A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind)

A long moment passed as I thought about what needed to be done because something had to be done, "I think its faulty thinking to keep secrets such as these around that could end up destroying our own people, if we were to simply use them for our own benefit, and if the intention is to never use them, why keep them around so that they could be potentially used against us?"

Thaddeus was looking at me intently, as if his next breath hung on my unspoken words, "So what would your course of action be Roric?"

"I would destroy this room and all its contents and stop playing this game of hide and seek."

Thaddeus's scrutiny of me did not waver in the slightest, "And what of the council's demands for the preservation of these works and the possibility of needing some of these secrets to defeat the Zoarinian invasion of our land?"

"My first duty is to the people and not the well being of the council's political motivations. Second I will live and fall in this life according to my own merits and the strength that the Creator endows me with and not rely on dusty secrets of questionable origin to deliver me the victory."

Thaddeus smiled and I saw him relax visibly, "Good that is what I hoped you would say. It relieves me to hear you say what you just did."

"What did my father say?" I asked softly.

A dark look came over Thaddeus' face for a moment and he didn't answer right away.

"Your father agreed with you about the council's political motivations, as do I but he thought that the knowledge should be left to the people to decide what they wanted to do with it. I could not condone that. I saw the release of such dark tainted material to my own people as a recant of my sworn duty to protect them from something I could prevent so I persisted in hiding the secrets of our past from them. I fear that was also the wrong strategy. I have come to believe in my old age and by the experiences gained over a lifetime that if something is of a dark nature don't shake hands with it and don't keep it in the closet. Instead take it out and burn it and let the ashes fall where they may."

Thaddeus rose from his chair as did I.

"Congratulations for arriving at the decision that you have, which I believe is the right one. It is regrettable that I did not arrive a lot faster at the conclusion that you have or this whole crisis could have been averted long ago. Roric it is not going to be easy to get rid of all of this." Thaddeus said gesturing to the room around us.