"I know.

"I'm sorry.

"It was just real important to help Miss Freyara out, Mezzy. She's one of our few friends, who trust us, an helps us, and she's helped us out so many times, it was only right for us to help her when she needed it.

"That's real important, Mezzy. It's the difference, I guess. In tha Cathedral on Sundays, they talk about what you should do ...

"We was just not talking about it ...

"We was doin' it, do you understand?"

Kharanos, late at night, beneath the sable sky. The stars above were scattered like diamonds, the snow below shimmering in the soft moonlight. Alone on a small hill, overlooking the trail, the little gnome lass stood. She watched, as torch carrying messengers passed along the trail, carrying important missives between Ironforge and the outposts of Loch Modan. In the distance, through the cool dry air, the grumblings of the striders at depot could be heard, as well as the occassional grown of a snowcat hunting.

The big blue war voidwalker drifted at the lass' side, his bracers reflecting a gentle blue and gold in the starlight. As she spoke, her breath frosted, the night air cool and crisp.

"I guess, well I sometimes don't understand it. Every one talks about high morality, of lofty words and principles. Of good and evil and balance, and chaos and order.

"And that their way, is somehow, good and everyone else is somehow wrong."

Looking down, she scuffs the snow with one boot.

"And yet, every night, I hear the alarm bells ring in Stormwind, or Lakeshire or Astranaar. I remember that quiet refuge, in the Ashenvale Forest, and walking in and seeing the dryad's blood staining the fine wood floors and knowing something beautiful had been forever lost.

"Or sitting in the tavern in Southshore, listening to the swordsmen and mages laugh and raise a glass, to toast their swords and all the blood they spilled at the nearby mill.

"Something's not quite right, Mezzy. And I can't quite fit the cogs together to make a workin' gadget."

She hugs herself, arms wrapping tight. Her garb is heavy, protective, collected from Ratchet to Booty Bay to new gloves from a rare friend.

"I don't claim to be smart or philosphical. Or wise enough to tell other folks what to do - and yet I look at these fine words and overlay them upon the world in which we live, and they don't quite fit.

"We are at war. We see it every day. In the craters, the corpses, the broken war machines, the haunting of the Legion, licking its wounds and preparing for its next invasion?

"I have heard one person speak of honor, sacrifice, the courage of oneself to stand before darkness, and prevail.

"And yet, that is how we live, Mezzy.

"You and me.

"Every day.

"How many times have we put ourselves into harms way, because it was the right thing to do? How many times have we been blasted to the spirit plane so that another might breathe and hold on a few minutes longer?

"And how many times have I had to look into the burning fires and say, no, you can't have him. To remind Them that you, Mezzy, you are my friend, you stand with me, not Them.

"And yet this one would send me to the abyss, with a cruel hatred as deep as those he claims to fight.

"Maybe I am too simple, too pragmatic, but I live here, in the mountains of Kharanos, a world of war crafted from experience ... and not a world of words that only exists in the breath of a voice, as hard to grasp as smoke, as hard to hold onto as the memory of a dream upon waking.

"I remember hearing that mercy is to be lauded, but for the wicked the path of salvation is bought with pain.

"But you know Mezzy, we've heard that before.

"Spoken to us, by a man of the cloth, I guess. He was wearin' bright fancy robes, just like the archbishop in tha Cathedral in Stormwind, kinda.

"Last night ...

"Up in tha Scarlet Monastery."

Rubbing her upper arms with her small hands, she adds a touch of warmth against the night.

"In the end, Mezzy, I think it is very simple.

"Gods, demons, light and shadow ...

"We, me and you, we don't need beliefs in them. Gods and demons, they exist. That's a fact.

"I can summon them.

"Light and shadow are magics. Tools for healing and hurting.

"And in the end, what is important is not what you believe in.

"What's important is what you do with those beliefs."

"And that is what makes all the difference in the worlds."

The Alliance warlock shrugs her shoulders, her quiet gaze rising to the clear midnight sky.

"Oh Mezzy look!

"A shooting star!

"Make a wish ..."

... from the Spiritual and Religion discussion thread on the Earthen Ring forum, where Tauren shaman and Night Elves druids argued about the nature of the world. Nellisynthia's view is a little more pragmatic. Maybe because she's just a gnome ...

Posted on a Monday, I believe, having missed the Sunday Services at the Stormwind Cathedral because we were out hunting!