☀️ Arselia and Akonia

“Revelation begins with slander about one’s own parents, religion, and homeland; it’s clear, there’s no point in listening any further,” the patriarch decided and banished Alaria Doran from this world, the patriarch said, but in reality, he did nothing more, only smiled faintly, “just kidding. ‘I come here with peace and joy’ – that’s what the inscription engraved above the entrance to the house of God says, and you, more than anyone else, should heed it, even while standing on the other side of this divine font. I thank you for your sincerity, Alaria, child of Tanariss, but know that you are deeply mistaken, confusing the rite of repentance for sins with a secular condemnation of your life, deeds, and weaknesses.” The priest’s blue eyes looked deeper than the outward appearance of the one confessing. “You seem to me to be a person for whom personal interests will always have the highest priority at a crucial moment, and despite your background, religious conviction is clearly not characteristic of you today, so I will describe your situation from a worldly point of view. You have traveled a long, difficult path, overcome severe trials, but still returned to the bosom of comfort – with all your limbs intact, with a sound mind, still young, with a roof over your head, with prospects in life, with physical characteristics above average... And yet, all I see in you is hatred towards yourself and complaints about your fate. A rational assessment of one’s behavior and the results of one’s thinking is wonderful, but a person with your way of thinking will not be useful to this world. They will not be useful to the one who called them, and not even to themselves. Answer me this question: if you were given the opportunity to sell a part of your humanity in exchange for longevity, personal strength, or power, would you take it or not?”