Grace's introduction to her maternal relatives came about initially because Grace was trying to catch the invisible ships. Grace's encounter first close encounter with such a ship left her with a message to meet again in six months. At this second encounter, Grace was instructed to go to a cave out in the desert of Memphis. Of course, Grace did not recognize the poetic description of said location, and it took her an extra day to find out where she was supposed.

As a result Grace was 36 hours late and not in very good humor when she finally did find the cave and had her first introduction to  Arbenther, Ott, and the mages who claimed to be her mother's family. Arbenther attempted to tell her off for being late, but Grace reminded him that it had taken 85 years for this meeting to take place so a day or two shouldn't matter too much.

Arbenther's insistence that no one from Amber know of the meeting, especially Lady Deidre, immediately made Grace cautious. She was loyal to Amber even if she did have some problems with one or two of her half-brothers (something about apparently arbitrary sinking of Amber's ships). Curiosity got the better of her, and Grace decided to accept Arbenther's conditions on the theory that if she did learn something which indicated these mages were a risk to Amber, more information would be better. To agree though, Grace had to ignore the inner voice that kept reminding her that her mother had decided to avoid these mages and had gone to great lengths to keep her heritage hidden from them (and from Grace herself).

Arbenther wanted Grace to collect purified versions of the four elements from shadow. These would be used later in the creation of magic jewels. Grace was not to clear on what these jewels were good for, but Deidre's shard seemed to be a shard of one such jewel. The collecting trip appeared to be a test to see how shadow travel worked, whether she would do what they asked and if she could be trusted. Arbenther sent his assistant Ott along to collect the actual samples and monitor her progress.

Grace quickly learned that Ott could disappear. She was never sure just how much else Ott, Arbenther and the other mages knew or could do. They certainly could move within the Golden Circle kingdoms more easily than might be expected. Grace was not sure if they really had no access to shadow, but intended to find out.

After a brief stop at Amber to collect a nice one person sailboat and make sure there was no immediate business, Grace sailed off with then invisible Ott. Shifting to an ocean of pure water proved a fairly simple exercise and locating a balloon to fly them into purest air was also a fairly simple exercise. A visible (and pleased) Ott seemed to be enjoying the trip until the balloon hit a bit of bad weather and had a forced (and somewhat hard) landing in jungle. Grace searched for Ott for awhile but determined, to her own satisfaction at least, that Ott had to have left the vicinity of the balloon's landing on his own. He appeared to be deliberately missing. Grace assumed that Ott did have a few more tricks up his sleeves than previously suspected.

Not wanting to play Ott's (and Arbenther's) games, Grace left via her one trump which was of Deidre. Grace had so far asked Deidre's indulgence and continued to do so. To Grace, it was important to get the mages to trust her. Lady Deidre, on the other hand, continued to remain skeptical but was willing to let Grace continue at least for a little while. Grace was hoping to get the mages to agree to some kind of arrangement with Amber.

Grace fully expected Ott to turn up after a couple of days forced to admit that he had bailed because he didn't trust her balloon piloting. When Ott did not turn up, she began to suspect that she had overestimated Ott's abilities to get himself out of the situation and returned to the original site to begin a more involved. Eventually, she did find him with a group of natives worshipping him as his new god. After firmly rejecting the fertility goddess role that Ott offered, Ott admitted that this was a test Arbenther had set to see if Grace would be loyal to her new allies.

Grace did take Ott to a cave under a volcano to collect some fire (as lava) in another of his indestructible jars which Grace then proceeded to take charge of. Grace had her own test in mind. Taking Ott back to the Golden Circle kingdoms, Grace sent Ott on his way with a message to Arbenther. Grace needed answers before she could turn over the materials to make a powerful new artifact for people with a disturbing lack of trust in Amber. Besides, she didn't like being taken for a fool or being tested.

On returning to Amber, Grace was shocked to discover that Deidre had been kidnapped and several people killed who happened to be nearby when a poison gas was used to cover the trail of the kidnappers. Grace had thought the situation with Arbenther was personnel, a matter of convincing Arbenther that she could be trusted and thereby learn more of her mother's people. Arbenther had now changed the situation and become a threat to Amber itself.

Grace went a little crazy after Deidre's disappearance. Leaving the ingredients with Gustav, she went back to Memphis and even tried to convince onlookers that she was on the run from her half-brothers and sisters, at least for a time. While a visit to the original cave did lead to a meeting with Ott and an attempt at a deal to return Deidre, this deal ended with Ott's death at the hands of his mentor, Arbenther.

With no further help from the mages in the offing, Grace returned to the sea. This arena she knew. Her attack would now be to corner the mages on Haven. First, Grace began to follow every rumor of storms and invisible ships that she could find. Eventually, by weeding out the real sightings from the sailors who had had too much rum, Grace found the spot at the center of a more or less permanent storm. While the storm kept the ships from getting too close, Amber's navy was able to demonstrate that it could run a very efficient blockade.

Grace then followed up with her latest foray into naval architecture. A new ship design for sailing through such weather. The first ship of this new design was named Stormrider.

Just as Grace was taking Stormrider out for its trial run, Grace received a trump call from Gustav. This was a rare event. Grace possessed only two trumps, Gustav's and Deidre's, and to the best of her knowledge, only those two individuals possessed trumps of her. This trump call brought her to a curious asylum seeker who had appealed to Amber for protection from his fellow mages. While refusing to talk to Gustav, which left him extremely bent out of shape, he did agree to tell Grace what he knew.

As Grace had hoped, Haven was under some stress from the blockade with active efforts to abandon the island underway. Grace was vindictive enough after what had happened to Deidre to be happy about this outcome. Grace's primary concern though was still to get Deidre back in one (live and healthy) piece.

With Carton and her new (if somewhat nervous) ally along for the ride, Stormrider came through its test run just fine. It was now time to convince her ally to get her onto Haven. With some reluctance, he finally agreed. Grace was skeptical of Carton's plans to contact other Archmages and get their help in negotiating Deidre's release. Grace had more of a direct assault idea.

Once on the island, Grace was to learn that Carton really knew what he was doing when it came to negotiation. While Grace was stuck trying to figure out how to sneak into a tower that was hovering twenty feet in the air. Carton proceeded in grand style with an Archmagus, an honor guard and Carton's twin assistants for company. Even while she wondered why Carton had brought the twins along, she had to respect that he had managed to get in by invitation while she could not figure out how to get in by stealth. Joining the party, all were conveyed into Archmagus Arbenther's tower.

Grace hoped for a resolution that avoided bloodshed, but that was not to be. Grace's one attempt at negotiation, a trade to get Deidre out while giving the mages time to leave Haven, failed due to Arbenther's treachery. Grace was suspicious enough of Arbenther not to give up all her weapons, but not suspicious enough to realize the need to keep all the group together. While Grace was taken to check on Deidre, Carton stayed behind in the audience chamber and Archmagus Edward and his party were butchered in the waiting room (with Grace's sword).

On seeing Grace, Deidre tried to give her a warning, but Grace did not take it strongly enough still not acting to save Archmagus Edward or any of his party. Grace was barely able to save herself as she found herself up against Arbenther in his own tower. While removing his underlings (both mages and warriors) did not pose a great deal of difficulty (indeed Arbenther killed his own people while attacking Grace), Grace found it nearly impossible to close with the magus. It was only Carton's appearance on the scene with Deidre that created the distraction which saved the situation (and Grace's life) giving her the opening to finally knock Arbenther out. Deidre's delivery of the killing blow seemed a fitting end.

The aftermath of the conflict only confirmed Grace's new assessment of Carton. He successfully negotiated with an Archmagus a new arrangement. The mages would stay on Haven; Deidre would be free to leave with Arbenther's stone (which appeared to be obsessing her); knowledge of Haven would be kept to Amber's royal circle; and Grace would supply the missing stone-making ingredients. This deal got the four Amberites out of a potentially very difficult situation, cutoff from aid in a (potentially) hostile territory. All the while, Carton insisted on referring to himself as an Archmagus and owner of the tower by virtue of defeating the prior Archmagus in spite of all assertions that this was not how such status was achieved in Haven. Grace began to wonder if this constant, apparently ridiculous claim was itself a clever ploy to keep the mages of Haven off guard.

Grace did confirm with Deidre that supplying these would be all right and thought she got an assessment.

After leaving Haven though, Grace began to wonder if Deidre's ordeal had left her slightly unbalanced. She seemed bent on a much broader revenge than appeared to be required.  After all, Arbenther was dead. He was behind the attack on Deidre and Amber. Surely, peace with Haven would be a good idea once old animosities could be cleared up? Deidre would not even consider the idea. The other Archmages had tolerated Arbenther, all would have to pay.