Arathan grunted. ‘Gothos would agree with you. In fact, something of that sentiment is at the core of his argument against civilization. The crimes of progress, of every self-serving rationale for destroying something in the name of creating something new, presumably better. He says a culture’s value system is in fact a shell game. It changes in the name of convenience. The stone is under one of the shells, meaning all the others are hollow, and therein lies the hypocrisy of a civilization’s pronounced set of values. Even the weight of those values – those stones – changes depending on the whims of the one running the game.’ After a moment of silence following his words, he glanced at Korya, to find her staring back intently. ‘What?’

‘It’s easy to find flaws. It’s much harder to find solutions.’

‘That’s because there aren’t any. Solutions, I mean. We are imperfect creatures, and the society we create cannot help but reflect those imperfections, or even exaggerate them. The spark of tyranny resides in every one of us. From this, we find tyrannical despots terrorizing entire nations. We are prone to jealousy, and from that, armies invade, lands are stolen and the bodies of victims are stacked like cordwood. We lie to hide our crimes and for this to work, historians need to glide over past atrocities. And so it goes, on and on. In the end, honesty is the enemy of us all. We wear civilization like a proud mask. But it’s still a mask.’

‘Gothos deserves a kick between the legs,’ Korya said, even as she faced the Azath House and set off towards the gateway. Something inside her had abruptly closed up, like the slamming shut of some hidden door.

Arathan saw the sudden flatness come to her eyes, but said nothing, even as he felt a faint pang of something that might be regret. As she approached the Azath House, he followed. ‘He’d not disagree with you.’

‘That’s no consolation.’

‘Perhaps not.’

‘And this is why I’m done listening to old men. Hope dies to ten thousand small cuts, and these men around us, Arathan, they are most terribly scarred.’ She shook her head, her hair, grown long, shimmering upon her shoulders. ‘Civilization is all about restraint. That’s what laws and rules are for. To check our more venal impulses—’

‘Until those laws and rules are twisted around them, becoming a travesty of justice.’

‘He’s made you old before your time,’ Korya said. ‘He shouldn’t have done that.’

‘Flawed and imperfect, even the Lord of Hate.’

‘I think I’m going to give up on you, Arathan. Go on, join Hood and Haut and Varandas and all the rest. But it seems to me, of all the enemies you might choose, death is the simplest. So, take your easy way out, and good luck to you.’

As she turned away, Arathan said, ‘Wait! What about the Azath House? It’s here, you’re only steps from the path! Did you come all this way just to turn round again? I thought you wanted to explore it?’