Page 3870 -- CCCXIII.

That seemed like a pretty good counterpoint, Hector thought, but Garovel wasn’t done, either.

‘Be that as it may,’ said the reaper, ‘the essence of why the Sandlords don’t worship Azai anymore remains unaffected. The core ideas that she promulgated and made central to Lyzakki culture are still utterly repugnant. Such as the Aglazaiya. Among other things, it minimized the role of honest work like agriculture--which, apparently, she herself introduced to them--and made it so that seizing wealth via martial might was regarded as a more noble and higher-status pursuit. That doctrine, alone, was enough to turn the Lyzakki culture into a force for great suffering and evil in the world. And worship for her was at the heart of it.’

“A fair point. You are more knowledgeable about the subject than I expected. Perhaps even more so than myself, in some respect, hmm? Perhaps you have some personal experience there?”

Garovel made no response.

Caster moved on. “In any case, I will not make the claim that Azai was faultless with her ideology. I am only saying that there is... room for interpretation. On both sides. As I said, I can understand why the Void came to the conclusions that he ultimately did. But perhaps it is also not as black-and-white as you are thinking. The subject of ‘abuse of power’ is one that requires considerable context and nuance in order to judge correctly, no?”

The guy was leaving an opening for Hector to answer. He didn’t necessarily disagree with what the man was saying, but this was also a lot of words without much in the way of clarification. When it came to a subject with such potentially heavy consequences for the future, Hector didn’t want to let him weasel out of talking about it in more detail.

How to articulate that, though? Hmm.

“...Anyway,” said Caster, apparently attempting to move on, “have I answered to your satisfaction?”

“No.” And Hector was getting the distinct impression that this conversation was going to last for a quite while longer yet.


Chapter Three Hundred Thirteen: ‘Where the dark stream meets the ocean...’
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Raul Blackburn had never seen such devastation. In his young life, this was certainly a new milestone. One he doubted he would ever forget.

The Vantalayan coastline had changed completely. Beaches, gone. Forests, swept away. Entire towns, wiped off the map.