A Dissonant Chord - Part 7

In part 6, Ikram met a man named Arasen who told him he could help deal with Ikram's sodden problem. Arasen took Ikram to meet his wife Indirra. They revealed to Ikram that he and Indirra are both invokers. Indirra showed Ikram her enchanted mirror which allows her to move the interior space of buildings between the real world and an alternate location. That night, Ikram agreed to help Arasen and Indirra rescue their friend Kendi who was imprisoned by the Cove and together they concocted a plan for the next day.

34th day of spring, year 132

In the morning, we set our plan in motion. We put a leather cover over the mirror. I tied Arasen's hands, roughed up his face a bit, put the mirror on my back and went to the jail. I explained to the guards that I caught him stealing from my employer. I said I tracked him to his hideout where I captured him and found this very expensive mirror. I took off the leather cover and explained that my rich employer is preoccupied today but he will be visiting tomorrow to see if the mirror is from his wares, after making a list of missing items. "A thief, huh? We'll handle him. We'll make sure he tells us where he's hiding the rest of the loot," the guard said. I nodded to the guard to move away from Arasen and said to him in a low voice: "My employer has an unusual request. He would like to speak to the thief tomorrow and he would like him to be intact for that talk." I passed him a purse with forty arrowheads. He weighed the purse in his hands and said: "This is enough for me to delay the interrogation, but you realize I ain't the only one here. I believe another one like this would be enough to convince my colleagues too." I pulled out my purse and passed him another forty arrowheads. "Of course, I understand. Please do make sure that the thief is in good state until my employer talks with him." I said. He nodded with a smile and I left. When I got back to Indirra, we experimented to see if she could let me absorb mystical energy from her. We succeeded, but it was really taxing as the energy felt very different. Reusing my "eating" analogy, this felt like eating something that was still alive and then feeling it stop writhing inside me when it died. We then went to sleep.

35th day of spring, year 132

Next morning, Indirra said she was only able to sleep because of how drained she felt after the absorption. We got out and got to the jail. Indirra waited about 200 steps from the jail while I went to speak with the guard. "Good day. My employer would like to speak with the thief and he asked me to check that everything is in order. Is the mirror here?" I asked the same guard. "Good day sir. Yes, he is here and we have the mirror too," he replied. "Excellent. He'd be most grateful if you could chain the prisoner here in this room and have the mirror ready. He'll be here shortly." "Alright, alright, let me go get the prisoner and, here, put the mirror wherever you want," he said as he handed me the mirror. I placed the mirror next to a table in the entrance room. I stepped out and went to hide with Indirra. "Ready?" she asked. "I believe so," I replied. We nodded at each other and then looked at the graveyard next to the jailhouse. I thought of a fiery giant, and presumably Indirra did so too, as planned. Whoosh, a three-meter-tall primordial made of red-orange flames appeared as if someone lit a fireplace up, in the middle of the graveyard. People around started screaming: "Primordial! Gods save us! Run!" A guard came out from the jailhouse, saw the "primordial," put his head back through the doorway and shouted so. A moment later three guards were out of the jailhouse. One ran away in terror. The other three were looking at the now moving "primordial" and were asking each other what to do. "Now is our chance!" Indirra said. We both ran across the street, past a few panicking residents and into the jailhouse. None of the guards even saw us, all focused on the fake primordial. The mirror was exactly where I left it, and Arasen was chained to a chair next to the table. Indirra ran directly to the mirror and touched it. Almost immediately, the view from the door was replaced by an equally bright but completely amorphous veil and all the sound and screaming was gone. "Are there more guards?" I asked Arasen while Indirra hugged him. "No, they all just ran out. Kendi is chained in the back cell," he replied. We tried to find the keys for Arasen's chains but it looked like one of the guards took all the keys with him. I used an invocation to rotate the lock's mechanism and it worked! The two of them used their knives to cut Kendi down from the wall where he was tied. He was roughed up badly. Indirra tried to hug him but stopped when he squirmed. After getting him some water and checking that he was not infected anywhere, he looked at me. I introduced myself, and Arasen added that I'm after the Cove. Indirra immediately shouted "And he's an invoker too!" "Who's holding off the guards?" Kendi asked. We explained that we used the mirror and how we got it into the jailhouse yesterday. "Really smart. Thank you," he replied. "No! Thank you for holding out that long!" Indirra replied. "So what now?" he asked. "Now we break the back wall," Arasen said and explained the plan. Indirra kept tabs on the astonished guards who had no idea what had happened, while Arasen and I broke the back wall and Kendi rested until it was nighttime. Indirra came to the back and told us that the guards seemed to be freaked out by the whole disappearance of the jailhouse's interior and had not entered the building since the sun went down. So we would be able to skip the step of smoking the guards out. I wrapped Kendi's wounds and made a splint for his broken arm. Then we waited at the back exit while Indirra went to a point where she could see if anyone entered the alternate building. Once she saw it was clear, she flipped the mirror and came back to us. I took a look outside the hole in the wall and saw no one, so we covered the mirror and moved out. We headed away towards the darkest alley we could find, but as we entered it, a back door opened and a drunk man got out of it. He saw my face in the light of the building. His tired eyes opened wide and he drunkenly shouted, "Hey!...It's that...it's the Graycliff asshole! Guys! The Grayglidiot!" We ran as fast as we could, given Kendi's condition. We could hear commotion, probably the warrior explaining to his friends what he saw. We accidentally dropped some of the chemicals that we would have used to create smoke. I looked around and found a nice wooden board that we could hide behind, as it looked like a house wall from the alley. We hid as a group of three warriors passed by us. One of them was saying, "You drunk idiot, you do this every payday. I hope it's not another dog again..." We waited a few minutes, and while waiting, I realized how bad I was at sneaking and that I should rely more on my senses and in finding better hiding spots, like the one we were hiding in at that moment. I shushed Indirra and Arasen, who were talking, and listened carefully for any signs of the warriors. "I'm telling you we must have missed them! Just go back, I can take them on myself, I don't need you bastards." The warrior started looking around for us in any dark place he could find while his friends left him. Eventually, he sat down to rest, mumbling to himself. "Can I invoke sleepiness on him?" I whispered to Indirra. "Maybe, especially now that he is drunk," she replied. I focused on him and started to feel sleepy myself but then I jolted, and he did too. I fell backwards on Kendi, and broke the splint on his broken arm as he fell with me. He screamed in pain and quickly shut his mouth with his hands, but it was too late. The warrior ran towards us. We all, except Kendi, grabbed our weapons. I took aim where the warrior would come into view. It turns out the warrior had considered this danger and instead kicked the whole wooden board that we were hiding behind onto us. We tried to push the board off of us, but the warrior was already plunging his sword through it. Some of the wood that splintered off cut my forehead. I jumped and rolled out from under the board, but the warrior kicked my back and threw me to the ground. I turned around and stabbed his leg with an arrow as he punched down on my head. Indirra was moving the mirror away while Arasen grabbed the warrior from behind to throw him down. Dizzy, I stood up as Arasen started fighting with the warrior and was quickly thrown to the ground. The warrior lunged towards me again, and I failed to stab him as he kicked me in the gut. I crashed into the house wall and pushed off of it to launch myself towards the warrior, only to get another punch in my face. While I was recovering, the warrior lifted his sword and tried to say something, which I did not understand. I needed just one good opening, but I was clueless when it came to brawling. But I had no other option but to throw myself at him. His sword cut me on the ribs, but I did stab him in the neck. He stumbled back as I held my bleeding wound. I made the arrow in his neck pull out and held his wound open (through invocation) to maximize his bleeding. He tried to stop it, but within a few seconds, he slumped to the ground in a pool of blood. I jolted back to Kendi and picked him up, and we all ran towards where Valeri was waiting for us. We put Kendi on her and set off toward my old campsite outside Greatrock. Kendi, and we, were safe.

In the next part, seeking answers, Ikram communes with the spirit haunting him, and through their contact, a bargain is struck and secrets revealed. But he has to turn his focus on more mundane issues, preparing to further harm the Cove of Lament.

To be continued...

Dell Vostro 15 3525 review

I've got a Dell Vostro 15 3525 laptop since Q2 of 2022. 

Overall it's bad but let's start with the good things about it:

• Devuan Linux worked almost out of the box on it although I think that back then I had to use a slightly newer kernel otherwise the sound card was not properly recognized and I was missing the sound input.
• Opening the laptop to change the disks, battery and RAM is easy too. 
• The screen is nice. It only had a single blue subpixel that was dead. Hardly noticeable, I didn't even see it during my first dead pixel tests.
• The screen hinges and overall the body of the laptop feels solid.
• The CPU is fast enough for what I need it for. Rimworld runs perfectly on it. Minecraft is playable.
• It has a camera shutter.

Now, I may have been unlucky and maybe it's just my laptop that has the following issues, I have no way to check. Let's go over them one by one:

• It would refuse to accept any of the spare SSDs that I had in it's SATA slot. It always showed communication errors. I thought it was some Linux incompatibility. It wasn't. I noticed it would accept HDDs though, so I used those. Within 6 months, it destroyed 6 HDDs. I've had many HDDs in my life, very few died on me, maybe 4 over multiple decades years. This laptop almost doubled the number within 6 months. I took it for service, Dell returned it saying they saw no issue. The shop I bought it from, which had seen the issue, sent it back to Dell. They replaced the whole motherboard and all the issues went away. SSDs started working with no communication issues.
• It gets too hot. I've completely disabled turboboost because, with it enabled, a single thread of load would take the CPU to 95C-100C. With turboboost off it is at 50C when it's almost, but not completely idling. Running something like Wonderdraft will immediately take it to 100C, turboboost or not, a feat that no game can achieve. A friend has practically the same laptop but with a 17' screen and the cooling system is insanely better. Dell just dropped the ball with the 15' version. The keys above the area where the CPU is are extremely hot, which is both annoying when typing on them and I believe has caused issues to the keyboard itself.
• The keyboard sucks. Horribly so:
• I felt like shift stayed pressed for longer than I held it down, resulting very frequently in typos like "HEllo there stranger! DO you accept ROberto IErusalimschy as you LOrd and SAvior?" I thought I'd get used to it but this being not the only keyboard that I type on, it was practically impossible to train my fingers to hold shift for a shorter time than on other keyboards. I wasn't even completely sure that this wasn't just in my head but then the issue went away when my motherboard was replaced because of the SATA issues.
• The top row with Esc and the F keys is either not exactly centered in the chassis or, if it is, the holes of the keys are not wide enough because if you press these keys a little bit sideways (not exactly straight down) they scrape the chassis and make a "crack" sound.
• The horizontal row of numerical keys has recently started ignoring keypresses unless pressed hard. My 3, 5, and especially 9 are very easy to on-purpose press beyond the point of resistance without really causing a keypress to register, and I've been more and more typos during regular typing like often missing these digits or their shifted forms. I suspect that this may be partially caused by the extreme heat from the CPU speeding up any corrosive/oxidizing process that naturally happens on the contacts under the rubber domes.
• Small annoyance but I have not found a good way to reliably turn off the jump-scare PC speaker which is extremely loud. Right now I have a cronjob that turns it off every minute, because when pulseaudio starts up or if I restart it for whatever reason, it re-enables the PC speaker.

At this point I need those numerical keys fixed and I'm about halfway through the 3 year warranty period but I don't want to stay without my main computer for a month or more. If the last time is any indication, Dell's service might need to have it shipped twice to them before they actually fix it. So I am considering buying a Tuxedo Aura 14, sending the Vostro for slow servicing and then selling it once I get it back.

A Dissonant Chord - Part 6

In part 5, Ikram realized his provisions were ruined so he pressed on without camping, hoping to find help in fighting the Cove. When he reached Greatrock, he discovered that the city was actually where the Cove had their headquarters. Not wanting to risk encountering their warriors, he left Greatrock and camped in the forest to devise a way to safely enter the city. He tried to find some information about him enemies but did not achieve much.

32nd day of Spring, year 132

The next morning, or more accurately in the afternoon, I woke with a horrible hangover. I did not sleep well as I was still feeling jittery about someone from the Cove finding me. I ordered some food and sat at the bar to eat. A young man approached and asked if I was new to town. "Yes, I'm just passing through on my way to explore the world," I replied. "The world? You must be planning to talk your way out of trouble, because you sure don't look like you could wrestle your way out!" he joked. "I may have a job for you though. A friend has been captured by some ruffians and my friends and I will go rescue him while these fuckers have their guard down." My head still ached, but the thought of danger did wake me up. I said to the man, "Sorry, but I don't want more danger now. These last days had too much and I seem to bring bad things to folks near me, so I'd be no help on your rescue." "Nah," he replied. "Nobody reaches Greatrock by luck. We're in the Deep Wilds!" "Well, you got my lack of luck right. I was attacked by a fucking sodden just a week ago. Look, as I said..."  He cut in, "A sodden, you say? Well now... I got one bad and two good pieces of news to give you." "Just go ahead and tell me..." I tried to say, but he spoke over me again. "The bad is you need to lose that sodden, or they'll drown you or wear you down. They'll make you scared and weak." "Right," I said, disappointed. He went on, "The good news is I know someone who can help with that."  "Oh, alright. And what's the other good news?" I asked. "That, I'll let my wife tell you when you meet her for help with the sodden," he said. "You sure are pushy, aren't you?" I said. "I hope you aren't making all this up." "I swear it's true," he said, raising his ringed hand. "But there's no one in this town I can trust — not the guards, not the court, not even the merchants or the artisans, so I need your help." I agreed to visit his house and, after he gave me instructions on how to find it, I left to retrieve Valeri and my equipment before heading straight to his home. "You know, I never told you my name," he said, standing next to a young woman inside his door. "I'm Arasen, and this is Indirra." I gave them my name and hesitantly entered their home. We ate and discussed my trip. They warned me about the untrustworthy people in the city and how most were cooperating with an elf-bound clan who had even elected their leader as mayor. "Yes, the Cove of Lament," I said, which made them both recoil and hastily look at each other. I realized these people feared they had let in someone who was allied with the Cove, so I quickly started explaining: "They killed most of my village and burned much of it to the ground. I do want to travel the world, but the reason I'm here is to destroy them, although this seems foolish now — with me basically coming to their headquarters to look for help to defeat them and even managing to attract a sodden." They looked at each other and seemed to relax. Indirra spoke first: "I know this seems hopeless, but you've actually come to the right place." "The friend I told you about has been captured by the cove," continued Arasen. "And he was caught conspiring against them when he was really trying to kill their leader."  "So he could tell them about you at any time and lead them here???" I said, a bit more loudly than I intended. "Yes and no," said Indirra. "I'll show you what I mean, but just to lessen your shock — you, Ikram, are an Invoker." She stopped, waiting for my reaction. "I know," I said. "Oh, splendid, much less to explain then. I am one too and my mother was one as well. She was also the one who passed this enchanted mirror to me." She pointed to a medium-sized mirror on the wall while standing up and walking to it. "Open the door," she said with a smirk. I obeyed. To my astonishment, I found absolute darkness outside! "This house is not in Greatrock right now, you see," she said before I could even exclaim anything. "The house in Greatrock is the one you see inside the mirror." I looked at her next to the mirror and she was not reflected in it. In fact, the house in the mirror was not even lit up like the one I was in. "The mirror lets me flip the two houses, so if the guards were to pay us a visit, they would find an empty house. Even the neighbors know we live in a farmhouse outside the city most days." "Amazing!" I said in a hushed voice. "But why don't you know how to get rid of that sodden?", she asked, "I assumed most people would teach their children first about this." "My mother mentioned soddens to me but she never mentioned anything about invocation. She wasn't an invoker as far as I know, and I wasn't one, or wasn't aware I was one before this spring," I told her. "What about your father? Although it's strange that you hadn't realized till now," I said. "I never met my father. And, yeah, I didn't know I was an invoker until I was able to absorb that 'mystical energy'," she replied. "What do you mean 'absorb'?" she asked. "Well, when you get 'hungry' and can't invoke properly? Then you need to find some sort of energy to absorb," I tried to explain. "I feel 'tired' and I can invoke again after a few hours of good sleep," she said, "I've never heard of being 'hungry for mystical energy'. Invocations come from within." "Then what's the point of lodestones? I found one and some notes about it mentioned it can find sources of mystical energy and phase rifts," I asked. We discussed it for a bit more, but it sounded like she knew invocation as something quite different from what I had experienced. She also described it as something much more exhausting and risky than what I had experienced. Eventually we went to sleep.

33rd day of Spring, year 132

I woke up feeling quite refreshed after resting well. Arasen had returned with some food and we sat down to eat together. Soon, the subject of our captured friend Kendi arose. "We need to get Kendi out of jail soon, perhaps even today. Our original plan was to try and get most of the guards out of the prison, then use the mirror inside to flip the building to an empty alternate version. But there are a few issues with this plan," Arasen explained. Indirra continued, "First, the mirror takes about a day to adapt to a new building. Second, if the mirror is left uncovered outside for more than a few minutes, it will break. And third, if the guards enter the alternate, empty building and we flip it back, they would be trapped in the alternate version. I don't know what would happen if we moved the mirror while humans were stuck in there." "What happens to items or even bugs that enter your alternate house if you try to move the mirror out?" I asked. "They disappear as far as I know, at least they are not there if I move the mirror back to the same building. But human souls are different than inanimate objects or insects," Indirra replied. "My mother always warned me never to use invocation to manipulate souls, as that would be inviting trouble. I won't risk trapping or destroying a soul." I thought for a moment before suggesting, "You could flush them out by setting the alternate version on fire, or at least smoke them out without burning it all down if that's a problem." "That could work. I'd avoid burning it completely just to be safe, as I've never tried to see what happens in cases where the whole alternate building is destroyed," she said. "As for the one day delay, we'll need to move the mirror earlier. But how? This sounds impossible. Unless we disguise it as a tray, table, or..." I said, but got lost in thought again. After five minutes, I said, "We could break down a wall to leave from the back. But to get the mirror in earlier, could we make them confiscate it?" "It's too risky. They may not unveil it, and we can't move it unveiled outside. They may also lock it up somewhere or, hell, break it," Indirra replied. "If we could make the mirror smaller..." I said through my teeth. "We can't, and it's one of a kind as far as I know. I've never heard of another one," she responded. "Does the jail have an attached outhouse?" I asked. "No, and even if it did, it wouldn't be seen as part of the same building by the mirror." "What if you pretend to have caught Indirra, whom you'll present as a thief, with the mirror and ask them to hold onto it until you notify the owner to come pick it up?", I suggested to Arasen. "Ha! I'm not letting her with the guards, are you crazy? But this could work in reverse - I can play the role of the thief and you two could pretend to be from out of town and say I tried to steal from you but you caught me." We spent the rest of the day fleshing out the details. I swore on my arrowheads to help them free their friend, Kendi. We slept in their house that night.

In the next part, Ikram, Arasen and Indirra enact their perilous plan. Through cunning deception and the use of arcane objects, they infiltrate the prison's halls. Danger arises as a foe from Ikram's past recognizes his face. If they can escape with their allies and avoid detection, their mission will succeed. But new threats may emerge as they make their way to safety with night falling.

To be continued...

A Dissonant Chord - Part 5

In part 4, Ikram escaped from an elder wolf that chased him. He found an abandoned house and discovered strange artifacts and humanoid remains locked in the basement. After attempting to leave, he was instantly transported back to the edge of the forest. He continued his journey and saw a family of broken emerge from a cave and he was later almost drowned in a flooded river by a sodden.

27th day of spring, year 132

In the morning I immediately left for Greatrock. I realized en route that my provisions were ruined by water and something was growing on most of my fabrics. Camping would be difficult under the circumstances, so I decided to press on, hoping I'd soon find some road or settlement. The hilly terrain meant less dense forest, so I covered quite a distance before reaching dense foliage again, where I had to take a night's rest before continuing. I still couldn't sleep properly. I kept dreaming of that sodden. Was I getting too worried? I had more mundane things to worry about.

28th day of spring, year 132

I had no breakfast to eat this morning. I jumped on Valeri and left for Greatrock. I finally reached Greatrock! I went straight to the shops and reprovisioned for 18 arrowheads. I ate and slept in the inn.

29th day of spring, year 132

In the morning, I checked around town for any odd-jobs. I stumbled upon a mercenary who was looking for a crew to go after a nearby settlement of broken. I was shocked when he said the job would pay well because it was sponsored by both Greatrock's mayor and the "Cove of Lament" clan. I asked another man in the crowd who the "Cove" is. He told me the cove is the elf-bound clan led by Namura, Greatrock's newest mayor. I felt my heart sink. I had come to the base of my enemy to find help to defeat my enemy. I left before anyone could realize how shaken I was. I started walking toward the inn, thinking about my next step. Obviously, they were not actively looking for me, and they wouldn't expect me in their hometown either. But the chances of a random encounter would have been high, very high, based on my experience outside Mournwood. I finished loading Valeri and jumped on her. I had to camp alone outside the city and think about what to do next when my mind would be clearer. I found a good place in the forest, far from the road and hidden from Greatrock's view. I tried to sleep.

30th day of spring, year 132

I felt rested in the morning. I eventually would need to go into the city, so I needed some way to conceal my face. I experimented with applying a bit of mud to my skin, trying to find a way to make myself look more wrinkled. Then I cut my hair much shorter and tried tying it differently, but if anything, this seemed to make me stand out more — at least based on my rippling reflection in water. I wished I had an actual mirror or a shiny metal surface. In the evening, I spent some time rehearsing different fake voices. I got a few nailed down really well! But it was getting late.

31st day of spring, year 132

I woke up feeling rested again. I walked to the edge of the forest closest to the city gates. I spent the day watching who went in and out. That evening I saw a group of warriors, clearly part of the Cove by their clothes and armor, leaving Greatrock with their leader and enough provisions for a very long trip. I wasn't sure if many more remained in the city, but I was willing to risk spending some time there to learn more about them. I walked in and went straight to the inn. I sat next to an older man and ordered some food and ale for me and another ale for him. "You're not in a rush, are you?" I asked. "I haven't had a chance to talk with someone for days!" I added. He seemed friendly. We began talking. I kept buying ale for him, hoping to get him to open up, but I seemed to be getting drunk more quickly than him. His name was Cortin. He did not seem eager to discuss his past, but he was extremely enthusiastic about telling me all about his future hopes — to write a book about the elves and convince the Cove clan to take him along on their next trade journey. I asked if he was certain this was a good idea and how much he really knew about the Cove, whether he could trust them. He said he didn't know much but had secured a meeting with one of them the next morning. "Here at the inn?" I asked. "No, they have their headquarters in the east side of town," he replied. We had a few more drinks before I got a room to sleep.

In the next part, Ikram forms an alliance with an unusual couple who promise information and aid for one of his difficulties in exchange for assisting with a perilous mission. Danger, cunning, deception and arcane objects lie ahead as they plan their next steps.

To be continued...

A Dissonant Chord - Part 4

In part 3, Ikram came across a strange abandoned outpost that seemed designed for children or small people. He returned to Mournwood and completed his trade with Padma, receiving a large payment of arrowheads for the books. However, when Ikram tried to have a couple from his village distribute the arrowheads among the survivors rebuilding Graycliff, he was betrayed as the couple attempted to run off with the money. He eventually took money himself to his village. He then set off for Greatrock to seek mercenaries but was caught in a snowstorm.

23rd day of spring, year 132

The storm didn't allow us to sleep very well, but by the time we woke, the sky had cleared, so we continued our trip refreshed. We reached a grove. I heard a lot of howling coming from within, so I decided to ride around it instead of through. The extra distance took its toll on my and Valeri's stomachs. While eating, we were suddenly attacked by an elder wolf, possibly one that caught our scent while we were circling the grove. We were no match for this beast. We immediately broke into a gallop with the beast right behind us. "Smoke!" I thought - and thick gray smoke did appear, even more than I imagined! Valeri was engulfed in it, though I could still somehow see the beast through it. The beast was also getting enveloped in a smaller cloud. "And mirrors." I thought next. A horse the same chestnut color as Valeri now galloped closer to the beast than us. "Not bad," I thought, hoping for more. "Run!" I said, kicking Valeri. She sped up, putting some distance between us and the beast. I thought of more mirrors, and one more copy of me and Valeri popped into existence. But the beast was fixated on the real us. I started to panic as it closed the distance. I "tried" to make us disappear, whatever "trying" means when it comes to invocations, and failed. The beast was getting even closer. "Run girl! It's up to you now!" Valeri gave it her all. We kept distancing ourselves from the beast until it seemingly got tired or bored and stopped chasing us. We kept going for a good ten minutes more. When we finally stopped, I got off Valeri to check if she was alright. Her legs had been bloodied from running through branches and brambles. I gave her some water and patted her neck. Both of us knew she had saved us that day. I looked around for berries as night fell. By the time I had collected enough, it was already dark, so I set up camp for the night in a cave I found nearby.

24th day of spring, year 132

The cave helped Valeri and I both relax and enjoy a good night's sleep. I ate a big breakfast in the morning and continued my journey. We passed by a very tall cliff and later reached a small lake. I thought this would be a good place to restock on some fish or frogs, so I spent time until sunset fishing but didn't manage to catch anything edible. I ate some more from my supplies and had to throw some away as it seemed to have gone bad. After that, I fell into a tired sleep.

25th day of spring, year 132

I woke hungry but decided to keep my supplies for now as I was entering the Deep Wilds, unsure how easy it would be to find food. The first thing of note that we stumbled upon was an abandoned house. Like the outpost I saw on the 18th, the door, windows and height of the edifice seemed more appropriate for children than adults. I decided to squeeze in and take a look around. What I found were a couple strange contraptions. Both seemed to be made of bronze - the first looked like an alembic with one glass tube still filled with a blue fluid, while the other resembled a keychain but with more rigidly attached keys on a bigger ring. Even just for the bronze, these things held value. The blue liquid drew my attention as it seemed familiar. I opened the tube's lid - with a pop, a gray-blue steam started escaping and filling the room with the usual "smell." I closed my eyes, feeling it around me; almost seeing it. I started absorbing it but then felt like someone was watching me. I quickly opened my eyes and looked around. Some of the steam was being drawn into a crack on the floor. After closer inspection, it was a trapdoor with no apparent handle except for some holes forming a circle. The keychain! I rotated all the keys to point in the same direction and slid them all at once into the trapdoor's keyholes. Without even rotating anything, a click was made by the mechanism and the trapdoor popped upward a tiny bit, revealing a handle on its side. I opened it and peered into the coal-black room underneath. I lit a torch and went in. The room was full of metallic tablets (I think they were copper but they felt lighter than they should have been, even for their thinness) with unknown characters punched onto them. The tablets were mostly tidied onto stone shelves with some strewn on the floor next to some small skeletal remains. The clothes of the deceased human(oid?), or whatever rotten remains were left of the clothes, looked unfamiliar. The bones looked human but child-sized, perhaps a little thicker than I'd expect, but I was no expert in bones. I assumed the person was locked in here, probably by someone else, since the door would lock only after pressing it down and removing the keys. I looked around the house some more for any useful utensils to grab, then set up camp outside. I buried the remains and then fell into rest until morning.

26th day of spring, year 132

After an amazing night's sleep, I woke to find some berry bushes full of ripe berries right in front of the house, which I could have sworn were not there the day before. I ate as many as I could hold and packed a few more for the road. I then used some of my charcoal and paper to make copies of a few random tablets before continuing my journey. But as soon as I started to take a last look behind me, what I saw instead of the house was the same cliffs of the Ragged Coast that I had left behind when entering the Deep Wilds. I was somehow again at the border of the forest. Was this an attempt to impede my quest, or a friendly warning, a second chance to rethink delving into these otherworldly wilds? I didn't think I'd be any safer back, so I rode forwards into the forest again. As I rode through a hilly area, I encountered a cave. A gaunt face appeared in the dark depths. She started screaming at me, eyes wide open and fixated. More screams joined hers from within. I immediately remembered the stories my mother used to tell me about the broken. About four individuals came out of the cave's dark depths, wailing and waving their hands like madmen, followed by a child. I felt sorry for the kid - it seemed like a regular Ironlander child. I wondered how long it would take for the child to become like its parents, if any of them survived. I kicked Valeri and sped away from them. I ate some dried fruits and continued my journey. We reached a hill but Valeri was bothered by her wounds. I cleaned them with some water but I needed to apply some medication. Thankfully, I had some in my pack. I washed it up and bandaged it on her front legs. It was getting late, so I set up camp near some rapids freezing-cold water. That was a bad decision. I woke up suddenly when the river flooded the ground where I was sleeping. I jumped up and started looking for my things in the starlight. They were getting soaked and even being carried away by the rising water! First, I threw my bedroll as far onto dry ground as I could. It reached dry land but was already a bit wet. Then I noticed my backpack was almost in the river because of how much the water had risen. I raised my hands toward it, with my palms open, and caused it to jump out of the water from a distance and onto dry land. Then I saw some fabric flowing down the river. It was Valeri's night cover. Again, I telekinetically threw it onto dry land. It was too dark to make out anything else, so I turned my hand into a flaming torch that lit up the area. Everything was on dry land except me. I jumped over the water toward the forest, but two cold, gray hands grabbed my legs and pulled me into the water. It was a sodden! Even underwater, the unnatural flames on my hand kept burning. I turned to see my assailant: he looked like an old man with white eyes and mottled skin. I freed my left foot and stomped on his face, causing him to release me. I grabbed the grassy ground and pulled myself onto it as fast as I could. Shaken, I gathered my things and moved them near the trees where Valeri was standing. I was shaking both from the cold and because I knew I would see this sodden again. I lit a fire and tried to warm up and dry my things until dawn.

In the next part, Ikram arrives at Grayrock hoping to find clues about the Cove of Lament but quickly comes to an unwelcome realization that will waste his time and unfortunately some of yours too, as he tries to figure out what he should do next.

To be continued...