Belan 22

Oh Diary,
 
How I had hoped that I would be filing these pages with my whirlwind love affair with Niog or my sudden windfall with the village of Andara (and my "marriage" as Sonia Andara), but instead I must mourn the state of my beautiful Azul. I thought Lady Chandra would be able to protect it, but instead she sought to abandon it. I won't go into the minutiae of how Chandra became separate from her Shadow (Olma said it something to do with a magic scroll from another god). But now that she was "freed", all she wanted to do was never go back to the city she founded, shedding not a single tear for all her followers. If I didn't think the shadow weave would collapse, I would have been tempted to deposit her back into the sea that we fished her out of! I thought of her as our personal goddess and never have I been more disappointed. My disappointment in Olma was a close second, however. To risk the lives of whole city, my home, over some silly principle about freedom. Well, they aren't particular happy with me either now. Chandra I returned to Azul, where she remain, until the threat to our city has passed. Shirking one's responsibilities are all well and good (I do so all the time), but not when have a whole city depending on you. Chandra made her choice when she ascended, now she must accept the consequences. Outside opposing Olma's naive views on freedom, I imagine she is angry that I had to immobilize her when confronting Chandra (it was for her own safety). I'm sure she will forgive me eventually, once she matures a bit. I'll simply have to make sure she lives long enough to do so.
As I write this, we travel to Sa-Owu by carriage (courtesy of my new "husband", Robert). Due to the animosity between Azul and Sa-Owu, I've never visited before, but I've always been curious about it. On paper, it sounds ghastly, but I'm sure there is nuance beneath the surface (hopefully, Erwood is an outlier among his people). Niog is still with us, although I have found my interests in him quite diminished after seeing what he did to Parkeh (and I'm not even sure what actually happened to her). I suppose some fantasies are better left fantasies.