Celina portrayed by Rosario Dawson

"Everything was to be seen through a green haze. There were buildings, all of them fragile and most of them high, grouped in patterns and standing in colours that that entered my eyes and tore through my mind, seeking after remembrance."

"Inside the city, we were conducted up a wide avenue, lighted by pillar flames set at even closer intervals than on Faiella-bionin, the people stared out at us from behind octagonal tinted windows, and bright-bellied fishes swam by. There came a cool current, like a breeze, as we turned a corner; and after a few steps, a warm one, like a wind."

'Nine Princes in Amber', Chapter V

 

Celina portrayed by Rosario Dawson

I'm a recent arrival in Rebma, and ward of Queen Moire. I'm close to members of the royal family.

I was raised by Tuna Nuns. (sniffs, grins)

All right. I was raised in the Seaward Kingdoms by two old sisters who kept shade over my head. My merchant officer mother and crew never returned from a bad storm. Nothing shady about it, happens often enough.

The Shell of Narhval was an honorable merchant house. Ta'Flir and Ta'Slen were wealthy sisters without heirs or pacted suitors. Once I was old enough, it was Nibbeak Boarding Academy, where all the 'good people' sent their daughters. It was all right, if only because the other girls were companions in misery. And it did give me a good curiousity for the larger world.

Celina's observations about life

• not having brothers and sisters is a shallow world
• only women can understand the sea
• music whispers the secrets of the universe

Khela portrayed by Khela

My third year at Nibbeak, I started TaKhi classes with Khela. Memory says the best hours of the day were the ones of fifteen girls bending and blending to the rhythms of the beautiful sea.

When my Llaya woke, Khela was there to tell me what was happening and guide me through the madness. When she offered to fill my leisure hours with additional instruction, I dove at the chance. I sucked knowledge from her daily like a little whale-calf flippers beside her momma's belly.

I've learned that such things don't really happen by chance.

The Shell of Khrop was an honorable scholar house, yet Khela never spoke of her Shell. As she pushed me and hammered me until I needed TaKhi just to sleep at night, I learned why she had been exiled from her house. Khela was obsessed with Mystery. She was daring, and full of womanhood, and just a sea lion's whisker past socially acceptable about it all.

Funny. I think certain persons made sure that Khela and I met and fell in love.

Celina's observations about people and events ongoing

• Orseas is a sweetie, the strong silent type
• I think Loreena hates my innards
• King Corwin of Paris is a better letter-writer than a lover
• William Roth has a nice face and terrible taste in clothes
• did I mention Loreena hates my innards?

• Once we swam with golden Amber; now we do not mourn her? Why?
• I do not care to be 'overlayed'
• in the City, Sir William will be a target of opportunity; I like this not.
• Is Queen Moire a worthy ally? Why the question then?
• What worries Orseas so that he carries it about in early morning?
• Loreena still hates my innards

Lady of the Royal Bedchamber
I've learned how to present myself in the Court of Rebma
How long before the intrigues sweep me out to Seaward?

Queen Moire
Why does my teacher send me to serve her in Rebma?
How does fabled Amber figure in all this?

• Loreena has saddled me with this long trip to Paris. Is she playing me? Did she want to go?
• Thank the currents for Bill Roth. I think I would have fainted or choked on breathing air.
• Paris seems haunted. But it is the most vibrant haunting I've ever felt. I've wanted to taste buildings since I got here.
• King Corwin is quite striking, in person. He makes a nice trophy.
• Corwin is my father?
• Moire is my lying witch of a mother?
• I hate my life. I'm so stupid. Someone put me out of my misery.

• Merlin. A brother. His life has less grounding than mine and his future is as dark.
• Alice Roth. Dear woman. I wonder if Bill knows just how dependant she is on him?
• Note to self: find out more about Eiffel.
• King Corwin is extremely preoccupied with post-partum.
• Jerod. Dark knight of Amber's past.
• Vere. Bright lord of Amber's future. Does it have one?
• I can do this. Forward. No stopping.
• Moire might have saved my life with her scheme, but she isn't family.
• I'm so dull. This family is so practical.
• They don't seem prepared to lift a finger for the Mother that birthed them. "Oh, the Legend is undone. Fine. Move on."
• No!

• Pattern. Why does everyone think I know the intimate workings of the Thing?
• Merlin. Celina. Two sad and uninformed scholars.
• "You understand that the tale is incredible? Particularly when I relate that our father fought my assailant *over* the device? And that my assailant resembled our uncle Benedict in every particular?"
• No! I really don't.

• Merlin. Is being Chaosi and a shaper mean he doesn't have gender?
• Shadow walks. Very hard. Very exciting. More exciting than hard.
• Sunglasses. Colored. Green? Rebman invention. Must get pair from Martin.

• on her first trip through the shadows

How could she do anything with her efforts but be at odds with his? They see things through a lens of different languages, different colors of life perhaps. How to work together when there are no words to the work, let alone the beauty of sound, smell, and the marvels of taste?

She watches the sun up itself for another day and draws geometries in the dirt with her toes.

"The painting must be cohesive and true, not nearly as good or somewhat as I expect it to be," she tells the small line sketch of the palace of Rebma she has drawn. "Even an Amber mortally wounded should still be a thing of mighty glory. A thing I only can imagine."

So far I can only spin out shadows of that thing I seek. Celina sits with chin on knees and watches over her brother til he wakes rested.

• Merlin: he needs filter us all through a strange lens of Chaosi educations. It is so easy to hear loneliness in his stiff words, but he is a survivor.
• Martin: he has been used. By Moire? Now why would I think that?
• Folly: she seems to understand. Really. No, really.
• Garrett: a passionate young pike ready to snip off fingers, even if he gets his mouth torn by a hook.
• Lilly: I'm not sure. She may be no older than I.

• Xanadu: Starfish! Such beauty and clean air. So why is it that in Xanadu I now know I must return to those filthy Rebman waters?
• Martin: will he ever really believe in love again?
• Folly: sister of my dreams? Will Martin listen to her heart?
• Brennan: he has a lover, I wonder who? Together they have a fine smell. Air shares so much more than water. It might just make me frivolous.
• Hannah: she has the most open eyes I've ever seen.
• the eyes: even if the smell of blood and taste of char were not in the room, the eyes would tell me the pain has reached Xanadu.
• Merlin: my brother! Has the Dara come for you again? I so fear to lose you.
• Bleys: Starfish! Stand still! I have questions for you.
• Paige: mother of gods. What does that feel like?

• Khela: I dream that she wants me dead. My lover. My sister.
• Khela: why did I swear to protect her? Am I still in love? Can love exist in all this snipping and lying?
• Llewella: what binds your hands behind your back? what promise does Moire hold you to?
• Folly: how I wish you were here to talk
• Merlin: thank you for being at my side. I feel more whole with your help.
• Huon: Starfish! A whipped canine who does not kill when released. I could appreciate him well if I didn't think he'd eat me.
• Huon: he has me thinking I could turn out just like him: a beaten dog, leashed by Amber princes.

No.
Never.

• Khela: Now I think about you awake or asleep.
• Jerod: It seems fitting that yours would be the last trump.
• Merlin: Brother, I envy you so much your relationship with Martin. Would that I had a voice to trust so.
• Conner: Starfish! So now I add known criminals to my cause. Isn't that a smart thing to do. -sigh- May our association prove better than your path alone, cousin.
• Huon: Might I have done better by you than to omit the lies?

My chest is too small for my heart. I ache.
I must go on. There is no other path.

• Merlin: How dare you take Trumps out of the green? How dare I protest? And so my misery twists. Forgive me.
• Conner: That smile warms me so. How bright the fire. No. Step away. There is no more room for hurt in my heart. Not even an older shoulder to breathe gently upon.
• Khela: Will you use me gently or with the full force of the sea?
• Amala: Would that I had the hardness to dis-abuse you of romance.
• Ossian: Why are you stalking us? Was it something I did?
• Meg: I should speak with you, but now is not the time. If you follow Huon, we are bound to meet again.
• Moire: You gave me a ghost for a mother. Now you have taken that away and given me nothing but anger and lust. You instructed them to school me well and above all, polite. So it is—but how much longer this girl will fit that binding I cannot say. I ache.

There is no other path.

• Merlin: How quiet you are now that I play the dominant Rebman court lady for Khela.
• Conner: perhaps we were fated to meet. I hope your sharp eye can find riddles that Khela has hidden here.
• Khela: I use you hard. And with love. I must know if Benedict speaks true to current. If you are now bound to the sword, who commands Rebma's Pattern and therefore your blade?
  
  Is it Llewella, Martin, Me? All of us?
• Moire: I am your daughter. So it is—but it disgusts me. The binding breaks and reveals black roe.

Now there is an army. Let's see if I can influence it.

• Merlin: Learn as fast as you can, my dear.
• Conner: Yes! Show your teeth!
• Khela: And since you seem to have your honor yet, so then my hand you have in addition to my body.
• Huon: what trick do you have up your sleeve? By now you must have heard in the provinces that it is Moire not Moins that you face.
• Moire: The binding breaks and reveals black roe.

Now there will be blood in the water.

• Merlin: Leaving you, even for a day, is hard.
• Conner: Welcome to the Rebman court.
• Khela: You have the strength of blood and the ambition. This pleases.
• Loreena: How is it I feel so much older than you, Reena?
• Moire: Mystery as ever. You left the city?

Remember: do not strike at King of Paris... save that for mother.

• Moire: More lies? "Our relatives in Chaos"? How can this be?
• Florimel: You probably think me a weakling for seeking comfort in your arms. Perhaps you are right.
• Lucas: Guard my flanks and guard your own children as well. There are sharks in Paris now.
• Merlin: I have always felt strongly for you. Do I have Chaos blood?
  
  When I said I would 'eat her first', it was the most horrible thing I could think of. So is it truer than I knew? Am I that kind?