A bit from Arcadian's Balm

Yes, I'm still working away. A massive flu has me nice and stuffed and doped up, but at least I have time to sit down and write. Anyhow, here's a quote from Arcadian's Balm that I rather like:

“Folks want to be gifted,” the Clan Mother said. “They wants to be special, do something others can’t, be something beyond what we’re born to be. But few see the burdens and the responsibilities of such a thing. We has the hearts of men. And the hearts of men cannot rightly control the power of what is more than us. We most often fail.”

As was hinted at in Wildlander's Woman, there are certainly preternatural powers bouncing around the Wildlands. In Arcadian's Balm, we delve into that a little more, looking at the effect that such gifts have on the human psyche and how terribly wrong it can all go if the person who has the gift does not have the moral strength to control it and use it for good.

I think it's natural to believe that the rules don't necessarily apply to oneself, that you can handle even the tough tests of integrity, because you somehow aren't susceptible to the temptations and weaknesses of the human condition. But the fact is, we all are. We all fail. We all thoughtlessly hurt people along the way. And sometimes the fallout of our own arrogance can be rather devastating. We will explore those ideas in Arcadian's Balm.