Three stupid lairs (two empy, one covered in spiders no I won't write how I saw a bunch of spiders and just ran away... shit wait curse you pen!) and I still didn't have that dumb Quill. Doubts were eating away at the back of my mind, if such an artifact existed why couldn't I recall Valyra locking it up forever? Another question, why didn't Morley want it? Sure the ability to literraly rewrite history would be devastating and scary, but you'd be able to rewrite history! Think of the horrific possibilities!
So it was with these thoughts in my mind, (and that of a huge spider nest) that I rode on to another of Valrya's safe houses. From the outset it was clear I wasn't the only person aware of this particular safe house. There were three horses already outside the ruined house with a false cellar. Now whether they were there to just use the remains of the house as a place to stay, or were looting it wasn't clear initially. I approached with my usual caution (brazenly walking up sword still in my sheath). The house had been a one story, most of the roof was gone, and the occupants were not inside, which told me they were there for the safe house. It did occur to me much like the spider cave this might be a sign to just walk away. But I'll be damned if some looters scare me off (spiders yes, looting jerks? hahaha no.) Valyra had ingeniously hid the safehouse behind a fallen dresser with a false back (so you'd check the dresser find nothing, and move on, well in theory) beneath it would be stairs that lead down to a cellar, one room, just enough for her to store some emergency supplies in case she was being pursued (despite being a powerful necromancer even she had to run from time to time).
Walking down the steps I had to pause, there wasn't a sound. If three people were looting down below I should have heard something! Arguing over worth, loot, or just that there was nothing there. Perhaps they were sleeping, I had arrived at night, though strange they'd sleep in the middle of robbing something (even if Valrya were dead, its not like they would know that!). I actually took my sword out of its hilt and prepared to make battle with whatever was behind the door. I catiously pushed it open and found a writing desk, a lamp, and three dead men. What had killed them was not readily apparent, the room was kind of bare except for the desk and the dead men (perhaps from earlier bandits? Earlier trips from these bandits?). I stepped over them cautious to avoid whatever may have killed them (traps secret invisible beasts?) They all looked like they died in agony, but I couldn't find a bolt or puncture wound anywhere. I looked over the desk and found a journal from Valrya (she wrote so randomly, like at least I'm sort of telling a sequential tale in my journal, she just wrote what she was doing, no days, no dates, its like she was keeping track in case she forgot?).
Reading in the journal it became immediately clear what had happened to the men dead on the ground, and best of all I'd found the quill! With a smile I pried open one of the dead mans hands and removed the Quill, a simple black bird feather type, didn't look unusual at all. With care I placed it into a pouch and got the hell out of the safe house. I thought for a moment about burning the men left inside, but I didn't know them, rotting down there seemed an apt punishment for their crimes. I did unhitch their horses and sent them off running, hopefully they found better masters, I'll never know nor care.
I had my object! And I had a plan on how to deal with The Man in White, now the difficulty of course was keeping the plan out of my mind, not very hard according to some people with how "thoughtless" they claim I am! Tomorrow I shall write of the Quill that can change history!
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