Antaran's Journal

I had to deliver a parcel to a small house close to the market today. Right when I was almost off the market place, I heard a scream to my right. Everyone around me and myself looked into the direction where the scream came from. We saw two Insomida Guards holding a woman's mouth shut, tying up her arms behind her back and finally knocking her on her head with the hilt of the sword of one guard, rendering her unconscious. She fell on the ground.
"Finally, they caught the thief," a voice in the surrounding crowd said loudly.
The guards nodded at each other, picked the woman up and left the market place. People next to me shook their heads.
"Serves her right," an old man said and continued to bargain with a merchant.
"How poor she must have been if she had to live such a life of crime," someone else said.
"I know that woman, she has always been a greedy person," was the reply from the other side.
Slowly the usual market noise started to come back, merchants praising their goods, buyers stating their offered prices.
This was exactly how they had caught me. I'm pretty sure that woman will be released again in two or three days. I tried to ask a few people if they knew who that woman was, though nobody could give me a proper answer. Mostly they just looked at me with a "Why would you want to get in touch with scum like her?" face.
Sometimes I'm really amazed of how manipulative people are.
After a while I noticed that I still had that parcel in my hands and it was already overdue, so I continued my work.
Later I talked to Tartek about my plan to get someone to the king to ask him personally about the Insomida Jail incidents. I also told him about what I had seen on the Insomida Market today. I described the woman's appearance, face, hair, body, and asked him if he had known someone like her, but Tartek just shrugged.
"That sounds like a description of every second woman in town," he said.
After work we went to Scarlat's. We talked about work and I cracked a few jokes, so we looked like two normal people, having fun after work. We called for Scarlat to pay and he quickly came to our table. I quietly asked him with a smile if there were any unusual happenings today.
"None! Everything is fine in Insomida!" He smiled and I could see his golden tooth. "Do you want to pay this time or would you like me to add it to your other bills?"
"We would like to pay," Tartek said.
"Very well," Scarlat said. He told us the amount and we gave him the requested money, including tips.
"Keep the change," I said, as usual.
"Not this time, I insist!" Scarlat said, and laughed. Something didn't sound right in his laughter. He handed me the change, I wanted to put the change in my right pocket, but then I felt something between the coins. I looked at it and saw that it was a small piece of cloth with something written on it. A name. Krolata Amiltyr.
Scarlat nodded at me, patted me on my back.
"Thanks, my friends! Come again," he said, took our mugs from the table and went into the kitchen.
We went back into our office and I showed the name to Tartek. He started to look around in address books of Insomida and quickly found an entry with the same name.
"Tomorrow you are going to deliver an empty package to the house where this Krolata woman lives, alright?" Tartek said to me. I nodded. "I will take care of your work meanwhile, but make sure this won't take too long." He stood up and pointed at the location of the house on his map of Insomida. "This is where we hit the target. If you're not back by midday, I will call for reinforcements to back you up. Understood?"
"Reinforcements?" I asked with raised eyebrows.
"Yes, me." Tartek couldn't help himself and grinned.

We called it a day and went to our houses and wives. When I arrived, I opened the door, greeted Carana and found it strange that I didn't get a response. I took off my coat and thought that Carana might have already been in bed, but then I went around the corner and saw Carana performing a headstand in the kitchen. Her pupils were looking up, so that both of her eyes appeared white. I heard how she was whispering loose words, that probably only made sense in the dreams that she experienced at that moment. It's been a long time since I have last seen her meditating like that. I've never really asked her about it. She also seems to forget about it once she stands up, stops dreaming and her eyes go back to normal because I always ask her if she's alright and she usually replies with: "Sure, why not? Did anything happen?"
I learned to never touch her or try to interrupt the meditation in any other way. The first time I ever saw her meditating (shortly after our marriage) I tried to wake her up, since I was so worried. And then she quickly took my right arm and was about to break it, but then, fortunately, her eyes suddenly went back to normal. I still remember the look in her face. I was so shocked and surprised, and I apologized and she just said: "For what?"

Well, now that I have written it in this journal she will most likely get to know about it... Carana, if you are reading this, I hope you are not offended, and I already apologize for never talking about it before, but honestly I was - and I still am - afraid of ... touching that subject... when you're awake.

Maybe I should try to talk to her once her meditation stops. I have been watching her ever since I started writing this journal entry...

The book I'm reading right now is good. But not life changing. It's always kind of demotivating to read something that everyone else could have written as well. There is nothing special about this book, but it is a good waste of time, so to speak. I don't really think the author tried to add new elements, maybe he really just aimed for the book that gets read when the better books aren't written yet.

I think I saw Carana's eyes twitching... She is about to return.

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