Today I made further strides into the desert. I actually reached the destroyed city yesterday, but I didn’t really want to deal with it so I worked around it. Today, however, I started breaking it down. Basically, the only way I’m going to be able to get rid of all the poison is if I crush the stone making up the ruins into a powder and then treat it all like the sand I have been destroying. It was a lot more straightforward than I was expecting it to be.

At this point I am getting really close to finishing off the desert, I should be done in two or threes hours. Though it will probably be tomorrow evening before all of the actual sand is broken down. Had this desert been any bigger I would have had to stop for a little while to let it clean the sand out.

After that I’ll probably just keep making more of those buildings, maybe take the time to teach some people how to operate them.

Par got back today with another victory under his belt. Including the cities that have surrendered to us without a fight our empire controls almost a dozen cities, and that number is only going to grow. Par has definitely done well, if he keeps succeeding like this we will have to rename him from Lord Parius the Magnificent to Emperor Parius the Magnificent.

I got a chance to inspect some prototype siege engines that Par is wanting to make use of, something I didn’t realize existed until today. Possibly because up until now the only real testing they’ve done was actually in the field. Why the change? I have no idea. How do they work? I am similarly clueless. I do know that Tiddol has taken the initiative to lead that particular project. Of course, she did, who else would have done it?

Other than that I spent some time listening to my dad tell stories. This time he told me about the siege they had recently returned from. To hear him tell it, it was a clash of the ages, a desperate struggle between an overwhelming invading army and a small yet dedicated defending army until the defenders were eventually overwhelmed and the corrupt dictators forcing them to throw their lives at our unstoppable advance were dethroned. It was even more enthralling than his normal tales, probably because it happened recently and I am seeing the effects of it myself.

Anyway, Good Night Diary.