I would like to share an eye opening experience.

I was rescued from some pygmies by a nice Paladin and his friend, recently. A raw and ignorant novice, I, more interested in research than self defence, and unashamed to admit it. They were from Targossas. I spent almost no time in that city, save for buying some bread, and meeting with them at some cafe there, as they rapidly dispatched me on errands out in Minia to do with the pygmies, which I performed gratefully and completed.

I was approached exactly once by someone from Targossas, who asked if I had joined their academy yet. I said I wasn't particularly interested, and they told me it was required to 'rise in the ranks'. I said I wasn't particularly interested in holding any ranks, and they left me be.

Having finished my business in Minia and decided I did not wish to be tied down. A traveling researcher must travel, after all. So I left Targossas. When I returned, I found I'd been declared an enemy and the guards have orders now to kill me on sight. Why might this be? What crime did I commit against this city to whom I owe some small gratitude?

According to Myrddin, it is because I did not swear an oath to the city that nobody ever asked me to swear. I would have known about this, had I only read a scroll nobody ever informed me of, apparently. So for five years the merchants of Targossas will not accept my coin, and the guards will kill me for approaching the city. Perhaps longer, since my questions irritated him.

Here is the point, though. If you 'rescue' someone who has been kidnapped, then abandon them to do as they will. If they ask for and receive no favors of you beyond that, and indeed perform a service for your city when requested, and you then kill them on sight for refusing to swear loyalty to you, are you not treating this person like they are your servant to punish? Perhaps like a slave who has run away from her master? Worse, perhaps, as a slave knows their fate, and a servant knows who they must please.

The Hearth claims to be a force for Good. They claim to wish to banish darkness and chaos. Yet they are apparently not above murdering novices who decide not to swear to them, without even taking the trouble of communicating this peculiar form of indenturement to them. What Light does this spread? What Order does it create?

So be it I suppose. May the fires in your Hearth go out for want of fuel. I never asked to be your kindling, anyway.


Penned by my hand on the 20th of Ero, in the year 1001 AF.