Prologue

Dearest stranger…"

Kathrine sighed at the plain sheet of paper before her with the recipient addressed in red ink. Her eyes full of dissatisfaction started to water at the thought of writing her last letter to said recipient. Summoning courage, she inhaled deeply letting the condescending air in her steel-holding cell flow evenly through her lungs.

Tapping the feather-shaped pen against the table she twisted her lips and darted her eyes to the ceiling, contemplating what she would constitute into the letter.

At the back of her mind, she couldn't help but wonder how best to address a parting letter to a person she knew of neither their name nor their appearance.

Frankly speaking, she was saying goodbye to a person she had never met. Nor would she ever get to meet, given her current circumstances, Katherine felt rather privileged that she could write this person a letter.

In just a few moments…she would be dead.

Reminding herself of the barrier of time, Katherine sucked up her tensed nerves and resumed writing the letter, pouring out her raw and untamed emotions onto a piece of paper.

—" I hope this letter finds you well, as it will be my last and most important response. I do not know when this letter will find you, but I trust that by then, my head will have been severed from my neck, and served as an example of the Emperor's hand of vindication… "—

Katherine paused and shook her head, she hadn't intended to bring up her execution which was just an hour or maybe two away. She just wanted to bid her dearest stranger a fitting farewell, knowing she couldn't do it in person.

Katherine pointed her gaze to the round hole in the door where air and light were meant to flood into her cell. She noticed additional figures mounted in front of her lonesome cell, and instinctively knew there was very little time left.

Returning her focus, she continued writing…

—" It has been nine long years of anguish ever since my family was brutally overthrown by Emperor Fletcher, the traitorous general, and his merciless troops in our nation's bloodiest coup. Within these nine years, I couldn't draw lots to figure out which memory haunts my mind most. Be it the slaughter of my parents in cold blood, or the public executions held for my siblings and dearest friends. Or perhaps, the nine years of being dragged around in chains paraded as Fletcher's little slave. All more spine-breaking than the last, my thoughts will always dart to the only hope I can cling to, the real reason why I still draw breath, my younger brother, Theodore, the last hope of this country…"—

Kathrine stopped and looked at her writing, the words were barely spaced out and the letters, penned down haphazardly. There was little space left on the paper and she hadn't said a word of what she wanted to.

Placing the pen on the paper, she made the final entry, putting down the last set of words she would ever write.

—" I know, that moments before my execution is a poor time to spring this on you, but allow me, to voice out my deepest wish, just this once." —

A tear drop escaped Katherine's eye as she wrote down what she wished for, from the bottom of her heart.

—" I want your eyes to be the last thing I see before forever going blind."—