Letter to Ahmet

[NeedForGreed]

Signore Ahmet,

I ask your forgiveness for not writing sooner, or responding more immediately. Or, too, for being unable to join you all at the Soot Lamp. Our schedules do not often align I think.

I have been busy this day handling matters of the clinic, and was in fact working with a priest of the Wheel who is interested in helping with healing... when the bellows turned sour and hateful. It seems there was no time wasted in proving your words true.

It saddens that such sentiments have taken root within the White League. The refugees are many and myriad in faith and origin, and if we claim to want to help them then we must embrace differences. You and I could not be less alike in these, yet it is action and consequence that must unite people. To see the lives of those most in need, bettered.

Words alone cannot express my gratitude to you and Asherias for speaking up against the hate. I admit I worry that it could cause you and Asherias and the League problems, discord, among the ranks. Today felt like a showing of such. Please do not let me or my work be the ruin of good people.

I bear no hate nor resentment for your Wheel, for the anger and fear of these few shall never speak for the many. In B'aara and her temple I see a kinship in compassion and healing. The hand that heals does not matter to me, only that the patient is lifted up and able to determine their own fate once more.

My efforts these days focus on direct action, direct work, and where common ground might be found. This Hospital project was a desire before I came along, a suggestion of Marcellus' and he has been a man of such grace and support. He has offered space in his library of Izdu, and the Hakem has suggested cooperation with Wheel priests. Janissaries, Rose, Purple, Gold, White, Wheel, Dome - I believe in this project, I believe in projects that all might join hands on.

I hope someone told you, by the way, the Hope did eventually get its funds. Perhaps at the next Allotment this, too, will meet with success.

Both of you, please be safe. Xenophobia, paranoia, both have taken root in the voices you heard today on the bellows and those who whisper into their ears. When a person imagines shadows, ever is there imagined danger. Walk together, with company you trust.

Signed,