“But now you are here.” He pounded the table so suddenly as to startle me from my thoughts. He was staring at me so intently, with such passion and vigour, I felt once more pinned beneath his gaze. “We are sons of the Enlightenment. All of us. To allow all that potential to moulder beneath the soil, like the specimens we require but are legally denied—tell me, what would be the holy cause in that?”
