the Fierce & the LintKing's Amber Bits

My lusts have long been unslaked, yes, but that is because I am circumspect with myself and my partners. If it was a look at the new world, it was not a dream of romance or even of bedsport.

This time it was a dance, with three partners; Paige, Folly, Celina, and myself. Celina - the rebman girl I saw only briefly at the Breakfast of Xanadu. I could guess that it was my usual strange obsession with the watery realm. Mystery, thy name. She taught me the steps of the unusual dance, Paige across from me, Folly to my left. A diamond dance, to a music I didn't hear.

What did we represent? Folly, the unknown Amberite? Celina of Rebma? Paige, a fiery power, and myself, the dreamer of dreams? I am not the only dreamer. Lucas, he too dreams. I must remember that, because in replaying the dream in my head, I see that he, too, was dancing, if not with his arms around our waists, but across from us, a different orbit, entirely.

And Martin. King Martin, the black-hearted. His heart had been stabbed and burnt black, his memories eaten. Someone said that, and he rested in the center of the darkness of the ballroom. The silent music continued.

It comes to me now. We were dancing in Dara. Only fair; she ruined the first dance, and made a counterfeit play on my partner in discussion. Amber's corpse, Cambina? Only in your dark eyes, and dark hair. You are one of its wraiths.

As am I?

My thoughts bring strange connections. I remember colours that do not exist except in the skin of fallen demons. I dream of strangers as if they were familiar. I dream of one look into the Abyss.

I dream and it does not frighten me.

Merlin brings back a heart, one of ice or diamond, and who knows who it is made of? Aisling or Aisling's daughter? It is the center of our strange dance. It is placed in Martin's chest, and he stands up fierce, glowing, ready to fight.

We dance into the fog, the dark water.

I dream of some sort of danger. I know that.