THE WAY OF KINGS

THE LETTER
Old friend, I hope this missive finds you well. Though, as you
are now essentially immortal, I would guess that wellness on your
part is something of a given. I realize that you are probably still
angry. That is pleasant to know. Much as your perpetual health,
I have come to rely upon your dissatisfaction with me. It is one
of the cosmere's great constants, I should think.
Let me first assure you that the element is quite safe. I have
found a good home for it. I protect its safety like I protect my
own skin, you might say. You do not agree with my quest. I
understand that, so much as it is possible to understand someone
with whom I disagree so completely. Might I be quite frank?
Before, you asked why I was so concerned. It is for the following
reason: Ati was once a kind and generous man, and you saw what
became of him. Rayse, on the other hand, was among the most
loathsome, crafty, and dangerous individuals I had ever met. He
holds the most frightening and terrible of all the Shards. Ponder
on that for a time, you old reptile, and tell me if your insistence
on nonintervention holds firm. Because I assure you, Rayse will
not be similarly inhibited. One need only look at the aftermath
of his brief visit to Sel to see proof of what I say. In case you have
turned a blind eye to that disaster, know that Aona and Skai are
both dead, and that which they held has been Splintered.
Presumably to prevent anyone from rising up to challenge Rayse.
You have accused me of arrogance in my quest. You have accused
me of perpetuating my grudge against Rayse and Bavadin. Both
accusations are true. Neither point makes the things I have
written to you untrue. I am being chased. Your friends of the
Seventeenth Shard, I suspect. I believe they're still lost, following
a false trail I left for them. They'll be happier that way. I doubt
they have any inkling what to do with me should they actually
catch me. If anything I have said makes a glimmer of sense to
you, I trust that you'll call them off. Or maybe you could astound
me and ask them to do something productive for once. For I have
never been dedicated to a more important purpose, and the very
pillars of the sky will shake with the results of our war here. I ask
again. Support me. Do not stand aside and let disaster consume
more lives. I've never begged you for something before, old
friend.
I do so now.

WORDS OF RADIENCE

THE REPLY
Ill address this letter to my old friend, as I have no idea what
name youre using currently. Have you given up on the
gemstone, now that it is dead? And do you no longer hide behind
the name of your old master? I am told that in your current
incarnation you've taken a name that references what you
presume to be one of your virtues. This is, I suspect, a little like
a skunk naming itself for its stench.
Now, look what you've made me say. You've always been able to
bring out the most extreme in me, old friend. And I do still name
you a friend, for all that you weary me. Yes, Im disappointed.
Perpetually, as you put it. Is not the destruction we have wrought
enough? The worlds you now tread bear the touch and design of
Adonalsium. Our interference so far has brought nothing but
pain. My path has been chosen very deliberately. Yes, I agree
with everything you have said about Rayse, including the severe
danger he presents. However, it seems to me that all things have
been set up for a purpose, and if we - as infants - stumble through
the workshop, we risk exacerbating, not preventing, a problem.
Rayse is captive. He cannot leave the system he now inhabits.
His destructive potential is, therefore, inhibited. Whether this
was Tanavasts design or not, millennia have passed without
Rayse taking the life of another of the sixteen. While I mourn
for the great suffering Rayse has caused, I do not believe we could
hope for a better outcome than this. He bears the weight of
Gods own divine hatred, separated from the virtues that gave it
context. He is what we made him to be, old friend. And that is
what he, unfortunately, wished to become. I suspect that he is
more a force than an individual now, despite your insistence to
the contrary. That force is contained, and an equilibrium
reached.
You, however, have never been a force for equilibrium. You tow
chaos behind you like a corpse dragged by one leg through the
snow. Please, hearken to my plea. Leave that place and join me
in my oath of nonintervention. The cosmere itself may depend
upon our restraint.