- See also: Still Ruins
Codex text
24 Harvestmere
A pair of hunters arrived today from the Western Approach. They carried a third between them, unconscious. The hunters found the man wandering the Approach. He collapsed at their feet before they could learn his identity. The rough stories you hear, I'm surprised they didn't slit his throat and call it mercy. Instead, they lay him alongside their prizes and took him from that place.
Serise forced him to swallow water with a mixture of herbs. Alain says he will show me how to make it tomorrow.
26 Harvestmere
Serise and Alain left the patient to my care. They believe the man will die, so what harm could I do?
Still, I prepare the herbs with care. I do what I can to make him comfortable. The man murmurs in his sleep. Something about there being no wind. I would open the window, but the air is chill, and I fear it would weaken him.
5 Firstfall
My patient opened his eyes.
"Varghest took the rest. Then I found it. Everything so still. There was no wind." He seemed quite intent.
"In the Western Approach?" I asked.
"Oh, a soldier..."
This last about the figurine I placed on his bedside table for Satinalia. Foolish, but I thought it might cheer him.
8 Firstfall
My patient took a simple meal. Speaking wearies him, but he tried.
"Everything was so still. There was no wind."
I told him that sounded peaceful. His eyes widened in fear.
"The demons were still there."
I tried to comfort him, but he was desperate to explain the disturbing images in his mind. Later, I saw him staring at the little soldier. "They couldn't move," he murmured. I said I could take the toy away, but he shook his head.
20 Firstfall
Serise and Alain declared my patient well enough to travel. He left before I returned from visiting my sister.
I suspect his "still ruins" were a delusion brought on by his trials in the Approach, but I will never know. I wish I could have said goodbye. Serise says he took the soldier with him. Perhaps it was a comfort after all.
—From the journal of Nicolette Envers, healer's apprentice