Taala

There was a merry feast at the hall organized by the new Captain and I must say I rather enjoyed it. I rather liked the look of the new quartermaster I must say but the wedding band upon her finger soon put to bed any notions that I might be having about making the evening any more merry afterwards. Still, she was a welcome sight compared to the hulking brutes which sat nearest to me and I remember there being much mead and an exquisite boar. Perhaps I should have asked this woman to cater for my own feast to come?

I suppose you are half-expecting to read that there has been another significant jump in time given the content of the last page but I must dissappoint you. I am here in my study, quill in hand.

What have I gone and done? It is as if all sanity left me, took on a form of it's own and uttered the words I have so carefully tried to conceal. It was as if I were on the outside, watching this unfold through a window, time slowed, agonizingly slow, and I hammered my fists upon thickened glass, trying to break through and stop the madness that was unraveling afore me. What was I thinking of? What possessed me?

The wisdom the Dalesman had shared with me played on my mind for days. I had left his house both disappointed with the fact he would not intervene and ask Taala to change her mind about letting me attend their post wedding celebration. I was also utterly disappointed with myself, even Eroforth seemed to detect that I was growing ever more attached to my childhood friend. We were not children any more, but men and women who had both seen our fair share of trials and tribulations, and I was becoming more and more moved by his.

Despite my best efforts, my disappointment at being excluded from Taala and Eroforth's wedding feast still occupied my thoughts. What had I done to deserve this? ah, she is a cold one that Taala, but her husband is not. I do not claim to know him well, but I liked him instantly the first time I met him, and this was what? Perhaps the third time I'd met him?

My intent to leave our relationship in the past did not go so well. I did call upon the Variag after a chance encounter in the Inn and I awoke in a strange bed. Since she put to voice my fears through observation I find my desire to retreat grow stronger. I have been spending my days simply surveying my operation and keeping a closer eye upon my guardsmen and caravan drivers as they make their local shipments and me turning up unannounced as I have without warning seems to have forced them to up their game.

Left to the sands at such a young age as the Variag describes it, abandoned by her mother whom her master later bid her to murder in order to prove her worth and her loyalty. It is perhaps unsurprising that the dark skinned beauty I have come to know is so cold. Unfeeling. And yet sympathy stays my blade. I have for long enough in the past played judge, jury and executioner when the darkness took me. At first hunting down individuals myself. Then in the hiring of a murderer I thought I could control when my face had begun to be too well known to do so effectively.

I was told by Taala that Seaver is upset with me. His reasons, I have not been by to see him. Aye, for some time after I met Aeruthuil (Aeru) I chose to not go around him. Is that not what most women do when they discover love?

The day had started off so well. As well as could be expected given a man crossing paths with a former lover. So gifted in the deadly art of ending men's lives. Especially as I did wonder whether or not it was she desired my death. Given the hasty severing of ties with the Firefly whom we both once called friend. She threatened my life if I should hurt her, as I recall. But even as this was a surprise to me I'd achieved my aims of finding what I was looking for. Another job crossed off my list.