Q<\/span><\/p>\n atana has gone to a very dark place, and I don\u2019t know what to do about it. Or even if I should do <\/span>anything<\/span><\/i> about it because, let\u2019s face it, I am hardly an impartial judge here myself. I was visibly shaking not an hour ago, and my hands are still trembling now. The farther we travel, the more it\u2019s obvious that people are the same pretty much everywhere. We color our skin, dye our hair, change our clothes, but it\u2019s all just a veneer over a core that is no different from one place to the next. In the face of anomie, people revert to their worst qualities, and those qualities are as sure as the setting sun.<\/span><\/p>\n I fear that maybe mom is right. What if there really are souls that aren\u2019t worth saving?<\/span><\/p>\n There were seven women held in slavery here. And not just held in slavery, but <\/span>imprisoned<\/span><\/i> in it, jailed at night in bamboo cages \u201cbecause they had to sleep somewhere\u201d. They ranged in age from their early teens to their mid twenties, all of them captured and forced into servitude, some with their families killed in front of them, and their villages burned. When we rescued them, one of the first questions they asked Radella was if we were their new owners. They literally thought they had been sold like property.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s no wonder Qatana is in a state. Hishasi\u2019s guided tour of the fortress led her through Kaer Maga and emerged thirteen years in the past. That he\u2019s still alive is not a measure of any sort of restraint, either hers or mine: it\u2019s purely a practical decision, and even then, for me, it was a struggle. In a way, all the surviving bandits are fortunate that I prepared my spells to subdue rather than kill. Any attempts at instant justice would just ring hollow, and that played a significant part in my internal debate.<\/span><\/p>\n One of them was not so lucky. After we saw the defaced shrine, both Qatana and I had reached a breaking point. She acted first, and ordered the remaining bandits into one of the bamboo cages. One of them hesitated. She did something with her hands while speaking the words to a spell, and he screamed in abject terror and died on the spot. You might say it had a sort of chilling effect on the others. The insurgency ended before it even began; with a newfound obedience, they stepped inside, and we locked them up.<\/span><\/p>\n And then, by gods, it got worse. Qatana brought in the recently-freed slaves and asked them if any of our prisoners had taken advantage of them. They were in no condition to answer anything, even seeing their tormentors locked in cages, but Dasi had a spell running, and it told us enough. They\u2019d all been abused, even the youngest of them, and every one of the men had abused someone. It was impossible to know who had victimized whom, but at that point what did it matter? If I had prepared my spells differently, I could have incinerated them all on the spot and walked away with a clear conscience.<\/span><\/p>\n And I probably am fortunate there. Maybe. If I\u2019m being honest, I am still undecided.<\/span><\/p>\n Maybe I should have done it, anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n Except that the others would have objected. And then I\u2019d also have to explain myself to Ameiko. Not that she wouldn\u2019t understand given that business with her half-brother, but it would be more the principle of the thing. I am <\/span>supposed<\/span><\/i> to be <\/span>better<\/span><\/i> than that, even if I\u2019m not.<\/span><\/p>\n Would<\/span><\/i> Ameiko understand, though? I have to wonder. Everyone knows Qatana\u2019s story by now, and Ameiko knows it better than most, but only Qatana lived through it. Only Shalelu got to see it first-hand. And as far as I know, only she and I heard the stories\u2014and only I got immersed in them, the details slowly trickling in over the years that followed.<\/span><\/p>\n It took months for Qatana to even open up at all. When I first saw her in Korvosa, she was still in a state of denial over what had happened. I didn\u2019t know what it was at the time, of course\u2014what 10-year-old understands these things?\u2014I just knew that it wasn\u2019t normal, that she seemed both fully aware yet blissfully ignorant of what had happened in the preceding months. I didn\u2019t know exactly <\/span>what<\/span><\/i> had happened to her, but I knew it was bad. Worse than what I had been going through. Worse than I was capable of imagining at that age. (<\/span>Now? Not so much.<\/span><\/i>)<\/span><\/p>\n So who <\/span>would<\/span><\/i> understand? Almost certainly not Olmas. He and Qatana had a very long talk after the incident at the cage. I don\u2019t know what they said to each other, but neither left looking particularly happy, so I can probably guess: he expressed concern that she was taking the role of jury and executioner against prisoners who had surrendered to us, and she didn\u2019t understand why there was a problem. Rationally, I know he\u2019s right, but I am having a hard time being rational. Maybe that\u2019s the point, though. Do we really make the best decisions when we can\u2019t separate ourselves from crime and victim?<\/span><\/p>\n But it\u2019s not like we\u2019re serving up vigilante justice here, either. She even said their fate would be decided by Jiro. As the ancestral owner of this place, and in the absence of a daimyo who gives two shits about his villeins, I think that\u2019s more than fair. And, so what if she had to make an example of one? It was obviously necessary. I mean, if killing almost everyone here wasn\u2019t proof enough that we should be taken seriously, then gods only know what they would have tried to do when we weren\u2019t watching. At least now we can be relatively certain they won\u2019t push their luck. Or test our limits.<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ve had enough surprises for one day as it is, so my patience for those is paper-thin. The women we rescued said there was <\/span>another<\/span><\/i> girl being held captive, one they referred to as the \u201ccat lady\u201d. She was, of all things, a were-tiger, kept as the personal slave and concubine of the \u201cscary man\u201d, the druidic shaman Kamuy-Paro. Turns out? She wasn\u2019t a slave, <\/span>or<\/span><\/i> held against her will. So. Surprise!<\/span><\/p>\n She put on a good act, though. Zosi found her <\/span>chained<\/span><\/i> to a bed in Kamuy-Paro\u2019s personal quarters, and she played the part of the unwilling prisoner and plaything of Kamuy-Paro to a tee, even going so far as killing one of the bandits that got in her way. She had convinced all of us of her story, captured and forced to be bitten by a were-tiger to inflict the curse upon her for his amusement (for all we know, that might actually be true). But, really, she was just biding her time, looking for a chance to strike. It wasn\u2019t until Zosi and Dasi informed her of their plans to make maps from his skin (<\/span>eesh!<\/span><\/i>) that would \u201creveal his secrets\u201d that she couldn\u2019t sustain the ruse any longer. I guess they weren\u2019t specific on what those secrets entailed, and there were secrets she wanted keeping. Like, <\/span>who she<\/span><\/i> fucking<\/span><\/i> was<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n She attacked us while Olmas, Radella, and Qatana were on their tour with Hashasi. She probably thought she could take us. She was wrong. Surprise! I conjured a pit underneath her, and then Ivan gave her a push with a spell, and down she went. She couldn\u2019t get out, especially after I covered the walls with sleet and snow. Zosi dropped bomb after bomb on her until the screams went silent.<\/span><\/p>\n Good riddance.<\/span><\/p>\n Gods, these people. Kamuy-Paro was a lunatic who we\u2019re told set people on fire. Their chieftain, Gangasum, built his fiefdom like an Ulfen raider short on manners. The guards used their slaves as personal toys, and killed them out of hand (the women said that they haven\u2019t seen the stable boy in a while; when asked about that, Hishasi said, \u201cWe need a new stable boy\u201d). And, of course, all of them found sport in desecrating a statue of Shizuru, which tells you plenty about where they stand.<\/span><\/p>\n And the daimyo turned a blind eye to all of it. So to hell with him.<\/span><\/p>\n T<\/span><\/p>\n he women warned us not to enter the secret garden at night. Come to think of it, Kamuy-Paro said much the same. This was Kamuy-Paro\u2019s rule, and he knew what he was talking about. Based on what we learned about him? I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if he was somehow <\/span>responsible<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n I have no idea what those things were. It was like a pile of firewood just stood up and attacked, ignoring all of our magic as if it wasn\u2019t there (except, unsurprisingly, for magical fire). This makes me suspect they were some form of golem, but who knows? Now they are kindling and splinters, so it hardly matters.<\/span><\/p>\n Ivan and Radella are talking to the women and helping get them settled in. I have not been included in that discussion because I am quite obviously not in a state where I can be a calming influence. Right now, I am not what they need, and even if I tried, I\u2019d almost certainly make things worse rather than better. It\u2019s for the best that I stay out of it.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s been a long night. The sun will be up soon, just in time for us to go to bed. Later today, I teleport with Qatana to fetch Ameiko and Jiro because we suspect we\u2019ll need the Seal to open the vault. They will come back on Qatana\u2019s spell since it\u2019s faster than the chariot I can conjure. I\u2019ll teleport back because I am impatient and not likely to be good company.<\/span><\/p>\n And we have a new problem to worry about. While we were fiddling around in Kamuy-Paro\u2019s garden, my spell that detects magical scrying alerted me for just a couple of minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n Someone is watching us.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Desnus 25 (Seinaru Heikiko, Small Hours) Q atana has gone to a very dark place, and I don\u2019t know what to do about it. Or even if I should do anything about it because, let\u2019s face it, I am hardly an impartial judge here myself. I was visibly shaking not an hour ago, and my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-3847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","tag-kali"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3847"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5719,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3847\/revisions\/5719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Desnus 25 (Seinaru Heikiko, Predawn)<\/h3>\n