Epilogue

  I'm sorry I missed you, old friends. I'm sorry I missed all of you. But duty does not wait for a convenient hour, does it? Eliphas didn't have to say a word; I knew already that if you weren't at court, you had business elsewhere. We are all pulled by many obligations, all of which must be met if we are to live in accordance with our own honor.
  Forgive me. I know I must sound very unusual, as rambling as I am. I find it difficult to express myself on paper, unable to look on the faces of my friends. By the time you return, and certainly by the time you read this, you will already have heard the news. Yes, my tribe has decided to leave the Garou Nation, at least for a time — but with the Red Star burning in the sky, I doubt that our business will be complete before the final battle comes. This was not a unanimous decision. I feel it is a poor move, and I said as much, but I cannot fault my tribe's obligation to our homelands and what remains of our Kin. So I have left my home in the care of my friend Shakar, and I am returning with my elders to speak with our new allies, and to see for myself whether or not this decision will bear fruit.
  Mari, Albrecht: I can hear you now. Please, grant my tribemates the benefit of the doubt, and do the same for me. I will return. My home is not in India, nor in the Himalayas. I was born here, and I feel my greatest duty lies in these mountains: a duty to this land and the people here. I shall be back, even if it means returning so close to the End that I am taken for a harbinger of the final battle itself.
  Tell the others. Evan, I ask this of you in particulate, because you have the gift of words so rare among us. Tell the others that the Stargazers have chosen to step aside from the Garou Nation, but that they cannot and would never relinquish being Garou. Remember that there will be some of us who remain behind, preferring the ties of the Nation to those of tribal loyalty. Tell the others that these Stargazers are still their allies — that even those of us who left are still their allies, even if we've chosen a different battlefield, a battlefield that must be defended now or it will be lost forever.
  I wish there were more time. I had to ask Eliphas for pen and paper, and it grieved me that I am forced to write this rather than wait for you and talk to you in person.
  But time, I am afraid, is something that none of us really have anymore.
  Gaia be with you, my friends. I look forward to seeing you again in person once more.

Antonine