I… I… It has been a hard week for our family. After the news came from the south it seemed like we lost any sense of reason. Who wouldn't after they hear what happened to… To…
Let me write what happened before I start crying again and be unable to continue. A month ago Prince and the colonial army finally reached Sur Carys. As expected Captain Arnile and most of the garrison died in the pointless fight and will now forever be branded as rebels. There is nothing anyone can do about it. At least Prince was merciful enough to allow the council of elders to continue governing the city.
Most people were still wary of potential retribution so they are keeping low profile for now. As for the army, they left a company of dwarves to garrison the city while the rest of the army was sent north to clean up any leftovers. As I expected, the other part of the garrison didn't fare any better.
In the end the colonial army suffered almost no casualties while they wiped the entire garrison around 500 men and women strong. You can clearly see the difference between the leaderships of both armies. Sadly this army can't be everywhere at once, so they can't stay to defend us.
As it turns out, while the army had wiped out the infamous bandit clan here in the north, other people have decided to take advantage of the renewed trade between us and Metzaca. Many caravans belonging to both cities have been attacked and some have been killed. The news of this came over 9 days ago, including the list of casualties. And… And… Our parents… were there. They died just kilometres away from a patrol fort.
Damn it. I did it again. It has been difficult. We were all shocked when we heard the news. We basically spent the next 2 days in complete grief. I didn't expect to have been affected by this as I was. After all I was basically lying to them every time I was talking as their daughter. Besides, who would like to know that their daughter is not who they thought she was? Especially with all the secrets that I was hiding from them. But now they won't find out the truth. Now they won't come home every night and talk about their work. Now they won't help Linne with her studies. Now they won't learn how Ferlin has been improving in his studies to become a herbalist. Now…
I just spent another half hour crying again. I don't want to continue this thought. No matter what the truth really is, they were my parents. And now they are gone. At least I still have my siblings who turned out to be more similar to me than I expected. Well, at least when taking impulsive and stupid decisions.
You see a week ago, when the army returned to the city, they made a plan to avenge our parents. They wanted to put sleeping powder into the army's alcohol drinks so that when they were out in the frostlands they would be risking hypothermia if they were drinking. I was still too emotional and feeling guilty due to White Unicorn to think about this rationally so I went along with them. Only by pure luck has this plan failed.
We didn't know at the time that a Metzacan merchant by the name of Cassandra Korvin was there when mom died. She arrived with the supply convoy the same day when the army returned. She tried to look for us, but had no luck. Later that evening she went to inspect her wares. The same wares we ended up poisoning.
When she collapsed, we panicked so we took her into nearby abandoned house. While we were struggling to think what to do about her, she woke up. Ferlin must have screwed up the ratio for her to wake up this early. Despite waking up in an unfamiliar enviroment she was surprisingly calm as if something like this has happened to her before. Once she started talking she managed to calm us down. She told us about how she lost her parents too recently and she didn't know what to do but she found herself. She also revealed that she wanted to return us a bracelet that our mom gave to her when she was dying with a message to Linne to take care of us. We finally realized what idiots we were and started crying togheter. She waited for us to stop crying so that she would continue.
She also needed to make sure that the poisoned alcohol wouldn't reach the soldiers so she and I left the house leaving my siblings to discuss amongst themselves what to do next. If I had any fear about Cass betraying us, she quickly dispelled them when she told the nearby soldier who was looking for her to prevent her wares from getting to the soldiers without an exact reason for it. When we returned, both Linne and Cass were basically on the same page. It was clear she couldn't leave us alone so Cass gave us an offer: in exchange for the remaining merchandise our parents have left us with she would hire us in her company and allow us to continue our education. We accepted it since we didn't have any plans for future indicated by the idiocy we nearly pulled of. Probably threw in that offer for the merchandise to make us feel better.
In the end I even had some laughs that night. I followed Cass to see the brand new knights of Metzaca trying out their new equipment. Meanwhile the rest of the army had a public pool betting who would last the longest on their steed since it was clear they weren't ready for it yet. It's a really comical sight when you see a fully grown man unaccustomed to his new armour falling from his steed. I guess that expectation when you see a real knight falls apart when he can't even handle his equipment properly. Oh, how bleak the future looks for the new order.
Also, now that I have some pocket money from the bets, I can get some books when we arrive in Metzaca. Well, as long as I keep quiet about it from Linne. I am not sure she would be happy to know I betted on one of the knights myself.
Oh, that reminds me. This is actually my last entry from this house. Tomorrow the army is leaving and we have been hired as helpers so we will be following. My siblings are concerned about the frostlands while I am more concerned about the climate in Metzaca. I don't know if my condition exists because I am a dark elf born in the frostlands or if it is leftover of my previous life as a human from Ortus, but I am much better accustomed to cold temperature than to any other weather. I hope it won't be as bad as I think it will.