Terian is dead, he says. An unfortunate necessity...but he was out of control. There will be others like him, Liego. They will do the same and worse to get to you...and I won’t be able to reach them all in time.
Drumming his fingers, he lets out a long breath, as if to calm himself.
Do you honestly believe you owe allegiance to the Seven? he says, his voice accusing. Or to that seven-hundred-year-old seer, Vash? Their myths and superstitions mean nothing to you...do not lie to me or to him by pretending otherwise.
His voice sharpens. I feel the pull strengthen behind his words.
If you think Vash will keep you and yours safe, Liego, you should speak to your husband. He could tell you a few things about the Seven’s willingness to sacrifice the loved ones of others for their precious Code and its ‘higher’ goals.
The eyes inside that endlessly moving face stare up at me.
Don’t you ever wonder how he was able to work for the Nazis and also be a member of their nonviolent club? he asks. Hasn’t this ever struck you as a bit hypocritical, Liego?#p#分页标题#e#
It has.
Yes, I say, unnecessarily.
Galaith smiles, but I feel no humor there. Well, perhaps this will give you more reason to forgive your mate for what I showed you before...
An image appears out of the dark.
I see Vash and Revik sitting on a sandy floor, inside what looks like a high-ceilinged cave. They are talking seriously, hunched together over food and drink, with papers strewn about them on the sand. I cannot hear their words, but Revik wears a German infantry uniform, a swastika band around his arm. A third seer is with them, a middle-aged male with sharp, gray eyes, chestnut hair and chiseled features. He is handsome, almost startlingly so. Handsome enough to be a movie star, if one a few years past his prime.
It was all planned, you see, Galaith says. Vash and the Adhipan deliberately planted Dehgoies in Germany. He encouraged him to work for the Nazis...to fight for them, even if it meant watching his own people be put to death.
He smiles, and the mirage disappears, to be replaced by the image of a gothic church.
I feel my light tense as Revik appears in the doorway of that church. He is wearing a tuxedo, smiling, holding the hand of Elise, who wears a wedding dress so stunning she looks like a living doll. Her hair is sleek and filled with what look like tiny diamonds.
They both look so happy it is difficult to look at their faces for long.
Revik raises a hand, waving at a crowd throwing flower petals.
He was placed there to be recruited by me, Galaith continues. To infiltrate my burgeoning network. But then the Seven stood by while his wife was killed...
The image of Revik and Elise fades, leaving Galaith and I in the dark.
As a result, your husband rethought his allegiances, and who would blame him? The Seven could have intervened. They did not...believing interference to be “immoral.” Dehgoies realized that no matter what the method, it is better to try and make things better, to not stand idly by while atrocities are committed...
I am fighting my own emotions, staring at Galaith’s morphing face.
He shrugs with one hand, and I feel sadness on him.
Something happened to make him want to return to them, he says. I do not know what. I even considered sabotage by the Seven themselves. What I do know is this: by then, I thought of Dehgoies as a son. I was devastated when he left me.
The image of Revik in that tux won’t leave me. He looked so...happy. I’ve never seen him happy like that, not in person. Not even in the Barrier.
Galaith pats my light arm. He shakes his head in sympathy, clicking his tongue.
Vash and I made a pact. After we separated your mate from that part of his life, we each agreed to leave his mind alone. His voice sharpens. You broke that promise, Liego. I don’t know how you did it, but you managed to give him back some portion of what he lost...
His voice turns grim, openly accusing.
I sincerely hope you have not hurt more than helped him in this, Liego...
Looking up, I glimpse the dark clouds of the Barrier.
I ask for a nudge in one direction or the other, something to tell me what to do, what will do the least harm. I know this is childish too...but I feel lost in all of this, all of these things I only partly understand.
Revik was right. Anything I thought I was doing was likely just me being manipulated, me falling for the same machinations as everyone else. I would never be smart enough to beat these people. I’d been kidding myself. Or distracting myself, maybe.
But I still cannot bring myself to give in. Even if I should, I can’t. I know that I’ve been wrong about almost all of it so far...but it doesn’t make any difference.
I cannot give in. I cannot.
I realize this, and it is almost a relief.
...and then I am somewhere else.
It is not where I would have hoped.