Mela en’ coiamin,

The Valar have blessed me with their guidance again over the last few days.  When last I wrote within this tome to eventually share with you on my return, we had collapsed victorious at the conclusion of a brutish attack by orcs and monstrous creatures upon the community to which I was drawn what seems like an eternity ago, but has really been only a few weeks.  Exhausted and bruised, that very next morning I awoke with ecstatic news, as Lorien had granted me a specific vision, in which I believe he provided me the location of the OioKalina.  A new location at last – and I awoke hoping to convince my comrades to travel with me to Darviel Keep, a fortress I had not seen nor heard of in my travels within Axana.

I know not if some other fates tie my success to the lives of my companions, and while the Valar give guidance, it seems strange that they have not provided such guidance to the Guardians in the past.  While I am certain I will eventually return with the OioKalina to our beloved land, and myself to your arms, I am uncertain why the clues have come rather frequently to me, especially when in the company of my new colleagues, and several in the aftermath of events that have entwined us more tightly.  I know you would counsel faith in light of my doubts; you were ever the optimist, when I doubted my success or the sadness of the travails of my commands.  

Doubt! Why it creeps on me when to my knowledge I am the closest any of our people have come to the recovery of this artifact in millennia is not a difficult query in which to answer.  Today, in battle, I lost the sword my father gave to me over a century ago when I first departed for the court of Calethria with your father.  I should be celebrating the years of good service the finely crafted weapon provided to me, and all the times spent cleaning and mending it with my magic.  Celebrating the victories I achieved with it, the losses I could not prevent.  Even with its destruction, I saved my new friend Adelaide from a hideous blob like creature, which destroyed my weapon with some sort of acidic touch.  So like some sort of heroic poem, my blade gave its all in service and protection of the good.  I can just hear Kyrelian chiding me for being overly sentimental.  “A sword is a tool.  Care for it and it will serve you well.  Do not, and it will fail when you need it most.”  

It is still one of the few items I have with me, or was one of the few items, from home.    Repairs can only do so much over time, even when using magic to assist with the mending of items.  My armor remains in good condition, and of course the necklace you gave me, plus my ring.  Now, with the loss of the sword, all that remains is the dagger I rarely use, this journal, my spell book.  Not much to show for years of travel in Axana and still more time away from you while researching and searching for clues after leaving the capital.

I should instead rejoice! I have taken one of the guards’ swords as a replacement, and it is a decent weapon.  We have cleared the bailey of Darviel Keep and are able to bed down, while not in comfort, at least we are dry and able to be out of the rain before we continue the search and survey of this ruined keep that has been granted to Dame Adelaide Shard as a reward for her service to the people of the region.  Yes, as astonishing as it seems, through Adelaide’s efforts and the success of the Heroes of the Hall, a horrible moniker, and with the destruction of the land surrounding Hall on the Hill, the nobility of the region asked Adelaide to seek out Darviel and restore it to functionality, a hard successful job rewarded with what may be an impossible job.   I certainly do not mean any ill will to Adelaide, as the only human other than Eldan in our group of companions, she was the only choice for leadership, and she is obviously familiar to those at the Hall, and is well liked by the Gran Jessop.  Her very successful farmstead was one of the many properties destroyed during the attack, as when we awoke a few days ago after my vision during reverie, I had barely passed the news on to Adelaide before we were all summoned to appear before the Gran Jessop.  I will not mention how I was able to get more spells after that appearance, but at least it was with Adelaide’s concurrence, and not in public.

Adelaide was given a new personal bodyguard to accompany her, a magnificent gesture, until we realized there were only two of them to be assigned.  It is hard to be disapproving, as so many losses were suffered by the Hall in the attack, and even the soldiers sent from Sakor’s Keep and Hornsdean were nearly wiped out.  

So, in an unusual coincidence, Dame Adelaide has been given title to Darviel Keep, where based on the guidance of Lorien, we shall find a key in which to unleash the OioKalina and allow me to return it to our people.  Given the unlikely odds of this being a true coincidence, at camp the other night as we searched out this new Darviel Keep, I revealed the basics of my quest to my now battle tested comrades.  I am beginning to believe that the reason the OioKalina has remained lost has been my brethren’s need for secrecy.  My new friends have agreed to keep my quest a secret and to assist as possible in returning this great treasure to our homeland.  With their assistance, perhaps I was right, and our success will be quick and I will be able to return to you shortly.  The keep and surrounding village is in ruins, although it is only a few days of mounted travel between the Hall on the Hill and Darviel Keep.    Adelaide has been tasked with restoring Darviel to some remnant of its former glory, and this will allow me to search its environs for the keys to the OioKalina.  

We have already rid the location of a large pack of the foul cat-like creatures known as the crensaur, along with cleansing this first bailey of the various ooze and blob like creatures that inhabited it.  Although I have doubts about the coincidence of our assignment, I am also pleased.  We actually fought with a limited version of tactics in the cleansing of the crensaur, and although the ooze creatures caught us somewhat by surprise, there is a new level of cohesion growing amongst us.  Perhaps eventually I will be able to train all of us to an elite level, because we do have some amazing raw talents amongst us.  

While I find myself missing your more than ever, there is a level of peaceful knowledge that I am following the true path for my quest.  Perhaps I can be the one to not only restore the OioKalina to us, but to also lead the way in creating closer relations with humanity.  Perhaps this could be the time to return to the world in a more direct way, as I have heard your father discuss on many occasion.  It will be difficult, and many humans of this land have no tolerance of others, but if Adelaide can build a power base, and gather others of like mind to her banner, perhaps we should consider supporting such efforts.  It is something I must think on.  Perhaps I am here to do more than find the OioKalina.

I bid goodnight for now, I have watch shortly, and then hopefully I return to you in the reverie.  We then begin to clear the rest of the keep in the morn.

I miss your songs, your beauty, your touch, your fire, your anger, your love.  Soon, I will be there, or perhaps, maybe you will be here.  

Vanimle sila tiri ar lissenen ar’ maska’lalaith tenna’ lye omentuva —–Elyrienne