Ryvern,

As my kinship with you was a long and deep-seated one, I would have preferred to keep this matter quietly personal. However, I feel a need to clarify and respond to certain statements you made in 5935.

Ours was the strongest of bonds, Ryvern, begun when we were enemies at war, and I was dying regularly by your hand. I respected you for conducting yourself as a gentleman, even in the heat of battle. You appeared to me to be the foremost amongst your ilk in nearly every way -- a premiere warrior, a forthright gentleman, and a chivalrous knight. Of that brief list, the last two items were the reasons that I invited you to stand beside me in the Iron Citadel.

Not for the amount of blood you could spill, but for the example of chivalrous conduct and gentlemanly behaviour that I felt you could help me provide to the Iron Citadel.

Something happened to you along the way, my old friend. Was it the influence of certain deities, an addiction to bloodlust, or some misguided infatuation with an abstract notion of power? Or was it something more base than that? It matters not, I suppose... the result was, that the man who served me in the Iron Citadel was *not* the man I recruited a decade ago.

The fault was mine. Any number of times along the way, I could have, and should have, pulled you aside and asked what the devil was happening to you. But I allowed my love for you, as one of the few people I deign to call "friend", to let your actions go unaddressed. I could have shown you a better way, I believe -- but I did not... and for this, I apologize.

But do not assume that your own limited experience gives you license to speak on behalf of a body that you no longer represent even in name -- let alone that you can represent MY beliefs.

I spoke to you of honour, comradery, and making a difference in the world. But I missed nothing. *I* do not slaughter mindlessly. *You* did, Ryvern. I kill with reason, you killed for sport. I don't blame you for not being able to stomach what you've done -- Were I in your shoes, I wouldnae be able to stomach it, either.. and I obviously shouldn't have allowed it to continue for so long. But I did not miss something important, my old friend... You did. You missed the ideals which I once thought we shared.

The Evil that you say consumed you was not forced upon you by a God, nor were you beguiled into it by myself or any other mortal, Ryvern. It came from within *yourself*, as all things do, in men. Sartan did nae put it there, and Aurora cannot remove it.

In the years to come, as we bleed on each other's swords once more, I will have fond memories of the Quest we once shared, Ryvern. Mayhap even as often as I will remember the personal treachery of a man that I truely trusted.

But you have taught me to ne'er again neglect my duty for kinship, and I thank you for the lesson... On this day, my old friend, I hereby pronounce you Persona Non Grata of the Iron Citadel.


-- R. Lucoster

Penned by my hand on the 25th of Phaestian, in the year 251 AF.