Dasai found Kihin and Chali working in the sitting area outside their shared quarters. The group had turned it into a library and study space. Dasai saw stacks of books from the archives on Saiduan culture and ethics, all books the Saiduan librarians only agreed to part with because they had copies.

“Where’s Rohinmey?” he asked. The slaughter in the banquet hall had occurred the day before, and Roh had been sick most of the night. The endless vomiting told Dasai that the boy’s queasy stomach likely had to do with food poisoning or some stomach ailment instead of fear or visceral terror. He had almost hoped the killing had sobered the boy instead of invigorating him. But Dasai understood the sort of boy Roh was early on. The Kai had not.

“Still in bed,” Kihin said.

Dasai walked to Roh’s room and opened the door, announced himself.

“I’m awake,” Roh said. He sat on the bottom bunk, huddled close to the fire. Two candles burned brightly in iron lanterns.

“What are you reading?”

“Saiduan stories about the Dhai,” Roh said. “Did you know Grania was once part of the larger land mass of Saiduan? The whole continent stretched unbroken from here down to Hrollief.”

“I did,” Dasai said.

“When the breaking came – they called Oma’s rise last time the breaking – it unleashed huge forces across the world. It broke up the whole continent. Imagine how that must have been. It was so powerful, it broke continents. There were earthquakes and terrible storms.”

“Yes,” Dasai said, “and very powerful omajistas who knew that breaking up the continent would break up the Dhai’s line of supply. Not all of these phenomena associated with Oma’s rise are caused by Oma. The gods grant us many gifts, and they guide us on how to use them, but they make no moral judgments on the use of those powers. What one woman believes is evil, another thinks is for the greater good of her country.”

“I just didn’t realize how big Dhai was,” Roh said. “We learn a lot, but not… not all the things they have here.”

“There is fear we may become as we once were,” Dasai said. “No one wants us to be those people again.”

“We would be so powerful–”

“We would be murderers and dealers in flesh,” Dasai said. He feared this boy sometimes, feared what someone so passionate, with so much gifted potential, would become. “We have chosen another path.”

“Sorry,” Roh said.

“Let me tell you a story about a slave,” Dasai said.

“Ora Dasai, I’m sorry–”

“Quiet, now. Be respectful for a moment of your exhausting life, please.”

“Sorry.”