A prisoner, not condemned to death, but rather to years of hard labor for the killings they committed, met Wraithvine while on their knees in exhaustion. With pain-filled eyes they asked the ancient one, "You ever feel pain for all the deaths you've brought by your hands?" -- Lessons
Wraithvine did not immediately answer the question. Ze made sure Hurgnath the Bloody Butcher had water and shade before ze asked, "Why did you kill people?"
"I never said I killed anyone," said Hurgnath. "I've never killed a person in my life."
"And yet they imprisoned you for serial murder," said Wraithvine. "You murdered countless Kobolds, Gobelliin, and Trolls without cause."
"Those are just animals that can speak," said Hurgnath. "You killed real people. People with merit and value."
"You and I have one perspective in common," said Wraithvine. "We both believed we were removing a blight from this world. We both believed we were performing a variety of pest control."
"The difference is that I was right," snarled Hurgnath.
"Which is worse," asked Wraithvine. "The mealworms and weevils that infest flour, or a person who locks up that flour for lack of coin until it becomes so infested?"
"The insects, of course!"
"And that is where we differ. The flour could easily become bread for others, but one person's greed makes for waste and starvation. I would remove the person, and feed those they had starved. You would remove the worms, and allow the true evil to prosper whilst those you call 'real' people continue to starve." Wraithvine left the magical shade to follow Hurgnath around. "I was sent here to evaluate your treatment during your penance. It is unfair, but we also cannot let you loose to do more of the same."
"And you won't kill me?" demanded Hurgnath. "You killed all the others."
"I reserve murder for those for whom there is no hope remaining. There's a slim possibility that you may yet learn to see things differently." Ze rose at last from hir seat. "And for what it's worth... every one of my murders weighs heavily on my soul. It's why I try not to do them."
[Photo by Robert Gunnarsson on Unsplash]
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