April 3rd 1499
Father returned today. I have not seen him since I was ten. He looks so different. Where his hair was once as black as the darkness in the deep well in front of the manor house, it is now peppered with gray and white. He has aged too. I cannot imagine how it is he looks so much older than he did just four years ago. Mother is his age, but she looks like a young woman next to his strangely aged face.
He brought us gifts from the north. To me he gave this diary. It is the most beautiful possession I have ever owned. Its cover is made of silver and the clasp of platinum. The pages are the finest cotton parchment and each page’s borders are illustrated with images of flowers or tress—reaching up and around each page’s edges. Father tells me that as long as the clasp is shut, the ink will never fade and the pages will never grow brittle and crack.
To Riadic, my brother, he gave a gleaming sword. Normally I would have no such interest in weapons, but it is as beautiful as my diary in its own way. On the hilt are two blue agates and the pommel is set with a deeply blue piece of Lapis with veins of pyrite creating a marbling pattern in the stone. And though the hilt and pommel are marvelous, it is the blade that most catches my eye. By itself the blade is a wonder to behold, flowing script traces up both sides, and where the script ends a random pattern of swirls and wavy lines covers the blade until its tip. Father said that the swirls come from the way that the metal was folded during its forging. But the most amazing part of the blade is the glow. In dim light or darkness, the blade actually gives off light—certainly not enough to see by, but enough to take my breath away. Riadic treasures the weapon as much as I do my diary.
To mother he gave a necklace. It is a simple thing. Nothing more than a gold chain strung with a black pearl. But after holding it for a moment she smiled broadly and put the necklace she has worn since I can remember in her jewelry box and locked it with a wave of her hand.
I must go now; father has called us together as a family. He has sent word to the academy in Iix for Dekai to join us, but I fear that with the war worsening, my oldest brother will not be able to make it from the north in the next few days.
April 4rh 1499
Father must have brought us these gifts to soften the blow of the bad news he came to give us.
The Umbral Bound Legion is marching on our lands. The Union was unable to stop them at Ruaxaom Ferry, and they are not more than a day away. We have left the manor house where I have spent my entire life and moved into the dank living quarters beneath the keep. Riadic tells me that the keep was built by our family over five hundred years ago, and earlier members of the Cezuat family lived beneath it for some years during the last days of civil war before the Union was founded. I don’t care; it is dark and smells of mildew. And the only light comes from oil lamps that must be refilled every six hours—they cast a pale glow for ten feet, and I have no idea what I can expect to see when my footsteps take me beyond their radius. I have taken to carrying a small candle with me for the short spaces of darkness between the lamps.
This morning thousands of Iixian Union soldiers marched onto our lands. Several hundred of them stopped at the keep while the rest of them continued to march south.
Not more than a few hours after that, the pursuing Umbral Bound Legion laid siege to the keep. The sounds have been horrifying. Riadic and I have been sitting in the storage room just below the trap door to the keep listening to the battle. From what I can hear it does not go well. Mostly I have heard the shouts of my father as he orders men to prepare defenses and counter attack. Riadic has a much better understanding of what is happening. He tells me that the Umbral Bound Legion is building a siege tower that can house a battering ram. Father sent a group of soldiers out of the hidden exit, past our bedrooms, to harass their efforts. But that was hours ago and nothing has been heard from them. Meanwhile the siege tower continues to be built.
Now I can hear a great crashing sound! Oh Voiviow, what could that be?
April 5th 1499
I am so sad. I have been crying all night and all morning. But my eyes seem to have dried up, and I can cry no more. I am too tired to try and move the stones anymore, and Riadic has sent me to my room to rest. But I cannot sleep, so I will write what has happened since I wrote last.
The best Riadic can figure out, father’s soldiers from the secret exit attacked the siege tower builders, but that turned out to be a bluff by the Umbral Bound Legion. They were hoping that father would commit his forces there, so that they could attack the southern corner of the keep with magic.
Horrible dark magic destroyed the southeast corner of the keep. It just fell away as if the mortar that held the stones were made of dust. That was the crashing sound from yesterday. Then the Umbral Bound Legion attacked in mass, storming the opening, and forcing back father’s weaker force. We have no idea what happened to the seventy men sent to harass the siege tower builders, because almost as soon as the Umbral Bound Legion began to attack, they were inside the keep. Father and mother along with some of their retainers fled into the basement, sending Riadic and me running for the exit. But just as Riadic and I cleared the hallway we heard mother scream. We turned and saw father and mother standing in the hallway while several soldiers fell to strange four armed beasts in the storage room. Mother stood rock still and stared the creatures down. Father screamed at us to prepare to flee.
Then suddenly we saw one of the strange creatures, wearing a feathered headdress, shouting in a foul language. His face twisted and contorted into pure wickedness, and then the hallway collapsed on top of mother and father.
After the dust began to settle and we were sure that the rest of the ceiling was not going to fall, Riadic and I ran forward to where the stones had fallen. We began to pull stones and dirt away from the pile as quickly as we could—I separated two fingernails from my fingers on my left hand, and the blood flowed from those wounds for several minutes.
At first we made good progress but eventually the stones grew larger and heavier. We dug into the night with our bloody hands—crying.
I don’t know what time it is, only that the oil lamps have needed to be refilled three times since the hall came crashing down. I can hear Riadic digging down the hall. I am very hungry.
April 4th 1499
We have plenty of water, but no food.
I am tired and hungry.
We are sure that mother and father are dead. The amount of stone that fell on them was immense. Now we dig to find their bodies, for father has the key to the secret escape way. Without that, we will be stuck in here forever.
Riadic and I dug more last night, until we encountered a boulder as tall and as wide as the hall. I could not stop the tears from coming, and ran to my room. For several hours now, Riadic has been banging on the bolder with his sword. The bolder has given a few chips of stone to the blade, but no more. Amazingly the blade has not dulled or broken.
The steady sound of his sword on the stone is beginning to grate at my nerves.
Late April 4th 1499
I was changing the oil in the lamp near water room; Riadic was asleep in his room, and I thought I saw mother. She walked down the hallway and disappeared near the boulder. I called out, but she did not answer me.
I woke Riadic, and he told me that hunger can make one see things that are not there. He held me in his arms for a moment and then went back to sleep.
I do not think it was hunger.
April 5th 1499
We have very little lamp oil left, so I have turned off all of the lamps except for two, and drained their oil into a water jug. There is perhaps three days left if that much.
Riadic’s constant banging on the rock is driving me insane. He has made no progress but he refuses to stop.
I am weak from hunger.
April 6th 1499
Riadic finally stopped banging on the boulder with his sword. But the silence lasted only a few minutes. Just as I was growing used to the sudden quite, a different pitched banging took its place. I stumbled from my room (I am so hungry that I feel pain in my stomach all the time now, and I must hold myself against the wall to move around) to see Riadic banging on the steel door that leads to the secret passage out of the keep.
That noise has been going on for hours now. I don’t understand why Riadic does not grow tired and stop, but he seems to have more energy than me.
I am starting to consider eating the poison mother gave me as a safe guard against capture by the Umbral Bound Legion.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
I CANNOT STAND IT!
April 6th 1499
Today my gums began to bleed. Riadic has finally stopped banging on the door. He is now in his room with the door shut. He bared it some how and I am too weak to open it. He does not answer me.
April 7th 1499
The lamps have grown dark. I have only an hour left on my candle.
A foul smell arises from Riadic’s room. It is a smell of meat left too long in the sun.
I will close my diary now to preserve these pages, and when my candle goes out I will eat the poison my mother gave me.