28 August 1202 AU - My home
This will be the last entry I make into this journal. It feels strange to write that. The certainty of it is surreal. I had expected fear, anger and despair or a deep well of bitter nostalgia instead I find peaceful acceptance of my fate. I have dismissed my staff and guards and sent my wife and son far away and now I sit alone in a great mansion once teeming with servants and retainers. It's strange how much of the noise they make you tune out, I'm only realising how loud and alive they made this place now that they are gone. The unnatural silence makes this safe familiar place seem alien and eerie. So I sit in my now eerie study waiting. I have my finest bottle of wine and two glasses waiting on my desk here with me, waiting for my executioner. Hopefully, she will deign to speak with me before the end. That way I can beg her to spare my family.
My son calls me a coward for not fighting. I could see it in his eyes how much he wanted to stand with me and fight back this monster that threatened his father. He is still young. He's still at an age where he thinks any obstacle can be overcome with faith and enough effort. He thinks winning is a matter of having enough skill and determination. Time and experience will strip him of such notions but in truth deep down it's a lesson I hope he never learns. Still, I worry that my sending him away at this final hour will be interpreted as a lack of confidence in his skills and worth. Nothing could be further from the truth but I cannot risk antagonising my killer lest she decide my head is not enough and that the lives of my family will cover the debts owed. I hope one day he understands.
I held to my oaths, I did everything my sworn liege asked of me even when I knew it was a mistake. I tried to warn them, my allies, my superiors and my contemporaries. But they would not listen. The failure is in part mine I wasn't able to convey just what she was, what she was and is capable of. But in retrospect perhaps they never could conceive of what it is she represents. They are men of war and a lot of time is spent shaping the minds of such people into uniform and obedient shapes and she is something from a different paradigm altogether. They expect to defeat her with conventional tools, strategies and ideas when everything about her is utterly unconventional. Lord Glortis has personally boasted that he will take her down and committed fifty mage knights to the mission. Lord Glortis will not outlive me by long. She will kill him and slaughter all his knights. The hunters, assassins and armies sent to kill her will not even slow her down. Nothing they do will work, they have no concept of what she is capable of. We only ever had one chance to kill her and we failed. We only ever had one chance because she only ever had one weakness; she trusted us. It's a weakness she'll never have again.
To my darling wife and my mighty son I love you both dearly and I am sorry for everything.
-Tor'Galthy House Weaverwood
