Yeah, all right, this ruins the pathos...
Said to be from the diary of Lord Brendan ap Fiona, Duke
of Novanglia, Kingdom of Apples; entry for August 1, 1998:
Lammas Night, Year 29 of the Resurgence.
It has come to this: Tonight I will save the Dreaming and stave off the Long Winter, and fulfill my Dán. The Dragon -- for I cannot bring myself to use the disrespectful name the Commoners have given this magnificent Creature -- will come at last, as we agreed long ago when I delivered her my brother's Soul. When she is seen flying over the mortal City of Boston, then at last, then Mankind MUST believe in us. Dread Banality will be driven out -- burned away if necessary by the Breath of the Beast. No doubt some Fools in my Court will choose to resist my Arrangement with her, and what must befall such wretches will pain me greatly, but there is no choice. I have thought about it for 22 years. THIS is the ONLY Way. I only hope that young Sean will understand that I am doing this for his Future as well as for the future of us all.
Eventually, eventually I will have enough influence with Her to mitigate her Rampages, of course, and no doubt I will be able to use her as a lever to move aside Lilith Sian and her Unseelie rabble. If I have any Regret in all of this, it is not the Surgery which the Dragon must perform on the Duchy and the mortal City: It is that I have had to seek the aid of the Shadow Court, that den of serpents most believe to be a harmless holiday sham. But they will go the way of the Ogre, in time; they will follow him into the oblivion that awaits mere commoners who believe that they can control a Dragon. Only I can save us. Only the Dragon and I can Save us now.
And now I go to take my proper Place among the Legends of the Kithain. Ah, Asterlan, my brother. For this I betrayed you, long ago. Now I must make you proud.