Ephemeris Silenti

' The Diary of the Dead '

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De Mortuis nil nisi Bonum: 'no one can speak ill of the dead'

The second of three letters to L, from his successors, after his death.

Thanks for all the new reviews, alerts, favourites, etc, and thanks, as always, to Annie, who takes care of my Latin issues.

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... Entry Twenty Six – February 11th, 2009 ...

... De Mortuis II...

Dear L,

I'm watching Matt play on his PSP. I guess he's done. I haven't even started yet. Hi, by the way. I'm Linda. Fourth in line to your name. Fifteen years old, accepted to do a foundation art degree (something anyone above me in rank would not be allowed to do), and I've never met you. Aside from your symbol and a distorted voice on a laptop, I've never come into contact with you. I can't say I'm surprised, if I were a world-famous detective I'd keep my head low too.

But you didn't keep yours low enough, did you? I'm sorry for that, Kira must have taken you by surprise...I expect I'd have done things differently, maybe...I don't know, I wouldn't have confronted my suspect. But perhaps that's why you were the detective and I wasn't. I bet you had a lot of enemies, didn't you? I wonder if Near will inherit them when he inherits your name. Which is dead cert now, since Mello's gone and I don't think Matt even wants it. This is getting easier now I'm getting into it. We'll all be attending a service for you at the chapel (of course not a church, we're not all allowed to leave the house at once, as you know), and we have to give these to Roger so he can bury them with you, apparently. Quite sweet really, although it would have meant more if you knew us.

Or maybe you did. Did you know that I'd been accepted in one of the best art colleges in England? Did you know that Matt recently got awarded four A-levels, in Information Tech, Computing, Applied Science and Maths? At fourteen? Maybe you did, and maybe you were proud of us, like we always wanted you to be. Thanks, I suppose...for giving us kids goals, and all that...I'll paint a picture for you in college.

Love you, just like we all do,

Linda (aged 15)

Xxx

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Another new character. Enter LINDA. Arty, apparently quite annoying, has a platonic fondness for Near. And that's about as much info on her that is official.

Philosopher's Queen

xx