Salvarola is dead. It is days since the tragedy, and I can still scarcely fathom it. The foreigners whom Salvarola believed would lead us to our greatest triumph instead engineered his death. Who would have thought the savages of faraway Mathosia would return to visit such upheaval upon the grand system we had created from the ruins of the Bloodstorm?

In Salvarola’s stead, Inyra has claimed leadership over the Awakened. We must rally around someone, for the Ascended smashed the fragile control we maintained over this savage land, and without unity, we will join Salvarola in annihilation. Still, I have qualms about our new Mistress. Inyra is clever, but perhaps not clever enough for her ambition.

I will wait to see how this plays out.

Day 27

The spine of this journal is nearly moldered away – the result of several river crossings and no time to dry. If I’m not careful, I’ll begin to lose pages, which will be quite aggravating considering the amount of time I’ve spent putting words to the events of the past few weeks. We have been on the move since Salvarola’s death, evading Casimar’s forces and the damnable cannibals who have turned against us most ungratefully. I am so hungry, I may turn cannibal myself if we ever confront any of our pursuers.

This possibility, however, grows increasingly unlikely as we approach the region known as the Dendrome. For all my misgivings, Inyra has led us to a place
where I believe we may be safe, at least until Casimar locates us. The young king maintains an unreasonable grudge against our order.

Day 82

So far, the Architects have rebuffed our attempts at an alliance, or at least a truce. The insectoids drained four of our emissaries of all their moisture, reducing them to a flaky powder. (With a bit of water and river mud, this powder forms a passably good mortar for filling cracks in the walls around here). Inyra is undeterred. She is fixated on forging some kind of bond with the Architects, but to what purpose, I do not know.

Day 83

Perhaps this journal wields some power of determination, but hardly had the ink dried from my previous entry when Mistress Inyra at last revealed the purpose to which our efforts have been directed. Inyra claims the Architects hold the secret to gaining knowledge, immortality, in short, omnipotence. She claims to have arrived upon this conclusion investigating the bug-men, who can transmit vast amounts of information through pheromone chemicals. Within this liquid library is the key to supreme power, if only we had the ability to absorb the knowledge.

My work with the elixir we gave to the beast lords has earned me a place on the group assigned to decode the pheromones. If successful, we can reclaim Brevane from Casimar and the Ascended, and rule this world by the right of our superior knowledge!

Day 102

Effario finally died this morning, making him the longest living human to have ingested the serum. If he gained any knowledge from the Architects’
pheromones, we could not tell, for the serum causes madness, ravings, and copious amounts of drooling. It was my idea to convert the pheromones into a new chemical that could function on humans, but the effects have been disastrous. Inyra grows impatient, and my fellow Awakened grow more restive with each of our brethren who dies to my experiments. I must discover a solution, else I will become my own subject.

Day 127

I’ve done it. The Volatile Chemicals solution, when added to pure pheromone extract, transforms into a non-toxic elixir that conveys the encoded information to the mind of the imbiber. Nina drank the small dose and reported an influx of building knowledge and Architect history, with no ill effects. No ill effects, that is, until Abido severed her head on Inyra’s orders.

Despite Inyra’s speeches to the contrary, she will be the only one to gain the power, while the rest of us will serve as her slaves. Somehow, the Architects have agreed to provide enough pheromones to grant her a full measure of their knowledge. I am to ensure enough Volatile Chemicals to ensure her Ascension, though whether I will be alive to watch the ceremony is highly unlikely.