[The following page is dated, but it seems to have been smudged into near nothingness as if the date embarrassed the writer. It reads:]
I am shamed to my very core, today. I have lost an arm. My right arm. Centuries on the Ice without so much as a scratch only to carelessly lose a limb within moments. A creature from beneath the ice while I was gathering fish in the night for trade. I ripped it to [illegible] PIECES but the damage had been done. I was able to cauterize it before I lost all of my fluids... I have no clue if it would have killed me but I'd rather not find out. I heard some Shaman speaking of Necromancy about a decade ago. Hopefully they haven't passed yet.
[The next page, another entry, not dated:]
It took years of apprenticing, though luckily I have time in spades. Kula'wek taught me what she could before she died. She even let me be the one to ferry her into the next life... a payment for my assistance, maybe? The blood was aged well. She was content.
But I wasn't. Raising thrall did nothing to bring me back my arm. I'll scrape this entire tundra clean if I have to. Someone has to know something.
[Next entry, next page. The handwriting was poor and scribbled:]
A VISION. YES. CHOSEN. SPECIAL. LOVED. COMPLETE. I AM WHOLE. I CAN BE WHOLE. WHOLE AGAIN. WHOLE AGAIN WHOLE AGAINWHOLEAGAIN [Illegible]
[The next page has an explanation:]
I experimented with the possibility of communications with the First Vampire. I'd read about them in ruins to the far south, but never really put in any stock to the fables of the so-called Chyld until now. I had fasted... fasted and toyed with the sunlight, urging near-death clarity, playing with it like a game. Eventually, it came to me. It was a dream- or maybe I was awake- I hadn't fed in what felt like years, but I heard it. I heard it. A voice. A real voice not in my head but hovering just behind the nape of my neck. Directions repeated over and over again. The bit of necromancy I had learned came to my benefit, as the ritual was impossible without it. It also incorporated alchemy; I had only ever studied metallurgic transmutation so there was a large learning curve but I managed to grasp the required concepts. It isn't as simple as stitching a dead arm of similar size to your stump, saying a few words, and having your arm back, though the ritual did begin similarly. It required sacrifice. Luckily, an arm was easily bought.
Later on, the voice returned, but it sounded different. It felt different. The instructions were clear: it bore gifts but my ears were not enough as they were to hear them. Using the sunlight as my catalyst, I all but removed my sight. At first it was horrifying, but soon after I developed other senses to compensate. I wager it was Donne, herself, worming her way into my ears, but I've not the slightest clue as to why she would choose to lower herself to my level.
I have begun psychic manipulation, even biological manipulation. I'm not as physically strong as I was, but it seems like a fair trade off.
[The next few pages detail how to make a foreign limb their own through necromancy and alchemy with accompanying diagrams, but much of the information has been smudged out, save for the drawings themselves.]