Dyersday Thirdweek, Fieldfire, 147/32

Awakeners came to town today. Shame. I kinda liked this place.

Ock's Fallow doesn't have a shrine or temple or whatever they call those places where they live, so we reckoned they were all busy in the big cities where the money is. Turns out they move in squads, heading from town to town, setting up for a few days at a time then packing up for the next destination. Me and Malvery went into the square this morning hunting coffee, and there they were, tents all up and ready. Spooky how they just appeared like that.

We stayed and watched for a while. All these prim and proper folks milling around the tents, going in to see the Awakeners, asking for this and that. I confess I don't get it and I've never really wanted to. All I know is they reckon they can tell your future, and if you pay them enough, they reckon they can change it. Sounds like a scam to me, but if it is, it's the best one I ever saw. Half the country believes in this Allsoul junk.

It's something to do with the last King, the crazy one that all the Dukes ganged up on when they formed the Coalition. After they slung him into one of his palaces and imprisoned him there he got to all kinds of raving, and they wrote it all down in some book, and then reasoned that since they couldn't understand him and he was obviously important then he must be a prophet. It's the old trick educated folk pull over and over: if you don't understand it, it's 'cause you're not smart enough, not that it's incomprehensible dogshit.

Crake was nervy when we told him. I wonder if it's the Awakeners that are after him? He is a daemonist, after all, and nobody would be hanging daemonists at all if the Awakeners weren't stirring them up all the time. Still, I didn't get that impression. I don't think he's scared of them; I think he hates them. And he's been making noises about moving on for a couple of days. We've been here a while now.

It's probably time to go, anyway. Malvery, Pinn and high-end booze are a dangerous combination. They get excitable, and that usually ends up involving the militia. Always better to leave before someone kicks you out.

So, I suppose we're going. No idea where to yet, but I reckon we'll know when we get there.