[coronatiger]

Thoughts on January 20th

Our food supplies were large enough that we had felt we could postpone yesterday’s hunt and follow the sleigh tracks instead. It should be less than a week before we reached Urdon. We didn’t have quite enough food to get there, so we needed to hunt for one more day.


Thoughts on January 21st

The road was invisible under all the snow, but we knew where it was, paralleling the shoreline. Ilzo decided to take a short detour out onto the lake to test the ice. He jumped up and down, but the ice was so thick that it could as well be solid all the way down to the bottom.


Thoughts on January 22nd

The occasional farmstead was visible from far off due to the thin plumes of smoke rising from their chimneys. Olivia’s melancholy, or what had remained of it after our long talk in bed a few days ago, vanished during the day. We were back in civilized lands, and would soon enjoy the comforts of the Golden Swan.


Thoughts on January 23rd

Olivia and I weren’t the only ones who appreciated that this tiresome journey neared its end. The mood was one of anticipation and happiness, boosted whenever we passed signs of habitation. We agreed to stay away from people until we reached the knowledge guild, for we carried a vast fortune in stolen relics, not to mention all the gold from my performances. They had really paid off. Toril said that it was because we had funded the shows ourselves, so we didn’t have any backers to share the revenues with.


Thoughts on January 24th

I overheard Va’lyndra and Leopold discussing one of the artifacts, a balance scale with a silvery lump on one side and a purple one on the other. They thought it somehow represented the balance in the world between order and chaos. Va’lyndra brought up the visions she and I had shared with Lady Karita and Kine. Each vision had been preceded by a purple or silvery sheen. I supposed one color represented order, the other chaos, but if Va’lyndra and Leopold knew which was which, they didn’t say while I was listening.


Thoughts on January 25th

We finally arrived at the knowledge guild! Its secret location in the forest outside Urdon didn’t seem so secret anymore, for the tramped-down path from the main road was clearly visible in the snow. A guard stood outside the palisaded compound, and Leopold walked right up to him and said hello. The guard asked what our errand was. He didn’t recognize any of us – except me, obviously – even though several of us were regular visitors. He had to be new. Va’lyndra took offense and harangued the poor fellow until he admitted us. Ilzo asked us if he could break Valuk’s arm now that we had arrived. The answer was a resounding no.

We stopped to talk when we got inside. Leopold started babbling about the arrow-through-a-disc artifact he had been studying for most of the journey. He said the script on the disc told him exactly where he was. Really useful…

I dragged Olivia along to say hello to our horses in the stable when Leopold pulled out the big words, like “coordinate system” and “multi-dimensional”. The guild had put our horses to use. That was good; it wouldn’t have been healthy for them to stay locked up since we left three months ago. We petted the horses for a couple of minutes. Then I noticed the ladder leading up to the hay loft. I looked meaningfully at Olivia, then at the ladder. Then Va’lyndra walked in and wanted us to come with her.

Va’lyndra brought us to Leopold and Ilzo who were waiting in a shed. She said we needed to discuss which artifacts to keep, and which to hand over to the knowledge guild. Leopold wanted to retain the arrow, and Ilzo wanted both Gromsh statuettes. Va’lyndra suggested I take the statuette of the love god. At first, I thought why in the world would I want that, but then I thought it might not be so bad an idea after all. Maybe it could bless the love Olivia and I share?

Va’lyndra told us she and Leopold had let Walter look at all the statuettes. He was able to identify which gods most of them belonged to. One, depicting a silver torch, he called an abomination. We interpreted that to mean that it belonged to the god of death, the arch enemy of the god of undeath that Walter worshipped. We discussed whether to keep the balance scale, but didn’t come to a conclusion, for we couldn’t see any practical use for it.

The guild leader, Wilhelm Surre, summoned us, and we went to meet him in the headquarter building. He offered us sleeping accommodations, but I said I wanted to go to Urdon, where I could perform. Leopold, of all people, suggested that I set up a performance here instead. Master Surre told me that was all right.

We were shown to another building where there were guest rooms. Olivia and I got a room to ourselves, in fact, Va’lyndra insisted. We retrieved all our things from storage and returned to find a bathtub waiting for us; a servant would make sure to clean all the clothes we had traveled with. My performance costume was still reasonably clean. I hadn’t used it since the first show in Landfall, but I put it on after Olivia and I had taken our bath.

Everyone went to the main building to have dinner, even Valuk. I told everyone that I was going to perform later in the evening. Master Surre joined us while we were eating. He said that we should take care of business in the morning, and just enjoy ourselves tonight. He was very pleased that we had brought back all his subordinates alive.

The guild master told us what had happened since we disappeared into the wilderness. Landfall had been invaded by the allied forces, as we had expected. The army had continued inland towards Red Mines. He didn’t know what they would do once that city fell. From the south came rumors that the undead nation had capitulated. Earlier, it had only been an armistice.

Va’lyndra asked about Zalek, and Master Surre lowered his voice to say that Zalek was currently moving around; he didn’t know exactly where the undead priest was at the moment. The knowledge guild cooperated closely with Zalek, but the guild master wasn’t directly involved, so he couldn’t supply us with much detail right then.

Returning to world events, we learned that there had been an influx of immigrants from the Old World. Most had settled down on the east coast, but a few had made their way across the plains to Urdon. The Church had called a special council, where new laws and regulations were to be discussed, about slavery, immigration and the southern capitulation. Garuk is still occupied by Tamburin, and the merchant guild sends food by sleigh, since the Silent Lake was frozen and ships were out of the question. As a last item of interest, word had come all the way from Landfall about my amazing performances there. That really made my day!

Once the food had had some time to settle, I began my show. While I was dancing on a table, Ilzo walked over to Valuk and grabbed his arm. Valuk howled with pain when Ilzo started breaking it. Leopold shouted for Ilzo to stop, and everyone’s attention turned away from me. I stopped what I was doing and tapped my foot impatiently. Ilzo broke Valuk’s elbow out of joint and made him pass out. Va’lyndra yelled at Ilzo, telling him he should have waited to harm the Tamburin soldier until after we had interrogated him.

Guards took Ilzo out, and the orc went with them calmly. Va’lyndra examined Valuk and discovered that he had died from the shock. Olivia looked at him and concurred. Va’lyndra and Leopold explained to Master Surre that Valuk had been a Blackguard in Landfall, a prisoner we had brought along. I screamed with anger and dragged Olivia out to get some comfort. Ilzo had ruined my show!