The Diary of Gus

lit. I have started this diary so that when I am no longer here. people will be able to see my legacy. so people will be able to document history and understand what happened in my time.

We knew one thing, we weren't safe any more. I led the exodus with Cassius to the place my brother had told us of. The travel was long. taking us three weeks to get there. we came across many challenges and hard times in those three weeks, even through this, the determination of our people was enough to keep us going.

The sun shone bright the day we arrived. I could feel Cassiath's presence with us. I had a good feeling that this place would bring great prosperity to our people. "People of the exodus!" I announced "We have arrived at what will be, our new home!" People cheered and clapped all around. This, our first day, we constructed a platform above the swampy terrain and started construction on the castle and houses. the forty or so of us managed to get a tremendous amount of work done in a such a little space of time.

Every day our land grew bigger and bigger. I was decided to be the Abnar, the one who would have the closest connection with Elisium, having been there myself it definitely helped. Cassuis was learning well how to rule the land with what his father had taught him and all was going well.

This place, I could feel it. Galadonn... It was destined to be our home from the beginning.

The diary of Gus. Entry 1

I knew this day would come, I knew ever since Cassiath gave him away. I knew he would find his brother, I knew it would happen, and then it did. Oda, son of Cassiath. Thrown away a murderer. I remember that day. It was just over 10 years ago.

Today, I heard of some trouble going on. There was talk of a strange boy appearing in castle and nobody knew who he was. He was described as a bald boy who claimed to be the son of Cassiath. I couldn't be sure, but I had a feeling in my gut that this man was the one I was waiting for. I ran down to the throne room where I found Cassius screaming at this boy, calling him a liar. I burst through the doors as Panos grabbed Oda by the arm.

"He is telling the truth,” I exclaimed bursting through the doors, “This boy... is your brother, I know, I was there when it happened. I couldn’t tell you, your father made my promise not to tell you.” I felt guilty, and a swift slap in the face from Cassius was definitely expected.

I felt wrong for not telling Cassius earlier, and he seemed not to want to talk to me for the rest of the day. But a promise I made to my brother, I couldn't break. I had to keep my word, and I did to the best of my ability. Cassius decided that we should all take the Potentia name, he wanted it to be a sign that we are one family.

I will make sure to talk to Cassius tomorrow, I need to make sure he will be alright with his brother, my nephew being here now.

The diary of Gus. Entry 2

I went to find Cassius in the morning, I wanted to have a discussion with him about what had happened yesterday. Panos told me that he had gone with Licrovan to discuss some important matters. I left to try find him, after looking for a long while I eventually found them both stood looking out of the city on top of the south wall. Cassius saw me, spoke something to Licrovan and Cassius came over to me. "Gus, my uncle, what do you want?" He said to me.

"You are not angry with me?" I questioned

"I was... then I realised that you did the right thing. You kept your word to my father. You saved a life by breaking it and I think Cassiath would see this as acceptable"

"Well, this is wonderful. Have you and Oda spoken yet?"

"We spoke briefly yesterday. But as usual I was extremely busy"

"Yes, I can see that. Well I think we should have a talk with him. We are family"

"Yes, I agree. Will have him join us at the head of the table tonight"

That night we sat and dined with Oda, he had had an interesting life. His stories were interesting and he amused us greatly. As we were eating Cassius stood up and announced: "To my new brother. We welcome you into your new home, your new home, Galadonn!" People cheered and clapped. I looked towards Oda and he sat there wide eyed with sliver of a smile on his face.

"Oda, how do you feel in your new home?" I asked him

"Well, its a change from the wood hut" He replied

"It must be. I came from the same background as yourself, so, in that we are not too different"

"I cannot believe that someone like you came from a background like mine"

"Well, I worked hard-"

"And I'm his nephew, so without me, he wouldn't have any of this" Cassius butted in

"like I couldn't have done it" I grumbled

"What was that?" Cassius asked

"Nothing. Best king... In this room" Oda laughed at this and Cassius gave me a glare.

"I don't find it funny" Cassius declared

"I certainly do" I responded. It had been a very good night.

The diary of Gus. Entry 3

I went exploring the caves below. I wanted to make sure it would be safe for the people of Galadonn to be able to enter and to settle down there. I prepared myself with sword and shield, armour on my back and enough rations in case anything went awry.

About a mile into the caves I discovered an opening, past this opening, vast caves filled with lush grass and green trees. It was a sight to behold, even with all this, something in the distance caught my eye, a beautiful glistening.

I couldn't quite make out what it was, and I was hesitant to get any closer, but my intrigue wouldn't let me leave. I strode through the tall grass, brushing against my thighs. I took an apple from one of the trees and bit into it. It was better than anything I had ever tasted.

A little bit of light trickled in from above  the entire scene was quite mesmerising. I kept on to this thing catching my eye, it wasn't far now, but there was a twenty-foot-wide ravine between me and the item.

It appeared to be a bow, but a bow that shone? I had never seen anything like it. I managed to make it over the gap by swinging from a vine, I tied it to a branch on the other side for when I wanted to go back over.

The bow was laid on a stone pedestal, on it said the word: 'Dennis'. I knew not what this meant, but I would take this item to do great amounts of testing on it.

I took the bow back to my quarters and hid it away behind one of my paintings. I didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands.

-‐---

Note to self:

Remember to talk to Ferol Ven Ishtara about the bow urgently.

-The diary of Gus. Entry 4

Sun poured in to my bedroom, Realising the morning had come I sat up from the desk I had fallen asleep at. I had gone to the library to look for any information about a mystical bow named Dennis. I had fallen asleep while doing my research. Alas, I still had nothing to show for it.

The library doors burst open and through came Oda. "My Uncle, what are doing here at this hour?"

"Oh. Oda, I was just doing some research"

"Well, Cassius was very worried this morning. He was looking everywhere for you."

"Well, I'm fine. I have something I need to do. Tell your brother I will speak with him later."

"If you insist. Good luck with whatever you're up to. I will see you later."

I left to get the bow, which I wrapped in a piece of cloth I had in my drawers and headed out towards the stone tower, where I hoped to find Ferol.

"Yo'rite Gus me fella?" Panos said to me

"I am Panos, how are you this morning"

"Eye, is good, we'vers nice, and a days al'ays good when I is see'n you sir"

"You are too kind Panos, my friend. Well, I must run, I shall see you later."

"See ya la'er sir."

I arrived at the tower where Ferol is usually found at, I knocked on the great wooden door. A few seconds later the door creaked open and behind it stood a strange looking man, Ferol. "Gus! My good friend! What brings you here at this hour?"

"Well I have something I must show you, I found it yesterday in a cave beneath the city"

"Interesting, come inside and we can have a look at it together"

We went up to his study where I revealed the bow to him, I told him how the word Dennis was inscribed where it was laid.

"How interesting this all is, well, we must do testing on this immediately!" Ferol exclaimed.

We went onto the roof of his tower and I held the bow, ready to fire an arrow into the water below. "Go on, there's nobody down there" Ferol whispered.

I shot an arrow down at the water, but as soon as I did so I discovered the arrow set a blaze. I also still had the arrow in my hand. "This so fascinating!"

"Don't you think this is a bit dangerous to be carrying around?" I asked

"Not at all, I think you should keep it, find out what it is capable of. I'm sure there's more to it than flaming arrows"

I looked down where I had shot the arrow and the area of ground under the water had been destroyed. This wasn't like any bow I had ever seen before.

-The diary of Gus. Entry 5

Panos woke me up that morning, telling me that Ferol wanted to speak with me. "Gus, me good sir. Me good man 'erol wan'in' a chat wi'h ya sir" He said to me. I grumbled a bit and reluctantly got up.

"Thank you Panos, Its not like its unreasonable to wake me at... what time is it exactly?"

"3 In the mornin' me sir."

"Ah yes, 3 O'clock, a completely reasonable time to be woken."

"I cant be agree'n wi'h ya sir." I said my goodbyes and found Ferol at the front gates of the castle, i told him that he could've gone inside, but he moved the conversation onwards. He explained the reason for my early waking was that we couldn't risk people knowing what was going on. I dont know what goes on in this guys head but I don't really think I would want to know.

He took me to the library in his tower where he pulled out one of his ancient looking books. The cover was discoloured and stained. "Here, Gus, look at this. I was looking last night and found a page in this book. Look." The book spoke of an ancient magic, older even than the book it was wrote on. It spoke of an ancient civilisation that harnessed the power of magic and imbued its magic into tools and weapons to make them stronger and capable of things not possible before. "This absolutely incredible" I exclaimed to Ferol

"Indeed it is... and about the Dennis thing, I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. But you found this item. Its yours, just dont tell anyone about it."

"You have my word." I told Ferol, I shook his hand and took my leave. I kept the bow wrapped in the fabric I had used previously and took the bow to my quarters.

I found a way to attach the bow and an arrow to my back so when my robes were on it would be hidden from view. I didn't want this to fall into the wrong hands, so I wanted to keep it near me as much as possible. The bow must stay with me as much as I could keep it with me. If someone wreck less got a hold of it the results could be catastrophic.

-The diary of Gus. Entry 6

Its been raining for five days straight. I've already started to blow up in size, It always happens whenever it rains too much, I swell up like a balloon. But this time its worse that its ever been. I can hardly hold anything my hands are that swollen and my legs are so bad that walking is nearly impossible. I can't really do anything right now though. I'm stuck in my room, all I can do is wait here and let time pass by. Its really the only downside to being a bean, I get my food from the sun and the more sun I get the stronger I am.

One summer the sun was beating down for the whole time. By the time the summer ended, my strength had nearly doubled. I do have the problem that If I don't get enough water of sunlight I begin to shrivel up. Its a hard life being a bean. People often see me as strange due to my purple skin. But maybe it wasn't all that bad, I learned to be more charismatic and to not care about how people who didn't know me really felt about me, I cared more about how my friends and family saw me. In ways it's a blessing. I don't despise being a bean, I'm glad about it in fact. I'm a distinguished gentleman, and I'm a well respected person by many.

Ill be back to normal size tomorrow most likely and as usual, back to building for me.

The diary of Gus. Entry 14

Ah, my day off. Cassius had told me to take a break from everything and go off and do whatever I wanted to do for a day. I told him that I was fine as I was but he told me that he wasn't asking. I didn't want to cause an argument so I decided it best to abide by his wishes, and anyway. I did have something I wanted to do.

I took my fishing rod that I had brought with me for many years. Rodney, that what I called it. I took myself to the river near Galadonn where I found my old friend, Fierce. Fierce spent most of his time fishing these days. He once fought ferociously and was a great warrior. Since then, he kept more to himself, but I know for certain that he could still beat anyone he tried.

"Gus! Its been a long time since we spoke properly. I see you brought your fishing rod, are you here to try and beat the master?" Fierce said with a smirk "Try?" I asked "Not try... I will" Fierce laughed and got out his fishing rod. We both cast our lines and waited, after an amount of time I got a fish, I pulled on it, and pulled. Out came a half-metre cod. "Not bad," Fierce said, "But look at this" He said as he pulled one out that was twice the size. "You were always good Gus... Just not as good as me" I cast back out my line and after some time I pulled it out. On the end of it was a diamond. "Pretty good... pretty good" Fierce then pulled out a block of diamond, "But like I said, not as good as me."

We spent the rest of the day fishing together and drinking alcohol. It was certainly a break I needed. Before I went, I cast my rod one more time and out came a crown covered in jewels which I tossed to him, "Oh, by the way. I am as good as you." I said, He laughed at me and placed the crown on his head, "If you say so Gus." He waved goodbye and I smiled all the way back home after having a good day off.

The diary of Gus. Entry 18

I decided to venture into the mystical forest next to the castle. The people of Galadonn seemed to be afraid of what happened there at night. I thought that these  worries seemed to be irrational, so I took my bow, and with me came my nephew and his son., Oda and Bonk potentia. I knew I could trust them to be brave if needed.

We went at dusk, I didn't wear any armour, if it there was something going on. We didn't want to scare whatever was in there. At this time of night the fog in the woods grew thick and it became very hard to navigate; the forest was like a labyrinth.

After a few hours in the woods we came across a beast, it looked like a horse, but it had a iridescent blue glow and a person could see straight through its body, it was like looking at a ghost. It spoke to us of a shrine in the forest that would move every night, and that a person who could find this shrine had the creatures of the forest on their side.

We thanked the horse and a path in the fog cleared which we followed back out of the forest. I knew I would return another night to find this shrine spoke of by this ghostly horse.

- The diary of Gus. Entry 23

I went back into the woods, I had to go alone, it felt like I had to. I took no weapons or armour, if I was going to do It, I was going to do it right. I left at night fall, towards the forest.

As soon as I entered the forest fog fell all around me, I was effectively blind. Then a voice spoke to me: "Gus... What do you want here?"

"I'm here to prove myself"

"Do that somewhere else... we don't want you Galadonns here... get away from my land"

"Are you the spirit I spoke with last night?"

"No... I am the shrine of this forest, I protect it from the likes of you"

"We mean you no harm"

"That's what they said before... then we had to destroy them"

"Please, I am a man of Haldeim, I give you my word. I will do everything in my power to protect your forest"

The horse spirit came out to me and it showed me through the forest towards the shrine. It wasn't very grand, but it radiated with importance.

"Gus, this forest needs you, and you have found the shrine. I am not the shrine you were looking for, the shrine was in your heart. That is what you were looking for, you have proved to me that you are worthy. You have the blessing of the forest."

I went to my Chambers and realised, there was never a shrine, there isn't a shrine. I didn't see a shrine. I saw my heart, that's what I spoke to. I found myself in that forest.

-The diary of Gus. Entry 24

I was awoke by Ferol rapping on my door in the middle of the night, I went to my door to see him stood there with a strange expression on his face, not fear, but it wasn't normal.

"Gus, I saw him... I saw Cassiath. yesterday I saw him just stood by me, and just now... He spoke to me... He said something about freeing them. That they will see Elisium again." He spoke frantically and quickly. But I remember reading something like this before in Frewn Crenethal's writings. Their work is amazing, I have nearly everything they did.

"Ferol, if what you're saying is true, we need to act immediately." I said rushing to find a scroll with a crude sketch of a structure on it and a black substance with screaming faces on it. "I believe that this is what Cassiath is trying to reach us about! It will need to be perfectly crystalline in structure. If you gather the building supplies, I can present the material illustrated here." I showed him the black substance and his look towards it wasn't exactly pleasant.

I took a leather pouch from my drawers and a small spade made from a special wood that I had been given by my mother a long time ago. I made my way into Torment where the heat of the flowing lava below me slapped me in the face. The long drop beneath was daunting but I followed the sliver of land there was to walk along over to the other side where I saw a patch of this substance.

I pulled out my spade and bag and stabbed at the ground, the material was like sand, soft and smooth. As I moved the sandy material into the bag some managed to get on my left hand, the pain was immense. I dropped the bag and wiped off as much as I could. But the pain wouldn't go. I took what I had collected and ran back to the portal as fast as I could. holding my left hand in a cloth as I ran.

I stepped through the portal and dashed to the closest pool of water I could find and plunged my hand into it. The pain dissipated and I let out a sigh of relief.

"Goodness. I didn't think it would be that bad" Ferol said. I threw him the bag and a smile erupted on his face.

The diary of Gus. Entry 27

There was no time to sleep. Cassiath had called to us, and we must answer. We rushed to wake everyone we could and told them what was about to commence. Our group of around 30 people made our way into the forest, making sure to be respectful to the forest spirits.

"Gus... You have returned to the forest... What business do you have here." The forest asked me

"Fear not forest, my friend. We are freeing the tormented souls... Cassiath has appeared to Ferol Ven Ishtara here. You've spoken to him before." I replied

"Ah.... Ferol... Yes... You did seem like one of those." The forest spoke

"Forest, my friend. We must construct a monument here, to free the souls of the tormented." I pleaded

"Gus... If Cassiath requests it. Who am I to stop you?" The forest questioned

"Thank you gracious forest spirit, we cannot thank you enough"

We located the centre of the forest and we constructed the shrine. It was done. I took out the pouch of black material and scattered it over the base of the shrine. Lightning lit up the sky, but there was no thunder. Ferol pulled out a piece of parchment and spoke some words familiar to me, but I did not know their meaning. The parchment lit up in flames and he used this to light the material on fire, the red flamed of the parchment went out leaving it unharmed and the material burnt a bright blue and screams could be heard coming from it.

Rain pored down an we began to chant ancient words that were shown on the same scroll that showed how to construct this monument. Then everything went quiet. The rain stopped, the thunder was no more. Just the cracking of the flames. Then the flames disappeared, and with it went the black material. As far as I was aware, the souls of the tormented were not being judged again. We waited...

"You have done well... My people," Cassiath spoke is a placid tone "Their souls are now free to live again"

The Diary of Gus. Entry 28