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"What do you say?" I ask

"Oh," Maire says, "it’s different for each person Of course The point is to see who screams and breaks, and who can resist"

"They’d never let you talk to my mother," I say "The two of you are sisters They’d think you’d go easy on her"

"On the contrary," Maire says, "they thought I ht be evenfrom a sister"

I don’t ask her what she said to my mother, but Maire tells me anyway

"I told her that her husband never loved her, that her children were going to die young," Maire says, closing her eyes She seems like she tastes each word as she says it "I told her that she wanted to be Minister for all the wrong reasons--for power, for gain I told her about terrible things, evil things that people do to one another I told her that I did not love her" Maire opens her eyes and there is a darkness in them that I have never seen before, one so deep it shocksback," Maire says "And it worked Oceana’s ability to resist impressed the other priests and the Council She was the only one able to withstand every single siren, including her own sister And she wasn’t born immune, the way some people are So she has rew up together taught her resistance" Then she sh perhaps I should credit you with some of that, too It’s rather iainst her own child"

That hurts, as Maire kneould But I refuse to let her manipulate me I remember how my mother did not resist me when the need was real, how she always told me who I really was even as she tried to shelter me

"Without me, your mother never would have been the Minister," Maire says "I helped "

I don’t believe Maire My mother was the Minister because of what she did

"Of course, it hurt her," Maire says "She kneould, but she didn’t understand how hard it would be to hear ht less of me after that day She was afraid But there was no way around it If I hadn’t done what I did, she would never have been the Minister, and she had to be the Minister"

"You make her sound selfish," I say "As if that’s all she cared about"

"No," Maire says "She loved the city, but she had to be the Minister because Atlantia needed her to be the Minister"

"Do you love Atlantia?"

"I love it and I hate it," Maire says

When she says that, I feel it, too

"I won’t force you to do anything, Rio" Maire makes my name sound beautiful She makes me sound beautiful "But you can choose to come to the Above with us"