Aria’s Journal 5/28

[000Curiosity]

Death has been on my mind lately, and change. I came so close to death. Death is not what I thought it once was. When I was younger death was respite, a way to escape what was plaguing me. Now I know death is not calming, not a final slumber, but terrifying. My left arm and leg were eaten by what they call The Horde. First came the adrenaline, the rush of the primal urge to run and fight and freeze came over me in an instant. But what good was it? I lost half my of body. I couldn’t run or fight so the adrenaline went straight to my head. In a flurry of thoughts there was a common theme, remembrance. What would my parents think of me? Would they sneer and snark at my lack of skills that got me into this mess? How would the community remember me? They are all so unique, and nice to me. Would they give me a proper funeral? Or would I just be thrown in the bonfire that night? Would I see Daisy again in the afterlife? Fortunately I was saved by Alisandra and a couple of healing potions. The others managed to defeat them while I was in a protective barrier with many, many others. We barely survived the attack. Beforehand the DeJardin set fire to Haven’s town hall, tavern, and our school. Not only that we had to fight the arsonists while putting out the fires. We are in it now. The DeJardin have declared war on us, well more so the whole area not us specifically but at this rate it might as well just be us.
So obviously the summit didn’t go well. Lady… Gelè?? I don’t know how to spell her name nor do I care, so for the rest of this journal entry I shall be using any word that vaguely sounds like her name, she doesn’t deserve correct spelling nor my time of day. So Lady Gelatin had a huge list of demands that were pretty much impossible and were meant to be so, so that she could have reason to declare war. I can’t remember all of them but she wanted all portal folks and Beastfolk out, independence from, everyone? Including the order, and like 5000 gold pieces. Which is insane! The Jernigan’s were willing to negotiate while the Royce’s were like, “no”. Yeah btw the Jernigan’s are also in the war against us which is grreeaattt. Ok but legit after all that the rebel leader from DeJardin came in and I was not expecting that. Lady Generally tried to kill him with two daggers which she bribed the guard to let her bring it. Luckily we stopped her and she wasn’t even in trouble for doing so, rich privileges. Or nobility privileges. Probably both. The rebel leader told his tale of the oppression taking place in DeJardin territory.
Then came the sad part of the people from the order who were kicked out. The story that Rebecca told really got to me, she was kicked out and had to leave behind and entire orphanage of children. Now that war is declared and the borders are closed, I worry those children might be dead. Or even worse test subjects. For you see the DeJardin are culling for the Horde. Only portal folk can get it apparently, and it’s not a spreadable disease, more of a, genetic condition. The current theory is that since this world is much lower in magic (which sucks I miss using illusions), the people who come from portals that can get it were sustained by the higher level of magic in their original worlds. When they came here there wasn’t enough magic to sustain their hunger and eventually they became part of The Horde. I don’t think I have it, if I did I probably would have already become one, but I know what I’ll have nightmares about tonight.
We ended up talking to one of the corpses to see what we could find out about what the DeJardin are doing. Her name was Eufie. She was a halfling and came into town on the first day claiming to be hungry. Eventually she came back and brought an entire hoard of The Horde with her along side people who when helped exploded. As stated previously we eventually defeated them but not without great damage dealt to ourselves, but to the town. Before the third and final question could be asked I asked Raine if he could tell her I was sorry. I don’t know why I got so emotional. But I just started bawling and wailed I’m sorry. Somehow the corpse started to cry as well. I truly hope she knows I am heartbroken over what happened to her.
Im very tired now. This weekend was emotionally and physically draining. We’re heading back to our newly named town now. I’m going to take a nap, hopefully with no nightmares. Wish me luck

[Author]

Posts