On Redemption
Redemption. What does it mean?
To a Banite, it means returning to Fear. To Tyranny.
To a Lolthite, it means returning to Chaos. To Harm.
What does it mean to us? To Eilistraee, or to tel'Quessir?
What does it mean to me?
I think it is simple, to me. Perhaps, to Us.
Joy. Peace. Finding something that makes you happy, truly happy, and making it your own. When one has lived under evil, it can be easy to forget the lightness of being that comes with good. How the soul sings when you see your actions make something better for another. The music of the heart when another succeeds.
Is this, then, part of why so many find it hard to desire redemption? For, after all, it must be desired. A flock of priestesses cannot force redemption, even on a weak person. The person must seek it out.
I think it a frightening thing. And I think we often forget that part. One must lay oneself bare, vulnerable, when such has theretofore been all but a promise of death...or worse.
Should one of Ilythiir do this before the Yathrin? Death would be a release, not the climax of punishment. Is it any surprise, then, that they should be so reluctant? As long-lived as we, they are taught from birth...(Perhaps before?) That we are evil. We will kill them. They are made and molded to revel in chaos, in pain, in death.
They are not made thus. Not even Araushnee-who-was can manage that. Even she cannot weave the very fabric of Us. No, they are taught thus. Any Ilythiiri babe laughs as a Quessir babe does. Cries for its mother. Hungers for milk, for touch, for gentle words. But ever, we must remember, these poor souls are denied even that. Sometimes for centuries before we meet, before they know there even is a choice that can be made.
When we, then, are able to offer the choice, we must be ready for refusal. We must be ready for suspicion. We must be ready to persevere, regardless. There are times the choice will never fall the way we want, but we must try. Not for us. Another's redemption is never for us. It is for the one whose future, and often very soul, hangs in the balance.
Maiden, we ask Your patience. Your stubbornness. The strength You grace us, that we may persevere. If we help even one to salvation, we have done Your work.