Maintainer Journal Entry

#### *12 Months Ago*

*Himiko’s illness worsens. Last week she was still able to effortlessly beat me in our Discipline of the Path training, but today I bested her for the first time. Her skin is pale and we fear the worst. I sense tension between her and the Grandmaster.*

#### *10 Months Ago*

*I write this as an act of Reflection of the Self, reflecting on my failures in Discipline earlier today. I heard Grandmaster Qutt and Himiko in a heated dispute in the monastery. And I must confess that I eavesdropped on their quarrel. It was not for me to hear and I vow to be stricter in my adherence to the Path. However, what I heard has forced reflection on my faith. Himiko has the Plague. She was imploring the Grandmaster for aid, but he told her that she must wait. “Such is the way of the Symphasian Wind. A test of sacrifice for the path, every monk must face.” I believe the only reason she did not attack Grandmaster in that moment, was because she knew if she had, it would be to the death.*

#### *6 Months Ago*

*Himiko is gone. Not dead that we know of, but she has left the monastery, allegedly for good. The Grandmaster does not speak of her, but we know she refused his guidance and has gone against the Path. Some of us believe she fits the prophecy, but surely the Grandmaster has thought of this already…*

#### *5 Months Ago*

*Wiin, and I confronted Grandmaster Qutt today. We told him the parallels to the prophecy were too strong to ignore. Grandmaster told us we must embrace Patience of the Path. I think he is secretly worried.*

#### *4 Months Ago*

*Grandmaster left to search for Himiko today. For weeks, he has been telling us that such direct action to alter the Path is opposed to our tenets. He has advised that an interventionist approach flies flagrantly in the face of Patience, Discipline, and Sacrifice. He regularly reminds us that the hardest lesson every monk learns is how and when not to act. Yet this morning he left to search for her. I think he did for us, for our fears that the prophecy may come to pass.*

#### *3 Months Ago*

*The monastery feels empty without a Grandmaster. Some monks have already left. I fear they head for The Untethered. We have fewer visitors now, so my duties as Abbot of the Welcome Monastery grow infrequent. At least I will have time now to reinforce the cliff stairs to the bunks. I vow to not let this period shake my faith in the Symphasian Path and the tenets of Grandmaster Qutt.*

#### *2.5 Months Ago*

*(clearly written in a rush, under duress) We are under attack. I write this for any monks that may return. The prophecy is true. She has returned.*

*She is flanked by soldiers of the Elven corporation and supported by the airship with cannons of fire, but I know she does not need any of them. She is faster, more relentless than any adversary. For as she gains in strength, so do we fall in number. Wiin is dead. So are Kurtle, Hin, Jaelrith, Kell… I believe her now to be more just a woman, more than the Elven machinery that empowers her, she is Red Sun. And today we face her fabled Crimson Recompense.*

*I hear soldiers at the stairs. If this is the Symphasian Path, then I do not want it. Take me Untethered- Rest of the page is just black blood*