“A sudden stab. A passing pain. Then… the cold vacuum. I feel the blade slide from my ribs.
Is this the end? The end of my work? The end of my journey? The end of my travels? It’s been so long…
The end of my watch? For… years… I have upheld my duty.
I gaze my head upon the resplendent sky.
Has my duty been fulfilled? Or forsaken…
I hear the screams. The shouts. The cries of war—a war which I now abandon.
Have I… failed? To die, here, away from the storm… how could I?
It must be, then, that I have failed my watch. That I have forsaken my duty.
They are gone, all of them. My life in vain…
I close my eyes amidst the slaughter. I embrace the darkness.
Hinc iacebo, Armus Atramanus. Is qui suum debitum dereliquit…
I have failed…
I feel the air freeze, a sudden draft of arctic gusts.
But…. Yet….Still there is no peace.. Still the storm approaches. Still my watch stands, incomplete.
The earth seems to shift
And… if it still stands… then…
So must I.
Once more, my eyes are opened. Once more, my breath is drawn.
Whence once I fell, I stand once more—to gaze upon the coming storm In my home winds, dark of night, I walk indeed again.
And so my Watch continues.”
~Armus Blackhand