Disquiet Gods (Sun Eater Book 6)

by Christopher Ruocchio

“There are no innocents,” he said. “Have you heard it written? There is none righteous.”

So little remained of those final days of Earth. In those days, it was said the ancient kept their records almost entirely upon their primitive datasphere, abandoning the page and the canvas entirely. That datasphere had not survived the Advent, the cataclysmic final battle between old William Rex and the machines. So much of our history was lost.

“I am Kharn Sagara, who took this world from the Americans,” he answered, using the old name. “I have walked this galaxy for a thousand generations, and if you serve me, so will you.”

Kharn Sagara was evil. I say it plain. And we should not suffer evil to endure.

A man is a story, a thread winding back through time from death to conception, an unbroken line—save where the powers of our universe intervene.

“Pain teaches mercy,” I said. “You suffer so that you understand suffering, so that you do not inflict it without need. Pain makes us human, teaches us to be . . . human.”

Our fear of pain is the foundation of all morality. It is that fear that shapes our world, orders civilization. We pass laws, build walls and fortresses, fight wars and forge empires all to minimize our people’s pain.

Our experiences of pain teach us the nature of suffering, and so we are moved to minimize that suffering in others. Pain grounds our reality, is the cornerstone of our interactions with the objective world. Pain makes us human, teaches us to be human.