KORBIN
Remember when I swore
That you and I would never die
That you and I would never die
Leering sidelong at the man, Korbin's jaws tightened. It was a compelling set of arguments, and for a moment he was silent, trying to digest it all. But it still did not sit right with him.
"You seem to be under some assumption that life is supposed to be easy," he said eventually. "That everyone is supposed to survive, and be happy. But nowhere in life do you see that happen. Take any group of animals anywhere and there will be individuals who die. As young, from illness, from wounds, from starvation and lacking intelligence and strength. It's part of nature, part of Rae's design, we are not exempt from that." Korbin felt as though he fumbled his way through a dark tunnel, groping for reasoning towards a point he couldn't quite see. "But the changes you want to implement... it's not some new hunting technique or a new use of an already existing plant. You want to use magic to force growth where there is none, change animals to suit your needs, expand the population of humans beyond what the region can naturally sustain... What will be the price of that, in the end? Will a few human lives make up for the long term consequences?"
That line thinking seemed dangerously similar to The Voice, and maybe that was why Korbin's hackles rose in opposition of it. It seemed that it was a path moving away from the natural, close connection with the land they had now. Of course Korbin missed his family, and losing them nearly broke him. But didn't that only mean that they weren't strong enough to survive, in the end? That he wasn't strong enough?
There came no reply to his arguments, and though he could keep ranting on for a good while about the issue of Sunjata, he knew it was pointless. Weariness was sinking in, threatening to drown the anger, smother the spark, drag him back down into the misery again. These flashes of vitality never lasted long.
"Protect me from what? Her? The man she did business with? The corrupt nature of people? The idea that she was only following laws and rules as long as it served her? Oh, I feel so protected."
Chulane was assuming a great deal about Korbin's so called goodness. They all were. "Would I?" He turned and faced Chuy more fully, tall and dark and looming, grim and cynical despite the youth written in his bones. A boy, but not a child. A man, but not yet fully grown. "Can you honestly say you know me enough to be a judge of that? You seem to assume that I'm a good person just because I helped you once. That's awfully naive."
It would get the guy hurt. Already had, if memory of a flashing elbow served him.
"You seem to be under some assumption that life is supposed to be easy," he said eventually. "That everyone is supposed to survive, and be happy. But nowhere in life do you see that happen. Take any group of animals anywhere and there will be individuals who die. As young, from illness, from wounds, from starvation and lacking intelligence and strength. It's part of nature, part of Rae's design, we are not exempt from that." Korbin felt as though he fumbled his way through a dark tunnel, groping for reasoning towards a point he couldn't quite see. "But the changes you want to implement... it's not some new hunting technique or a new use of an already existing plant. You want to use magic to force growth where there is none, change animals to suit your needs, expand the population of humans beyond what the region can naturally sustain... What will be the price of that, in the end? Will a few human lives make up for the long term consequences?"
That line thinking seemed dangerously similar to The Voice, and maybe that was why Korbin's hackles rose in opposition of it. It seemed that it was a path moving away from the natural, close connection with the land they had now. Of course Korbin missed his family, and losing them nearly broke him. But didn't that only mean that they weren't strong enough to survive, in the end? That he wasn't strong enough?
There came no reply to his arguments, and though he could keep ranting on for a good while about the issue of Sunjata, he knew it was pointless. Weariness was sinking in, threatening to drown the anger, smother the spark, drag him back down into the misery again. These flashes of vitality never lasted long.
"Protect me from what? Her? The man she did business with? The corrupt nature of people? The idea that she was only following laws and rules as long as it served her? Oh, I feel so protected."
Chulane was assuming a great deal about Korbin's so called goodness. They all were. "Would I?" He turned and faced Chuy more fully, tall and dark and looming, grim and cynical despite the youth written in his bones. A boy, but not a child. A man, but not yet fully grown. "Can you honestly say you know me enough to be a judge of that? You seem to assume that I'm a good person just because I helped you once. That's awfully naive."
It would get the guy hurt. Already had, if memory of a flashing elbow served him.
Remember when you swore
we had it all?
we had it all?
