9.I. Hate. Lightnings.

Dear diary,
 
The repairs are going soundly. We barely got enough money to pay for all the materials. Luckily Eve (of course) knew about a wizard's lair somewhere inside some abandoned mines on the Vazakis Island. Having mostly nothing left to do, except for listening to my beautiful songs from time to time, we decided to embark on a merchant's ship towards Vazakis and plunder this wizard's lair. Eve told us that this wizard settled there, in the abandoned mines, to let loose his imagination and conduct his experiments. He apparently worked for a warlock, who wanted to become the king of all warlocks. That gave us a hint at the sort of experiments this wizard would have done. Nonetheless we were in desperate need of money so we went on. After arriving on the island with nothing more than a few days supply of food and water we started to gather the necessary stuff to make ourselves some torches for the caves. Eve encouraged me to go sing my way into an inn and into the people's kindness and generosity to procure some alcohol. I immediately was on board with the idea as she said she would be very disappointed in me if I failed. Naturally I gave my best and came back with a jug of some strong, nice smelling drink. I tasted it and it was amazing. I wonder if it was made out of peaches. That would have been such a fitting coincid... BART!
 
After my successful endeavor I found everybody gathered with the rest of whatever we needed. We didn't have any cloth though. Eve decided to rip her shirt and use it for the torches, therefore leaving me speechless in the middle of the road. After I regained consciousness, we still needed cloth and I tried to stop Eve from ripping apart more of her clothes. She told me to turn around and at first I didn't know what was that for, but I quickly found out when she ripped my shirt off for another torch. I must say I was about to scream. That was my favorite shirt. I got over that eventually. After we got some more cloth through some illicit methods we finished making 6 torches (as a matter of fact, after the fact, only the 2 torches made out of Eve's and my shirt lasted a significant amount of time).
 
And so we started heading towards the mine. We found 5 entrances and we randomly picked one. Inside this intricate and abandoned mine we found a number of runes connected to an orb filled with magical energy. At the base of the orbs there were either a ruby or a sapphire. Apparently these precious stones have opposing properties when put in a magical contraption. This conclusion was the collective struggle of all of us. The runes were very complicated and long. Talion didn't seem to know much about them. But through some painful experimenting we uncovered the way those runes work. Looks like these were some kind of regenerative rune, which I found completely fascinating. Apart from throwing huge amounts of electricity whenever you hit them, they had some sort of mechanism. The runes were always in pairs, opposing pairs. That kept them activated, and whatever they were connected to, powered. Along the mine, in our struggle to study and map the insides we were met with quite a lot of dangers. Falling ceilings, rocks, bottomless pits, lack of air, etc. We decided to go around the caves in some carts, Eve's idea. I wanted to sit with her, but just as I was approaching her cart, Talion jumped in without hesitation or without asking. I conceded that fight and went with Verfy and Nixie. At some point we almost got crushed by an entire wall of rocks. Our cart survived thanks to Nixie's spells, but Eve's got buried into the rocks. Luckily Heron managed to keep them safe. I own him a lot for keeping Eve safe. He knows I care for her.
 
After several more traps we finally managed to find a way to work those runes. Talion somehow managed to carve a rune backwards. Now, I don't know much about runes but how do you do that?!?!? Eve literally got into a coma because of that. God give me strength, please. Just how much is he planning on fucking her life? To the point of ending it, it seems. After we rested a little and gathered our strength, we solved the runes puzzle and went on discovering more of the wizard's lair. We found some gold, a nice necklace that everybody agreed it fits me best, and a gavan rune book that Eve took. We then found the wizard's main room where an orb was placed. We noticed a lot of holes in the walls. We found a journal with lots of scribble in it. We concluded these holes were for electrified dead rats, covered in runes. So Verfy had the bright idea to not use any magic. Which Talion ignored instantly. Obviously the orb went off and activated these rats which came towards us in unbelievable numbers. After we grabbed the orb, Verfy made a run for the exit and cleared a path for us, sacrificing herself for us. Me and Eve carried her out when we got out of the room. Nixie then sealed the door with some earth magic using that beautiful staff she has. Eve barely woke up from her coma when I asked her to help me carry Verfy.
 
Not to forget, before that huge room we had to fight of some kind of electric singularity made by magic. On the walls of the hall guarding the main room, there were a set of 3 colored circles. On one side red, the other blue. Electricity went from one to another. Eve had the bright idea of connecting the blue circles to one another using my rapier, therefore short-circuiting the system and damaging it. She immediately fell, being fried from all the electricity that went through her. After that, I went and picked her up and got her out of there while Verfy, Heron and Nixie did the same thing as Eve. It worked wonders. I was so proud of us and mostly her. We worked together like a team. Everybody pitched in, even Talion did something. He shielded us from some of the damage he did himself. So I guess, thank you? Eve is very courageous. I must step up my game. I can't let her be alone like this.
 
We got out eventually, mostly burned and tired, but alive. Two days have passed since we went in the mines. We discovered almost all of the mine system. While we slept I dreamed about Eve. No, dear diary, nothing in that way. We were just walking and talking. I feel lucky. The next morning we bought passage on a merchant's ship to Gessen to return to our crew and ship. Time to resume our journey, I guess.
 
I hate lightnings...