Quoted By:
Right. How could you be so foolish? You almost let the poisoned words of a scheming apostate drive you past the brink of despair. The toxin coursing through you burns, but by the grace of the LORD that pain alone will not be enough to kill you. The trinket about your neck grips tighter than a vice, but if your hands can pull it apart then you have other means to hold it back upon your person. The words she spoke about sin and hypocrisy in the Holy City are true enough. Men and women have weak and fickle hearts, and those who seek out power and status stray from the righteous path as easily as they breathe.
<span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-g">You must have Faith</span></span>.
Faith in yourself and your ability to overcome the trials that the LORD has laid out before you. Faith in your dearest friend Hilde and her talent as an artifex, that her works will see you through every battle alive, if not necessarily unscathed. Faith in the LORD that every graven sinner who spoke with His authority shall answer for the balance of their misdeeds when their soul comes to rest in the palm of His hand. Yes, you <span class="mu-i">must</span> have faith, for it alone shall shield you from the most deadly weapon that the heretic and apostate can raise against you: <span class="mu-s">doubt</span>.
All her words and actions have served to mix the poison of doubt into your thoughts. Doubt in yourself for missing the schemes playing out right under your nose. Doubt in your equipment for how she turned what should have been your full harness against you. Doubt in your convictions by conflating mortal men and women who succumb to temptations brought about through power and influence with the pure, divine souls of the LORD of Light and his Heavenly Host. All of this doubt to make you forget one very important thing.
<span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-g">You must have Faith.</span></span> In yourself, in your friends, in the LORD above, <span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-g">you must have faith</span></span> if you wish to accomplish anything of worth. To doubt yourself is self-defeating. To doubt your friends means to abandon bonds of fellowship and trust. To doubt the LORD of Light... is <span class="mu-i">heretical</span>.
For twenty years, you have honed your body, your mind, and your very soul into a weapon against the heretic, the apostate, and the invader. For just as long, you dear friend Hilde has nurtured her boundless curiosity into a dizzying intellectual mastery of artifice and physical principle. Since the dawn of time, the LORD has shepherded mankind through the darkness of fear and ignorance, and into the comfort of His Light. If these truths are not worthy of your faith, then you may as well brand your womb with the Black Primrose and accept that your true purpose is as a mother of demons.
That is something you will never do, for <span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-g">you have faith</span></span> in yourself, in your friends, in the LORD above.
With that faith burning in your heart more powerfully than any toxin coursing through your veins, you let go your grip about the collar and let it squeeze down upon your neck.
