3. Coia manke ta herio

Coia manke ta herio


  • Coia manke ta herio
    (Life where it began)
    The legible exerts from rotting book, battered and faded with decades of neglect and hard travels. The texts are written in flowing elvish script.

    "…the rush of wind passed the ears, the smell of earth and moss. They're still there, the smoke from their camp lingers like a coiled rope anchored to the canopy. Curious beings these, stories don't do them justice, under and over exaggerations. Guttural speech, barking laughs, the stink of sweat and lived in clothing. But so many interesting things! So lively, so young and so fast to emotional change..."

    "...They are not unwelcome so to speak. There is no written law, nor wholly unspoken. They sell wares, they bring knowledge and music unlike our own, a learning opportunity for us all to be certain..."

    "...nothing but a blue haze of frost and mist, fresh snow covers the tops of the trees. Large indelicate footprints mar the white fleece that covers the ground.
    No room for despair, no room for regret, there is a silence here of the mind, a silence here of the heart. The flutter of panic snuffed out before given wings to fly full hysteria.
    This is the beginning, the second life. There will be more to follow, perhaps better, perhaps worse...
    A line here is illegible due to damage
    Be calm, accept it.
    This is change, this is adventure…"


  • The implement used to write was most probably some form of charcoal

    "…I have never been very good with pain, but every memory has some form of use, gods above I hope to never have to use this memory again."

    "...they ransacked our camp.
    My journal has been violated, and for some reason this upset me more than the interrogation. I feel as if the sole remaining item I held dear to myself has been raped before my eyes.
    A crushing defeat sank into my heart, only to be followed by days of physical pain.
    The memory of what happened is enough, it has seared itself into my minds eye..."

    "I broke, to my shame, I cried and screamed and begged for it to end, I admitted to having something I had never seen in my life, all to make the pain end..."

    "I was not the only one to break, petty thieves are not known for strength or will power.
    Map had snapped first, they held us on the cliff, and demanded where he had hidden it, he had blubbered about eating it to hide it from them.
    It came as a revelation to me. Map knew that no matter what we said we were going to die, it was only the manner of how we died that we had control over.
    I didn't want to see how they searched his stomach. Out of us both I believe I made the sanest choice.
    I let the knife of my captor cut me, to cut my bonds, and then I ran. Right off the cliff..."

    "...Above all other deities names that I might have called, I called on him. With all my heart I have never regretted...with his divine intervention for my frail body and mind I have been given the chance to heal and live. And against all odds, my journal has found its way back into my hands."


  • "Bears suspicion has fallen on my little teams remaining three. The item Bear "secretly seeks" was rumored to have been in our territory, so of course there is no way none of us could have missed it. Whatever "it" is.
    The excuse used to search us all is "suspected skimming;" laughable, but I am too afraid to try.
    Plants are entirely possible, if I had taken it, that would be my first move,
    anyone I desperately wanted gone would -be- gone. However, on the side of innocence I am terrified.
    I can see Bear talking with Straight, it is unsettling that every so often their gazes fall on me.
    I expect a knife at my throat any se-"
    The remainder of the text is smudged onto the next page as the wet ink was given no time to dry before closing


  • Many pages have been roughly torn out of the book, leaving only a few words near the spine

    "whoever filched it-
    Bear rages, suspe-
    Tension here h-
    Poetic in its own-
    from thieves, trust-
    Bear, it's infectious-
    he has vowed-
    return it. Or dea-
    will cast is-"

    The rest of the pages are completely missing, the next visible entries..

    The largest gem I have had the benefit of finding, and shortly after doing so, taking; was an uncut diamond the size of my fist. In it I have finally recognized the manic appeal in 'recovering' treasures for personal gain.
    My heart was heavy in handing the pure beauty over to Bear. But there are risks and then there are RISKS, ones I dare not take with his blood boiling so high. With each of us on increasingly short leashes, and not to mention the suspicion…

    ... I had no idea the pull of his words were so strong. But the proof lays with a wound in its heart and a knife in its back. Any trust we had within our little band has collapsed like a spent horse. There is a persistent ringing in my ears and a hot itch at the base of my neck. This betrayal of trust, love and partnership has destroyed any vestige of hope in me for this race of beings. She stands looking both desperate and heartless. Her man had not possessed Bears item at all, what a waste of life.
    She has no remorse for the man she promised to love for the rest of her days, none aside form not finding what she desperately sought.
    A chill runs up my spine, a chilling revelation. Never trust a hug. Especially one from a thief.


  • The text nearest to the centre of the journal seems more damaged than the rest

    "..jobs are becoming more complicated each passing day. Many have already lost a hand or head and so few remain. I confess to joy at first, to many less to worry about, and then the panic seized me in its grip. Reality digs in like a tick, all it takes is one mistake…"

    "... Bear presses us hard. The proverbial leash comes with a fierce handler. There is no running from a network like this..."
    several pages on

    "… Mouse hoard grows. I feel a swell of pride in my work, imagine that..."
    "...not enough to gain attention, in this game average is best. I have watched Slater gloat, and seen the looks the others give him. Bear's attention sweeps towards him like a storm..."

    a few entries on

    "His death was unpleasant to say the least, Bear's fake tears…"

    many more pages on

    "Beautiful horses pulled the carriage, we moved into position like a gang of cats preparing for the ambush. We set the decoy, Vangaurd played the possum, I the lost child. They took the bait.. we had taken them by the throat when the flash hit…" smudged lines "Two mages, not one, Vangaurd slipped up.
    I saw nothing but a searing white, my heart thumped loudly and my legs began to move on their own. I ran.
    I recall little after that, aside from the interesting fact that trees are the mortal enemy of a running blind woman…"

    "...teeth all neat in the smile, attached to the face of a shroud. He helps me upright, holds my shoulders and speaks to me, most of the words seem to slip through my mind like sand. All I remember is his mischievous voice saying "You are just a squeak of an elf".
    I woke up at the camp with a name on my lips and a pounding headache in my head. Vangaurd was not so lucky, all that matters is that he is dead and I am not."


  • Several pages are ruined beyond repair

    "…there is danger to it, the threat of death hovers over each and every one of our shoulders, clinging to our steps as a shadow. Yet...their faces betray no anxiety, it is just an everyday here for them, for me.
    Learning this is not difficult, learning is not the fear, the fear is getting it wrong. With error comes the simulation, Rillifane, the simulation. They spare no indignities, no pain, "Spare the rod..." they say as if they needed the excuse..."

    "...I remember the rain most of all, that is to say, I miss it the most. It is not like the rain in this place, it is alive, it holds the promise of growth and prosperity with the silent whiff of natural destruction.
    It was from a time where I was with the earth and my people, not with men, not with the stink of civilization as these humans know it. It was a time when I knew my place in nature and I flourished with it..."

    "...a mistake, it was the rain, treacherous shards of the storm lords. No longer any sanctuary for the thoughts that brew inside...how could any man be so large and so fast. If he had bear blood in his veins, the job his babe, I the threat. The arrow head had slipped but a fraction, my focus shattered and he bellowed full rage. Never will any human move so fast to clear the path for the rampaging bear as these men moved to be out of the way of him..."

    "Calm disconnection is embodied, the flickering black and white and the shrill hum in the ear. Blood rushes through the temples and then there is the cradle rock on nothing but air. There is no closer connection to the memories of childhood than this, security at its absolute. Had the trust in Rillifane not cracked as my bones.. "