Noira's trip to RhyDin had left her deeply shaken: the death of her comrades was still a fresh wound in her aching heart, and the loss of any possibility of contact with her Legion, her Empire or her Home had nearly overwhelmed her with despair. She had come into this world with only two days of rations and a few bits of silver, and silver went a lot further in her homeland than it seemed to here.

But she was not empty-handed. Her pack was still on her back when Grenwal had pushed her through the portal. She had her standard gear for exploration and surveys, a set of light plate armor, and most of her notes from the last two years plus a small set of reference books. She had lost her notes on the portal itself, but she had memories of what she had seen. It was days until she regained her composure to the point that it occurred to her to do this, but once she was settled she cracked open her journal and began to write.

Runes filled the first new page of her journal, copied from her limited reference materials on the Atrean language and ordered how she remembered them, one after another. When she felt her head and her hand both begin to ache with the effort, she stopped trying to re-create what she had seen and started providing the context for it. Throughout her notes, since she had first begun traveling with the Legion, were dates, locations, and where her head was at that time.

Tonight is a New Quarter's Eve, the 91st Day of the 1st Quarter of the 193rd Year in the United Era....or it is in the Empire. Here in RhyDin it is the 29th of April, one of twelve months, in the 2013th year of the Common Era by most accounts. There are many calendars in this land, but I shall use the United Era and the Common Era for brevity's sake, and sanity's also.

Q.1, D.91, Y.193, U.E. 29th of April, 2013 C.E.

It has been five days since my party entered Dreg's Tomb on the frontier of South Thracos Province. There we uncovered that Warlord Dreg and his brother Drau elected or were chosen to be buried underground to protect an ancient Atrean Door.

Four days ago Tavos and Grenwal were killed in a troglodyte ambush. I was able to activate the Door and pass through, but according to the Atrean runes I deciphered at the time 'The Traveler cannot return by any known road,' and my experiences so far have proven this true. I am in a city called RhyDin, on a continent and a realm of the same name.

I cannot reach my Legion or my home by any way that I know. My heart aches for my comrades. But I have found a small measure of safety and comfort in this world while I search for a way home, and though my prayers are bitter I still offer my thanks to the gods for the little light they have left me with, despite the cruel night that preceded it.

I am at a place called the Red Dragon Inn. There is a small government in this land that provides refugees (it was no comfort to learn I am but one of many) with a small amount of coin and directions to safe lodging. Between this and the kindness of an old man named Petar, I have enough to live another week on until I find a new source of income.

There are advanced machines in this realm, and it may be difficult to secure work as a scribe or cartographer. In the Legion my purpose was so clear; outside of it I am unsure where to turn or how to sell what I am best at. However there are still many libraries I can visit, and one of them should need someone with such mastery of ancient languages.

We shall see.

10th of July, 2013 C.E.

I can't get my poor Mana and Bampa's faces out of my mind when I shut my eyes, and for a change I'd really like to. Seeing them through Magus' mirror has strengthened my resolve that I am not stuck here forever, but torturing myself will only slow me down.

I just wish they could know. Soon they will think I am dead if the Legion has not decided that already.

The expedition to the Stone Emperor's Tomb went both better and worse than expected: better in that we came away with enough treasure to make ourselves comfortable for a while, and worse in that there is no longer a Stone Emperor's Tomb. Personally I blame the architects more than our expedition.

I think Gem, Evander, Mesteno and I work well together as a team. Although there were missteps, the end result of our encounter with the emperor and his undead warriors was our emergence both wealthy and alive. As I discovered the following Sunday the Tomb was not the only ruin in RhyDin with its share of wealth and danger, and there may be a larger opportunity in this...

Most important is that I continue to collect wealth, information and power where possible. Whether it is to protect myself in the pursuit of the first and second, or if a closed door requires the third to open, I am beginning to realize how necessary it is to extend my arcane mastery and the more efficient use of internal and external magicka, or to extend my internal magicka and access to more external sources.

Apparently my pursuits have garnered outside attention, which I fear will prove more dangerous than opportune. I was sought out by a woman who called herself Akali the Sanguine, who knew me by name. Though the details surrounding her people are murky at best, as many seem to assume them to be extinct or even pure legend, they have earned both hatred and fear. She wishes me to obtain an item called the Eye of Usura from a system of caves controlled by a violent orcish race: this arrangement on its own does not concern me, but Usura is an elder god tied in many texts to violent cannibalistic rites in which Akali's people appear to partake.

On many points here I am conflicted. Akali wishes to accompany me on this adventure and has introduced me to another she wishes to bring, Draeken. I do not trust his manner, and though she has sworn he will bring no harm to myself or my companions, the only thing I can trust there is that I cannot fathom a reason for our injury at their hands or any other kind of betrayal....at least not at this point.

Our distrust appears mutual, as she will not provide me with further information on how the Eye of Usura is guarded until she has met the companions I wish to bring, lest we pursue it for our own gain. On reflection, if I am to trust my instincts that Draeken is untrustworthy, then I should likewise trust them that there is no ruse regarding Akali and the sensitivity of her relationship with the Eye such that we could exploit it against her. She must be taking quite a step to trust a stranger with this knowledge and to assist her in the Eye's recovery.

Still, though I do not wish to participate in this adventure with Akali and Draeken alone, I am hesitant to endanger my companions from the Stone Emperor's Tomb and place them in the same balancing act of trust and distrust that I must grapple with. Gem has expressed her concern for Mesteno's safety, but I would rather not accompany Akali and Draeken into these caves without a necromancer I can trust.

Having companions like Evander, Gem and Mesteno will be essential, but should my tenuous choice to trust Akali, in however limited a way, prove wrong —

Soon they can meet Akali, and perhaps Evander and Mesteno will get to meet Draeken as well, and they can make their own choice, though Gem has already asserted she will go with me.

While pursuing information on my mysterious employer and her people, I found myself in Stars End, which is apparently a "space port." I do not know why it is called this, but most of the structures here are high towers but not owned by single lords, instead divided among many commoners and companies. There are ships that move through the water and are berthed at normal docks like in RhyDin, but there are also an abundance of another kind of ship that moves through the sky, more rarely seen above RhyDin; these dock in warehouses with large doors referred to as "hangers." These sky ships, the horseless vehicles that travel the streets and a number of other devices in this place seem to be powered by an advanced alchemy far beyond the Empire's experiments with saltpeter and arcane iron: all of this, too, I have seen in RhyDin, but there is a density to Stars End unlike any other place I have seen.

On my way out of Stars End, and during a detour to find access to an old archive that apparently predates the city itself, I stopped at the Stars End Bar & Grill. The people there were friendly, and I shall have to return soon anyway: they may be able to help me find the archive, though the city may have built up around it, as the topography of the contemporary map I carried shows the road fully sixty feet higher than it was ninety years ago...

3 October "

Set out for the north wall well before dawn. Took a long way around to approach the gate from the outside and avoid whatever eyes are on the road. Found the remnants of two smaller camps quickly, but took longer than expected to come upon the party. Despite this I was still positioned before daybreak, and able to observe the full routine.

Four men altogether. Tightly dressed. Blade weapons, no visible guns. Obviously seasoned. Prayer in the morning, don't recognize the verses, but they ring similar to the test in the bar. They take rotating shifts guarding the road nearby. They reveal a subtle but steadily rising tension as the day progresses. Their leader is to be my mark, but my watch is long without discerning their hierarchy"clearly a practiced and longstanding team. I'm glad I pushed for 900.

After a mid afternoon meal, one of them dons city clothes and makes way for the gate. The others continue the rotating watch on the road. With no further behavior to distinguish them, I can only guess the leader to be the one who left for town. I'll keep here until nightfall before making my own way back.