Crow

She is finally fast asleep, lost in dreams.

Pleasant ones I hope... she has already suffered too much.  Her... wound... has been taken care off. It no longer bleeds nor it brings her pain.

How quickly the years pass... I can still vividly recall the first day I returned in Pelargir, after having extracted my vengeance upon Black Tide. That was five years ago. Tonight, I became twenty three summers old. So many things have happened, so many situations have come to pass...

Finally... My body ceased to ache. All the tortures you inflicted upon me, now seem as little more than distant memories, a fading dream. And should my scars not be there to remind me of them, maybe I could have forgotten. But what shall never be forgotten is your treachery. Your betrayal. Your poisonous lies.

And so did her plans unveil, and her betrayal was made clear to me, in the most brutal, horrid way... She set me up.

A year has passed since I came back to Pelargir. Much has happened in this time... Looking back to my actions now, I have come to one conclusion only. I have become a monster. I am responsible for the deaths of so many people... Yet what is even more monstrous is that I can still sleep at nights, knowing what I have done, and I feel no regrets. Why?

Crow has made quite an impact here. I have seen people rejoice, frown, or tremble, at the mere hearing of the name. I have seen futile attempts of people, trying to figure out who is the man behind the mask, what are his motives, what is his ultimate goal. I have heard remarks about Crow, both good and bad, but all of them wrong.

What a sudden and unexpected turn of events! Even to this moment, as I write these lines, I find it hard to believe what has transpired... He is still alive. Imrachil, the one man to whom I owe everything, even my own existence, is alive. How can it be? My own eyes witnessed his death.

These past few months have been much more productive than I could possibly imagine. It is amazing how many people deserve death, if not worse. And each time I get rid of a target, it turns out another, bigger one was hiding behind it. Kill a slaver, only to find out who was the slavemaster he was working for.

Finally, after a long absence, I have returned in Pelargir. This marvelous city, this giant slum, never ceases to amaze me. Nothing stays the same for long here, yet nothing ever seems to change. New taverns erupt on top of the old ones, but the filth and the misery still remain.

It is over... For three long years I have yearned for this moment, and now, finally, it is over. The man, the beast, he who was once known as the Black Tide is breathing no more. Struck down by my own hands, who lavishly extracted a lengthy postponed revenge... A revenge that tasted sweeter than the most elegant wine.