Elayne-AoS
Liege Lord,
You asked your kin for an Article of Submission. When my mother told me about it she rolled her eyes. I spoke to Arloxedra and he was quite put out. I don't see the problem. I see it as a formality. You know I am of little danger to the realm.
I could just as easily say what Arlo said, "I submit" and let it go at that. Be we little know each other. Arlo told me to talk about myself since you, the King, would not be the only person ready these. So i write, this second month of 5202 in Amber.
Blue I am an egg. I am Elayne deFlroimel.
My mother bore me before Patternfall on Earth during her time observing Prince Corwin. I was born is Westchester County, New York in 1940 of that world. I attended a local elementary school, a high school, and went to New York for college. My mother was a professional golfer, my father had been a whisper in the dark for her, someone passing through she said. She said i might meet him someday and at the time I didn't give it a second thought.
By the time I was 13 my mother had arranged for me to have all the money I wanted as long as I maintained my grade point at 4.0 and as long as I cooperated with all these instructors she had for me. It was easy enough to do, all those things were things i loved. I have been obsessed with reading since i first could figure out what the little drawings meant. Ive always loved learning things.
She spent a fair amount of time with me as a child but she frequently left for a month at a time here and there leaving me alone for the most part, save the household staff. Now I know that was time looking in on Uncle Corwin.
From the time I was young enough to grasp a bow she taught me archery. We played sword fighting games, Musketeers vs the Cardinal's Guard. She had a odd man come teach me martial arts. Combat Dance he called it. I learned the katana. I had an instructor in gymnastics who helped me be able to participate in the 1948 Olympics in London. At the Olympics I got a Silver in Women's Foil, a Bronze in Womans Over-all Gymnastics, and lost my virginity to a British cyclist who won a Silver-for cycling not scoring with an Amberite.
Through the 1950s and 60s my mother and I were professional golfers and participated in international archery events. In 1972 she won Gold in Olympic Archery and I won Silver. We participated in the Olympics a lot over the years. We treated it like a hobby despite collection medals in fencing, archery, gymnastics, cycling, volleyball, diving, swimming, equestrian, shooting both rifle and pistol, and canoing. We participated in Winter Olympics and I won a medal in skiing but she was the one who loved the cold.
We went camping. A lot. I didn't know it then but we traveled in shadow. She taught me field craft. We read in wonderful places. She taught me to climb. We played golf. Lots of golf. We played a lot of golf. We raised dogs; Irish wolfhounds. One was always with me. One still is.
I enrolled in at New York University, near Washington Park, in 1958. I could say i majored in a number of different disciplines but i really majored in the 60's. I spent time in the clubs. The parks. I met people. I let myself go and I let myself indulge. It was a good time to be rich and strong. I bought an apartment building nearby, through agents, and had it renovated for safety. I played myself off as the property manager and charged people repair time to paint walls, sand wood. Carve, create. Forty rental units and social spaces downstairs. Musicians, artists, baseball players, i rented to a type.
There was music in the cafés at night and revolution in the air.
Then it all changed in 1974. A pair of uncles arrived out of the blue. Creatures out of some hell arrived and the house i grew up in was the scene of warfare. Several of my favorite hounds were killed.
Id never seen my mother flustered. She called me after the two uncles took one of her favorite cars and disappeared. She told me everything. Amber. Eric. Corwin. She told me while driving and for the first time showed me shadowwalking.
She took me someplace in shadow. I was enrolled at the Collège de France in the late 1880s. She said she had enjoyed her time there at that time and found it again for me. Once again I got distracted by the life style while maintaining my schooling. Artists, actors, absinthe, dancers, and the Moulin Rouge.
She had put me in a fast time realm it seems. I spent 50 years in that world, traveling, reading, painting, amidst the artistic worlds.
By a combination of bad timing and whimsy found me a nurse in 1914 and spent a horrifying four years in the trenches of France. I had entered a nursing program in 1913 and the whole school was suddenly in the army for the duration. I'll never understand why I stayed but its been suggested something about the bloodshed appealed to the Amber blood in me. I couldn't contact my mother, felt abandoned by her.
One thing happened that rocked my world. The trench was over run. I found myself in the center of a bloody battle. My Olympic fencing talents wielded a cavalry saber in between two dirt walls. My Olympic pistol bronze drove my fight in the mud and slog against German foe-men. In the middle of a trench war i grabbed a loose horse and used my Olympic equestrian experience to ride it out to safe lands. I never thought myself a warrior. It never occurred to me. But it turns out that its in my blood.
1919 found me in a New York again. Though not of the world of my birth. I could find no version of my mother in that world. I got distracted again by music as Jazz came to rule the night. I traveled among musicians again, and criminals and sportsman. I was even tempted to return to the Olympics but i went as a spectator.
