The Lion and the Lady - [Edwina Arcastle]

[Mailbox-2100]

The Lion and the Lady
Edwina Arcastle

*Following are excerpts from a personal journal...

9/29/773
 Mother, Father, If only you could be here now- but you're gone, never to return, but to linger in heart and memory, forever.

The land is rife with terror and peril, and If I am to be honest, I could never dream to overcome it alone; But I am not alone. These realms are cursed, and so too, perhaps all of its denizens. It is a mystery, but if there is a way... then we will find it. Together.

[Mailbox-2100]

Edwina Arcastle

9/30/773
 It was raining when we met, and it still is; so we learned to dance in it, all the same.
Home is so far away, yet its everywhere I go. Just a manner of dreaming. Things don't really change, only we do.. where all the wonder once was didn't simply vanish, it only changed. And that is fantastic, if something of a mystery. It means that no matter where you go, or what you do, the best things in life are never behind you, but always before you. It means we shouldn't get stuck in ways of thinking, or behaving, craving and yearning for a glory that has passed. We should seek, we should endeavor, we should pray.. and under any circumstance, we should never, ever give up the hope for a better day.

 The Gang grows, and I am reminded of Gullyport, where I spent the beginning of what would become my adult life... So far and away from the life I lived under my parent's tutelage. Thankfully, they prepared me for what would prove an existential crisis. I made mistakes. I broke hearts. I had mine broken. But here I am. One piece, from the fragments of so many broken dreams. And there's more to come.

 This may not be the world I was born to, but it is the one I inherited, and while I draw breath, I will fight- for glory. Till death do us part.

Trust.

10/01/773
 By the blood of Christ, I am made whole. Thank you mother, thank you father. Lord, forgive my sins, and cleanse my transgression... may I keep the faith, forever. For while the hearts of men grow weary and won't, You prove faithful, eternal. My rock, my sword, my blood. Amen.

[Mailbox-2100]

10/3/773 I record this now a few days past... I've been recovering ever since.
One evening, when returning from an unsolved mystery, we encountered what quickly revealed itself to be a vampire accosting a young girl outside the Lady's Rest. The poor girl was frozen in fear, when Private Nicusor, off duty that evening, tried to play his hand to free the damsel. My compatriots and I assumed a tactical posture, in case things came to blows.. and surely, they did. The vampire, growing weary of Nicusor's tirade, attacked him with arcane missiles, when I began volleying the vampire from behind, and quickly dispatched her.



 As she dispersed into smoke, I realized, apart from Amelia and private Nicusor, I was the only one to act. A fact that would play into what has taken me so long to record these happenings.
The next evening, the gang and I were spending the evening outside the Morning Lord Temple (unwisely...). When from the moonless night a voice cut our conversation short...



 I didn't even have time to shout a warning- she attacked with merciless rending black tentacles. I only had time to react, and just managed to remove myself from the kill zone, which enveloped everyone else. I managed to get inside, and ask for aid- but the damage was done. Mercifully, my friends were returned, with more damage to their psyche than actual being. And though I was spared a trip through the aether, I am left to reflect on what could have been a much more dire circumstance.

Stela... She missed me, but not really. If my friends would to be preyed upon in my stead.. I leave the notion unfinished, for the grief it instills in me.

[Mailbox-2100]

10/8/773  I was once a Wayfarer.. and the lessons learned then, serve me well now.
Barovia. The Core. These old realms of dread. I've been a captive here for the better part of two years, and still more souls irrevocably find their way here, prey to the malign entities that haunt just beyond sight, and only fleetingly through thought. I have faced these entities, and I like to think I am preparing for a time when all I have achieved will face a final judgement. Where I will find my purpose, in life- or in death. Whichever it may be, I pray for release from these nightmares. It is not that I cannot sleep.. it is that I cannot wake up.

  My friends.. their training goes well. They grow in strength and knowledge by the day, yet.. is it enough? I cannot doubt. I must only, and ever- act. That is how I was taught, and it has served me well. May my hand be strong, and my love eternal. Father, to you is the power, and the glory, and wisdom, and strength. May I mete just your perfect measure.

And honor my mother and father...

Amen.

[Mailbox-2100]

11/19/773...Praise the Lord.

We may be lost, but we are ever on the way.
Cristan gave me a 'cats-eye' gem, he called it. Its pretty; So is he, when he chances to smile.
God the gang has grown. They can hold their own now... I dreamed of this day. Maybe we stand a chance of whats to come.

Who am I kidding? of course we do.

A coward is someone whose died before their heart stops beating; but we can get back up while we're still alive.

  May your grace be upon us, Lord...

This war has claimed many... friends.. family... but we survive. We fight, and inch by inch, we prevail.

[Mailbox-2100]

11/25/773   I am an Intercessor. Though I wasn't born that way. I was raised as nobility, where I'm from. My father was a powerful magician, my mother was just powerful. Thats how you got me. They were killed in the Shadow War when I was still young, seventeen, but me and my brother escaped, with what blessings we had been afforded by then. My budding mana allowed us to travel far and undetected. Magic wasn't so common, there, in the kingdom. In Dagonia. Not among the lower classes. Always exceptions, I suppose.

   I grew up in Amerillys, though. Kind of an urchin along my little brother, except for my magic. He had his too... it quickly got out of hand. We had a gang and everything. We weren't bad, not really. Just thieves. Between you and me. Lost our way, you might say. But things came to a head when we crossed the local Syndicate. Wasn't trying to or nothing. These things just seem to happen when you're up to no good at their expense. Even if they just say so. They hit us hard. We were well prepared, though. It wasn't enough, we had to cut a retreat, only me and my brother escaped; again.

   Thats how we ended up, here.

   At first I wanted nothing more than to get home, no matter the cost, but somehow... I found my religion again. How my mother and father raised me. Under a covenant of God. Righteous and holy, and blessed, surely. I see it now more then ever. The curse that hangs over the land, the affliction of the people. How blind we have become. We cannot even see our true nature. We walk like parasites instructing us. Zombies. The dead walk and even worse, run. Some of them fly, too. Magic is strong here. It allows us incredible feats- and we will need no less, for I have seen it. Felt it. A pulse, something yet to come. Those sensitive to the ethereal often detect disturbances before hand. I pray to God we are prepared.

[Mailbox-2100]

  She returned as she often left, in a storm. Rain and thunder and lightning bathed Barovia in its worst for wear. And among that devastation she traveled- until appearing at a familiar sign, on a nearby road, she smiled as lightning flashed- and her blue eyes danced.

"Once again."

[Mailbox-2100]

[A painting of a psychedelic lion fills a binder]

05/27/774...I saw the Lord in a lion.
As well as a lamb.
As well as a man.

   Praise be to God, in Jesus Christ name.
 I minister your gospel, as I am commanded, Lord. "But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel."

 You would we were all in your kingdom of glory. And some day we all shall be. I await this day with confidence, and look toward those without salvation among the throng. I am stunned and awed at what you would have me do. What I have done. I am with no want for talents. Forgive my failings, and break me from the yoke of curses and unclean familiar spirits. May your awesome power manifest and be holy, and righteous, and glorified. Until we may join together in song and dance, for your sanctification, in Jesus Christ name, eternal God.

 Give us eyes to see, Lord! And ears to hear. And a heart after you Lord, wherever it may call us.

Amen

Spoiler: show

f