It grieves me to report here that Countess Crystal of the Western Door expired a few days ago. She never awoke from her coma, and it seems that she was poisoned -- with Scathach's Finger. Maybe I ought to take that jar in the cabinet home for safekeeping....
Poor Llew was in shock at the news of Her Excellency's death. I hope he doesn't blame himself.
More bad news --apparently, that idiot Gwydion picked a fight with a gang, and nearly got himself killed. According to Rick (strictly off the record), they were Prodigals -- the kind who work the late shift and eat a high-protein liquid diet. What in the names of the Dark Lady and the Lord of the Hunt possessed m'lord Dimwit to do that?!? I thought he had more sense -- guess not. Lucky for him, Sir Gregory found out where he was and summoned Lady Althea to fix him up. With any luck, this'll teach him to be more careful next time. The last thing my young liege needs is more grief over people dying in his barony (this one due to his own stupidity, but still...).
Lillith dropped in for a visit after the Privy Council report of Her (late) Excellency's death. She dropped a few cryptic remarks about Crystal engaging in Rhapsody, expressed a mixture of admiration and resentment for whomever did the deed (and no, she doesn't know -- or so she claims), and vanished -- literally.
To top it all off, Robur's acting really funny around me. If I didn't know better, I'd swear he was afraid of me....
Let's see...Llew and Robur returned from Countess Crystal's funeral a few days ago. It seems that the lady's death has had a profound effect on Llew -- he's been pretty depressed of late, poor kid. But then again, unlike us, death means the end for the other Houses. Somehow, I doubt telling him about the Scathach's attitudes on death would be politic right now.
Sir Gregory's been investigating Crystal's death. Apparently, the nurses allowed a woman claiming to be a relative into the countess's room. She gave her name as "Kelly Corbeau."
Scathach's Cauldron! It can't be! Or can it? OK, Kellin, shut up before this diary entry gets into the wrong hands....
On that note, apparently a printout of one of these pages found its way into Lord Matthew's hands. He gave me back the original, but I wouldn't put it past him to have photocopied it while it was in his possession. Damn Gwydion -- what's he up to?
More strange dreams of late. I think I was a soldier helping a young prince who looked a lot like Llew try to regain his throne. It seemed that the prince fell for one of the invading nation who looked suspiciously like Lady Sharanya, Llew's new friend from the Kingdom of Willows. Premonitions? Flashbacks? I'm no sorcerer, but they're too frequent to just be coincidence.
Kieran's been caught fighting with the other squires twice now. I understand the kid's upset at having them cast aspersions on his aunt and our House in general, but the others aren't likely to see it that way. And a knight ought to be able to control his temper, as Mom and Jenner always told me way back when.
More bad news of late. His Highness and Lady Sharanya were in an accident late last night. They're OK, just shaken up, but Llew's car is totaled. As Sir Gregory said, it'll keep the nockers busy for weeks....
Let's see...there's a lot to report, but none of it's all that good.
Apparently, a Red Branch knight named Eleighanara ni Gwydion was attacked by an unknown assailant -- stabbed in the chest, according to the reports. She's in GWU Hospital, in stable condition. From what I've heard, she came to warn Llew about an assassin whom Lord Matthew seems to think is Lady Raven. Uh-huh. It sounds awfully fishy to me, but, hey, I'm just a halfblood, what do I know?
Sorry to be so sarcastic. It's just that I'm sick and tired of everyone making life difficult for me because I wasn't "privileged" to be born into a "proper" House. Elitist pricks.
Anyways, it seems that the attack on the Red Branch knight wasn't an isolated incident. A couple nights later, Lady Althea's assistant, Rei, was attacked in the same fashion, and just the night before last, so was Lady Shari. According to Robur, poor Llew was ready to chew iron and spit nails. I know for a fact His Highness was quite angry at the council session the next day, when he bid all of us find his beloved's assailant and deal with him or her as they deserved.
An aside...apparently, they've found someone to replace "Lord Nataniel" -- a Fiona knight who runs a bar somewhere in town. Didn't see too much of him, but from what I did he seemed pretty much a waste of space -- pretty to look at, sure, but not much else. That, and I'd swear he had a touch of the Dark about him....
No luck finding Lady Shari's assailant, though I hear Lord Matthew and Lord Dimwit Durano tried to find out more by bugging Sir Darius at the crime scene. Apparently, m'lord Dimwit dislikes the police as much as the Bureau, or so Sir Darius tells me. He was quite put out, by the way. Not that I blame the big guy -- it's hard to be objective about someone who disses you as much as Lord Dimwit did him.
I'll write more later...I'm going to drive into SilverWater and talk to Jenner about this stuff. Maybe he can help me out with this....
Interesting report to make. The assailant was found -- a falcon pooka! By his own admission, he's the one who attacked Lady Shari, Lady Eleighanara, Rei, and Ceilidh. Yes, Ceilidh. She's well, though Kieran took it quite hard. Not surprising, since the two were out on a date at the time.
Robur, Lord Matthew, Lord Durano, Sir Gregory and Kieran were responsible for apprehending our pooka perpetrator. Apparently, he's also responsible for the murder of a mundane woman working at Captive Hearts. Between that and committing crimes across state lines (he was apprehended in Maryland), he's going up the river for a long, long time.
Like they say -- "You win some, you lose some." At least now we're doing the former, after far too much time doing the latter.