The moonlight through the window had shifted slightly by the time he started writing. Both moons were higher now. The candy stick was down to its last few centimeters.
He pressed the quill to the paper.
"Second entry. My hand is less steady than last time. The sedatives are doing something to my focus but I want to get this down before I fall asleep."
"Last night I went to a tavern called the Sixth Tavern with Aldric and Bren, two of the original Jack's friends. I slept at Bren's place. His family was kind enough not to ask questions."
"The next morning we worked at the port fixing leaks on one of the ships. Caulking cotton and tar into cracks in the bilge. The work was straightforward. During this Aldric told me more about Warped Spaces."
"From what I understand they work like this: when one forms, the space around it changes. The environment warps to match the wishes or state of whoever is at the center of it. It is similar to what I have seen described in certain genre fiction, the dungeon type, except the interior also mutates the living things inside it. Animals become monstrous versions of themselves, their natural traits pushed to an extreme. A dog becomes something far worse than a dog. A crow becomes something you would not want to meet."
"There is also apparently something called a Devil. This is the person at the center of the space. They are maintaining it, whether they know it or not. Their wishes shape the domain."
"I find that detail significant."
He stopped.
The quill had gone. The tip was splayed and the last few lines had come out thicker than he wanted. He set it aside and reached for another from the bundle on the table.
He looked at the new quill for a moment.
These really do wear out fast.
He dipped it and kept going.
"After the work I went to return something to a warehouse. A black cat knocked over a box that was not supposed to be opened. Inside the box was a crystal. When I touched it I almost died."
"The crystal had some connection to the fog wasteland, the dream space I have been waking up in. After the incident I found a fragment of whatever was in the crystal had lodged itself inside me, near the kidney. The Salvation nuns confirmed there was interference with their treatment. The Bishopess confirmed it was not a curse but said it might be worse. She asked about Warped Spaces before being interrupted."
"I have a working theory that the crystal was a Warped Space item. The Bishopess mentioned Warped Spaces in that context and the behavior of the fragment is consistent with what Aldric described."
"If the core mutates and amplifies the unique qualities of whatever it touches, then the question is what it is doing to me. The fog wasteland and my ability to move intention into the pressure around me are both things I did not have before. I am noting this for later."
"On the subject of the wasteland. I ran an experiment. I wrote out the complete text of two Sherlock Holmes novels from memory while in the wasteland, using the pressure around me to etch the words into the ground. When I woke up I found I could remember the contents, but not as words. As imagery and events. A narrator's perspective and fragments of character perspective."
"I used this to think through a problem today and it produced results. I want to be careful about how much credit I give to the Holmes method here however, because I was also on sedatives at the time, which appear to reduce fear significantly. A version of me that is not afraid of consequences thinks differently. I am noting both factors because I genuinely do not know which one did more work."
He put the quill down on the table and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes.
Very tired.
The sedative had been doing its work all evening. The pain in his stomach was down to a dull awareness rather than something that demanded attention. He was grateful for that at least.
He picked the quill back up. The next lines came out faster, simpler, less careful.
"Tomorrow: investigating the curse situation with Randam the merchant and a bribed guard called Gardam. Also need someone from Mardrago's church as witness. Meeting at the clock tower notice board in the morning."
"After that or sometime soon: I want to try to push the pressure from the crystal fragment out of my body. The Salvation treatment moved it slightly. I believe the same method I used in the wasteland might work from the inside. Low risk experiment. I will go carefully."
He put the quill down.
For a moment he just sat there looking at the paper. The writing got noticeably worse about two thirds of the way through. He could see exactly where the sedative had reached full effect.
Documented.
His stomach made a small sound. Not the urgent complaint it had been making for most of the evening, just a quiet reminder. He pressed his hand lightly over his right side where the pressure sat.
Still there.
The treatment took the bruise. The thing causing it is still in there.
He weighed it for a moment. The cons: he did not fully understand what it was. The pros: the Bishopess said he was not in danger, the nuns could treat the symptoms, and whatever it was had not killed him yet.
A small experiment. Just to see if it moves.
He closed his eyes, placed his hand over the pressure, and began to think in the same way he had learned in the wasteland.
Pressure. Move. Outward. Just slightly.
The two moons sat in the window above the table and said nothing about it either way.