From Mosholu's Journal


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We have taken the stronghold, though our victory shines with less vigor than it could, for Seika is still among the missing in action and I fear she was carried off by a beast in the night. If I could speak to her I would ask of her what rules she had for living, what guides her, especially in light of the deaths of the two bank robbery planners.

She spoke often of an inner strength, of inner wisdom and I thought, for the brief time we traveled the waves and roads together, that she was a source of spiritual strength (not in the ridiculous religious sense, but in the inner-soul-type of holiness--a church of the Self). Her battles on the ship showed how capable a fighter Seika was, but what she said had a more profound impact on me.

I am tempted to second guess her, to listen to the whispers of the miners and the salt tribesmen, but until I speak directly with her I will not decide if her actions that night were motivated by self-defense, cold blood, insanity, or a more sinister goal I have no knowledge of. It is rather peculiar that she went missing after she fought and killed the would-be bank-robbers.

I have only very vague recollections of my grandfather. He was a foreman at one of the quarries, I’m pretty sure, but as I never saw him after my 5th birthday and my father never spoke of him, I’m left to my own memory. He did leave me a book, though, a slim volume of Freestone's somewhat recent history. In the front he wrote:

"It behooves all men who wish to excel the other animals to strive with might and main not to pass through life unheralded, like the beasts, which Nature has fashioned groveling and slaves to the belly. All our power, on the contrary, lies in both mind and body; we employ the mind to rule, the body to serve; the one we have in common with the Gods, the other with the brutes. Therefore I find it becoming, in seeking renown, that we should employ the resources of the intellect rather than those of brute strength, to the end that, since the span of life which we enjoy is short, we may make memory of our lives as long as possible. For the renown which riches or beauty confer is fleeting and frail; mental excellence is a splendid and lasting possession."

Would that I could talk with my former compatriot and speak of these things and more, of the mind and body, and which is best to improve. I thought I knew the monk, but perhaps not...

To be continued...