“Father!” Eugenia turned to him when she could no longer keep silent. “You can’t be serious about sending him on a mission! Jarmin is only six! I beg you: wait for a few years or at least don’t send him with the others!”

“My daughter,” said Sainar in a soft but relentless tone and stroked her hair like a little child’s, “everyone is equal in the eyes of destiny. Often, it’s the smallest and the weakest one that gets chosen. Also, don’t you see: he has his own protectors now!”

That was when Jarmin was crying while hiding his face in Orion’s sleeve.

Warriors on the Lifekeeper path are confident and level-headed. They know the difference between love and lust, learning and mindless parroting, truth and lie, loyalty and fanaticism. Warriors of the Order of Hot Obsidian build their lives upon the same foundation. The Order is no place for mindless fanatics!

Sainarnemershghan Saidonatgarlyn. Neophyte’s handbook.

Sainar made his speech right before dawn in a large, dimly lit hall. “They must concentrate on my voice. Yes, my voice, and not on my face…”

Preparing the speech took Sainar a long time. Never before had the man whose words were strong enough to make a worldholder angry had to prepare his speeches beforehand. Whether he spoke as Hansai Donal or in his own name, he always spoke from his heart. Sainar’s words had always been a pure fire: passionate, straightforward, honest, and enhanced with his ambasiath power. But now…

The simple test he had made yesterday changed everything. Watching his children react to the simple events down in the library; having his daughter – Kangassk Eugenia – openly confront him made Sainar reconsider everything.

He raised his children to hate the worldholders and their reign, he taught the Kangassks to trust the Order’s judgement. And faithful followers they all turned out to be, indeed! So what was troubling the great leader now? Just one little thing, so simple but immensely dangerous. The thing he had realized yesterday…

They love their apprentices.

What was wrong with it? The thing is, according to Gerdon’s plan, nine of the ten boys were to be sacrificed to the Hot Obsidian, there was no way around that. But what would happen now if Sainar had honestly told the Kangassks about that? How would they react? Oh, he already knew how!

Sainar may be their beloved father and their fearless leader but eight out of ten Kangassks would turn against him the moment they heard of the purpose their apprentices had been raised for. And whose fault is that? His own. Hadn’t he lectured them about honesty and truth, hadn’t he raised them all as Lifekeepers, hadn’t he been an example of everything he taught? Oh, their sense of justice was firm and true all right! And it would flare up as fast as dry grass does when it meets a fiery spark.

Even quiet and gentle Kangassk Eugenia and that silly buffoon Kangassk Majesta would rise against their father. Only the eldest two – Abadar and Orlaya – would remain loyal. And why? Oh, the irony! Because they are the only fanatics of the whole lot. Those two were raised by Gerdon while Sainar was travelling across the world, busy with spreading his rebellious teachings.

Sainarnemershghan hated fanaticism and lies, the two things that perverted all the noble doings and dreams of humanity, but now, now he had no other choice but to use them himself. It was either that or throwing three thousand years of the Order’s existence out of the window.

In the dark hour before the dawn, in the dimly lit hall, Sainar was telling lies to his own children, for the first time in his life. Later, he had a private conversation with Orlaya and Abadar in his study. He was right about Gerdon’s apprentices: they remained loyal to the cause and were willing to send the boys to certain death. Each of the two saw their own apprentice winning the Hot Obsidian’s favour and being the change the world so desperately needed.