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Message: <blockquote data-quote="drnuncheon" data-source="post: 545241" data-attributes="member: 96">Session Fourteen, Part Two - Reflections"I wonder if they've figured out that we're gone yet?"Di'Fier looked up from the spellbook they'd recovered from the captain's magical chest.  His partner's face was lit from below by the last embers of the fire that she prodded with a stick.  "It's been several days.  I hope so.""Maybe your mother will teleport in."  She tossed the stick into the fire and rocked back on her heels. "I wonder if Papa is going to have someone try to find me?""I am sure he will," said a third voice, in Elven - Shesara, emerging from the twilight.  She sat down next to the fire, although it was hardly necessary on such a warm night.  "Did you say his name was...Naïlo?"Dru nodded."I have never heard of that family..."  The blonde elf seemed puzzled.  "Where was he from?""Freeport..." was Dru's instinctive response.  It had been their home since long before she could remember.  But...something Kennic had said once..."No...he was from somewhere else, before.  Somewhere on the mainland.  But he never speaks of it."<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The painter sighed, rubbing at his hand, sore and cramped from long hours holding the brush.  The lantern beside him flickered, casting its dancing shadows over the mural that would eventually run the length of the hall.He didn't particularly want to be there at this hour, but with all of the workmen blundering about during the day, tearing up bloodstained carpet and carrying out ruined furniture, it was the only time that he could work."Still," he murmured to himself, his voice sounding surprisingly loud in the quiet stillness of the empty house, "better than painting tavern-signs...or trying to make fat merchant's daughters look beautiful."  He stepped back to admire the scene - the court of Anastrianna, from the scrolls of the ashanelathinue.  Who knew his study of literature would have been so useful? There were other painters, more famous painters - he'd never admit if they were better - that had been turned away because they'd never heard the work, or even because they only knew it in translation.Something creaked behind him.The painter's heart paused, then thundered ahead twice as fast as before.  One hand crept towards the lantern.  Thoughts raced through his head.  A burglar, picking through the remnants? He wanted to believe such a mundane explanation, but the back of his brain kept reminding him that Verlaine died no peaceful death...He swallowed, letting the cool iron ring of the lantern's handle steady him.  A hesitant step towards the back...another...was that shadowy movement from the lantern-flame?  Or something else?What am I doing? his mind gibbered.  And with that thought he turned and fled for the front door.<img src="http://www.io.com/~jeffj/b2sep.gif" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Benares' JournalDay Five - Island BeachWe have decided to make our way through the jungle to what may be a settlement.  Di'Fier spotted movement on the ocean, and using the spyglass that Shesara mended, was able to see what appeared to be boats on the water, and an enormous wall. Is it too much to hope that there is civilization on this place?  My knowledge of the seas is limited, but if we were bound for the Caliphates I know of no islands this size between Freeport and there.Our stock of supplies is largely limited to what we were able to drag ashore from the boat: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A leaking barrel of flour (which Shesara has mended by magic).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Several large pieces of canvas and rope from the sails.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A barely servicable net, which has caught us some fish.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The captain's bed and bedclothes, which somehow floated ashore. I prefer not to speculate on the manacles attached.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A mirror, miraculously intact.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The sea chest - Dru has managed to make it open into a wardrobe and close again, and we are supplied with a variety of wide-brimmed if rather excessive headgear to keep the sun from our necks.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A meagre supply of javelins which Di'Fier has contrived to make from the straightest branches we could find.</li> </ul>I am not certain of our chances, but the Watchmen at least seem to be survivors - they are the pair who were involved in the occurrences at the Lighthouse of Drac, which we discussed at some length.  After hearing their version of those events, I am deeply troubled that we knew nothing of this, that we still know so little.  I must make a full report when - if - I return.</blockquote>

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