voicesinmyhead Prompt #63
What is your biggest mistake?

Is? Or was? As for mistakes of the past, I believe I have already talked about that on these pages. And you must believe me when I say it did not seem a mistake, back then. Not to me, it didn't. Miquel was of a different opinion. So was Machiavelli. Everybody was convinced I was losing... touch. That making Giuliano pope was my death sentence.

Mistakes are remarkable, aren't they, every step of the way. Before you commit them, you reason hard to convince yourself you're on a good path. While you commit them, you construct ever more elaborate arguments to defend your decision. And for the longest time, you cling to the hope of having been right, after all - right, all this time. See? See? Giuliano's a man of honour. He'll honour his word. He needs an army. He can't - won't lead it himself. He needs me, needs my influence, needs my money.

I told you how Miquel sat with me. How he wiped my brow and hand-fed me and helped me get up and be dressed. He stood at my back while I received the Spanish cardinals. I was too sick to sense the extent of his despair. And perhaps that, that was my biggest mistake: that I, in clinging to what I thought was my dignity, neglected to see Miquel's street-cat wisdom.

Regarding mistakes of the present... they must be numerous, and quite remarkable in their still-apparent reason.