[RPG] [BT][KoA] Altheda, heading home...

[Kimberly Amthor]

/In transit from Irombro to Eno/, /Altheda takes a few moments to
translate thought to parchment/, /for her journal/...

10 solitary archers, attacked by Kazm and a horde of 90+ cavalry...the
entire unit destroyed.  Now, en route to Eno after imprisonment by
Bolkenian patrols...unscathed and unmolested, funds in pocket. I've
received word that my caravans were able to pass into Eno where they
currently await my return. We'll have to move out immediately to make
up for lost time. I don't know what 'other route' Priestess Baiko
intended that I take. I doubt she knows, herself.  Was it a mere
formality?  Were her words spoken out of sympathy for the plight of a
former realmmate...or the knowledge that this former realmmate will
undoubtedly find their way back into her dungeons with another <ink
blot> gold on hand? I am comforted to believe the former.

When we lived together in Umkinnu on the southern isles, Merum once
imparted to me, "There is a peace to be found, Lillian, only on the
other side of war." While his words ring true, and it may be so this
day, it cannot always be so. Someday, Alluran will achieve the peace
for which we all long.  I see now, too, that while a trader may work
under a banner of peace, they must fight just as hard for that peace
as any knight on the field of battle--one reason I do not take up arms
against Irombrozia directly.  This is our battle; the war a trader of
Alluran must wage. Not a war of swords and arrows that limit the
enemy's ability to field a force...but a war of vittles and swift feet
that free the people of Alluran from a sting as equally powerful as
that of any blade.

It is during these quiet moments that my mind does wander...what of
Merum? Is he well? Does he think of me in his adventures?

Alluran keep him.

Alluran keep us all...