:::sits outside on the porch, within hearing range of Sinister, since he has chosen to remain in her home and pulls out her journal, ink, and quill, setting to write::::

I cant believe Im a slave. For a week...thank the Gods its only for a week. Sinister snores louder than any man, or beast Ive ever heard in my life! When this is done...its done. Im no longer married to the Imp...and Im free once again.

:::thinks about Ben:::

I havent left the cabin in the past two days. I dont know what to think about Taelie...men in general. Seems like everytime I find one that I do truly like...their there in the beginning and then just disappear on me. Perhaps Id be better off just staying alone.I understood the point Ben was trying to get across...it just really hurt me that he was so uncaring in the way he chose to say it to me. It made me feel ignorant, like I was hanging on for nothing.

*sighs* Maybe I should just go and join a convent. I dont know. I give up.

~Lyrias{Sin}~

:::sighs and lets the journal air dry as she hears Sinister yell from her bed for a glass of water, and stands to go and get it for him before returning to hide her journal once again:::

--Journal entry 1 October, Lyrias Dreams

*she sits in the quiet Dome and begins to write*

Alright, so Vrax isn't mad at me. But guess what? He's mad at Larc...mad at him for being a friend. I think it was a wonderful gift and I see nothing wrong with it. Jane gave me a gift that was just about as much as his. Does it matter what the gender is?

*She frowns as she writes this*

Yes I guess so to him, but to me he is just a friend and nothing more. Oh well...Vrax will get over this when he sees me and Larc haven't done anything and won't be any time soon. I am starting a family with him..why would I want to hurt that?

--Journal entry 1 October, Tiger Goddess

"she looks out the window at the raging storm and sighs as she closes the shutters back and sits down at the desk and opens the journal and begins to write"

How much longer will we have to be holed up in this house? Raging winds and rain we cant leave the house. If we tried we would likely get blowed away. Im glad we got the shopps boarded up in time before this hit the Isle.

"she cringes as she hears Mia and Alkane running and screaming through the house" The children are tired of being cooped up here as well. The sounds of the wind and rain wakes them up earlier every day.

I wonder how many will survive this. Ah well they all had plenty warning the Typhoon was headed this way. If they didnt prepare for it its their own fault.

"hears Marissa crying and rises to go check on her, leaving the journal open so the ink will dry"

--Journal entry 4 October, Vixen Blade

:: Sits at the small desk in the back of the shope and takes a small piece of parchment and quil in hnad she begins to write::

I do hope My Master and Lady Mags and all the others fare well I have been all but traped in my masters shop since the storm hit the isle. I ran down to board up the windows and see that all was secure and the storm hit before I could return to the house... I fear my master may think I have run away ...

:: hears the wind whipping about the building furiously and shivers tho protected from the wind and rain::

I pray the storm will be over soon I long for a hot bath and change of clothes and I wish to make sure all is well at the house...

--Journal entry 5 October, Jasmin Rose

~she wanders the halls of her darkened home, the candles flickering wraith-like in the brackets along the walls. Stepping into her bed chamber, the canaries hop about on their perches, twittering anxiously. She makes sure that the shutters are snug, tightly nailed shut. Shivering a little in the cold air, she goes downstairs to the kitchen pouring herself a cup of hot tea from the kettle. She moves to the study, curling into an armchair before the hearth, tucking a blanket around herself warmly before picking up her journal to write, her face pale, her eyes large and dark~

How I hate storms. I've never seen anything like this. The wind roars like a beast, and the rain pounds so hard I wake in the night terrified that windows will blow in and the roof will collapse, letting the demon inside. I keep to myself mostly. I've sequestered myself to the study, only coming out now and again to be sure all of the windows are safely nailed, that there are no leaks from the roof, and to retrieve small meals and some tea.

I have a midget staying with me. She's quiet, but helpful. I'm glad of her. Before the storm struck, the midgets were bringing me stores of water and dried foods and other supplies. I begged them to see to themselves first but their priorities are clear. Misplaced loyalties, I fear. Now I worry for their lives. Any on their ship are surely doomed, and I don't know if anyone else would offer them shelter. I wish I could have gotten more inside with me. I'm failing them as Queen. I never got the chance to talk to the SSAG about how they're being treated before this struck...

I worry for the others, like Ben. I hope they're alright. My shop has been protected. The midgets did as much last week while I was away as a surprise. They say they can "smell these things".

More waiting yet. We don't have Mairin back in our arms. Sometimes I think I hear her rapping on the shutters, I hear her voice begging me to let her in. I'm afraid...one day I may open one of the windows. Is Lina right? Am I driving myself mad? Some days it seems like it. This storm will surely drive me to insanity if it lasts much longer. I feel like a ghost, like I don't really exist here, I'm just haunting these halls.

I wonder if Alterio feels as tormented as I do. I wonder if he hears her voice in the wind. He should. He's forsaken her. I pray that if we get her back, she can help him to see his errors so at last we can be rid of all the deliberate misfortune he's allowed to occur with his ties to Mumphra. He seems brainwashed yet. If nothing gives, if there's no let-up, then I'm afraid of what I may be forced to do.

This storm has given root to many dark thoughts and plots. With Mairin back, I'm sure I will be myself once more. I cling to that thought as my one assurance. As the wind rattles through the eaves, I hear the whisperings of the unjust and corrupt that would see this island made so, and I know I can't let Mairin be brought back to that. She can't know her sacrifice was in vain.

But as I hear her cries and her fists pounding on the shutters, I wonder if she will ever be herself again. Surely one cannot be unaffected by such an event, and such a long stay in someone else's dreams...especially Alterio's.

~she shuts her eyes slowly, hand lingering over the page, that fear weaving itself tightly round her heart until the quill drops from her fingers gradually as she drifts into a restless slumber~

--Journal entry 5 October, Jane Maichen

:::sighs as she sits in the empty dome, waiting for the rains to let up just enough for her to go home again...to her....Master:::

Almost through....I am almost done with wearing this collar..being married to that Imp. I am almost through with it all. I cant wait. Sinister snores loud enough to wake the Gods themselves. And this storm...all the noise. Ill be glad when its all over. No light in the home besides the candles. I need sunlight, fresh air, my freedom! I cannot remain chained so. It goes against every natural thing I was ever given.

:::her face brightens as for the second day in a row, she sees Taelie enter the dome:::

I dont know how he got here. Im sure it had to have been before the typhoon hit. Im so glad to see him once again! At least this is a ray of sunshine in this bleak and beaten Isle. I've spent every free moment I have with him. He will still be leaving again soon, and, it comforts me to have even these few moments with him.

:::watches the storm outside rage on and on:::

Everything is boarded up. The shoppes, the homes..the dome. We're all trapped in tightly closed homes and businesses. I swear Im losing my mind. The constant beating of the rain and the wind upon everything...the whole slave issue with Sinsiter. What if its another trick? What if he doesnt let me out of this collar? What if he doesnt divorce me from the Imp? How can my life have turned so completely upside-down? *sighs* I just....I want my life back. I want control over my own life again.

~Lyrias{Sin}

::tired and even more disconsolate now, she curls up and falls fast asleep, leaving the journal opened to dry::::

--Journal entry 7 October, Lyrias

*sits in the Dome hoping Vrax wasn't on his way home on a ship when the typhoon hit*

It's bad enough I have to sit in the Dome all day because my home is kind of open and water logged. It's worse that Vrax is gone and I have no idea if he was still on the mainland when the typhoon hit.......*she closes her eyes and wipes them before writing* or if he was on his way home. Im sure he's fine, and I'm just being a worry wort as always but, what if he isn't alright? Argh, I'm going crazy! I have no where to go, no one to talk to! I hope this storm will end soon, I'd like to see where all my stuff flew off to.... *She frowns and lets the ink dry before closing the journal shut*

--Journal entry 7 October, Tiger Goddess

~laying a fine linen cloth atop the basket she's packed, she stops, her eyes falling on her journal. She takes a seat at her desk a moment to write some of her thoughts down~

Stupid! How stupid it was! I nearly killed him. Dear gods, I nearly took the man's life, and unintentionally, at that! I was angry...he'd assaulted my people again, and then had professed to own me. I had thought I'd gotten my agressions out during the little poetry session, but no, I was still smoldering. And then with the rye...a potent drink, and I just don't drink. All of my anger and drink mixed together, and then Neo's suggestion to put him in the catapult... And I readily agreed, because I'm an idiot that let my self-control go. I'm NEVER to lose control of myself, and now I have a prime example as to why that is! I do learn my lessons well and hard...really hard.

What's wrong with me lately? First I send Mairin hurtling into a volcano, and now I nearly kill Alt...possibly Mai's only chance of coming back to us. I only thank Khlamar that I got to him in time to save his life. Granted, that doesn't make up for what I did, but at least he didn't die like Riena and Wesley. I wouldn't be able to take it if he had. I didn't ultimately fail this time. Maybe this is a lesson for me?

Yes, a lesson in how utterly dense I can be at times! Damn my temper, anyhow. He can't see, he's blind...his eyes couldn't be perfectly healed. It was an impossibility. I only hope it's temporary. I'll see to him, though. I'll go to the manor every day if I must and personally see that he fully recovers. I can make ammends for this. I can, this is one thing in my life that I can fix.

I know I can fix it, because in my night of prayer and self-loathing, the idea suddenly came to me that this is why I became a Healer over a Fighter in the first place: to make ammends for the pain I've caused. And I will make up for this, pay my restitution, fork over 3000 gold pieces, and most importantly, I'll make sure Alterio is in full working order once more. Perhaps it was a message from Khlamar. Who knows?

Khlamar may forgive me. Alterio may, also. He doesn't even seem to really know what happened. Those are the only two people of consequence. If others are angry...well, they've a right to it, but I don't need their forgiveness. Whose forgiveness do I need most? My own. But that will only come if I CAN fix this. I never meant to hurt him like that...but then again, I wasn't thinking at all last night. I could point out that he tried to kill me once, that he had us all posted for death for trying to save him, that he'd been cruel to the midgets, that he threatened to cut out Sirrala's tongue...but no two wrongs equal a right. I am at fault, and now I must pay.

Remorsefully,
Jane Shayla Maichen

~she wraps herself warmly in a thick, fur-lined hunter green cloak she always wore while living in the north. Plucking up her basket of Satin Flower for tea for stiffness, Red Cole salve for muscle aches, Eyebright compresses to help with his sight, and Lycium berries for tea to help with his sight, as well, she pulls the hood over her hair, fighting fatigue, and sets out to Carazzi Manor~

--Journal entry 8 October, Jane Maichen