12-12-2008, 11:49 AM
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Ahren’s face changed suddenly at that question. Why? Other men had asked him that, bleeding to death in dank alleyways. Only a few, though. After he had learned how to silence them, there had been no questions. Of all times, to remember that now, it jarred him. There was no reason for his actions, and he could not justify them, but he remembered them. Suddenly, vividly, and without reason. Why? A soft voice, one that was not unlike his own, answered. All that we are not stares back at what we are.
Jasper’s voice broke his thoughts, and he blinked, saw flames, and then turned to the boy. The moonstone, burning in the bonfire, held nothing and everything. His good eye mimicked this gleam, though in the shadow of his own face, was dark. “I don’t know,” he said, as he had told Laruku, as he had told his daughter. He turned his face away, hiding that bad eye, and once again was captivated by the flames. When he spoke next, he was smiling in a way that did not meet his eyes.
“Sometimes I think I want to watch the world burn.”
Ahren’s face changed suddenly at that question. Why? Other men had asked him that, bleeding to death in dank alleyways. Only a few, though. After he had learned how to silence them, there had been no questions. Of all times, to remember that now, it jarred him. There was no reason for his actions, and he could not justify them, but he remembered them. Suddenly, vividly, and without reason. Why? A soft voice, one that was not unlike his own, answered. All that we are not stares back at what we are.
Jasper’s voice broke his thoughts, and he blinked, saw flames, and then turned to the boy. The moonstone, burning in the bonfire, held nothing and everything. His good eye mimicked this gleam, though in the shadow of his own face, was dark. “I don’t know,” he said, as he had told Laruku, as he had told his daughter. He turned his face away, hiding that bad eye, and once again was captivated by the flames. When he spoke next, he was smiling in a way that did not meet his eyes.
“Sometimes I think I want to watch the world burn.”