Julian-AoS

King Random,

It would be a lie to say i ever in my most cold nightmares thought you would sit the throne.

Of the lot of us you were the one under foot, the fool, the joker in the deck.

Yet you were also the joker at the fireside, at the card table, at the sea's crashing waves.

I have had time to think about you since the Battle of Patternfall. I watched you gain your footing in the Courts of Chaos.

I found that i could not decide if i could serve you. I was prepared to abandon Amber and go out into shadow for a few thousand years.

Why didn't I you might ask?

I returned to Amber while the rest of the family went into the Courts of Chaos, after the reception dinner in Theldane where the courtiers of Chaos were horrified to fete a conqueror.

I gathered my meager possessions in my rooms in the castle and was about to get Morgenstern and leave. But it was Vialle who found me. She was terrified, scared, no one had told her the final tale, beyond that we had won. She begged me to tell her. So i did.

I told her the whole tale. You, Caine, Benedict, Corwin, Brand, Dierdre, Martin, Merlin. Oberon and the Unicorn.

I saw in her blind eyes the moment she realized that she was not a vagrant's wife, forced to a loveless marriage as a punishment for your careless crime against Rebma. I saw her become Queen of Amber. I saw in her stance, her voice, breath, and her hand on my arm, that she knew her love had survived, and that fortune had cruely put a crown on his head. I felt her love for you.

You. The joker in the Deck.

If she can love you, then I will try to as well.

So i stayed. Now i serve.

Prince Julian of Amber-Warden of Arden