Captain Gohrath scanned over the letter he had written and scowled.
Settled safely upon his ship, he now had a chance to review the events
fully, to find out what went wrong. The infiltration of Eleusis had been
easy, he gloated to himself. Those tree monkeys had no idea how easy it
actually was, but he was not about to inform them.

It had all been going to plan. He had men stationed in the trees,
listening to the conversations and spotting potential targets. The
young, it seemed, were allowed to run wild within the village, so they
were a prime target. It was a simple plan: surround the older girl,
Tiah, with a few of his men before Eleusians arrived to scare them
off... or so they thought. And while they guarded Tiah, the actual
target would be taken: a younger girl, Averan.

At first, things went even better than he'd hoped. It was icing on the
cake that the Eleusians foolishly ran off after his men, leaving both
girls completely unguarded. So he had taken both.

He had listened, amused, to the Eleusians argue outside his camp. It
took them some time to understand that voices carried. They were openly
discussing - in the common tongue, no less - what he might want in
return for the girls. Eventually they decided he must be after something
called "the Spear of the Watcher."

Gohrath laughed to himself. That hadn't been his goal at all, but this
spear sounded important so he may as well get it, too! As long as he was
able to get his hands on that cloud. The Eleusians had no idea what
power it contained and they let it waste away, floating idly around the
city like a pet.

Finally they had gotten down to bargaining. In the process, Gohrath had
agreed to swap the two hostages for two other Eleusians. In all honesty
he was glad to be rid of the annoying girls, and Athylea Lighthawk and
Samanthya Taver were pretty enough replacements.

Everything was going fine, and the switch was being made, when a
Mhaldorian slunk in, panicking the pretty girls. The rest was a mess.
The lowlife had scattered all the girls before running off like a girl
himself, leaving Gohrath enraged.

Yes, there was the problem. Gohrath gave a growl, carefully rolling the
letter into a slim tube before sealing it with wax.

Letting his anger get the better of him, Gohrath had rampaged through
Eleusis, fueled by revenge and a desperate attempt to capture the cloud.
He never got quite close enough to cast the spell, though, and
eventually he was forced to retreat. He would be back though, he
resolved. That cloud would be his and then he could harness its power.

Gohrath slid his letter into an empty bottle, sealing the cork with wax
before enchanting the glass and tossing it overboard. Soon, I'll put the
next plan into action, he glowered. Oh yes, it was all about to start...
and those Eleusians would pay.

Penned by My hand on the 2nd of Chronos, in the year 578 AF.