The Last Light (The Wandering Inn, #5)

by Pirateaba

I’d look at news stories of people letting dictators get away with crimes, or turning a blind eye to crimes or not doing anything when there’s a problem. Or if they did, it was something small. Something I thought was worthless, like one of those food drives where you donate bits of food and ship it off to another country. Ordinary people did just enough to make themselves feel good and let other people do the actual work.” “Sometimes that’s all you can do.” Erin’s voice was soft. She looked at the table. “Sometimes you can only do a bit, Ryoka.” Ryoka nodded. “Yeah. I realized that when I tried to do the right thing. It’s really hard. Really, really hard. Half the time it seems like there’s no answer, no good way to fix what’s broken. The other half, it feels like if everyone would just work together we’d solve the problem. But we never do.” Erin stared at a wall. When she spoke, it was quietly, thoughtfully. “I don’t think it’s fair to ask random people to fix problems. I think we’ve got to work together, so if there’s something I need to do, I’ll ask people I can trust. My friends.” “But if you do that, what about the world?” She shrugged. Erin pointed to the closed window. “I don’t know about the world. I can’t imagine trying to solve world hunger, or—or cure cancer. And there’s no internet here. No way to talk to people. But I can help people around me. That’s what I did at Esthelm.” “You did do that.”