And, with all the resolve I could muster, I clenched my fists and said something unwise. “Leaving a trail of dead bodies in the wake of your schemes is not a manageable problem, Orden. If you truly want to protect Valia, you need to stop treating her civilians as acceptable losses.” Orden closed her eyes. “It’s a utility calculation, Corin. I can—” I put my hand on the hilt of my sword. “Let me stop you right there. We’ve all heard about stories of sacrificing a hundred to save a million. I get the concept. That’s not the core problem. The problem is that you’re taking a cascading series of
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