Hello Sigri, I am in a town called Sandpoint in Western North America.

The rivers lie nestled in majestic stone mountains and sharp evergreens like arrows pointing

to heaven.

It all reminds me of Heardmark.

I feel almost as if I could take a stroll through the trees and find myself at home with

you.

I flew from Paris to New York and met a woman there named Melissa.

Melissa told me of other groups like our cradle scattered all across the continent.

Melissa said the cradle had decades ago inspired dozens of people across North America

to establish their own organizations to live outside the society's rules.

I don't think I ever really explained to you just why we have to live as we do.

It's too complicated a message, too complex a history to explain to a child, but you

are not a child are you?

My mother, your grandmother, do you remember grandma Bridges?

You were only four when she died.

Maybe you've forgotten.

She could not have children, or so the doctor told her, but she campaigned against the

movement to stop the society from ending families.

The wars of the great reckoning were decorated with flags orchestrated with anthems and

funded by politicians.

Brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers did not destroy our populations.

If us not at a love of children that rivers for polluted and skies for blackened, after

...