Maria’s Reviews > A Drop of Corruption > Status Update

"’So I wonder now. I wonder— what does that make us?’

“…I turned and saw him smiling sadly at me through the glass of his helm. ‘What does it mean,’ he said, ‘when the line that once connected us to the inscrutable and ineffable instead coils about, forms a great loop-and then comes back to us?’

“‘This work can never satisfy, Din, for it can never finish. The dead cannot be restored. Vice and bribery will never be totally banished from the cantons. And the drop of corruption that lies within every society shall always persist. The duty of the ludex is not to boldly vanquish it but to manage it. We keep the stain from spreading, yes, but it is never gone.’”

“‘You ask me what I know?’ snapped Ana. ‘I know nothing! I am surrounded by information—data, testimonies, evidence—yet I can draw no firm conclusions at all! I am so vexed by this man’s countless fucking plots that I worry I am his puppet, and I should search the airs about my limbs for strings! For now, we can only consent to be pulled.’”