Peregrine: Into The Orange Shard

At the top of the pass into Garnath he finds there is a tall antenna, a magical construct of some kind, rather like a cell phone tower. The valley itself is solidly blanketed with farmed fields. There are tractors moving across several of them. As Perry gets closer, he can see that the faintly chugging things are the product of magical technology. They have not stained the air of Amber in any way that Perry can discern. A women driving a truck toward the city gives him a wave and pulls over. She points something like a radar gun at him, smiles at the reading.

"Need a lift?"

The skyline of the eternal city is different here too. High rises stretch up in several places, albeit more graceful towers than most advanced tech cities. The walls are smooth, reinforced with a smooth sheath of metal. At the gate, guards in power armor use a hand scanner that looks newer than his ride’s, and snap to salute Perry.

"Morning, sir," says the man on the left. "You just missed most of the Royal family. I’m afraid only the King and Princess Flora are in the city."

The city is larger than your Amber. The stables near the gate remain, but it has been converted into a garage. Traffic is almost entirely motorized. On various corners, Perry sees video screens with various input systems. Cameras and keyboards, even plugs. Perry sees one girl with a wire running from some kind of implant in her head to one of the computer kiosk. She stands with a far away look on her face, speaking to someone Perry cannot see. Not unlike a trump call by wire.

The Castle itself has retina and DNA scanners. Laser cannons on the walls appear to be automated. The guards are power armored here as well. Perry crosses the yard, and is just entering the great hall when Flora comes up the stairs. She is dressed in green and silver armor with her sunset hair all tumbled down around her shoulders and a helmet under her arm. The shell of the armor must follow the curves of her body quite closely. Flora looks like an anime pin-up, and she smiles in surprised pleasure when she sees Perry.

"Peregrine, you’re just the man I need to see." You can’t recall Flora being anything but delightful, but there’s a warmth, a lack of pretense about the way she ruffles her hair into careless place that’s entirely unlike the gracefully deliberate woman you know as Florimel. "I’m sure you’re here for something else, but could I borrow you for a few hours? I’m having terrible trouble with the equations for the magical field variations in the repeaters. That event last month blew everything blew all up and down the communications lines. I’ve got the crystals in the repeaters replaced, but I still have to redo the settings and every bloody one changed. We’re back to paper trumps, if you can believe it." She shakes her head at the medieval notion, hooks an arm through yours and tows you politely but firmly up the stairs. "Bleys obviously knows what happened, and the King, of course, but they don’t see fit to tell me. Guess it’s one of those awful technical things my little button brain just wouldn’t wrap around."

Last edited 22 March 2003