Ronan Dialogue
I can tell you all about murder. I can’t count the times I’ve witnessed a murder. I was still a child when murder first made a mark on my life. See, there’s all kinds of murders, Griffin. It’s not all knives in the back and poisoned pies. Peasants meet with murder every day—murder by their masters’ disregard, by disrespect, by disdain.
Just glance around this tavern. Most of the people here are halfway through their murders. You can tell by their posture there’s a boot on their necks. And don’t roll your eyes either. It is the same thing as a sword in the gut or an arrow in the heart. That kind of murder hurts and then you’re dead. What I’m talking about is prolonged suffering, the slow and insidious leaching of life. You tell me which is worse.
The nobility only intend to keep us around as long as we make ourselves useful to them. They expect us to make their lives easy, and they don’t care how hard our lives have to be to do that. They take everything from us. They take our dignity. They take our joy. They take our freedom, and our choices, and our hope. And when there is almost nothing left of us, then they take our lives. That’s the kind of murder you should concern yourself with. Worry about justice for yourself, because Hermes… he’s gone. Justice won’t help him. Not that justice exists for people like him anyway.
The truth is, Griffin, my father was murdered. His master murdered him. He murdered his spirit, and then he murdered his body. I saw it all happen, and there was no justice for my father. And you can only watch so many murders before you give up on the idea of justice altogether.