I'd always enjoyed practicing my craft. Killing came as naturally to me as blowing my nose. They raised me to be a knight, and being a brigand's not much different. First, blood and swords, then wine and harlots to wash the worries away. But ever since that horrid night... everything has changed. My dreams are filled with nightmares in which I relive those events, step by step...

We took the estate by storm and pulled Maximus Macrinus out of his bedding, still in his nighties. Yet we had to put off dealing with him and first see to his family. Those were our orders, like it or not, but... it's one thing to impale some corpulent cow-diddler with a wine-stained mustache and quite another to string up a snot-nosed runt. He squealed like a little girl when the lads threw the noose around his neck. Macrinus tried to buy us off – even showed me the candlestick lever that opens the hidden vault where he hides his family treasures, but Filibert's orders were clear.

Next up was Maximus' wife... the lads spent a long time having their way with her and making Maximus watch. Too long. I didn't know the harlotsbrood and haven't a clue what he did to Filibert to make him wish such a fate on him and his family, but... That was too much for me. Only once his whole clan was swinging did we turn our attention to Macrinus. We stuck him with hot pokers, cut off his ears, then slit his gut... and he... throughout all this horror he didn't scream once. Only groaned under his breath. When it came time for him to die, in a puddle of his own excrement, under the tree where we'd hanged his wife and son... he looked me in the eyes and whispered, "Vengeance will be mine! In this life, or the next!" Those were his last words. Dark clouds filled the sky in that instant, and a harsh gale sprung up... Then I gave the order to move out.

I remember perfectly how, when I reported this back to Filibert, he was all smiles. Happy as a clam. Didn't even harangue me for not looting the manor. It was clear he cared about one thing, and one thing only: Macrinus' death.

Yet news of the treasure we left at Casteldaccia quickly spread around Mont Crane and a few lads from our hanse are fixing to head over there to see what they can find. I'll join them. I'll bury the remains still lying there, in the yard – maybe then their spirits will know peace. Maybe I'll wipe away at least some of my sins. Maybe at last I'll be able to sleep soundly.