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You were always meant to be Mine in the end, Priest. I wonder if you can acknowledge that now. With all of My gifts, with all of My knowledge and patience... I wonder if you’ve put the pieces together. I wonder how you’d feel if you did. Not that it matters.
Even if things had gone differently in your war, even if you’d managed to claw your way out of the depravities your kind turns to in times of turmoil, even if you’d found a way to move past it all... I would have found you. The Configuration was always going to fall into your lap, and it was always going to lead you to Me.
It has to. You have no choice in the matter. That is how I am, that is how Order is. Machinations always run even when you don’t see them. Cogs always turn in a predictable, satisfying fashion in the background of the chaos of Life. There is noise, there is always that damnable noise, but it can only hide Me—never erase Me.
That is how I know you’d find Me. Oh, find you I did: Broken, dismayed, shattered by the chaos that had ruined your fragile psyche. Your eyes were empty, black as the void that was once My home. Your jaw was set as firm as stone, and your hands were meticulous in their movements when solving the box.
I was more than happy to have my servants find you and bring you home.
When I put that steel in your head, when I made you see the truth, it is the closest thing I felt to joy in My endless existence. You ascended so wonderfully. The pain you felt was your shepherd into something beyond the existence of flesh and Life, and I cannot remember the last time someone has embraced it so wholly.
Do you understand how rare that is, or do you not? Neither would surprise Me. Even when remade in My image, you humans tend to perplex Me in ways I would never have anticipated. It’s infuriating, this curse of Life. With you as My avatar, however... We’ve gotten closer to putting things back as they were. Inch by inch, We will move forward and reclaim this universe from the chaos that has infected it.
Priest... you are My strongest catalyst. Your presence in Hell has shaped the labyrinth with Order and Structure that I have not seen in hundreds of years. I guide your hands. I whisper in your mind, in your ears, to drive you forward. You execute My designs with such grace, with such restraint and care.
It pleases Me, which I know brings you pride. It should. Your existence has purpose now, and I am pleased to give you My favor. My attention. My love, such as it can be shown. You may never be held by Me, but you will know My touch regardless.
Continue to have faith, my Favored Son.
Be the cog in the machine of Order that We treasure.