Koios,

First, please tell Kateryn that her “grand idea” of encouraging me to join the Adventurer’s Guild has most recently ended up with me exploring the sewers, which is an experience I could surely have done without – and said experience ruined one of my favorite dresses. Since this whole “adventuring” idea was hers in the first place, tell her she owes me a new dress. Preferably a red one.

Also, I think my mother is plotting unpleasant things. She sent me a… gift. A Rewoven, named Mukhif, who is to do whatever I say. (If you aren’t already aware, Rewoven are those who have committed some sort of grave misdeed and, in order to atone for their misdeed, enter into slavery with no memory of their past or what horrible things they may have done. I believe the Night Market is involved in this somehow. In order to pay his debt and receive atonement for whatever misdeed he has done, he must serve another until whatever forces that be deem his penance complete.) Essentially, he is a slave, but I just cannot stomach the idea of owning another person. Of course, Mother would never stop to think on whether or not her daughter, whose entire existence is devoted to distancing herself from Sun Elf culture and the Lotus Court as much as possible, would even want a slave – she probably thinks she did me quite a favor. I am incredibly suspicious of her next move now. She’s mentioned a noble friend of hers that is looking for a wife, and I’ll be damned if I end up forced into a marriage with Lord Whats-his-elf thanks to my mother. I trust her motives even less than I trust those of Obeah (a fellow member of the Guild who I’d best describe as a scoundrel), who keeps trying to talk Mukhif into doing… inappropriate things. I sincerely hope Mother hasn’t planned anything… unpleasant.

I will say, though, Mukhif has been incredibly helpful. I find myself knocked out less often when we encounter miscreants and monsters while out adventuring, and he even provided me with a cushion to sit upon when we ended up on an ocean trip to rescue some lost sailors. The ocean, I’ve determined, is not a place I feel comfortable – the wetness, the constant shifting of the boat, and the smells all are unpleasant, and when we sailed out of sight of land, I was filled with such anxiety. I do not want to go on a boat, ever again. No matter how many times Obeah keeps talking about the grand sailing library of one of the water peoples whose name I’ve since forgotten. I love books and knowledge, but not that much.

Complaints aside, adventuring has been good for me. I have seen many sights I don’t think I’d have seen ordinarily, and have actually managed to make a friend in the Adventurer’s Guild! She’s a newcomer to the guild, a fire aetherite named Moyasu with a fondness for books and studying alchemy. I’m curious to see if there are areas where our research overlaps – it would be quite interesting to see how magic and alchemy interact.

I also have some distressing news to share. It appears that someone is capturing Hiwani and selling them as slaves – but not by normal means. The Adventurers’ Guild encountered animals recently who are able to perform basic tasks and assist their owners, by use of a command gem. The animal has a gem embedded in their forehead, and the owner of said animal has a gem of their own, with which to issue commands to the animals. As you may have determined by now, these animals are actually enslaved Hiwani, whose appearance has been changed so they more closely resemble a specific animal, and given that they are trapped in animal form, they cannot speak to tell anyone that they are not what they seem. Should you see any animals with gems in their foreheads, please bring them to the Adventurers’ Guild – Mukhif can remove the gems and free the trapped Hiwani, like he did very recently. I am glad he didn’t outright kill the animal, as it was attacking a male dwarf and the owners of the animal didn’t seem to care about its welfare – the chaptermaster of our branch of the guild said that he didn’t care what was done with the animal, and Obeah had plans to retrieve the gem from its forehead, likely by any means necessary, to help fund the purchase of a boat.

Aside from the terrifying discovery involving the Hiwani and the trip to the sewers, and that damned boat trip, things have been well these past few weeks. I’ve taken advantage of things being somewhat quiet to focus on my studies of magic – I’ve learned how to summon fire and earth force bolts, in addition to air and water, which means I should be in good shape to take on most any elemental creature. I just need to get better at hand-to-hand combat, as I am still miserable at that. (Thank goodness for Mukhif being present and keeping me relatively healed up in my recent adventures.)

I am hoping this letter finds you well, and that sometime soon I shall see you at the Academy – I haven’t been able to spend all that much time at the Academy as of late, as I have been traveling with the Adventurers’ Guild, but I am currently in the city and will try to visit you before we leave for the desert outpost.

Sincerely,
Ëlinyr