Chapter 35: Varr
"We have suffered enough. Let us go. Please. Let us die in peace."
Riku stepped forward slowly, voice gentle.
"We don't intend to hurt you or make you suffer," he said. "We want to understand what happened to you and how we can make it better."
The girl — pale, fragile — stared at him with wide, terrified eyes.
"How can I trust... light magic?" she said bitterly. "How can I believe in the hands that tortured and killed my entire family?"
Riku said nothing.
Instead, he gestured outward — to the villagers who still had their hands folded and eyes slightly teary.
The girl followed his gaze.
Her eyes met lots of other eyes. But everywhere she saw, her gaze only met the gaze of others who were sad, as if weighed down by guilt.
Even a person, who appeared to be from the church of light, had been clutching her prayer sash so tightly that her knuckles had gone white.
For a long moment, she wavered — her lips parting, trembling.