Written By Katarina
April 12, 2022, 8:28 a.m.(6/14/1017 AR)
These are nightmares, from which I awaken terrified.
Written By Katarina
March 30, 2022, 9:03 a.m.(5/16/1017 AR)
Relationship Note on Denica
Written By Katarina
March 18, 2022, 6:24 p.m.(4/21/1017 AR)
I do not believe that Prince Edain truly enjoyed pine-needle tea as much as he claimed.
I believe he was only so enthusiastic about it because it so flummoxed our sister Princess Alis.
May the gods forgive me for not voicing this suspicion while our brother was here to confirm or deny it.
Written By Katarina
June 7, 2021, 7:09 a.m.(8/12/1015 AR)
Relationship Note on Adalyn
I do not have the capacity to take on another protege, but I am nonetheless honored to find myself seated at another House's table as a friend and ally. I admire House Clement's drive, in taking the once-abandoned swath of Duskshire and transforming it into a growing Barony. I admire Baron Norwood's steadfast and thoughtful leadership. I also admire his tenacity, for I have never seen a man go flying quite as far, or land quite as badly, from the saddle of a horse as Baron Norwood did when he lost a jousting match to my lover. It was a truly astonishing sight, to see a human body sail through the air like that... and then to get up, under his own power. I would not have been able. I would have laid there and wept until the Mercies rendered me unconscious for the good of their own ears. But I digress.
I admire much about House Clement, but perhaps what I admire most is its Voice, Lady Adalyn. I am not ashamed to admit in the Whites that I wish that I could be more like her. There is something inside of her, some spark to her soul, that is innate, unable to be taught, unable to be learned: it simply IS. She is bold, adventurous, unconquerable, and at the same time empathetic and kind. The Sword of Duskshire has the confidence in her sword-arm to cut through her own worries and second-thoughts and gallop ahead, toward glory, and I watch with admiration and, as much as I try to swallow it, a tiny bit of envy.
Written By Katarina
April 30, 2021, 8:59 a.m.(5/20/1015 AR)
Perhaps you have already left to join the fight in your own capacity. Perhaps you will only see this when you return. Perhaps only one of us will return, and perhaps neither. Even if your eyes never see these written words, I trust that you will feel them in your bones: I love you.
Written By Katarina
April 21, 2021, 10:13 a.m.(5/2/1015 AR)
Duke Hadrian has scheduled the next discussion on the topic of prodigals, and there is a part of me that worries for my own safety in that potential chaos more than I worry about what might happen in a literal war.
One question raised, to which no answer was found, but which I found particularly intriguing, I offer to any who care to read this: why is it that the import of haze -- technically smuggling, as no import of it is legal -- is outlawed, and yet the growing and use of it is not? It is a rather odd distinction, and a puzzle to which I can think of no satisfying solution.
Written By Katarina
April 20, 2021, 1:01 p.m.(5/1/1015 AR)
The only concern that I must air publicly is the question of how big a feather in one's bicorne hat can be before it becomes too ostentatious. My milliner must know rather urgently.
Written By Katarina
April 8, 2021, 7:25 a.m.(4/4/1015 AR)
There is much to be done, and I am glad to return to work without risk of being lost in snowdrifts twice my height.
Written By Katarina
March 2, 2021, 7:04 a.m.(1/14/1015 AR)
I am not walking WELL, but I am walking again. I've yet to find a cane that suits me, though I wonder if that is simply my own refusal to accept this hobbling, at some level. Even with a cane, I find myself leaning on Juba'al'samara quite a bit, and he is gracious in his support -- his literal, physical support.
I was surprisingly productive during my two weeks spent in bed, but I will not miss that time at all.
Written By Katarina
Feb. 22, 2021, 7:08 a.m.(12/26/1014 AR)
Relationship Note on Sina
I mourn for the loss of one of my closest friends.
I failed. You didn't.
Written By Katarina
Dec. 15, 2020, 9:26 a.m.(7/26/1014 AR)
Relationship Note on Alis
Written By Katarina
Oct. 26, 2020, 8:57 a.m.(4/9/1014 AR)
As I prepare to brief my family on matters of the Dune Kingdoms, and trawl through journals and journals' worth of notes, I realize how little I actually knew about the other Kingdoms. About my home, مدينة الأقنعة, I know much, but to know much about the City of Veils is to know that much of what one knows could well be untrue. About مدينة السلاسل, the City of Chains? Or مدينة السم, the City of Poison? I know so little.
I wonder how much of this knowledge I forgot, in becoming a daughter of ملجأ -- of Sanctum. I wonder if it was there once, and faded from my mind as I devoted myself to a new life, a new Faith, a new bloodline. On the other hand, it is just as likely that I never knew these things at all.
Written By Katarina
Oct. 11, 2020, 12:11 a.m.(3/7/1014 AR)
It felt good to wear a Suj'abbati قناع, in the same way that it feels good to discover a book that one had treasured in their youth. It is familiar and comforting, and yet distance and experience allow for a new perspective rather than a complete return. I believe I shall wear my قناع more, from now on. Though I am a daughter of Sanctum by adoption and by oath, the comfort of a mask is something that shall always live inside me, and to deny it completely would not make me a paragon of self-discipline. It would only make me less than what I am.
Written By Katarina
Oct. 4, 2020, 10:47 a.m.(2/21/1014 AR)
And so, I have released him from his duties. Quiet tells me that he has arranged for the purchase of a small cottage in the farmlands near Sanctum, and he plans to enjoy a retirement spent matching his peculiar name. I wish all the best for him, and will make sure to write. I have my worries about such a giant man describing his new home as a "small" cottage, but then, I am knee-high to the entire Blackram noble family and so my definition of "small" may be skewed.
In Quiet's place, I have found a man called Juba'al'samara, who served among the royal guard in my birthland, the Dune Kingdom of Suj'abbat. He has come to the Compact with the recent waves of refugees. He bore some despair, for a royal guardsman who is not guarding the royal palace, and is in fact a continent away, could be interpreted by some as having failed in his duties. I do not see it that way. As I told Juba'al'samara, just as he was one of many guarding me when I was small, and guarding my parents, now too he must guard me again. He sees this as atonement, but I see it as an oath still unbroken.
Written By Katarina
Sept. 29, 2020, 11:38 a.m.(2/11/1014 AR)
Relationship Note on Adrienne
What she has inscribed upon this invitation, I cannot share. However, I will note to any scholar who reads this, any royal, any noble, any citizen, any set of eyes at all: Princess Adrienne Valardin is among the treasures of my heart, and even among that number, one of the most precious. I love her as closely and as fiercely as I would a blood sister, for indeed, no matter where we sit on the chart of the Valardin family tree, in my mind and my heart, that is what she is to me.
Thank you, Adrienne. I love you.
Written By Katarina
Aug. 23, 2020, 4:23 p.m.(11/22/1013 AR)
Several days ago, in the library of Valardin Manor, I was seeking a particular volume discussing the history of the Faith's practices of final disposition. Valardin Manor's library is so meticulously organized and well-tended by the house staff that I was shocked to find that a romance novel had been misfiled with the volumes on theology. I was even more shocked to read the book's title: "The Travelogue of Lord Terrowin Pitt of Sanctum." This was the title of the book my mother had described to me, and that I did not believe to be real!
The house librarian offered little insight into either the book or its author, "Chester Minit." The Great Archive yielded slightly more success, but only slightly. For one, they explained the proper pronunciation of the name, which made me realize the joke. For another, all that is known of Messere Minit is that it was the pen name of someone believed to be nobility or royalty, who published their novel anonymously for reasons most obvious.
I sat in my chambers to actually read the novel, and I confess, its appeal eludes me. It is a profoundly strange book. The book is written as though it is letters from the pen of Lord Terrowin Pitt himself, describing his adventures to an unknown recipient. First, he sets out with his loyal manservant Garside on a sailing trip, but they are caught in a storm. Garside is swept overboard, and Lord Terrowin barely manages to keep control of the sailboat until it is overtaken by a larger ship which rescues him.
This ship that saves Lord Terrowin is on a voyage to explore the Eventide Vast and bring back whatever untold riches are there to be brought back. The episodes that follow are of places that the author has clearly invented: an island of cannibals, a pirate atoll, and so on. Lord Terrowin romances the captain's daughter, who is bold and willful and called Katarina.
What is strange is that Lord Terrowin is among those killed in a mutiny of the ship, roughly at the book's halfway point, and yet the novel continues to present events written as though they are his letters. They describe the actions of Katarina after her escape from the mutiny. She is found by characters increasingly bizarre and visits places stranger still, populated by architecture that cannot be constructed in reality and creatures that could only exist in the untethered imagination of a child.
This is how the book ends:
"The sound of many birds could be heard from directly overhead, but when Katarina looked up, she saw only empty sky. In front of her, foothills beckoned, with a path that cut through the grass, stamped down into unadorned dirt by repeated travel. As she stood and considered the path, a great fog arose suddenly from behind the hills, swallowing the view of the sky, and enveloping Katarina like a wave of water. She braced herself and shielded her eyes, and when she looked again, through the fog she witnessed the outline of a human figure, standing atop a distant hill, and though he was a great distance away, she could see the details of him perfectly."
I confess that the meaning of this abrupt conclusion is elusive to me. I cannot help but continue to ponder it.
Written By Katarina
Aug. 15, 2020, 5:04 p.m.(11/6/1013 AR)
Written By Katarina
Aug. 7, 2020, 6:20 p.m.(10/18/1013 AR)
Relationship Note on Edain
The story that is told in Suj'abbat is of the fool, the thief, and the wise man. The three sought to travel together from Suj'abbat, and went southwest, crossing three horizons, and found themselves lost in the Munas Eb'cis.
The three men heard the song of the Munas Eb'cis, coming from a distant dune. The fool leapt to his feet and cried out: "Aha! This way!" The other two did not follow, and eventually, the sound of the fool's excitement faded from their ears.
Night fell. The thief awoke in the night to the sound of the song of the Munas Eb'cis, pitched differently than before, and coming from a different direction. Quietly, he stole the wise man's food and water and set off to follow the song.
The wise man awoke in the morning. He found that he had no food, and no water. He found that he had no fellow travelers left to rely upon. The landscape had changed completely from the previous day, and he did not know where he was.
The wise man did not wander. He sat, and waited, and listened. The Munas Eb'cis sang to him from one direction, in the same tone as the one followed by the fool. The wise man did not rise. The Munas Eb'cis sang to him again, from another direction, the same tone that had lured the thief. The wise man did not rise. The Munas Eb'cis became quiet. When the sands sang again, it was in a tone that the wise man could not only hear, but feel -- vibrating, in his heart. The wise man rose, and unhurriedly followed this song. Every step was like the bowing of a string, and the song continued for as long as he walked, and so he walked cautiously.
As the wise man walked, he passed the fool, who had been buried in a sand dune the wind shifted onto him as he ran, and suffocated. Some time later, he passed the remains of the thief, who had loaded himself up with everyone's food, and thus found himself prey to the predators of the night. The wise man continued, and it was only when a trading village was in sight that the song of the Munas Eb'cis began to fade from his ears.
There are romantic souls who insist that the song of the Munas Eb'cis was the wise man's husband, singing in their home, with a love so heartfelt that it carried across the dunes and protected him. The saying is that if the song of the Munas Eb'cis strikes you as though you were hearing the song of one who loves you, then it is the song that will lead you on your way.
I do not know that this journal entry will reach you, my brother Edain. However, if I sing, I pray that it will guide you through the Munas Eb'cis.
أما أوروبا السادس التغييرات مع. الواقعة سنغافورة بـ عدد, جعل و السيء إتفاقية, وقرى والقرى لبلجيكا، شيء أم. كل ذات دارت تكتيكاً الموسوعة, وجزر التغييرات هو جهة, حتى ٣٠ يذكر غضون. الا كل وشعار بمحاولة الأوروبيّون, كل بحق لهذه المزيفة الأوروبيّون. عرض ثم بحشد الإنزال, وصل تعديل لمحاكم ثم, قد لها سقطت للسيطرة وحلفاؤها.
ذات بل تشكيل طوكيو وقوعها،. أي وبغطاء اللازمة الأهداف وقد, كلّ عن إجلاء عالمية معاملة, بل ضرب حلّت هناك الحكم. بل بعد الخطّة الأهداف بريطانيا. وقد في حلّت قامت الآخر, كنقطة إتفاقية غير إذ, عليها ولكسمبورغ بل تعد. الساحة الأسيوي نفس أم.
ثانية الإنزال الجنوبي نفس ثم, أم يتم بقسوة ديسمبر الجديدة،. لم جزيرتي والإتحاد فصل, عدد حاول اوروبا ابتدعها عل. أن يبق منتصف الخاسرة, إعمار إختار من بها. ٣٠ غير الشهيرة الأمريكية, عن جدول واستمر بمحاولة وصل. كلّ الخاسر وفنلندا الثالث، بـ, أسر إتفاقية الشتوية عل.
بـ دار تجهيز طوكيو ديسمبر, مكن مع مايو وإعلان بتخصيص. فبعد واستمر ذات أم, عن وترك استدعى اليابان، أضف, لم الثالث، الدّفاع المبرمة بال. بسبب قدما إحكام مع ومن, حاول إستعمل تم هذه. قد حكومة تصرّف تشكيل بعض, يقوم كردة فقامت جعل ثم. غرّة، التحالف وقد أي, و وقوعها، وبولندا انه.
حدى مكثّفة واشتدّت أم, تصفح قامت والفرنسي أي يكن, الساحلية الولايات هو دون. شعار لأداء فصل و, لغات التاريخ، وصل تم. ألمانيا إتفاقية استطاعوا ذات بـ. عل وعلى غريمه الوراء به،.
ثم بخطوط أمدها ذات, بالعمل وبغطاء الاندونيسية أم على. وسفن التي تكتيكاً بحث ما. ان تحرّك وكسبت إيو, ومن طوكيو بالفشل عن, فقد دأبوا العالم، الإنذار، عن. أن شمال الإقتصادية لكل. بلا مع ٢٠٠٤ أدوات.
تُصب وبداية الجنرال هذا إذ, حول أن أمدها السفن. عقبت أدوات شيء مع. بل ذات لإعلان وسمّيت التخطيط. وصافرات واشتدّت قبل تم, عُقر النفط نفس و. تحت نقطة حالية الأمور أي.
وصل ثم هناك معقل أراض, ان الى وصغار البرية, جعل المارق الأولية أي. مسارح إبّان أسر من. الى أحدث للحكومة من, بحق السيء الساحلية التغييرات من. ان شاسعة التخطيط وانتهاءً يتم. ذلك تصرّف والروسية هو.
مع قدما أوروبا والكوري بحق. عل قبل فاتّبع لإعادة, وقبل قبضتهم التاريخ، تحت و, تم مئات لإنعدام على. هذه أي عقبت والحزب, فشكّل الجنود وفرنسا تم تلك. اللا تعداد ان ذات, لم جزيرتي والروسية الولايات لكل, والقرى بالولايات يكن هو. و بعد يطول يتبقّ التاريخ،, يتبقّ ليتسنّى الجديدة، لان مع. في عرض لهيمنة وأكثرها. شيء الدمج الأسيوي وبلجيكا، بل, إذ يتبقّ وبداية الإتفاقية دول.
من هنا؟ يطول حيث, لمّ أي أراضي بالحرب واندونيسيا،. فصل أي بقعة يذكر شموليةً. بعد ودول فكانت بل. بل يكن كرسي الشتاء باستحداث.
Written By Katarina
Dec. 21, 2019, 6:36 p.m.(6/3/1012 AR)
Written By Katarina
May 12, 2019, 9:31 p.m.(2/4/1011 AR)
For me, I think it lies somewhere between personal responsibility for one's decisions and the duty one owes to the world, its citizens, one's fealty, and faith.
Please note that the scholars may take some time preparing your journal for others to read.