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The anger of the people can be often cruel and ill-placed.
These are not my people; I am not one of them. Not anymore. These people understand justice only as revenge. They are undeserving, ignorant, and cruel.
Others might perceive this as a sign of pride, but I know the truth. It is the posture of someone receiving a beating and determined to get through it on their feet.
For that instant, I think, It’s always like this, you standing between me and them.
With so many farms incentivized from subsistence farming to textile exports, Callipolis no longer supports self-sufficient levels of food production
“I have a squadron that needs me. What do I have to hide? I’m not ashamed to be seen in grief.”
“I know you think the people who used to have the dragons were bad,” he said. “But what if the new people are bad, too?”
“Even if they’re bad, we’ll be the ones with dragons in the end. We’ll make the rules. And we’d never be bad, would we?”
“Rock. You did good. You did what you had to do.” “It sure as hell didn’t feel good.”
I can’t do this. But who is there to say it to? Rock, whom I outrank and must lead in resolve? Atreus, who gave me this order? Callipolis, whose citizens will depend on this food for winter?
we, on behalf of the Callipolan ministry, have brought and offered. As if this somehow makes us better than the dragonlords from the old regime, who left burned serfs to their fates.
Trained to repeat them. You believe his regime is better than what came before? Julia asked. Wake up. But surely this is different,
It feels good, unutterably good, to have his arms around me. My face against his chest, my head cupped by his hand. As though he’s holding me together so that I can fall apart.
He’s adopted the low murmur I remember him using at bedtime with his siblings, and already I can feel my shoulders loosening, my breath lengthening.
Oh crap. Im crying.
Just as Atreus once told us: You only deserve this mantle as long as you can be more reasonable and more virtuous than what came before.
The lesser of two evils. It’s a far cry from what I hoped we’d be. And a far cry from what Annie once hoped for, as well.
Who am I to begrudge him the ways he’s found to escape his darkness? I’ve been escaping mine with Duck for years.
