Three Twisted Knots

Well. I was wearing something from sithen stores the last time Aoibheann and I went up to the demon island, so I didn’t realise that when Galyanna said my magic would be affected … it would really be affected. Aoibh left something up there, and so we went up to look for it, but as she started looking, I realised all my clothing had disintegrated. Poor Nathaniel will be sorry he missed it, but I was a bit mortified. Galyanna just had the seamstress grab me something — and it was… well.

Aoibheann had offered me a towel, but I took the dress instead. I looked like a gypsy kid on her way to first communion. Well, except the little roses didn’t light up, and I’m not planning on becoming a bride of Christ any time soon…

Aoibheann didn’t even know what it was she’d lost. She said she’d remember it when she saw it. Now, I could get irritated with her, but the fact is I’m used to this. Aoibheann is my best friend, and she … well, she forgets stuff. So I started asking her questions like, big or small, hard or soft, that kind of thing.

Galyanna reminded us that we’d been near the bathing springs last time we’d visited; maybe we should concentrate our search there. So, dutifully, we went over to the springs and I started in with the questions again.

Aoibheann said it was small and soft, but couldn’t answer as to whether it was worn or carried. Then she asked if ‘he found her’. I couldn’t follow, so I asked if she was talking about Gwythyr. But no; she was back on to Daimon again, and the white stag. I reminded her that things got fuzzy in Jasper and I was really sleepy around that time. I kept nodding off in the bar and I’d come downstairs and discover that somehow I’d been sleeping for a week.

Then Aoibh said that no, it wasn’t the white stag, but something Daimon was looking for when he first came to Jasper. About that, I knew nothing. Galyanna piped up and said she couldn’t help; she never went to Jasper, because she was in hell at the time.

Now, I never believed in Hell. I didn’t know what kind of hell Galyanna might be referring to, so I asked her. She said she’d tell me about hell if I ever wanted to ask, but after the children had gone to bed, please. I’m continually amazed at all these children on an island with demons. It makes me giggle now.

Apparently, at one point Daimon threatened to feed me to a bear? I do not remember this. This journal entry is very disjointed, but then that’s how I felt in Jasper, and that’s how I felt right then as well.

Then, Aoibheann started talking about Llwyd, and wondering if he’d ever recover. I tried to reassure her, telling her they were doing all they could for him.

Galyanna seemed interested at that: she asked what form the illness took, and I explained it to her as well as I could, that it was a mystical ailment of some kind.

Aoibheann started to cry, thinking about it all. I just held her, while listening both to her and Galyanna. Galyanna suggested that Llwyd maybe had some ailment called ‘necrosis’, that she demonstrated by bringing a black cloud of magic around herself. I was afraid to go near it; it felt terrible. I do know something new about Galyanna, though: she has some level of magic. I’ll put that in the back of my head in case I need it later.

I think … I think Aoibheann somehow needed that cry. I think maybe she didn’t lose anything at all. I think maybe she feels safe up there with Galyanna, somehow distanced from everything else. Safe enough to cry.

And I have new information to bring back to Queen Saone now, new information about a thing called necrosis and the possibility that maybe Galyanna could help, if only Queen Saone hadn’t threatened to kill her on sight the next time she was within spitting distance of the sithen. Maybe Aislyn could help. Maybe Blaise could help. Not the two of them together, of course: that’s a train wreck I’ll talk about later.