the border city of "lyrenton" is twice dead
the abandoned darguun half silently decays with none to tend it
the cyre half lies untouched in grey stasis
unlike last time it's noisier in the mournland than out – thumps and grinding and creaking and a variety of other unsettling sounds that we can't locate and likely would wish we hadn't
it feels like they get worse if i try to focus through them
in the distance odd hues of light pierce the grey with candle-flame flicker
the illusory landscape in our room has failed in an unexpected way
i was right to predict that it's unable to update its sense of the surroundings so it's looping what it last saw
but it's filling in gaps by mixing together random bits of what's already been through it ... and it gets weirder with each recursion
cactuses made of heat shimmer
canvas clouds whirling behind a bloated purple sun
so many rocks shaped like dog noses
medya insisted i disable the spell for now
our progress is slower than we hoped
we can roll with the throttle at two-thirds for hours without trouble but if we try to speed up it takes only a few minutes before we encounter something that forces us to change our path ... as though we annoy the mournland by going too fast?
the first time this happened i barely avoided steering us into a bottomless glowing chasm
the second time it happened ... i steered us directly into the dry ditch of an irrigated vegetable farm
i was a little shaken by that so the others encouraged me to walk it off while they extracted the hardback from the ditch
i'm glad i did because that farm is a bounty of vegetables that were just about to be pulled from the ground when everything stopped
so i gathered some
i don't recognize the varietal but the carrots are sturdy and sweet
the cabbages are dense and on the peppery side which both medya and i enjoy ... well she would if she weren't creeped out by them
i explained that the stasis of the mournland meant they haven't decayed or changed at all so they're perfectly fresh
i checked them through and through but there was no sign of poison or magic "residue" as she put it
i kindly thanked the farmers and left a gift in return so i haven't broken any rules or invited the wrath of those who have gone before
isn't it an honor to their memory and lives that someone from so far away will appreciate their efforts and think of them?
anyhow i have days worth of fresh salads now and that's a good bit of cheer in a place that usually provides none
well there's that and the spontaneous cloud of butterflies that brushed past us earlier
...
we're rolling again and even slowed down we should reach whitehearth in a day or so
so long as i don't sit at the controls again