The Diary of Verity, Viscountess of Seawatch
Volume IV
This volume contains the notes of Verity Touraine, then the Viscountess of Seawatch, as she grew into a potent initiate of the secrets forbidden by the Church of Inner Light. It continues the story of her relationship with a powerful woman named Anastasia Issorat.
Possession of this tome is worth **** Research Points per session. If delivered to the Church, this tome is worth **** Church Prestige Points.
The following note is written in newer ink on the front page of the diary, as though it was added at a later date than the majority of the text.
Hear me, oh seeker into forbidden lore!
My name is Verity Touraine, and in life I was known as the
Duchess of Touraine.
I sacrificed my life to the pursuit of knowledge, out of belief
that truth is a virtue, and wisdom an honorable aspiration.
History will decide if I was a monster or a hero, but the truths I
discover will survive me. These texts contain all that I learned
during my life.
Read them and follow me in my journey through light and
darkness.
I have returned from the house of Anastasia Issorat. Three red-haired boys lay on a carpet of fine silk as I entered her chamber, and as always I saw her shadow behind her translucent screen. She bade me approach her, inquiring solicitously after my health. I said that I had never felt better.
With three quick steps, I reached the screen and tore it aside. She lay on her divan in a gown of crushed emerald velvet. Her skin was purest ivory, and her braided hair ran down her breast like a rivulet of molten silver.
She has not aged a year since my grandfather painted her portrait.
Oh reader, I cannot expect you to understand what it is like to encounter an unveiled initiate of the Silver Moon. Once, I had a dream of pure ecstasy, a happiness that transcended physical pleasure and extended throughout the depths of my spirit. Seeing Anastasia Issorat was reliving that dream. I am an initiate of the stars, and I walk the path of connections, of knowledge found in darkness. My grandfather's lover has walked the path of reflection, and in seeing her I saw all of my deepest dreams.
Before she bound me to her will, I Judged her with the question, ""Why do you want me here?"
She said, simply, "I want your grandfather back."
...
Anastasia has taught me the second ring of cardinal attunements.
* Amatera is the Restoring Sun, and her gift is that of Sun Healing.
* Speculus is the Mirror of Desire, and her gift is that of Mirroring Dreams, of which I was already a victim.
* Yorutsuki is the Shadow Guardian, and her gift is that No One Can Cut the Shadows.
* Sadalmelik is the Owl-Eyed Seeker, and his gift is that of Attunement Scanning.
These attunements require that the supplicant be support by four other initiates of the same cardinal attunement. However, one Guide of the attunement may substitute for two of the less initiates. Anastasia told me that my chosen path was somewhat different, though, in requiring an initiate of Sadalmelik to make another initiate of Sadalmelik. I did not understand, but at the time I did not need to. The three boys surrounded me, and I invoked Sadalmelik's name. I became his initiate. Anastasia gave me the oldest of the boys, who she called my Preceptor. He sits beside me now. I think I will name him Bloodstone.
...
I understand now. She wants me to become my grandfather for her.
Never.
...
I must not let her control me. I dare not. I have investigated her past in an attempt to better understand who she is. I have learned that the Issorat family was once a powerful noble house that held lands in what are now the Plains of Crystal. Apparently, something happened to them long before Paraceln's dream, leaving them with the status of a minor family. Today, they eke out an existence on lands alongside the Sone. I have developed some contacts with the Gitany, and I hope that I can use those to learn more.
...
Anastasia's estate is built using the same architectural techniques as my home. I should have noticed this before! The significance, however, escapes me. What does the phrase "Mourn's Bones" really mean? Forbidden texts use it extensively.
...
I am an initiate of Talitha now, She can still command me, but I am growing stronger, Again, she used her "children" to assist in my initiation, but this time I resisted her elaboration.
It seems that, in discovering her secret, I have made her bolder. After my initiation, she rose from her divan and came out from behind her screen to see me. I asked her the secret of her beauty, and she told me that I already knew it. Then her power overwhelmed me, and I can remember only a shining, silvery light.
...
Initiation to the Shield of the North requires that the supplicant be supported by two initiates of Sadalmelik (again, not Talitha), as well as her Preceptor. I do not understand how Anastasia produces her initiates of the path of the stars, She shows no ability to use the powers I have learned, beyond the simple power of Reading. She must have allies I am unaware of.
She asked me to give Bloodstone back.
Never.
...
In a letter, I asked her to explain how I already knew her beauty's secret. She told me something I had not previously known: in binding myself to my Cosmos deck, I had gained extended life. She told me that all initiates' aging slowed immensely after their first attunement. She said that my life would last for a hundred and twenty-eight cycles of the sun, and that for all of those years, I would bear no sign of time's passing.
...
The perihelion of Lucien approaches, and I am prepared at last to end my slavery to Anastasia Issorat. I will decide my own destiny.