A couple of days after the Victory Celebration Mercury disappears from Ebony without prior word or explanation. She is not seen again for the following 100 years. Trump communications are unresponsive. Charles Langly of Ross takes day-to-day control of Mercury’s fleets under her orders.

[Secret] Mercury sends a note to her Mother explaining that she is going to spend some time in shadow conducting research. She says that Charles Langly can get in touch with her in an emergency, and she will coordinate operation of the fleets through him.

Mercury sits motionless scant feet from the start of the Great Pattern of Ebony. She breathes slowly and deeply. With her mind clear, she slowly stands and walk forward. As soon as her foot approaches the beginning of the great swirling maze of fire, a spark flies up to her foot and the memories begin to pound against her defenses.

The images and feelings range from the mundane to the extraordinary, from the delightful to the horrific. The Admiral relives the horrors of the sea battle that wiped out Y’Nobe’s reserves and the quiet delight of walking barefoot through the pine needles in Birnham wood. But she pushes these images back and just keeps walking. Minutes or perhaps hours later, she is once again in the center of the Universe, the center of all reality.

Although it has been centuries since the last time she made this perilous and arduous journey, her feelings are identical. All she really wants is to take a bath. But unlike the first time she conquered the Pattern, this time she has done so to go some place very specific. A place that perhaps only exists in her mind. She concentrates on where she wants to go and in a blink of an eye she is there.

With only the clothes on her back and a standard pack of trumps, with a few of her own thrown in, the Princess arrives in the Shadow Tokuwa [See Below]. It is not a place where she will require things from Ebony. It is a place where she will endeavor to forget what she knows in order to learn what she does not.

Strangers do not often come to Tokuwa, but Mercury is quickly accepted by the locals on account of her phenomenal charm and her willingness to live as the locals live. The Ebonite possesses knowledge and skills that are unknown on Tokuwa. Her angelic singing voice reaches heights undreamed of and her stories of far away places entertain the young and old alike.

Her first mission is to clear her mind of the troubles that she came here to forget. To that end she embarks on a quest to climb Tokuwa’s seven mountains. Once this goal is accomplished she sets about to unlock the power of the Pattern.

When she is prepared, Mercury concentrates as she did before walking the Pattern. However, this time, she walks the memory of that Pattern as Rozel once suggested she do. Although it does not take as long as physically walking it, the mental exertion is similar.

Once she has reached the center of the mental pattern she commands the Pattern to do her bidding:

1. She uses the Pattern to change aspects of Tokuwa or other shadows.
• Speeding up and slowing down time.
• Blocking or restricting access
• Modifying features [like geography] or items [like making a gun work]
2. She uses the Pattern to summon objects [either objects of desire or specific ‘real’ things like her sword from Ebony]
3. She uses the pattern to move herself, commanding it to send her somewhere else in Tokuwa as if she were at the center of Ebony’s Pattern.
4. She uses the Pattern to look at other places, as if opening a trump connection to a place and looking around. She then attempts to find specific things within a shadow or multiple shadows.
5. She uses the Pattern to manipulate the stuff of shadow and to create a shadow pocket into which things can be hidden and undetectable.
6. She attempts to use the Pattern to modify herself or others . . . sort of like shape shifting. Give someone the ability to breathe water, or float in air, or heal wounds.

Once she is comfortable with being able to do these things in Shadow [if she can], she attempts to do the same in Ebony. Every year (three years for her) she goes back to Ebony on the anniversary of her father’s death, and leaves black and green flowers on his grave and re-carves the griffin into her chest. She goes when there is no one around, often in the early pre-dawn hours.

For instance, if she can teleport herself within a shadow, can she teleport to another shadow, from shadow to Ebony, within Ebony, and from Ebony to shadow? If she can make a pocket shadow, how long does it last, can she bring it to Ebony (how long does it last if she can), and can she create it in Ebony (how long does it last)? I assume that she cannot change physical features of Ebony but can she modify items in Ebony, making a gun work or changing water into wine?

At the end of the turn, Mercury will still be in Tokuwa unless called back by Titania. She will attend Donovan’s wedding if invited, and Faiello’s funeral. But she will do her best to avoid people at both to the extent that is feasible.