89th of The Phoenix, 1331 AE
Every time I come by there is a small change to be spotted, nothing grand - a bread baker opened a stall right outside the grocer’s shop, and the tavern boasts of a brand new third story... I write this as I sit on the wharf, sheltered by the shade of a new boathouse. Place smells pleasantly of sawdust... bit by bit, Rue’s settlement’s grown from a gaggle of cabins hugging the shoreline. It is now becoming known as Port Songbird, and unlike that old, hidden grotto, it is exposed to the sun and bracing sea-wind... and Gods - many, so many seagulls.
Truly, I expected a longer respite after all those months away in Elona, and this time of the year was ever the best time to return to Lornar’s, when the hills are a bright emerald and the daylight lasting. Drae left the family worries behind in Kryta, and I wasn’t planning to go anywhere. All for the sake of sleeping in together, taking lazy strolls by the lake - before one pushes the other in, or planning to tackle grandiose recipes before just giving up and settling for the same old, half arsed noodles stew dinner.
Well, so much for that - Stojhana’s visit of over a week ago all but squeezed Tyria back in through the homestead’s front door.
Alfredon lives. Selden, Shilci & Rue scouted him, briefly, before once again losing trace of him and the companion he travels with. A rather worrying companion, actually, if one is to believe my Selden’s theories regarding it. Still - Dwayna preserve, although hostile and strange, he lives. I had no proof of his survival since losing the battle for the Sanctuary.
It’s been years - of course he’s changed.
Our other new revelations all derive from the remnants of the IMP getting located on an island north of Port Songbird - and within them, Nhimo and Ijjii - apparently all that is left of the old Krewe. Through that discovery we learned the fate of many of the missing Songbird & Krewe members.
I penned down a list of the names and what we know in the previous page, but that cannot reflect what I see around me. I wouldn’t know how to write what I see... how can one describe Selden’s forlorn grief over Tenalu, or Arduan’s rekindled hope for the chance we might retrieve her old captain... Draegoren’s cautious hope for Releki making it, my own sadness as I remember Odrick... what was left of all our old shenanigans? An old carnival scarf, and echoes of badly made rhythms. With Tolivris gone as well, who else will miss that old irksome Charr?
Though there is an odd comfort in knowing.
Will this finally be closure? Will this finally turn the page from the past two years of grieving for unknown fates?
We flew here aboard Stojhana’s Raven’s Talon. Sto’s initial query actually was bringing Kophon to reunite with her brother in the IMP. I couldn’t accompany her there myself for the final stretch of that journey - it seems that even after all these years Ijjii and Nhimo’s general disapproval of my existence persists. No surprise here, but at least I now know she is, hopefully, in hands capable of addressing her condition.