Front of the Book

Where to Begin

Kept by Henzia-Mathilda von Trouser-Waffle, Countess of an Elturel that is presently chained over Hell, somewhere on the road that is meant to unchain it.

I did not set out to keep a book. I set out to remember things accurately, since no one else on this convoy will, and a diviner who cannot say plainly what she saw is only a noblewoman with opinions. It began as a way to outrun bad news. It has become the one honest record of where we have been and what each mile took off us.

If you have found this and you are not one of the Five, then we sold it, we lost it, or we are dead and you are standing in the wreck of a rig reading a stranger's hand. The arrangement is the same in all three cases. The entries are the chronicle, in the order the road delivered them. The rest is what a person needs to survive the same road. Take what is useful and put the book back where you found it.