[~Aoria-sama~]

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Mama,

I’m sorry it has taken so long to write to you, and I am sorry I left home the way that I did.  You have always protected and loved me, and provided to me the best a parent ever could. One day, when I am successful in my new life, I will come back to Jianghu and give you everything. In the meantime, I hope you understand….That this is what I had to do. To find myself. To be deserving of all that life has gifted to me. You have not been forsaken, Jiuweihu sees me and will forgive me.

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So let me tell you about that journey, so far, mama.

Oh, and show Papa, Svend and Sune’ - tell them I love them and that when I am not so busy, they will get their own letters, too.

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When I left home all that time ago in the middle of night, I stumbled into a precarious group of men at one of the taverns amongst the shores of Jianghu - one of the ones that were connected to the docks where we receive foreign trade. I had originally intended to stop and grab a meal before my grand journey, but it ended up turning into a conversation with a bunch of morally gray traveling pirates.  This group was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Loud, inappropriate…It was disorienting, but when I met Captain Crimson Seadog - I learned that the tavern upon our shores was just a pit stop before they continued on to a whole other continent. 

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After a bit of swindling..(AKA buying the crew a round of mead…) I managed to secure myself a spot on their ship - in search of…Well, I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that riding with that pirate crew was a lot easier than finding another way out of Sheng. And while the ride overseas was particularly unsettling and scary - it brought me to where I am now. More specifically, to the shores of a continent known as Meranthe.

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After saying my goodbyes to Captain Crimson Seadog and his crazy pirate crew, I walked ashore and was presented with a whole new type of world. These lands have a lot of different villages and small cities, but considering its size, it took me a while to visit each and every one. Think of it like…Being dropped into an ant farm. Each and every ant in that farm has a job, but you don’t know that until you start talking to all the other ants and learn what jobs they have. Then you start thinking where and what your new job will entail, to integrate into that farm.

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Ahem, I still have a lot of ants to talk to.

BUT!

I’ve managed to master my crafting, so there’s that. You would be proud at how skillful I have become in such a short time I have been gone.

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I felt myself drawn to the snowy mountains, and I found myself a nice little spot up there amongst other people who are familiar with Sheng. Oh, and there are a LOT of giants! I’ve never seen a living, breathing thing so big - but they give terrible advice.. if I have learned anything! I travel a lot and have met quite a few friends along the way. We help each other, and-..I’m pretty sure I joined a gang.

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BUT DON’T WORRY…

I haven’t forgotten the Tenants of the Illuminated, and remain true to Jiuweihu.

Kindness, respect, understanding. I want to lead all of them to the light, mama.

They’re all so nice and good to me and our destinies have begun to intertwine and mingle together.

Which just makes me feel like…

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I was meant to be here.

With all of them.

So I can’t come back yet.

Not until this feeling of..

Unfulfilled destiny subsides.

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[~Aoria-sama~]

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Papa,

XX
Today is my sixteenth birthday. I’ve spent the day eating donuts and having snowball fights.  These mountains are so beautiful - I wish you could see them.  It’s been four years since I left home and the absence of my family never seems to stop leaving me feeling empty.  I’ve settled roots in a village called Xuefeng and have really made quite a living here. I’ve learned the art of medicine and have managed to build myself a wonderful home with the biggest workshop I could ever dream of. My hard work is both rewarding and isolating. It has become my main focus - to be the best and most skilled I can be. This means my trips across Meranthe have dwindled considerably - and that abundance of friends I had has gone along with it. Though I do suppose friendship goes both ways, doesn’t it Papa?
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Why have most of them forgotten about me?
Why do most of them not come to visit me here in the mountains?
What have I done to deserve it? This abandonment?
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Or perhaps this is all a part of growing up. Perhaps the strains of life have finally begun to settle in all of us and brought forth the realization that one day?..We may very well become enemies. I have chosen Xuefeng, an extension of my people - maybe it has made me less desirable as a friend. Yet even still..I follow the will of Her Sun Goddess. Those that I may guide others toward the path of light in the name of Jiuweihu - they are the reason for my existence. I can’t let my sorrow get in the way of my profound purpose.
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My destiny.
Found.
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Soon I will be baptized in Her Goddess’s light and begin my journey unto the path of becoming one of her Illuminated. The gifts of Her Will have been so bountiful, I have no right to mourn the people I have lost when so much has been also gained. A guiding light in the ever changing path of this life - and she’s led me toward hope…Here in the snowy mountains of Meranthe. Numerous times have I guided those straying from the light back onto the more righteous path. There have been successes and failures. But I have to believe it’s all for a bigger purpose. Toward something greater meant to benefit us all for our neverending devotion to the light of the sun.
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I will shed my outer skin and bathe in that light.
Bare myself before Jiuweihu and ask not for benefits of my own.
But I will instead weep for the unsaved.
Weep for the destinies destroyed and rotted.
For those stuck in The Dark.
…I could not save them…
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Though I still have so much time to carry out my task, I guess.
Today is my sixteenth birthday Papa, and I miss you.
-and I guess what I am saying is…
I miss me, too.
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[~Aoria-sama~]

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A letter is attempted to be written, but unfortunately.
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The blind can not write letters.
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They can only be alone with their thoughts.

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He could have died.

He could have died.

He could have died.

He could have died.

He could have died.

He could have died.

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I could have killed him.

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....Jiuweihu....

I understand, now.

I'm sorry.

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I have been redeemed.

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