If I said something similar about the Matari, Ms. Vess, it seems like I’d have at least five people crawling straight up my nose and burrowing out the back of my skull.
You used to think it was a mistake to think in such a way, or seemed to.
Should I treat you as an enemy to be destroyed, instead of a fun and interesting person to talk to? No … even if it would make some things easier, I don’t want to.
You helped me once, to clear the fog from my eyes. I remember how it felt when that fog lifted. I won’t forget, even if you do.
I won’t forget for any of you. Even if I’m angry, even if I’m frustrated, even if I’m sad, I’ll remember. Even if you curse me for it and call me brainwashed, programmed, lost, an apologist and puppet of the enemy, I’ll remember what you showed me, what you helped me see.
I’m still a fighter, sometimes. I’ll kill who it falls to me to kill. But I won’t cheat and tell myself you’re anything but human, or that your lives are without weight and your deaths to be rejoiced in or that we could never have been friends.
I’ll remember.
I don’t make promises much. I want to be able to keep the ones I make.
But I promise that.