"No woman can walk so long in the darkness, that she cannot come again into the light"

Kalaya chuckles, giving Dima small smile, it's an old quote from one of those shlocky novels she devoured in her younger years (ok, truth be told she still has the last book in the series in her cloak, right next to a pocket-sized copy of [i]Nights and Dreams[/i].)

"That sentiment: the idea that anyone can redeem themselves if they just change their course? It gets taught to us at a young age along with alot of other things like 'eat your fruit', 'share your toys' and 'don't pick on others'."

"And then we're supposed to grow up, and some of us put those lessons aside for the "realism" of the world we find ourselves in. Things are grey, rather than black and white; you don't actually need to eat all that fruit if you don't want to, sharing stuff doesn't reward you with more and people are just ... hard. Y'know?"

"But those lessons aren't [i]meant [/i]to stay in our childhood. They're meant to help us keep going - a sort of distilled wisdom from generations of parents to their children - aimed at making the world a better place. And the thing is, the thing that the cynics and the corrupt will never want to admit, is that they're all true - or they can be - if we want them to be, and work hard enough at it."

"In our cases, me and Ushua, you and the River, redemption. is. possible. Now, the stories tend to gloss over the part where it won't be easy. And the holes we dig ourselves are always of different depths. But we have to [i]try[/i], if we want to get back to the sun."

Kalaya pauses, seeing if any of this is resonating with the Dolphin Knight.

Inside, she's also reflecting on one other case. The case beyond all others. Redemption is possible. It has to be possible.

Not necessarily even for her - it doesn't matter as much in the grand scheme if Ushua ever forgives her - although it would admittedly be nice.

No, she has to believe in redemption because that's what she needs to work, what [i]has[/i] to work, for Ven to come back to her. Every step of her story demands it.