“If the planet were saved, there’d be no need for the geroi anymore,” Eos pointed out.
My legs felt weak, and unconsciously I sank to my knees on the floor beside him. “Surely they couldn’t,” I protested. “I mean, they say it themselves. They remind us every day. ‘We live for each other.’”
“Do we, Enforcer?” Eos asked, his tone made it clear that this wasn’t really a question. “Or do we live for the geroi?”
I must have known the answer already, deep down. If I hadn’t had my doubts, I never would have come here tonight. Eos’ words in the desert would not have affected me. Perhaps I knew all along, in my heart of hearts, that the geroi’s promises were too good to be true. Still, I couldn’t stop the question that spilled from my lips next: “How do you know?”
Eos sighed, rolled over, sat upright with his back against the mudbrick wall. His eyes stared unseeingly at the ceiling. “I don’t know. All I know is that I want to try. Because this life the geroi are giving us now… it’s not a life. How can it be, when we have no power over our own fates?” He closed his eyes. “There’s only one thing in this world that we have, Enforcer, and it’s our own lives. I won’t let another person control mine for me. If I can’t choose how to live or who to love, I’d rather not live at all.”
I could hear air moving through the halls outside, and another chill ran across my skin. I shivered, pulling my knees up into my chest and holding them tightly. Then I asked, “Your… brother. Your parents. You love them?”
He didn’t look at me. “Yes.”
Love. That was another word that didn’t have a place on Iamos