The world can be divided into the [[pure|Pure]] and [[impure|Impure]].Imagine a vessel. A glass, an urn, a jar. Imagine that vessel filled with water. Nothing is more precious in the Mother Desert than pure, clean water. This vessel must have sides and a bottom, or else it could not contain the liquid with which is has been filled, yes? But imagine a dust storm comes. How do you keep the water within clean during a dust storm? With a [[lid|Wards]]. The [[impure|Impure]], but the unknowable design of God, have no lids.Remember God made the universe, and in it he made magic and all the magical creatures. Remember God made them tainted, and we know not why. Remember God made them vessels for worldly magic, yes, but made us vessels for [[souls and rebirth|Reincarnation]], and we know not why. Remember this. It is our place not to question His choices, but to accept them and play our roles with grace, justice, and charity.Imagine yourself as a jar, and your soul as the pure, clean water. Imagine the magic of the elves as the dust storm coming toward you. You have seen how the dust eats away even the hardest stone, the way it carves caverns and canyons. Magic, like a dust storm, is a natural force. It eats the world around it, too. We have devised ways of protecting ourselves against dust storms. Wards provide a barrier against the ragged, hungry impurities of magic. If we are jars, wards can be our lids. Ward your soul that it may be [[born again|Reincarnation]]. That is, so long as it is [[not yet tainted|Impure]].In the great tension between the maw of magic and the replenishment of the mundane, it is necessary that we are careful to maintain the purity of our souls so that we might be born again. Only in dying and being born again may we push forward God's mighty force of balance to keep the tide of magic from drowning all of Aerdh in its tides. Be as the Exalted Emporer: [[ward thyself|Wards]] in the wake of impurities, and [[face east|Face East]]. Face east, into the mundane, for as his Exalted sun sets the Pet and the Moon come up to play, and so to does magic roam the land. Face east, even in the magic night, and remember to ward yourself and protect your God-given soul that when you die you will rise again to serve in the balance of his forces. <center>***</center> <i>Did you like this storylet? Let me know! <a href="https://twitter.com/B_R_Sanders">Tweet me</a>, <a href="Mailto: [email protected]">email me</a> and I'll keep 'em coming!</i>