Ranthe 13, 5676

I can tell we’re getting closer to Sehol. There are more people living in this area of the countryside, so we pass quite a few farms each day when before we were doing good if we passed more than one farm in a day. One of the benefits of this is people will invite us into their homes for the night. Who am I to argue with such invitations? Good food, a place to sleep---these are things we haven’t been able to enjoy much in this land. Tonight we are staying at a farm owned by a man named Holpod, and his wife Tinsa’Pel. I plan to sleep tonight, but I get the feeling that Pelmarco will be up all night talking to Holpod.

When we first met Holpod, he was mending a fence along the road. Pelmarco paused, and exclaimed that the man looked very familiar, but was too young to be the man Pelmarco remembered. Noticing the red armband Pelmarco wears on his right bicep, Holpod replied that his father was a Red Exemplar long before, and that he might be the man Pelmarco remembered. Sure enough, Pelmarco knows all about the man’s father. Since Holpod’s father died while he was still a young child, Pelmarco is telling him all about his father and their exploits in battle against the Dark Magicians. I listened for several hours, but at this rate, I doubt Pelmarco will run out of tales until morning.

I almost pity Tinsa’Pel. She’ll probably stay awake all night too. I heard her fret to Elendra’Tel that she hopes Pelmarco’s tales don’t persuade Holpod to follow in his father’s footsteps, and leave her behind with three fatherless children. Elendra’Tel reassured the woman by saying there was no way Pelmarco could convince the man to leave his family.