Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind—
Emily Dickinson
Grim was soaked in sweat. He tried everything, every spell he knew, even some he dug up from books he read, Sumerian and Egyptian. He no longer could look up things in the Akashic records, denied that now by Hades.
StarWyng was gone. Totally and inequivalently gone. Her body had dissipated into a fine fog, then disappeared in a breeze that came from no where. He couldn’t even heal her. He tried.
I didn’t want to kill her.
Yeah, she arrested him, dragged him to the Zig, incarcerated him for two days, and was always there, watching, waiting, following.
“LIES! You lie even to yourself!”
He had lived his life as a lie, all the way back when he first joined the Circle, telling them that sure, he was 18, when he was actually 16. He lied to his father by never returning to him until after his death. He lied to his teachers saying he had learned everything on his own. He lied to his brother before he was killed. Through all that, he lied to himself, justified his own actions to himself.
And it didn’t stop. Lie compounded upon lie. He lied to everyone. He lied to himself. He wasn’t altruistic, he knew that now. He wasn’t a victim, he knew that also. Everything had a purpose, to show others his prowress. So others would be awed by him. So others would be thankful to him.
I lied. So let’s start telling the truth.
I wanted her dead.