Author's Note8 Due to the lack of a specified time frame... there is none specified here.
Day XX, Month YY, Year ZZZZ
I've decided that it's time to start a new journal. Rather than document my discoveries, I will use this book as a vent for my travels, and possibly as a reference to the personalities of my new companions. It's been a few hours since I stepped foot out of Aspio, and the mountains are still in view, but the large entrance into the city itself is now completely out of sight. As I write this, I'm listening to the continual chatting of the others, minus Yuri. He seems to be more content in his own thoughts, or, like me, he'd rather just ignore the silly banter. I'm kind of excited to leave. I've never seen much of the world outside of the path between Shaikos and Aspio, so this will be a healthy breath of fresh air.
Well, looks like Halure is close enough for the others to take off running. Better stop writing or else they'll leave me behind.
Day XX, Month YY, Year ZZZZ
So apparently Estellise is a 'magical' princess. It turns out that she healed the tree. No mage in Aspio could save it, so what made Estellise so special? Actually, I'm not really surprised those knuckleheads couldn't fix it, but that's beside the point. No healing arte could possibly be that powerful. Then again, she has that odd bohdi blastia, so maybe it's possible after all. There's obviously a lot more to her than meets the eyes: The clothing, the attitude… and the blastia she has. I have my doubt that that is where her power is actually coming from, but I'll need a bit more time to investigate before I make any assumptions. And of course, Yuri has the gall to lecture me. About what? Estellise. Apparently I'm a bad influence. And he's not? Right. He pretty much lied to their faces, and so nonchalantly, too.
The next stop is Nor Harbor. Yuri is getting his pants all in a knot because Flynn decided to leave him a message. He's badgering us to get a move on. Personally, I'd rather stay and study the tree, maybe find out why it came back to life so suddenly. But I guess I can come back, right?
Day XX, Month YY, Year ZZZZ
I am writing this journal from outside of the inn in Capua Nor.
On the way to Nor we ran into a destroyed blastia and a bunch of disgruntled guards. They wouldn't let me look at it, and as soon as I figured out it was abnormal they tried to apprehend me. Dumb knights. It's my job to study the blastia, idiots. It's my job. The formula was all screwed up and mangled. The poor thing was being forced to do all of these ridiculous things with the aer. Anyway, that moron Karol decided to play bait and buy us time. Aside from the fact that he failed miserably, he got us chased into the woods. Everything was fine, and I even got a cheap laugh off of Karol when I pushed him into this stunning plant. Then we ran into the monster that attacked Halure. I think Estellise called it the Gattuso… The fighting was tough (Karol kept getting thrown into those plants that stun people) but the monster eventually went down and we were able to pass through. After we exited the woods, we were at a cliff overhanging the ocean.
The ocean is unbelievable. I've seen pictures in books, but I'd never been able to see it up close. It was breathtakingly beautiful.
The rest of the trek to Nor went rather smoothly, but when we arrived we stumbled upon something terrible. The townspeople were being abused, right in front of us. They'd already been robbed blind. The worst part is that it was at the hands of their governor! So this is how the empire treats its people, eh? And I thought the mages had it bad. A couple had lost their son to the clutches of Ragou, the governor of this city. Unfortunately, we weren't here to help the people. We were here to find Yuri's little buddy. Well, speaking of him, Estellise dragged him into the inn a few minutes ago. I can't help but find myself curious as to what she's making him do.
Day XX, Month YY, Year ZZZZ
I am exhausted. I've never had so much exercise in my life, and I'm no slouch! I keep myself pretty toned, thank you very much. But today was something else entirely. We walked into a herd of basilisks. They're darn near made of rock! My fireballs hardly even singed the little rats, and Estellise's rapier couldn't get through their scales, so we ended up having to play support, but I ran my butt off. One of the little jerks managed to bite me, and I got poisoned. Humiliating. Estellise had to cure me right there in the middle of everything. As if Yuri needed any more reasons to question my ability. That antidote burns like hell, too, I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood- like I was gonna show anyone that I was hurt. Of course Yuri cut through them like cheese. He can slice anything to ribbons. The guy's built like a marble statue, I watched him the whole time and he didn't even flinch. I… [The following text is smudged out of recognition, due to erasing.]
Day XX, Month YY, Year ZZZZ
It's been a long while since I last wrote, and my last entry didn't exactly cover everything that's happened.
I'm sitting here in the cabin of the Fiertia, a merchant ship in the possession of Fortune's Market. We've been enlisted to help Kaufman, the president of the guild. Though I'm not too informed on how all of this guild stuff works, Fortune's Market is apparently one of the big guilds that's in charge of everything. That's good, right? We're working with the big kids.
A lot has happened since I last wrote. Turns out Ragou had built this giant blastia to control the weather. I could have stopped the damn thing, but some jerk riding a dragon flew in and smashed the poor thing to bits. What a waste! What a horrible thing to do! I swore that day I wouldn't stop my travels until I took that dragon freak down. Anyone that goes around destroying blastia is bad news and needs to be torched.
Since then, we've traveled across a continent, been arrested, gotten lost in a forest and I nearly had my face blown off. …okay, so that one was my fault, but I learned a bit of information that confirmed all of my suspicions: Estelle can use artes without a blastia. She was pretending the entire time! Oh, yeah. Estelle. It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? I decided to start calling her that.
So we eventually caught Ragou, right? The bastard escaped charges, and then ran away! How do you like that? And now Cumore, that creepy captain from the knights, is making a mess of things. I'd learned that Yuri actually started a guild with Karol, and you know who the leader is? The little runt himself. How could Yuri just LET him do that? It's a disgrace, and it certainly can't be good for his pride.
Anyway, everyone else is outside, enjoying the sun. I can't really bring myself to join them. The rocking and pitching is hard enough to cope with as it is. I don't need the water and sky to remind me. Perfectly fine inside the cabin. That is… until the mermen show up and I HAVE to leave. I hope that doesn't happen, but knowing our luck it's going to anyway. Yuri keeps saying he's got some sort of curse that's following him. I'd believe him.
Damn, they're knocking on the door. Here goes nothing..