Today marks the third full year since Manessah’s death. As in the years prior to this one, I left my ward in solitude. It still seems… not right… to ask her to train on this day. I have spent it in my own quiet contemplation, dwelling upon Fate and what we can and cannot do to avoid destiny, and our own part in it.
I received word from the Council in Exile that the Egyptian Slayer has fallen, although by the time the news reached me it was months old, so obviously my ward was not her successor. I think it likely, however, that she will succeed this current Slayer- said to be Median by birth, and old to be Called- nearly 19. I wish her a long lifetime, but is that for her sake, or my own? Because I do not want to feel the grief… We are warned against this, at the Academy, told to keep ourselves emotionally distant, not to get too attached. But I wonder how any Watcher can spend three years molding a girl into a woman and not become attached? Truth be told I think I loved her before that first year passed… and now, to imagine her falling, in battle or not… my insides threaten to seize up, and so I never imagine it at all. I must keep that part of myself that loves her separate from the rest, and instead focus on the duty and the honor. If she dies for the greater good, if she dies well, that is the most I can hope for. I must imagine no other outcome than that.
There is talk in the market that Sennacherib’s army is marching through the former Kingdom of Israel. They say he has Judah in his sights, and will not rest until it is punished for its insolence in refusing his summons. They say nothing less than the death of every last man, woman, and child will satisfy him and his monstrous pride. Privately I think it more likely that Ascending to godhood requires a monstrously large blood sacrifice. Either way the result is the same- death and destruction rained down upon these people, as it was rained down upon mine in Babylon. I listened in on a meeting of the City Elders, and reports have the army numbered at 100,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 mounted archers. It seems impossible that anyone would have the resources to move such a mass of humanity, but perhaps it’s a little thing in comparison to Acension.
Leading this army is a general called Holofernes- I believe he also led the assault on Babylon. His name is spoken in terrified whispers, and they say he has made some sort of pact with demons, or perhaps is a demon himself. I almost hope it is true.
Demons, at least, I know how to handle.
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