Citizens of Sharn. Friends. Neighbors. Survivors.
Four years ago today, the world changed.
In a single terrible moment, Cyre was swallowed by a catastrophe unlike anything any living soul had ever witnessed. Where once there had been cities and farms, roads and homes, families and dreams, there was only the grey mists of the Mourning.
Hundreds of thousands - perhaps more - were lost that day.
We remember them today, as we remember them every day.
We remember the children who never came home. The soldiers who marched into battle and never marched back. The farmers who tended their fields that morning. The merchants who opened their shops. The mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, and friends who had no warning that their final day had begun.
We remember Cyre not as a dead nation, but as a living one.
A nation of people.
People who laughed. People who argued. People who loved. People who dreamed of what tomorrow might bring.
And I remember.
I was there.
I was not a soldier. I was not a hero. I was a prisoner, held by common thugs just outside Cyre, my life reduced to a ransom and a bargaining chip. I remember believing that my life might end there.
And then the Mourning came.
There are no words sufficient to describe what I saw.
The sky itself seemed to become something unnatural. The world disappeared beneath that terrible mist. And for a moment, I understood with perfect clarity that I was witnessing the end of everything I knew.
I should have been among the lost.
But I was not.
Because someone came for me.
Someone who could have fled. Someone who could have saved themselves and left me to my fate.
Instead, Willow Wisp chose to save a life.
Mine.
Willow, I have spent four years trying to find words worthy of what you did that day. I have failed.
So today, I will not pretend that words are enough.
Because the greatest lesson of the Mourning is not simply that we can destroy one another.
It is that we can save one another.
For generations, we allowed old grudges to divide us. Kingdom against kingdom. Neighbor against neighbor. People who once fought side by side learned to look upon one another with suspicion.
But four years ago, the world reminded us how small those divisions truly are.
In the years since, we have seen soldiers from old enemies stand together. We have seen refugees welcomed into communities that once would have closed their gates. We have seen healers, artificers, merchants, priests, adventurers, and ordinary citizens work together to rebuild lives.
Not because we have forgotten our differences.
But because we have finally remembered what matters more.
A life is a life.
A neighbor is a neighbor.
And when someone reaches out a hand in the darkness, we should take it.
That is what we commemorate tonight.
Not merely the dead.
The living.
The lives rescued from the edge of disaster. The families given another chance. The strangers who became friends. The enemies who discovered that they could work together. Every person who chose compassion when hatred would have been easier.
And so, on behalf of the city of Sharn, I thank you.
Thank you to those who opened their homes.
Thank you to those who crossed borders to bring aid.
Thank you to those who risked their lives for strangers.
Thank you to every person who decided that the Mourning would not be the end of our story.
We cannot bring back those we lost.
But we can honor them.
We honor them by living.
By building.
By remembering.
By choosing, every day, to make this wounded world a little better than we found it.
By continuing to help those who fled from Cyre, not as homeless refugees, but as our new neighbors.
By taking each day given to us, and making it better for others.
By be willing to risk one's life to save another.
Willow, four years ago, you saved my life, and that of my trusted advisor Aric.
I cannot repay that debt. I cannot change what happened to Cyre. I cannot undo the lives lost that day.
But I can make certain that your courage is remembered.
On behalf of the people of Sharn, I present you with this award: the Mourning Star, bestowed upon those whose courage preserved life in the face of unimaginable catastrophe.
May it serve as a reminder that even in the darkest mist, one person can become a light for another.>
Willow Wisp, you saved my life.
Tonight, Sharn gives you its thanks.
And to everyone here tonight: let us remember the dead.
Let us cherish the living.
And let us build a future worthy of both.
May the souls of the lost find peace.
And may we, the survivors, never forget what we owe them.