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<span class="mu-i">Mistil holds up a hand, flames dancing. The Slicerats stop short.
She tilts her head one way, and the droplets that fall steam away before they hit the ground. </span>
<span class="mu-s">Mistil</span>
<span class="mu-r">. . . In the Desert, the wind sings. That's... That's not a metaphor. I'm sorry. I am not good with ... words. It sings. You can hear it, and sing with it, if you walk long enough. But the song is the sun? I don't know how to phrase it. I've been hearing that song in my head for years. It got inside me, back there, in the Desert. The Wrack, I think, they call it? I don't know. Just that sun and the wind signs and they're lonely and... I just....
Look, the sun wants to be your friend.
That's what the Theurges forget - forgot, I think - it <span class="mu-s">wants</span> to be your friend. They made it all rituals, deals, plans, leeching the joy of companionship from a bonfire. As if somehow, a bonfire warms the people around it more if you regiment it. Parcel out pyres. I mean, they do good stuff, fine, the schools, the food, the help, the medicine. I'd never talk bad ash about the people who wake up at sunrise to fight hunger all day.
But they make it so <span class="mu-s">fucking</span> complicated, you know?
I think they're so afraid of the night that they hoard the light so much. They're just afraid of the dark.
Just look up.
Sunlight shines on everybody.
It's just warmth, and joy, and courage. I think that's what they forgot. Forget. The Archtheurges stopped being people's friends.
You can just... Not be an asshole. Respect your friends. Make the night a little less cold. If we all did that, if we all just had a little light, and warmth, and courage, we'd all get our time in the sun. All it takes is a little spark, right? Little lights, growing grand.
Uegh, sorry, I'm not trying to drown you in hot air. Sorry, phrasing.
What I'm trying to say is, it takes certain kind of hothead to stick his hand into a fire and... I think I might have almost turned my soul to cinder and most of this port to ash. I don't think that makes me anyone's friend.
Listen, we can go back to throwing hands, but I don't want to burn you and you don't want to stick yours in the fire twice.
<span class="mu-s">Can we just call it even</span>?
Rinik's not worth this.</span>
[MASK PHASE]
