I'm simultaneously pleased with how much I wrote today, and annoyed that I didn't finish the scene I was trying to finish.

Today: 2601
Total: 12011


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This goes in the STUFF HAPPENS NOT MUCH section from the 5th, where Astriðer is wandering around town.

She left the shop, continuing down browsing the jewelry and pots and pans and cutlery and bits and chimes and other miscellany needed for other professions to function. The really interesting shops, however, had someone watching them, and a handful of clergy guards around to ensure nothing went wrong. These were the stores where weaponry was sold, everything from the knives needed for daily life to the long swords and pole arms used by soldiers and guards.

Astriðer entered the shops eagerly, hoping to find something familiar here, but to her disappointment, very little was familiar. The weaponry was all different styles from the types she knew, and even the things like daggers that were nearly universal didn't seem quite right when she picked them up and handled them.

The guards didn't seem to like her interest, though. She was examining a nice looking dagger and wishing she had something to barter, or enough to buy it, when a hand fell on her shoulder. She turned around and saw a cleric guard, Borei's emblem on his chest and a disapproving expression on his face. "Foreigner's don't get weapons," he informed her. "Get out."

Astriðer raised an eyebrow at him. "I do not believe that is so, sir. I am in training at the cathedral and have the right to be here. I am also not purchasing a weapon. I can stay." She tried very hard not to slide the dagger into a fighting stance. These were clerics, and she didn't want to hurt them, even if they were mistaken.

"I don't think you heard me," he said. "I told you to leave. You don't need a weapon. Go back to the cathedral, where they want you." A second guard, also with Borei's emblem, joined him, looking equally displeased.

Astriðer sensed she was outnumbered. Tilting her head in confusion, and not sure how much she was feigning, she asked, "But, are you not clerics as well? Do you not also want the same things as the clerics in the cathedral?"

"We're working clerics, not teaching clerics. They're more interested in getting more people to bring in money, we want to uphold the god's order. And right now, that order say you shouldn't be here. Get out." When Astriðer made no move to leave, he reached for her to make her leave forcibly.

She hesitated a moment, then carefully replaced the dagger where she had taken it from and let him grab her shoulder and push her out of the shop. She could have taken one of them, armed and surrounded by weapons, but she didn't want to chance two, and she didn't want to destroy the innocent smith's shop, and she didn't want to attack a guard, however mistaken or malicious they might seem to be.

The incident had soured her desire to brows the markets, though, and she wanted to return to her room at the university. Unfortunately, she still had no idea where she was. None of her usual landmarks were around, and she couldn't have seen them with all the buildings anyway. She asked someone for directions, but they spoke too fast for her to understand, and rolled their eyes and walked away after the fourth time she asked for clarification The next person she got a response from was kind enough to speak slower, but he gave street names, and she had forgotten them before she found the next street sign. The third person simply gestured and finished off with a, "You can't miss it." Frustrated and embarrassed that she couldn't manage to find her way back to the center of the city, she started wandering around based solely on intuition, and people's vague directions.

At some point she realized that she wasn't getting stared at because she had blonde hair, or solely because she had blonde hair, but also because she was well dressed, and looked well off and unarmed. She also realized she was being eyed by a group of youths who didn't look like they intended pleasant things towards her. Eying the area for traps, and realizing full well that she wouldn't notice many of them since she was unfamiliar with cities, she approached the group.

"Excuse me. I'm looking for the cathedral. Can you give me directions?"

The tallest looked startled before exchanging glances with his friends. "Over there," he said, pointing. Astriðer thanked him and continued. She had a hunch that he was following her, and when she stopped to look at something, she saw him in the distance behind her. The buildings weren't getting any less run down, and she was pretty sure that she wanted to be going the other direction. She was also still lost, and not sure what to do. The group seemed to mean her no good, but they had done nothing to her yet except make her nervous.

Hands grabbed at the pouch at her waist, pulling and cutting it off. Astriðer grabbed for it, but missed and spun. The culprit, not to her surprise, was one of the tall boy's friends, and he was off at a run. Astriðer took off after him. The pouch was empty, her actual valuables stored under her clothes, but it still contained the small amounts of money she had. Not enough to purchase anything, but still hers, given to her by the clerics she had traveled down here with.

He was fast, and knew where he was going, and had friends. A boy stepped back in to her as she tried to dart past, knocking her off balance and slowing her down. Another girl tried to trip her, but she saw that one in time. And it only took a moment

FIGHT HAPPENS HERE. TOO LAZY TO WRITE IT NOW (Yeah, this is the scene I wanted to finish and didn't. Oh well).

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This section happens after yesterday's post, as usual.


The language section of the library might have something on it, but more likely it was in the hidden part of the library. There was even a small chance that there was a translation book in the catacombs, but that seemed unlikely. Anyone going down there probably already knew what they were looking for, and didn't need a guide.

She knew where she was going this evening, though. Back to the catacombs. She'd have to find a couple of torches, to replace the one she had used earlier and so she could explore longer. If Astrither was out all evening again like she had the previous day, then Kyta could stay out late as well, without having to worry about explaining herself to anyone. It could be useful to find a way to get in and out of the large window in her room, too. It was on the second storey, but she was sure she could come up with something.

The teacher finished the tale of Notos' killing Helios and taking his place and dismissed the two dozen or so students sitting and listening. It was still no where near noon, and together they walked across campus to their next class. All the new prospective clergy were grouped with people presumed to know about as much as they did and sent to classes together. It was supposed to build friendships and such, so that they would discuss the teachings with each other, and when they went out to preach and teach on their own, they would have a network of people to help them in rough times. Kyta had no intention of being sent back out to the furthest corners of the empire. She wanted to stay here, in the capital, near where all the interesting stuff happened, and where she could learn as much as she could.

It was after the evening meal before she had any free time again, and Kyta politely excused herself from the people she had eaten dinner with, found a handful of torches, and slipped towards the cathedral. It was later in the day that when she had visited yesterday. The sun low on the horizon, almost setting, sending light streaming through the doors. Anatolik was mostly in shadow, as Thytikos stood between him and the sun, but a little crept around and light up his left. Thytikos was deep in shadow, embracing Kyta with darkness and she stepped behind him. With some difficultly, she found the switch again, and pried the door open, leaving a tiny crack as she shut it behind herself. One of her three torches went into the holder where she'd taken one from yesterday, a second was lit. Following her map, Kyta went out as far as she had been previously, ignoring all the branches. She could traverse those later, but for now she wanted to explore as deeply as she could.

She was slightly disappointed that everything she found for the next fifteen minutes was the same as in the rest of the catacombs - alcoves set regularly, stacked with papers and maps she couldn't read, and candles. Once she stopped to think about it, it was really quite amazing. There must be thousands of candlesticks down here, even with only one per alcove. Several thousand candles, and candles weren't cheap. Thousands of thousands of papers. It was incredible! There must be more down here than in the entire library, which already contained more knowledge than she had ever dreamed of. She could only hope that something hidden and in an unknown language would be as interesting as it appeared. If it turned out to be ancient grocery lists, she was going to be sorely disappointed.



One of the first things Aislin had been told once she had successfully change into a raven for the first time was where she could find the drug that prevented her madness. Each shape changer eventually developed favorite places where they went to restock, usually near the original source they had been directed to.

Aislin's was in just as an obscure and far away place as anyone else's, nestled in the northern end of the mountains, and several days travel from where they had left Bazyli and Janez. The narrow winding trail led her and Eydis up a cliff, where it flattened out. The whole area was covered with lichen growing furiously, and the few stunted trees that had been cleared out by Eydis and Aislin the previous year had not returned. The wind was bitterly cold and strong, on the unprotected ledge. The two women wasted no time collecting the dark red lichen, scraping it off of the rock in small sections, leaving plenty behind to cover the area in their absence. They filled two small sachets before retreating to the relatively sheltered trail, and hurrying down to a more protected area.

There, they set up their tents for the night and started a fire with some TREENAME wood, carefully carried up here for just this purpose. The lichen was then pounded into a fine powder and put in a tray above the fire and covered. Eydis and Aislin talked for several hours as the lichen smoldered, checking on it occasionally and watching it turn from dark red, to dark brown, to black, then to an even darker red. Once that last color change was completed, they took it off the fire and let the fire burn itself out. A handful of the ashes from the fire was mixed in to the lichen powder, and enough water was stirred in to make everything stick together. The sun had set and the sky was dark by this point, as Aislin and Eydis curled up in their tent and slept.

The next morning, they carefully swept the newly minted drug into a clean bag and stored it. There was only about half as much powder as there had been lichen, but that was sufficient. Looking at the results of their work, Aislin sighed. "I really wish I knew how the first shape changer figured this out. It all seems so random. Did they just pick the hardest to find plants and mix them up for a while? And then try to cook it for dinner? How do you test something like this?"

Eydis shrugged. "Luck?"

"Doubtful," replied Aislin. "They must have had some idea, from studying them. Or generations of time to kill, and not minding how many people died. It's not like they could take the drug and immediately know the effects of it - it takes years to realize that it works. I still don't know for sure if the jewelry stops the madness - we simply haven't had enough time to find out. You haven't shown any signs yet, but you wouldn't have even with the typical method. Well, assuming you were taking this." She gestured to the bag containing the drug they had just created and sighed. "I really wish these things were easier to find out."

Eydis shrugged, pausing at eating her breakfast to comment, "Perhaps they had a better way of doing it. The madness could have come sooner for them, and the drug has had the effect of slowing it for everyone, somehow."

"Unlikely but possible, I suppose. There's nothing in the tales to indicate that that was so, though. It was still not uncommon for someone to last for four years before being killed, and the tales seem to indicate that seven was not uncommon after the drug was discovered, which is about right."

Eydis shrugged and the conversation lapsed. They packed up their belongings and traveled southwest, leaving the mountains for rolling foothills, though Aislin still thought of them as mountains, even after having lived in real mountains for years now. Midway through the next day they arrived at a small wooden cabin, no more than two rooms. Built off the cabin was a large mews, currently empty. "Doesn't look like he's home," Aislin commented, but she knocked on the door anyway. As expected, no one responded. "Well, I guess we wait."

It was nearing sunset when a tall, brown haired man appeared out of the woods, a hawk perched on his gloved hand. He nodded at the women, then ignored them as he returned the bird to the mews and tended to it. He invited them inside with a nod of his head, and the followed him silently.

His house was as small as it looked, with only a stone fireplace, several chests and small table with chairs in the main room. A doorway led to the other room with a bed in it. He opened one of the chests against the far wall and produced a small bag. "I suppose you want this," he said flatly, handing it to Aislin. "You'll be back in a couple moons?" Aislin thanked him and agreed. "I suppose you'll be wanting to stay the night, as well."

"If it's not too much trouble," Aislin said. He grunted agreement, and Eydis and Aislin gratefully spent the night inside. It wasn't as warm as Aislin would have liked, but still warmer than spending the night outside, and much warmer than where they'd spent the night after creating the shape change drug.

The falconer was gone when they woke up the next morning, as was his bird. Aislin wasn't offended - he had never been particularly fond of people, his voluntary interactions with her aside. She would return in a few months.



Astriðer woke up late and tired, after her late night out. No noise came from the other side of the room, so the thief must be out. A jolt of adrenaline went through her as she realized the position of the sun meant it must be at least noon and she practically leapt out of bed. Throwing on her daytime clothes, she looked out the window and realized that there wasn't nearly enough people around for it to be noon, at which point her brain kicked in and reminded her that the sun came up sooner, and much higher, down here than at home. With a sigh of relief, she sat down on the bed and continued getting ready and a much more sedate pace.

ASTRITHER'S SECTION FINISHES HERE



It was nearly a week's travel before they were back home again.

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I think my writing is getting more disjointed. I've also started a section in my notes for things to change when I revise it with things like introduce the side effects of shape changing earlier, Kyta doesn't actually dislike the smell of salt, add more deity chimes to Aytoria, not so many rambly boring parts, and give a name to the falconer in the woods and figure out why he helps them. I also have a bunch of comments about "figure out Aytorian religion" and "why did $character do $action" and "what role to shape changers play in society and religion", which I sometimes have an idea what's going on, but need to flesh it out better.

Yay, I'm caught up for the day! Supposed to have about 11700 by the end of the 7th!