Excerpt Two

I have not eaten in three days.  Though my plate sits by the door, half full, I can not stomach the Imperial Guard's vile prisoner rations.  Although waiting for a change in the menu may be just as hopeless as getting out of here with my head still attached.

The stone floor is so cold and moist with moss and weeds, that I can barely sleep.  They let us keep our boots but I can still feel them beginning to swell from all the water seeping through the cracks.  The cries of other prisoners echo through these chambers but I am not afraid.  It's the ones that talk about escape and how they are going to make it back to their families, that bothers me.  Hope can be a powerful ally or your worst enemy.  I have lost all hope of seeing my daughter again, the warm sun on my on face or the moon cast its cool shadows across the fields of Tamriel.  Guilty or innocent, my fate has been decided.

The guards gave me this roll of parchment and a quill, by request of the king, to write down my confessions and name any of my accomplices.  I will do no such thing!  For now, I am simply counting the days until they decide I am no longer useful.  Perhaps these words will make it back to my home town some day.  Or even to my sweet little Lucy, as I have left her with nothing but an empty house.