“Oresus lookhs well.”

“You should see his garden. He just keeps expanding it.”

“It pained him to move much before. He tried to khonceal it, but…”

“Yeah. It’s good that it worked. He took quite the risk. Which brings us back to you.”

“Because I don’t use mana?”

“Yeah. I don’t either, but the draught already doesn’t work on me for other reasons. We really have no idea if the mana berries will work for you.”

“Yes, I see.” She lay there in thought for some time. “We don’t have much of a choice, do we?”

Gloe shrugged. “Oresus is growing more mana berries. He thinks we could probably sell them if we found the right buyer. It would take a while to amass enough money to hire a healer though, and then we’d either have to pay extra to bring them here or try to transport you there. So there’s risks all around.”

“Yes.” After another pause she nodded painfully. “I will chance it.”

“Your funeral” he replied, but the grin undercut the comment somewhat.

“Yes.” She tried to smile in response, then it faded. “Are you disillusioned?”

“Huh?”

Another weak smile. “It hurts less when you return from hunting, and your phrases khontinually give you away. I thinkh about someone who chose to go to another world with a power that takhes away others’ pain, then I thinkh about our eskhape. And I wonder if you are disillusioned? Are you bitter?” She looked down at her broken body. “I am” she muttered softly.

Gloe cocked his head before finally straightening up with a grin. “First, I’m not admitting anything, alright?” At her faint answering smile he continued. “Imagine for a moment that you’re in a world that has evil. Let’s say your brother is an asshole, criminals on the street are assaulting people, and evil dictators are running concentration camps. You’d like to combat the evil. What do you do first?”

“Well…” her working eyes glowed as she considered. “…if you had the power you’d start with the worst. If not, then the worst you can akhtually affect.”

“What about second and third order effects though? Lots of people could probably assassinate a dictator if they were willing to die to do it. But would that fix the problem? What if your family would be slaughtered after the fact? What if other would-be dictators were just waiting in the wings? What if the resulting instability might spark a civil war, or an invasion, or an economic collapse?”

She nodded slightly. “For khomplicated problems it probably would be better to thinkh things through first. But you can’t let khomplexhity keep you from akhting.”

“I agree. My answer was that you work on your brother while you carefully consider everything else. Your brother you know, and you can try to help immediately. If you make a mistake with him you can probably smooth things over. The problem is more proximate and stakes less dire, so start there and study the other issues before you attack them.”

“But, for me, there’s one exception to this rule. Don’t go looking for trouble sure, but that can’t be an excuse for looking away. If I see someone being assaulted in front of me or they start rounding people up in the streets and I fail to do something…well that’s not thinking the matter through, that’s an excuse for cowardice. Immediate, meaningful and consequential outrage ought to be something that evil fears, something that prevents it from becoming too brazen.”

It took Emokha a bit to digest that. “So…you wanted to khonsider your options, and what you ought to do. But then…”

He leaned in slightly and smiled. “So I have some things I need to take care of, and my plans need to change. But although I have to respond to what I’ve borne witness to, it hasn’t fundamentally changed the way I look at the world. Any world.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Laughing softly, he leaned back. “The world is full of pain. You can’t change that, and I can’t either. Maybe we can remove a bit though. And there is an upside to what we know, eh?” He looked up into the canopy.

“We’re stranded in primitive and dangerous surroundings. Haven’t had decent food…hah! To say nothing of a shower in a very long time. Filthy tattered clothing, dangerous beasts around every corner, the possibility of almost literal demons hunting us down at any moment. We should be miserable.”

“And yet…look at that sunshine. Breathe that air. It’s better when you’re free, isn’t it? We didn’t know what we had before, but now we do. Somewhere, right now, someone is being tortured. Someone is being murdered. Tragedies are occurring, and we can’t change that general fact. But appreciating that, at the moment, it’s not us, well…that’s not wrong.”

“I will…khonsider your words. I think, however, that I will hold onto my anger.”

“That’s reasonable.” His volume dropped somewhat. “Although I may not be disillusioned, I’ve never claimed I’m not angry.”

“I see.” Her tone indicated she didn’t. “I believe I’ve stalled long enough. I am angry, and I need a body that can allow me to take akhtion. Let us begin.”

“As you wish. If this doesn’t work, it’s been fun. More or less.” He winked, and she laughed politely before reaching for the cup.

...

“The Legion is a khorrupt puppet organization!” Emokha pounded the makeshift table with three arms, and it teetered dangerously.

“I’m n-not saying it isn’t. But it’s already here and f-fighting. If we join we can get the right to w-work. Besides, the Legion has s-support. We n-need new equipment.” Oresus’ tone was mild, even a bit apologetic, but he wasn’t backing down.

“We khan makhe or buy ekhuipment. We khannot khompromise our principles in the face of diffikhulty!”

“What about our m-mission? Isn’t it c-compromising to wait while we look for resources? I’d r-rather hit them now, not later.”

Gloe cleared his throat and both looked up. “Sorry to disturb you, but now that you’ve both mostly recovered I’m going to head out. Ya’ll want me to drop you off somewhere first? If you need some more time to decide I can wait a couple more hours.”

“Ah.” It was difficult to read Viluota emotions since their exoskeleton kept their faces from shifting all that much. Still, she wouldn’t make direct eye contact with any of her eyes. Perhaps she was embarrassed to have been overheard. “Yes, I believe we have yet to reach a khoncensus.”

“W-where are you going?” Oresus interjected quickly.

“Well, the specifics aren’t clear yet, so I only have a very general plan. I’m a bit concerned they might be able to backtrack me though, so I want to make certain ya’ll are clear before I start anything.”

Now Emokha looked up. “You are headed for a khonfrontation then?”

“Eventually.” He tapped his temple. “I witnessed some war crimes and crimes against humanity, and my memory is good enough now that I can make a couple of lists. Common decency says I ought to try to do something about that, eh?”

“B-but that’s what we’re arguing about. We b-barely escaped with our lives. We need an a-army.”

“Probably true, but as you may be able to imagine I’m not too impressed with the duke’s leadership.”

It was Oresus’ turn to look down. “True. And the D-demon Subjugation Legion is corrupt. I’m n-not saying otherwise. But they f-fight!”

“I’ve never even heard of them, but then I’ve lived a fairly sheltered existence.”

Both men were surprised when Emokha began hissing, a sound that eventually gave way to a cackling uproarious laughter that was a bit alarming. “Sheltered!” she snickered to herself. After a few minutes she began to rein herself in, but her tone remained sunny. “I needed that.” She steadied the table and sat, leaning back in her chair. “Khome, sit. We will diskhuss the matter as civilized folkh.”

“O-okay.” Oresus was still a bit surprised, but he seemed relieved too, and weak smile soon returned to his face.

“Fine by me.”

“The Demon Subjugation Legion is puppet organization under Khing Giet. In fairness to my friend Oresus they do indeed fight. That is bekhause their revenue model depends on sekhurity khontrakhts and plunder.”

“Y-yes, that’s my point. They’d encourage us to f-fight.” Oresus turned towards Gloe. “The L-legion began as the remnants of nobles from fallen kingdoms. They w-wanted revenge on the demons, and their land back.”

“This was a long time ago. The khing gave them his backhing as long as they were not a drain on his khoffers. So they had to find ways to support themselves. Over time they bekhame too successful at this, and now it is at the khore of their mission.”

“T-true. They p-probably would never risk attacking L-laukis head on. But anyone can j-join, no questions asked. We could l-level up, get some equipment. Then t-try to rally your people.”

“Will they let us leave so easily? Besides, by the time we makhe it backh north who knows what will remain of my people? I worry that even now they may be in dire straits.”

“Y-yes, but what can we do as we are now? Will they listen to a c-couple of weak beggars?”

There was another throat-clearing. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but if I’m understanding correctly you both want to go try to join the Viluota resistance, if there is one. Oresus would just like to level up and resupply first and thinks this Legion is the way to do so, while Emokha wants to immediately join up with the Viluota and is concerned they will get stuck in the Legion. Is that about right?”

“Y-yes.”

“Seems akkhurate.”

He grinned. “Ya’ll want me to steal ya some shit? Ahem. I mean- would you fine upstanding citizens care to join me in some completely legal wartime expropriation?”