9.       Jasra’s Place.

 

 

Jasra did not bother with answers, taking hold of Allysa’s hand and Allysa hardly had time to blink at the quick whirlwind change of scenery. “Whoa, where...?”

 

They were standing in a large chamber with stairways to the right and left. Two stairs curved inward, leading to another hall on the far side. Two other stairs curved downward, to a hallway below and to the rear. The central chamber was two stories high, dim light coming from bluish-glowing globes. In the center of the chamber there was a fountain, spewing flames of enormous energies into the air cascading down into its basin of black stone. Alyssa shivered feeling the occult powers surging in that great hall. She would love to examine the fountain, but Jasra lost no time in dragging her to the downward staircase, down the stairs, along the hallway, passing many doors and finally into a rather well-appointed sitting room, dimly lit by a single globe of the same kind as those in the hall. Allysa did not resist, hastening her step to keep up and not have her arm pulled out of its socket. She made but a token effort to get her arm back just to test Jasra's strength, though she was fairly certain that she was weaker than Jasra, which turned out to be true. She unconsciously registered in her mind that Jasra did not seem to even need Trumps to move between the Shadows.

 

Jasra almost pushed breathless Alyssa into a large armchair. “Welcome to the Keep of the Four Worlds. I shall send someone to attend you and make you comfortable for the night. I shall see you in the morning.  We’ve a lot to talk about.”

 

“Thank you milady,” Allysa added mentally, I think. She was not alone for long, the room filling with maids shortly thereafter. Lanterns were lighted, wood was brought in and fires were started in large fireplaces in every room – there turned out to be several in the suite. A large basin in the bathroom was filled with hot water; tables were dusted off and trays with food and wine were placed on them. For the next hour or two Allysa, who had never been used to such comforts, felt in heaven. It was a little embarrassing to be bathed – she had always done it herself – but she suffered it to be polite to her hostess.

 

Later on, in a soft, freshly made bed, bathed, brushed and refreshed, Allysa sleeplessly contemplated the events of the day and her current situation. Jasra’s place was weird, and not only because of the fountain. Considering the state of the rooms when she had been brought in, no one had lived in here in years. Not a sound from outside, which meant that perhaps the whole wing was uninhabited. But the silence was not total. There was a very faint buzz coming from somewhere below, as if some very large machinery were running under the building. She was somewhat curious about the buzz, but too polite to be nosing about unasked. She did check the windows, but it was too dark outside to see anything. Finally she carried to bed a platter of edibles and her bag of art supplies to sketch the night away with her pad.

 

She briefly considered a possibility of leaving one of Vincient’s Trumps behind as her means to return later.  Perhaps, she would slip one into a closet or some such out of the way place some time tomorrow. She was reasonably sure her hostess had no idea of Vincient – her confidante, guardian, and general pain in the neck, but over all, her best friend.

 

Vincient was a Trump entity that had an ability to store the images from other Trumps that it came in contact with and later on to recall those images and change into them – a sort of a Trump filing system. She had circulated most of her spares of Vincient to various people and had gotten LOTS of Trump images ‘borrowed’ to use in this manner. Vincient acted as a normal Trump of whatever it looked like. Prolonged contact with Trumps allowed it to ‘save’ their images for use at a later date. In this manner even she was not really sure what Trumps she had access to without asking Vincient.

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