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[Filter: Karlesta, in Atsirian]

This business with Aes...

Do you need my help, Karlesta? I ask that very sincerely, and I offer that help freely. But this is your affair. For better o And I don't want to be seen as interfering. The Prophet tries to stay out of pure politics when at all possible...

It is your choice.

[Filter: Lawrence and Naelene, in Trade]

I need to ask you some questions.

Miss Naelene's Trade is, I think, not very good? She will most likely follow alone and translate later.

[Filter: Adrian, in Atsirian]

I...

I wish I'd let you in more.

Or maybe that's a lie. Maybe I'm glad I didn't. Maybe I'm proud of myself, that I learned my lesson after Lawrence. Love makes you so breakable. I did love you. That wasn't a lie. But I never let it... take me over, I held back from that. I held back everyday. Because I didn't want to be left behind again.

My life is all... it's a bit of a joke, isn't it?

I fell in love with a man from another world, one who I never actually met, and then I met him for real, and he was different, and yet still, I felt something, and then you. You were supposed to be the normal man, and now... now you've died like this.

Like this.

Were you afraid? Did you... did you think of me? Did you wish I was there? Did you blame me? Or... were you asleep? Lord Hasten said that there was a crater, did you just fall into the earth one day and then... never wake up? I don't know what I'd prefer.

I do wish I'd let you in more. I do, I think. If I'd pulled you close, I... maybe I would have refused to let you go. Maybe I would have spoken to you more in those last weeks. Maybe...

I regret never telling you how I felt. And...

And I regret never truly knowing how you felt.

I don't think Lawrence ever loved me, or... or whatever was happening there. I wish I knew, truly I do, if you ever did. I want to believe so, but...

Adrian.

This is the last time. This is the end of my grief. Tomorrow, I will try and move on. I will try and put you in my past. I will not write like this again, because scribbling messages to a dead man is not what a woman like me does.

I...

No. It's done. You're gone. I'm still here. There isn't anything more to say, is there?

I love you.

Goodbye.

[Filter: Adrian, in Atsirian]

Where are you?

Where are you?

You said you were getting out, that was days ago. You said you'd write if you had any difficulties and you never picked up a pen.

The quakes. You never wrote to tell me about the quakes. Why? Does that mean you got out? You were gone before they started?

Adrian, please. You don't know what this is doing to me. I'm... lost. I... it's...

I never told you. But. I think I love you. It's foolish, I know. I'm the Prophet, Melyndra Destra, and you're so much less than that, but there's always been something about you, always, and I want you to come back.

Please come back. Please be safe. I love you. I'll marry you, if you wish. It wouldn't be what's best for the Church, I should be untouchable, but I will, if you want.

Write.

Please.

[a long, long pause]

Please...

[Filter: Adrian]

I

[Filter: A

[F

[Filter: Adrian]

If you're leaving tomorrow, I

[Filter: Private, in Atsirian]

This is ridiculous, this is -- shameful. I am the Prophet! Melyndra Destra! The Goddesses revealed themselves to me and I am not a girl my father never bothered to see, I am not a girl my grandmother banished to the desert, and I am not the same stupid girl Lawrence left --

Haha.

He didn't even leave. He was never even there.

How many people are tormented by a -- by an image in a mirror? How many women can boast being betrayed and damaged by a man who was never really there?

How ...

[Filter: Naelene, in Atsirian]

Tell me that you've learned something.

[Filter: Private, in Atsirian]

Argh! Ugh! By the Holy Mothers, this is ... too much! Constantly, something new, something else! And now this? Now, he wants to --

He'll leave and I'll be without him, and it'll be just like --

Damn, and I need to talk to the girl in the Archives again, too. I need to -- so much! It never ends!

Why does the idea have to be so clever?!

[Filter: Adrian, in Atsirian]

I've thought very hard about what you and Enoch proposed last night, Adrian.

[Filter: People Currently in the compound, in Atsirian]

Karlesta, you look beautiful. What a wonderful job you did, Aes Eshene. I think that Shadda is going to be very, very impressed. Not to mention everybody else we see tonight!

Now I just need to see Enoch in full Atsirian formalwear, and the evening will be ready to start!

Our carriage will be ready very shortly, everyone, so finish your final preparations!

[Filter: Raezi, in Atsirian]

And I expect you to be exactly where we left you when we get back tonight.

[Filter: Private, in Atsirian]

Just a little longer, Raezi. Just a little longer, and you can rest.

[Filter: Public, in Atsirian]

Who else fully intends on being present for today's trial and execution? This woman has tortured the citizens of Razen for more than long enough. We owe to her and to ourselves to watch her descend into the sand and never come back out. I for one do not intend to miss it.

[Filter: Raezi, in Atsirian]

Well, that was ... interesting. It is a very good thing that you didn't attend, and I would try and avoid information about what happened today. It might be ... upsetting for you.

However, I'm more concerned about something that Enoch said just now. We are on our way back, and he made an offhand comment that he will need to make a detour to purchase you some flowers.

... you are sick, not dead. And a sick Raezi would not resist the opportunity to cook for the handsome Megami she was flirting with terribly before the Pillar arrived in Razen once she realized that he was expressing his own sort of interest. It needn't be good, but ..

For what it's worth, I really wish he hadn't done this.

[Filter: Private, in Atsirian]

After today ... well, no one will be able to say that Atsiria is not changed. It's been far too easy for those who do not believe to shunt us off to one side and go on living as if their Mothers had not returned, but no more. Now we affect laws and touch the lives of the great and powerful.

I'm very fortunate that Lady Megan was such a perfect subject. And even more fortunate that she and her lover seem genuinely ... in love. There were a hundred thousand ways this could have all gone wrong, and instead, it's all gone quite right.

And what would you think of all this, Grandmother? I remember the things that you said. I was not a real member of your House, because the blood of Azshara win their whips by how they change history. I was a tiny little inkdrop on a passionately copied family tree. A bastard daughter of a wayward son would never be an Azshara.

I wonder what Lady Westa would say if I told her about our connection.

I wonder if that would make her doubt the truth only she sees ... or make her forgive it, if not.

[Filter: Karlesta]

I was going to ask you if you feel you're prepared for this evening, but I don't think that will be necessary, will it? You performed so perfectly at the rehearsal that I can't even muster up regret that Raezi is feeling too indisposed to preside.

...

[Filter: Raezi]

And speaking of you ...

You will need to attend.

[Filter: Goddess Church in Razen, in Atsirian]

Yes, I'm sure about this.

I've thought about it a great deal, and I believe we've reached the point where my hiding does us more harm than good. It has been a long time since someone has been unguarded enough to speak of me frankly, thanks to all of you, and the time has come to move to a new chapter.

[Filter: Public, in Atsirian]

I suppose this was inevitable.

I need no explanations for how these journals work, nor what they're for. My daughter and my advisors have already explained it all to me in great detail, and I've long been using their unique properties through them. I'm honoured to be here among you all, and offer an introduction.

My name is Melyndra, but most of you would know me as The Prophet.