Mist Glen Road

A quiet road, Mist Glen is located far from the Palace and Trellum, off to the east side of the city. The people are friendly, and aren't the type to cause problems. In the mornings, mist from the Mun Ocean covers the entire road (hence its name).

Adillay cautiously leaves her house; she's been cautious ever since her parents were murdered. At least, that's what she believes. Everyone else thinks that they just... Died.

She makes her way down to the end of Mist Glen Road, and turns the corner.

Just around the corner is the store her parents used to own. It used to be one of the quaint neighborhood stores. Now, however, it has fallen into disarray. The walls are crumbling, the windows are cracked and smudged, and the door is splintering into many pieces.

Many of the neighbors think of it as a ghastly site, but to Adillay, it is a fond memory.

Adillay treads carefully as she enters the ruined shop through a gaping hole in the old wooden door. One wrong step, and she would have twisted her ankle. Adillay has learned the places not to step, and the places that are safe. The wooden floor has buckled from the wet rain that pours through the attic, and in some places it has just rotted away to reveal the dirt foundation.

She walks cautiously to the very back of the shop, where a wall extends from one side of the room to the middle. Behind the wall is the staircase that leads to the attic.

Many of the steps are rotted through, with gaping holes. Some are even missing. It's an arduous task to make it to the top.

Once in the attic, Adillay goes over to an especially dark patch of wood, around three feet away from the hole in the roof. It's in the corner of the attic. She feels around for the crack, and when she finds it Adillay lifts up a small sqare lid, concealing a cranny just the right size for the book inside.

Once the compartment is closed again, Adillay picks up a nearby cushion and puts it down right below the hole in the ceiling. Today is a wonderfully sunny day, and she has no worries of it raining. Besides the circle of light beneath the hole, the rest of the attic is dark.

"Oh," she exclaims, "I forgot a pen."

She rushes back downstairs and back to her house, grabs a pen, and then makes her way back to the shop's attic.

When she reaches the top step, she glances into the room and almost steps backward into open air in shock. Her journal...

...Is gone.

My journal! Adillay screamed in her mind. This journal held all her thoughts, dreams, suspicions, and life. It had cost her father much to purchase and give to her on her twelfth birthday, only a week before both her parents were murdered. And now! Now it was gone!

She scurried back to the bottom floor, hoping the follow the thief and rescue her book. But the thief was obviously long gone; after all, she had not seen him when she had come back to the shop.

And then Adillay remembered the boy that had been walking down Mist Glen, hardly older than the age of thirteen, she reckoned. He had been carrying a parcel, and had not suspected him of anything. Adillay had just assumed he was a mail boy.

As quickly as she could run, Adillay sprinted back to her house.

Adillay returned to the shop, ran upstairs, and almost twisted her ankle. Once she had recovered, she opened the secret compartment in the floor. Her coins remained; whoever had stolen her journal hadn't been looking for money.

She grabbed a travelling bag from the attic closet and stuffed the coins in a pocket. Also in the closet was one of her dark gray tunics, and she folded it and put it in the bag as well.

That was all she needed; Zereiya would have more.

Adillay went back to Altera Dock.