Tyler van Opstal "Until We Have Faces"

    Dear Orual, you poor wretched soul. You complain of something you do not understand. Furthermore, you write a book of your misunderstandings that should be spread, you are no better than the gods you yell at. I am Apate, goddess of deception, guile, and fraud. You would do well though to trust me now, though it is apparent you are unable to tell lies from truth. You have lied to yourself enough that any further lies from me are entirely unnecessary. What I speak to you will be true.

    Oh Orual, you decrepit disbeliever. You claim to love your sister but were unwilling to listen when she spoke. You must have thought her vain and foolish to remain on the Mountain when you had been ill and awaiting the time that you might save her. Were you so anxious that all your worry for her might have been in vain, that you were willing to ignore her pleas and even go so far as to coerce her? So trusting in the judgements of only those who spoke what you wanted to hear, you rejected even the idea that her truth could be correct. It was you who lied to your sister, who insisted to her that she would be safer following your command. You blame the gods for not making the picture of Psyche's happiness clearer? You miserable cretin, what could have been more clear than your supposedly beloved sister's word? You should not have even needed the flash of the castle.

    Oh Orual, you mocker of myth. You wish to write your own story- Fine! Do so with my blessing! Let it exist with the stories before it, and know that it is neither truer nor purer than them. It reflects your truth, it tells the tale of your existence to the world. The other tales also tell truth, and speak of existence. Story is the only real transfer of knowledge, and there is nothing written or spoken that is not a story yet carries value. You were disbelieving when your sister told you a story, and you are angry when others tell stories of your sister. You think they must be false because you believe otherwise. Yet you do not consider that others think the same of what stories you tell, and why should they be wrong and you right?

    Oh Orual, for your denial of the tales of others, for your dismissal of myth as mere lies- I sentence you to live again in the body of another, so that you might learn the varied perspectives that only story can intersect. Leave here not as Orual and do not return until you understand.

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