"I wish to confess something to you.

You, so that I may relieve myself of the burden in my waking life. You, nobody at all, to preserve the tightness of my lips in more potentially dangerous company. I wish you to know firstly that it was no Drifter who bestowed the title of 'Dredgen' upon me. Nor was it Eli who blessed (or perhaps cursed) Soren with the mark. He gives it freely as a charlatan, but he hasn't really earned the right. He never will.

No, we women of symmetry have been given this title by one far more qualified. A man illustrious as he walks in the day, and infamous as Darkness falls. A man whose Light casts perhaps the deepest shadows I've ever seen. I needn't speak any of his names. You and I both know of whom I speak.

You're my only confidante in this matter. If anyone else knew...well, let it be safely said I would regret it. The Guardians and ordinary folk I so fiercely love wouldn't understand. They would be confused, some angry. The boldest would seek my final death, just as I have so many before. I was blind then. Perhaps just, and righteous still, but I saw as they see. Narrowly, but comfortably. Heroically, but simply.

I wish I could go back, sometimes. Be only the woman I once was. Part of me still is her- I still smile, I still love, I still have passion for the sword and the word and the stars. I am still Talyn Maj, and I hope I never stop being her. I've grown to love her, and that was itself a victory hard-fought. I know Soren is just the same way. We haven't changed- not for the worse, anyway. We've only become something else in parallel. Dredgen Loss walks in her shadow. Dredgen Rose in mine.

I hope I can learn to love that other me, too."

I'm not above scrutiny, Guardian. If I let you down, I'm letting down my good friend Shin Malphur Dredgen Vale too, and I couldn't bear that!