Page 31

There are so many stories of Eirin and her stubbornness. I seem to remember great fights with Dissident, Lancer and even Chance. But the fights were not in the spirit of World. She did not move on once they were over, she held LONG grudges.

This was a very hard time for me. My people, my clan, had no way of knowing why all this was allowed to happen. The Evil Goddess had stepped in. Her shadow seemed to send shivers through the clan. Perhaps she revelled in the pain the Eirin was causing World. The Dark Goddess is, after all, the ultimate evil, so beautiful, but so dangerous when she deigns to notice the lesser beings. She is also far more powerful than I ever was. I was forbidden to speak to Eirin. The clan was on its own and I admire those that persevered.

I seem to speak only of dark things, and there has been much darkness and sadness. Tis difficult to maintain the balance. There have been lighter moments too though. Rizzen springs to mind when I look for less dark memories. He was a thief.

Page 32

After the first great disaster, some clans, in their search for reasons, must have believed that they had strayed from their true paths. They must have believed that they had angered the Gods. Rose became almost puritanical in its pursuit of 'goodness'. They expelled all thieves. Rizzen argued and argued with them that it was how he used his talents that made him good or evil. He argued that stealing to aid good, to hurt evil, was no different that fighting and killing evil. They did not accept his arguments. After his many years in Rose, he was turned away. They branded him evil. We took him in.

We loved our thief. Since his new home was the City of Hearts, we should have named him stealer of hearts. He was irrepressible, mischievous and loved a challenge. One day he almost took on too great a challenge. He took World's philosophy to heart and vowed to use his talents to their fullest potential. He decided to attempt the ultimate theft. He decided to steal from the evil Goddess herself and he succeeded. His joy at his success was infectious and we laughed with him, applauding his success.

Page 33

The anger from the Goddess, however, was a terrible thing to behold. She seemed not to notice that he had already returned the item. The challenge for him, had been to succeed in the act, not gain from it. The lands shook with her anger and it was only my intervention that saved him from total annihilation.

He was naive in a way. He had expected her, the Queen of Thieves, to be amused by his audacity, by his success. In her anger, she overlooked the World philosophy and judged him as Darkness Clan would have judged. She could not believe that stealing could be used other than for personal gain. After that, she cast a protective aura around all of the Gods so that it could never happen again. Rizzen might not have been the first, but he was certainly the last mortal to steal from the Goddess.