“It’s impossible,” I said, somewhat impatiently. “You’re saying there’s no such thing as a good ruler.”

CHAIN YOUR ANGER IN THE dark, my mother used to tell me, and it will only thrive.

“There isn’t.” He sounded surprised that I got the answer so quickly, though he didn’t compliment me on it. “And this is the risk of our world, Diago. The flaw of our system is in its head. In us. The qualities of a king change the kingdom. And not one of us is perfect enough to have a right to lead.”

“Nervousness means there’s a fear to be faced ahead, Diago. The man who is never nervous, never does anything hard. The man who is never nervous, never grows.”

In trying to become God, they created Him. I think that’s the translation, anyway.

“Do all you can to think of it as an opportunity. A blessing. No matter how it makes you feel in here.”

The decision may have been made by the few, Diago, but it’s the Will of the many that killed your family.”

Bitter and dazed, the illusion of having achieved enough with that brutal journey to the ruins dashed. The heaviness of this place and my position here, briefly forgotten, returns to smother me.

“Greed is by definition the moral ruler of the Hierarchy, Diago. All decisions are based upon it. It is not the strong who benefit in their system, no matter what they say—it is the weak. It is the ones willing to do anything, sacrifice anything, to rise. It rewards avarice and is so steeped in a wrong way of thinking that those within it cannot