Naga Letter - #6
My people,
When I left you, I was your Isha. Much has changed. The Qamar has fallen, and I have risen to take his place as is our way. i write now to tell you that the battle we prepared for has been fought, and the day is won. The Darkness has drawn back into its hole in the earth, and soon it will be purged from the face of this light nation and its people.
The battle was fierce. Magics rare and wonderful fell from the sky like stars, bursting into flame and raining down upon us. Though we were few, our voice was legion, and we struck the darkness a blow it will not soon forget.
Memories of the dark times long before the Great Sleep tell tales of battles against the darkest horrors of the Shadowlands, and I tell you they are true.
I have seen creatures whose bodies were so twisted and battered by the Dark One they were no longer even human. Children whose eyes glowed with red flame, and whose laughter shook the rock beneth me. It is no tale. We fought them with every essence of life we could muster, and in the end it was enough. But I am weary, and my people are wounded. Now that the battle is done, I feel the ache of war upon me, and I long simply to sleep.
Yet on the plains of the place, I saw the humans come together against this foe, and I knew that our battle was halfway over. The unity which we have fought for has been found. Now the battle has been finished, Daini tells me that his leader, Toturi, has risen in station. He has become the Qamar of all their peoples, united again beneath a wise man. I know this Toturi, and I can think of no better choice. He will keep their people safe.
Some of you say that our time is done now, that it is time again to withdraw from this world into our own. It has been fortold by our seers that the Great Sleep of Contemplation draws upon us again, like the approaching tide draws upon the shore. Even Dashmar, who led us here to fight the evil, said that when our fight was over, we must leave this place of Rokugan and reach back into our own lives. So we return to the lands of our people, to heal our wounds and learn the lessons we have encountered. The Shadowlands are vanquished, their leader broken, and their people hunted. But that does not mean that they are finished. The evil within the darkness only waits for a voice to call it forth.
And we will be here when it rises, to cut it down again.
Qamar