Most Revered Sephoni,
Word has reached me that the Sibylline have extended their invitation to you. But be warned that your path, if joined with theirs, will be lost to the Ages.
The Sisters are no strangers to generosity. I will not deny their alms or the comfort they bring to the dispossessed. Yet their charity is not unclouded. Their sacred wine - the crimson Drink - compels its imbiber in more ways than one. I have seen its effects: visions, si, but also a slow corrosion of the mind. Cloaked in ritual, the substance precipitates enthrallment. Any revelations promised of it are not freely given, but rather hoarded, measured, and wielded to ensnare those who come seeking truth.
Perhaps you wonder why they seek a priestess of Santina while clinging to their Spokes. Do not be fooled. Their piety is an illusion. You are prized not for your kindness, but because they covet our people's worship. They would pour all your heart's wisdom into their gilded chalice until it is no longer your own, but wholly theirs.
Consider this: the Dome itself shelters us, yet even its light is refracted, bent into truths that must be carefully discerned. Indeed, Q'tolip's science has revealed that the stars are not only echoes of our Sages, as the Pilot-Priests claim, but intelligences all their own. Some are benevolent, others are of terrible omen. Still more are strange and indifferent to us. All hold away over our lives below.
How alike to these stars are we mortals: some tending toward harmony, others to discord. The Sisterhood is such a flame - bright to the eye, but their brilliance conceals an aberration that bends the course of souls to their own design.
Your compassion is obvious. You are of Santina's line, and none may question your dedication to healing and succor. But must your light be set in their lamp? The Rose's works are not yours to duplicate; you are already their superior in sincerity and purity of intent. Should you join them, your deeds will be praised, but entangled in vines that bind more tightly than chains.
Sephoni, I ask of you: remain apart from them. Guard your freedom well, that your labors are not twisted to hidden ends.
Should you ever wish, I will share with you what I have learned. Not visions forced from a cup, but truths about the Illuminations themselves.
Tread carefully.
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My brother,
My path is guided by a luminous field -- it is the Divine Dome's light that encompasses all things, and it breathes, my brother. It comes, not in my eyes, but behind them. It has no edge and no place, it is boundless. I breathe with it. And like stars reflected in the face of water, it shows me where I must go, where others are walking, and what will become.
But I think there is a miscommunication. La Prioria did not seek me out, it is the other way around. I am interested in the organization, and I am only having conversation with le Sorelle. There is no harm in education, we are better for it. I would think with you walking beneath the light of erudition, you would welcome such things.
But there is appreciation, my brother, for your letter. I am steadfast in the faith, but if it is wisdom of the Divine Dome that they seek -- I am but a meager Sister-Priest who used to walk the Humbles. I know no secrets, and I do not care to.
It is not our position to contemplate the Divine Dome, my brother. It is for the clergy who reside in the Dome of Man.
I am not here for truths, I am here to offer compassion.
I will pray that there is no divide between us, no matter what happens in future.
Sephoni di Chiarore
Sephoni,
I do not doubt the purity of your intent. It is a gift, and the Dome's currents move you as they will. Yet I must warn you - not every wind that stirs within it is gentle. Some draw the unwary into deeper waters than they ever sought to swim.
You say the Sisters are but a source of learning. Perhaps. But as their wine is not merely drink, so too are their visions no mere lessons. They are a root that winds into mind and soul. Few who sip from their cups recall the moment they ceased to be their own. Their charity is a mask, and their mysteries, once tasted, will not let go.
You may claim that it is not our place to contemplate the divine, but what I have seen is beyond liturgy. The Dome does not merely encompass our Disc; it strains to uphold it. The veil trembles in these times of Ash, and without it there is only starlight, bent to starlight, bent to angles. Should it shatter, those who dared not look above will be the first to fall.
There are even some who seek such an end for us.
If you must walk among the Sisters, do so warily. Theirs is not the voice of Sages, just the croaking of Ages long forgotten.
I pray you will remember this.
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My brother,
It is not so much a source of learning than it is expanding the horizons. There's is a light that is not a light. Since I have received your letter, it has become almost blinding in its unfathomable radiance. At first I had thought the luminous sphere surrounding La Sorellanza was dim, the Divine Dome kept down by the fantastical faith of the Wheel. But I am mistaken. It is a negative light. A veiled thing. A clarity by absence. The edges, they are defined by where the light is not. The breath catches. It is awe without a name.
I am left curious as to its origins.
But if the light of healing wills me to walk with their chador in order to readily offer compassion to those who would shun me for the place of my birth, then it will be done.
Now I am wondering if it is not the Dome that strains and trembles, but your faith, my brother. There is a reason only the highest of our religious order are the ones to contemplate. Theirs is a belief that is immovable, and Truth does not waver their understanding. If you must speak on what you have learned, my brother, I will listen. You must unburden your soul of such things, and let go.
The Divine Dome holds, and will continue to hold, even in this Age of Ash. This, I believe with all my heart and spirit.
And I pray you will find comfort in its strength.
Sephoni di Chiarore
Let us speak soon of what you see in them, then.
The truth shines. You will not find it there.
But there is something else you might do for me.
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