I have to go to a meeting tomorrow morning instead of studying or practicing. I don't think I have a choice, but this seems like surprisingly bad timing coming from the Belar who run this place so well in general.

Feb 21

I am writing this by the light of a smoky fire in a room that has at least three cockroaches in it and beds made entirely of straw selected for its sharpness and maximum loudness of crackling. I think if I roll around just right I can make a song out of it. Maybe if I shake the bed a little so there are different thicknesses of straw in different places I can get actual pitch. This is a great idea. I feel great. This is the great song on the bed about the ale and the bed and the

Now my bed is sharp and uncomfortable and there are cockroach guts in the middle of it. This place sucks. And I can't switch beds with Vaugner because he put something on the floor and told me not to get close to him and when I went over there I almost hurt myself but I managed to fall down on my bed instead and it hurt. This place sucks.

What happened today. I went to the meeting. Some of the other guys from the class were there. Tera said that she needed our help recovering a statue she made that was stolen, and if we help we get to skip finals. Given that I have been practicing for my final recital for the last three months and studying at least that long I am pretty unimpressed with how wonderful a deal this is, but they need me so I will go. I have had a pretty good life so far, and so have my parents, and although I am entitled to all this I would hate to see them get in trouble if I didn't go, and I don't want Javi to lose his guard post and have to go back to working on a farm. So, I go. We're supposed to catch up to a caravan run by "Jacob" and see if the statue is there, although Tera can't think why they would have switched the statue with such a good copy.

Abbey gave us some equipment before we left. I'm the bard, so I got the signal whistle. How...cliche. And they didn't even think about the fact that I can't play the whistle without using the magic. And you don't have to be me to play a signal whistle well. Now, if I had the unbreakable metal thing, I could do something. Maybe I could make it into a cymbal for my drum. That would be worth doing. Drum drum drum drum drum bed bed bed.

These people they stuck me with are not exactly the head of the class here but I will give them a chance. Blink is reasonably intelligent I think. Vaugner seems smart and is good with his hands and when I didn't know about the bed thing he seemed mostly normal. And he bought me ale and it was good good good good Where was I. Kestrel talks too damn much but at least he understands the importance of doing this mission properly. Malif I have seen cut class one too many times to have a lot of respect for. And they sent the stablehand with us to take care of the horses, which was a good idea. Perhaps he will be useful but so far all he does is agree and take care of the horses. It is times like this I wonder how I was born outside the walls and some people were born inside.

We found out where Jacob was headed and we rode out. Outside the city is not very well kept. The roads are not paved and there is horse dung everywhere and the roads smell like horse dung. The Belar do a much better job of running the inside of the city than whoever is in charge here.

The inn had ale, and then I had ale, and then some more ale. That was good. The waitress was cute but knew nothing of symphonic structure or history beyond her own lifetime. Are all people out here going to be like this?

I am going to try to turn my bed over and see if there are fewer cockroach guts on the other side.

Feb 22

I am writing this under the stars, which fortunately look the same as they do at home, because nothing else is as good. It is cold and everyone else has something to sleep on and the stable boy even has something to sleep under and the ground is very hard. Why didn't someone tell me that we would be sleeping on the ground? Sleeping on the ground is for animals, and even the smart animals like monkeys don't do it. At least I will get to sleep through the night unlike the others who have to stay up and take watch. Some appreciation for my talents is good to have. And the less said about the food the better.

I woke up underneath my bed. I am not sure what happened but I had a cockroach in my hair. I don't believe I will stay at that inn again.

We rode a lot today but didn't catch up to the caravan. Vernon thinks the caravan went this way though and it is the road to Asterin so we will keep on. I can practice my drumming while we ride.

Feb 23

Ground again. Still cold. Still smelly. I wish we had some ale. So far that has been the only good thing about life outside the city. I wonder if I can get ale in the city? If I can, I do not think I will ever leave again.

Last night Kestrel woke us up to tell us about some floating lights outside camp. They didn't bother us, and we didn't bother them, and I went back to sleep. When you sleep as poorly as I do out here you need a lot of it.

Feb 24 (morning)

We got attacked last night! Some horses attacked our horses. That still counts as us being attacked though. Epimetheus didn't get hurt but he was scared. He is a good horse. I am glad we brought a stable boy to take care of him. I played my battle hymn and tried my fencing moves but fencing against mad horses is not much like what I have learned to do before and I never hit them. I think this will take some rethinking. The other people did though and Blink is quite useful. It was too bad his horse got hurt. After the fight we went back to sleep with the bleeding corpses barely outside our camp. The horses were not happy and neither was I. Compared to this even that inn would be acceptable, barely.