I was there to see Your return, Lord Vastar. I was happy to see a God come back to us; in this day and age we can use all the divine help we can get. But I reserved judgement, at first, afraid to be disappointed. Perhaps I should have held out a bit longer.

You see, I did learn a lesson from the Worldreaver fiasco. I learned that the gods are as fallible as we mortals. I learned that They often can't see past Their own hubris and power. Truthfully, on the day my Lady Selene fell, I swore that I would no longer bow before the questionable wisdom of the Gods. Power has never impressed me. Power is unworthy of worship. Only wisdom, foresight, and intellect can claim that from me.

So why did I reverse my oath for You, Lord?

I looked into Your history. I read records of Your interactions with Your followers. I was impressed. I found You to be a god with a level head and a philosophy I could agree with. You warned about the dangers of zealotry in Shallam-that-was, but similarly spoke out against the Chaos that was practiced in Ashtan. You stood above the politics of Mortals and for that, I loved You.

Now I do not know what to think.

I awoke this month after a year long absence to discover that I had been enemied to several Targossian organizations. At first I believed it to be Targossas' inflexible policies; that they had condemned You and Yours exclusively due to Your association with Ashtan. Upon reading the news, I find myself in an unprecedented situation: I agree with something Silas has posted on the News. It is sad to see You so corrupted.

Oh, and I learned one other thing from watching half the pantheon slain while you watched from afar: The Goddess of the Sun was slain but morning still comes every day; my Goddess, who bore the mantle of Love and Beauty, died in heroic self-sacrifice and yet people still are stricken by beauty and fall desperately in love. The gods who fell in the Worldreaver fiasco are dead, Their essence scattered. They do not live on in some fashion. They do not watch over their realms from afar. But the sun still shines, and we still love. And Freedom is not Yours to take. It is, with, or without, You to define it.


Forever Hers,

Beloved Faustine Anemides

Post Script, addressed to Sapience at Large: I am certain there will be those who will read this as an attempt to curry favour with Targossas and who will claim that I am simply another Cyrenese puppet of the East. Allow me to set the record straight. As laughable as it is that a little old nobody like me is branded an Enemy of Creation, I don't care what the Dawnspear says or thinks of me. Either clear me of charges or not. It makes little difference to me.

Penned by my hand on the 13th of Lupar, in the year 653 AF.