I need to get a handle on these arguments with Iskaryn. I\u2019ve gotten so used to them that I\u2019m getting careless about having them in public, and I\u2019m worried that it\u2019s coloring the others\u2019 perceptions of me. Of us.<\/span><\/p>\n Earlier, Liberte said to me, \u201cI\u2019m starting to wonder which one of you is the familiar and which one is the mage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNot a mage,\u201d I corrected.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhich one of you is the familiar and which one is the\u2026 I don\u2019t want to say \u2018master\u2019 but\u2014\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s my conscience,\u201d I said sharply, cutting him off.<\/span><\/p>\n Which is exactly the sort of thing that I\u2019m talking about. Though I don\u2019t know that my irritated reply was doing me any favors here.<\/span><\/p>\n Everyone else has something obvious they bring to the table. Steel. Divine judgment. Combat magic. Me? I have a flute. And meager hunting skills with a bow. My magic isn\u2019t useless, but it\u2019s hard not to think that no one would notice if it simply wasn\u2019t there.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m already feeling out of place here. This bickering with Iskaryn isn\u2019t helping.<\/span><\/p>\n Still, self-pity isn\u2019t going to solve the problem in front of us. Whatever I think of my qualifications, I am here now. We reached Citadel Altaerein just a few minutes ago.<\/span><\/p>\n It sits on the hill above Breachill like a monument to someone\u2019s bad decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n Time has not been kind to it. Parts of the walls have collapsed entirely, and greenery is creeping up through the stone as nature slowly reclaims it. When Iskaryn returned from scouting earlier, she said, \u201cI have seen better castles.\u201d Seeing it for myself, I can confirm that description was entirely accurate.<\/span><\/p>\n The main gate hung partly open when we reached the outer wall, which wasn\u2019t exactly surprising given that no one has maintained the place for years.<\/span><\/p>\n The red smoke we had seen rising from the ruins earlier had finally stopped. Warbal believed it was some sort of distress call. If so, whoever controls the citadel has put an end to it. Or perhaps it simply burned itself out.<\/span><\/p>\n We will soon find out.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Citadel Altaerein Mid afternoon I need to get a handle on these arguments with Iskaryn. I\u2019ve gotten so used to them that I\u2019m getting careless about having them in public, and I\u2019m worried that it\u2019s coloring the others\u2019 perceptions of me. Of us. Earlier, Liberte said to me, \u201cI\u2019m starting to wonder which one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-5416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aoa-journal","tag-aemi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5416","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=5416"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5418,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5416\/revisions\/5418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dungeonetics.com\/gamediary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}