23 Descending Air, Realm Year 768
It has been four weeks since this journey began. I thought that, nearing the end of the year as we are, this might be a good time to recount my experiences thus far.
_Ø-(. . ) <— This is me writing! Not a very good representation, I think!
Anyway, it is, of course, no big secret that I was not born to my House. When I was adopted into Cynis after the blood showed itself, my ties to my birth-family were legally and officially severed. In theory, I am the equal of a Dynastic-born Dragon-blood, and I cannot honestly say that I am treated otherwise by most. At least, not since I've been out of school.
Still, it has long been clear that my House hopes for a good return on their investment. As I am clearly no soldier, nor a bureaucrat, nor sorceror, nor monk, none of the traditional secondary schools seemed a useful path to lead me to excel. And, in truth, I would not be content with such a … narrow education anyway. I have studied the teachings of great warriors, magicians, legalists, and priests, and taken what I have found useful there, but these are tools, not a goal in themselves. I long ago decided to forge my own path … which is fine, but does not help one to find where to begin.
I was keeping my eyes open for opportunities.
One recently revealed itself, cloaked in the form of an invitation to visit the household of Cathak Bertram, the famous hero, of whom I was aware even before being touched by the Dragons. I did not know what the purpose of the invitation was beyond the nebulous details in the invitation, but it is not every day that I receive invitations from such as he.
Upon arrival, I met the heads of the house and my belongings were taken to my room. I had a brief interview with Bertram himself … I was somewhat in awe of such a reknowned personage, but of course it was not meet to show it too readily. He wished to know my feelings on the current state of the Realm, and invited me to join an expedition to the Threshold to inquire into some reports of ill omen. A sort of unofficial Wyld Hunt.
Of course, I accepted. Ganbare ne, Magel? Tatakae!** (*^_^*)
I was offered free run of the house aside from a few areas reserved for the family … and, of course, the Manse proper. I encountered a strange old man in the Library, apparently an advisor of some sort. I was not really certain what to make of him. Later, we had a small gathering at dinner for those who had arrived already. Naturally, it was quite different from what I was used to. Among the people I met there were:
Ledaal Sen'rei - A boy, apparently a savant of some sort. He had an odd mechanical contrivance in the form of a pet. Sen'rei could stand to have a few years education, perhaps with Cynis … the boy was almost completely oblivious to the social niceties.
Tepet Ilyra - A warrior, child of the Fire Dragon. I believe she belongs to the Rocky Equine legion or something of that sort. Apparently she was involved in that big battle that Tepets are always mumbling about in their sleep.
Mnemon Nyax - Water aspected like myself. He captains the vessel that is to serve as our flagship. His teeth are rather sharp looking … Interesting!
Tepet Cayhar - Ilyra's superior, I believe? Wears an eye patch.
Nellens Larian - Tall! And soooo pretty! More of him later…
Some of the expedition still had yet to arrive, so I didn't meet them until later. At first I thought that the list mistakenly had a duplicate entry … it said “Tepet Illystra & Co.”. But no. It turns out that there are actually two Tepet Fire-aspected soldiers who were in that battle in the north, who happen to have similar names. It could've been extremely confusing, but Ilyra keeps to herself for the most part.
If there had been two or three more Magels I think we could've simply stayed where we were and let our foes in the Threshold give themselves up! Luckily for them, there's only one me! Ha! (^____^)
At any rate, after dinner we retired for the evening. I wonder how many people lost money betting that I'd invite half the serving staff to my bed…
Preparations had been going on for some time, so we were ready to embark the next day. Illystra & Co. would catch up with us en route. I won't go into many details of the voyage … it isn't all that entertaining or eventful a story. But there are a few tidbits.
For example, Nyax's ship is very interesting! The hull is made of a very old, strong material. I'm sure some of the Dynasts are glad for that! The colors they turned once we hit deep water were rather interesting. ( ~ . ^ )
Once underway, we discovered that we had a passenger. A girl from the Threshold named Nikene Poni, apparently a survivor of an attack by Anathema on some place called Seven Willows, our destination. Horrible! I thought about comforting the poor thing, but then I remembered Sen'rei's near total lack of social ability. Chance!
I encouraged the two of them to spend time together. I'm not sure if it helped, but he hasn't been underfoot since then, so that's something.
Oh, we learned a bit from Poni about Seven Willows. It was apparently attacked by a Deathlord or Deathknight or Deathcatapult or Deathrabbit or some such. Seriously though, it sounded like dangerous stuff to mess around with. But that's why they pay me the big Talens.
Wait … I AM getting paid for this, right? Right?!
…
Sigh.
At any rate, Illystra and Co. finally caught up with us. When I first saw her, I just sort of stared at her for awhile … her skin nearly glows! OK, not literally, but … I was a bit trembly in the knees for a bit there. She is an old friend of Larian's apparently… hm, which gives me an id… no, I'm definitely NOT committing that to paper. Illystra'd kill me! (*^.^*)
They arrived just as we managed to hit stormy weather. Poor Illystra! Once I re-engaged my brain, I wandered over and taught her how to move with the ship, and that seemed to help her. She's so warm!
Now, the “& Co.” section of the party is a real barrel of laughs, let me tell you. Cathak Perius, the fun-loving! Cathak Perius the outgoing and friendly! Cathak Perius the utterly trustworthy and loyal comrade! Ha!
( ^_^ )Y <— This is me waving at Perius in case he happens to be reading this. Hi, Perius! Mind your own business and stop reading my journal! Kisses! Signed, Magel!
He's an inquisitor, or so he claims. His self-appointed duty is to wander around spying on people, endlessly asking blunt questions regarding their loyalty to the Realm, agenda, character, level of education, geneaology, financial standing, upbringing, and for all I know, personal hygiene. I swear he has less grasp of subtlety and etiquette than Sen'rei did. Mind you, this was merely my first impression of him…
My second, third, fourth … and in fact every subsequent impression haven't done much to change my opinion, however. Especially recently. But I'm getting ahead of myself…
The storms were hardly over when we were attacked by a beast from the depths, some sort of two-headed serpent. That was, I think, the 12th. Illystra killed the creature, beating me to it, so I rescued our young passenger from a rather waterlogged demise. I took her belowdecks to get her out of her wet clothes. She'll please someone rather well in a few years … you read it here first!
Fast as she changed, I think she thought I was about to go for her throat! Sigh…
Oh, Illystra can fly! She has these big firey wings, from some sort of artifact I assume. It's amazing!
Took us only two weeks to reach the Threshold, all told … mostly because the late winter storms were helping us, I assume. Before we got there, though, there was this incident with a pirate ship and a woman calling herself Lantern on Dark Waters with Salt in Her Hair and Some Sleepwalking Guys Hanging Around and Probably Some More Words Here That I'm Forgetting. Ha!
OK, serious time…
She was apparently a Deathlord. Mostly, I think she was warning us. Something about our enemies wanting to release something into Creation. Then we … accidentally sailed into the Underworld. At least, that's what it looked like to me, based on some things I've heard. At first it was kind of overcast and grey. Then the clouds started breaking up. The water turned black, silent, and still. The flapping of the sails grew muted. Then we heard a clanking echoing off in the distance…
Finally, we saw it: The moon, high above the landscape. It glowed red as blood, pulsing to blackness like a slow heartbeat. It was tethered to the ground, with several of these HUGE chains which stretched from horizon to horizon. But it still shifted around slightly, causing the clanking. Then, before our very eyes, it flared brightly and struggled violently against its bonds.
Once, back when I was newly adopted, one of my cousins took me on a hunting trip. Of course, he didn't actually want to catch animals (though I'm not sure which of us ultimately turned out to be the prey…), but before, we did go hunt a few for appearance's sake. One of these was some sort of large cat … it had been wounded and turned to face the hunters. It was in pain, it was cornered and dying … and it wasn't afraid. It was angry. It HATED. I could feel it, almost physically.
That's what the Underworld's moon reminded me of. Somehow, it was aware. It was active. And it hated. A thousand times as strongly as that cat, it hated. It hated enough to reduce me and everyone around me to ash, if hatred could kill and it could get free for just one instant…
And that's the thing that our foes wish to unleash upon our world.
Luckily, I remembered some things that I'd overheard about Shadowlands, and we managed to sail back to where we were supposed to be~~~
Oops. Someone's cold hands are getting a bit adventuresome! I'm going to~~ close this entry for now. I'll pick~~ up … gah, men! … the story later~ wi~~ th our arr~ival in Nexus.
Ja ne!**
Ganbare ne - Stand your ground, OK?
Tatakae - Keep fighting!
Ja ne - Until next time!