She's right but she's wrong; people know and it's the end of everything and yet means nothing in the face of what has become of him. "What -- what does it matter?" he croaks.
"It matters," Janan says softly, gaze flicking upward to pinpoint the bird. "I still do not believe we were mistaken. The cage would have served as well for us as for the other."
Aqil's question and Janan's reminder of his employers and of the other -- together it is too much for him. His chest heaves in a convulsive sob followed uncontrollably by another and another. His legs fold under him like they did that day in Greta's apartment and tears stream down his face. Unjust, the world is unjust and his loyalty to employers he never fully trusted, humans he thought could be an instrument of Order, has been repaid with a blow to the core of his being. "The other!" he echoes in a wheeze.
"None of that," says Janan firmly, but if Rashad is listening he is not capable of obeying. The sounds that accompany his weeping sound more like a wounded animal than a man to his own ears, but is that not what he is now?
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"It matters," Janan says softly, gaze flicking upward to pinpoint the bird. "I still do not believe we were mistaken. The cage would have served as well for us as for the other."
Aqil's question and Janan's reminder of his employers and of the other -- together it is too much for him. His chest heaves in a convulsive sob followed uncontrollably by another and another. His legs fold under him like they did that day in Greta's apartment and tears stream down his face. Unjust, the world is unjust and his loyalty to employers he never fully trusted, humans he thought could be an instrument of Order, has been repaid with a blow to the core of his being. "The other!" he echoes in a wheeze.
"None of that," says Janan firmly, but if Rashad is listening he is not capable of obeying. The sounds that accompany his weeping sound more like a wounded animal than a man to his own ears, but is that not what he is now?