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"Are you asking me this?"
"It is a hypothetical" He does not understand the notion when I explain it
"Why plan?" he asks "You plan You decide I do or I do not, there is no plan" He considers his next words carefully "Mortals who plan die a thousand times We who obey die but once"
"What is it that you want?" I ask He doesn’t stir "I’ to you, Stained"
"Want" He chuckles "What is want?" The derision in his voice coodless realrow his kind in worlds of ice and et e pay for "You naanar" I wait a long moment "Must I repeat myself?"
"Gold plans Gold wants," he ru is your heartbeat We of the Allmother do not want We obey"
"On your knees?" He says nothing in reply, so I continue "You once wore shackles, Ragnar Now the shackles don’t weigh you down So … what do you want?" He doesn’t respond Is it petulance? "Surely you want so"
"You struck off the shackles of others and seek to bind me with the shackles like your own Your wants Your dreaain "I do not dream I am Stained Destined by Allmother Death to deliver her pro, but I feel petulance in the man "Did you not know?"
I examine him warily "You make yourself look dumber than you really are"
"Good" He sits up swiftly, before I even have time to move back Bloodydamn, he’s fast He takes out a knife and very quickly cuts his palm "When I offered stains, I bound "
I know this is their way And I knohat horrors he went through to gain the title of Stained He is not a man of half oaths or half measures To be an Obsidian is to know le theods, likeWe leave their weak We send Violets with tech toshows on hillsides We sow faues, then bless them with Yellows to heal their sick and cure their blind We have Carvers seed ons in their mountains And e are displeased, we destroy their cities with boods And then we bring thereedy ainar ever be what I need him to be?
"What if I wanted to you be free?"
He flinches back Eyes expressing a deep fear "Freedom drowns"
"Then learn to swim" I set a hand on his massive shoulder Muscles like rocks beneath the skin "One brother to the other"