“My dame, you have written to me on several occasions, urging me to suppress these Neoshamanists, even with violence, on account of their heresy. Each time I have given you the same response, which I reiterate once again unchanged. I, a mere patriarch, am not permitted to judge in spiritual matters. Yet it is my duty as patriarch to ensure the security of my citizens, and these Neoshamanists, heretics though they may be, are yet my citizens.

“A sorry preacher you must be if you cannot correct their errors with words and must beg me again and again to raise the claws of the state against them. Must I, a mere patriarch, remind you, my dame, that the beholders did not act thus toward those who refused to follow the Bright Way out of the jungle? See to your duties, hearthkeeper, and I must see to mine.”