Time has a habit of trickling through my fingers like grains of sand. I forget sometimes that the Roman Empire has fallen. I've forgotten so much. Other things I've willfully pushed from my mind, so loathe am I to remember them. The past can drown a person. Perhaps that's why I no longer remember my real name, or my origins. I think I was human, once.
Sometime after our daughter began to teethe, Eva escaped our watch. Sarah nearly ripped the castle from its foundations seeking her, but no matter. Eva reappeared hours later with all the aplomb of her father, a cheeky grin and a gift for yours truly: a worm-eaten scroll, the inked hieroglyphics faded away, tied with a leather thong and a single white feather.