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ibrahim al-koni
dwelling by strangling me
with his bare hands after
an innocent piece of advice
from me awakened volcanic
wrath in his breast? Advocate
of envy, do you recall that I
accompanied you in a caravan
to the forestlands and that my
commercial success there and
the enthusiastic reception for
my wares hurt your feelings so
badly that on the way home
youwaited forme to fall asleep
and then stabbed me with an
enchanted dagger, plundered
all my possessions, and fled
from that place, thinking you
could flee from punishment?
As for you, advocate of hatred,
on your behalf I repaid a major
debt and freed you from the
captivity of a clan determined
to take you as a slave to their
encampments for your failure
to repay it. Then you slit my
throat with your blade to
reward me for my good deed.
Did you fools assume that a
person protected by good
intentions could be harmed
by a chokehold, a dagger
thrust, or the slash of a sword?
Cowards, don’t you know that
innocents don’t die? Don’t you
know why innocent people
become immortal? Listen to a
secret you’ll never hear again.
Innocent people do not die,
because they harbor in their
hearts a ghoul named revenge.
Innocent people do not die
before they take their revenge.
Innocent people do not even
die if they take revenge,
because revenge is the Law
that prevents disorders
and restores everything to
equilibrium, because it is a
talisman borrowed from the
will of the Spirit World—not
from the inhabitants of the
wasteland.”
The cunning strategist pulled
the dread carpet out from
under their bodies, and the
fools fell together into a