Dear Avianca,

Let's be very clear about two things: first, I do not represent the whole of Cyrene, so please understand that I am professing my own opinions here and nothing more.

Second, we don't need to be friends.

Cyrene has never needed to be on particularly friendly terms with Targossas. Ages ago, the onset of your new leadership, the Bloodsworn, sent ripples of causality through the world. The land was reshaped, the definition of 'Good' was rewritten, and the gift of Devotion-related powers was withdrawn from any and all who do not strictly align themselves to your system of beliefs.

Now, I wasn't there for it, so this is just my supposition based on what I've read and what I've witnessed of the resulting peoples. But it seems to me that, in essence, Shallam got knocked down, and the suffering few who were left watched as the Bloodsworn took Their ball and stomped home. Those who followed became Targossas; the rest retained their individuality and sentience.

Personally, I don't understand how 'Good' works anymore. It sounds like the only 'Good' to be had is in the palm of the Bloodsworn's hands, and nowhere else. Now, I don't know about the rest of Sapience, but 'Good' doesn't seem to have done a whole lot of, well, good, for anyone, not even Targossas. Avianca, you say that you and your people acted on the express will of Deucalion, and that if we wish to question Him, then we should do so and 'find out how hot His flames burn', the implication here being that they burn quite hot indeed and that questioning Him will inevitably result in experiencing them. This is a very subtle - for a Targossan, anyway - way of telling us to go screw ourselves. And that's fair! You feel misrepresented by Senator Laedha's post, somehow, like we've painted you out to be unreasonable hypocrites who have never done something like join a Coalition of Achaeans to help fight back the tide of a declared and patently evil race of beings who have spent their entire existence fiddling with the forms and minds of enslaved beings, only to suddenly and abruptly turn your backs on former allies because Daddy told you to. And there's certainly no public record of this, save for being called out by Lii, since Targossas was blessedly silent when Ama-Maalier demanded that we hand over our people for processing and our 'purloined' knowledge on whatever-it-was, further stating that "Total compliance will result in the temporary delay of your inevitable processing. Defiance will result in swift destruction." I mean, that's a reasonable demand, right? "Yield to us or don't, the result is the same"? So, going from fighting them to not, I mean, you certainly covered both sides of that coin! There's nothing hypocritical there, right?

Oh, wait.

Anyway, like I said, we don't need to be friends - politically, anyway. There are plenty of Targossans I like, really. A lot of you are actually good folk trapped under the thumb of a theocratic tyranny, where questioning your Bloodsworn apparently results in experiencing one of Their hot, hot fires. And honestly, a lot of your beliefs are what I'd call 'common sense', like the whole "I worship Lady Aurora, therefore I cannot tell lies" thing. I mean...yeah? I get that children need to be taught when they're young, but "Don't tell lies" is something I'd have expected reasonable adults like you to be able to comprehend.

Oh, wait.

But still! You have to trust your Bloodsworn to know what's best for you, right? Deucalion must know that Tlalaiad is a true Achaean god, right? I mean, it's not like He could ever mistake the Genesis for some kind of foul monstrosity "forged from an amalgamation of Tsol'teth and essence harvested from the murder of the God of Death." Certainly He's right in telling you to ally yourselves with a being that "serves no Divine realm and has no grand design that spans all the planes of existence." A being that is where all Tsol'teth lines meet, the grand impossibility that binds the race as one for all time, who shall see the Tsol'teth rise... Even if that means all else must burn." That's sounds like something that would serve 'Good' and Creation and all that Targossas claims to protect, right? And it's not like breaking ties with the tsol'teth and their abomination - sorry, Achaean God, according to Deucalion and I really shouldn't question Him unless I want to find out how hot His flames burn - had any consequences on Targossas or the territories allied to it, and thus under the protection of the Bloodsworn, right? I mean, all those people in Jaru threw THEMSELVES into the ocean, after all, right? So it's not like the tsol'teth - a race of beings who came into existence after being 'corrupted by the killing' they took part in during the war against the Triumvirate, who argued that the newly born human race should be enslaved, who lusted for power, enslaved the goblinoid races underground and set themselves up as overseers - somehow unreasonably mind-controlled 'Good' people into suicide after blowing up part of your city, right?

Oh, wait.

Honestly, Avianca, if you ask me? Go ahead and be unrepentent to us. We don't need your apology. We don't need your friendship. We don't need Targossas. Creation fought for itself just fine without you. If you should apologize to anyone, you should apologize to your fellow Targossans for furthering whatever agenda it is that you're pushing. You should apologize to the innocents in Jaru. You should apologize to the ghosts of Shallam. You should apologize to the very concept of free thought and unalienable rights. But no, don't apologize to us, the 'liars' who were just trying to work something out with your leadership.

We don't need it.

(But that's just my opinion.)

Yours truly,
Taelle

Penned by my hand on the 4th of Daedalan, in the year 826 AF.