Excerpt: Not Your Average Prophecy Fulfillment

“You’re a slaver, aren’t you.”
It wasn’t a question, Sluice noticed. Idony was sure of this. “How did you know?”
“Look, I’m observant, okay? The way you told Agatha that slavery story was a bit of a giveaway. As was your treatment of Em’ira. Yes, I heard about that,” she stopped him as he opened his mouth to question her. “Plus, that girl at the market acted like she knew you. Oh! And you always seem to look at Misty and Delia and Miyu and I like we’re more sources of income than people. Although you’ve gotten better at that?” she finished, asking a question as much as telling him her observations with her last sentence.
“Observant is right. I didn’t realize I was that…”
“Calculating? Able to weigh everything by gain?” Sluice glared at her. “Sorry. Just trying to help.”
He sighed. “The thing is, I don’t want to be. It used to not really bug me, but now it seems like every time I turn around I ruin things for someone else, and have to watch their lives fall down around them because of my actions. I’m sick and tired of pulling families apart!” Sluice realized as he said that that he wasn’t just talking about the slave girls he’d captured.
“And so you fell in with the spies to try and get out of the slavery business, and you just ended up making things even worse,” she supplied. Despite the understanding and kindness in her voice, the words still cut Sluice straight to the soul.
“You got that one figured out too?” he asked miserably.
“Sure- the guy who kidnapped Kyr… Jasper glared right at you. Did you make them mad or something?”
Sluice laughed once without the slightest trace of humor. “Just a little. I hadn’t been reporting in as diligently as they’d like. And now, almost not at all.”
She looked him in the eyes, holding his attention. “Why ‘almost?’ Why not ‘not at all,’ period?”
“That’s just it- I’m not sure yet. It’s almost like even though I know it’s making everyone around me miserable, I can’t quite give it all up. It’s like my mistakes won’t let go of me.”
Idony nodded, a gesture that held both understanding and reassurance. “We all have our problems, Sluice. You screwed up your past, I can’t control my temper or my magic. But we’ll both find a way through this. We’ll just have to learn to cope.”
“But…” Sluice wasn’t sure he could say this, but he forced the words out. Idony was someone he could trust. “I’ve hurt so many people through the years, people I’ll never know and might not even see again. How do I make up for all that?” All that destruction, that pain?
Idony gently slid Miyu back into Sluice’s arms, then embraced his shoulders gently. “You’ll figure something out. There’s good in you, Sluice, I can feel it. There’s love in you.”
Sluice didn’t know what to say to that. So as she laid back down amongst the heavily breathing forms of the other sages, he said nothing.