Addendum

As you might have noticed, I wasn’t great at controlling extreme emotions when I was young. I could ignore more of them than the average Lutovish, but danger to loved ones? You know firsthand what that does to me, Elliot.

The Ancients showed me how important it is to keep your distance from them when you’re central to one’s society. Korix fell for a short time, and I might not show this in my tale, but the whole of Lutov teetered as a result. Afterward, I spent centuries perfecting the art of detaching from my emotions, but even then, I’ve failed to do it more often than not.

But that’s why being with you and your family has been such a relief. Now that I know my end is swiftly approaching, now that my only purpose in life is to protect the five of you, I can relax. You see me as only Leski and my daughter have in recent years.

Oh! About Leski. I’m sorry if my more intimate moments with her were too detailed for you. I know your tastes are reserved solely for men, but while this story is meant to help you move on, its telling is partially for me too.

I don’t have long left, a few days at most, and recording this narration, reliving my life, has helped take my mind off of what’s coming. So, I hope you’ll endure or skip any parts of it that you find uncomfortable. Please, allow me this, love.

All right. Let’s get to it. Two weeks pass between the last part and the next with research and… stress filling most of that time. The crisis with the Ancients, the role I suddenly had to fill, my parents…

I cannot express to you how uncomfortable it was to walk down the halls of their apartment while I stayed with them.

But I had Leski and my siblings and an intricate problem that needed solving, and all three of these did a wonderful job with distracting me through exceptionally hard days.

After so long without results, though, I began to investigate alternate solutions, one of which was more promising than the others.