(2024-11-15) Cressidha's Journal: Entry Thirty-Eight

Details

Author:	Luridel
Summary:	The Stonecore and Deepholm.
Rating:	T for Teen

Arc: Deepholm

Chain: Cressidha's Journal

Today, when we ventured into the Stonecore, Ace Stormhammer was with us.

So was a shadow priestess who I admit I know very little of. She remained in shadowform the entire time, and I do not recall if she ever gave her name. In retrospect, I don't believe I introduced myself either, a terrible rudeness on my part. Perhaps it was a trick of the mind that made me notice her so little at the time, or perhaps it was a feature of the shadowform itself. Or perhaps I am just making excuses.

Ace Stormhammer was there. She has been training as a shaman. I did not see her use the Light, and I did not ask if it had abandoned her or if she had deliberately set it aside, for I did not wish to be rude and she did not volunteer that information. But I saw her summon totems and call the elements much like Azizia (with a little less headbutting).

Dane was reliable as always, and Mr. Stillwall managed to once again multitask as an artist without neglecting his job as the group's healer. It used to make me anxious the first time we were on a squad together, seeing him spend so much time drawing in that book of his rather than appearing to pay attention to the rest of us, but he has never actually been neglectful of the rest of us and our wounds as I once feared.

The Stonecore was a remarkable place, just as the rest of Deepholm is. Earth is one of the elements I have never been able to call on my own, and to see Ace so attuned to her surroundings today filled me with a strange longing. The arcane gives me command over fire and frost, and to a limited extent there are some things I can do with air - slowing a fall through the air is the primary one - but there is nothing I can do with the earth itself, and I feel that lack keenly when I am in its portion of the elemental plane.

Within the Stonecore, there were no patches of those tiny floating crystals like stationary snow in the air, and I regret that Auralind's time in Deepholm with us involved quite a lot of those. She never complained about having to move through them, and she implied that she could hear the song of the crystals, but it must have added an extra layer of inconvenience for her.

It was more colorful inside the Stonecore than it was outside, and I think my brother should like to see it; Colson has always loved crystals. Last Sunday we saw a field of muddied rainbow crystals (he would know how to use words like 'luster' correctly to describe their shininess, but my mind is currently drawing a blank) that seemed similar to something we saw in Outland, but more muted.

It bothers me, still, that I missed out on visiting the Abyssal Maw and the Firelands. I hope there will be opportunities in the future.