Sim’dorei Screenshots

Aeramin and Imralion’s new house in the Ghostlands needed to be built.  I also wound up playing a bit.

View from the front. I couldn’t get a good screenshot of the back because there are too many trees.

First floor.

Second floor.

Basement. It’s mostly unfurnished yet because I didn’t finish.

I played a bit too.  🙂

 

Fairsong Academy in the winter!

I also built that little house by the stables at the bottom of the hill. 🙂

Winter garden.

Renner checks out the time machine.

Lani gives Vaildor presents.

Vaildor tags his walls.

Aeramin practices magic to music!

Hethurin plays with chicks.

Terellion fixes the sink!

You have no idea how difficult it was to get these two together.

Imralion… in the shower.

Aeramin’s Notes

• I think things are better.  Imralion still gets quiet sometimes, like he’s thinking, but I think he realizes how much I love him.  He better anyway!  The past couple of weeks have been rough for both of us.  I know they’ve been especially rough for him, and I’m still doing all I can to help make things better.
• We’re still staying at the school.  We made the decision to move out here.  I’m still not entirely sure I’ll be happy in the Ghostlands, but it makes sense.  I work here.  My father lives in town.  Im’s sister is here.  I think it’ll wind up being good for both of us.  He’s put in to transfer to the Blood Knights in Silvermoon.  He’ll have a portal everyday to get there and back.  There’s more women in Silvermoon too, if he still wants to find a girlfriend.
• I’ve been thinking about that a lot too.  I don’t think I want one, but I don’t want to stop him if he does.  I especially don’t want to be put in the position where I have to be the one to reject her, which was kind of the problem I ran into with Cyannah.  If I told her no, then that would have been me rejecting Im’s chance to have a girlfriend.  That’s why I don’t even want to be part of finding one now.  If he finds one then she’ll know it’s him who’s most interested.  Maybe if he finds one, I can just be friends with her.  I really don’t want to do anything with anyone else.
• I just want him, and I want him to be happy, and I messed that up, so I have to fix it.
• I did find a house that’s in decent shape, but does need fixing.  A lot of the windows need to be replaced, especially the larger ones on the ends of the house.  The roof needs to be fixed.  The front doors are beautiful, but also need to be fixed.  I don’t want to replace them, so I’m hoping they can be fixed.  Imralion suggested we replace the glass with stained glass, and I like that idea..  I put some gold on it to hold it until Im could see it, and he agreed it was nice, so it’s ours now.  There’s a big master bedroom and two smaller guest rooms upstairs.  The master bedroom has a balcony off it.  There’s a kitchen, dining and sitting room downstairs, then there’s the basement.  Actually, there’s two basements.  One is below the kitchen for keeping things cold, and the other is under the rest of the house and looks like it was used for storage before.  I have other ideas for it.
• It would make a wonderful imp room.  Maybe I can teach Gibrik to play nice with the other two.  I don’t think Yappy or Zorkin would appreciate it though, so maybe not.  It would also make a nice space to work with the others, but again, I’d have to put the imps away.
• Anyway, I went to get some canvas to cover the roof until we can get it fixed.  There’s already some water damage inside that will need to be looked at.  If it rains, it’ll just make it worse, so hopefully the canvas over the roof will work.  It was a pain getting it on.
• On the way back to the school after covering the roof, I went to check on my father again.  He’s already making a mess.  I just cleaned it!  I think his couch needs to be professionally cleaned, or maybe just replaced.  One thing is for sure, I’m not touching it.  Anyway, I did his dishes and took his trash out.  I also told him he’s a disgusting pig, which, of course, gave him the right to call me all sorts of things.
• I don’t usually let him get to me, but after what just happened with Cyannah, I guess some of what he said is true.  I finished cleaning for him and left without another word.

Nessna’s Log

A lot has been going on.

The biggest news is we’ve had the wedding, and we’re now on our trip, which is giving me a little bit of spare time to write in my log.  Just a little.  Most of the time I’m spending with Sath’alor, which I wouldn’t have any other way.  The wedding was gorgeous.  It wasn’t at all like my first one, which is why I asked Sath to do all the planning.  While my mother took care of most things for the first one, I did have a say in the planning.  I wanted this one to be different, and it was.  It was a lot smaller, and I appreciated the more intimate atmosphere, and not having a bunch of people who I didn’t really know there.  We kind of had to leave the party early to catch the boat.  I do miss Rylad, but I know he’s safe with my father, especially with my father staying in the Ghostlands.  He was supposed to be staying in Silvermoon, but I guess something happened at the school.  Hethurin hurt himself or something.  Father said it was a long story, but Hethurin will be fine.  However, he didn’t show up at the wedding, so I guess I am a bit worried about how okay fine is.  I’m planning to stop by sometime after we get back, but that leads to another problem.

Xyliah and her husband are in the area.  I guess they’ve been in Pandaria all this time hanging out on a beach somewhere.  She didn’t even know about Vessen until just recently.  Then she’s upset with me for moving on.  Excuse me, but I think it’s a little more offensive to just run off and forget family exists for a year than it is to remarry!

It makes me a bit nervous because they’re going to be staying in the area for a few months, and I don’t really want her dropping by and calling me names whenever she feels like it.  To make matters worse, I guess they’re staying with Hethurin, so I’ll have to be careful when I go to visit him.

The rangers have been doing well.  The new members have been fitting in.  Sunashe has mentioned that he thinks that Vellira and Perothis are ready to learn the patrol routes, so I think they’ll probably be starting while we’re away.  I find it rather ironic that Sunashe says when they’re ready to learn the routes since he doesn’t know the patrol routes himself.  He should be ready to learn them soon as well.  His new foot is supposed to arrive later this week, and he’ll hopefully be able to walk better with it.  He’ll also have surgery for his shoulder soon.  It was supposed to be last week, but then whatever happened at the school happened, and Lani cancelled and rescheduled his appointment.  He seemed a bit cranky about that.

Speaking about the school, I was able to get one of the kittens and bring it back to the ranger building.  I told Hethurin it was for all of the rangers, but mostly it was for Orledin.  Hethurin doesn’t like him, but he really wanted a cat, so I agreed to help him get one.  I don’t think he had named it yet.  He was just calling it ‘cat’ when we left.  I’m sure he’ll think of something while we’re gone.

Gaelardrim will be moving out of the ranger building in a few months.  He’s working on building a house for himself and Maerista.  We’ll have another wedding to go to soon!  I’m not sure if they’re planning to have it at the ranger building or up at the school.  I suppose it depends how big it is.  I have no idea how big either of their families are.  I haven’t spoken with Maerista much, and Gaelardrim never talks about his.  He was quite happy with the plans being approved though, and was talking to anyone who would listen about them.

The last bit of news is that Sath’s sister is moving to the area, along with her husband and baby.  Iannor is about a year younger than Rylad, but that will make less of a difference when they get older.  Right now, Rylad wants to play with him, but Iannor doesn’t do much yet.  I’m sure that in a few years, they’ll be inseparable friends.

Mirror Image 3

(( Last part today, read more here: http://dancinghare.wordpress.com/2014/08/22/story-mirror-image/ and here: http://dragonfly103.wordpress.com/2014/08/22/mirror-image-desdeyliri/ ))

Lena Higgins wasn’t quite sure why Zarah had insisted on waking her up in the middle of the night to make a portal to the Ghostlands, but she could take a guess that it had to do with Hethurin or Vaildor.  She had never actually been to the Ghostlands in this reality, but she had been there in alternate timelines.  She had also seen the current Ghostlands in visions during her practice.  She felt confident that she could place a portal near the town.  She tossed her cloak on her back, and cast the spell.

It worked perfectly, which was surprising to Lena, given she only had a few short moments to prepare.  Lena pulled her hood up as she hurried after Zarah, who was already making her way down the main street of the town.  The street was empty at this hour, only a sleepy guard sat at one of the buildings near the other end of the street.  Zarah and Lena both did their best to be quiet and not attract his attention as they approached one of the newer buildings.  Lena followed Zarah as she made her way along the side of it and peeked into one of the windows.

“Look, there.”

Lena double checked to make sure no one was watching them before she peeked through the window.  In the center of the room was an open portal.  Two elves were also in the room.  She recognized one of them as Vaildor.  She assumed the older one was his adoptive father.

“I need you to make a portal out here that lands directly on top of the portal in there.  They don’t need to know we’re passing through.”

Lena nodded and cast the spell.

“Be ready.  We’re dealing with Sanimir.” Zarah said, just before disappearing through the portal.  Lena followed her.

Night changed to day.  It was a dark, and rainy day, but day all the same.  The wind blew back her hood and whipped through Lena’s brown hair, and rain pelted her face.  The town was gone.  Instead they stood along the shoreline, but Lena felt they were still in the Ghostlands.  However, her location was not her greatest concern at the time.  Between her and the waves crashing against the shore, a battle was underway.  A lone mage juggled fending off the attacks of a dragon and an elf, and making his own attacks.

Zaradormi wasted no time joining the fight, shifting into her true form and charging in.  The mage had just knocked the elf down with a spell and was facing the other dragon as he cast another spell.  He wasn’t able to finish as Zaradormi breathed a gout of hot sand towards him.  Lena began to cast her own spell as he teleported further away.  She needed him to hold still long enough to silence him.  She hurried closer, the wet sand on the beach slowing her run to more of a trot.  The other elf, clad in plate armor, was back on his feet.  The other dragon lifted from the ground, beating his wings to carry him faster towards Sanimir’s location.  Zaradormi was ahead of him, reaching the rogue mage first.  She swiped at him with one of her front claws, but he managed to avoid it by throwing himself to the ground.  The other dragon took the opportunity to attack with his hot sand breath, but again Sanimir teleported to safety.  Lena noted it was a shorter distance.  He was tiring, but that wasn’t all.  He was also getting careless as he had teleported closer to her.  She cast a spell, sending a bolt of frost his direction.  It hit his shoulder.  He spun around to face her, but only briefly.  He frantically looked around while gripping his shoulder with one hand.  She began to cast another spell, as Zaradormi flew in close again.

The rogue mage whispered another spell and disappeared.  Lena knew it wasn’t a teleport.  He was still here, shrouded in invisibility.  Zaradormi must have guessed as well, as she blanketed the area with a blast of her sand breath.  Sanimir’s invisibility dropped as he came out coughing and covering his face.  Lena hit him with another bolt of frost, this time hitting his knee.  At the same time, the plate clad elf slammed into him, knocking him down.  The armored elf stood over the mage, his sword to his neck.  Lena quickly cast her silencing spell, making sure Sanimir wouldn’t be casting anymore spells while she got the arcane shackles out of her pack.

Zaradormi landed close by, along with the other dragon.  They both shifted into their humanoid forms.  The armored elf ran off towards Hethurin, shifting his shield to his other hand as soon as Lena got the shackles on Sanimir.

Zarah grabbed one of his arms while Lena held the other.  He squirmed, but they both held tight.  She spoke to the other dragon, now in elf form, “We’ll take him back with us to Stormwind, and hold him there until one of the Blue Flight can retrieve him.”  Sanimir weakly struggled again after she spoke, not enough to break free of either of them.

The other dragon nodded, “I appreciate it.  I don’t think the school is set up to hold prisoners, nor do I think my timewalker is in any shape to keep him silenced.  I should get him home so he can have his injuries tended to.”

Zarah looked at Lena as the other dragon walked towards the elves.  “Open the portal.  We’ll make sure he’s secured.  I’ll take first watch while you get some sleep.  You did very well today.”

“Thanks.  Do the others need help getting back to their home?”  Lena asked before making their own portal.

“No, his timewalker’s apprentice can handle it.  She was hidden the whole time.”

Lena glanced at the elves, noticing that now there was a blond girl with them.  “How did they know to plan that ahead?”

Zarah smiled, “They didn’t.  Let’s go.  We have work to do yet.”

Lena nodded and walked with her and their prisoner through the portal to home.

Mirror Image 2

That had been easier than he had thought it would be.

Sanimir Lightmist thought that things were going quite well, considering.  Vaildor had not come through the portal yet, but there was still time.  Besides, he had lied to the boy, there was a chance he could succeed without him, but it would be much easier if the others worried about accidentally hurting him.  In most of his viewings of the possibilities, Vaildor’s voluntary presence inadvertently allowed Sanimir to easily slay the dragon, as well as the armor-clad elf.  From there, it would be easy to finish off Hethurin.

He teleported a short distance away from an attack by the dragon.  There was the other mage who came with Hethurin.  He glanced around while casting his next spell.  She was still hiding.  Good.  As long as she stayed like that, she could live.

There was the concern of the other dragon and the other timewalker appearing.  They did in most of his viewings.  Without Vaildor to cause a distraction, he’d have little chance against them, but there was a chance.  Things were going well enough that he believed that chance might be greater now.  With Hethurin buried under the cliff debris, his greatest foes were the dragons, and he had slain plenty of them before.

He had the advantage of studying the fight ahead of time.  He chose to face them here as any other place or time lead to even less chance of his survival and freedom.  He cast a quick teleport away from another attack.  The dragons didn’t have that advantage.  They would have had to check every moment in every place in every timeline to find this specific place and time.  Thus it worked out best that he was the one to choose.

There was a great chance he would die here, and he accepted that.  In fact, he preferred it over imprisonment.  A roll of thunder was his queue to teleport again.  They were trying to come at him from different angles.  He smiled.  He knew this part well.  The only large variable was when the other dragon and timewalker would show up.  He had to take these two down before the others arrived.

Mirror Image 1

Hethurin Fairsong sat up in bed.  He didn’t hear the noise, but he did feel the snap of one of his wards.  It was the ward in town.  Vaildor.  He put his hand on Terellion’s shoulder and shook him gently.  “Ter, wake up.”

The other elf moaned groggily as he opened his eyes.  “What’s going on?”

“Something’s happening in town.  My ward broke.  We need to go check.  Now.”  Hethurin got out of bed and found a simple robe from his wardrobe to throw on.  He was still doing up his ties and buttons when there was a knock on the door.  Terellion was already up and getting dressed.

Hethurin got the door.  “Did the ward wake you too, Renner?”

“No, the portal did.”

“He’s here then.”  Hethurin frowned.  This was real.

“Not here.  In town.”

“Right.  That’s what I meant.  Terellion, put on your armor.  I’ll go wake up Des.  Go to the garden when you’re ready.  I’ll make the portal there.”  Hethurin brushed past Renner and hurried down the hall to Desdeyliri’s room.

They all met up only minutes later in the garden.  Hethurin first attempted to make a portal directly to Vaildor’s room, but found it was blocked by a new ward.  He tried again, but made the portal to the sitting room of the house in town.  It went through.  “Quick, let’s go.”

He stepped through the portal to find Confessor Morthorn with his hand up against the ward near the hallway leading to Vaildor’s room with a confused look on his face.  He looked even more confused when he turned and found he had four visitors who had come through a portal to his sitting room in the middle of the night.  “Hethurin, what is this?  What’s going on?  Has the ward malfunctioned?”

“No, it worked just as it was supposed to.  Mine was broken.  This is someone else’s.”  He threw a quick glance over his shoulder towards the others as he walked nearer to the ward.  “Try to explain it to him, while I try to break through this.”

He began his cast, finding a few quick variations right away that had been made to throw him off.  He focused, slowly unweaving the spell that had been spun to set the ward.  He was vaguely aware of the quiet discussion behind him, but kept his concentration fixated on the ward.  He whispered the words to undo one part at a time, carefully picking it apart.  At last, it unraveled.  “It’s down.  Let’s go!”

He hurried to Vaildor’s room and opened the door, sighing in relief upon seeing the young elf.  “He’s still here!”  He quickly turned his attention to the portal in the middle of the room as the Confessor went to Vaildor.  Hethurin looked at Renner, “We can’t let him get away.  We should take the portal.”

“It could be a trap.  Why else would he have left it open long enough for us to follow?  He must have known we were here.”  Renner replied quietly.

“We’ll use the invisibility spells.  He’ll be outnumbered.  It’s four to one.  If we don’t make our move now, when will we?  We’ll just keep letting him slip away from us.”  Hethurin glanced over his shoulder at Vaildor, “This was too close tonight.  We need to end this now.”

Renner frowned and nodded, “The invisibility does give us an advantage.  Let’s do it.”

Hethurin cast his spell, covering both himself and Terellion in invisibility.  He cast another spell to dampen the sound around them so that they could talk quietly to each other after going through the portal.  He took Terellion’s hand, “We go through together.”  He waited as Des cast her spell and upon seeing Renner and Des disappear, he went through the portal with Terellion.

The sky was dark with clouds though it was daytime on the other side of the portal.  Hethurin recognized the area immediately.  They were on the shore below the cliff that the school was perched on.  He glanced up only able to see a partially collapsed balcony from where they stood.  The portal had not only taken them to another time and place, but also to another reality, one where the school didn’t exist.  He looked the other direction, towards the water where a lone mage stood facing out towards the sea.

Renner spoke quietly, his words not going past the sound barrier that Hethurin had cast before going through the portal, “This feels like a trap.  He’s just standing there waiting for us.”

Hethurin inched closer regardless.  His silencing spells were very good, but they would last long enough to take a rogue mage into custody.  “I just need to get close enough.”

Sanimir’s ear twitched as he abruptly turned and faced the group.  It was obvious he couldn’t tell exactly where they were by the way his eyes scanned the area at the bottom of the cliffs.  “What are you?  Cowards?” he called out.  “I can sense your invisibility magic.  If you’ve come to kill me, we do it face to face.  Show yourselves!”

Hethurin let the sound dampening spell down and responded, “No one has to die.  Just give yourself up now!”

Sanimir laughed, “And what?  Become your prisoner?  To rot away in a cell?  You should know how much being a prisoner appeals to me.  I know all about your time at the hawkstrider farm.  Did you enjoy being locked up?”  He paused, but Hethurin didn’t respond.  Sanimir looked around near where Hethurin’s voice had come from earlier, and took a few steps closer.  He continued even with the lack of a response, “I didn’t think so.  You know better than anyone else here that I’ll fight to my dying breath over giving myself up to a lifetime of imprisonment.”

Hethurin kept inching closer as Sanimir spoke.  He knew there was little chance the mage would give himself up.  The next best thing was to silence him.  He took a few more steps forward, and began to cast his silencing spell.

Sanimir looked directly at him then.  Even with the invisibility up, the spell cast had let him know exactly where Hethurin was.  “There you are.” he grinned and began to cast a spell of his own.  His cast was shorter and finished first.

The concentrated blast of arcane energy hit Hethurin squarely in the chest, knocking him backwards some distance, and stopping his silencing cast.  The cliff stopped him from going further, his back hitting it as the pain from the spell and the impact rushed through his body.  He fell forward to his hands and knees, struggling to maintain the invisibility over Terellion.  He looked up just in time to see another blast of arcane energy speeding towards him.  This one was not aimed directly at him, instead slamming the cliff behind and above him.  It hit with a pounding boom, breaking loose the rocks and dirt over Hethurin.  He covered his head with his hands and tried to lunge forward as the debris fell around him, but he wasn’t fast enough.  He blacked out as one medium-sized rock hit the back of his head.

The Portal

Vaildor Lightmist awoke, startled by a loud noise.  He saw the cause of the noise immediately upon sitting up in bed.  He drew his knees up to his chest, and huddled close to the wall next to his bed.  “What are you doing here?” He wouldn’t have spoken if the other person hadn’t already looked his way.

Sanimir finished casting a spell before answering, “I’ve come to say goodbye.”

Vaildor frowned.  He didn’t see any visible effect of the spell, and coming to say goodbye now was a bit tardy in Vaildor’s opinion.  That man who had been raising him until just a few months ago had odd timing sometimes.  The portal flickered behind the elf he had once called his father.  Vaildor knew he had come from another reality, and probably another time.  “You should have said goodbye when you just left me here.  I had no idea what was going on.  You could have told me the plan.”

“I’m sorry about that.  There wasn’t enough time.  I meant to, and I was struggling with how.  I didn’t get that part figured out before they came again.”

“You’re evil.  Hethurin says the bronze dragons are friendly and you kill them.”

“They would have taken me from you if I didn’t.”

“But you kidnapped me!  I wasn’t supposed to be with you.”

“Would you have preferred to die?  That’s what you were doing when I took you.  I saved your life, Vaildor.”

“You also lied to me and told me you were my father, and you would never talk about my mother, but the truth is you probably don’t even like girls.”

Sanimir paused thoughtfully, “I suppose that might be true.  There was never time to find out.”

Vaildor frowned, still huddled in a ball on his bed.  He noticed portal that had been behind Sanimir had faded away.  “You’re not going to kidnap me again, are you?”

“No.  I’m not here to take you again.  I’m here to say goodbye.  Over the past few months, I’ve been viewing multiple outcomes to the moments that are about to happen.  There is little chance I will survive the fight to come, and even less of a chance that I’ll be able to leave freely.  In the rare chance that I do escape them, you are always with me, but you choose to be.  I do not force you.  When it is time for me to go, I’ll leave the portal open.  You are welcome to follow, if you choose.”

“ I want to stay here.”

Sanimir nodded, “I understand.  They’ve accepted you.  They’re your real family.  I am happy that things have worked out well for you.  I’m sorry I wasn’t able to give you all that they can.”

“Why did you kidnap me if you knew I’d be better off here?”

“I don’t have to remind you again that I saved your life, right?” Sanimir rose a brow as Vaildor shook his head, “Good.  I saved you because I missed my family.  In the reality where I’m from, very few elves survived the invasion of the Scourge.  I’m sure your sister has made you read the history of what happened here, but now imagine it was ten times worse.  My world was overrun with the Scourge.  I had stayed at the school I was attending at the time, instead of going home to them.  I was only saved by one of the teacher’s portals.  There were no survivors in the city.  My father, my mother, all of my sisters are gone.  There are only a handful of elves left in my time.  That’s what fueled my studies in chronomancy.  Then I received assistance from the infinite flight.  I’ve repaid them for teaching me by doing tasks for them over the years.  They occasionally needed a non-draconic agent to assist them.  Unfortunately, their aid didn’t help me.  I’ve tried to go back, to change the way things happened, but the timeline has been blocked for me, probably by the Bronze Flight.  That’s when I opted to meet you.” He paused as though his thoughts were interrupted, then said, “Hethurin is here.  He’ll be through the ward soon.  I need to go.  The portal will be open for a while though.  Goodbye, Vaildor.”  He cast a spell opening a new portal in the center of the room.

Vaildor frowned as he watched the mage leave through the portal.  Seconds later, the door to his room burst open.

“He’s still here!” Hethurin said as others came into the room.  Confessor Morthorn immediately went to Vaildor as the rest stood and looked at the portal.

“Vaildor, are you okay?”

He nodded as he watched the others quietly whispering near the portal.  Hethurin cast a spell as he neared the it.  He and Terellion disappeared. Then Desdeyliri cast the same spell, also nearing the portal.  She and Renner disappeared.  Vaildor’s eyes watered.  They were going to kill the man who had raised him.  He felt the Confessor’s arms go around him as he started crying.

Aeramin’s Notes

• I told Imralion what happened in the library with Cyannah.  He’s not angry, but he is upset.  He said he was confused and kept asking why.  I told him the truth.  I was stupid.  I don’t think the truth worked.  He still asked why.  I don’t know what else to tell him.  I slept on the couch last night.
• He needs time to think, so I left him at the school this morning and went into town to see my father.  I knew from the moment he opened the door, it was just going to be a bad day.  He was hungover.  I don’t know why I expected anything else.  Oh, and he wasn’t happy that I woke him up.  It was mid-morning!  He should have been awake by then!  He didn’t like that he had to move to answer the door either.  He wound up pushing me around everytime I got anywhere close to him, and yelling at me everytime I told him what a disgusting pig he is.  Like that’s my fault!  I had nothing to do with you breaking your empty bottles against the wall of your sitting room, old man!
• He makes me angry sometimes, but I know to yell and resort to violence like he does would make me no better than him, and I am better than him.  I helped him by cleaning up the mess on the floor and trying to clean the walls.  That took most of the day.
• His kitchen was beyond disgusting.  I have to come back tomorrow to finish it.  He has some new food mixed with old moldy food and never cleans his dishes.  It’s really gross.
• I’ll probably be sleeping on the sofa in the room at the school again.  The room was a bit weird.  There were stuffed animal toys all over, chocolates and wine.  It smelled faintly of a perfume too.  I should have asked Hethurin about that, but I didn’t have much time.
• I did see him before I left to see my father, which is good, I was hoping he could help, but he’s refusing.  I know he knows time magic stuff.  He told me that my father was supposed to die, but he messed it up.  I’m still mad about that, so I thought he owed me one.  I asked him to send me back in time so that I could talk to myself.  I was hoping I could get myself to lock the library door or something so that no one would show up in the room, or convince myself not to go to the library that day, but Hethurin refused to send me back. I told him I needed to go so I could fix things and he said that it sounded like I wanted to mess things up! That’s not what I want!  I just don’t want to hurt Im, and I have, and Hethurin isn’t letting me fix it.  
• Hethurin asked me again what I did.  I wouldn’t tell him because he wasn’t helping me.  If Im wants everyone to know, I’ll let him tell everyone.  I’ve only told Kes and Ordinicus.  They won’t tell everyone.

Hethurin’s Notes, Again

• Okay, a lot has happened.
• First, Renner said we had to go meet someone, one of his dragon friends and her timewalker.  Des kept looking at the saddle, and I know what she was thinking!  I don’t think Renner’s going to hear the end of it.  I just hope she doesn’t say anything about riding him in front of the other students!
• Anyway, there’s been some news and it’s not good.  I guess in her timewalker’s practice, they’ve been viewing possible futures, and one of their subjects was Vaildor.  I guess they picked him because his presence in the timeline is still being adjusted to or something.  She said something about it being more difficult because of that.
• She said things were going well, and they did one last one, but it wasn’t like the others.  Sanimir had Vaildor again.  In the future.  Oh, and Vaildor had grown, so it was his future too, which is quite alarming.
• The other alarming part is that Sanimir knew they were watching and spoke directly to them like they were actually there.  They didn’t tell me what he said.  I should have asked, but I have a feeling they wouldn’t have told me anyway because it wasn’t something they were volunteering.  
• I’m supposed to be keeping a closer eye on Vaildor because of that.  He’s already coming here to the school for tutoring in the morning.  There’s usually a student with him, but starting today, he’s going to be in the classroom with me.  I’ll have him sit in back so he can work on his writing and history and stuff there.  I’m not telling him why, so he’ll probably be confused about it, but he’ll be fine in the class.  Hopefully, it’s just temporary anyway.  I think he’ll get more work done on his own studies in the library with one of the students helping, than he will in the class so I’d like to get him back there as soon as I can.
• I also insisted on making wards for Lani when I went to get Vaildor this morning.  I think she thought I was just on one of my weird missions of doing unnecessary things, or something.  She kept saying she didn’t see why it was necessary, and that I could act a little less odd sometimes.  Sisters!
• Anyway, I warded the house, mostly his room.  They might be in town, but I’ll know if that ward breaks.  I think Renner will too, or maybe he just knows when time portals are around.
• The other thing that happened concerns some of the stuff I wrote about last time.  I’m feeling a little better about it now, but last night I was very upset, and I wound up falling asleep in my study downstairs with my head on the desk!  I didn’t mean to do that.  Anyway, last night, we were sitting at the table.  It was just Des, Terellion and me.  Tik was in the kitchen and the other students were studying elsewhere.  Everything was going okay.  We were talking about weddings, and I was maybe using the opportunity to hint a little at Terellion, but then Des just came out and said we should get married!  I wanted to die!  I’m certain my ears turned a million different shades of red in just a few seconds!  It was embarrassing!  And I was mad too.  It’s not supposed to be her idea.  It’s supposed to be his!  I didn’t tell her to say that, but I was worried he would think that.  I tried to sit there and ignore everything, but they kept talking about it, and I kind of freaked out and ran to the kitchen.
• Tik was in the kitchen.  He’s seen me kind of like that before.  I mean, not exactly, but he knew what to say to help, a little.  I was able to go back to the dining room.  He had me take the plates with me.  I think that was his way of making sure I went.
• So I sat, and then Des had to go, and then Terellion and I were talking about it a bit more, and he doesn’t want to.
• Okay, I took a break and came back just now because I had to cry again.  It’s my own fault because I had the idea, and I guess I thought about it too much!  Anyway, he doesn’t want to.  He wasn’t thinking about it, and I feel like an idiot because I was.  It’s too soon, and he’s too young.  I love him, and I don’t want to mess things up.  I’ll still keep doing everything I’ve been doing to get him to think about it because I like doing those things, but I don’t want a wedding anymore.  It’s not his idea.  I just want to be with him.  I need to stop dreaming about things I can’t have, and focus more on what I do have.  That’s all.

Hethurin’s Notes

• Xyliah and Berwick are here visiting.  We weren’t expecting them, so it was a pleasant surprise!  It’s really good to see them both after all this time, though I think she was a bit sad.  I think it wasn’t long ago that she heard about her brother.  At least, that’s the feeling I got.  I wasn’t able to spend as much time as I wanted to talk with them during supper because Tik needed help.
• Tik made this amazing cream of mushroom soup, and it was done with mushrooms from the area.  It was so good, but the problem was he had two pots of it but one of them cracked and there was soup all over!  So he was cleaning that while trying to tell me what to do with the rest of the food.  He was also working on chopping vegetables to go with the fish and everything.  The kitchen looked like a disaster.  I helped and took food to the table.  Lilithel helped and made up the trays to take to the students.  I went back out after supper too, to help him finish cleaning up.  I think we need some new pots!
• I’m working on a story for Terellion.  It’s about two guys who love each other and they get married.  I thought maybe it should have a plot, but I don’t know.  That might get in the way.
• Besides the story, I’ve been doing lots of other little things for him.  I moved the chairs away from the fireplace in the bedroom, then I cast a spell to make the room a bit colder and lit the fire.  I found this really nice soft rug-blanket thing in Silvermoon.  It’s not really a blanket, but it’s not really a rug either.  It’s really made to be thrown on the floor in front of a fire to snuggle on.  
• It works great!
• I also send flowers at least once a week.  I make sure the delivery is to him specifically, and that they don’t let Tik take them for him.  
• I like leaving flower petal paths for him to follow too.  Usually they lead to the bath with lots of bubbles and candles set up all around, or the bed.  Sometimes I leave little notes where I know he’ll find them so that he knows I’m thinking of him.  Last week, I went to Silvermoon and spent gold on a picture of myself, for him.  I was covered cause I didn’t want the guy taking the picture to see me, but I wasn’t covered very much!  I left it where I expected he found it late morning.  I did see him come to peek into the classroom just before lunch, so I think it was then.
• A lot of times I ask for private meals in the balcony too.  Tik brings everything up for us.  I set up the chairs and small table up on the balcony, those are the same ones that were at the fireplace.  I have to take them back inside after, just in case it rains because I don’t think the cloth part would be very nice if it was wet.
• Anyway, I’m planning some extra special things for this weekend because we’re expecting another guest.  Aeramin told me he has to tell Imralion something, and that Im might not want to be with him after he tells him, so I figure it must be pretty bad, even if he wouldn’t tell me what it was.  Aeramin said that he might be staying in town, but Im would be staying here.  I’m making sure the bath on that side of the house has all the really nice soaps and salts and things, and there’s lots of candles.  I need to ask Terellion to make extra cake this weekend, and I’ve ordered bon bons from Silvermoon for the weekend.  I need to go pick them up on friday, and get more wine.  Some of this is for Imralion because I know if he’s upset, he’ll probably need someone to look after him.  I’m going to make sure Tik knows to check on him often, takes meals to him and set times for Tik to go draw him a bath or take him some candy and wine.  While Tik does that, I’m going to be taking care of Terellion because Terellion deserves all those things too.  I’m going to buy some fancy massage oils too, but those are only for Ter.