Aether and Vharin Are One

Priests speak of aether as though it were some rarefied “gift of the divine” diffused across the world, and I confess their hymns and sermons make it sound very dignified and miraculous. Yet, for all my teasing, I must give them their due: they wield that same force without first severing and binding a fragment of their own soul into a focus-crystal, as any true mage must. The uncomfortable truth, for them, at least, is that all magic is one. Aether is vharin, and vharin is aether; the distinction is terminological, not real. We mages keep this point quiet because, according to the less-sanitized chronicles, the last time priests realized it tens of thousands of years ago, they attempted to exterminate us.