I had heard enough about its contents to know that I needed to read it for the sake of my quest, and Garth had reluctantly promised to send it to me. His note warned that although the pages of the journal had been covered in plast by Jacob to protect them, some had not been completely sealed, so great care was needed in handling them. As soon as I had finished, Garth added, I should return the book to the Teknoguild caverns where a copy would be made for anyone wanting to look at it thereafter, this not so subtle reproach directed at me for my impatience.

Perching on the edge of the bed, I drew the lamp closer and opened the journal reverently. As I had been told, it began as a letter from Jacob to Hannah Seraphim, the leader of the Beforetime Misfits.

My dearest Hannah, I do not know if you will ever read this. You dreamed that we would lie together in a single grave but I know now this can never happen. What you foresaw must have been one of those possibilities that was extinguished by some action of ours. I fear we will never meet again in this life. My one consolation is to believe that you may also have been wrong about Sentinel, in which case the key you left in my care does not matter, save that it is a precious keepsake of you.

I broke off to draw a long breath. I had heard various speculations about the nature and purpose of the key Jacob had mentioned in the journal, but only now was I certain that it was Cassandra’s key. I read on, praying that Jacob would speak of hiding it and explain where it was to be found. Surely it must be somewhere at Obernewtyn. No one had spoken of a hidden key but Jacob might have scribed of its whereabouts in such a cryptic way that I alone would understand him.

Perhaps it was because you were so far away when our world fell that for a long time I was able to believe that you might have escaped the worst of the holocaust and would return as you promised. Indeed, this hope has been the only thing that has made my grief and loneliness tolerable. It seemed a terrible irony that it was speaking to you that saved me from the end faced by the others, and so condemned me to this long solitary life I have lived. Yet I cannot regret hearing your voice that one last time.