He ran a pale finger along the cracked spines of the dusty books next to him. “It must be so. For we have taken the sword of Caesar, and in taking it, of course, have rejected Free Will and followed determinism. Oh, ages are yet to come of the confusion of free thought, of its science and cannibalism. And yet, with our victory over Valdus, all will be put to sleep again. They will no longer rebel nor destroy one another as under his, but no longer thy, freedom. We shall even persuade them that they are better off than before—once they renounce their arms and submit to us. And they will be convinced that we are right, for they will remember the horrors of war and confusion to which his so-called freedom brought them.”
He sat back in his chair at last, regarding him with something like comp
