It was a cycle ago that I spent some time - two or three turns - at the roses. It was spent, as is my custom, in reflection and meditation. A time spent alone except for hope and memory.
I thought of the words which govern my life, and words which I hope the princess will always remember. My eternal pledge to her.
I made a note here of those words during the time I stood my vigil. For a while it seemed I was writing an epitaph for myself, leaving the thoughts for which others might perhaps remember me should my course in these lands reach an end.
I thought perhaps I would leave a note of the words with the keeper of the graveyard, but I did not. Another hand and mind, more gifted than my own, wrote words for me.