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"There have been losses, true," Seryains"

I was suddenly angry, furious, with her I had heard Seryuments from my mother, my priest, friends of the family--people I loved and respected I had learned to endureto them But in my heart? Truly? I had never understood how they could be so… so…

Blind

"How many nations and races have the Arameri wiped out of existence?" I demanded "How htered? How many poor people have been beaten to death by Order-Keepers for the cri our place?" Hot droplets of tea sloshed onto ht is your peace Your prosperity Not anyone else’s"

"Ah" Seryer "Not just lost faith, but broken faith The Bright has failed you, and you reject it in turn"

I hated her patronizing, sancti about it!"

"I kno your father died"

I froze

She continued, oblivious to o--on the very day, it seems, that the Gray Lady’s poept the world--your father was in the village ical abilities to sense that sofor id, so she went on

"But it was only your father, out of all the people in thatfor joy"

I sat there, tre to this woman, this Arameri, dispassionately recite the details ofthat did hiic in his voice A scrivener e was far too poor and provincial to merit a scrivener at its small White Hall No, what killed my father was fear, plain and sie were already anxious" Serymn spoke more softly now I did not believe it was out of respect for reater volue storh the world was about to end There were similar incidents that day, in towns and cities elsewhere in the world, but your father’s case is perhaps the ic There had been rumors about him before that day, I understand, but… that does not excuse what happened"

She sighed, and soret in her tone It h to break ot up froer, not without screa I put the teacup down andso air A few feet away, I found a wall and felt h it helped to ease itation Seryrateful

Who threw the first stone? It is so I have alondered The priest would not say, when I asked hiain No one in town could say; they did not res had happened so quickly

My father was a strange ic that I loved in hih no one else ever see about him, whether they understood it or not His power perht and Madding’s chimes Perhaps wewith taste and s the special I see the specialness with my eyes, but others do it in soed the world and everyone from senile elders to infants felt it, they all discovered that special sense, and then they noticed my father and understood at last what he was

But what I had always perceived as glory, they had seen as a threat

After a time, Serymn came to stand behind me

"You blame our faith for what happened to your father," she said

"No," I whispered "I blaht" She paused amy mood "But has it occurred to you that there her power at work?"

I laughed once, without huods"

"Not all of them"