[The entry is written in a careful, elegant
hand, darkly inked.]
It appears much has changed since I was last on Pyke. But, then much is as it was. The sea is coloured from the selfsame palette as my childhood, but it is colder now & more desolate. It continues its relentless thrashing & endless roiling, pursuing still its dream of reclaiming the rock and fortress upon & in which I sit, & yet I've seen only a mere handful of ships dotting the water's surface, no matter the direction I've looked. The Iron Islands have never been never heavily populated, I know, but the Bloody Keep, & indeed most of Pyke, seem to house no one of note but myself. Where has everyone gone?