Our encounter with Axelotl gave me much upon which to meditate. I found myself getting very angry with that man. But he was not mine to fight. I did not fight him so the anger still burns.

I sat with this anger for quite a while. The anger did not diminish but a peace came over me nonetheless. I realized that some things, some people are deserving of our anger, of rage even.

This means that the problem is not my rage. The problem is what to target with my rage. I know that it was wrong for me…

Dear Diary,

Axelotl is an incredible idiot and entirely wrong about almost everything. He's going to lead his bandit like locusts until they've devoured everything weaker than themselves, and then they'll devour each other. I don't need to be able to see the future to see that coming. 

He's a little bit right about a couple of things, though. We both have power. He's conflated power and strength, and thing that having power gives him the right to take from those that don't. What him nearly…

Dear Diary,

Tomorrow I'm going to let Axolotl chop off my head. Well, "let" is a strong word. It's more that I expect to fail to be able to prevent the chopping. Also, it's not entirely clear which bits of me he'll chop off, but I rather expect that they'll be sizeable and fairly important.

My real hope is that I'll be able to negotiate with him. He's not unreasonable.

Okay, he's not always entirely unreasonable. He has ideals and aspirations, and he's always more open to new ideas after he's…

Hey Son,

So I found your diary. You should hide it way better. Get a pocket dimension or something. 

Don't worry I didn't read it. Your lovesick poetry or whatever is safe. Seriously, though, a diary? That's what bards are for. You have a bard, a good one. Get her to write down your shit. It'll be way better, trust me. Besides, you're a big damned hero whether you like it or not, and heroes do. Other people write about it.

Ah shit, there I go again. I'm not trying to tell you to be like me, or…

So I don't know basically anything about music or, as it turns out, magic. But I do listen when people say things to me.

If I understand it right, Satrine is a song. Or at least she's the physical embodiment of a song. She doesn't sing the song, so much as the song sings her. If that's right, Odam, Avitu, and Partashah are like three movements of that song. 

What I'm wondering is if it's possible to change the song, make it a lullaby instead of a march, or something like that. Someone told me…

Dear Diary,

I think I get it now, why my parents do really stupid things. Tia, too. They keep finding... putting themselves in situations where doing nothing isn't an option. 

That's where the town is now. If we don't do something, the town will be swallowed by spiders, devoured by monsters, crushed by bandits, or all three. 

The problem with seeing the future, is that I can see all the possibilities and it's paralyzing. Every time the wind blows or I take a step, the branches change, so my…

Dear Diary,

For a couple of spontaneous and creative people, Mallow and Tails can be terribly predictable. They're like a pair of loaded dice. Ugh.

So they're cursed, or blessed, or gifted, or whatever. They're part of it. Now we have to worry that if we kill Avitu, it's going to impact them, as well. Great. Like this wasn't already over-complicated. 

That's mostly their own problem to deal with, though. Probably. Hopefully.

My current concern is Celendrial. I have something that might help her,…

At the last minute I chose not to go through with Avitu’s elevation ritual. I had allowed myself to get swept up in my emotions. The discovery about Malu -- or the lack of Malu, Celendrial’s illness, my fear for Mallow and Priscilla, my love of this town and my fear for it. But as Avitu lowered me under the water, all my hasty decisions and incorrect assumptions flashed through my mind. When I ran away from my tribe instead of talking to them. When I assumed there was something living inside of…