Letter to Versi (#6)
(Hastily written on top of the falls after saving the centaurs.)
Oh, Versi,
I have been away from home for so little time, and yet encountered so much pain and trouble. Thylea is in need of heroes. I thought that is what these people were! I know nothing about this world, so I’ve been trusting them all to lead us forward, to make the right decisions.
I think I was wrong.
I must be a terrible judge of character, for I could not have foreseen the callous reaction of Braz and the others today. Some centaurs were being held captive and tortured in the Mithril Mines. We saved them, but Braz thinks we shouldn't have. He thinks we should have just ignored them. He thinks that saving people isn’t important, that we should be single-minded in our quest at the expense of everything else.
“I thought YOU would pay more attention to the Oracle’s prophecy.” The nerve! As if I am oblivious to the task you have sent us on; as if I should be ashamed of my actions, and you would condemn me for them; as if I am somehow failing you by having a heart!
As if I could ever look you in the eyes again knowing that I had just ignored their screams.
Gods. He even said that you know? “We cannot chase after every scream”: like it was some kind of profound life advice! I am NOT some sort of naive nestling. I know that taking all of Thylea’s problems on our shoulders would be impossible, and that we have great and important tasks ahead of us. But to ignore the actual, physical screams of people just around the corner? Because it is more convenient? Because clearing out that part of the cave might be easier after finding some new shiny weapons?
How can he stand there and say that is the right thing to do? And, for that matter, how can the others stand there and defend him? Braz and the rest of them may be happy to swap lives for a tactical advantage, but I am not.
I mean, by the Gods, Theo was still making moves to round the corner in the opposite direction after the screaming started! It seemed like if Helikaon and I didn’t run in, the rest were just content to leave those centaurs there, crying out for their lives.
And it is not like they had any other chance. No one else was coming to save them. The rest of their flock can barely fit in the caves! If we had left them there, they would be dead. I refuse to accept that that would have been the right decision.
Thank Thylea I am not alone in my feelings; that Helikaon shares my convictions and that our hearts are in the same place when it comes to what is right and wrong. It is strange: I like him, but am not sure he is very fond of me. He has never been unkind, but we don’t seem to be very similar people. I think he values qualities I seldom possess. I honestly wonder if I might get on his nerves? But perhaps I am just reading too much into his rather serious temperament.
Whatever he thinks of me, I respect him. He seems altogether unimpressed by fate and prophecy. Yet, despite his feelings and his doubts, he is still fighting for Thylea. I think he is the one person I can trust to do the right thing: fate, prophecy and Gods be damned.
I just wish I could trust the others so.
With a heavy heart,
Calliope