Not, I fear, for the right reasons.
“You mean for us to believe that you are the Sage of Wrath, awoken?” the head priest asks.
“No one is introducing themselves,” I pretend-murmur to Zan. “What has happened to manners?”
“This is Learned Mujin,” Zan informs me, his voice, too, pretending as much calm as mine. “He is responsible for escalating the hunt for me.”
“A hunt long overdue that you have brought on yourself,” Mujin says grimly. “You have been allowed to act against the Order for too long.”
Oh yeah. I definitely know his type.
Nothing is ever his fault, and his authority cannot be questioned.
I suppose I am susceptible, but not in the way that makes his life easier.
“I get the feeling compassion isn’t his weapon of choice,” I note blandly to Zan, who huffs in grim amusement.
“I didn’t come to fight you,” Eraya says earnestly. “I came to fightforyou.”
“You may believe that,” I say baldly, “but I do not. And since you have allowed the priests to neuter you, your power cannot touch me.”
The aura of compassion is palpable around us, strong enough that it ought to be smothering me. And I do feel it trying to constrain my movements.
But all I feel inside is wrath, and that means I can move.
They have made the Sage of Compassioninsipid.She has no teeth compared to me.
She will claim that she doesn’t want to have teeth, and that’s half the problem.
Compassion could bite, if they hadn’t filed her down.
“If you are indeed the Sage of Wrath of yore,” Mujin tells me, “then the gods have seen fit to commute your sentence for a reason. You have a chance now to right your ancient wrong, and you may repent of breaking your oaths by rejoining us now.”
Damn it. I am playing into his hands, aren’t I?
I can’t have a meaningful dialogue with people who don’t believe I’m as much of a person as they are, with views equally worth considering.
If I stand up to them, I close that door.
But if I allow them to dehumanize me... I’ll end up right back where I started, centuries ago.
Clarity, at last: Whatever may come, I’m not going back.
“Ah, yes, breaking my oaths and rejoining the same Order that wanted me to commit mass murder. Do they not teach that?” I shift my gaze to Eraya. “Or do you just think lettingthesepeople use you will be different?”
“Itisdifferent,” she insists. “Sages aren’t worked like prisoners anymore. It’s a new era. You’ll see, if you can let go of your anger long enough to open your eyes—”
Anger is thereasonfor my clarity.
Letting it go would only make me easier for others to use.
“A gilded cage is a cage nonetheless,” I tell her, and look back at Mujin. “And I won’t enter into it willingly.”
The red priest looks back at me implacably. “Then you will rejoin us unwillingly, or you will die, so your successor in Wrath may serve where you failed.”
Ice pounds through my veins.
Gods, that escalated quickly.
