Enneth

"Entwined paths may never break" - old Ionolian saying
 
Dear journal,
 
Not too many days have passed since I last wrote here and I already feel my hand heavy with thoughts to put on paper. It's been... quite intense. I am currently sitting on a porch in the middle of the loveliest town I've ever seen.
 
But let's go back a little, I don't want to lose myself again in mumbles without direction. One day I'd like to be able to read this again and understand whatever I was doing, without having to cross-read seventeen pages in order to understand the simple order of things, hah!
 
Or maybe read this to grandc... Actually, no. Maybe after some tweaks.
 
So we were heading in a hurry towards Enneth, with Xixi as the newest addition to our already eclectic crew. The winds were favourable, and we approached an island called Pritis. Since it was such a nice day, we had to have our together-training, which was as animated as ever. I wasn't really in the mood (I know, I never REALLY am), because I kept thinking about our poor Drenizek, who had just wanted to leave us in a small boat to die. I remember Heron telling him he's a coward for trying to run, but I don't think he wants to run. I don't know. I usually never cared very much for people around me that were not particularly close to me (I know, I'm a monster), but I think I'm starting to learn to human, so there you go. I was really upset. I knew there was nothing left but head to Enneth, but I had seen that man, he had so many things in him, so many thoughts, all very powerful and mostly destructive, I'm afraid he may yet die...
 
Fortunately, I didn't have to really get involved in this together training, I'm not sure they even noticed they skipped me, haha. They talked about how we were going to deal with the Enneth Elves. Pullius even decided to beat his own records of ineptitude and told Nixie he's worried the Enneth Elves will not believe Nixie is an Elf at all.... I mean, how much can you ruin someone's day, on something so dumb, no less? I will not let him slip such stupidities about Nixie again, the Magic-Oafling (read: Orc who looks like a human and spews magic).
But something else happened. Verfy grabbed Nixie by her neck when our captain was reading instead of togethertrainering. And Bart said something along the lines of "that's a sexy image". And I got so red I could've beaten Verfy in a redness contest. I was petty with him for five minutes or so until Verfy whispered to me that Bart probably thought of me and him in that particular position.
 
I must say I'm a little dumb. But I also figured that I'm a jealous person. I wasn't. Go figure. Jealous-Eve is also immensly petty and passive. If Bart actually got to know another woman that might like him, she could steal him away from me in no time, I'd be too busy cooking up one-liners to even notice she's actually doing it. God. Keep your man, idiot!
 
It's funny, how little things like these remind me how pathetic we are, and that's actually better. We shouldn't take ourselves too seriously. I actually felt better after that. Nothing related to the together training. Or wait, actually there was something that helped: I heard Nixie say she's feeling better. Given the Drenizek situation, that really made me glad. As I said in my letter, I know our captain is strong and has her own pace in things, and I'd trust her more with holding hope than me, I mean, read the above..
 
Bart, however, was quite sad. In the together-training he said he's tired and quite annoyed, I saw him, he was really feeling bad, probably starting to think too much at where we were and what we were doing. Probably he doesn't have funny pathetic thoughts like Nutcase-Eve here. I wonder, though. Was he ever jealous? I really want to know now. hehe.
 
Going back to serious stuff, Bart was really down, so I told him to take a day off from thoughts and activities. Just lie in bed with me. We had a gorgeous afternoon. He slept like a baby in my lap for a while, as I read through my rune book (I started engraving new runes, I can barely wait to use them). Then I gave him a massage I felt was really great, since he tried to talk to me at first but then fell asleep with a big ol' smile on his face. I even had fun biting his ears while he was sleeping, shush. I mean, he probably knows. Ups. After that he woke up feeling very very fine.
 
Well, the next day started a bit rough. Nixie woke us up saying Drenizek dreamt of the demon that haunted Talion, the one someone dubbed Marcel (I suspect it was Nixie, but I can't remember exactly). Anyway, Marcel came into Drenizek's dream and showed him he was gonna come after Nixie after that. I must say, Marcel sounds like a more refined demon than Pullius' older friend. But demonology aside, it pierced my heart to hear it. I know Drenizek carries a lot on his shoulders right now. We decided we should try to ignore Marcel's ominous presence and focus on getting Drenizek safely home. They wanted to talk to him but I convinced them not to. It wasn't a good idea to come and show, again, how worried they were. Drenizek would have hated it. It's not pride. He thinks he can protect us from his own hardships... He should've wised up by now, this ship shares a lot of feelings. And information...... HERON........
 
Drenizek was still fighting, so we had to give it our all. The next day we did not stop, we decided to sail all the way to Enneth without stopping, until we reached it. It was easy enough during the day, but when night came, we were tired. I did not want to go to sleep, even if I'm useless on deck. I figured someone had to transmit orders, so I stayed around Xebec and Nixie and Dillen. But then...
 
The night was particularly unfriendly. I mean, cold, coarse. Winds were ominously blowing from a rocky island we were sailing past. No one heard or saw anything, but suddenly.... uh, I can't write. I actually saw it and I can never not see it. Poor Gerki fell from his crow's nest, slashed to pieces.... We rushed inside, because we all knew what had happened. The fabled nightgaunts were there...
 
I didn't get to see one, thank God. We barricaded inside, then Pullius blasted them with a purge of arcanic fire, not before hitting his head on his fast spinning staff. Ish.
 
The next morning, we were scared, tired, sad and drained all over. We gave Gerki a burial at sea, like we did for so many others... He made his mistakes, but he was one of us. And now he was gone, just like that... No one could've defended him. He died in the blink of an eye, probably. At least he didn't suffer too much, I hope....
 
Fleeting, life on our boat. Our ranks grow thinner. It's not easier.
 
That morning, we finally arrived in Enneth. I don't even know where to start describing it. It was... a sunrise of hope, a place both new and old. Beautiful, almost like a beautiful ray of light over a dark grove, a ray that could vanish any time. And the monument of Enneth... That huge leaf made of rocks, which sustain actual plants, actual flowers, growing right out of it!!!
 
A little bit of the Fountain lives in here. A little bit of that old world of the Elven King.
 
We were met by Elves, very serious, stern-looking elves dressed in flax clothes. The Elves were very hospitable, but cold and distant, like far away stones of an old ruined city. Which they might as well be. I think that's how they feel, at least. They immediately took Drenizek away, to tend to his disease. I wanted to see how, but realized I couldn't follow those mysterious, ageless Elven curers.
 
We got a night to ourselves, and it was actually quite nice. We were all a little tense, as we had to talk to the council, but especially because while we were talking and eating and drinking Drenizek was fighting for his life. I kept my wine for him, and Nixie and Verfy did the same <3
 
Bart told me that night that it was our anniversary, one month since you know we are together. I felt a little stupid for not even realising it. Then it hit me: one month? Wow. It felt longer. I mean, so many feelings condensed into one month? This journey really transfigured all of us, everything is happening much faster, but also much truer. I feel my love for Bart to be stronger than one month's worth of feelings. Heh.
 
That night, I slept a little better. I prayed for good omens the next day.
 
And then... yes, the Council. We had to present our plan. I'll spare you the details, but it was a mess. Nixie talked for us, in front of this council of 12 wise elves, who clearly weren't amused in the slightest by our bickering amongst ourselves, our focus on whatever human threats existed and on Pullius' propensity to prevent any one of the 12 wise elves from speaking before his holy voice could be heard. Probably learned this tactic in the Rhetoric class. Good no one asked ME something, though. Verfy did have a very inspiring intervention, our bum-bum girl knew how to phrase our situation. She said that like the Elves fend off the nightgaunts we are trying to do the same to the entire world, protect it from shadows. Simple, yet effective.
 
Then, they called us one by one, to talk to us separately. We were trying to convince them to join the common front against the undead and the fight against Xantinya, mind you. And the Elves were understandably uninterested. Their world was mostly dead already, and they felt that there was little left to succeed or do. But maybe we could convince them by just being ourselves. Maybe we could become, I don't know... friends?
 
They were actually friendlier when I was alone with them and we talked about me and my parents and my home. I told them about father, and Pullius, and the bickering puffy whores back in Marion. And the stream, and the glades, and all the beautiful books I read. I even asked them about their provenance. They were hunters, fishermen, soothsayers, wanderers, explorers. All of them had simple, quick and pure answers. These Elves were awestriking.
 
Now, we are waiting. For Drenizek to beat his disease. For the Council to decide whether they will join the forces of Good or stay behind. The Elves must join the humans, lest we all die... I know that, I feel that. I'm not worried for either outcome, not too worried. Entwined paths may never break.
 
May the Almighty save Drenizek and guide us all together against Evil.