[Filter: Eve]

Hey, what's with everyone lately? Lots of talk, but no one wants to tell me anything. It's like I'm being fucking stonewalled.

[Filter: Keane]

I didn't think there'd be so much work cleaning up the mess.

[Filter: Private]

Aaron is growing. He has grown much in these last few months, and he more than acknowledges me as his father, despite my absence. Walking now, and beginning to speak.

The experience is different from watching Glenn and Dillon grow. Of course, they are my brothers and not my sons, but did Father ever have these feelings? Hm.

One son, but how many children will we have to follow? We can only hope to ensure that they get along, rather than the opposite. My children will not be as my father's children are. It is a task indeed, considering our history. That has hardly stopped me from living as I have.

There is time yet, even with the number of people leaving. My siblings all seem hesitant to go. The next time we will be together like this is surely Chloe's wedding. Years in the making, though the distance is harsh on her. Her actions here say that much. Hn.

[Filter: House Rowan]

Martha seems to wish to go on another one of our rides, and I must agree that I'm looking forward to another one as well. Especially in light of the fact that we've hardly found a suitable alternative to them.

July 19, Sunday

My father is ill. He boasts and says it is nothing, but all the house can see that it is nothing more than hot air. He is old. ... People whisper, where they think the family cannot hear. More than once, Kevin has come to me and told me that he wishes I were still the heir. He wrings his hands, he stays up late into the night. I do not know what counsel to offer him. What do you say to your brother, when your father may be facing down death?

Father Lycoris. If you would relay the message that my stay will be unintentionally extended, I would be most grateful.

[Filter: Private, in Atsirian]

I sometimes think I should have gone with them. ... I often think I should have gone. But I'm not used to this, and ... well, and they have others. They'll find their way, without me, but ...

But I'm tired of not being able to do anything. It feels like I'm simply tagging along ... dead weight, for the ride. A piece of driftwood ... But I suppose I've always been like that, in a way. Even when I was still in Atsiria ...

[Filter: Var]

Do you wish you'd gone with them? To try and find the prince?

Do you think I would run like a hound with my tail tucked between my legs? Did you? I do not run. Too much of my life, I have been running, and I will not do it any more. Besides, does it not show your own incompetence, that you cannot find me in your own realm?

The ghost of judgment is come. She bears down on the hypocrites and the liars, the dreadful and the horrid, and she makes them all bow to her. As they made her bow. Judgment is unkind. It has no mercy, it does not forgive.

She is the last to fall. First to conquer.