Lost Priest,

For too many seasons did you remain at the cusp of understanding the Guardians and what they mean, but it is too shameful to see such claims about the Heartwood and the Guardians, and too shameful to let them go unchecked. It reflects poorly on the education you refused to receive.

I will remedy this, in part.

It is understandable that you have the viewpoint that you do, as you see the world through the eyes of Strife. But Life, as your Lord has learned, is not a war, and in spite of the lack of a battlefield: it goes on, just as the Heartwood does, just as the Guardians do.

We have walked in the wake of Z'krell's ruin as the monomachy shook the world, stood and watched with Aelwen at the eternal loss of the Nightmare, witnesses to the Father's Final Flight. We have rested against the scarred body of K'y'lee'nn and counted our own, and now we pick through what remains the same as the rest of Sapience, guided by the wily Lopaia. Wheresoever you see those who walk with the Rhythm, that is where you will find their signs. You claim to see apathy, but you see only the ashes and not Asheira's inevitable rise.

If you look only for the grand, you will miss the nuanced, Priest. Mushrooms grow best in the dark, and are not always heralded by me or mine gutting some doomed wretch in service. One must be patient if one wishes to feast on the fruits, and whether it be in this age or the last: Dia'ruis is Eternal.

= Lord-Navigator Bhalwyn



Penned by my hand on Quensday, the 10th of Sapiarch, in the year 2 AC.