-3 years, 7 months and 12 days since my departure from Harad.-
[The handwriting is rushed for this entry, scratched out sentences and words are done so with a certain viciousness. There are inkblots all over the pages. Sometimes the words are nearly impossible to be deciphered and more than once something has been written in a foreign language.]
I wonder how those who started their Court in Harad did it. How they figured out who was a bad apple or not and ensure that they made the right choice in their companions to start their endeavor. Because I...I am lost.
While I should have known that we'd encounter troubles, I had no idea it would go this fast. Nor that it would involve the situation I mentioned in my last report and journal entry.
The Iron Hand was Filth. And I let my blind trust in my very first companion blind me to an eventual trap. Velnath was the first to share the desire to join the Court. It only became official once I settled and found the first two I immediately adopted into our folds. However, the man is rarely home so to speak, his wanderlust taking him all over the place. It did not bother me - until I found him bloody beaten at the Forsaken Inn. The Filth, Baeldric, had forged a letter, betrayed the Court and it was only because of another man of whom I am most suspicious, that I got tipped off that something was amiss.
He died by my hand. I shan't give more details about his demise, except that I was not proud of this kill. It shouldn't have been necessary in the first place. I should have known not to put trust in a letter, no matter that it had been signed by Velnath himself. A lesson painfully learned, but with a little bit of luck, it shan't cause too much damage on the long run.
With a bit of luck that is.
The Filth was working for Angmar apparently and I find this too much to be simple coincidence after having met the Bald Creep the other day. I will have to find Man Shrouded in Mystery I suppose and warn him. Or his elf companion.
Or not. I am not sure who to trust with this any longer. While I promised that I would take care to inform him, we did settle it down upon terms that we could not reveal everything, in fear for our own kinsmen and brethren. However, if they also have a traitor in their fold, they should be warned. And yet, the callous and afraid side of my spirit tells me to leave them be and only take care of our home, which lays in Bree.
I'll have to think on it.
Which reminds me I need to thank Percivol properly for his aid at transporting the body.
