From the Epistles of the Weavers, Chapter 13
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1. If I speak with the tongues of vampires and the singing spells of witches, but have not love, I am only a shattered bell in the Ethereal Cathedral, a silent music box in the Glimmerfolk's hall.
2. And if I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all the knots in the Weavers' tapestry, and if I have a faith that can make the seven towers tremble, but have not love, I am nothing.
3. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the frost of the Ashen Glen that I may boast, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4. Love is as patient as the unfolding fern. It is as kind as a shared cinnamon bun in Husby. It does not envy the swan its flight, it does not boast of its royal blood, it is not proud of its ancient power.
5. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered when betrayed, it keeps no record of the wrongs carved into the old oaks.
6. Love does not delight in the shadows of the Carnival of Mirrors but rejoices with the truth of the Weaver's song.
7. It always protects the little dove, always trusts the sacred promise, always hopes for the Garden Where Love Never Dies, always perseveres through the eternal cold.
8. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge of the Book of Life, it will pass away.
9. For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10. but when completeness comes, when the Magic Sleep is finally awakened, what is in part disappears.
11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became the Matriarch, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
12. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror of water; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known by the Wind of God.
13. And now these three remain: faith in the covenant, hope for the new dawn, and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
For it is the one magic that requires no spell, the one thread that can never be broken, and the true savior of us all.
Amen.