Welcome back, ladies and Gentlemen. Trials for the darken-touch are to be held this evening; the Council is to revert to Order. After that I want no separation. Tonight, let us be a people again; unbroken and--for the first time in a long while--safe from our enemies.
Thanks to the many of you who attended the Grey Spins this past few days, they have been most enjoyable, though I regret I was not able to walk among you. I fear I value the... part of you... you've shown the past week too much to see it by some fluke of peace.
Forgive me that pride, brothers, sisters.
Tonight, barring a visit from my fellow Splinter, now recognized by all last I heard; I will be attending the Revel.
The theme is not spoken for; I leave it in the capable hands of the people. My heart is too wearied to do much else. Welcome with kindness, not weariness, the advances of our lost and fallen; even be they returned to us after too long a course. Far be it from you, my people, to deny of these Odyseuses the welcome their Penelope's would've wanted; or, be you too afraid to be effeminate, the welcome their sons would've wanted.
I welcome them home from a conflict drawn from the sufferings of my own heart, and I expect you--all of you--to do as I have done; may I assure you it was not done without pain.
Many of you may be aware that Lord Azrael's magic, title, and position has been stripped him by the accords drawn from recent events. The rumors circulating are true, and I am sorry to those of you, who, like me, loved him.
I loved him with my heart, my power over rain and wave, my smile and my flickering laugh. I loved him, and I paid him his due honor as a soldier. No matter what may be said of me, he left our world as a hero. May tonight the throne of his Lordship burn as a tribute; so that no lesser man may seat himself that throne after tonight.
The People are expected to provide their own chair; he or she with the best reason for their seat's selection will receive the honor of Reason tomorrow.
Yes, yes. For I would keep my promises onto you. I would be a fool to not spread my arms wide and embrace the loyalty every one among you has shown me this past year, in addition to the protections you have attributed me to the best of your abilities. From the deepest of my too-dwelling heart, I thank you. Take, with some comfort, my sincerity in this, for it is all I have to offer you.
I am a shipwrecked woman with Lord Azrael's court disassembled. Many have fallen and my heart cries for those men and women, noble all, among that number.
Listen you well: Lady Leona Bones and I are under Courtship. It is my honor that she, too has attempted within the best of her abilities to protect me the Dark Thralls of the fallen's courts, recall you all that truth.
It is whispered among many of you that I would take her as more than consort, but Queen, to rule at my side for whatever of my reign remains before God.
So not let this be true. While I would, and this do I say openly, renounce every title and power have I for her favor, it is not in her heart or eyes to give it to me without the doubt to which you all have played partiality to. Ergo, no such relationship exists. While she is my Favored one, the Star-Touched, the Soul-dancer, the blue-in-the-eye, she is not meant for the pressures of your hands, my darlings.
Her heart is free as the capriciousness of my Power or the smiles of the dead, the sun that doesn't rise or the moon that doesn't shine, the music that stays mute. For every kindness she has done me, you feel you owe her obligation, and you are right to think that.
However, she owes me nothing, and I do not expect any more manipulation, no matter how kindly meant, on my behalf. I deserve no such kindness. Let the truth of my words ring in your ears on this beloved and happy night. May all of you dance through life as you do on the floor, and I pray the world is half as ready for you as you are for it.
Amin mela lle.
Aqe Vale!
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