Hello again! Today we reached the Iceni capital, Tower!

I think that the name is pretty lazy. Seeing as how the place is dominated a ridiculously huge tower rising from the ocean. A bit on the nose, don't you think? That beng said, the tower is very impressive. It's truly massive. Easily the largest structure I have ever seen. Heck, it's larger than some mountans I've seen!

And spread out at its base is a city that seemed to cover the island. Until you realize that there is no island that is. Onica won the vote, so she is running the destruction of the Iceni throne, and she wanted to go in all stealthy like. So she had lena take us in the last couple of miles underwater.

Thats when we discovered that the Tower wasn't resting on an island. No, it just kept going. Eventually running down into the ocean depths itself. Just vanishing into the inky black of the deeps. The 'city' is actually a series of massive docks and barges, all tethered to the Tower, and with homes, businesses, and roads built on top of them. Looking at it from below is strange, but beautiful. Watching the light filter past the hulls and spread through the water before it finally is swallowed by the darkness.

There's a kind of happy melancholy about it. The way the light dances in the shifting waves, only to be snuffed out as it descends. I can't really describe it well, but watching it was both mesmerizing, and devastating. The way the mellifluous light was so beautiful, and yet so temporary. 

Anyway, Lena brought us up, and we snuck into an abandoned barge that looked like it was supposed to be a warehouse or something. It was empty, dusty, and leaking. It was designed to be more like a floating building than a real barge or boat. So it had a basement, and a high ceiling with rafters. Large sliding doors in the sides would have once let large quantities of goods and people in and out of the barge in it's heyday.

Naturally, Julius and I were all raring to get outside and go on a rampage, but Onica, as leader of the Tower destruction, ordered the two of us to stay in this dirty, damp, moldy warehouse/barge while Lena, Fen, and herself went to do some recon.

Her exact words were something like. "You two lack any sense of subtley and grace when you're excited like this. Stay here, and don't do anything stupid." I didn't like it, and Julius was rather offended. But neither of us could really deny the truth of what she had said. So we settled down and tried to while away the hours by polishing loot or making little fire figures to fight each other.

But we were in the middle of enemy territory. Surrounded by foes, and their loot. And we just couldn't focus. Every time we heard the sound of boots heading towards our temporary base we'd perk up, and prepare for some quick and quiet violence. But time after time those boots just kept right on walking past us.

Eventually, we just couldn't take it anymore. We threw one of Julius' least precious but most shiny pieces of loot, a golden urn or vase or whatever, outside the barge with a length of string attached to it. Then, we waited. Soon enough we heard the clomping of approaching boots. When they got near the bait, they suddenly stopped. I could almost see the boot wearer glancing around warily. Looking for a trick or a trap. They must not have looked too hard though, because they completely missed the length of string leading into the barge.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

There was a sudden rush of clomps, and I yanked the bait hurriedly into the barges interior. There was an outraged bellow, and then a large man with a big red nose and muttonchops came barging into the barge. Where Julius in his battle bunny was waiting to clothesline him. The mans big booted feet left the ground and his head snapped backwards from the force of the blow combining with his own greed fueled rush. Then he slammed into the deck and stayed there. He was still breathing, and we'd finally managed to work out some of our stress, so everyone wins, yes?

We went through his pockets, and then dragged him over to a fairly dry corner. Then we threw the bait out again. Not a single pair of boots clomped past the bait, and we made a game of it. Finding more and more comlex ways to render the greedy fools unconscious. By the time Onica and the rest came back we had a good two dozen fellas piled up in the corner, and we had started running out of ways to mess with people, nonlethaly. 

By that point, we had a rather fun method set up. We rigged a tripwire just inside the doors to the barge. And had smashed a decent sized hole into the floor below. The incoming target would trip and fall into the hole. Where Julius' battle bunny was waiting. He was resting on his back, with his legs coiled up on top of him. When the intruder fell towards him he'd catched them in the gut with both feet, and launch them back through the hole. They'd fly up to the rafters, where I was waiting with a rope and a hook. They typically had a belt, or suspenders. So I'd hook the rope to them, and give them a good solid shove, sending them swinging around the empty space of the barge in a big loop. Then Julius would ho up, and I'd hop down, and we'd start throwing them around. Speeding them up as much as possible. Occasionally we'd misjudge a shove, and our distraction would go slamming into the sides of the barge or a support pillar or something, then we'd have to let them down, go through their pockets, and throw the bait out again.

Sometimes, however, we didn't mess up. We'd get them going so fast they'd nearly blur! That was a lot of fun! But then they'd start puking, and eventually pass out. That quite a mess, but luckily there was lots of water around, so it didn't take long to wash away the worst of it, burn to ash whatever remained, and throw the bait back out again.

I guess it should come as no surprise that Onica wasn't amused by our antics. "What did I say about doing something stupid!" She shouted. After we sat through a fierce, and well earned, scolding we loaded the heap of unconscious people into a small boat and set it adrift. Somebody would find them, and by the time they got back here we'd be gone. 

We moved bases to a nice inn near a fish market, and the others told us what they'd been doing all day while we'd been staving off the dreaded boredom and stress. Onica had a nice and nasty plan for how she wanted to handle her revenge against the Queen in the Tower. Rather than smashing her home and taking her stuff like we did in Fukai, we were going to steal her stuff, and frame a whole bunch of her friends and enemies. 

A few assassinations later and Onica assured me she could start a five way civil war. Then we'd just sit back and relax, watching as the nation tore itself apart. Running in here and there to snag some choice loot.

Reminder to self: Don't piss off Onica. Well, maybe just a little. But try not to go too far. She can be scary.

Lena is scribbling into her Journal, and Fen is showing off some pictures he drew of interesting people, places, and things he saw today. His drawing skills are horrendous, but I could nearly always tell which ones were supposed to be fish, and which ones were supposed to be people, so he is definitely getting better!

I tried looking at Lena's Journal again, but got a face full of ice for my trouble. I guess I should understand. Journals can be very private stuff. I certainly wouldn't want anyone just going through and reading mine. They'd be looking at my naked thoughts, which, is that better or worse than looking at my naked body? 

Hm, almost certainly worse. I don't really give two toots about someone getting a gander at my glorys, but reading my Journal? Pawing through my private thoughts? I shudder at the thought! 

Goodnight.