Excerpts from the Journals of Lloyd Patrick

13 April 488
I've decided to ask Pierre Rheaume for his daughter's hand.  The old man hates me, I think, but will probably accede to get a hold of some of the Patrick finances.

Jeanne is so lovely, and brilliant, and a talented mage, as well.  I hope that in our married life she can grow out of the petty cruelties that she sometimes inflicts on me.

17 April 493
Chantal Sylvie Patrick Rheaume, 6 lbs., 9 oz.

30 October 495
Jeanne announced she is leaving today, and heading up to Morency.  I'm not going to try to stop her.  Chantal will be remaining here with me.

6 November 495
Jeanne left in the middle of the night, and took Chantal with her. The Gendarmerie certainly won't be able to help, not when tracking a wizard of Jeanne's power.  My skills are no match for hers.

I fear that my baby is in dangerous hands.  I don't think Jeanne would ever hurt her, at least intentionally, but Jeanne has gotten too involved with the netherworld.  One day some sort of reckoning will come, and Chantal may pay the price.

29 November 501
This is the worst day of my life, of any father's life.

Jeanne sent me a message this morning, telling me that there had been an accident, that Chantal was dead, and that she was gone forever.  Jeanne had left Chantal unsupervised (again!) while she engaged in one of her damned infernal rituals.  Chantal, always going where she wasn't supposed to, found her mother's magic deck of cards in an unlocked dresser, and decided to play. She unwittingly drew the Skull.  The spectre slew her instantly, and destroyed her soul.

Jeanne was screaming and sobbing, but I felt no sympathy for her, only for my beautiful, innocent daughter, who lived such an awful life and died so horribly because of her mother's obsessions.  And mine.

2 December 501
Today I have quit the Academie de Charron and renounced the craft for good.  Twenty years of magic, and I don't know what I have to show for it but a broken marriage and a dead child.  When I handed my key into Vaananen he seemed genuinely shocked that anyone would willingly turn away from his glorious quest for knowledge.  I don't think he has even the remotest sense of how normal people think and feel.

I am leaving Charron to live out in the Marais, where no one can reach me.