The night was young, mid-winter of the year 678 after the Coming of
Estarra, and the Fellowship of the Roots was discussing the astounding
power of the Dreaming - the wonder of dreams that are memories, both
good and bad, and the warnings and pain they can bring. They went on
like that through the night and by morning Naesan Sweetfur decided to
rally the Fellowship to return to the Emerald Enclave to empower the
Aegis against the corrupting influence of Great Muud. Though He was not
the source of the disturbances of late, Great Muud was hunting the
Sleeping Child all the more relentlessly, emboldened by the weakening of
the dreams and, as a result, the weakening of protections around the
Vernal.

Naesan's party was joined by Warlord Uzriel d'Vanecu, Lady Grey Sapphira
d'Vanecu, Regent Xiran Stormcrow, Chair Tikki, Luce Shevat, Huskii
Myeras, Yuzuki n'Lochli, and Mani, who set off for the Emerald Enclave
that very same day. Once there, they pressed on further into the Aegis
of Vestera and began the work of setting it to rights in earnest. Very
soon, however, they stumbled upon something startling - the dead body of
a being they had never met before. Elegantly dressed, their face was
nought but a blank slate under a broken mask as if they never had a real
face in the first place. Tikki patted the figure down and retrieved a
scrap of paper from a pocket. Though it was ruined by acid and encoded,
they were able to glean the following: 19--594 - -t-yf--rj-- -wjf--
Ij--h-j-. A filing number or a date? And what language could this be?
The custodian, as they came to be known, was certainly no being they had
met before though it reminded them of the mannequins of the Meliashmora
of Imperial Secrets and the beings of Iklara.

There was work to be done either way so they pressed on while they
pondered the message. The nightmares sent by Great Muud were numerous
and doubled in strength, so they had their work cut out for them. While
one party was clearing the Aegis, another was debating the likelihood of
the custodians being among them as it would have been all too easy to
pass unnoticed with such elegant clothing and a mask. Were they
observers or messengers of some kind? One thing that became clear soon
was that if the numbers were a date, Luce posited, they likely referred
to the year 594 and the Awakening of Sister Sea. Meanwhile, upon another
inspection of the note, Uzriel wondered if perhaps it was burned by the
now infamous ooze that had been sighted twice within the Basin of Life.
As if that was not troubling enough, Xiran pointed out that if faceless
beings were involved, one should not dismiss the Soulless Nohaji, known
as the Face-Thief, still free and active somewhere in the vastness of
the Void.

That launched them into a more thorough investigation of the custodian's
body, with Everiine Silvermoon going first and determining that while it
was not natural, it was not infested by excorable powers. A link to the
immanidivinus still lurked within, fading. Next went Mani, attempting to
trace its auras but whatever animated the body had faded. And finally,
Sapphira, who wasted no time plunging her surgical blade into the
ribcage to reveal that the custodian was a construct, lacking in the way
of organs a natural body would have. Just then, the body dissolved into
sheer essence, brilliant and licked by flame, and then it was gone.

As luck would have it, Luce completed restoring the Aegis of Vestara to
its full power at that exact moment and all rushed to meet with the
Keepers. There, they beheld upon the Aegis itself dream motes forming
into an image - a message from the Keepers. A masked custodian, the one
whose body they found, was seen entering the Emerald Enclave and rushing
further in as if fleeing something in a panic. Their hands were being
eaten at by a corrosive substance and the custodian eventually succumbed
to that damage, deep within the Aegis, but it was clear that they were
looking for something too.

Concerned for the Dreaming, the group decided to visit the Dreamlands of
Nirvana urgently. With Naesan's assistance, Eluisa Starfall, Huskii,
Luce, and Tikki went forth to investigate and found the Citadel sealed
and the False Gods on high alert. Rather than fight each other, as they
were known to do, they were instead protecting their lands and speaking
of a Pact. Whether with or against that which intrudes upon the Dreaming
was unclear for they chased out all interlopers with haste.

With the Aegis of Vestera strengthened and Great Muud kept at bay, the
group dispersed to consider these troubling findings.

Penned by My hand on the 12th of Juliary, in the year 681 CE.