pc: jiaoqiu

[sacredpath]

Comments

[fried]

I couldn't tell you.

[ ... ]

He must have thought it was just.

[sacredpath]

I don't doubt your estimation of his character.

[which is one way to say, that explanation does not make a single bit of sense.]

[fried]

... He is a good man. He is a leader, and he often makes decisions for the greater good of his people, no matter how unpopular they are.

I wonder what was going through his head.

[sacredpath]

[hmmm....]

Will you tell me about him? The way you know him to be.

[fried]

Where I come from, Jing Yuan is the leader of an entire ship's worth of people. He protects them, and they are dependent on him. Under his command, they do not suffer slavery or exposure to combat, and they prosper. He's an excellent leader, and though sometimes he falters like any man would, his people - my people - are safe because of him.

He has always been warm and understanding. My own General trusted him. So I don't understand.

[sacredpath]

I don't understand, either, then.

[but she's sympathetic. he doesn't want to express pain about it right now, and she isn't going to force him to, but she understands it's there.]

Trust is a difficult thing to give. But you don't strike me as the sort of man who easily misplaces it. I believe you.

[fried]

[ silence, for a long moment. ]

Sometimes, a soldier must just accept the orders he's given. [ whether he's talking about jing yuan or himself, he doesn't specify, but: ] What he has done is wrong, and he will face punishment for it.

But it seems important to me that people know that this is not the Jing Yuan I know. I hate to think of his legacy and kindness as being ruined like this.

[sacredpath]

I've met enough adherents of the Absolute who seemed to have abruptly lost their mind to feel comfortable assuming changes in personality like that are always benign.

I'll remember him the way you describe.

[fried]

Thank you.

[ genuinely. ]

I won't forget this kindness.