20th of Mirtul:

We planned to leave Wilavor's Caravan tomorrow and turn North along the Long Road, but tonight's fireside conversation changed everything.

Swift's and mine reunion with our Ruthless Blades friends has been so much fun. I've enjoyed spending our evenings sitting around the fire talking and sharing stories.

Our friend's squad had the night off, they had traded watches with another squad to have the entire night free. Geo, who took Swift's place in the group, joined us for the first time because his friends were on watch.

Geo had asked to hear the telling of our battle against the undead horde, and we obliged. As a group we've actually gotten really good at telling the tale, each of us, except Israel, telling the story from their point of view. It makes the whole story really come alive. We had reached the point in the story where Elisha described the zombie bursting apart and spraying Yukouth with it's poison.

"Then I heard Zira scream and light erupted from her eyes and mouth, her whole body seemed to glow," Elisha turned towards me as he said this, my cue to pick up the next part of the story.

I paused a moment as our listeners looked from Elisha to me, not knowing which of us would speak next, "I felt light erupt from deep inside me, pouring out of my whole body. I ran towards Yukouth and fell to the ground next to him. The pain I experienced from the burst of radiant light was nothing compared to the pain in my heart seeing my fallen friend. Val did his best to bring me back, but I was lost in my grief and I had no control over the light. I could see the light was hurting him too. Val's prayer to Kelemvor and a guard's prayer to Dumathoin returned me to the fight."

"And she was a force to be reckoned with!" Elisha took over, "The dead guards had stood back up and started fighting us. Zira saved myself and the guard by my feet with a bolt of radiant light before she touched the guard and healed them. They say Zira looked like an angel come to save them." Elisah smiled over at me and continued, "Then Zira collapsed to the ground and the light went out. Israel's cone of fire finished off the rest of the zombies."

Everyone looked at Israel and he blushed.

Adrala came to his rescue, "We honor our fallen guards with the telling of this tale."

The group clapped and cheered for us, a bit of a crowd had surrounded us. Even people who have heard the tale before, gravitate towards us when we tell it.

After the crowd had mostly dissipated, Geo asked, "Yukouth must have been very special to you. Do you mind if I ask about that?"

I told Geo about the first time Yukouth and I did watch together and how I poured my heart out to him.

Yukouth told me, "Zira, I've lived 214 years and the one thing I've learned is, you do the best you can with what you know at the time. Now that you've learned how important your family is to you, remember it, and the next chance you have, go spend time with them."

Hunter stopped me, "Wait doesn't your family live in Waterdeep?"

"Yes, but…" I began to answer.

Hunter interrupted me, "No buts. What did Yukouth tell you to do? We're less than a day away, when will you be this close to them again?"

And he had a point, "You're right. I need to go see my family. I don't know when I'll be this close to them again," I looked around at my companions and they were all nodding their agreement. I didn't know what to say.

"Looks like it settled then!" Adrala chimed in with a smile, "We're going to Waterdeep to meet Zira's family!"

Z