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March 26 - April 6, 2022
Take any segment of population, impose strict yet clear definitions on their particular characteristics, then target them for compliance. Bribe the weak to expose the strong. Kill the strong, and the rest are yours. Move on to the next segment.
our greatest enemies are those who are without certainty. The ones with questions, the ones who regard our tidy answers with unquenchable scepticism. Those questions assail us, undermine us. They…agitate. Understand, these dangerous citizens understand that nothing is simple; their stance is the very opposite of naivety. They are humbled by the ambivalence to which they are witness, and they defy our simple, comforting assertions of clarity, of a black and white world.
Inequity, else how can power be assessed, how can the gifts of privilege be valued? For there to be rich, there must be poor, and more of the latter than the former.
‘Tehol Beddict, you cannot deliver a child. You’re a man. Leave the delivering to me.’ ‘Tell you what, climb out of that soup, dry out and let me see what you’re supposed to look like, and who knows? Extraordinary things might happen.’
‘Why don’t any of you like each other? I like all of you. Even Wither.’ ‘It’s all right,’ Udinaas said, ‘we’re all just tortured by who we are, Kettle.’
‘Tell me of this one who so presumes to offend me.’
Consider this then a warning. Liars will lie, and continue to do so, even beyond being caught out. They will lie, and in time, such liars will convince themselves, will in all self-righteousness divest the liars of culpability. Until comes a time when one final lie is voiced, the one that can only be answered by rage, by cold murder, and on that day, blood shall rain down every wall of this vaunted, weaning society.
‘Do I deserve such irony?’ ‘No, you don’t. Alas.’
The emotions commanding him were similarly simple and straightforward. He feared what he could not understand, and he despised what he feared.
‘You have a pet insect,’ Nisall said, wondering at the flush of colour in Karos Invictad’s face. ‘Hardly. As I said, not your concern.’ ‘Do you seek a confession from it as well? You will have to decapitate it twice. With a very small blade.’
From above he heard Tehol say, ‘Janath, are you not impressed with what I have done with my extensive education?’ ‘It is a very fine roof, Tehol Beddict.’
‘Oh, I lack honour, do I?’ ‘I am not sure what you lack,’ Silchas Ruin replied, ‘but I am certain I will comprehend before we are done.’
‘There are two names to the song. Agkor Raella and Allish Raella. The wolf song, and the caribou song.’ ‘Ah, so my cud-chewing ways are exposed at last.’ Onrack smiled. ‘One day, you must become the wolf.’
‘Having a reason to be miserable is always worse than having no reason but being miserable anyway.
What Ublala did was an act of profound bravery.’ ‘Eat my hens? Raw?’ ‘At least he plucked their feathers.’ ‘Were they dead by that point?’ ‘Let’s not discuss those particular details, Tehol. Everyone is permitted one mistake.’
At some point, no matter how repressive the regime, the citizenry will come to comprehend the vast power in their hands. The destitute, the Indebted, the beleaguered middle classes; in short, the myriad victims. Control was sleight of hand trickery, and against a hundred thousand defiant citizens, it stood no real chance. All at once, the game was up.
‘It is a sad truth, Orbyn, that all who have been rewarded by tyranny must eventually share an identical fate.’
‘Never mind the truth. The past is what I say it is. That is the freedom of teaching the ignorant.’
Well, so it would be rage after all. Vengeance against the Errant would have to wait its turn. First, vengeance against a man named Karos Invictad. Mael, Elder God of the Seas, had work to do.
