Sitting in the firelight at the barracks in Harwick, her gear piled around her chair, the diminutive scout wrote in a makeshift journal. She'd bought a meal and some mead from the bartender, and thus hadn't yet worn out her welcome in that room, and expected to be on her way before she had to buy more.
I'm writing this in Harwick, which I'm about to leave – probably for the last time. Can't quite write down why yet, but I don't expect I'll ever have reason to return.
Got a letter from Marney, and with it, two from Leoffrith. Well, one of them was to me, anyways. Seems I have a place or two to go back to up in the Bree-lands, and probably should. Not that I much want to be going anywheres, but I'm getting ahead of myself there. But I can't help writing it all out of order, being as the real news is too hard on me, and will end my writing for a while. I was surprised to have a letter back here so soon, but I reckon Lady Dytha managed better than I knew at having messengers.
So, I gave the news, such as it was, to guardsman Dala, and left it up to him whether to bother Lady Cíllan with it. He probably won't – and that's fine. I left it with him for a reason, after all. She didn't even want the bracelets last time, so I didn't even offer to leave anything behind this time. Showed Dala what I had for proof, just so he could say he'd seen it, but he wasn't exactly interested, neither. And I reckon they're all glad to know I'll stop stirring up trouble across the river now.
So, the news, and why I'm done with the Undeep. I found Wendiwyn – dead, in a grave with others the Easterlings had killed. Maybe by neglect, I don't know. If I thought I'd make any headway, I'd be after trying to kill all of them what were in that outpost, but that… wouldn't bring anyone back, even if I could do it. And I'd just get myself killed, and some folks would care. Wouldn't be fair to Rascal and Twilight, even. Strange to say, at the time, those two are the real reason I came back. Hard to think straight with how much I hurt inside. Not doing a whole lot better even now, about to take them and head east, since it's too snowed-in to go back up through Eregion again just now. She'd made a replacement for the bracelet what got cut off her arm – and apparently it was the whole end of her arm got cut off. Or maybe that happened later, but a healed-up amputation is what I found in the grave, along with a pendant of hers, and some hair-combs from her gran. Didn't take anything else from there, and tried to bury them all up proper again, but I was crying too hard to see what I was doing. They deserve better, but I did what I could.
And now, before I can't keep my tears from ruining this page, I'm done for now. Time to leave so I can cry in the wilderness instead. Don't want to deal with people right now, anyways.
