Kre continued, “Would you want a chance to help us do the right thing now? To help us free the rest of these slaves so none of them will suffer under the Master’s hand again?”
The former guard still didn’t look up. “I… can’t,” he whispered. “I’m sorry, but I’m not brave enough to go up against these guys. Most of them are stone cold killers that some madman put into a uniform.”
“So… why?” Kre gestured to the man’s uniform, wrinkled, muddy, and unkempt as it was. “Why work with such terrible people?”
The man shrugged as he finally managed to sit up against the wall with Kre’s help. “Wrong place. Wrong time. Story of my life I guess.” He winced slightly as his head touched the wall behind him, indicating where Kersath had likely thumped him into unconsciousness earlier. “I guess I felt I didn’t have much choice except to join up. Let’s just say that their offer of a job was better than any other alternative.”
Kre nodded, feeling slightly sympathetic to the man’s plight where circumstances completely overtook what he thought he had planned for his life. “There’s always a chance to make your own way,” he told the man. “Anyway, what’s your name?”
“Henric,” the man responded, a small smile touching at his mouth. “My name’s Henric.”
“I’m Kre. That’s Gnore and Kersath.”
“A pleasure… I suppose,” he called out, refusing to look Kersath in the eyes.
“We met a’fore,” Gnore grumbled. “At least yer boot met me ribs.”
Henric looked down and sighed, “I… I can’t apologize enough for my actions. That’s not who I am, I promise. I just…”
“You were pressured to fit in,” Kre finished for him.
The man nodded and sighed again, “That’s no excuse though. There is no excuse. My wife…” he closed his eyes and bit his lower lip, as if to keep it from quivering, “my Donna would be so ashamed of me for my actions.”
“Kre,” Kersath said. He waved down the passage impatiently. Kre nodded, understanding the need to be going, but believing that this was just as important.
“Henric,” Kre said, “you may have done things you were ashamed of, but you also did something you should be proud of. You stood up for me when no one else would.”
The man just nodded in response.
“So, thank you,” Kre said, kneeling down further to try and look Henric in the eyes. “Sincerely. Thank you.”
Henric looked up and nodded again. “I don’t even know what came over me,” he said. “I just… it felt like it wasn’t even me when I spoke up against the sergeant. I don’t even remember doing it.”
“I’ve had that feeling before,” Kre chuckled. “It’s… surreal. It’s like you’re watching yourself do something and you have no control over it.”
“Exactly,” Henric agreed. “That’s exactly what it felt like.”
Kre nodded, “That’s your inner self, your real self, stepping in. That’s the part of you that’s always whispering what the right thing is, even if we either can’t hear it, or choose not to listen. That shows that you’re a good man at heart.”
“I don’t know,” Henric muttered, starting to lower his head again. “I don’t think there’s any more there.”