A couple of quick comments from my phone:

Touga's death: couldn't have happened to a nicer guy :)

Annabelle and Garnet being abducted: something in that note must be forcing Corwin to not react, otherwise I can't see him not assembling a strike team to obliterate Oriphos meeting with his oath to Mathilde the Red... And in any event, Akio is already a cosmic afterthought, even if he doesn't know it yet...

Offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>