1st Light beneath the twelfth Moon

3761 Cycles beyond the Dark

722 Years after the Repentance

Entry: 1/052

Dear self,

A great deal more had happened yesterday than I had bothered to write down. The little wizards were a little annoyed that they would not have a chance to study a second Outer being but were eager to have the mole as a new specimen. After we closed the Rift the monster seemed to become incapable of shifting into a being of mist as freely as it had before. Mother examined the mist it produced more carefully and concluded it was not likely to have anything other tan short term illusory effects upon anyone it was exposed to at the worst. It might have been used for misdirection and befuddlement charms, but she could not find anything serious that it might have been capable of as it was presently. The mole became a lot less aggressive without us attacking us, at least as soon as it seemed to get over the loss of its prised territory. They are keeping the captured monster near town while they figure out if they can keep it. Keeping monstrous animals requires approval from the Rangers Guild, and often a great deal of advice and oversight from them as well.

The Interloper’s web seemingly had illusory properties of its own, which was why the party had struggled so much against the monster, and why they were acting irrationally enough to try wrestling with it. The illusory properties of the second Interloper were likely what had aggravated the shard within my subtle bod to worsen so suddenly and bring me to unconsciousness after my first encounter with it.

Instead of being a Voidbringer, we believe the second Interloper to likely have been an Otherling, which tend to be more predatory than the more passive Voidbringers are, at least as such things go among eldritch existences. It was adapted to lure and entrap its prey where the previous Interloper appeared mostly evasive. Otherlings as small as this one had been are rarer than they are for Voidbringers, so it might also have just been an unusual sort of Voidbringer.

In more current events I was once again returned to the Dream for a longer period than usual. Hastening my awakening the previous day had been detrimental to my total recovery from the separation of my body and mind. I won’t spend a day unconscious, but I will definitely be spending a few hours too long sleeping every morning.

More than worrying for myself, I worried for Vamera. She had been diminished from her little radiant sunball to a flickering spark. I could sense she was mostly inert now and recovering from straining herself yesterday in waking me. It was difficult once more to hear her intentions and the moonless night seemed darker than it had before in the dream.

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With the dream being longer and Vamera being unavailable for company I realised it was quite a lonely place. Other than Rahph there was no life in the dream, as the forest was merely an image of the world as Rahph saw it like the sky was from myself. In the waking world there was always twittering in the forest and the tinkling of sprites and pixies wandering near in the forest. There was a passive sense of life in the waking world that had not been recreated in the dream. I might have to fix that. Being left with my thoughts as I was now spun my head into dim contemplations. I realised only after entering the dream that the little essence of Fortuity Vamera had given me had burned itself sometime yesterday between all my frantic efforts to handle the other Interloper. I had none left now.

I woke very much sick in the morning. I had felt terrible from pushing myself yesterday, so I hadn’t noticed that I had taken ill after running through the snow without all the proper clothing or preparation and straining my body and magic at the same time. You wouldn’t have been able to sense my aura if you had tried.

Mother berated me for being reckless and rushing into things without consulting with other people. I might have a tendency to keep my own problems to myself sometimes. I did tell her about Vamera having taking residence in my dreams and all that I have learned from dreaming to her today. She seemed mostly baffled at all the things that had happened around here recently and groaned something about doing something. She said she was going to message Vaeril and have my brother send over some new magical thing that she says might help with Vamera and just dealing with the dream in general. I had never been all that proficient at Illusory magic after all.

The good news is that my suspension had officially been lifted, which means I am allowed to work properly as an apprentice again and I can now use the Manifold again on things other than doing work I am giving refunds out for. I can start making my Apocryphal Ink and try selling it with Guild approval now.

The most important event of today of course was the Nightgloom ritual I perform every New Moon I am able. The Dreamcatcher I made last month did not seem to have a noticeable effect. This month I thought to try something with actual dreams since I will be spending some time in a dreamscape for the foreseeable future. I did not get a lot of Nightgloom this month despite the season, which is expected from how I strained my magic the previous day. It’s not ideal but I still have extra from last month.

The workings had faded from the dreamcatcher by the time of the ritual, but the intent was still mostly compatible with what I wanted to create for this month, so I merely repurposed it. I infused it with Nightgloom essence once more while the Aspect was at its most potent and focused on the mental Aspect of dreams and dreaming and such. Rather than anything specific I tried turning it into an amplifier that I could use it for whatever need I have of it. It might lose some potency from a lack of definite purpose during the consecration, but I believe I can easily empower it further when I need to. It’s deviated enough from dark essence that it could be integrated with other infusions of power without worrying about some fragile kind of purity. You need not concern yourself with purity when your working necessitates a lack thereof, so it will be much easier to alter later on if I have the requisite resources. The negative thoughts I had surrounding what happened to Vamera and the other recent events seem to have guided the dreamcatcher better than they gathered the essence I always do the ritual for.

Hope we fare well.

Regards,

Me.

~*M*~