Yes, duty is a burden. Its weight keeps us from blowing away in the wind.
From the mind and hand of Yetic-Ein
Keyed to the sign of the single eye which sees beyond all
Enforcer,
Sere listens to the whisper in the dark and speaks to it in turn. His named apprentice shouts at it to demand power. His students learn to bear its voice or die.
We avoid the Dredgens for fear of the shadow around them. No Psion has volunteered to study with them yet, and none of us want to be cut down for their practice.
I request any duty that will send me away from the Malphas for a time, but now that Harrow is leading expeditions, there is nowhere out of their reach. There is nowhere to hide on a Harvester.
We were on Mercury, where the sun burns so fiercely I thought the sand would turn to glass. I could feel the life of this system again, wrapping around us all in its warm humming threads. I felt the other Psions and Barant in my mind. I felt Lightbearers laughing and fighting together somewhere distant.
Staring into the sun would burn my eye out. I knew it, but I was ready to pay the cost for its warmth.
Then Harrow wrapped shadow around him, and every Legionary swayed, every Psion flinched.
I looked toward him. I couldn't help it. I looked away from the sun.
