Killing Time with Tivvy.

I always wanted to visit a castle! Mother always told me that I couldn't, because I was needed to help out at home, and going to the castle would be distracting and all. But that's all in the past, obviously! I mean, I wish it was kind of under better circumstances and all, but it's still a castle. Sure, Laniss wasn't very impressed by it, but he's been to school and all. I bet that he's seen plenty of castles.

I should really start at the start, I guess. It's kind of obvious because I'm writing in the empty bit of my sister's last journal, but Siurlang, dear sweet Siurly, well, she died. But that's why I'm here, and I'm sure that she's doing wonderfully in the outer planes, so I'm not too worried about her. I mean sure, death, not great, but you've got to look on the bright side of things!

I keep getting a little distracted, I guess, but there's so much to write about. So, I was at home, in Highcliff, just taking care of things around the village, making sure that the little ones weren't beating each other up too much again, you know, the usual stuff, when we got the letter!

That's the letter from Siurly, of course. The one about how she had this castle and we should visit. Mother didn't like the idea at first, but she eventually warmed to it, and said I could go. Laniss wanted to come too, and it's kind of a good thing he did, because he's pretty handy. They taught him a lot at that school, I guess! Anyway, we packed up our things, and set off. Jamon was a little weird about me going, but that's just how the silly boy is. He'll get over it!

So, we turned up at the castle, to find such a strange bunch of people! Highcliff is pretty much all human, with a few elves like Laniss, so even the orc and his slightly less orc friend were pretty strange to me, let alone the cute little catperson or the bird! Also the dwarves, they're kind of just shorter, thicker humans with beards, I guess. Anyway, it looked like the bird person was in charge of things, so that was also kind of unusual, given what Siurly wrote in her letter. So I immediately know that something was wrong, and yeah, it was. Poor Siurly.

But as I wrote earlier, it's okay! The strange people are some kind of adventuring company, though they seem to thing that involves engineering. Laniss might have rolled his eyes at that, it kind of seems like something he'd find silly, but I was paying attention to everything else at the time. With Siurly dying and all, they needed someone who could use magic, so we're staying around! Sure, I can't use magic or anything, that was what Siurly was good at, but hey, I'm awesome at making myself useful.

First though, we had to see to my dear sister's burial. The adventuring company guys were... well, pretty bad at the whole 'what to do with dead people' thing, which isn't exactly what I would have expected, you know, given that they're adventurers. But that's okay! Laniss and I were happy to help out there, and give Siurly a nice, traditional burial, in a stone coffin under the castle. Laniss did most of the work on the coffin, because he's really good at that, but I helped out with the engraving and carving.

It was a really nice ceremony, too! Everyone who spoke was really nice, and there was even a song about how heroic Siurly was! We held it at sundown, and Laniss and I had a more private ceremony afterwards, which was such a great commemoration of my sister's life.

After that, it was all about fixing up the castle a bit, and just helping out for a bit while everyone else did whatever they needed to do. The other people at the castle, the ones that aren't adventurers, are pretty nice as well, and while very busy with all the things that need to be done around the place, are happy to talk while they do them, especially when I helped them out with their tasks!

I think that this is going to be really good. Mother would be proud, I hope!