You know what, Jeb? I should never have said a word.
Of course I was thrilled when I found the note Liam had left to himself ; thrilled at the possibility dangled before me, that I might punish he who stole my daughters from me. Of course I never thought that we'd end up destroying our world.
When I told you, I meant only to share my jubilation, that, if I could not retrieve my family from death, I could at least avenge them, I remember you were shocked.
"Hollis!" you said in that ridiculous German accent you hadn't yet dropped. "What wonderful news!"
And then of course I told Joachim, who was just as thrilled as I for much the same reason -- but then again, all he was avenging was a stolen theory, not a family snatched away.
We all conspired, of course, to honor Liam's memory by revealing this strange secret to the world; Joachim and I meant to destroy our enemies by this. None of us dreamed we'd cause the havoc we did.
Evie tried to warn us, telling us we'd cause a disaster. But we paid her no heed, only continued our plotting.
We had our speeches written, and needed only a date. We rushed about, trying to calculate auspicious dates -- Moth the mad was no help there, providing dates and times only sensible by a calendar from a dead land.
So it was Molly who divined a date for our revelation. Your assistant; didn't she give you a false name?
She confessed she had considered Bastille Day, but decided against it and chose the twenty - second of September instead. You remember what that signifies -- the date when the French proclaimed their Republic.
And so we were all ready when the date arrived. We had our things, and everyone knew there was a speech being given. They didn't know what it was.
We were up on the stands, and we talked. And then I dropped the bombshell.
We, the upper class, had no long history of triumph and defeat -- a paltry two hundred years of war and struggle instead. The royal family -- there was no royal family. Only the King and Queen, set in place a century and a half ago.
Oh, it was a grand story when we ferreted it all out. I wish you could have heard. But there wasn't any time when the crowd came for our blood. It was run or die for us, Jeb -- and for you, it was die.
I saw you go down, trying to help up a little girl who shouldn't have been there in the first place. Isn't life cruel? You died. She lived. At least there was a body.
Since then, things have only got worse, you know. Charles and Moth have been imprisoned for conspiring with us. Joachim is on the run. Iggy is hard put to explain his absence from public life for such a long time. Evie's due to be executed tomorrow. Ashley has disappeared -- I suppose he's fled to Europe. I suppose you were the lucky ones, you and Liam -- to die first. They weren't easy deaths, but you didn't have to die before a crowd shouting for your blood.
Let me tell you a secret, Jeb:
If I hadn't told you about Liam's note, none of this would have happened. You wouldn't be dead, Evie, Charles, Moth, and I would have our freedom, Ashley would be in the country, and Joachim would be here. It's too bad, though, because I did tell you.
Tonight, there's almost no time left. Tomorrow I'm scheduled to die. I always wanted to die on my own terms, though. Did you know that the guards here wear pistols? And do you remember how easy it is to bribe someone?
If I had known it would end like this, I never would have told you.