‘Have we seen the last of honourable men and women, Vatha Urusander?’

He straightened once more, but did not turn to face her. ‘The brutes are in ascension, Renarr. Against that, reason has no chance. You think the blood has ended? I fear it is only beginning.’

‘Then, sir, nothing has been solved.’

‘I am not the man to solve this,’ Urusander said. ‘But,’ he added after a moment, ‘you knew as much, didn’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘What of my son?’

‘His judgement was in error.’

‘Error?’

‘A young man bereft of responsibility will yearn for it,’ she replied. ‘A young man will see the virtues of duty and honour as shining things, harsh and not subject to compromise. From such a position, he may well make mistakes, but they remain well meant.’

Still he would not face her. ‘Something in you is broken.’

‘Something in me is broken.’

‘My son killed the man you loved. He… misapprehended the situation.’

‘Yes.’

‘Yet, it seems, you have forgiven him.’

‘I wish,’ she said, ‘you had killed Hunn Raal. I wish you would stand behind your sense of justice.’

He grunted. ‘No exceptions, no compromises. Had I done what was right, each and every time…’

‘Instead, you did nothing, and now here you stand, Vatha Urusander. Father Light.’

‘Yes, my blinding gift.’ He was silent for a time, and then he said, ‘Have you seen it yet?’

‘What?’

‘My portrait. In the corridor on the approach to these chambers. Kadaspala did well, I think.’

‘I am afraid I did not notice it,’ Renarr said. ‘I give little regard to art, especially the compromised kind.’

‘Ah, then, are all portraits a compromise? In his sour moments, I think Kadaspala would agree with you.’ He leaned both hands on the windowsill. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘it seems that I am not to be forgiven.’

‘Only your son.’

She saw him nod, and then he sighed and said, ‘Tell them, will you, of the likeness. So deftly, so honestly captured by that blind man’s hand.’

‘He was not blind when he painted you, I think.’

‘Wasn’t he? No, demonstrably not, as far as that goes.’

‘Vatha Urusander,’ said Renarr, ‘there will be justice.’

She saw him nod again, in the instant before her knife sank deep beneath his left shoulder blade, stilling the beat of his heart. Unblinking, she stepped back, leaving the dagger in his back. He tilted forward, forehead striking the leaded window, before his legs gave out and he fell to the floor at her feet.

Looking down, she saw the smile on his face. Peaceful, content, lifeless.

* * *

Nothing ends. There is matter and there is energy, and some believe these two the only things in existence. But a third exists. It infuses both matter and energy, and yet also stands alone. Let us call it potential. Only in the realm of potential can we act, to effect changes upon all existence. Indeed, it is the realm in which we live, we living things, in our stubborn battle with success and failure.