The true power of the crystals lies not in what wonders they can perform but in what atrocities they can compel a person to do. They are a tempting power. They make one desire to do things which one never thought to desire before. When I first fled from the temple in Mercan over two years ago, I had sworn solemnly two things. I would let nothing stop me in my pursuit of the true knowledge of the book I carried and that I would never tolerate those of the kind who had destroyed my father. I owed his memory that much, I thought. I had never assumed that I would thrust myself into a situation where I would need to compromise one of those principles for the other. Had I, I am certain that I would never have believed that I would compromise the latter for the sake of the former.

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Tags: campaign journal, mauril