Witness: High-Priest Thaelos, Temple of Thrin-Lumel
Incident Referred: Report on the Butchery at Zhhring
Location of Testimony: Sanctuary Depths, Decay City
Date of Entry: Spiral Day 0T0L0X1.25
Recorder: Sanctuary Archivist Oril, scribing by Thaelos’s spoken word
I am Thaelos.
I once read the stars from pools of calm water.
I once stood beneath the sky and knew every echo was a prayer waiting to be heard.
Now I sit.
I do not see.
I speak, because I must.
They have asked me to recall the day Lyrax came to Zhhring.
Not the day he destroyed it.
The day he entered it.
The difference matters.
It was not like a storm, nor a fire, nor even a weapon. It was like a question that had already been answered before we were asked.
He walked into the meeting hall, where we priests and peace delegates knelt in the final hour of the treaty ceremony. The talks had taken years. The pain between the Lipple System and the Star Shadow diaspora was ready to end.
Then he arrived. And he smiled.
Not cruel. Not mocking. Simply… curious.
He asked for a spoon.
When none was given, he took one from the food tray.
And with it, he removed the eyes of the Star Shadow emissary. Slowly.
He did not rush. Nor did he speak.
The hall broke.
Some ran.
Some screamed.
Others stood frozen in the sanctity of their oaths.
He came to me.
I did not run.
He placed a spoon in my hand and asked if I would use it on myself.
I said I would not.
He laughed, and said that truth lives best in those who have nothing left to see.
Then he tore the voice from my throat.
My tongue was left intact, but the songs of my ancestors were silenced in a burst of psionic white flame. He left me screaming, yes. But it was the scream of someone who remembers peace while standing in fire.
The war did not end.
The treaty turned to ash in the air.
The Lipple System would lose 871 million lives.
Star Shadow would lose its last sun.
And yet
I do not hate him.
I do not love him.
But I do understand the void he carries. And I reject it.
If you read this, do not dwell only in the blood.
Remember what we were trying to build that day.
Remember the light we nearly shared.
And build again.
To answer cruelty with cruelty is to light the path for Lyrax.
Light another path.
A PRAYER FOR THOSE WHO REMAIN OFFERED BY THAELOS
Let what was lost be named in song.
Let what was destroyed be replaced with beauty.
Let not vengeance fill the wound.
Let us be better than the hand that broke us.
Let us be a hand that heals.