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"I'm not a murderer, Mother"
"Vengeance for your father's death is not murder Who do you think you are, Hamlet?"
And on and on she went
Usually when she went off like this, Achilles only half-listened But now the words dug at him It really did feel like soin to him at this very time It was irrational--but only mathematics was rational, and not always at that In the real world, irrational things happened, impossible coincidences happened, because probability required that coincidences rarely, but not never, occur
So instead of ignoring her, he found hiin to die without having to kill him myself?
And from there, he went on to a in--how could I complete the process?
To in could be provoked into killing again--killing another child--he would be destroyed forever It was his pattern He sensed a rival; he goaded hi an attack; then he killed him in self-defense Twice he had done it and been exonerated But his protectors weren't here--they were almost certainly all dead Only the facts remained
Could I get hiain?
He told his idea to his mother
"What are you talking about?" she said
"If he ain--this time a sixteen-year-old, but still a child, no matter how tall--then his reputation will be destroyed forever They'll put him on trial, they'll convict him this time--they can't believe he just happened to kill in 'self-defense' three tih destruction than athe life of his body I'll destroy his name forever"
"You're talking about letting him kill you?"
"Mother, people don't have to let Ender Wiggin kill them They just have to provide him with the pretext, and he does the rest quite nicely by himself"
"But--you? Die?"
"As you said, Mother To destroy Father's enemies is worth any sacrifice"