Aeonna's Journal, Vol. 2

July


I am taken to secluding myself in my home, and barricading myself in with books. I am determined to learn all i can abotu necromancy, vampires and other creatures that go bump in the night. I leave, lately, only to snatch peddlers and peasants on the road just outside of Dessel. I use them to feed Vahkturm, or to preserve myself. Bandits roam the woodlands here, and so it is no surprise when people go missing from the road.

I have recieved news from Verona. Collette's body washed ashore just last month, disfigured from torture. She was the ast of my born immediate family, and now I feel less that girl of sixteen than ever. I was so disturbed that I could not bring myself t attend Lucy's Happy union with Daemon. Perhaps i am a poor sister, but truthfully, I feel the bonds of my living days snapping, one by one, and I am only becoming more numb, more heartless.

The only thing that illicits feelings of good nature, of longingg, anymore is the memory of Rhyaad, who vanished four and a half years ago, never to be seen or heard from again. I know he must be dead, but my soul, what's left of it, refuses to let go. I imagine that on day he will stroll back in to my home, with his small smile and quiet way. I know it is wrong, but I still love him, painfully so.

Vahkturm is a study of contrast to Rhyaad. He is flashy and haughty and maliciously funny. He tires of people's traits as i do now, and he has none of Rhyaad's caution. By the god's of gambling themselves, he has stolen a baby drake and now tends to it's upbringing himself, an endeavor that has brought more than one room of my house crumbling down.

At tea the other day Lucy made the mistake off referring to Vahkturm as my husband, and I felt even my undead cheeks burning. Ever since those rumor of a man by the name of Lord Syntrax.....

By all accounts i have been unlucky in Love. Sir Wesly of the North was deposed as my betrothed by my father's greedy plans. I made a mistake, as young girls tend to do, in marrying the Zul, and then Rhyaad came along, stealing my heart at once, putting me in a most untenable situation. But Rheksas and Rhyaad and Gwyn have all gone, in their own ways. Gwyn was killed, Rheksas pushed away by my insolence, and Rhyaad......With Rheksas gone, Yalon began to court me right away, and bad timing meant that I left under a fugue,for years. When I returned, I was a changed woman, and Yalon was still sweet, still kind. Against Yalon i have committed heinous crimes, and so I avoid him. He seems so blissfully unaware of what transpire din those days, of the scheming influence of Aeta's agenda. Then things go dark.

I do not remember what caused me to leave Yalon, or how i became a lich. I only remember the wedding ring that arrived at my door, the cake I got sent a bill for. I remember a feeling of emptiness, and people's inquiries about a certain lord I had never heard of. One to whom i was supposedly engaged.

It could only have been Aldris. My wish scroll was empty and the one thing I wanted most was gone. True Love.....at least...I think it was. I hope it was reciprocated and without ulterior motive. But I can only hope.

I do love Vahktum, and he is suited for the inhuman life I now lead, but my heart feels like embers in the morning hours, growing colder with each passing second. Only the god's themselves knows what it to come of it,

I have spent most of these past months immersed of my studies. I have given Aeta reign over my finances, and it seems that she would stay now even without the geas that binds her to the D'Augbigne Manse, not that I will release her from it.

I suspect, most truthfully, that Aeta had something to do with Slice's demise, but I was in the stacks, as always, when he fell ill and perished. The doctor had already departed by the time I roused. I cared for Slice once, we even once shared a kiss, but only a fool would anger that viper known as Aeta Cossna. It's why I had to bring her to heel.


There was a time when Aeta was my mentor and confidant. For years we traveled and worked together, she sharing her knowledge and giving me advice. Only too late did I realize she had been manipulating me. Keeping me from Lagh, negotiating my own pay in her favor. When she learned I was of noble decent her efforts only increased. She sought to arrange a marriage between myself and the wealthy Yalon Lively, but always for a price.

She knew what Thays would have said, should I had asked him for advice in those dark days. So she drove Thays and Ydena away, leaving me without my sellswords and comrades. The people that taught me true independence. I still miss them from time to time, wondering what tombs they're plundering, what political pickle they are currently mired in. Thays had the best nose for adventure I had ever seen. He could always find a job, and landed us in hot water more than once.

Incidentally Lagh, the farm boy we picked up in our last year of exploits, traveled no further with Thays and Ydena. I believe he took up with my niece, Queen, and took a job working on the King's great wall. Whether he sees Queen still I could not say.

I must be feeling nostalgic to ramble so. And lonely. I had been conducting research for some days, so many I lost track, without cessation, when finally it occurred to me stop and see to Vahkturm. I looked for him everywhere, to no avail. I cannot blame him for leaving, my negligence was so great. I wish him well, in all that he does, but I do not miss him as I have missed others. Have I shed my human need for love? Is this the lich in me taking hold and taking over?

This lack of remorse has left me questioning some of my choices. Had things only been different. I was only sixteen when I started careening towards this evil fate. I think back and I wish he had not found me, lost in those woods. If only I had escaped cleanly my father's clutches, perhaps I could have built a simple life for myself, and lived in quiet obscurity.

Lucy has fallen ill, and I fear for her life. She is pregnant with Daemon's child, and would rather die than ingest vampire blood and change her son's fate. For the first time in months I feel concern for another living being. It's almost surprising in it's novelty. I would pray for my sister, but I feel that creatures such as me should not tempt the gods. I am an obscene thing, and my very existence is perverse in nature. I shant risk it, and chance bringing ruin to the one person I love.