[A letter to Garen]

[IKeepForgettingMyUserName]

Garen,

You are miserable and weak. Were you part of most herds they would abandon you to die and be better for it. I hate how pathetic you are.

But you are not an evil traitor elf like Vellyn. She has the blessed blood to guide her but denies Kula's call where you only stumble blind as idiot.

Though you are a worm now I think you are not entirely lost like her. I know you will likely not hear, sulking in miserable self-pity, but still for sake of world I charge you to be better than the wretch you are now.

The world is dying. There is no magic cup that will make it all better like Rose thinks. It will only come from sacrifice and blood. The world will not become green without sowing the fields in red. You must be ready for the trials that come and you will not have someone like me to remind you how pathetic you really are for very long.

The djinn's sacrifice will feed the world along with all of us who go marching to our deaths. But even then it will not be enough. Qa'im needs to perish. Vellyn is evil and works with that necromancer's thrall Enmur, but you are just human. You must stop wasting your time and do something that actually matters. I gave you a plan. Maybe you have another. But have a plan!

Or you can do nothing but try to kill me along with the scheming Enmur and Vellyn. You will only help the djinn and deny the assurance of its death, and if the march fails it is you who will suffer, not me. I am already marked for the harvest.

Phaedra

[Travburg]

A plain slip of paper arrives left unsigned.

Phaedra,

You know I liked you when we first met. Not sure if you remember, but we spoke of my late friend Nela the Kulamet chaplain who made her home in a cave with a shrine and kept bees. You reminded me a bit of her, and I thought perhaps we could be friends. We even worked together once or twice on some contract.

And you know what she had that you don't? Compassion. The disc isn't all elves, spiders, Kula, djinn, brookers, and Qa'im. The Wheel has other spokes, but maybe we're both blind. I've only just arrived after all. Kind of interesting how Awoken are a bit like spring elves in that regard I think, coming into the world grown already.

I do hope you stop the djinn for what it's worth.

[IKeepForgettingMyUserName]

Garen,

I remember. Those hives were precious. I could not save them.

Compassion is for when the world is saved. When it is what it was meant to be. When the Garden finally blooms.

I do want you to succeed, even as I see Vellyn's hooks. Be careful, no one close to power is your friend. Choose the course you believe is best for all and stick to it. Do not compromise.

Even if you decide to seek my end, be sure it is for your own reasons. I tell you true I did not know of Faith, but I have killed and sought to kill monsters that pretend to be something else. I will continue to hunt down those that would hasten the world's end until I too die. It will be someday soon.

Decide as you like.

Phaedra