[FROM THE JOURNAL OF A SCHOLAR WHOSE NAME WAS STRICKEN]

It is known that the Springbringer, the Anamnesis, is the one fated by kismet to bring sunshine, flowers and birds to the cold prison of the Proctor.

It is known that the Springbringer, Creatrix Inevitable, is the mother of nature and nurture, and will make this frostbitten existence but a memory

from a prior time.

It is the natural cycle. The time-circle of living things reflects that of the land they inhabit, for in all things, even the land,

there is life. There is life, and there is love, in every blade of grass. In every whispered secret on the wind.

Birth provides the gateway to life, so turbulent, until the final day - when things wither, collapse, and eventually die.

But death is not the end. In death there is life renewed. In death, there is rebirth. From the carrion of a corpse,

from the ashes of a forgotten flame of passion, nurtures the soil beneath it, and houses critters of the woods.

To tell their story. To live their life.

"Winter" as a word is not unlike "wither", for Winter is Death and Decadence. But it is not so abominable.

In death, there is life. After the hardship of Winter, comes Spring, rebirth and renewal. To be born, to live, to tell their story. To end it.

This is the nature of the Springbringer. Anamnesis will bring the next season forevermore to Eslafville. But something cannot come from nothing.

In death, there is life. The Springbringer, Anamnesis, Mother Nature: by many names she goes, but the river leads the same.

In death, there is life. She must die in order for this world to know Rebirth. A cycle.

Because in that sacrifice, she nurtures the land, gives herself to it, so that it may know life.

So that it may know love.

If this world's Mother loves it, then she will know to wither so that it may live. And is that not the nature of Mothers?

The end of the river is ANNA MONESIS.