The journal is bound with a blue cloth cover, and a lighter blue ribbon marks a spot between ivory-colored pages. On the first page is printed "This Journal Belongs To" in deep blue ink, and below it in pencil is scrawled "Emb Ordsdottir~ Legendary Norn of Legend!"
It feels so nice to start a new journal! It's a real book I can carry, and it has a lot more space than the paper I was writing on before. I think I might have lost some of my papers, ones I'd already written on. I really hope not. But just in case, I'm going to write down what I've seen since I left Ascalon!
Lareia Rellian. Arelian Alvingham. Tamilly. Lynnea. Jamie Henderson. Maximus Bonehair. Nikoletya Dante. Harmony. Droxxi.
These are all the people I've met so far, at least, the ones whose names I know! They're all very nice, except for one sylvari at my induction.... I don't remember her name, but I think she could be nice if she tried.
I should talk more about the others. Lareia, Arelian, Tamilly, Lynnea, and Jamie were all drinking and talking in an inn in Divinity's Reach, the first place I went after I left Ascalon. They invited me to talk to them after I helped them find the barkeep, and they told me about the company they work for, Arondel Family Acquisitions. They do more than just acquisitioning things - they explore too, and that's why I wanted to join them. I hope that they can help me do lots of interesting things! Hafr, I wish you could see all the things I've seen! Maybe one day when you're old enough we can go exploring together, and I can show you! (There is a note at the bottom of the first page: P.S. - Lynnea can not drink too much.)
Oh, but I should write down the rest of it! During the induction I met a nice human lady named Nikoletya. She had a pet panther she called Harmony, who seemed to really like me. Harmony likes fish, too, and the man Nikoletya and I talked about... oh, I forget his name, and it's not in my notes! - but he bought Harmony some fish, and Nikoletya said he was trying to spoil her. I think he might like Nikoletya, but I don't think she feels the same way.
I think Lynnea might like Jamie, too, and maybe Jamie likes her. She was acting a little like Inge when she was sixteen and liked this warrior in our village.... It's really a silly thing, but it's fun to watch them. They're fun to be around.
I like Nikoletya too. She wants to have adventures like I do. And she doesn't know how to swim! I'm going to teach her someday, I think. She even has a place picked out for it. I just hope her mother doesn't get mad at her. She gets mad at her for getting dirty, and for doing adventury things. I'm glad I didn't have a mother like that!
Speaking of getting dirty, I met someone in Divinity's Reach who seemed to be pretty good at that! She smelled like a swamp, and probably could have used a bath. We met in the garden of Melandru (one of the human goddesses - she's responsible for things like plants!), but even the flowers didn't make her smell good. She was pretty, though, even though she hid part of her face behind a mask. She talks about interesting things, but I don't understand some of it. She seems afraid, though I don't know what she's afraid of. Maybe she's afraid of my mind-reading powers! She thinks that I can read her mind, even though I'm just reading her lips. Maybe she's just playing along too. (There is a note in the margins: Well, she is afraid of sylvari. She thinks they can control her mind with their pollen. Maybe that's why Jamie likes Lynnea?)
Oh! I haven't even written down her name! It's Maximus Bonehair, I guess because her hair is white like bone. She has a friend she calls Blanca Hellhearth, whose name I'm not supposed to know. Blanca is just a puppet, but I'm not sure Maximus knows that.
Either way, I saw her again a couple of days ago, after the Wintersday celebrations had started. Divinity's Reach is really pretty in Wintersday, and the humans dress up in pretty, warm-looking clothes. I guess many of them have never seen snow before, because they get so excited when they see the magic snow in the city, throwing it at each other like children do. ANd I can't blame them - it's really fun! I threw a snowball at Maximus and it hit her in the back. I think she was mad at me, though, and she called me a traitor. I wouldn't betray her, though, so it's alright. We went exploring after that, and we trained a little by fighting some bandits and centaurs in Queensdale. The Seraph must have their hands full, if there was so much for us to do. But that's alright! It's even more for my legend.
A day or two after that, I finally got to see the Grove! It's where the sylvari live, under the branches of their Pale Tree. It's really beautiful, even more beautiful than the gardens in Divinity's Reach. I didn't get to see very much of it, though - as soon as I got through the Asura gate an asura started talking to me. She was nice, and if she were reading this she would probably want to remind me that she doesn't look like a Gate Technician. In fact, she's an Ex-Professional Apothecary, and her name is Droxxi. She's an Ex-Professional Apothecary because she blew up her lab. I guess Professional Apothecaries aren't supposed to do that. She says it ruined her good looks, but I'm not sure. I think she looks good for an asura. Maybe asura have a different idea of what nice is?
Anyway, Droxxi said she was busy, and had to go shopping so she could find new things to mix together. I told her I needed to go shopping too, because I needed a new, blank book, and she told me that I probably couldn't find something like that in the Grove. She also mentioned something about something called a "data-pad", but I've never heard of those before. She wouldn't tell me what it is... maybe norns aren't supposed to know? But anyway, she told me to come back here to Divinity's Reach to look for a book, so I did, and I found this one! I like it a lot, because it has a lot of pages, and a pretty blue cover. It even has lines on the oages, to keep my writing straight, and a blue ribbon to keep track of my page~ I also found something better than charcoal to write with, though it's harder to use, because I have to keep sharpening it with my knife. But I like it, and I won't lose it like the papers I was using for notes. I wonder what I'll write in it next!
The entry is signed ~Emb Ordsdottir~, with cartoonish skulls and more flourishes drawn around it in pencil.