Brigid of Amber

As part of her cousin Ombra’s history, since he had so much Bad Stuff (another contrast with Brigid who had Good Stuff), his mother, the Unseelie Queen, was killed by Chaos with the same such knife, and therefore would never reincarnate. Now, I was called to do the same, with Brigid’s father, whom she always wanted to meet (having been left at an orphanage by him as a baby) and met only a few times during the campaign.

It was an emotional moment for me as a player. Getting asked to sacrifice her father was wrenching. Having to do it for all three other monarchs was only compounding the situation.

But she did it.

Brigid knew that if she was successful, and the battle won, everything would be restored, even better. Still, the thought was excruciating. Eventually, though, she took her father in her arms and slid the knife into his heart.

And when it was over, there was nothing of Faerie left, except for herself. With the last vestige of Faerie vanishing around her, she found herself at the battle site, that being all there was left of Existence. The only place left in all of reality was a lonely spot, where two people were trying to maintain enough reality to allow something to be recreated when/if the Seven were victorious. There was a concerted stream of power between the two, and they were so concentrating on maintaining the stream than Brigid couldn’t contact them. I wondered what to do, when the GM said that Brigid was changing into her ultimate Faerie form, of a white phoenix. (She has a transitional form which is a Faerie woman with reddish-golden wings of fire, but this form she has only used once before in this lifetime, so save her uncle Bleys from death.)

A symbol of rebirth was most appropriate at this point. The question was, what to do? Flying into the stream would most likely kill her. This was the second time I almost choked up. But in the end, the circle had to be completed. After all, the other monarchs gave their lives in the hope that they would be reborn, so could Brigid not do the same?

She transformed into the shape of a phoenix, she soared into the sky, then swept down into the vortex of magick and power, carrying with her all of Faerie, so that all of Faerie would be reborn in the restored existence.

And then she was someplace else.

There, a man named Meredith introduced himself as the brother to the Seven from Outside, who, having been defeated, had been changed from destroyers to creators. And then the seven appeared before Brigid, asking what she wanted from the new Reality.

The Seven who were destroyers and who were now protectors offered her a wish for her part in maintaining Existence. Others wished for things like Amberites being more fertile, meaning more NPCs and children running around Castle Amber, but Brigid gave the wish back to the Universe, not wanting to dictate to it and letting It decide how best to use it.All she wanted for it was that it be left to grow on its own, to be a place of wonder and enchantment, a home for herself and her children.

The Seven found that to be valid, and agreed. Then they left, leaving Reality in the care of its people.

And then Brigid awoke. She was back at her campsite, with her mercenary unit and her two daughters. It was if nothing had changed.

But something did. Amber, Chaos and the rest of Existence was reborn, with changes. Ombra’s mother was restored, for one, and Faerie, which had remained separate from Existence, was now a part of it. The entire history of Amber was rewritten. There had been no Patternfall War, no Merlin or Martin; Oberon and Eric were alive; and a whole host of other things were there to be explored, which included the status of Faerie as a part of Shadow.

And Bane, Brigid’s Faerie gryphon companion, said “And now things start to get interesting.”

The GM told me later that he had put the other players through the same sort of trial and tribulation, so I wasn’t alone. Nor was this the first time he had done so. It was … incredible.

It was a truly intense 2 12 hours (on the phone: my phone bill that month was not pretty.) My only complaint was that I wasn’t able to do it in person.

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