“My feeling is that I think you suck,” says Korva, and then feels a small wave of relief, internally, that that really is what she feels, that she’s not lying to herself. “Not because you didn’t hire me, I think you were totally justified in that. There are actually an incredible number of other things I want to say about how much you suck, though, so I worry that whatever’s left of twenty minutes won’t be enough.”

“But I’ll give it a go.”

“I have lived my entire life in Cheliax. I think I was - seven or eight, when I realized that all the books were lying. Not just the textbooks, which were obvious, because they take out or invent whole noble lines and wars between semesters, based on what’s most convenient for the government that year, and everyone has to act like it’s always been that way. I mean - every book in every library has been either written or selectively edited to present a certain inaccurate picture of the world, although obviously a different one than what we fed you. We live in lies, Chelish people, the way fish live in water. I imagine you’re feeling very upset right now, and I want you to know that everyone in Cheliax has lived their entire lives inside a conspiracy of similar magnitude. The thing you’re feeling - all of us got it out of the way when we were children. But if any of us had thrown the kind of fit you’re throwing about it, at your age, we would have been tortured to death in public, and then gone to hell to be tortured for eternity, and then, if we had ever done anything otherwise worth remembering, had our names erased from the history books, as though we never were.”

“That is the world I grew up in, Keltham. And you know what I fucking did about it? I read more books. Because lying is hard, and censors can’t do it perfectly. I learned to do some of - the thing you do, that people think makes you so fucking special, where you realize that facts have implications, and can see that - if someone is illusioning a thing to look different, but they forget to change the shadow of the object, you can learn something more of what the object really looks like from the object’s shadow. I checked stories against each other. I took note of what didn't make sense. I read fiction, old fiction produced outside of Cheliax, which is differently hard to censor than history. I read the world by its silhouettes, even though I’d never be able to see it clearly. I have educated guesses, for what lies beyond the lies.”

“So I hate you, in part, because - you do all this talking, about wanting to see what the truth is, about wanting to believe whatever is true and not whatever is convenient. But how many things did you do today that you couldn’t have done on your second day here, before all the gods had taken notice of you? You read a couple books, great. They had utterly baffling social and cultural mores in them that you thought didn’t make any sense. Did you push for more, try to seriously figure out what was up with that by reading more books? No. You kept noting, over and over, that you didn’t know what intelligence ten people were capable of, even without anyone trying to hide them from you, even though it crippled your understanding of what could or couldn't be done here. Did you ever try talking to one deliberately, even once? No. You were confused about the concepts of law, chaos, good, and evil, and knew that you were; did you ever try getting a serious account from someone who differed from Cheliax on any of those axes? Literally once, I think, and in only one direction. - have you figured out what Evil is yet, by the way, because I’d love to be the one to make that in particular really come together for you if you haven’t yet."

“My feeling is that I think you suck,” says Korva, and then feels a small wave of relief, internally, that that really is what she feels, that she’s not lying to herself. “Not because you didn’t hire me, I think you were totally justified in that. There are actually an incredible number of other things I want to say about how much you suck, though, so I worry that whatever’s left of twenty minutes won’t be enough.”

“But I’ll give it a go.”

“I have lived my entire life in Cheliax. I think I was - seven or eight, when I realized that all the books were lying. Not just the textbooks, which were obvious, because they take out or invent whole noble lines and wars between semesters, based on what was most convenient for the government that year, and everyone has to act like it’s always been that way. I mean - every book in every library has been either written or selectively edited to present a certain inaccurate picture of the world, although obviously a different one than what we fed you. We live in lies, Chelish people, the way fish live in water. I imagine you’re feeling very upset right now, and I want you to know that everyone in Cheliax has lived their entire lives inside a conspiracy of similar magnitude. The thing you’re feeling - all of us got it out of the way when we were children. But if any of us had thrown the kind of fit you’re throwing about it, at your age, we would have been tortured to death in public, and then gone to hell to be tortured for eternity, and then, if we had ever done anything otherwise worth remembering, had our names erased from the history books, as though we never were.”

“That is the world I grew up in, Keltham. And you know what I fucking did about it? I read more books. Because lying is hard, and censors can’t do it perfectly. I learned to do some of - the thing you do, that people think makes you so fucking special, where you realize that facts have implications, and can see that - if someone is illusioning a thing to look different, but they forget to change the shadow of the object, you can learn something more of what the object really looks like from the object’s shadow. I checked stories against each other. I took note of what didn't make sense. I read fiction, old fiction produced outside of Cheliax, which is differently hard to censor than history. I read the world by its silhouettes, even though I’d never be able to see it clearly. I have educated guesses, for what lies beyond the lies.”

“So I hate you, in part, because - you do all this talking, about wanting to see what the truth is, about wanting to believe whatever is true and not whatever is convenient. But how many things did you do today that you couldn’t have done on your second day here, before all the gods had taken notice of you? You read a couple books, great. They had utterly baffling social and cultural mores in them that you thought didn’t make any sense. Did you push for more, try to seriously figure out what was up with that by reading more books? No. You kept noting, over and over, that you didn’t know what intelligence ten people were capable of, even without anyone trying to hide them from you, even though it crippled your understanding of what could or couldn't be done here. Did you ever try talking to one deliberately, even once? No. You were confused about the concepts of law, chaos, good, and evil, and knew that you were; did you ever try getting a serious account from someone who differed from Cheliax on any of those axes? Literally once, I think, and in only one direction. - have you figured out what Evil is yet, by the way, because I’d love to be the one to make that in particular really come together for you if you haven’t yet."

“My feeling is that I think you suck,” says Korva, and then feels a small wave of relief, internally, that that really is what she feels, that she’s not lying to herself. “Not because you didn’t hire me, I think you were totally justified in that. There are actually an incredible number of other things I want to say about how much you suck, though, so I worry that whatever’s left of twenty minutes won’t be enough.”

“But I’ll give it a go.”

“I have lived my entire life in Cheliax. I think I was - seven or eight, when I realized that all the books were lying. Not just the textbooks, which were obvious, because they take out or invent whole noble lines and wars between semesters, based on what was most convenient for the government that year, and everyone had to act like it had always been that way. I mean - every book in every library has been either written or selectively edited to present a certain inaccurate picture of the world, although obviously a different one than what we fed you. We live in lies, Chelish people, the way fish live in water. I imagine you’re feeling very upset right now, and I want you to know that everyone in Cheliax has lived their entire lives inside a conspiracy of similar magnitude. The thing you’re feeling - all of us got it out of the way when we were children. But if any of us had thrown the kind of fit you’re throwing about it, at your age, we would have been tortured to death in public, and then gone to hell to be tortured for eternity, and then, if we had ever done anything otherwise worth remembering, had our names erased from the history books, as though we never were.”

“That is the world I grew up in, Keltham. And you know what I fucking did about it? I read more books. Because lying is hard, and censors can’t do it perfectly. I learned to do some of - the thing you do, that people think makes you so fucking special, where you realize that facts have implications, and can see that - if someone is illusioning a thing to look different, but they forget to change the shadow of the object, you can learn something more of what the object really looks like from the object’s shadow. I checked stories against each other. I took note of what didn't make sense. I read fiction, old fiction produced outside of Cheliax, which is differently hard to censor than history. I read the world by its silhouettes, even though I’d never be able to see it clearly. I have educated guesses, for what lies beyond the lies.”

“So I hate you, in part, because - you do all this talking, about wanting to see what the truth is, about wanting to believe whatever is true and not whatever is convenient. But how many things did you do today that you couldn’t have done on your second day here, before all the gods had taken notice of you? You read a couple books, great. They had utterly baffling social and cultural mores in them that you thought didn’t make any sense. Did you push for more, try to seriously figure out what was up with that by reading more books? No. You kept noting, over and over, that you didn’t know what intelligence ten people were capable of, even without anyone trying to hide them from you, even though it crippled your understanding of what could or couldn't be done here. Did you ever try talking to one deliberately, even once? No. You were confused about the concepts of law, chaos, good, and evil, and knew that you were; did you ever try getting a serious account from someone who differed from Cheliax on any of those axes? Literally once, I think, and in only one direction. - have you figured out what Evil is yet, by the way, because I’d love to be the one to make that in particular really come together for you if you haven’t yet."