[They hesitate for a moment, working through how to explain.]
Technology like our phones allows various data to be recorded. Where you go, what you like, who you interact with. It's possible to use data like that to make pretty sophisticated predictions, especially when you have that data for a whole planet's population.
[ Amaranth resists the urge to pull them all the way up against her; instead, rests a hand at their shoulder, fingers trailing gently against the nape of their neck. ]
And yet you are troubled, still. [ a pause ] I have murdered at least one innocent in the name of duty. At the time, I believed them... Anathema, but still that death haunts me.
[Cardinal shakes their head, and it doesn't seem like they're going to say more until they do.]
I would fail.
[Of course no one would kill the innocent if they could avoid it. But it still feels unmooring to admit they'd be unfit for the duty they had all their life.]
[ She takes both their hands, now, holding them between her own in her lap. ]
If it truly needed to be done, you would not fail. And if you could not bring yourself to do it, then that itself would be proof that the cost, however high, was not worth more than an innocent life.
In my memories I'm never unsure. It's like being at the center of a web, knowing everything and everyone that touches it. Knowing exactly which string to pull to get what I need... knowing what to expect.
...You know, in Creation, it is said that spiders weave the Fate of all mortals. Not even the chosen of gods and dragons can truly escape the pattern spiders and the Loom of Fate.
[ a pause, considering her words carefully ]
There's a lot of power in being at the center of the web.
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Technology like our phones allows various data to be recorded. Where you go, what you like, who you interact with. It's possible to use data like that to make pretty sophisticated predictions, especially when you have that data for a whole planet's population.
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[ then, lifting her chin to meet their eyes, expression focused ] It is harder to find the honor in such a tactic. Something so impersonal.
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Assassination is rarely honorable business. It was my duty, and I took pride in doing it well.
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I know you would never do anything you did not wholly believe in.
[ a pause, then she tugs lightly at their fingers ] Sit next to me?
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And yet you are troubled, still.
[ a pause ] I have murdered at least one innocent in the name of duty. At the time, I believed them... Anathema, but still that death haunts me.
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I would fail.
[Of course no one would kill the innocent if they could avoid it. But it still feels unmooring to admit they'd be unfit for the duty they had all their life.]
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If it truly needed to be done, you would not fail.
And if you could not bring yourself to do it, then that itself would be proof that the cost, however high, was not worth more than an innocent life.
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This place makes it so hard to trust my own judgement. Sometimes I feel blind.
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All of us are fumbling. Everything I know of the battlefield falls apart in the Game Tower.
...What would it mean to you, if you were able to see?
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In my memories I'm never unsure. It's like being at the center of a web, knowing everything and everyone that touches it. Knowing exactly which string to pull to get what I need... knowing what to expect.
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[ a pause, considering her words carefully ]
There's a lot of power in being at the center of the web.
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[They look thoughtful, then amused.]
But I wasn't the only spider. I wonder what they do with each other in Creation. Compete? Cooperate?
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Only the Maidens know. If there were ever gods to watch the spiders at their work, it would be them.
Fate is a challenge to be met and overcome, rather than chosen and followed.
[ It is, admittedly, a very distinctly exalt way to think of it, given that by her own admission, mortals are not so lucky. ]