Shen missed his solo forays out into Shadow. Sometimes he wished things weren't such a mess right now: Amber's regrowth in struggle, enemies out to capture or kill, powerful artifacts in malignant hands, so many unknowns. The world-wanderers, his mother's people as he knew them from the tales of his childhood, were gifted not only via their ability but their freedom. What good was it to have the ability to wander through everything ever possible (or at least a good portion of it) if one had to be afraid every step of the way?

He thought of his night in the forest made of stone, and of his visits to the deserted paradise in which his prisoner now resides. He thought on all the places he'd seen with his companions on the way to Amber, from huge mechanical jungles to kingdom cities to wastelands of burning rock. He thought upon his other midnight runs, and the home shadow of the healers that he, Stark and Merlin recently rescued from a city haunted by evil spirits. A thousand thousand starry skies, each with different shapes to see, were out there, each filled with as many horizons of mountains and forests and oceans as there are blades of grass in the Rheari. The few moments he'd had to explore Shadow alone had been too few and too brief. He wanted desperately to see more, to live wandering as he'd always believed his mother's people were meant to, and hopefully begin to understand more about how it all worked.

Someday, he thought, if all goes well, there might be peace enough to live that way.

Tonight, though, he might have a chance to do something equally edifying: find a path to the Dream through the Tir. He tried not to get his hopes up, but Merlin's idea had some merit. If the Tir was a place that slid back and forth between Amber and the Dream, then staying in it as it faded with the moonset, if he could somehow attach himself to it, might carry him into the Dream.

The prospect was exciting on a few fronts. First and foremost, it might allow him, and others, to at least get to see and visit the realm of the Dream, which seems to have fallen at least partially under Zamorna's control, and possibly aid in its reacquisition by Jessica and Amber's allies. Secondly, but perhaps less ephemeral in Shen's view, a successful visit would lend evidence to his ideas about the cosmos that Amber, Chaos, Shadow and the Dream all shared, and likely help develop his theories.

He knew that the others didn't exactly share his passion for studying the interweavings of the truths of metaphysics, and to their credit, there were far more important matters at hand. Shen endeavored to keep sight of those, and fortunately, obedience to Cecily's administration of affairs had so far been an easy means of doing so. What he found rewarding about the upcoming plan, however, was its importance to both interests.

With some luck, the Tir would be up tonight, and they wouldn't have to wait until next month, if things even stayed put that long. He thought about where things had been a month ago, and a month before that, and compared the state of his life to the chaotic storm of worlds he watched gust past the first time he shifted shadow with Fletcher. Whatever the winds bring, he thought to himself. It was best to be flexibly observant these days.

As for his plans to return to the Rheari with Salome, they would have to wait. The Sending, Zamorna's use of the Dream to impose a false reality over the true one, had pretty much preempted that plan. Shen was somewhat disappointed, but accepted this; Amber needed to take priority, and there was clearly a new threat to everything they had worked for there.

Shen hoped that the group's progress with Amber wouldn't turn out to be in vain. The crops were nearing readiness for harvest, a medical staff was now in place, and the city had been slowly rebuilding since he'd raised the statue in the square some time ago. Thinking on how they'd come under attack that first time, cannon laying the city and gates to ruins with seemingly little effort, he wondered how long it would last. They'd managed to hold the attack off when it came again... once.

Now, a lot seemed to be happening. All of the madness with Rook and his deception; the new issues arising with Fletcher and Gerda, Harry and Salome, and poor Stark and her ghosts; Griffin's quest after his father and discovery of a shadow of his lost love; and, of course, the new threat from the Dream were all unwinding concurrently with Cecily's efforts to rebuild the kingdom (and the entirety of Shadow that went with it). The time to simply absorb it all, figure things out, and come to terms with everyone's new-found roles in the universe simply hadn't ever come, and didn't look like it would for some time, if ever.

Which, thought Shen, brings thoughts right back to where his meandering mind had started. He recalled his childhood imaginings of his dark-haired mother, bearing strange clothes and mystical belongings, walking from world to world, full of wonder, and tried to surmise if he would ever have the chance to do the same.