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„He was a …“ The woman hesitated here, struggling to find the right word. This situation didn’t make any sense to her. She had been working in this temple for so long, had tried to fullfill Jalat’s mission for so long, seen so many unusual things, but never once had she seen somebody return from the dead, unless it was as a zombie, a disgusting, despicable thing. “He was a friend. No, not a friend for people like us can never have friend. He was an ally, one of my father’s and my companions, for part of the way at least. He was everything a follower should be … and more …”
“We told him no, to be careful with her, but he would not listen … he was blind. That was his biggest flaw, maybe his only one. He closed his eyes to the truth. He couldn’t see into people’s souls, not the way we can, took everything at face value. Such a fool, such an impossible, unforgivable fool …” The woman shook her head.
“She was a spy, some of my brothers and sisters said, although I never really knew here, sent to hurt us, meaning to betray us from the beginning. He thought she could be redeamed. He thought everybody deserved a chance. There is a reason people like us are never allowed to love, a reason why we let our hearts freeze to ice. Emotions are treacherous at the best of times, and Death has no need of them. He is above such things.”
“Why are you here?” she asked again. “You look like him, but if you do not know, if you never knew them, those that have brought you into this world, why have you come? Why didn’t know that you were alive, that you existed. We thought she had taken you with her. She said that no trace of him would remain in this world.”
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