Psst. Hey you. Yes, I can see you. Don't be shy, now. You've been looking for us for a very long time, after all.
I've seen that expression on the faces of mortals over the centuries. Most of them are satisfied dealing with what's set in front of their faces, but you—you're one of the ones that looked beyond. Beyond the material, beyond even good and evil, beyond the petty squabbling of angels and devils that amounts to nothing more than the shuffling of poker chips around a table for all eternity. You're looking for the monitors. You're looking for the ones that make it all work.
Illustration by Nicolas Espinoza
Who was it who drew you here? Did you feel the pull of Ceyannan the Shepard, like a call to a lost soul? Did you find salvation from danger in one of the graveyards and gargoyles of Vavaalrav, the Steeple's Skull? Did you, perhaps, discover a sentence or stray page of Tabris' Concordance of Rivals? I, for one, think it's his best work.
It is, of course, natural that you would come to us above all others. The axiomites have no understanding of mortals, and their Primal Inevitables are slowly crumbling and coming to stand before our Lady of Graves. No matter how hard Jerishall strives to keep the planets turning in their perfect orbits, or how thorough Otolmens is in maintaining her laws of physics, in the end, they all must come to us. Please don't make me cry by expressing interest in those wretched protean lords. We're still cleaning the Jistkan graffiti off the walls from the last time the Mother of Tongues got in here.
As for the Monad… there aren't many who can catch that one's attention. Certainly, none have ever caught more than a scrap of its power.
Illustration by Sammy Khalid
But enough about us. You're one of a very select few, as I'm sure you know. You even dug up some of the mantras that can call us forth in place of our true names. Such dedication requires acknowledgement—we're not ones to let our mortal agents go without tools to help them. You'll have divine protection and boons to benefit your station, of course. I might even talk that old miser Iliyai into showing you some of his ritual books.
Illustration by Gabriela Marchioro
Now, if you're willing. We have a small issue with some pesky akizendri proteans scrambling up our records. Just last week alone we got a warlord's file mixed up with a milkmaid's, and let's not even get started on that disaster with that fighter and the evil wizard. And if you happen to spot the agnoia aeon that's helping them—they're about so tall, with three legs and three arms, hard to miss—please call one of the local yamarajes to deal with it. I think that one is a little beyond your just at the moment, and we don't want you meeting the Pale Lady too soon, after all...
Illustration by Nicolas Espinoza
Eleanor Ferron
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