Quote:
“People will change their views or be left behind and if we can present thoughts to take in a world view and best intentions, then perhaps the way we lead others will be heard and the future may yet hold our favor.”
… That’s what Kellenor said…
He told me not to give in to my guilt too… Which was kind.
But what do you do when your best intentions, and most fulfilling worldview, hurts people..?
Not just a few people… Hundreds and thousands of people.
The moon goddess gave me a magic sword, and bade me end all evil.
The sword bade me wage a one man war on Dunahein… And I refused… Then… But I will be doing exactly that soon enough.
The Lady Sylvia bade me stay at Fort Deneval when Lave was attacked… I refused, and bartered with the titan’s hag to travel there anyway… Then I burned the city.
By rights I should be clapped in irons…
My betters talk about the rashness of the choice… And they’re right.
They all say “Perhaps there was a better way…” and maybe they’re right… But I don’t think there was.
I think the only reason I’m not in irons, is because they know there wasn’t either.
But it hurt people.
A lot of people.
They speak of libraries and works of art… And they’re right.
I think of homes and hovels… That are equally irreplaceable… And I think they see them too.
People look at you differently when they know that you are responsible for taking everything they have… Whether they would have lost it anyway doesn’t come into it… And really it shouldn’t. I was the one that took it.
People talk and talk and talk, but it’s the way they look at you that tells you everything you need to know.
I thought that after I crossed the continent, and returned with the Hollow Knights and my back, and the bloody Ashen Legion in my name, that things would be different… That I might have at least amended the harm that I caused…
It didn’t matter. Nothing I did mattered… To those that I hurt… And to those that saw me as one who caused the hurt.
…
And now Dunahein sits allied with Calastia to unite the world under the Slaver.
…
I’ve seen Calastian slave caravans, and did nothing for them.
I cannot stand by while that life looms over the whole of the continent.
But like with Lave, doing battle with that end means hurting people… People who don’t deserve it, and won’t know why.
I could live with that… Maybe.
But when I cast my lot with that course, Althum looked at me the way Lady Sylvia did, and the way the lost of Lave do.
And now I don’t know what to do.
I’m the arson of Lave… Maybe that is all I will ever be.