"None of the items we looked for in the vault gave any indication of being responsible for the miasma. The one item that was missing, the medallion, I think that was what Chenzhou was wearing when you, you know. No one was able to find any pieces of it after, so it's probably gone, right? I've been going through the records in the Inventories, but I haven't found anything that coincides with the medallion yet. But it had a label in the vault so there has to be something besides its place in the Inventories, only I'm not sure if it came in as part of a payment or a trade or a donation. Apparently, when soldiers die without family in the Camelia all their belongings go into the Vault, unless there's a will or gifting to a specific person. But that has to be set up before they die, and it doesn't seem like many of the soldiers here bother to do that? Which isn't smart, who knows what's waiting down there now. We need to do a complete review of everything in there probably, I don't know if Yuze or Lord Ye told you, but it's a complete mess. It looks like they just started chucking stuff in there during the last war and we didn't even make it to the oldest part of the vault. That stuffs apparently been in there for almost a thousand years, I don't even know if any of its still there or if it's just turned to dust with age. Although, there's probably magic built into the vault, right? For protection and preservation? That's how the Vermeer family vault works, but we also have a lot of artwork in there and that stuff can be really sensitive to age and the weather and the like. I don't know how long it takes a tapestry to turn to dust but a painting's really only going to last for sixty or seventy years before it becomes so fragile it breaks into pieces when you touch it or the color fades completely. Its why they have to be stored in the vault, even sunlight damages them if they're left out too long. Do you think sunshine could have had something to do with the poison? The weather in this area is supposed to be sunny half the year, it could have been making it worse. Or better I guess, I had a healer once prescribe more time out in the sun for my sister when she was ill. Said it had healing properties, and everyone needed to be out in it more. Everyone here seems to be enjoying it now. I went to the market yesterday and could hardly take a step without bumping into someone, there were so many people out. Oh! And apparently the children are all excited because they found a few sprouts in a couple of the old flower beds. Apparently, nothing has grown in them in years so now they're watching them closely to see what happens. Do you think the miasma had something to do with the plants not growing? I saw the old tapestries they hung in the Great Hall, and it has a bunch of flowers growing out of the cliff sides under the castle. I wonder if they're going to come back now? How long would that even take? I'll find a horticulturist and ask. If things can grow now, we should probably start planting again. My father says you should always grow as much as you can because you never know when the trade routes might be slow or get cut off. That happened to him once while he was serving in the Imperial Army, in the War against the West, and they didn't have food for three weeks. It was awful, he said they started to eat the wounded because they were so hungry. I don't know if I'd ever be hungry enough to eat another person, but I guess you never know until you're in that situation yourself? Father doesn't like thinking about it, but he gets really angry when people take food availability lightly. He was asking me all about how the Camelia gets its food in his last letter. He said the trade agreements that supply the Camelia are some of the oldest and longest lasting in the Land of Sorrow. Like older than the Soliel family. The original copies are apparently stored in the vault here. We didn't see them in there, but they'd be really interesting to look at. They probably need to be updated anyway. I don't think we still use the same kind of currency they did back then? Do they? That'd be strange because it's been a couple of kingdoms since then and the capital changed currency when the Soliel family came into power. Which was odd, because the currency changed twice more during their reign and it's not even over yet and my sister heard rumors-"
Eirian took a deep breath and bellowed. "OH MY GOD!"
Finn started so badly he nearly fell out of his chair. "What? What's wrong?"
Yuze stared at him. "Did you even breath during that?"
"What?" Finn looked around in confusion. Eirian had a hand over her mouth, but her eyes were dancing with amusement and Chenzhou was staring at him, something like concern on his face.
Yuze shook his head. "Do you have gills?"
Finn flushed. "I can breathe and talk at the same time."
"You didn't slow down at all." Chenzhou wondered.
Finn sniffed. "I have excellent lung capacity."
"Your future wife will be thrilled." Eirian smirked. Yuze, Chenzhou, and Finn stared at her in confusion but after a moment they realized what she meant and all three of them turned bright red. "But to clarify, the medallion Chenzhou wore was destroyed. You're saying it came from the vault?"
Finn nodded, praying his cheeks would cool down quickly, but Chenzhou looked confused.
"That's impossible."
They turned to him.
"That medallion belonged to my mother. My father took it from around her neck as she died in the birthing bed and put it on me."
~ tbc