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Sun 27th Apr 2025 03:17

Journal Entry #82: Patience and Grace

by Aniks Aliforn

The world was frozen as Time's Thief, obviously now with our Lantern. A prize won from the Scribe of Time said to cleanse the corruption from this specific shard'sShard's influence. While we counted our number between the frozen moments. Another walked between the saved members of the ball. A skeleton. Well, someone dressed as a skeleton.
 
Keema Aiken, Captain of the Guard and champion of Ragathiel. A tall woman clad in scarlet armor trimmed in gold. Scarlet hair was the color of fire, tied in a high ponytail, and she appeared human, but truthfully, I had asked, and she wouldn't tell me. From our few interactions, she has a terrible poker face and likes to keep it private. Can't fault her for it, but I will write later. Sometimes, Keema will stick to her story despite evidence that is contrary.
 
We explained the reasons behind our arrival, including the budding bromance that Azyel and Tarik were built on lies. After a long moment of debate, we wanted to cleanse Tarik and Keema of the shards' influence. A lantern that we've never tested, so it was understandable that the duo was skeptical. The compromise was that Keema would hold her sword to my throat while I held the Lantern and shined the light on Tarik.
Tarik started vomiting as soon as the pale blue light touched him. Retching up black inky bile wasn't a strong start to our claim. I felt the cold metal against my neck upon Tarik falling to the ground, coughing up the last corruption. Then came Keema, which was a bit less jarring. On the count of the natural resistances a champion has against shardic influences.
 
We have proven our point, though some trusts were shattered for a while. Once that was done and settled, time eventually began to flow again. I will never understand the flow of time and how that works.
 
Tarik was told to avoid the water and took civilians who had survived to the surface. As Keema would stay with us, I still figured it was sole to watch us if we were assassins.
 
Following the Divine Queen's path out in the cliffs, we found a different room—a dining room of sorts. Masks were everywhere, food lay on the dining table, and presents lay on the table for the soon-to-be mother. There was even a large pile of gold on one side of the room and bloody footprints leading to a door. Wonderful.
 
It looked like some sort of struggle, which didn't bode well.
 
I am not going into detail about what was found in this room or the reasons for the footprint. We saw what happened through a magical lens that was left on the dining table. There is a surprising amount of things I cannot mention that happened.Gods, the amount of things I choose to keep secret in these pages. I am so tired of secrets. I understand their need, but when we're so wrapped in secrets and bound in pacts, what can we truly say?
 
Kraia was with us. Which was always great.
 
Something I can speak about is what we saw through the lens of the doll house and a blank book. One of the many gifts Princess Chandna was given.
 
Through the lens, a story was told of two blue and green people. Each room depicted another scene of their lives—small fragments of important moments for two members of the Shard—two partners. They loved each other. Then another shard entered the dioramas, black and orange spikes tearing through the green figure—a moment from more recent times.
 
A moment where we had been involved and saw with our very eyes.

The Spirit Blade consuming the Gem of Life. Kazric stabbed the insanely large green gem and caused these two beings to slam together. They fused their essences together and were sent to the void, while we went saved and sent on a quest to deal with the rest.
 
Thinking about it now, we are partially responsible for the Lament. My feelings on that are mixed at best, but they feel distant.
 
There are many people who can be blamed, and even we are responsible despite my feelings of cleaning up the gods' mess from a war that was meant to be over years ago.
 
At the moment, the only feelings I have are guilt for what we did, the gem of life, and understanding why Grace hates us.
 
While the motives of gods and divine beings can be mysterious, there was something so pure in the anger as I read Grace's words in a book. Through the lens, I read, "Aniks Alas'thil, Your goddess, should have left you in the boneyard."
 
This wasn't just another shard for us, it was personal for them. They knew us and what we had done to their partner.
 
Gods, everything has gotten so complicated.
 
Speaking of complicated things, I mentioned the footsteps walking away from this dining room toward the stairs that lead up to large double doors. Given that, we searched the dining room as much as we could. Collectively, we went to the door and opened it. To see the Divine Queen of Shiar and a small child on her lap. Who we all knew, just not this version of the snow elf.
 
The child remained silent as the Divine Queen's fingers were wrapped around the back of Azsire's neck. I would like to say our conversation with the Queen was pleasant. It was one not, like many people who claim divinity. There is a certain level of arrogance tied to it. We had attempted to explain what was happening with the Shard and the corruption that came with the food. The key would be attempted. Our words fell on deaf ears. Clearly, she knew best for her kingdom and her daughter, and what to do about this child she had with her. Granted, I can admit to a certain level of respect for how effectively the country is run and seen at a surface level. However, given the role she plays in her kingdom, not only as their Queen but as a judge and executioner. She holds an extreme amount of power. It appears that the Divine Queen had set herself to something akin to a cult leader.
 
I do not like this Queen. Am I biased, yes? However, anyone who regularly traps souls cannot see eye to eye.
 
Azyel clapped his hands together, saying.
 
"Well, seems like we're not getting Azsire back." Then proceeded to leave out the door and shut it.
 
Never a great sign…Though I have to admit. There was a bit of cleverness at this outburst of the Archer giving up on the child.
 
A few of the Lost Ones woven magic together to stop time, having Celuriel do a fair bit of the heavy lifting to ensure the length of the time stop was increased and that Azyel brought in more people. How Azyel was able to temporarily cast that spell is concerning, but then was not the time to consider it. I believe I was him casting it from a scroll.
 
Also, extending the length of a time stop is a weird thing to write as it implies that stopped time can be longer. Again, I am not a temporal person. I should ask Celu about this. She tried to explain it to me once, but I never fully understood it. Granted, I hadn't grown up as an oracle who could manipulate time.
 
We decided to act quickly, knowing that the Queen was likely heavily influenced by the corruption of the Shard. We took our new artifact and planned on using it on the Queen at the stop time. We would shine the light on the Divine Queen while the others carefully extracted the baby Azsire from the Queen's grasp. Returning to the room, several of us raced to the throne the Divine Queen sat upon.
 
It had almost gone to plan.
 
Like many plans dealing with the shards, some things cannot always be predicted. While Azsire was safely in the hands of Talinde and Burdyr. When the Divine Queen was hit with the Lantern, light flashed.
 
She burst into light.
 
We had not expected that.
 
Having noticed that this wasn't the typical response to a dead body around the Shard. Dissolving into some black matter and being absorbed into the Shard. I figured this was not the last time we would see the Divine Queen, and she was saved by the Shard. We decided to rest in the dining room.

Celuriel has finally gone to bed as I write this. She's been slowly drifting off to sleep after manipulating time to this degree, allowing us to rest in this stopped time.

Continue reading...

  1. Journal #1: Welcome back to the land of the living.
  2. Journal #2: The Gods speak to us, sort of.
  3. Journal #3: Magic is kinda bullshit, stay away from Licia.
  4. Journal #4: The Prince is not a Prick.
  5. Journal #5: Introduction of Celuriel
  6. Journal #6: Everybody loves the bar.
  7. Journal #7: Getting to know the vampire.
  8. Journal #8: The Vetala [Text Roleplay]
  9. Journal #9: Undria
  10. Journal #10: We adopt or kidnap a child, still unclear on this one.
  11. Journal #11: Mirror World
  12. Journal #12: Recovery from the world.
  13. Journal #13: Dancing with Vampire and Political Problems.
  14. Journal #14: About Sir Pennswaggle
  15. Journal #15: This Temple is Odd
  16. Journal #16: The Half Elf Liese
  17. Journal #17: Warning Ashlyn did not help her.
  18. Journal #18: Priestess with the Silver Orbs
  19. Journal #19: Celu is reading romantic books.
  20. Journal #20: Demons, Dungeons, and Dragons OH MY!
  21. Journal #21: Regrets.
  22. Journal #22: Demon's Champion [Text Roleplay]
  23. Journal #23: Homecoming
  24. Journal #24: Castle Umbra and their Bloodwalker.
  25. Journal #23: The Grand Game
  26. Journal #26: All magic comes at a cost.
  27. Journal #27 The capital and asking for diplomatic immunity.
  28. Journal #28: Teaching Celu Undercommon
  29. Journal #29: Pray to Fate
  30. Journal #30: Mistakes we're made, Surprisingly it wasn't my fault this time.
  31. Journal #31: Why am I Orpheus?
  32. Journal #33: The 'safe' return of Eurydice
  33. Journal #32: Back from hell [Text Roleplay]
  34. Journal #35: Fey Friends.
  35. Journal #36: Life before The Lost Ones
  36. Journal #34: Her thoughts on life. [Text Roleplay]
  37. Journal #37: Departure
  38. Journal #39: The Apology [Text Roleplay]
  39. Journal #38: Black Marble floors and apologizes
  40. Journal #40: The Lost's One's Save Christmas; what's Christmas again?
  41. Journal #41: The Elder Sister [Text Roleplay]
  42. Journal #42: Dear Niks
  43. Journal #43: Family Matters
  44. Journal #44: The Samsaran and Her Dreamers [Text Roleplay]
  45. Journal #45: 3 Years well spent.
  46. Journal #46: Emperor Aneirin of Aletheia
  47. Journal #47: Matron Nivinle Alas'thil [Text Roleplay]
  48. Journal #48: Not Alone
  49. Journal #49: The Dark Spire [Text Roleplay]
  50. Journal #50: Death's Champion
  51. Journal #51: Desk Duty of the Spire [Text Roleplay on going]
  52. Journal #52: Longest Four Days of Our Lives
  53. Journal #53: Stolen Book [Text Roleplay]
  54. Journal #54: Basics to Necromancy, why is this even a book.
  55. Journal #55: Soul to Soul Talk [Text Roleplay]
  56. Journal #56: Gold is not what King’s Envy
  57. Journal #57: The Trail of the Sapphire Shrine
  58. Journal #58: The sign says it all
  59. Journal #59: The oldest sister
  60. Journal #60: A bartender once again.
  61. Journal #61: The Dreamcatcher
  62. Journal #62: Discussion and a price that will be payed.
  63. Journal #63: The Five Stages
  64. Journal #64: Ring of Amethyst and Diamond
  65. Journal #65: Clash of Ideals
  66. Journal #66: A Friend and A Story
  67. Journal #67: The Nature of the Shards
  68. Journal #68: Return of Black Marble [Text Roleplay]
  69. Journal #69: Broken and Forgotten Shades
  70. Journal #70: Forging Bonds
  71. Journal #71: The Haunted Fey Mansion
  72. Journal #72: Another Shard
  73. Journal #73: Dancing with Demons in the pale morning light
  74. Journal #74: The Succubus's Ultimatum
  75. Journal #75: The City of Twin Souls
  76. Journal #76: The Worry of a Barkeep.
  77. Journal #77: Have a Little Hope.
  78. Journal #78: Dreamwalker Jinne [Text Roleplay]
  79. Journal Entry #79: Maskerade in Masdarat
  80. Journal Entry #80: Gods of Time
  81. Journal Entry #81: Scribe of Time [Text Rp]
  82. Journal Entry #82: Patience and Grace
  83. Journal Entry #83: Between Stopped Time [Text RP]
  84. Journal Entry #84: Teaching Moments
  85. Journal Entry #85: The child from Jatta [Text RP]
  86. Journal Entry #86: Fused and Strange Deals
  87. Journal Entry #87: Hell [Text RP]
  88. Journal Entry#88: The Measure of a Life
  89. Journal Entry #89: Judgement
  90. Journal Entry #90: Terra Arcana and Memories of the Lost
  91. Journal Entry #91:  Shepard’s Champion & The Way
  92. Journal Entry #92: Goth Club & Whiskey
  93. Journal Entry #93: Shard of Grace
  94. Journal Entry #94: Dreamcatcher's Telepathic Bond [Text Roleplay]
  95. Journal Entry#95: Homebound
  96. Journal Entry #96: A spot of rest [Text Roleplay]
  97. Journal Entry #97: Heavenbound
  98. Journal Entry #98: Trek through the planes
  99. Journal Entry #99: Relaxing in Ironfalls

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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.045 © 2017-2025 [] | Anvil Time: 14:49, Aug 5 2025