Role

Chapter 3

I did battle with my pursuers from the Crystal Tower, fleeing when confusion
riddled their ranks. Weeks passed before I lost them entirely. And I returned
to the place that had called to me from the beginning - the shrine of Phaelim,
Lord of Magic.

What was once a shrine to knowledge and Magic was now but a husk, a shell of its
prior glory. A deep forboding settled within my chest as I wandered the empty
halls. It was then that I realized how I could have been taken so unawares within
the Crystal Tower. A block was not placed between myself and the ethereal
source. Rather, it seems I had associated my power through the god Phaelim, and
with his apparent demise, my link was severed.

But while even gods may fall, the ether, and Magic itself, lives on eternally.
It was not an ethereal block I was overcoming in captivity. I was establishing a
new link - a direct link - through my own soul, with my own willpower, to the
ether. Only in a time of great weakness was I able to forge my new strength.
Now, truly I can see the path laid before me.

Lord Phaelim's guidance will be sorely missed. But his absence has taken away my
crutches and given me strength. Strength, to seek power within. Strength, to
enhance my link with the ethereal source. Strength, to study and worship Magic
unhindered.

Strength, to protect the purity of Magic, and those who seek to understand it.