Christine’s Reviews > Exile > Status Update

“‘There is no separation’… What would it be like, to be like that? So … vast?
Kyle could feel how Kshar was slowly seeping into every structure that Arkady possessed, every inch of him, soul and body and spirit, until Arkady was set alight like water illuminated by the first powerful rays of the sun. Like the oceans of a pure, undiscovered planet appearing in the cold darkness of space.”

Grimm spread out his arms. “How’re you going to conquer Tamene if you even hesitate conquering one of them?” He grinned and everything about him was a dare and a challenge.
“Nice line,” Kyle muttered. “I could show you where he’s ticklish, Arkady.”
Arkady laughed. “I see you got your work cut out with him.”
Grimm nodded. “He’s my ongoing project.”

he knew he was looking at a patch of skin covering Grimm’s cheekbone, he saw it at the same time like the surface of a sun, somehow liquid and roiling with power. Small sparks appeared and blended into this glowing membrane, and parts of the membrane seemed to lick out like protuberances, testing the space beyond… And yet he could feel intention, willpower. A conscious decision that these things should be so.

“It’ll be your task to execute me if they decide against the proposal, won’t it?” Sturm met his gaze, unblinking, unmoving, and, Arkady felt, not even breathing. “Why?”
“I brought you to the village; I will have to remove you. It’s a matter of purity. We’ll remove the bullet through the same opening it came in.”
Striking, that their community was a body, and a stranger a contaminant.

“You don’t have a friend among the warriors?”
“I’m their commanding officer, so, no.”
“That makes you the most desirable teacher. The young warriors should be fighting for your guidance and affection… Could you choose somebody from outside the Doctrine?”
“As a student or as a lover? There’s a difference for us.”
“A lover, then. I do not believe you can teach me anything.”

“One of the reasons why strangers have often been killed outright is that they are too subservient, too weak. Or what most of us consider being polite… being overly friendly and overly concerned was seen as weak, and Tamenean warriors especially dislike weakness in themselves and others. When they are too old or injured to fight, they seek out death. They apply the same standards to strangers they meet.”