Fifteen Years, Seven Months, Four Weeks, Five Days Since the Sky Fell

I awoke early, needing little sleep as I am still young; Tar continued to sleep, though he seemed to notice my absense.

Leaving a note for him, I headed into town to look for more work. I am getting rather well known within the walls of the city, for both my services and for my performances. People I don't know stop me, to speak of my actions and songs; though we had patrons to the kampania, they were never quite so regular or quite so flattering to us. All this attention in this way is so new to me, I find myself blushing more often than not.

I've gotten in quite well with the Concordium and the Temple of Life, and some nodding pass with the Tunarian Alliance. I've done a bit of work for them the past few days, and today would be no different. Their work grows steadily more intense, as now it seems they are focusing on the threat of the gnolls. Those which they wish me to go after are quite formidable opponants for me, and it seems I will need help from here on out to dispatch them.

Before leaving for my tasks, I stopped by the Cove to get a drink and some foodstuffs. The strange man Kaspian was there, and to my surprise, he really was a rat - a ratonga that is. As I had a drink, he told me fine tales of the sea and his adventures with the Captain; his tales inspire words of rhyme, and I plan to make them into songs.

This musing was interrupted by the captains arrival. I didn't know it was him, and greeted him brightly until I saw how foul a mood he was in. That kind of anger is scary, and paints the air thick with it's darkness; he and Kaspian went into the back room, and I heard all kinds of crashing and such things. His anger scared me enough that I needed to go, despite wishing to speak more with Kaspian.

And so it was back to work, it seems.

Vhargas took a break from his intense training - he feels he has become too rusty with his swords, and has set aside his lute for now in favour of his shield. The level of passion is no different, as he trains endlessly to better himself, so that we may be well off to fight those who desire to harm us.

The first few tasks were easily done, however there came a point where we needed more assistance. I was able to track down Vassnti - he had but one last encounter to deal with and a bit of running around before he could get his citizenship papers, but was willing to aid us with our task. With his help, we easily disbatched those gnolls and the surrounding animals that were of concern to my contractors.

Once we had finished, Vhargas returned to his training; I went into town while Vas waited to see if there was anything more these guilds wished for me to aid them with, but their tasks were too hard for just Vas and I alone.

But we did find a task that we could help with. The captain of the guard just outside of North Qeynos needed a few reports to be collected, and for it we were given signets to show our alliance with her. It is a more elaborate design, based off of the Qeynosian citizenship ring; I'm rather partial to it.

We did need her signet, as we then were asked to take a message to the captain at the bridge outpost in the Steppes. However, before we left to do so, Tar found us.

Now, I am not sure how Tarack wishes for us to act when together outside the walls of our home; he kept his polite distance, though gave me his smile at each chance he got. To further make things ackward, Vassnti is rather taken with me, and is very vocal about it. He did start into the flattery after informing Tar that another Ayr is looking for him, to which Tar gave short response that I believe he hoped would inform Vas of his position, but he was still so quiet about things, I didn't want to upset him by being blunt.

Though he is gaje, I care a great deal for him, and honour him with the customs of my people - since last night, I will not allow other men to touch me in a casual manner, especially those with a flirtations or sensual intent or desire. However, Vas is too polite to try such, so I do not think that even that has been made clear to him as of yet.

As they were speaking, a man approached us, using a greeting in Romane to greet me. We were so near the guards, it unsettled me and I feared that someone may have overheard. Tar was quite bothered by the event, knowing full well how much danger such actions put us in; Vas, while unaware of the danger, was very unnerved by how familiar the man seemed with me, though I reminded him I am a bard, and was known about the area.

This man had asked for us to wait, and in hushed voices, we debated on what to do - Tar and I felt it best to wait and warn him of what might befall him if he is so casual with whatever he may know of the Rom, while Vas wished to vanish and not give him a chance to endanger me further. Of course, with two to one odds, we waited.

After a bit of coaxing, we convinced the man to join us along the shore once he returned. The four of us made quick flight there to speak, as I was curious as to just how this man knew Romane. He explaind himself, though thinking on his past seemed to upset him a good deal; apparently he travelled with some merchant tradesmen who were attacked and robbed, being taken as a slave for a good part of his live before a monk took him in. The greeting was something he heard used in the travels with the traders, though he barely knew what it meant.

I gave him warning that there were those about the area and within Qeynos that would beat him or worse if they heard him utter Romane words; I didn't get specific, as I don't want anyone daft going after the Hollows themselves. This was the first Vassnti had ever been told of how bad off things were in regard to that in Qeynos, and he became even more concerned than he was before.

The man became upset by this, and he and Tar began to argue over the finer points of the matter before this strange man left in a rush. Hopefully he heeds our words and doesn't go about using a language he doesn't understand when it can get him killed.

All of us unsettled, we made our way back to the griffins, and took flight to Steppes. Tar had us go on ahead, and I got the impression he again felt something was wrong and wanted me out of sight and possible danger - though anything that makes the Steppes the lesser danger concerns me.

We made our delivery to a grumpy fellow who bellowed about the lack of re-enforcements at the outpost, and he asked us to go back to the captain and further explain the situation after seeing it with our own eyes. Of course, they have it bad off - undead crawling all over, violent centaurs running about - and they were extremely understaffed for such a dangerous area. Vas and I agreed and made quick time back to the gates of Antonica.

Tar joined us again at the base of the trail up the pass to the Steppes. For fun, we tried to sneak up on him, however as he put it he has come to know so well my footfalls, no matter how silent they are. This made me smile, as it was another assurence of his feelings, as simple as it is.

As we chatted, a strange Ayr appeared from around the tree there; there was something not right about him, and when he spoke I could feel my ears twitching in time with his words. That's never a good sign with one such as him.

Seems he knows Tar from the Ashen Order, and was either a student of Tar, or with him it seems. He spoke of how he must thank Tar for freeing him from his bonds, the shackles that the Order placed him under while he was there. From the responses Tar gave to this Scaven person, it sounds more like the lad is delusional about these things, and speaking in metaphors.

This lad spoke of dark masters, and freed power to reign terror. His ideals were dark and wild, without any common sense to them, and even Tarack told him that. At moments, I wondered if he meant to threaten Tar, but if so the threats were quite veiled if made at all.

Round then, Missus Bets said she was heading out towards our way, asked what we were doing near there - the crystal talk with the conversation between Tar and this Scaven lad had my ears twitching something fierce, and I barely could answer Bets. I let her know it seemed that a Freeporter was starting things up with Tarack, but I couldn't get more than that out without loosing track of the conversation.

Vas joined into the debate of this Scaven's dark ideals, and the three of them seemed to argue for a bit - when Bets arrived, she figured it was Vas causing the trouble as he was a Teir. I don't think she had taken time to really look at us all and see who was the sore thumb.

Course, Vas politely informed her that he was a friend, and that it was this Ayr lad that was going off about the darker ways of combat, and how he would do as he willed, and all that. Course, Bets got a bit upset, and challenged the lad to step up to his claims and words...right before she collapsed to the ground. Her narco-sleepy, as she calls it, seems to be fairly bad as of late.

She was far enough away from Scaven that I was not worried for her, and I did not think it a good time to move at all and draw attention to myself. But as the lad continued to speak and growl at Tar, something in the air shifted well; Vas noticed it too, and whispered that such things happened before a particularly violent gnoll made his way into an area.

As I opened my mouth to tell Tarack we should leave, this Scaven closed his argument with him - as he began to walk away, he informed Tar that should he try and stop whatever the lad had planned, he would kill him. My words stumbled out quickly to Tar, as I felt something fierce rising in my throat; I'm sure my hands went down to my weapons as I glared after the Ayr, because I know I wanted to kill him right then and there.

But, calm as ever, Tar merely said we should take our leave. When he saw the anger in me, he tried his best to calm me as we travelled; once Bets was tucked away safe in the encampement there, we returned to the gates of Qeynos. Once we'd spoken to the captain there, we had time to speak of the day's events again.

Despite Tar's words, I could feel that white hot anger rising in me; it was the kind of passionate anger I had heard Vhargas speak of in the past, the kind that took entire dragons down with the single lash of a whip. His threat to Tar rang through my mind over and over, and I wished to dispose of him before he had a chance. However, such will not happen...Tar asked me to stay my hand until he knew for sure that the lad was lost to reason - for any fight must lead to a permanent end if that was the case.

To calm myself, we hunted bears until we stumbled upon Daocad of the Pine - one of the gnolls that Vassnti was told to confront in order to gain the trust of Qeynos. The first battle resulted in a retreat, though a second attempt proved victorious for us; though we gave small celebration then, as the hardest tasks were over, the three of us had to run all about to get papers taken care of for Vas. Sadly, curfew came too quickly and we had to leave the work unfinished.

We returned to the gates, and spoke of what we could work on tomorrow to finish up with Vas' papers. The lad is thankful to us, and kept trying to explain such to us, and though we understood it seems he couldn't find enough words to make such to his liking. He's got a good head on his shoulders, as flirtatious as he can be, and after a bit of an exchange through the crystal with Missus Bets, I told him to speak with her if he wished for work.

Tar and I bid him good night, and let him know that we'd be at our home in the Wood should he finish his papers up before we awoke. I do not know if he realized then what was between Tarack and I or not, but I'm sure once Tar is done his meditations and we speak, I can seek to make things clear to many of the admierers I seem to have now...

I watch him kneel before the candle-lit atler even now as I write, and am in awe of the absolute still peace he can enter. The atler is nothing more than many candles before the window, but for our needs I suppose it is enough. Perhaps someday I'll find the courage to ask Tarack to teach me the philosophies of the Ashen Order, once we are more comfortable and long settled together. I am intrigued merely from watching him.

Such long days together and apart...though I hope more are together than they are apart...but who knows what could happen...