but if F stands for Floor…" She quirks an eyebrow at Saffron. "Want to go check the fifth floor?"

"Sure. Let me put some of these away first..." Saffron picks up two more diaries, tucking them under her arm with the one she's holding. "This one's some sort of mage journal," she explains, "and this other one has a drawing of the person that might be Benedict's sister." She stacks the rest of the books she'd pulled out neatly and sets them back inside the nearest chest. "I thought we could read them later."

"Huh. Are any of my Father's in here?" Skye inquires curiously.

"Not that I noticed - but I wasn't really looking. Why don't we go check out the fifth floor and then come back and check out the rest of the books later?" Saffron suggests. "I'd be curious to see if any of Mom's are here, too, but they're books. I don't think they're going anywhere."