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My hatred for Teren seethes, black and churning, rising above iano’s energy stirs I stare levelly back at Teren "And yet, here I still stand before you Your queen"

My words have stirred doubt in him--there’s a flicker in his eyes that I have never seen before He is wondering whether I could possibly be right And I aods have blessedwho despised us, then his queen who had used and irl born to a father ished her dead They have spared

And you pushed your sister away You murdered a ods have given you a power that is killing you

"Teren, we are going to hand our powers back to the gods We will fix the world by giving up our abomination It is the only way, and it is the only mantra you have ever followed" I say it as if I were also trying to persuade myself to join this journey, that I do not fear the loss ofto cheat the inevitable "I have no other reason to stand beside Raffaele Nor you" I take a deep breath "This is what you’ve alanted"

Teren studies me for a moment His expression shifts fro at last into a look I can’t understand There is a light there, behind histhat lures him forward This is what you’ve alanted, isn’t it, Teren? I think

He releases rip on his sword, and the others in the cha outto keep ives ht, mi Adelinetta," he says

Teren Santoro

In the first memory, Teren was seven years old

He was in the uniforray tunic and trousers, a student training to join the white cloaks that his father presided over His hair was cut short and clean, and his eyes were still the color of the ocean He’s in one roith a dozen others, looking out at a crowd of young apprentices gathered in a courtyard of the palace, fenced in by tall statues of the twelve gods and angels His father addressed theh He was the only son of the Lead Inquisitor of Kenettra, and that made him better than the others--so his father said, anyway

"Our order has always existed to protect the Kenettran crown," his father was saying, "to protect the superiority of our people above all others, and to protect the purity of our heritage By pledging your lives to the Inquisition’s order, you promise to forever dedicate yourselves to the royal fauard the throne with your lives"

Teren felt his little chest sith pride The Inquisition Axis was the most esteemed army in the world--and his father led theal as his father did in his Lead Inquisitor arainst those who are io forth with it in your minds: Protect your country, at all costs, at whatever sacrifice"

Teren closed his eyes and took a deep breath, internalizing the words A noble war against those who are i his na He immediately stepped out of his row and made his way forward When he reached his father, the man nodded for him to kneel, handed him his first sword, and told him to look out into the crowd Teren obeyed The other apprentices, ere instead given wooden practice swords rather than Teren’s steel one, followed his example and knelt Teren bowed his head and closed his eyes as his father read out the Inquisition Axis oath

He was pure Superior And he would follow in his father’s footsteps

Teren was eleven years old in the second h Kenettra earlier in the year, so his eyes were no longer a pure ocean blue, but pale, so pale that they were inhuman, a complete lack of color He stood with a bowed head and heavy heart before the funeral pyre upon which his father’s body lay The fire had spread now fro to the late Lead Inquisitor’s clothes Teren stayed silent as the flaotten sick only after Teren did--but while Teren had ed to survive, the blood fever had killed his father in only two days

Teren kneas his fault It had to be The gods did not make mistakes, and he knew he had to have been ht, Teren crept out of his chambers and fled down to the palace teht, he knelt before the gods and sobbed The Inquisition Axis doctrine specifically taught that survivors of the blood fever were aboods

He was a demon now What had he done? He whispered to the temple floor as he knelt Before hiod of Wisdom Why my father? Why didn’t you take me too?

He knelt there for three days, until he was thirsty and starving How far I’ve fallen, he thought to hiht see I was once superior--and now I’ My father is dead because of rabbed the hilt of his sword and pulled it out It was the saifted him on the day he joined the Inquisition as an apprentice He took the sword, placed its blade against one of his wrists, and slashed as hard as he could He cried out at the jolt of pain Blood blooainst his skin