Thoughts from the Otherworld

 
 
I think our hunting trip aiming to take down cockatrices in Meriphataud Mountains did not go too well even after we had managed to find out their general location from other people who had hunted them before. Those particular beasts seem to be more than a little rare, and both I and Kii Kalira were more than a little frustrated about aimlessly wandering about the right area, trying to find even one. I do think, however, that for Kii Kalira it was somewhat more frustrating than it was for me. After more than half a day of futilely trying to track down one of these beasts, she at one point started shouting whatever came to her mind, saying she was trying to attract cockatrices.
...I do not know if her preposterous words worked or if it was a mere coincidence, but afterwards we did manage to find several nesting on a cliff. Several was all we needed, although taking them down proved to be a bit more arduous task than we thought beforehands. Cockatrices are known for their ability to petrify anyone who looks at them for too long, and while we were prepared for this, it did present trouble. Nevertheless, we did manage to take them down and obtained quite a few feathers to sell in Windurst. They use them to decorate hats there, and the going price was worth the little hunting I think.

Once we had reached Windurst Kii Kalira received summons to the Heavens Tower for a mission from her country. It has been a while since her last summons, and this time her mission proved to be unexpectedly important, not to mention hard to complete in practice. Kii Kalira wasn't too clear on the details, but from what I gathered it was to strengthen some seal put on Castle Zvahl. The location of the seal is close by, in the underground maze of the Horutoto Ruins, so at first we thought this to be a walk-in walk-out type of mission. However, turns out that there is a gate difficult to open on the way to the location of the seal. Before the gate there are magic glyphs on the floor, and to open it you must either have an unlocking charm, or three mages, one of every major school of magic, standing upon the glyphs and channeling their energy into it. While we naturally had both white and red magic covered, this left us in want of a black mage. Thankfully a friend of Kii Kalira's was present in Windurst and was willing to help us out, thus letting us into this deeper part of the ruins. The process of unlocking the gate was surprisingly impressive. I wonder what is behind the locked doors behind this gate? We could not access all the areas there, and neither did we have time to look around much.
The area was full of skeleton-type undead. I suppose this was to be expected, but what we weren't prepared for was the relative strength of these ones. Who knows how long they had been there, fighting against each other, gathering strength to assault the next person to enter... After some struggling, Kii Kalira did manage to follow her orders, and we warped back out to Windurst once done. She intend to now acquire the charm required to open the gate without the presence of three mages of different schools, and is rather annoyed that the person who gave her the mission didn't give it out for free to her when she received the mission.
 
 

The end of the winter is drawing near. The Doll Festival preparations came and went, and the day itself is almost gone now. Time generally passes slowly during the winters, but the feastdays go by fast. This year's Doll Festival we spent in Windurst, and it was certainly surprising, but not in a good way. I started thinking about the nature of the day. It is, after all a festival for girls, so I asked Kii Kalira if she wouldn't rather spend it with her sister. The answer I received was that her sister died some time before I arrived to Windurst last year. I have to admit to being more than a little surprised. She hadn't said a word to me of it before, and although she certainly doesn't need to, it still leaves me wondering. Why wouldn't she mention something like this? She must have been devastated by her loss when I so presumingly whisked her away from Windurst along with me. I wonder if this loss doesn't explain some of the differences I've noticed from how she was before.
I am not sure why, but she bought me a Windurst-made bonbori lantern some time after. I had been admiring them, but that doesn't mean she would have to buy one for me. I have to confess to being confused.

Earlier in the day I met a strange mithra. It isn't entirely polite to say so, but for some reason I seem to meet many of them. This one told me to fetch her a suitable stone for Rarab's Tail hostelry's famous pickles. It is strange though, she didn't appear to be working for the establishment herself. So why...? Windurst is certainly a laid-back place.

 
 

The 22nd year of my life has started. I took out Kii Kalira to dinner on the day of my birth. It is the strangest thing, but she did not appear to realize why. Perhaps she forgot..? She also recently spent some time with a tarutaru friend of hers - I have met her before, but it appears I did not remember to mention it in my journal - and acquired the final item for the task Isacio gave us. She has grown much stronger. I am happy for her success, although I have a feeling I will be reprimanded for being late now.

There was a little misunderstanding on the day after my birthday. A concerned citizen thought the water in the sluice gates had been poisoned, and asked for my help. Having just recently met Novalmauge in Bostaunieux, he immediately came to mind as someone who could know a way to prevent this disaster from happening. I asked him and he acquiesced to make a poison neutralizer. But upon delivering it to the person, it had already been discovered that the scare was merely that - a scare.

My mind yearns for new adventure again. The areas we have frequented recently are always the same. I think we will leave for Jeuno soon. In the meantime, we took a look around Carpenter's Landing. Despite being so close to home, I had never been there before. The area is not the most pleasant of places, it suffers from nearly constant mist or rain. One must be careful about where to step in that place.

 
 

I have come to the conclusion that my life could be considered weird. Perhaps it needs some more structure. I have never seen so many places in the span of such a short time, separated by such great distances.

As I suspected, obtaining beastman blood for the man Novalmauge was no great task. Although when I brought him the vial, he was thankful enough to explain his situation to me. Apparently, there is a sickness that makes you react strongly and violently to the light of the sun. I have never heard of such a thing before, but it certainly explains the rumors about this man being a vampire. As often happens, the rumor turned out to be not entirely true, but rather based on it.

While walking near the south Auction House with Kii Kalira after delivering the blood, we came across this strangest frank mithra lady. She inquired if we were adventurers, and then told us to deliver a letter to her grandchildren in Windurst. These two people are called Elen and Liili Chocola, Elen Chocola apparently has a rarab farm somewhere in the city. Kii Kalira did not seem too pleased with this, but nevertheless, we accepted the task she set for us. The mithra disappeared before we had a chance to refuse, and I had already taken the letter into my hands.
One thing amazes me. The woman talked of grandchildren. She did not appear to be old at all. Maybe mithra, like tarutaru, do not age like we do? I must remember to ask this from Kii Kalira some time. Hopefully she will not be too offended by the question. Lately, it seems like she has been more temperamental than before.

We left for Windurst the very next day. We are now quite accustomed to traveling, and the journey was faster than ever. Inquiring after the two sisters in Windurst brought us to the right people soon enough, and we delivered the letter to their hands. I have a feeling they were not too happy to receive it. Perhaps it brought bad news?

 
 

Finally back in San d'Oria! It certainly was an experience, bringing Kii Kalira here. Quite unexpectedly we were ambushed by what seemed like a horde of orcs on the way at La Theine Plateau, half-way between Ronfaure and the Crag of Holla. We did manage to survive this encounter, albeit only barely. Indeed, if it had not been for a fellow traveler Leghard, a hume from Bastok on his way to San d'Oria, we would not have made it.

I still do not know where the orcs were hiding at. I was quite certain there were no more than one or two orcs in the near vicinity...

While it is a good feeling to see the familiar walls of San d'Oria again, I worry over Kii Kalira. She does not seem all that comfortable, although it isn't quite as noticeable as was the case with Bastok.

I must remember to visit Mother and Triene soon.