"Father?"
"Quiet, my son, the gazelles are coming."
"I wonder what the outsiders think of us."
"Why does it matter what they think of us, Satores?"
"Well, we are proud. They do not know that we love our wives, and children, and friends."
"Love is a private thing, like music. If you show it in public, you release power into the air, and it dissipates. Better to keep such things within walls."
"Father, why are there slaves?"
"There are slaves because they are unworthy to be free."
"Unworthy?"
"Yes, they are unworthy because they are too weak to claim their freedom."
"But what if the slaves decide that they are not weak? What if they all decide to claim their freedom at once?"
"That day will never come, Satores."
"But what if it does come, father? What will the Satar do then?"
"I suppose...if all the slaves rose up, we would be forced to fight them."
"Father, if we keep telling the slaves that exatas is strength of will, are we not making the slaves stronger? Are we not preparing them to fight us?"
"No, the slaves are weak. They will never understand exatas."
"But what if they do?"
"Foolish words. They would take the field and we would slaughter them in battle."
"But what if they find friends who will help them, father? What if they see what we have done in masking the Accan king? What if they too mask a foreigner king?"
"They are not clever, son. If they were clever like Atraxes, would they be slaves?"
"I do not know. Most of the slaves were born as slaves, not made slaves. Should not the ones who are born be tested to see if they are weak, or strong?"
"All slaves are weak."
"What if they become strong, father? What if the slaves gain exatas and they fight us and they win?"
"You go to far, Satores!"
"Ah!"
"You shall taste more than the back of my hand if you ask such questions of your Prince, or your Redeemer! Know only that the Satar are strong and the slaves are weak because Taleldil has seen fit to make it so."
"What would happen...if they won?"
"If the slaves rose up and killed us?"
"Yes."
"Then they would be the Satar, and we would be the slaves."
"Why can they not be Satar now? Why can we not make them Satar?"
"That is simply how it is."
"But Satar are made, not born. Slave or free is not in the chains or the mask he wears, but the heart he holds. We must change the slaves hearts, and then they can be Satar, and then they can be free! Do you not see, father? Do you not see?"
"Silence now, Satores. The gazelles are coming."
