I take my hat off to thee Shallam, and all the worms suckling from thy
wilting teats. For Hypocrisy still sits upon thy throne, and rules (as
ever) with an iron fist.

Why, but the other day I didst sit and study little Goldberry's post
with much interest.

"Finally," I didst think unto myself, "a Citizen of the East showing
some back-bone, an individual who actually seems to have read the
Codex!"

But how does Shallam react to such an enlightened citizen? She ridicules
her, slanders her name, belittles her for her actions ...

Shallam, thyne orphaned children art being butchered on a mass scale;
canst ye all not hear their cries of agony, echoing across your city
channels when my fellows do take their lives? Canst ye do anything but
sit, and talk in words of legislation and politics; when all the world
about speaks with tongues cast of blades, and fire, and in the blood of
innocence!

Methinks ye all care not 'bout anything other than your appearance on
the world's stage!

Mayhap the dead couldst pile up at your very gates, and ye wouldst but
close them, lock them, and chain them up true; so scared art ye all of
loosing this political mask of righteous morality.

To Goldberry, I doff mine hat at thee; pray do not turn away from thy
crusade, lest Shallam falls even further away from the Light ...

In humble suffering,

Cardinal Lodi Coldraven Ta'sa

_?~


Penned by my hand on the 21st of Aeguary, in the year 407 AF.