28 Maius: Kun’s march reaches the town of Kuan Shui on the banks of the River Marsden. He learns that Wojin has been removed from the throne and deliberates traveling to Danfon, but decides to continue his pursuit of the Shades.
29 Maius: Kun finds signs of the Shades’ westward march.
30 Maius: Mag and Albern guess the Shades are making for the Sunmane Pass. They devise a plan to catch them in the Greenfrost, and Kun approves it. Tou’s company splits off from the main force and marches hard to catch the Shades.
YUNIS
3 Yunis: Kaita and Tagata first catch sight of Kun’s army pursuing them.
4 Yunis: Tou’s company ambushes the Shades in the Greenfrost. The Shades retreat north to the hills.
5 Yunis: The bulk of Kun’s force catches up to Tou’s company before dawn. Mag and Albern scout the hills to find the Shades. Second battle between the Shades and Kun’s army. The Shades retreat into the tunnels beneath the hills. Mag and Albern disobey orders and find the Shades. They return to tell Kun.
6 Yunis: Kun leads his force into the tunnels after the Shades. The Shades circle around underground and attack the Mystic camp. Zhen, Kun’s nephew, is killed. The Shades retreat west. Mag, Albern, Dryleaf, and Yue flee the Mystics. Mag is killed by Kaita but rises again, and Albern learns her secret. Mag and Albern kill Kaita together.
7 Yunis: Mag, Albern, Dryleaf, and Yue set out to find Loren.
The Lord resurrects Kaita as a shadeborn.
NOTES FROM THE SHADE HIDEOUT IN LAN SHUI
Being a selection of some of the notes kept by Dellek, the Shade captain, in the Dorsean town of Lan Shui during their experiment to summon vampires to attack the town.
* * *
2 Septis
1. I have reached Lan Shui. Preparations have begun ahead of my coming, but things are slightly behind schedule. My first order of business shall be to get things back on track so that we are ready to begin our real work the instant Father gives us the order.
* * *
9 Septis
1. The cauldron has been procured. That constable, Sinshi, nearly ruined everything as we were smuggling it into the town. He came stumping about, asking what was in our wagon. Fortunately, he was witless enough to believe the driver when she said it was only a stack of empty barrels. The people of this town are lazy and careless. They will not be for long.
The cauldron’s arrival is ahead of schedule, but we are still understocked on blood. What we have now will not even fill it halfway. I have had an idea I wish to explore further. In the lands outside this town, there are many farms and homesteads. They are well away from the walls and inhabited by solitary folk. Often they do not see anyone else for days. With careful study and planning, some of them could be harvested. There is the matter of storage and transport, but we still have our alchemists who created the ritual chamber. The main problem is quantity. Together with the shipments that are reported to be arriving soon, we would need some dozens more. I am not sure so many can be found in this area.
I will pursue this matter further.
* * *
14 Septis
1. I may have found our first candidate. An old man named Grist, who lives some hours southwest of Lan Shui. He has no family nearby, and he is of an independent kind. His farm is enough to feed him with little left over, and so he rarely comes to town for anything. I am leaving an agent to monitor him and ensure there will be no surprises, while I and some others will look for more.
After reflecting on this for some days, I believe I may need to start harvesting soon. I cannot be sure when the Lord will give his order, but I suspect the time is imminent. Strange disturbances and disappearances in the area may be suspicious, but we do not have an eternity to wait. With the Shades at my disposal, we can harvest only a few people each night. It may take as long as a week to collect all the blood necessary to begin the ritual in earnest.
I will think upon this further. For now I will simply continue to identify future candidates, and learn as much about them as possible. When we do strike, there will be no surprises.
* * *
15 Septis
1. I am going to kill that idiot, Aldo.
He has been the one in charge of determining the right amount of magestone to use in the cauldron’s cooking fire. We are, of course, rather desperately short on magestones, and I impressed this fact upon him very thoroughly. The Lord has sent word that we should be receiving a new (and plentiful) shipment of them soon, but for now there are only a precious few dozen. It has been Aldo’s job to investigate their properties as they pertain to the ritual. The stones are, of course, exceedingly flammable, but their use for our current purpose is hardly codified.
Well, Aldo overdid it, as is his wont.
Apparently he was unsatisfied with the size of the darkfire flames he had built, for he added two more magestones. They burned straight through the bottom of the cauldron. Thank the sky it only had a pint or two of blood in it, or I really would kill him.
But more important than the lost blood is the cauldron itself. It is completely ruined now. Libet acted quickly and used her magic to shear off the bottom section of the cauldron before the darkfire could spread to the top—and badly singed two of her fingers doing it. Thank the sky the darkfire did not catch in her skin. I would not enjoy explaining to Trisken how I lost one of his alchemists.
Even though Libet
