Entry 15: The Reliquary

77th Day of Spring

   I couldn't sit around much longer. I'd been conscious for four days already with no tweaks of pain or other signs of injury aside from headaches, but the medic assigned to me refused to let me out of my bed. What I admit was most surprising about the medic was that I was surprised to be surprised to see them. But, given Goblins' somewhat explosive reputation, I suppose that having medics on hand are pretty important in their...professions.

   Either way, I left Fuselight yesterday and made my way towards the Reliquary camp that had been set up on a cliff near to the ruin. I managed to sneak past the tinkers about an hour or two before dawn, who seem to work throughout the night on ever more things that explode, on shifts, like keeping everyone from sleeping was the most important thing in the world, and after a couple more hours I was at the camp. It didn't take too much in the way of convincing; when I told them that I had been to the Tomb of the Watchers, the other ruin nearby, they just naturally assumed that I hadn't caused a cave-in and allowed me to join them. We're setting off down there tomorrow, and they say that the expedition will take a couple of days. Apparently they go down there for a few days each week, collect field notes and any artifacts they can find, then come back up to the surface to sort them, sketch out the items, and write out more detailed notes based on overall findings.

   I have a great growing passion for this sort of thing, but I don't believe that I have any sort of academic mind. I'd love to join the Reliquary if just to set foot into numerous ancient ruins, and handle these incredibly old artifacts that no one has used or even touched in an infathomable length of time. But I don't think I could offer anything to any research. I can't keep my mind focused on one thing for long enough. Even as I travel through these lands, and try to take it all in, I'm still thinking about where to go next, and what that place is like.

   I thought I knew a lot about the world - how it looked, the landmarks, the history. But it seems that I know more about what the world used to be rather than what it is. I'm coming across landscapes that I had never thought possible, like this dusty place, and places that are incredibly diseased and dying, and they are all either products of natural chaos, or of sentient beings.

   I'm enjoying the lessons I'm gaining from my travels, but I'm beginning to feel more and more that I'm in over my head and had expected the world to be rainbows and rabbits from the off. But I still wouldn't return if I had the chance. I'm sure I will in time, but that won't be yet. I need to educate myself on how the world works, what its become in recent years, which have surely seen the most drastic and sudden changes, and just exactly how to defend myself. I've picked up plenty of things from people in towns and settlements (though nothing that could help me combat a cave-in), and I'm gradually feeling a little more confident. As I'm sure you can tell from my hasty decision to run into another ruin, which, I'm told, most definitely has denizens.

   Still, I'm finding the prospect of danger more and more exciting.

-- Atherya Sunleaf