From the Journal of Aframos Longjourney, Pilgrim
With notes by Avos Torr, Scholar of Rheve Library
Erevday, Nineteenth Cycle, Seventh Year, 81st Turn
Forty-Eighth Day in the Trees
There are places missing. We did not know for certain last night, while we walked in the darkness, but today, we find that there are entire parts of the woods that are simply… gone. Not bare, but gone. There is nothing there. Not trees, nor grass, nor even ground. There isn't even empty space there. It hurts my eyes to look at it.
Torne came close to one of these places, and ventured to place a stick into this emptiness. When he pulled it back, the bark was gone, and the wood seemed eaten into. We have avoided these places since.
We are almost, we think, back to the Engine. Torne recognizes landmarks, and we will hopefully be able to warn the monks about this oddness. Hopefully, they will let us rest there, and we can be on our way again. We will probably end up going back to the swamp, and I will be glad enough to do so. Anything is better than this. Souja doesn't complain. She's been very good through all of this. She said this morning that she's worried for the poor monks, who live so close to this. How kind she is, to think of them at a time like this.
I am tired, but we dare not stop. The strangeness has not let up, and we fear that these empty places are growing.