Keel gave her a chiding look as if to say she was wasting both of their time pretending not to know what he was talking about.
“For showing him the world. He is a better man for having spent time in your company.”
Tate’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not why I did it.”
“Of course not, which is why it means all the more. You’ve given me a gift far beyond what I’d hoped for. Because of you, my disciple will walk a path different from his predecessors.”
Tate wasn’t sure about that. Knowing something and accepting it were two different things. What she was challenged the foundation of his beliefs. Only time would tell whether he’d try to eliminate her or find a different path.
For now, she’d wait and see.
“I take it you have a purpose for approaching me in such a high-profile manner. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have left your cave,” Tate said, referring to the set of tunnels located in the cliffs that the guardians called home.
Keel started to speak then stopped. He peered closer at Tate. “I detect disapproval in our lifestyle choices.”
Tate leaned her hip against the railing and crossed her ankles. “It doesn’t matter to me how you choose to live your life. I just find it strange your sect chooses to dwell in the very place your Saviors fought so hard to escape. The people I remember counted down the days until they could leave those dank and dreary places behind.”
Tate pretended not to feel Keel’s stare on the side of her face as she looked out over the garden.
“And yet all but one of the Saviors spent the rest of their lives in those tunnels.”
Tate frowned, trying to reconcile the people Keel described with the ones she remembered. It didn’t sound like them at all.
Keel folded his hands on the balcony. “It sounds like your memories are coming back.”
“Some. They’re still a bit disjointed.”
Whatever the minor god had done to her in the Catsinth desert, it had unlocked something inside Tate. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about remembering. After so long, it felt strange to get the very thing she’d pursued so wholeheartedly.
That wasn’t to say she remembered everything. There were still massive, gaping holes in her memories. But the little things had started to return.
“I would like to hear stories about them some day.”
“No, you don’t,” Tate said, feeling tired all of a sudden.
“Are you sure about that?”
“If I tell you, they become human. Not Saviors. Not gods. People the same as you and I.”
Would Keel be able to hold them in reverence once he knew who they really were? Tate wasn’t so sure.
It was much easier to worship a hero when you reduced them to an ideal. Someone without flaws or weakness. Unfortunately, the truth was that people were a lot more complicated. Putting someone on a pedestal was a lot harder when you acknowledged them as a person who dealt with the same shit as everyone else.
For all that Tate didn’t agree with everything the guardians did in the name of her former friends, she also didn’t want to be the one responsible for destroying that faith. People needed faith to make the bad times easier to bear.
“I think that’s why I need to know,” Keel said after considering her words for a while. “They should be remembered as they were—even if only by one person.”
“More repentance for your sins?”
His lips turned up in a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You may see it however you wish.”
Tate propped her elbow on the balcony and stared at the garden. If that’s what he wanted, then so be it. It actually worked in Tate’s favor. She’d been meaning to ask him for something and this gave her the opportunity she’d needed.
“There’s something I need you to do.”
She’d gone over this decision countless times. Considered her options and every contingency. Only to come to the conclusion that she needed his help. Without it she was flying blind.
“That’s unusual,” Keel said, sounding intrigued.
