Dearest Reader,

The following is the tale of a very tumultuous time for my world. There was not a single place within that did not feel the threats that hung above every soul.

I was not then the woman that I am today, and the way I dealt with some of the problems presented to me was surely not the wisest or most even tempered of ways to go about such grand events.

But the giants in the Stormlands had a very profound effect on my views of life and the world...

Strong emotions can be both the greatest and worst of things to experience.

Allies and enemies both were made during the story to come. Myself and my companions garnered a lot of attention that we had not ever before considered.

My emotions had run quite high in my last months of living with the giants of Alkyrindaun, and my vexation towards Mordai was surely not the wisest or most logically minded choice, driven ever forward by the voice in my mind speaking of pain and betrayal. But this was a time in my life that I thought only briefly of the consequences, and I had not yet fully understood that when one is to make decisions, there are consequences that find heavy purchase on the soul.

Even when the outcome of a plan is not a responsibility or of ones own doing, there can still be a weight that follows its end.

When I look back on my life and all the souls who traveled and fought beside me, sometimes I ponder how they and I ever survived long enough to have anything at all to look back on.

We were rash at times, and even brazen... pardon the pun.

We took the ability we had and applied it fully, and in some cases-in some decisions-this was not the wise choice.

But I suppose if all I ever made was wise choices, my life would be a very boring thing to read about, wouldn't it?

-Katerin Moonshadow, 899 P.C