A Fairy Out of Her Tale - Dear Diary - 64. Scene 64

28th January 1995

Dear Diary and Dear Lydia and Dear Beloved Mother Deity and Dear Everyone Who Made this Miracle Happen

I just read everything you wrote to me. Kris confirmed it is true about the spell, the mind control. I didn’t even notice! (Though if I had noticed the spell wouldn’t have worked, right?)

I hope you can read what I’m writing to you in the same way I could read what you wrote me. And I hope you’ll look at the diary again before tomorrow, so you can see it sooner! It’s Saturday today, right? We don’t have much time before Lóránt loses everything (and we lose them).

The diary appeared as soon as Kris managed to break Zhofie’s spell on me. He doesn’t think it’s a coincidence. According to him, this diary is even more special than I thought. It’s got some magic in it that should make it able to show itself to me wherever I am, while its physical body remains where you left it. Apparently this diary was made by demons too, though I would never have guessed. It looks so normal, so… old? All those yellowed pages, falling apart at the cover… Though now that I think about it, I had never noticed its existence until I bumped into it when I was running away, so maybe it had been waiting for a specific moment to show itself to me?

Creepy…

Anyway, we can talk about the magic properties of my diary once we’re out of this place. Kris has tried to escape once already, but Zhofie is too strong for two powerless people to take on. We’re going to need your help (and Lóránt’s).

The next handwriting you see will be Kris’s. He’ll write what he knows about the place Zhofie is keeping us in (and I won’t be able to read it because he’s definitely not doing it in Fadalesh…).

Zhofie is using magic to disguise this place as a house in the suburb of Shinban. As this is the demon neighbourhood, it’s likely not the only place under such disguise. But we are next to a river that stinks more than dead bodies and she has got guard dogs at the front gate. Three of them at least. They are not normal dogs. They are the breed that my family specialised in optimising for dismembering spectacles: the Black-Fanged Howlwulf. You can recognise them for their silver fur marked with black dots (like a reverse night sky), the fact they are as tall as an adult demon while on all fours (and about the size of a two-storey building standing on their back legs), and by the black fangs that give them their name. They have eight of those in total, four in the upper jaw and four on the lower jaw. The fangs suck all light around them, so they are the blackest black in the world. And each of those fangs is at least as big as an arm, potruding out from the howlwulf’s jaws. They can perfurate anything and will cut you in half in an instant.

The fact that Zhofie has those howlwulfs means she is working with my family. I don’t know why they want Nessa. But Zhofie is keeping me here so that she can deliver me back to them. I know I will not be able to escape them a second time. Walking into a howlwulf’s den will be a more pleasant death than whatever they will do to me.

You must already know how powerful Zhofie is. She will sneak spells on you before you realise she is in the battlefield. She uses the kind of dishounorable tactics my family revels in. She is only keeping us alive because my parents have offered her a hefty reaward, but if you corner her, she won’t be above using us as shields.

On the other hand, her mind control spell was easy to break, even without my former powers. Either Nessa has a strong will, or she forgot to strengthen her hold on Nessa’s mind. This might be a weakness you could exploit.

I have no further advice at the moment. We await your answer and expect some kind of escape plan we can be ready for.

Thanks for reading!
Nessa is alive! (and so is Kris) Rejoice!
Never mind the fact they're up against an evil demon who seems to be more powerful than anything they've seen so far! It's not like main characters can die or anything...
Right?
The plot is about to get quite exciting with Nessa's rescue, so if you were just waiting for the right opportunity to contribute to a writer's financial stability, it's now dancing in front of you wearing a big red target and all but begging to be shot.
And now that we are running weekly updates to the story, it'll be Tuesday before you hear how the rescue plan went.
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