Editors’ Note: Our reasoning for including this entry and its successors is twofold. First, it provides a glimpse into the current situation and culture of Tokavsk and its inner court. The diary entry of the chief advisor is of the utmost value to this anthology. We have confirmed its legitimacy through careful study, though were it a forgery it would still warrant a place here. The murder of advisor Jalic Seshet sent the court into a state of chaos that we are attempting to sort through. Thus, the following pieces form a reconstruction of the ensuing events that took place over several weeks. They are not in chronological order but are rather arranged in such a way that they tell a cohesive narrative. When originally compiling this, we were only to include the report of the guards because it was all we had, but the wealth of information we later overturned lead to the need for significant revision.
Seshet is no more. I was aroused by this news, and now that I have time to think I am penning it ere it slips from my memory. I still have not processed the fact that he is dead. Though it was hours ago, I hear the frantic words of Pellin over and over as though for the first time inside my mind. The truth of it sinks into me, and then I blink and the initial shock fades again. Jalic Seshet, dead. The flinch, the watering of the eyes, then the strange indifference that is the substitute for grief.
Later
The meeting with the King was sullen. With one less robe and voice among us, our positions felt strained and empty. We could not close the circle around the throne without noticing the greater distance. The room was too silent, but no words were sufficient to penetrate it. Even the King was at a loss. We still had appointments to prepare for and bills to consider, but none of that could be done when one of our number was now dead. A heaviness settled about us, and all and all we fulfilled none of our tasks.
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