Two Years Later
Once the South Ward had been largely rebuilt -- and with better, safer housing for everyone -- Nel moved once more to a townhouse by the docks with her children, Mia, and Mia's toddler. Bogdan stayed with Msr. Bocouse and they were married shortly before the move.
The house wasn't as grand as the manor, but it was big enough that the children could all be no more than two to a room, and it was warm, safe, and as clean as a house with four children and a toddler could be kept. They attended the now-flourishing South Ward Public School.
Transforming the South Ward involved some delicate and deliberate steps to make certain that the changes really did benefit the poor who lived there, rather than making it a place where middle and upper class people found desirable and pushed the poor further out -- but the leaders of the South Ward -- especially among the Labor Guild, Domestics Guild, and with Captain Parr and the Rooks, made sure that it happened. Between careful quality building following Vera's housing's example, Ottilie's eletech heating, and the great many community gardens established by the community members with help from Muse, Nita, Nel, Jearyn, and many, many others, it was no longer an inevitability that the winters would claim lives in the South Ward.
Captain Parr did, in fact, accept Nel's application to become a ROOK, and after about a year of planning and working with the justice system, Nel piloted Novandria's first diversion program -- offering people arrested for crimes of survival, whether Syndicate members forced into their work or just people stealing to eat or afford medicine, immediate assistance, membership and training in the guilds, and a chance to avoid both the lash and prison by doing volunteer work in their communities to help repair the harm they caused. Most, in doing so, found that it felt good.
The Syndicate remained, but as the community members became empowered rather than desperate, their power over the South Ward waned and leaving the organization was no longer a death sentence. It worked well for both the South Ward and the Syndicate. Average citizens were no longer terrorized and local businesses no longer had to pay protection, and the the new Syndicate leadership was replaced with someone handpicked by Valistad--a thief who did crime, but was not cruel, and who knew that an organization full of unwilling participants is a doomed organization.
The guild application loan program grew and expanded, offering loans to start small businesses, pay university fees, and other needful things at low interest rates. Little by little the South Ward began to thrive.
Nel stayed close with her parents, for whom she bought the townhouse next door, and with her beloved friends and family in both Novandria and Unatha. She was a frequent visitor with Nita, Muse, and their families at the Meadows, at the new home shared by Sareena, Victor, Arinelle, Elsinore, Bocuse, Bogdan, and others, and at the new home that Bella, Zayn, and their children shared, as well as with the Esches, Valistad and Jearyn, Gregor, Seraphina and her family, and everyone to whom she had grown close in the course of saving the world.
She watched her children grow, and took in more as needed -- though with fewer deaths in the South Ward, more children grew up with the parents and the need was less.
It was not a perfect life and it was not free of stress, pain, or hard times, but it was full of love and meaning, it was free, and it was good.
Nel's Journal Ordered oldest to newest
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Warmth
25 Jan 2023 06:40:04
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Spark
28 Jan 2023 07:45:46
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Broken
01 Feb 2023 05:45:25
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Magic berries and numbered days
02 Apr 2023 03:23:18
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Something Borrowed
09 Apr 2023 04:13:35
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Ghosts
23 Apr 2023 06:01:46
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A Small Revolution
27 Apr 2023 06:10:46
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Moving Day
13 May 2023 07:34:00
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Safe
19 May 2023 01:26:05
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Candlelight
12 Jun 2023 03:33:42
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A life that is mine
12 Jul 2023 02:22:20
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Things Taken
07 Sep 2023 06:05:00
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Left a mark
10 Dec 2023 07:04:14
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Tiny Revolutions
18 Jan 2024 07:53:11
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Least bad choice
19 Feb 2024 05:19:27
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Best of all possible worlds
01 Mar 2024 11:31:23
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Wasteland, Baby
29 Apr 2024 10:19:05
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A hope reversed
19 May 2024 04:39:01
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I am Overcome
16 Jun 2024 07:57:43
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Outclassed
15 Sep 2024 07:20:18
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Thanatos
04 Oct 2024 05:47:50
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Long Lost
29 Oct 2024 05:40:21
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The Ring
14 Apr 2025 07:08:14
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Darkness
07 Jul 2025 05:00:10
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"Checkmate, Nihilism"
21 Jul 2025 05:20:10
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Two Years Later
30 Oct 2025 08:05:43
25 Jan 2023 06:40:04
28 Jan 2023 07:45:46
01 Feb 2023 05:45:25
02 Apr 2023 03:23:18
09 Apr 2023 04:13:35
23 Apr 2023 06:01:46
27 Apr 2023 06:10:46
13 May 2023 07:34:00
19 May 2023 01:26:05
12 Jun 2023 03:33:42
12 Jul 2023 02:22:20
07 Sep 2023 06:05:00
10 Dec 2023 07:04:14
18 Jan 2024 07:53:11
19 Feb 2024 05:19:27
01 Mar 2024 11:31:23
29 Apr 2024 10:19:05
19 May 2024 04:39:01
16 Jun 2024 07:57:43
15 Sep 2024 07:20:18
04 Oct 2024 05:47:50
29 Oct 2024 05:40:21
14 Apr 2025 07:08:14
07 Jul 2025 05:00:10
21 Jul 2025 05:20:10
30 Oct 2025 08:05:43
The major events and journals in Nel's history, from the beginning to today.
Two Years Later
Once the South Ward had been largely rebuilt -- and with better, safer housing for everyone -- Nel moved once more to a townhouse by the docks with her children, Mia, and Mia's toddler. Bogdan stayed with Msr. Bocouse and they were married shortly before ...
08:38 pm - 30.10.2025"Checkmate, Nihilism"
Nel came to the river straight from beneath Kelesta's temple, hanging her cloak up on a tree and wading into the cold, muddy water, much deeper and faster now than it had been this time last year. There was little light from the waning crescent moon peek...
06:01 am - 21.07.2025Darkness
Around 3 AM Nel hobbled out to the garden as quietly as she could with her still-healing leg and her cane supporting her weight on the hall floors. She tried hard to not wake anyone. She had put them through enough. Sitting down on a garden bench, sh...
05:31 am - 07.07.2025The Ring
Nel had never felt fully at ease in the small shrine to Steyfano beside the Blind Beholder. Before accepting a shard of the god's soul, she had only come one to pray to him there. But these days and nights found her there several times a week. It was...
09:23 pm - 14.04.2025The Journal Entry’s title
Nel had never felt fully at ease in the small shrine to Steyfano beside the Blind Beholder. Before accepting a shard of the god's soul, she had only come one to pray to him there. But these days and nights found her there several times a week. It was...
09:22 pm - 14.04.2025Long Lost
Nel sat in Aaboli’s home, surrounded by the elders of her people. She had dreamed of having her extended family, her people, back for 30 years. And now that she had them, she found her heart predictably full, but also surprisingly lonely. Most of...
05:42 am - 29.10.2024Thanatos
.Nel opened her eyes from the now-familiar blackness of death and saw a dark sky, lit by an enormous, dim, red star that gave the ever-rising smoke and haze a faint red glow. She hadn’t felt cold since becoming undead, but the rubble she was lying on...
06:07 am - 04.10.2024Outclassed
Professor Sir Sedgwick Ivers paced around the room, lecturing passionately about the importance and complexity of taxes. He climbed the stairs to the lectern, standing on the raised platform that put him a sold three feet taller than he stood on the floo...
07:24 am - 15.09.2024I am Overcome
CW: prejudice, bad thing happening to children, abuse, slavery Soundtrack: "I am Overcome" by Live Nel had never thought she would ever see another ursan from her homeland ever again until one of them threw a femur through a portal into her kitche...
08:09 am - 16.06.2024I am Overcome
CW: prejudice, bad thing happening to children, abuse, slavery Soundtrack: "I am Overcome" by Live Nel had never thought she would ever see another ursan from her homeland ever again until one of them threw a femur through a portal into her kitche...
08:04 am - 16.06.2024A hope reversed
Content Warnings: grief, abuse, bad things happening to children. (Soundtrack in my head d as I write this one: "Fix You" by Coldplay) After the fire...after the factory went up in flames and too many machines blocked too many doors...after a...
06:15 am - 19.05.2024A hope reversed
Content Warnings: grief, abuse, bad things happening to children. (Soundtrack in my head d as I write this one: "Fix You" by Coldplay) After the fire...after the factory went up in flames and too many machines blocked too many doors...after a...
06:10 am - 19.05.2024A hope reversed
Content Warnings: grief, abuse, bad things happening to children. (Soundtrack in my head d as I write this one: "Fix You" by Coldplay) After the fire...after the factory went up in flames and too many machines blocked too many doors...after a...
06:07 am - 19.05.2024A hope reversed
Content Warnings: grief, abuse, bad things happening to children. (Soundtrack in my head d as I write this one: "Fix You" by Coldplay) After the fire...after the factory went up in flames and too many machines blocked too many doors...after a...
06:03 am - 19.05.2024Wasteland, Baby
It was supposed to be fun. An exciting tournament, no death on the line, in a new, beautiful place. Nel had strategized about how to stay in the shady part of the arena for the fight so that she could still see. Her opponent was a good sort. Then th...
10:37 pm - 29.04.2024Magic Berries and Numbered Days Saturday night Nel hurries to the Wayward Traveller after her deliveries, potion and magical berries in her pockets. She supplements the healer, giving the fighters berries to help them after each fight. She does her best to stay out of Marlene's way, but polar bears stand out in crowd. Marlene doesn't look happy that she's healed already. "Magic berries, huh? Cute. Let's see if you learned your lesson or I need to repeat it. You're subbing in the next fight." Nel knows better than to argue, setting her coat with its pockets full of berries and potions in the fighters' back room and comes back in time to step in to the ring. She is still stiff and sore, tired of hurting and being hurt, but she takes a breath, focusing on paying the rent and feeding the kids as she shakes her opponent's hand and squares off. She fights hard, in the moment, but each blow she gives and takes connecting to something else. Her left hook is a reminder of the money she's saving to help Gertrud apply to the Artificer's Guild. She takes an uppercut to the jaw but doesn't let it knock her down, remembering protecting Khemma when they were young in Ruskovich, how she couldn't fold, had to outlast the bullies. She lets lose a flurry of blows, imagining her opponent as Marlene and knowing she has to stay alive if she wants to get free. Her final blow is another punch with her left hand as she imagines wielding the Left Blade of Eosphorus against the Syndicate. The bugbear she's fighting goes down. She's breathing hard and heavy, not noticing the blood running down her face, except to wipe it out of her eyes. She catches Marlene's smile -- smug and triumphant-- and looks a away, running back to the bugbear and hand them several berries once the healer restores them to consciousness. Marlene comes over pats her cheek lightly, a gesture that would almost be affectionate if it weren't dripping with condescension. "Knew you just needed a little motivation. You've never been smart enough to chase the carrot, but the stick always works." Nel nods and looks down, a picture of submissiveness, but there is a fire growing inside of her and her left hand twitches, as if aching for a blade to strike a blow for Eosphorus. She promises herself that these days are numbered, and feels strength instead of shame.
03:22 am - 02.04.2023Broken
Wake up. Eat a too small meal of moldy bread or porridge. Break rocks until bones ached, muscles ripped, hands bled, hunger gnawed and thirst burned. Endure. Keep working. Keep an eye on the more sadistic prison guards and fellow prisoners. Protect ...
05:44 pm - 01.02.2023Spark
In the Warrens there is a small shop that sells produce that is close to turning. It's a ramshackle building that never smells quite fresh, but it's been cheerfully painted in brightly colored images of fruits and vegetables. The owner buys the items ch...
07:45 am - 28.01.2023Warmth
Nel came home Tuesday night with the food from the next day from the market. She did her best to take as little from the Syndicate for the school as possible, give them as little reason to interfere as possible. She knew they didn't need a reason, not r...
06:26 am - 25.01.2023The list of amazing people following the adventures of Nel.
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