Day
11
Of all the things
I expected to pull me out of my depressed stupor, never would I have imagined
it to be my pixie companion. Having travelled such a long distance, I had
resigned myself to likely never seeing them again, and yet this morning while
drinking a cup of tea outside the inn, I was disrupted by none other than Niamh
Áine. While I sat there amazed, Niamh proceeded to berate me for being so hard
to find.
“’Ad to cross so
many damned realms just to get a whiff of where you went,” she screamed at me
in that high-pitched voice of hers. Even now I wonder if I could recite the
entire tirade from memory.
When finally she
finished with her tantrum, she went on another outburst about how difficult it had
been, how many places she had looked, just to get the scent of me. I sat there
in shock and amazement as she revealed right then and there, what I had already
begun to worry. Norvrandt is not, as I had hypothesized, across the ocean from
Gridania. This is not some far off distant land that escaped the Flood. This
Eorzea is part of an entirely different star. Even writing this I can feel my
stomach sink the same way it did when that small pixie spoke as though it were
a trivial fact.
Now that the
information has had time to sit with me, I am forced to ponder my benefactor.
Who they are, what they are capable of, and how far from how they managed to
ferry me? Perhaps the most worrisome query of all, will I ever encounter them
again?
Day
12
Niamh informed the
that it was my duty to show her around the town, which she claimed to feel some
sense of kinship with. I imagine that the nearby forests and somewhat peaceful
inhabitants may have reminded her of the Greatwoods near to Il Mheg, but she refused
to let me know if I was correct or not.
I will admit that
wandering the streets did have a more positive feel with it. The power of
companionship is not to be trifled with. I had not realized until I was
wondering through the market, Niamh flitting about the stalls and commenting to
herself, how lonely I had been. With a bit of pixie magic, I am the only one
who can see her, for the moment. I cannot even begin to fathom what it is that
pixies truly wield, but it is certainly powerful. We passed skilled and novice
mages alike, and not one of them saw through her illusion. And due to the
horror stories of Il Mheg, I am happy. I doubt it would be pleasant for someone
to have ended up on her negative side.
I did have to be
somewhat quiet, especially in crowds. The last thing I would want is to seem
mad, speaking to myself for no reason. Though I have been told that I tend to
ramble when in deep thought. We took a trip into the forest proper, which
seemed much livelier than the Greatwood. I attribute this in no small part to
the lack of a swamp, which I was told one must travel much further south to
see. There is no hurry for such a sight, I should need not specify.
At one point we
did happen across a scholar and their faerie, to which Niamh seemed somewhat
surprised by. The Eorzean fairy certainly seems similar, and yet a look between
the two made the differences obvious. The faeries seem to lack the mischievousness
of the pixies, which I am sure that the Eorzeans do not mind in the slightest.
By the time we had
returned to my room at the inn, I had gathered that Niamh seemed impressed with
what we had seen. Not just in the spirit that the people seem to have, but in
seeing life go on as normal. I am in complete agreement. In spite of all their
strife, the people of Eorzea continue on. Their world has never truly ended,
even if it has seen numerous so called ‘calamities’. I wonder if they can even
have claimed to have known fear, having lived in the light of the Flood for so
long.
When I consider
this for too long, it stirs a dark envy in me, dear reader. To know that my
people have suffered and continue to do so with no end in sight. There is no solution
to it, there is no remedy but death. Yet in all that time Eorzea has sauntered
on in their petty fights for land without a fleeting glimpse of our plight.
I do not know what
to do with these thoughts.
No comments:
Post a Comment