The (Intermittant) Journal of Natsuki Hashimoto

4^th Juvax 45

So this is the evening of the day of my arrival, and according to the AI the date is the 4th of Juvax 45, which is the 45th year since the creation of the Pattern here by Tiberius at the end of the Patternfall war, what ever that was.

As I said in yesterday's entry, I only write things in my journal that are significant or out of the ordinary, and the last day, well the passage of a significant number of hours that brings us by the AI's reckoning to what amounts to the end of the day here, has certainly been out of the ordinary.

After the meeting in the library I'd spent some time learning how to use the facilities of the AI to sort out dresses for the balls and some additional general day clothes for my stay here. The clothing styles available are extensive and all appear to be made to measure on demand. Given the hour it was not worth trying to sleep if I was going to "go to breakfast" although I wasn't hungry.

Miss Chan arrived shortly after I did and proceeded to spoon a dozen of the chocolate and cream filled puffed balls left over from the library meeting into a bowl, then smother them in extra pouring cream, before filling a large mug with black coffee. Her idea of what passes for breakfast is obviously somewhat at odds with what the majority of the population would call breakfast. Having taken a few mouthfuls, and satisfied that all those that were attending breakfast were present, she said she'd been thinking on several of the points raised by Joanne at the meeting and that should we wish to gain some further insights we were to be in the library at 4pm which should give her enough time to make suitable arrangements. It was delivered in a very much take or leave it fashon.She then proceeded to leave taking her half-eaten breakfast with her.

By lunchtime local time I was actually hungry, and was pleasantly surprised by the menu, it was almost all oriental in origin, although not significantly Japanese, and no Sushi. It was all well cooked and well flavoured and I was surprised at exactly how hungry I was. Renn, the supposed soldier, then suggested we should go an explore the local town, however he completly failed to understand the directions given by the waitress. It seems there are two towns, a modern town and a medieval town. The modern town is reached by turning left out of the gate and following the road, which is what we ended up doing. The medieval town is reached by turning right out of the gate or rather by taking the righthand path out of the gate where the road joins the cliff edge, which is the directions he was given and failed completely to understand.

After about 3/4 of a kilometer we reached the point at which the road performs a switch back to descend the escarpment. A pedestrian footpath cut the corners off the switch backs allowing pedestrian traffic to take a shorter route down. Faced with a 400m descent on foot Joanne decided to turn back. The rest started the descent and Choki and I tagged along. Above us Casamir circled and stooped.

We entered the area of marked plots along built or partially built roads, and proceeded towards the area that was marked by 3 large buildings. The architecture reminded me very much of home, a strange mix of the modern and traditional oriental build styles, of concrete, glass, steel, black stained timber, carved bamboo screens, and rice paper doors. We located what appeared to be a petrol station but they did not sell petrol. There were electric recharge points and a strange pump with an emblazoned H₂ and a cold hazard warning on it. The attendant said he'd emigrated here 18 months ago in search of a new life and already had a part-time job and a place at the local college. He also said the town have only been here for about 7 years. Indeed the town did look very knew and we'd already passed numerous partially built properties.

With time ebbing away from us and a long return walk ahead of us we returned to the Mansion, with barely enough time to freshen up, change, and make it to the library for Miss Chan's 4 o'clock summons.

She arrived dressed much as she had been yesterday, carrying her sword, and preceeded by Mikato. She then produced a trump from her pocket and explained that we were to traverse the gate as fast as possible, given that she would have to keep it open for all of us to pass through.

Passing through the portal we found ourselves inside the outer enclosing walls of a large fortress. Off to our right was a large building abutting an even larger tower. Emerging from the large doors in the end wall of the building were a group of individuals, headed by a woman in a dress of a style I'm not familiar with. Coredelia and the woman embraced, with what apppeared to be joint affection. Cordelia then turned and introduced her, "Her majestry Queen Madison, Queen of Elysium.", before introducing each of us in turn. She then asked the Queen if her mother was available, something I failed to understand the reasoning for at that time. In fact a large portion of the exchange that followed didn't make any sense, "the Queen asking Cordelia if she'd like her to check", and Cordelia's response of "Yes, and if we could be fetched in the manner in the manner she was at the start of the Rodian War", although it all became very clear several minutes later after the Queen, accompanied by Mikato, and for reasons I didn't understand till later Choki, returned to the building from which she came.

Cordellia now stood as if waiting for something. With nothing else happening I was able to look around. The interior of the castle is quite vast, with numerous other buildings. However, 2 things immediately stood out, a huge mind numbingly black "curtain" - which is the only term I can think of that may come close do describing it - that hung from the sky to the ground to the left of the largest and strangest tower I have ever seen. The actual main body of the tower wasn't strange, it appeared to be some form of cut stone, it was what sat atop it several hundred metres in the air. Again finding the right terms to describe it are difficult, but perhaps the closest would be an opalestent gem, of hues of blue in colour, on a scale matching that of the tower itself.

It was from this "gem" that something resembling tentacles were exuded as we watched and waited. I cannot believe that none did not hear Casamir's shriek of "Logrus Tendrils", but at that point I cannot see how anyone other than Miss Chan would have known what that meant. Several of the others began to back away, before breaking into a run in a futile attempt to flee. My own emotions were in much the same vein, but given Cordelia had arranged this, I doubt if any harm would actually befall us, and resolutely, if very nervously stood my ground. I noted that Cathal did the same.

The tendrils, of what ever substance they were composed of, gentlely but securely gathered us up, and proceeded to withdraw in the direction from which they'd originated. I have to admitt to being petrified at this point, but the tendril held me absolutely firmly, and I do not believe I would have been able to escaped had I wanted to. I braced myself for the imact with the wall of the gem but we passed through as if it were not there at all.

We now found ourselves inside a large pentagonal room with what apeared to be 5 framed somethings that occupied most of each wall. 2 appeared to be huge landscape scenes, one of what I supposed was this castle and its surrounds, and the other of . The other three, I guessed were also of lanscapes, but they were all blurred and greyscale, much imaes from films of pictures on old black and white TV screens suffering from signal interferance and distortiona effects due to the weather. Off to one side apppeared to be a huge building, of obviously "American" sytle, but this was equally as large as any of the buildings in the interior of the castle grounds from which we'd just been transported. As we were lowered to the floor it was easy to observe the intricate geometric mosaic inlaid into its centre, outside of which we were placed, before the tendrils were absorbed into the writhing mass in its centre. The mass then shrunk and became a woman of western descent with black hair in a stunningly beautiful dress of green hue. As soon as the transform was complete, Cordelia moved forward and they embraced in the same manner as she'd previously done with the Queen. She then turned and introduced "Agnetha, The Living Logrus".

We spent the next hour listening to Agnetha recount events from both her past and the Rodian war, and postulate some thoughts as to how the current imbalance in Shadow could be resolved. Whilst intersting in and of itself I couldn't see how any of it related to either myself or the rest of us. Cordelia then indicated he needed to get back, and asked which method we would prefer to return to the castle courtyard, tendril or trump gate. Most of us opted for the trump gate. We then retrieved Mikato, Choki, and Casamir from the "Hall" and thanked the Queen for her hospitality, before returning to the entrance hall of the Mansion via a trump gate initiated by Cordelia.

I had thought this would be an end to the days events, but Joanne had other ideas, and proceeded to consume alcohol to the point where she could barely walk back to her room, during and after the evening meal. For whatever reason the last 24 hours appear to have affected her more than the rest of us. At least I have the benefit of knowing that whilst Cordelia is likely with holding vast amounts of relavent information, what she has shown us, and what we've experienced is real. If I hadn't known who my father was, had my mother verify certain facts, and not had Choki and the experience we've shared together, then my view of what has happpened would likely be different.

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