rovingsoul: (welcome home)
[Filter: Private, in Kilian]

I wonder what they would have thought if they knew that Dian was an impersonator. They both loved him. Father more than Mother. At least Ness was never a fake.

No.

No, just a monster.

Not as much of a monster as Danu, perhaps, but ... to collaborate on a plan like this, they'd all have to be monsters. To go on with life, kidnapping and killing people who happen to look close enough to how they used to ...

Anyone would have to be a monster.

Maybe that's what grief does to you after long enough untreated. Maybe that's the festering wound Nessa was trying to save me from. Maybe I'd have become that monster, if I could believe that ... I could bring them back.

[Filter: Lauren and Nessa, in Trade]

Did you know it's especially difficult to find the core of yourself, under the years of lies, when you're told that something you hadn't even considered about yourself was also a lie?
rovingsoul: (welcome home)
[Filter: Private, in Kilian]

I feel empty.

Is this how it's supposed to feel? I remember grief. I never forgot grief. But it was raw. Sharp and painful and intense. It wasn't ... emptiness. Feeling like a cup emptied out. I've stayed in here and let so much pour out of me that I don't know what of me is even left.

Was there even a person there, under all the pain?

It still hurts.

It's just an empty hurt.

They're gone.

[Filter: Lauren, in Trade]

Thank you for coming out here with me.

I ... don't know what else to say. Everything is still so ... so raw. I'm not quite sure what's underneath it all. I'm still trying to find that out.

I'm sorry it's taking so long.

[Filter: Nessa, in Kilian]

How do you do it, Nessa? How do you let the guilt go?

How do you stop telling lies about it?
rovingsoul: (Default)
[Filter: Lauren]

This is ... horribly embarrassing, to be honest~ But can you come let me out of our room? The door seems to be jammed, and nothing I've tried will pry it open. And for that matter, I can't seem to find my key, either. But I'm sure you have yours ...

When you have a moment, please~
rovingsoul: (Default)
I don't suppose anyone has seen any sign of the house we're looking for. I've been listening to everything the boys have been saying about keeping ourselves together, but -- but when I'm not careful, I still start to feel a bit ... loose.

When all the rest of you look into the trees, what do you

I suppose I was hoping a bit of talk might help distract me~ I hope everyone's coping better than I am!
rovingsoul: (like a row of captured ghosts)
[Filter: Franelcrew]

So ...

So~!

That was certainly something. I can't even imagine what sort of magic must be at the base of this ... thing, to just ... produce stew like that. Ha, and after all this time it was a cook pot, wasn't it. Here we were, so sure that we were overlooking some complicated translation. And it was a cooking pot all along!

I suppose this means that we should go to Taln next, doesn't it.

Is everybody feeling ...

What does this mean, exactly?
rovingsoul: (bar the door please don't let them in)
Dragons.

What should we do with it? It's -- bloody. A bloody spear. It's completely soaked. I can't even tell what the color of it is supposed to be under the blood. I thought some of it was rust, at first, but it's all ...

Should ... Should one of us take Caoimhe and Saoirse back to the surface? Once they can stand. It might help them just to get away from it. And the boys. I'm not sure they should be seeing this.
rovingsoul: (Default)
[Filter: Franelcrew + Doolin]

I'm going to be honest, I made myself some dreamfoil tea hoping that I could just sleep through all of this. The day in general, I mean. I was going to do it even before all of this happened, but now that it has, and with the -- the noises from Faith's room --

I'm rambling, aren't I? Hm.

I think I made it wrong, is what I'm saying. I'm not drowsy, I'm just ... I don't want to move from here. I feel like I'm rooted to the floor. Is that a symptom of dreamfoil poisoning? Did I use too much?

Does anyone else hear that?
rovingsoul: (bar the door please don't let them in)
[Filter: Druce, in Kilian]

Did you leave us with much dreamfoil?
rovingsoul: (Default)
[Filter: Private, in Kilian]

Is it because the monsters have come back, I wonder, that the nightmares are happening more often.

I thought I was too old for this. What sort of grown man wakes up panting in the middle of the night, certain that the mists are chasing him? Chasing him and howling, no less. Ghosts in the trees, spirits with glowing eyes, the same damn things I've seen since I was sixteen.

It's the monsters. The fear. It drives everyone down on their knees. We all know that. We all know just what those things do when they scream like that, and they're getting bolder again. Maybe Prudence has even missed a couple, the last few nights.

I'd go back to sleep if I didn't think I'd dream about the same thing.
rovingsoul: (heal the scars from off my back)
[Filter: Men in Franelcrew + Doolin]

Well, I'm off to the florist to make a few arrangements. I hope everyone has remembered what day is coming up! You're welcome to come with me, if you'd like. I'd hate for anyone to have forgotten to prepare for the holiday~
rovingsoul: (like a row of captured ghosts)
[Filter: Franelcrew and Labhri]

It took some time. And I'm not sure how much it will help.

Labhri's dreams ... Labhri. You needn't worry. I saw nothing -- nearly even close to embarrassing, if that's what you're afraid of. I didn't see much at all, to begin with ... I was moving quickly.

But I did have to dive deep to find the light. It was buried so far down that I didn't know if I would even find it at first ... but it was there. Deep, deep down ... I thought I'd have trouble on the way back out, at first. But ...

Well, that was the easiest part.

I'm afraid I couldn't communicate with it. Not the way that Diarmid always implied he could. Not the way Millerna implied that she could.

It's simple, as he said. Very ... basic, at its core. It has simple wants and needs, simple impulses. There is no alien energy or intelligence behind it. It's almost like ... like a small child. Less, even. Like an animal, or a pet. It wants something -- someone -- who can use it. A master. Apt, I suppose, if its intelligence is so ...

It's confused. I tried to ... well, tried to speak to it as much as I could. But it would only respond with confusion. A sense of being lost, of being adrift and waiting, more than much else. And that something was wrong. A piece was missing.

Every time I tried to steer it toward -- toward Baethan, the confusion got worse. The only -- well, the only response, of a sort, that I could get, if you could even call it that, is that something is wrong. A piece is missing. Something is not as it should be, and that's why this is happening.

It wasn't pleading. It wasn't even asking for help. Simply repeating that there was something wrong.
rovingsoul: (welcome home)
[Filter: Ciphercrew]

Would someone please come check my work on this? I'm not certain, but I believe it says something about ...

About a glowing light?
rovingsoul: (bar the door please don't let them in)
[Filter: People helping with the journals]

I think it's a cipher.

I've been over it several times, now, and it's nothing like any language I would recognize. Admittedly, I hardly know anything about Hanlish -- but who does? I have my doubts that even your grandfather would have, Jayne, Labhri. No offense intended.

The problem is, I've never been the best at ciphers. If this was the sort of thing -- some dead language we had to try to decipher, well, Nessa and I have certainly done that before! More than once, actually. But a cipher, I'm afraid I'm all thumbs.

That doesn't mean this is a dead end, though, certainly not. I'm sure one of us can figure out what needs to be done ... the key to this.
rovingsoul: (Default)
[Filter: Franelcrew and those in Baethan]

I don't particularly have a very good feeling about this, all told!

The town is mostly dark, and the scholar who's putting us up seems quite kind, but there's something ... off about all of this, does anybody else feel that? She won't answer any questions. Oh, don't worry about that right now, dears, you should have some tea, you must be tired from the road, you should rest. We'll talk about it in the morning. She gets annoyed when we ask outright. "I told you we'd talk in the morning!"

I don't see any lights on out in the village ...
rovingsoul: (Default)
[Filter: Those in and around Baethan]

It doesn't matter if I try to speak Kilian to them, either. They still won't open the doors. Or even answer. You can see their lamps on in the windows, but the instant we come knocking ...

How are we meant to solve this if no one will even speak to us?
rovingsoul: (Default)
[Filter: Franelcrew]

Good morning, everyone. I hope you all slept ... better than I'd expect to had I been there with you. If I'd seen the things that you had ...

Regardless.

Is everybody feeling a bit better? You especially, Aoife. I hope you got at least a little sleep here, knowing that you're safe with us. I don't know if you knew this, but there were people outside the door all night making sure that no one came after you. Quite a few of us.
rovingsoul: (like a row of captured ghosts)
[Filter: Franelcrew]

Hm. I have ... odd news. Nothing about the town with the funeral, yet, I'm afraid, but ... odd all the same.

One of the librarians who's been most helpful to me was missing today. Her name was Daimhin. I asked around a little bit, and while, as usual, no one wanted to speak of it ... she has been missing for a few days. And I managed to worm a little bit more out of them than that. Being a native helps, for that.

There's rumors flying that Daimhin isn't the only one who's vanished. People are muttering to each other about what this means, but none of them would talk about it when I tried to ask further. Daimhin and the others will be back, they said, shooing me back to my books. Please, sir, she has a history of locking herself in her bedroom and working until she collapses. She'll be back soon. Don't fret. And then even the rumors of the others they laughed off. Oh, they've gone to see family, I'm sure. Perhaps they've fallen ill. Excuse after excuse after excuse ...

I tried to keep asking, but none of the library aides would help. There was another patron there, though, who heard me asking, and pulled me aside. He wanted to know if I was asking because of Caoilinn. And when I said she was part of it, yes, he started asking more questions. How was she behaving near the end? How long ago did she disappear? Did I know if anyone else had witnessed her odd demeanor before she vanished? On, and on, and on.

It was altogether very unusual. For someone to even so much as acknowledge Caoilinn, much less ask me so many questions about her.
rovingsoul: (all my nightmares escaped my head)
[Filter: Franelcrew]

... I don't want to ask it, but I think all of us have to.

What's happened today? And while I find it hard to believe that it had anything to do with us, halfway across the world from -- Megam, and Dentoria, and even Kanemoria, I think we're all wondering if it did.

Sawyer said it, on Irving's entry. If we felt the tremors out here, and Eblar and Norey are feeling ones bad enough to send their cities into disarray, then what could have happened to Megam?

I ... hope it's not what I fear it is.
rovingsoul: (like a row of captured ghosts)
[Filter: Franelcrew]

I have our answers.

Aoife said that all the works in her horror selection are commissioned works. Ones written by other people, based off rumors circling out of various Kilian noble houses. All the examples I offered her, she had detailed stories about the writers of, and information on the rumors they'd based them on and where they came from. Aileen, she said the story based on your family was ... quite a popular topic of talk around Tarra, when the incident happened, and she doubts that story is the only one of its like.

As for the seeing magic -- scrying, we call it, Aoife said those rumors came from close by. The woods just north of the city, in fact. She didn't have more information than that to give, but she was very eager to give us what information she did have, and wished us luck.

I suppose the question we have to ask now is what we do with that information.
rovingsoul: (bar the door please don't let them in)
[Filter: Aoife and Keagan, in Kilian]

Miss Aoife.

I know you're aware that we've been taking particular interest in your horror selection of late. Or, at least, that Keagan has been ... he's always had a bit of an interest in the eccentric and terrifying. I'm certain you'd be quite proud of some of the tales he's amassed over the years! But unfortunately, that's not what we're here about.

Keagan noticed while perusing one of his more recent volumes that there was a story in there which rang ... very true to the life of someone we know. In fact, if not for the added ghosts and madness and monsters, it sounded exactly like her life. She was raised among a noble family, you see, and the experiments you -- or, rather, your writer -- described that family engaging in ... well.

So now we have to ask you, Aoife, much as we wish we didn't have to: How true are all of these stories?
Page generated Jul. 11th, 2025 12:52 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios