Middlin’ Muddlin’
Dear Book,
Spending time with T’Shira Rhuill has been a welcome break from my new adventuring life. She serves as a reminder of exactly what it is I’m doing all this adventuring for. People like her who are just trying to live their lives in this chaotic world that we find ourselves part of, where things like Primals and minor deities walk the earth and wreak havoc and war upon one another. I’m glad that she’s safe in Sharlayan now, instead of a place like Ul’dah. Tora’a Honi and I have run into more than our fair share of trouble there, so I wouldn’t want Shira to run across any of that. Her near-brush with a dagger-wielding thief was enough.
I’m still muddling my way through my time with The Seventh Chantry, the Free Company I’ve been doing work for. It’s still kind of this amorphous entity that I know very little of. I mostly just do whatever assignments that V’ari brings to my doorstep like a stray cat. I don’t yet feel like a cohesive part of the team or group or whatever. I just kind of feel like this hangers-on.
In an effort to get to know at least one of them, I invited Valeria Camena to join Shira and I for lunch one afternoon. We’re all relatively the same age, so I thought maybe we might make good friends for one another. Or at least let Valeria have a break from her responsibilities and her troubles. Boy, does she have a lot of them, you could just tell by the look on her face. The more we talked about her problems, the further and further she wilted.
And then that idiot, Edgard Beaumont had to show up. I think I’d rather go back to Ul’dah for a moon than spend any length of time with that puffed-up popinjay of an elezen. I swear, he thinks he’s the Twelves’ gift to Mankind who claims to be the Best at Everything. Nobody likes a braggart, Edgard. In fact, nobody likes YOU, Edgard. Except your wife, maybe. Though I’m not sure how she stands it.
Shira and I decided between us that we want to try and take Valeria away from her worries more often, we’ll see if Valeria’s actually agreeable to the notion. She doesn’t seem to like to get close to anyone, keeping me and Shira at arm’s length. I don’t see anyone keeping Shira at bay for long, though. Me, I might not have the patience to wade through a bunch of ‘I’m a lone wolf’ nonsense. If someone wants to be alone all the damn time then that’s on them. I’ll try, though, because it’ll pave the path forward with getting to know more of the Chantry. If it doesn’t work out, well, nothing’s lost.
I’ll be returning to Ul’dah so I can help Tora’a finish up this job for his antique dealer, then hopefully we won’t see that desert hellscape for a while. I don’t know where we’ll go after that, but anywhere will be better than Twelve-accursed Ul’dah.
