[This tome, handwritten in a strange dialect of ancient Cassian that your datachron has little trouble translating, appears to have been written by Tresayne Toria herself.]

Day 117

What I wouldn't give for a decent Cassian hyperbrew. Not a light, foamy summer drink for children and the physically weak, and not this weird mixture the Progenitors - that's what they call themselves - have been feeding me. They say it's to help in the "primal extraction process." But there's something more than that - than them - here. Something with power. Life. When this being is near, I feel... stronger. Sounds are more clear. My vision is sharper, my legs can carry me faster than a tree-cat. But for all that, it doesn't let you relax.

I think back on Cassus often, for it is my home. But I am not certain I miss it. The others did. They would not listen, and insisted on trying to take the ship back to Cassus. A very long journey, as we all know, but they insisted on trying. It was foolish, and I advised against it. Not all of them left, my sisters remained, and a few trusted males.

And now they are dead. We were warned this was a one-way journey. What did they expect?

When I was a girl on Cassus, I remember my father warned me to stay inside the big house one night, during the food riots that struck the capitol city after several years of drought. He went outside with a lightweight rifle I'd only ever seen him carry on the grounds of our northern estates during a hunt. I kept watch that night from inside the safety of our big house with my old dog Shanda.

When the rioters came too close, my father would fire a warning shot. Usually they'd move on without trouble, but once in a while he had to threaten them before they'd go. I'd watch it all from inside the house, and never once did he look back inside. My father's attention was on the job at hand, not the home he wanted to take refuge within.

Ever since I took the trials, I knew I would honor his memory by training to be the best swordmaiden on Cassus. It looks like the Eldan noticed.

If this works, if the Progenitors are able to achieve their goal, it will mean the end of food riots. Of war on Cassus. Of conflict within the Commonwealth and without. The only thing we must, as a people, sacrifice is me. And I welcome that job.

And when the time comes for my son to depart for Cassus, and I must remain, I will not look back. I will remain here, watching over Vitara the way my father once watched over our home. And when the time comes for me to die, I will know this: I did not falter. I did not turn from my duty. I did what I did for my home.

For Cassus.