I beg your pardon, Dear Reader, but I have just learned of certain messages that just recently came to light. I believe I should relate those, and then I’ll get into the older archival material that is, I think, what readers really expected.

For new readers of this scribe, these messages may seem confusing and for that I apologize. Please bear with me. Some other readers may, however, recognize the context for these missives and some of the persons involved. And it may be a little important to them, consequently, in fully understanding events not directly related to these Ember stories. Again, I beg your indulgence. – The Scrivener

My Dear Katarina,

I have a bit of a problem for which I believe you may be able to assist the solution.

A distant relation of my human family, one who has (somewhat to my regret) failed to remain in regular communication, has recently reached out to me to request some kind of help in committing suicide.

His problem is not unique, an exaggerated example of the common fears of being old, getting older, and being alone. I have tried reasoning with him. I have tried to talk him out of his depression. But he resists. His mind is made up on the matter. His reason for writing me (at last) is that he also is afraid to do the deed for himself and hoped I might offer some magical exit for him.

That is where you might come in, if you care to become involved.

It is my thought to direct him to your little community with the idea that there he can be killed without relying upon his own uncertain hand. He has a few preconceived notions as to the least horrifying methods and it would be a simple thing to sway him to choose exsanguination at the hands of your people.

Once he’s ‘safely’ inside your community, then perhaps something can be done to change his mind about dying on me. I have so many in my human family, and their lives are so tragically short already, that I despise the idea of one taking his own life before nature requires it. I lose too many, too often, as it is.

~~~

Lady Ember,

My condolences on the loss of another of your very close humans. Yes, I heard, and I’ve been remiss in passing on my regrets. Please forgive me. Hence, I understand completely how this person’s urge for self-destruction is chafing you at this time more than at any other.

Tell me more about your human and let me see if there is anything we can do besides simply snuffing his life out for him without a provocation.

~~~

Katarina Dear,

My problem child is an elderly professor of history. His parents left him too soon and subsequently his childhood and development went somewhat askew. A loner all his life, now he has no one, and his work no longer satisfies. He needs personal contact with others. He needs to feel a new sense of purpose. These may have to be forced upon him.

I’m attaching a link to his biography. There you will find details of his life and work that are tedious to recite and of little use in understanding the man.

Though long out of my sight, since he has approached me with his need, I have come to know him a little. He’s a good human with a good mind and, I think, a soft heart but he’s locked himself away in his ivory tower for far too long.

You may recall how I sometimes have my “fuzzy premonitions.” When I’m with him, sometimes I have a feeling there’s something he’s meant for but that hasn’t yet happened. For that reason, too, I want him to continue breathing. There may be a reason he tapped me for help instead of going some of the other ways he might have chosen.

~~~

Ember Dearest,

Your problem child is timely. It may be that your human provides an opportunity for us to do each other a favor.

I’ve read his bio. He interests me. I would find it pleasant to have some new company with whom to talk about the past and that is, after all, his specialty. But there’s more than that.

I also have one in my care who’s bent on self-destruction and you know how difficult it is for one of us to achieve that by our own hand. She’s a pitiful case with good reasons for wishing to escape her memories. But like you, I cannot see my way to killing her myself and I will not ask another of us to commit such an act against one of our own. We are too few already.

I’m hatching a scheme that might meet your human’s needs. A research program for my entertainment, but also with an aim to continue preparing the human world for the night we may walk freely among them. Unafraid and unfeared.

If, as you say, he has a soft heart, I think I can arrange to melt it a little with my own problem-child’s plight and convince him he is needed here in my service. A few other of my problems who are in severe depression may also benefit, if I play my cards right.

Send him our way but not directly. Delay him for three months while I set my ideas into motion and I will be ready for him.

Do you also find it amusing that we maintain the old forms of writing even when we are employing the electronic means of delivery instead of the couriers or postmen of old?

~~~

Kitty Kat,

I told him I could arrange what he wants but negotiations would take time. He was pathetically happy to know that he had only three months more to wait for his release. Please be careful with him. The more time I spend with him, the more he breaks my heart.

~~~

{A number of personal messages not related to this event have been redacted for good reasons. Among those is that I don’t wish to be killed in my sleep. – The Scrivener}

~~~

Ember Love,

I am ready. Send your human to me using the precautions we discussed earlier. Fear not for your little one. I said we might help each other if I play my cards right. I’m holding three aces.

~~~

{Much later still with even more redactions, so many redactions in fact, that all I have left to show you is one partial message. – The Scrivener}

~~~

Ember,

I have lost control of my own scheme. Or perhaps I should say, it succeeded beyond any of my nightmares and certainly beyond anything I had intended. I fear it may end in more tragedy than before. I hate not having all the strings in my hands.

~~~

{We now return to our regular program. – The Scrivener}