Greetings!

I speak to you today with an offer addressed to the ordinary citizens of
Shallam. I refer here not to the Viziers, and the soldiers of Shallam,
to the people we generally think of as the population of Shallam, but
instead to those who Shallam and its government ignores. I speak to
Camilla Prietta, Rudolpho Montaganet, Corporal Cazin and the myriad
others whose quiet labours serve the city of Shallam. I speak to those
luckless citizens who, by virtue only of their choice of residence, are
caught in the crossfire of a war they did not choose.

The ease and regularity with which Mhaldor slaughters these individuals
is perhaps unprecedented in modern times. And as I have posted in the
past, Mhaldor does not seek slaughter without purpose; your deaths have
meaning only in the greater struggle of Evil against the effeminate
weakness of the East. Shallam does not protect you. Several times, even
within the same Achaean month, you are cut down, returned to life only
through the grace of the great Mother. They do not spare the city guards
to protect your life - made weak through fear, they prefer to huddle
their guards in large groups at the gates and around areas where they
believe they will best protect the citizens who they truly care about -
the Viziers, the ministers, the city soldiers. The government protects
its own, it does not protect the ordinary citizenry. Their attempts to
defend you, if any, are lacklustre and ineffective. They simply do not
care.

And so, I make you this offer: leave the city. Depart Shallam and take
up residence elsewhere. There will be no shortage of cities willing to
offer you safe haven and amnesty. This is not your cause, this is not
your war. You owe the city of Shallam nothing, it abandons you to your
fate. No doubt, you hold no love for my city but there are other places
to live - Cyrene, Hashan, other villages which would welcome you. Simply
leave the fetid environment of Shallam and no citizen of Mhaldor will
harm you. A life of peace can be yours.

I await your response.

In service to the Master,
Tenebrus; Proselytist and Cutpurse
Speaker of the Truths


Penned by my hand on the 9th of Ero, in the year 437 AF.