<i>"For all that they expressed interest in the ways of my craft, Carmen and Oxana never understood the fundamentals behind the stewardship of living things, especially the latter. They imagined that I was forcing the sacred tree to grow and twist itself into shapes according to my desires and contrary to its nature, which could be nothing further from the truth. A garden has the touch of artifice to it, yet it works best when it behaves in accord the nature of the things that grow with. Letting it run rampant without guidance produces no useful results, and yet forcing it to be what it is not makes the effort so much more tiresome, if not outright impossible. Simply allowing a river to run the course it <i>really</i> wants to is a lot easier than damming and diverting its flow.</i>
<i>"In the end, it did not matter. Once I got wind of what the two of them were up to and what they truly intended, I threw them out from my midst. Carmen I may have regretted a little in doing so, but Oxana… nothing good has come out of that witch and the many so-called daughters she has."</i>
[party.has atugia
|<i>"You can't blame Carmen for what she was doing,"</i> Atugia says sullenly from across the room. <i>"She was just trying to — "</i>
<i>"Protect everyone, I know. And in order to do that, she had to live longer than what her body would allow by its nature, which was why she had a particular interest in both the curse I was under and the hunger we foxes suffer as a people. Protect her subjects from Oxana's depredations and worse, in exchange for a small tithe of <b>chi</b> from each one of them. Wholly reasonable."</i>
<i>"Then you ain't supposed to speak of her like she's some kind of criminal or somethin'."</i>
<i>"I appreciate you speaking up for your mistress, but from all accounts she is beginning to realise that maybe this may not have been the best idea, after all. Outliving everyone and everything you care for takes its toll on the mind… residing alone in a dreary old stone castle with only her faithful long-lived retainers, never showing her face amongst the people she rules for fear of beginning to care for them… at least it is more wisdom than Oxana ever had."</i>
]