[Day 1 -- Kanna as Juri of Amber at the Twilight of the Cimbri.]

        Pain.
        Good Pyricorn, the PAIN...
        I was no stranger to discomfort.  My frequent practice
sessions with my cousin Ramon had inured me to the slings and arrows
(and punches and kicks) of outrageous fortune, toughening my body so
that I could ignore most injuries for a time.  But the bruises and
blows, cuts and abrasions were nothing compared to the sensation of
intense pain that grew as the noose tightened around my neck.  I tried
to scream, but no sound came from my lips, already curling in a rictus
of agony.  Despite my best efforts, I could feel my breathing become
labored, and my eyesight beginning to fade as my body lost precious
oxygen.
        Darkness enveloped my vision, and I tried to fight down
another wave of panic.  Despite my travels in Shadow and my regular
visits to Amber, a small part of my mind still insisted that night and
darkness was abhorrent, unnatural.  And so I hung, the tightness
around my throat growing to intolerable levels, the sum totality of my
senses, the single focus of my psyche.
        Good Pyricorn, had I misjudged things?  Was I to die here,
hanging from a tree branch?  I did not know...
        ... and before I could think further on the subject, sensation
returned to me like a tidal wave, sight and sound and scent immersing
me as my vision cleared somewhat.  It was no longer dark, but the air
was hazy and thick with smoke, an acrid smell that mixed with...
        ... blood.  Blood and fire, sweat and excrement, twisted
together with the sounds of violence and bloodshed and the cries of
people dying and the neighing of horses.  I was wearing armor, an
unfamiliar sensation for me, and a bloodied blade was in my right hand
as I sat astride a horse.
        Where in thrice-forsaken Shadow was I?
        There was a warcry from my left, and I turned the horse around
so I could see my challenger.  A man in furs and leathers brandishing
a war axe was running for me full-tilt, his head covered with a chain
coif.  Without really thinking about it, I spurred my horse forward to
meet his challege, hefting the shield on my left arm.  There was a
ringing crash as axe met shield, but the armor held and I battered him
away with its edge.
        The man stumbled backwards, and I hung onto my saddle.  My
blow should have driven him off his feet; I was intimately aware of
the strengths and flaws of my body from my long decades of training.
        This was not my body, then.  But if not mine, then whose?
        I frowned, shelving that thought for later.  Dealing with
axe-boy before he could kill me first was a higher priority.  He swung
the axe around again, and once more I parried the blow with my shield
as I twisted in my saddle, swinging the blade around in a downward
slash.
        The shaft of the war axe was severed instantly.  So was the
man's hands.  His screams filled my ears as his sliced wrists bled
profusely.  And then he didn't scream any more as I beheaded him on
the follow-through.
        It took me a moment to realize what I had done, drawing my
horse away from the now-cooling corpse.  I rapidly tried to take stock
of my surroundings, to observe the other armored men, on horseback or
on foot, tearing into some settlement by the edge of a forest like
rabid beasts.  I was no stranger to combat or killing, but this...
THIS wasn't warfare.  This was slaughter, pure and simple.
        Genocide was too kind a word for it.
        "Good work, sister!" a feminine voice to my right proclaimed.
I turned my head rapidly, grateful for the metal helm I wore.  A
figure in black armor trimmed with silver was riding up next to me;
the curves in the armor indicated that the wearer was, indeed, female.
"That's one less barbarian for us to worry about."
        I nodded curtly, giving a quick grunt of acknowledgement.
"How fare the rest?" I asked, and the voice was unfamiliar to my ears.
        "The rest of our knights are taking care of the drovers and
their guards.  I ran down one of their warriors, Thoric, earlier this
morning," the other armored figure replied as she rode closer and
gestured with her left hand.  It was hard to believe it was morning,
given the fog of war about us, but there was still enough light to
make out the silver maple leaf insignia above her left breast, and
dark scrapes of brown where weapons had failed to penetrate the black
armor.  "He proved some challenge, but even a lowly shadow must yield
before the power of a Princess of Amber," the woman replied, and the
voice was twisted and familiar at the same time.
        A sinking sensation began to develop in the pit of my stomach.
Oh no... no... please oh Pyricorn no...
        I could do nothing but nod to the woman, speechless.
        "I'm glad you approve.  We ride on their village next, just as
you planned.  Before this year is through, they'll be wiped out."  The
black rider didn't wait for any other reply as she called out orders
to some of the other knights, rallying them to her and riding off.
        I stared after her, ignoring a lesser knight who asked me for
orders.  I quickly glanced down at myself for the first time.  Orange
and white armor, stained with blood and soot, covered my body from
head to toe, and an insigna of an orange rose graced my left breast.
        Oh shit.
        I now knew where I was, and more importaintly, WHO I was.
        Oh shit oh pyricorn oh shit.
        Of all the places I could have ended up, this was in the top
ten time periods I wished I would never have to experience.
        The Twilight of the Cimbri.
        And right here, right now... I was Juri of Amber.
        
        The history of Amber is a long and bloody one, interspersed
with long periods of peace and minor squabbles.  Many of the wars had
been fought over territory, others had been fought to prevent shadow
invasions of allied nations, when those allied nations were not trying
to invade Amber itself.  The series of wars were confusing to a
neophyte or a non-native.  The only reasons why I had bothered to
learn about them at all was because my tutor, Lord Godai, had drilled
me on the basic facts of an allied nation's history, and my mother's
insistance on my knowing more about the family history.  I had paid
close attention especially to her stories that involved Aunt Juri, of
course, but the rest I had glossed over.
        But nothing, no book, no story, no eyewitness account could
come CLOSE to fully depicting the experience of murderous combat that
I was now riding through.  It was one of the darkest periods of
Amber's history, as King Gendo laid his Blood Curse upon the Cimbri,
whom he believe had their hands in the murder of Queen Haruka... my
grandmother.
        Before five years had ended, the Cimbri had been wiped out
utterly from Shadow.  As I rode across the forests that bordered the
Plains of Harad, I could see why.  Although the Cimbri were skilled,
for there was no other way they could have pushed their way to the
borders of Amber proper, they were not as advanced on the
technological edge, nor in the way of tactics.  They were already
broken, starting to scatter in an attempt to escape the fury of
Gendo's wrath, to no avail.  This was just one of many sorties that
ended up scouring the Cimbri from their ancestral lands in the
forests, gathering up the nobles to be sold into slavery, leaving the
rest to be slaughtered without mercy.
        I gritted my teeth, trying to cover my disgust and fear,
plating it over with cold detachment as I barked out orders.  Despite
my personal feelings on the matter right at the moment, I had a duty
to my... no, -Juri's- men under her command.  Even with the
inevitability of the defeat of the Cimbri from a historical
standpoint, they were still strong combatants, fighting to the last
like cornered cats.
        []
        And somewhere out there, in a Cimbri village, Corrine of Amber
was killing people.
        Unbidden, an old [] track came to the forefront of my mind as
I rode through the carnage, trying to find my mother.

[need a different song here.. Bad Religeon sounded too -upbeat-.
Perhaps something from Metallica, or Def Leppard?]