The Orshag's castle

Dear diary,
There is one thing that the fastodans did better than the others. They just disn’t know when to quit. Now, most might say it is not the wisest thing to do, but I completely disagree. As annoying as it is, persistence is one of the most admirable things in an ally. The same cannot be said for an enemy. I absolutely despise any enemy that just doesn’t know when it’s time for them to admit defeat.
It was yet another day on the Evo Drive. Nixie, Eve and me decided it will be the best idea to go shopping before we reached our destination. We might be on a mission to save the world, but there is no wrong time to do some shopping. Now, I am not the biggest fan of buying clothes and make up and such, but in the lack of any interesting weapons, I decided a perfume would do. It has very interesting notes of memories. I do not wear perfume every day but who knows when such thing can come in handy.
Plus, it was Nixie’s birthday soon, so it was the perfect opportunity to drag Eve and find some ideas of gifts to tell the others. To my surprise however, it seems I was rather slow. The crew already got her a gift of sorts. For a second there, I felt a bit let down. “I guess we are not the same crew after all.” I thought. Then, I came to my senses. We are talking about THE crew. The crew that keeps saving our lives and being our friends for ages now. I’m sure it is some kind of misunderstanding. Of course, I couldn’t let it be, so later that day, I went to discuss with them.
 
Coicidentally Nixie wanted to talk with Isbel, so we went together. You usually would try to hide such discussions from the birthday girl, but at this point I gave up. I am not a subtle person in general, let alone when it comes to hiding from Nixie. It’s like a common agreement we have. I try to not be really into her face and she turns a blind eye to whatever seems suspicious around her birthday. So it was easy for me to approach Drenizek, who probably was in charge of the whole Operation “Gift”.
It turns out, I was the mean one this time. The crew felt inferior to us, to the point that they even thought that we will get a gift without them. I did not understand it at first because no matter how I looked at it, I could just not see it that way. Until well, when they explained it. “We do not have nothing left but to follow you. There is nothing we have back home, and nothing we have in the future. At the moment, all we want to do is be here and help. But we do not have a legacy like you. We are merely some people from Alomir”. First of all, they have something waiting for them in the future. I know that because that is what we are fighting for, isn’t it? That is the first thing I let them know. I do not blame them for having doubts about everything right now. The news they just received must have shaken their entire world. I did understand a part of it, since me myself had found it hard to believe that all I have believed in was basically a lie. But I had time to understand this. Time which the crew does not have because we are always on the run, fighting. One thing I understand for sure, is that it is a problem that it will take more than a discussion to solve. And if there is one thing, I can help with, is support the crew until they don’t need my help anymore. No worries, Captain Nixie, your former right hand will try and take care of this issue.
 
One thing that I still find it hard to work on is the legacy part. I have never given much thought about it until Kelly said it some time ago. But why does it matter so much? The way I see it, each one of us leave a legacy behind but in the eyes of others, that legacy will be torn is so many ways, that in time, all that will remain of it, it’s shattered pieces of memories. And after we will die, all that will matter is how many hearts you have touched, and how many hopes we have saved. If you ask me, in that regard, the crew has a legacy so much bigger than they imagine. First, let’s start by the influence they had over us. I would have never, in a thousand years imagined Nixie to be the captain she is today. And that is not thanks to me or anyone else of the party, but to the crew’s faith in her. It is indeed true that many have followed us into battles because they believed in us. But I do not ever think the crew has ever thought about how much influence they had in that. I am sure, that among the soldiers, there were some that feared fighting for us. Not all people of this world have such dedication for risking their life to an impossible mission. But then they saw the unwavering determination of the crew, and it gave them hope that they stood a chance. And let’s say I am ever wrong with that. They will still have the legacy of “Captain Nixie and the crew that saved the world” and all the legacy of Alomir on their shoulders. I wish I would have told them that. Unfortunately, I only thought these things afterwards. But I will make sure to let them know the next time we talk.
As for the party, we have elaborated a very nice party. First, the crew will make their own gift. There was no point of them not finishing their gift because of this misunderstanding. Then, together, we will give Nixie the long-desired captain’s hat she never had. The crew will make sure to get what we need for it, and then we will make it together. As for our part of the deal, we figured that Nixie would really enjoy a pretty cake. So we decided to make her, the head of Zarkuz, as a cake. Damaschini was working on some kind of structure at the moment. But now, thanks to all the delay caused by a certain very persistent faction, all the plans will need to be delayed.
 
Also, I almost forgot to mention. Marc seems to be enjoying my little teases for Dillen. He finally revealed Dillen’s plans back on the ship. Apparently all Dillen wanted was to protect Isbel from the possible rage of the fastodans, and of course, get something out of it. For some reasons, Dillen felt the need to justify himself more than usual. I was a tiny bit amused. What did he think? Now that we knew his “evil” mastermind plan, we will consider him to be too much of a softie? Don’t worry,Dillen, I will make sure your reputation will not be stained. He even said something to me that was very surprising: “we’re friends, Verfi, but where would be the fun if I didn’t tease you a bit?”. First of all, thank you Dillen but I knew that already. I am not that stupid. Second of all, Now I really am worried for the crew. If not even Dillen is feeling well, there must be something very wrong going on. He would not admit that otherwise.
 
After a while, we met with Bart and Damaschini who were practicing planes. Ever since she woke up, Nixie seemed a bit more weird than normal. She wanted to talk with Bart about Eve but I swear the conversation did not make any sense to me. It was like one of those times back in the woods, when Nixie, being bored, started talking with one of her many personalities. Then it hit me. Probably, because of the boring life in the Evo drive, she must have started with “Myself” again. That is the name she gave to the other side of her. Don’t tell her that, but sometimes, when we used to live together, I used to hide and make a lot of noise so that she can do her weird conversation with herself. It is quite amusing to see a person scold herself although I sometimes wonder if I should do something about it. Maybe Nixie needs some “pills” too.
 
Anyways, while they Bart and Nixie were arguing, I got to have my own weird conversation with Tallion. It seems that his “coping mechanism” is to talk with people. Now, that made me wonder if he is ever alright. He does talk a lot. Dear diary, I am only half joking. Tallion can be unexpectedly funny sometimes and to be fair talking with him was better than listening to Nixie and Bart. Also, I think Tallion gave me an idea. With the risk of becoming the most annoying person around, I think I have made my own personal goal to try to listen to everyone around. It is not much, but if people feel the need to talk, I want to help. And even if they don’t, I will still make them talk.
 
Well, the whole talking about “Myself” seems to have given Bart a great idea. He wanted to try some kind of experiment to make Nixie say something she didn’t want by controlling the planes. He gave his best to explain to us, but it still didn’t make any sense to me. It seems however, that the plan worked perfectly. To be fair, I did find it very interesting to watch but anything that can control other’s will is dangerous to say the least. I was not afraid of it, but I would have rather stayed away from it because I still don’t understand precisely how it works. So, I did tell Damaschini and Bart to stay away from me. I wouldn’t want to cause any troubles by mixing up their experiments.
 
Later that night, Nixie asked me to look into her “detective” work. She seemed very excited about this whole thing. I did not share her enthusiasm though. You see, dear diary, I have been a little annoyed at Nixie lately. The most annoying part is that she played the “My methods were not fitted, but I wanted to help” card to not admit her mistake. Although with good intentions she precisely knew that kissing Eve would create some kind of drama, especially because she has done it before. But as our captain, she should understand better than anyone, that at the moment, it is the very last thing we need, the last thing Eve needs. I am sure that Eve was more than delighted to hear that her friend and her boyfriend kept fighting over her. “One can’t have fun of the ship, from now on I will make you write everything as a contract and sign it. Really nice Nixie, really Nice. “Hereby me, Verfys the fire elemental, I declare that I do stand opposed to any action that could harm us, the party, even a kiss”. I should have said that but it only would have annoyed Nixie more. Plus, since when is Nixie kissing Eve more than me? Nonetheless, after a short talk, Nixie finally decided to give it another try and talk with Bart.
 
To be honest, I do understand both parts of the story. If I were Bart and Xebec was Eve, I would have gotten annoyed at Nixie as well. But then again, I do think Bart is being stubborn too. I mean get upset at the kiss, but he should try to understand what Nixie is trying to saying. Based on our conversation with Talion earlier, I thought that Bart actually understood the point. But then he fought with Nixie on the same subject. And now I do not really know if he didn’t get the point, or he was juts upset at Nixie. If it’s the first case, then alright we can explain again. But if it is the second case, then he is no longer better than Nixie’s threat to make us write “declarations”. Either way, I do believe that both of them were a bit inconsiderate towards Eve. We should be her support at the moment together, not fight with each other who is the better support.
 
Finally, the next morning, it was finally time to leave this place and meet the Orshag people. While we were having our breakfast, Eve came storming in the room, got the food for Lullaby and her, and then left without saying anything. Now, dear diary, you know Eve as well as I do. She usually does say at least a word to us when we meet. So, something must have happened last night. Bart was also not on the best mood. It seems that her was upset at us very upset. Why? I had no clue. But it seemed very serious given the fact that he was acting super rude. “I Am NoT AnSWeRiNG To YoU”. Normally, I would definitely punch him, but since there was something that was bothering him, I decided to leave that for later. I did not want to create more problems that we already have. Nixie and me really tried to at least talk with us, but the more we talked, the more Bart would just be more rude. But no worries, dear diary, I was not about to give up so easily. Never underestimate the power of persistence.
 
Unfortunately, we were interrupted by the Orshag army who was coming to pick us up. What a nice welcome! They evacuated the whole area and sent their best guards to take us. And of course, in the middle of them was none other than Alidag. Well, as promised, I had to find out his real name. Of course, the guy wouldn’t say so easily. But if he tells me a different name everytime we meet, at some point he will run out of names and he will give us the real name. That is of course, if we ever meet him again. Otherwise, since he said that in Orshag he is called “IRSHAN”, so I will consider that his real name. Anyways, the moment we met them, the Orshag troops, which by the way are very armed, surrounded us and started to push us to follow Alidag. The path we had to follow was very long but it looked nice. As we were walking we saw that around us, there were thousands of soldiers and people who came to see our “parade”. Well, to be fair, I was not that bothered but quite the opposite. No person in their right mind would kill us in a crowd that keep screaming “Glory to the Orshag! Glory to the Dominor”. So for now, even though we were watched, it would not have been dangerous to us.
 
At that point I was still trying to find out why Bart was upset and was talking with the others, so I did not quite pay attention to our surroundings. Kelly said something that I really didn’t think of: “Now we are definitely their weapons”. As I said, we are the prize in some kind of hunting game, and it seems that the Orshag people have taken the lead. Well, not like we had any choice anyways. Well that definitely meant that the commonwealth was going to come after all. But, for some reasons, this whole place gave me a sense of “safety”. “No one could really win a fight against these Orshag Guards or Orshag Stoa (again this is for you Dillen)” I thought. The only thing I was a bit afraid was that, if we would not manage to strike a deal with these people, we would never leave here alive.
 
Also, it felt like somehow, we were the main champions fighting for the Orshag. You know, I always hated this idea. These so called “parades” have nothing to do with a real fight. They are just useless displays of power and I do hate to be part of them. I sometimes feel that they do not encourage the fight itself, but the violence behind the fight. It is like that time in a war, when one commander cuts the head of one of the diplomats. If the war is about to come anyways, why must one show their “army power” by killing an innocent? Oh yes, because it shows people how powerful one person is. So inspiring!
Finally, we have made it in from of the Dominor’s castle. Well, it doesn’t look like a castle but it is imposing enough to intimidate me a tiny bit. We got inside and we finally met with the most important people in the country. Now, you might say that I am paranoic, but out of all the people here, I doubted these ministers or whatever the most. If I were to infiltrate spies, I would make sure at least one of my spies in in a high position there. So, when they asked us to take off our helmets, I was a bit hesitating. But I did not want to make a bad impression, so I just tried to remember the faces of those ministers. At least, if we were ever captured, I would know at least who the spy was.
 
After a few minutes of waiting, the Dominor finally made his entrance with, of course, another display of power. I must admit he seemed to have quite some power so the first thing I thought is that I do not want to have him as the main enemy. Well, I assume this was his plan anyways. He then held some kind of long speech about how we are the new allies of the Orshag that will help them finally defeat Commonwealth. I mean I appreciate the nice welcome but are you sure you got the right people? Last time I was aware of the events, if it wasn’t for Alidag, we would have probably still be in that bar asking for help.
Finally, after such a show, we finally got a little time to settle down. We were taken to our rooms. But of course, before any rest we needed to talk a bit about our strategy. But guess what. Minutes after we got into the chess to discuss, we got called to the Dominor to talk with him. Of course, it took as some time to actually start telling him about other dimensions, especially because, those ministers or generals or whatever would look very worried at us. Just why exactly are they here anyways? The Dominor however seemed a nice person. He lost many things in their war with the commonwealth including his own arm. It seems that they were fighting, when one to the commonwealth’s allies shot some kind of warp in them. In the beginning, they did not feel anything but then, everything started to get chaotic and most of their ships fell to the ground. Despite all the show, it seemed that the Dominor had some kind of honor behind. He gave me the impression he was the kind of man I could trust to have a fight without any deceiving tricks. However, a small part of me doubted that. It seemed he just wanted to get close to us. I don’t know. I am becoming too paranoic here. Slowly, the Dominor managed to get everything he needed out of us: information about other dimension, the apocalypse and the planes.
 
I do like the Orshags and the Dominor. They were very much interested in finding out more about “Our enemy”. Now, I know that they were interested in having as much as they could from us, but it really seemed they wanted to help. And they believed us, no matter how insane we sounded. You know, maybe they will betray us, or maybe they are actually evil people who just want to destroy the commonwealth, but in the end, it matters a lot to us to know that someone is willing to listen. I don’t know about the others, but it gave me a little hope. As I said, as long as one person believes us we still have a chance. In the end, we ended the conversation with some kind of agreement: We would provide all the information they want, and they would provide more support like guns and everything else we needed.
 
After a long talk, we returned to the chest. You see, despite the nice welcome from the Orshags, we really needed to get to the Prime Zeith. So we had to find out a plan to get there because, the Orshags were not going to let go of their prize so easily. There were many ideas involved: find the interdimensionals and hope they would help us, take a bomb to the Zidith or even try to take some Orshags with us. But after long discussions we have decided on the following plan. I will write is as Nixie prefers:
“Hereby us, the party, receive the obligation to take all the necessary measures to achieve the following plan:
1. Talk with the Dominor and convince him we are strong enough to get to the Zidith without being caught
2. Get to the Prime Zeith without being caught
3. Convince the priests that we are there because we can help them and get to the Zidith
4. Find out information from the Zidith
5. Deactivate the Zidith long enough for the Orshags to attack the commonwealth
6. Get to the black hole to send the message”
 
By the time the plan was done, it already became time to sleep. Before going to bed, I wanted to talk with the others to make sure thy are alright. Of course, I did not forget about Bart so I went to talk with him. Contrary to before, this time he was willing to talk…with me. Nixie wanted to join but Bart did not seem very keen on that idea, so he told her to go away. That was, dear diary, very rude if you ask me. After Nixie left, Bart told me that he was afraid that because of the planes he is working at, he thinks we would end up considering him some kind of monster. So that is why he was upset. I did tell them earlier to stay away from me while doing those experiments. That did came out the wrong way. As I told him, I was just afraid that I would ruin their experiments since I do not understand much about those. I would never consider Bart a monster no matter what he did. First of all, for now, all he did was help us so far. Then, come on we are talking about Bart. When did he ever had any bad intentions in general? Just the fact that he is being so cautious about all of this it’s the exact reason I do not think he could become a monster. He gave me the example with the interdimensionals. But that is completely different. Bart would never hurt one of us like those interdimensionals had done with Jevyan. Ever.
 
It was a rather long conversation so by the time we were done, the others already went to sleep. So I went to see if at least Tallion was up. You know, he talked quite a lot that day, so I was a bit worried for him. It turns out that he was just studying in the library. He tried to explain me whatever he was doing, but I think he realized I don’t quite understand much. Well now that I saw he was alright, I wanted to leae. But before I did that, he asked me how I was doing. Hmmm…I haven’t talked about it in a while. I guess I was trying to distract myself from that. It is working so far. I guess I have to thank Tallion for that. If it wasn’t for the talking with him earlier, I wouldn’t have even thought of trying to help the others. I told Tallion that I am alright and asked him if he wants to go for a walk. He could help me talk with the others. Unfortunately, everyone else was sleeping. Everyone except Drenizek. I wonder what kind of present he is preparing for Nixie. He has been busy for some nights now. I wonder if he ever sleeps.
 
The nest morning, Nixie tried to talk with Bart again. That was surprising in a good way. I expected that after the fight last night, Nixie would not even talk with Bart. Well, I was wrong about our captain. This time I really was mistaken. I guess we won’t need to write declarations anymore.
 
The first part of our plan worked out. Bart and Nixie managed to convince the Dominor to let us go to the Zidith. But the Dominor needed a bit of time discuss their strategies, so we had a few days to train and collaborate with the Orshags. They gave me a great gun and taught me how to use it. Pretty convenient if we are going to go straight to the Prime Zeith. They even offered to make ma an armor that was fire resistant. So, I could be set on fire without being burnt. It would just make me feel at home. By the way, the air here is very “toxic”, so we have to wear special masks all the time. It is very annoying. I would like to friendly fight one of those Orshag Stoa. They seem like great weapon fighters to fight with although I am pretty sure I would lose quite fast.
 
Last night, while we were talking to each other, Eve came to us in a very big rush. She said that she was talking with Damaschini and that they saw some kind of explosion of black fire. It seems that Damaschini started flying there. We couldn’t have let him be alone, so I suggested that we should go after him. That might have been a big mistake or more like, we could have acted a bit smarter. I really should have considered that before telling everyone to go that way. I do not make the wisest choices sometimes. Today, it was one of these days. Like back to the sea of undead people. I will tell you later why. But at least we had the brain to leave the chest behind.
 
When we arrived at the explosion place, there was no one around. Instead, in a circle in front of us there was a circle made of bodies. I did come to the conclusion that this circle is never a bad sign. You know, when we saw that Nixie’s reaction was: “Don’t you get a feeling that this is a trap?”. “It probably is” I replied. I did think about it but I was already too late. Funny thing is that, after we had this conversation, the thought just slipped our minds completely.
What happens next, is a very tragic family reunion. It seems that the person we were about to fight was none other than Miyun. I do not know what to think about this whole thing. I’ve heard of Miyun before, but she was nothing like the stories. She was a bit frightening, and her yellow eyes were very cold. We have seen the xenatine’s effects before, but I never thought they could cause one’s so much harm. Miyun was not a child anymore. She was being used as a weapon. That child did not deserve this, no one does. She was angry, upset and sad and Xantinya used all that against everything that child held dear. How she loves to turn everything good against us! As for Miyun, I somehow think that a part of those feelings was already there before xenatine. Miyun was talking of how Damaschini abandoned her, how she felt he was cold and distant with her. She was there to finally take revenge and kill him. If that was all true, I just cannot imagine how painful it was for Miyun. If a man cannot be a father to his own child, there is nothing worse than that.
 
But, Damaschini didn’t seem like that at all. Even though he was attacked by Miyun and her schytes, he did not really flinch. He didn’t even try to fight Miyun’s accusations, he just agreed with them. Basically, he did anything he could to bring his child back home. I just didn’t really understand what happened between those two. If Damaschini loved Miyun so much, then why did Miyun have all those feelings? Either way, all I could think bad then was how tragic this whole fight was. Miyun’s attacks started to get very aggressive, giving her best to cut Damaschini down as fast as possible. Damaschini in return was defending as much as possible without hurting Miyun. I know that none of them wanted to kill each other, not truly at least. They were family above all, and they loved each other. Why wouldXantiny a ruin such a thing? Does she not have a family of her own? You could see Miyun, sometimes hesitating for a brief second. But that twisted dammed xenatine would not let her give up, it was corrupting her soul. At some point Tallion wanted to interfere and Miyun saw her. With an amazing force she began running towards him preparing to cut his throat. I did not mean to have anything to do with this fight, but I did not want to see Tallion die, so I tired to throw him out of the way, while Bart tried to move the earth to stop Miyun. But that girl was fast, and she jumped over us, going for a straight attack on Eve. I imagine Eve was hit pretty hard but she had to take the hit. Otherwise, Lullaby would have been hurt. The others started to shoot at Miyun, but none of them managed to hit her. Thankfully.
 
In the end, Damaschini managed to break Miyuns schytes and hug his little girl. But Miyun did not look fine at all. She collapsed the very next second and hasn’t been awaken ever since. I don’t know exactly why, but as Eve said, the Xenatine was consuming her lifeforce. I was a bit relieved the fight was over. But to be fair, I don’t know what will happen next. Something about this whole situation seems a bit off to me. Until a few weeks ago, Miyun was right near Xantinya. There is no way Xantinya would have let her go that easily just to come and kill Damaschini. It is not that simple. Why would Xantinya have an interest in that? She said it through Miyun’s words “you are nothing to me”. I do fear, that Miyun was sent here on purpose. She might not want to hurt us but that xenatine sure does. I do not want to blame Miyun or doubt her, but I do not know if we should let our guards down for now. Especially because, Lullaby might be the target or maybe even Eve because she is trying to help Lullaby. Or Maybe I am becoming a bit paranoid. Nonetheless, I should pay a bit of attention
 
You might think, dear diary ,that after the fight we have returned in our chest. That didn’t happen. Remember what I told you earlier about that trap. We were right! Also remember those Orshag Stoa that I thought could not be beaten. Some of them were laying dead on the floor behind us. There goes the “strongest mutations in this galaxy”. Now, you want to guess who was behind this trap? None other than Nixie’s TOLIET GIRL. As bad as it was, you must admit, dear diary, the situation was hilarious. We were nothing but fools. WHY DID WE NOT THINK OF THAT? It was almost obvious. It appears that our toilet girl is a dedicated fan of the commonwealth. I swear I didn’t think I would find someone more brainwashed than Zarkuz. Anyways, it seems that they have used Miyun as a bait to lure us here and catch us. We were now surrounded, with no escape and no way to contact the Orshags. The toilet girl and her friends gave us some gas to fall asleep and then we woke up in the empty room I am writing from right now.
 
I am not going to lie, I do not like the Toilet Girl. This commonwealth just won’t let it go already. Their persistence is very annoying. Why can’t they understand it is not their power that will keep us under control?? Is it that so hard to see that they could have saved all of us a lot of energy if they tried to at least talk with us? We would have made it to the Prime Zeith and they would have had us under observation all the time. They had a lot of chances. After the police meeting, when they met Nixie in the bar, any of the day they followed us. But why try to talk with us when it’s so much easier to fake a death and then follow “the mutations” for two weeks!!! You know, it was Alidag’s politeness and manners that brought us in the Orshag. Hmmm who would have guessed that some strangers need some help in a whole new dimension they got in? Seems very obvious to me. Anyways, as much as I am eager now to make that Zidith stop working so the Orshags can attack, I do not want to think all the people in the common wealth are like this. It is absolutely impossible.
 
We need to escape from wherever we are as soon as possible. If we make it to the space, it will takes us weeks to land again. And the world does not wait for that long.
 
May the Almighty protect us and the world. And may he never let other families be destroyed again.