Prologue

How does one catalogue a life that has spanned centuries? And more importantly, why would one do so if there is no one left to care? I am alone here.

Perchance it is some human coil that remains inside me. For has it not often been a human need to chronicles one’s life before they meet their end?

Or perhaps I possess some need to revisit the events in my life which have brought me to my inevitable fate. Even now, when all is nearly done, there remains so much I do not understand. I suppose lingering questions matter little now. I have made my choice and shall meet my destiny with bravery and honor.

I have lived longer than any deserve. I have watched time as it passes into history. I have witnessed senseless wars and the rise and fall of countless kingdoms. I have seen both great beauty and the grotesque. I have tried to live my life with honor and failed miserably. I have experienced loss, torment, pain, and death. And I have dealt pain and death to others. But I have also loved, and I have been loved. It is a love that brought warmth to my solitude and chased away the shadows of despair. And now it has brought me to my end.

Sir Nicholas Rochester August 11, 2010