[JamOfBoy]

I have been thinking, long and hard, about some matter of great import.

Family. How twisted mine is. Or was, rather, for I think I have come to a conclusion regarding this matter - something I glimpsed clear flashes of during my visit to Scaldor's place.

I will renounce the Badgers as family. They are not my kin. They weren't ever, but I had hoped to pretend, for their sakes and perhaps mine. I will write down my thoughts and explanations regarding this conclusion so that I have pre-articulated thoughts to give to someone if ever they take outrage with these matters.

First off - I read something recently and a line in particular stuck out. Blood makes you related, love makes you family. Is that not a perfect summation of my feelings? We share no blood, and there is scarce love. The only thing we ever shared were the so-called shackles imposed upon us; and I have means to believe that our familial bonds and these shackles have more alike than most people realise.

Was it not a means to provide a sea-soaked ember of hope amidst our writhing ocean? Enough of a compulsion for comradery so that we don't leave one another behind and the broken mend one another before they are cast away. To conceal us in the darkness of our work would lead to despair - but conjure up a beacon for us to look up towards, united - that some day WE, the FAMILY, might be free 

No more a shackle than the rest of it! Another link in the chain that keeps us bound - content enough, comforted enough by one another to endure! For her sake, to absolve ourselves from the stains I know they all see on us, I will renounce them willingly. But for my sake, to encroach ever closer to ridding myself of these ethereal hands on my shoulders, did I consider this path to begin with.

My fever has been worse recently. Pyrram, Lanette, I'm sorry. You two are the only ones I would call family. But I can't be picky in this situation, can I? I either reject them all or I don't reject them at all. Nothing should change, save for titles, but perhaps that is me being hopeful. We have all lived our lives with brothers and sisters, and I cannot imagine how they would all react to losing one.