It was alone I set out in the pale light of dawn to find our companions, Braz still locked in his cell and held hostage following yesterday's chaos.
Tracking in the city is a difficult affair. In the wilds, the very land speaks to you- a piece of grass broken over can show you the direction someone moved in, whether they moved with purpose or lazily, the moisture from a delicate blade slowly drying to give clues on how long ago. All from a single blade.
The city is another world entirely. The breeze carries smells of a thousand lives scurrying like an ant farm, cooking, shopping, hurrying. It’s a cacophony of sensation and tracking in it is like trying to pick out a single drop in a rainstorm.
Eventually however I tracked down Theo, then Alke and managed to bring them back to the barracks to rejoin with Braz, eventually resorting to animal messengers to track Helikaon and Calliope back.
It’s strange the effect Lutheria had on us. Alke seems again to fear her own strength and has taken to pulling her hood into shadow once more. Theo seems full of a determined fire, anxious to drive forward once more. Even taciturn Helikaon acknowledged our scuffle yesterday and we put aside our fight.
And I…. I am ashamed. My father has always been a figure of power and arrogance and yesterday it seemed clear that if I progress on this path much longer, I could easily follow in his footsteps.
That must not be allowed to happen. Lutheria, you meant this as a punishment, a madness intended to destroy and divide, but you have taught me a valuable lesson in hubris.
Anora is furious. I can’t blame her. She has taken up our offer to drink from the horn and charged us with fixing our mess by the time she wakes. There is a brave captain who wants to meet me at the duelling grounds and I still don’t know how to restore his honour. Will I be forced to fight a man I would have as a friend?