Alex
Alright, I will now narrate one of the encounters between both North Porditro and myself and both Jace Queer and Quartz Rose at Flengriam.
James
Hold up, what happened to Hazel? Where was she during this?
Alex
Hazel should have told you already? She just told her part of the story, right? Anyways, North and I were—
James
Hey, no, stop talking for a second! Hazel didn't tell us where she went at all, and she hardly got past the part she told before you left!
Alex
Ahhh, so she was only on the first time we met with Jace at Flengriam, not the second. Wait, did she even get to that part? If she left off when we went back to... hmmm... ... ...meh, it probably does not matter. I will simply talk of the first time we met with Jace at Flengriam.
Jace thought that he gave us the slip back at the border between Amity and the holy lands, so he let his guard down (in part due to his immense exhaustion) and decided to stay at some inn for the night.
Once we were certain that Jace was in a deep sleep, we gathered up the townsfolk and I’m ashamed to say that I manipulated those uninvolved innocents into helping us capture or even kill Jace.
Against all our expectations, however, Jace had neither slept nor even considered sleeping during the five hours we waited. As of yet, we have no idea as to what Jace was doing during those five hours. Nevertheless, whenever the crowd rushed into the building, Jace was nowhere to be found…
…or so it seemed.
I considered all the possibilities. Jace would not have been able shift in his condition at the time, and—as far as we know—he had no method through which he would be able to produce a similar or superior effect. As this is the case, I believe that it is highly probable if not absolutely certain that Jace used his infamous mask.
James, while we are on the topic, where did you get that mask? It is nothing like the other Wanderer items.
James
It’s not that different from the other items, but it’s worth noting that I didn’t give him that mask. Of course, I marked it as a Wanderer item so he could use it as one, but I have no idea how the mask was created or how Jace acquired it.
Alex
You knew Jace longer than any other Wanderer, yet even you do not know things about him and his belongings?
James
WoOOOoah there, buckaroo, don’t go saying things you might regrEEEeeet!
I knew him well; I knew him better than any of you did. Even I hardly know the man, and I practically raised him.
Alex
Sorry, I did not know that Jace's past was such a touchy subject.
James
It's fine, it's fine...
...just... continue with the story.
Alex
Right, right.
So, after we realized that Jace was no longer in the inn, I decided that our best bet was to try to catch him before he could cross the border between the holy lands and Auburn. In hindsight, we probably should have tried to get to the bridge between Auburn and Effrost so that we could catch Jace at the heavily-patrolled border. If Jace was to shift into Effrost without going through proper procedures, he would be caught by the authorities in Effrost and handed over to us upon our explanation of the situation.
At the time, such a scenario did not come to mind. As this was the case, we attempted to apprehend Jace at the rough, narrow road with a mountain inland and a cliff seaward. We did not consider why we decided to try to deal with Jace in such a dangerous place, but know that I know the whole story—at least for the most part—I am certain that this decision was not my own.
As expected, Jace appeared in front of us and we prepared to fight once more.
James
Look, I hate to interrupt you when things are about to get ugly, but I think a few parts got skipped. Hazel didn't tell us how Jace got to Flengriam.
Alex
Hmmm? Oh, right, that part. If you want to hear about that, you'll have to wait for Quartz to return. Where did she head off to, anyways?
James
I told her to organize an expeditionary team with the goal of recovering some of the torn pages from Jace's journal.
Alex
Ah, that would be a mistake. I doubt she will find anything.
James
What? Why?
Alex
I actually saw Jace rip some pages out of your journal at one point, but it is not as if he scattered them on the wind. He pocketed the pages he tore, and I do not know whether he disposed of them at a later date or is still in possession of them. However, we cannot be certain that the pages I saw are the same pages as the ones Quartz is looking for, so maybe such an endeavour could prove fruitful after all.
...
...I should probably stop getting sidetracked and focus on the task at hand.
