Duncan's eyebrows rose. Initially he thought Ezra meant raw magical power, like a tree that just kept getting bigger and bigger the older it grew, but with the ex-Vahishta being--well--ex, that wouldn't have been a concern anymore.
Power over people, he realized. His eyebrows lowered, knitting together, as he listened to the rest of what Ezra had to say.
At least one cleric in the greycloaks. The Vahishta could connect to Earth. He'd been hiding his immortality behind a conspiracy of scouting and killing children over the centuries. He was as old as the defeat of Xumurdad Itself. The Likeness was full of stale, stagnant blood.
Duncan let out a long, slow breath, a tension in his shoulders as he lifted a hand and lowered his head to meet it, fingers pushing through his hair, palm settling above his right temple. "When I talked to him..." He paused, getting his thoughts together, figuring out where he was going with this. "He told me that Xumurdad had brought him there for a purpose, but it wasn't his place to guess at it. It was like..."
He looked up, dropping his hand to gesture with it. "I mean I'm from fucking Texas, okay? You can't throw a rock without hitting a Bible-thumper. And you know the ones who are like 'God has a plan for us, it's not our place to question it' but they say it like they know God's will?
"That's what this was like. He kept saying Xumurdad's purpose was unknowable and not for him to guess at, but I got the feeling that he thought he knew exactly what Xumurdad's plan was, and that it was for me to take his place."
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Power over people, he realized. His eyebrows lowered, knitting together, as he listened to the rest of what Ezra had to say.
At least one cleric in the greycloaks. The Vahishta could connect to Earth. He'd been hiding his immortality behind a conspiracy of scouting and killing children over the centuries. He was as old as the defeat of Xumurdad Itself. The Likeness was full of stale, stagnant blood.
Duncan let out a long, slow breath, a tension in his shoulders as he lifted a hand and lowered his head to meet it, fingers pushing through his hair, palm settling above his right temple. "When I talked to him..." He paused, getting his thoughts together, figuring out where he was going with this. "He told me that Xumurdad had brought him there for a purpose, but it wasn't his place to guess at it. It was like..."
He looked up, dropping his hand to gesture with it. "I mean I'm from fucking Texas, okay? You can't throw a rock without hitting a Bible-thumper. And you know the ones who are like 'God has a plan for us, it's not our place to question it' but they say it like they know God's will?
"That's what this was like. He kept saying Xumurdad's purpose was unknowable and not for him to guess at, but I got the feeling that he thought he knew exactly what Xumurdad's plan was, and that it was for me to take his place."