Ayla

Aeruthuil follows the thin stream down the small hill before stopping finally at a sudden clearing amid the large forest. With a sigh he looks around, frowning before sudden footfalls reach his ear. With a slight turn of his head he glances over to where the sound had come from and smiles when Laayla steps out from the shadows.
He is soon met with the brightest smile he had ever seen before and he bows his head slightly.

There was a merry feast at the hall organized by the new Captain and I must say I rather enjoyed it. I rather liked the look of the new quartermaster I must say but the wedding band upon her finger soon put to bed any notions that I might be having about making the evening any more merry afterwards. Still, she was a welcome sight compared to the hulking brutes which sat nearest to me and I remember there being much mead and an exquisite boar. Perhaps I should have asked this woman to cater for my own feast to come?

((The lettering is crisp, clear, and fluid, it was obvious it was not written by Ayla's hand. The page sits under a grave marker.))

I suppose you are half-expecting to read that there has been another significant jump in time given the content of the last page but I must dissappoint you. I am here in my study, quill in hand.

What have I gone and done? It is as if all sanity left me, took on a form of it's own and uttered the words I have so carefully tried to conceal. It was as if I were on the outside, watching this unfold through a window, time slowed, agonizingly slow, and I hammered my fists upon thickened glass, trying to break through and stop the madness that was unraveling afore me. What was I thinking of? What possessed me?

The wisdom the Dalesman had shared with me played on my mind for days. I had left his house both disappointed with the fact he would not intervene and ask Taala to change her mind about letting me attend their post wedding celebration. I was also utterly disappointed with myself, even Eroforth seemed to detect that I was growing ever more attached to my childhood friend. We were not children any more, but men and women who had both seen our fair share of trials and tribulations, and I was becoming more and more moved by his.

My intent to leave our relationship in the past did not go so well. I did call upon the Variag after a chance encounter in the Inn and I awoke in a strange bed. Since she put to voice my fears through observation I find my desire to retreat grow stronger. I have been spending my days simply surveying my operation and keeping a closer eye upon my guardsmen and caravan drivers as they make their local shipments and me turning up unannounced as I have without warning seems to have forced them to up their game.

I know not what to say, twice now have I expected damaging confrontations. I write hastily to sum up goings on because although my work is diminishing it is not yet diminished enough for my tastes. 

Potentially wounding words there might have been and at least some form of anger or reprisal directed my way and twice I have been disappointed by my expectations. A good thing, you might say.

My days are long. Gradually there seems to be developing some order among the chaos. I even found the time to interview a charming lady yestereve with regards to taking on some of my burden. Playing catch up as I am with the company accounts.