12th Light beneath the eleventh Moon

3761 Cycles beyond the Dark

722 Years after the Repentance

Entry: 1/029

Dear self,

The loupe didn’t need as much work to finish appraising as I had expected. I was finished sealing the item barely two hours after breakfast, and that’s without spending every minute on working on it.

I went back to playing with the bird charm while checking up on Rahph. He seemed quite lively already and was actively marching around in his confinement circle and following every nearby movement with a snake-like stare of focus.

I brought Anora aside to talk to her about the rift. She seemed confused at first that I would think she was worried about something but then she became a little defensive. She was keeping her secrets as usual. She’s nearly four cycles my junior but she carries enough private thoughts to fit an old man. It’s understandable that she’s a little different, and most of her unspoken thoughts are buried long enough to lose influence on her life, but I think there are some that would do her better shared with others. The minds of mystics can be isolating things but they do not need to be, and I think she mostly doesn’t share to avoid being anything other than a little girl.

We were interrupted before I got into a more confidential discussion, and Anora grabbed onto any escape from an awkward topic. The bird glamour had its charm explode in my hands while I was distracted in discussion. A barrier sprang up around Anora but I was covered directly with a cloud of ethereal residue and it interfered with the confinement circle enough for Rahph to exit. The disruptive effect from my Incuria must have packed into the charm and ruptured into a strong enough effect to subvert the wards.

We chased after Rahph while he skedaddled away. A good few frosty sprites began gathering towards him as soon as he crossed the threshold outside of the house property. I made to send a cantrip at the critter and Anora channeled some power into me which resulted in Rahph tripping and slamming spectacularly into the ground from his speed and then jerking backwards towards us in my rope grip on him.

We dragged him across the boundary fast enough and a small crowd of sprites and some pixies gathered at the threshold grinning viciously at us and the fool Darcinderaht. We brought him inside and warmed up from the cold we had run through without preparation.

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Anora took a while to just confine Rahph again, check all the wards, and help me examine any damages and the broken glamour charm before turning to look at me and bursting out laughing. Apparently I’ve been painted in some rainbow of colours by the exploding charm, which makes me look silly.

The gnome woman must have gotten a strange sight from me handing her enchantment loupe back with the official Guild seal applied. She didn’t mention it though and spent the entire time mostly silent and a bit stiff seeming.

After that refund I needed a quick source of coin. I made a few Daylight potions with Andlerut and Noonsheen which should be popular in winter between the townsfolk, especially with how heavy the snow is getting already. I find myself enjoying the feeling of pure sunlight even when it is summer at times so it should be irresistible now that it’s so cloudy and cold. I made a few Glit Shards selling one potion in town but the rest of the stock won’t perish quickly either. They’re quite small little bottles so I get a lot out of them. They also sell better than the Embernap potion might because they focus more on making you feel warm in your skin while Embernap potion mostly makes you warm in your core without much change in your skin where you can feel the temperature.

Since we’re a little impatient with finding the rift after so many days I took out a small bottle of Nightgloom to help me cast a tracking spell from the place where we found the sigil yesterday. It’s an incomplete spell but it was near enough that I could reveal “shadows of the past” with a few cantrips and follow the occasional figures in shadow around until we found something. Much like visions it revealed scenes from the last in the form of the shadows that were cast in those moments. The Asuras were clearly fighting close to dusk because the shadows were stretched towards the moonrise.

Tall figures of gloom depicted a conflict between two figures; one wielding a spear or a pole of some kind and the other displaying a great shield that obscured most of their form and whatever weapon they were using. The shadows dwarfed ours, but as we followed the trail they shrank slightly and ours grew with the hour, until we stood at approximate heights. They were still taller than us though, but I do not think it a disproportionate difference. The lengthening shadows made it harder to find the umbral figures and it took us longer to follow the trail as time passed.

We found the rift resting above the ground near a big rock thad been split with force. The ground was cracked below the rift and the nearest tree was covered in silvery leaves instead of the frosty white the others showed in winter. It was not a highly chaotic rift but it seemed to have a strong aspect of displacement which may draw objects from distant places through it much like the Darcinderaht had been, as well as taking things through the opposite way. The rift no doubt opened at multiple other places in the world randomly as a singular connected space between normality. It also lacked all the guidance structured a proper Gate would have which makes it practically useless for normal use.

Examining its signature revealed that it caused over half of the ambient signature relating to nearby rifts opening recently, which implies that there is a second rift at the least. This one poses little direct risk and you will be able to close it easily.

Hope we fare well.

Regards,

Me.

~*M*~