Dinner was an elegant meal spanning several courses. I had grown to enjoy these formal gatherings in my month in Amber. Since I had nothing of importance to return to on Earth, I had no trouble adjusting to living in Castle Amber and was enjoying every moment being pampered.

Shandrin and the two other newly initiated Amberites had just returned from Chaos, so as dinner was wrapping up, Random made a brief announcement informing us of what happened while they were gone.

"Even though we have a treaty with Chaos," Random said as I slowly chewed the last bite of my meal. "We have to remain on high alert. The attacker could be any of the houses of Chaos, and they may attack again in spite of them having the Jewel and in spite of the agreement made between myself and King Therel. There's also a chance that these ghosts are hostile, even though nothing disastrous has happened yet. We need to have as many family members in and around the castle as possible. I intend on contacting our AWOL relatives again after dinner. However, Caine still needs to be found and dealt with. Therefore, I'd like to send Shandrin, Jonah, and Sebastian on a search for the traitor Caine."

It sounded reasonable enough, even though I still thought they were a little too quick on accusing Caine of these ghosts. After all, it could have all been a coincidence.

Sebastian looked like he was about to blurt something out in response to the news. However, Oliver interrupted him. "I'll go too," he said softly. Everyone instantly turned to stare at him. Meek, quiet Oliver going out on a quest to find Caine? It seemed hard to imagine.

Oliver shifted in his seat, probably uncomfortable from the sudden silence that filled the room.

"I'd rather not send both of you," Random eventually said. "However, if you insist, then I'm not going to stop you." Oliver nodded. I stood, and the sudden screech of my chair made the young prince almost jump out of his skin.

"Excuse me," I said before leaving.

I was done with dinner and all important matters seemed to have been covered. There was no reason for me to stick around, especially since the whole room had gotten so intense. I also didn't want to be there in case Oliver mentioned what I was sure his motivation to go was: Dante. Though I was quite fond of my nephew/cousin, he was, to put it bluntly, a total ass on par with Sebastian. I had caught him harassing poor Oliver on several occasions, which had explained Oliver's discomfort when Dante had used him to pull us through when I first entered Amber. It was no wonder that Oliver was taking this opportunity to leave.

Also, those ghosts were a nuisance, to say the least. I didn't blame Oliver. With his partial blindness, I could imagine that the figments were probably even more frustrating for him. He probably couldn't tell if the blurry shadow he saw was a harmless ghost cook peeling potatoes or Dante getting ready to chuck a book at his head. If not for the fact that I knew Random needed me here, I would have volunteered as well. The ghosts always seemed to be in my way. I once tripped over a young girl playing in the halls. Another time, I sat in the lap of an elderly gentleman who had appeared in my chair when I wasn't looking. Luckily, they didn't seem to be hostile and seemed just as surprised to see us as we were to see them.

I turned a corner towards my room and then stopped in my tracks. Something didn't seem quite right about the hallway, though I couldn't put my finger on it. I pursed my lips and continued anyway. I was sure I had taken the right turn.

After a while, I noticed what seemed off. The hallway was subtly different than usual. The walls were a slightly darker color. The lights were a few inches higher. There were more doors on the left-hand side than before. I stopped walking and looked around. Strange. This was in fact the wrong hallway. However, I didn't recall ever being in this part of the castle.

I took a left that should have taken me closer to my chambers if I had been in the right hallway and heard a voice nearby, coming from a familiar right turn that should have taken me straight to my rooms. Luckily, this strange hall mirrored the one I was used to so well that I was sure it would be impossible for me to get lost.

I walked down the hall, noting the subtle differences as I went, and then took that right turn towards the voice.

It's not easy to surprise me. However, my eyes widened in shock. There was a face I thought I'd never see again. Dressed all in black and silver and holding a trump, my father walked down the hall toward me. I gasped, trying to form words. What was I to say? He had been gone for so much of my life that I had all but forgotten about him, and now he was right in front of me. It was all so sudden! My father - I knew him as Karl, but Caine had referred to him as "Corwin" - looked up at me. At first, he glared at me like I was some sort of intruder, but realization flashed across his face. He recognized me and he knew it.

The trump he was holding dropped to the floor. As it fell, I saw that one side depicted a gorgeous young woman who shared several features with myself and my father - my half sister in Rebma, perhaps? - and the other showed a rearing Pegasus with outstretched wings.

Corwin opened his mouth and moved it. No sounds came out. He and the entire hallway flickered and wavered for a second before returning to normal, albeit hazy.

"Vater?" I managed to choke out. My shock made it impossible for me to form thoughts in Thari, so my brain had reverted back to what it was most comfortable with, German. "Es ist mich, Nils!"

My father's mouth opened again. The single word he spoke sounded distant and faint. "Nils?"

His image shimmered and shook again. What was happening? Was he a ghost? But this had never happened before with other ghost sightings. Usually, they were the ones that flickered out of existence.

The scene wavered again and then faded from sight. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. My father… would he still be there? When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a familiar hallway, standing in front of my bedroom door. I leaned against my door and shivered. Had I been imagining things? No… No, I had definitely seen my father. But if he was in Amber this entire time and had trumps on him, then why was no one able to reach him?

As I shakily reached for my trumps, I noticed a servant girl down the hall staring at me. I quickly attempted to compose myself, let myself into my room, and locked the door behind me. Once in privacy, I flipped through my trumps until I located my father's. I held it before me and focused on it, trying to make it real. No luck. The card remained cool and lifeless in my hand. I sighed and sat in my chair. He wasn't answering. Did that mean he was ignoring me?

I turned the card over in my hand and saw the image of the unicorn, the sacred beast of Amber. All of the trumps of Amber had this symbol on it. When I had asked Dante about it a few weeks ago, he said something about how it was the emblem of Amber. However, the symbol on the back of the card my father had held had been a Pegasus. I frowned and flipped over my deck of trumps. All of mine were backed with the same image of a unicorn. Not a single one showed a winged horse.

I started to put the deck away when I remembered the order Random had issued when the ghosts had started appearing. Though that instance hadn't been a typical ghost sighting, I had still recognized someone who had appeared under unusual circumstances.

I flipped through my deck again and pulled out Random's trump. As I focused on this one, I felt a stirring. Contact occurred right away.

"Nils!" Random said as he set down his own deck of trumps. "What is it? Is something wrong? You look rather pale."

I decided that I'd get right to the point. "I saw my father," I said bluntly.

Random blinked at me and then his eyes widened. "You saw Corwin?" He asked. I nodded. "Where? When?"

"In a strange hallway just a few minutes ago," I replied.

"A ghost?"

I shook my head. "It wasn't quite the same," I said. "But he did vanish like one. I'm not sure what was going on."

"Tell me everything that happened."

So I did. I told him about traveling along the hallway that I had never seen before until I heard a voice. I told him about how I turned the corner, and there was my dad, holding that strange trump. I even told him about the way existence seemed to shiver. He listened in silence.

"It almost sounds like you stumbled into another shadow," he said after several moments of thought. "But it's impossible to walk in shadow this close to Amber." I nodded. Dante had told me that while he had taught me how to manipulate shadow one afternoon when we visited Forest Arden.

"What could it have been, then?" I asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," Random admitted. "Let me think about it. But it's good to know that Corwin is still alive."

"We don't know that for sure," I replied, trying to be realistic. After all, we did call the strange visitations "ghosts."

"Don't be ridiculous," Random said. "The dead don't use trumps!" He laughed to himself and then broke contact.

I returned his card to the deck and then set my deck on the small table to my right. So my father was alive, huh? I took a deep breath. Maybe this meant I'd be able to see him again, and soon. A leaned back in my chair and rolled a cigarette for myself. What would I talk to him about? What would he tell me? Would he want to be in my life again? I pondered these things as I smoked.

It was late by the time I finally went to bed. That night, I dreamt of Munich.