Witch of Lurago Chapter 75: Long Time Coming

Rhad am Rhynni

Free Rhynn

The quietly spoken Aurelic declaration goes all the way back to book one. Then it gave voice to the difficult choice they had to make between war and peace, between freedom and survival. King Walter and the Rhiem of Rhynn chose survival.

They lived to fight another day.

Looking back, they had to wonder what that choice cost them. Seth isn’t the only one questioning that decision to stand down, to let a Connor queen take her Connor brother’s crown on the very throne Joren the Conqueror wrested from the Rhiem of Rhynn.

But it was the choice they made. Because oaths are oaths.

Independence in the end is the fruit of injustice.

Voltaire

Shifting the crown from one Connor to another only perpetuated the injustice. The ease with which it shifted only affirmed they were in for more of the same.

Rootstock Saga is a study in politics and history. Oppression breeds resistance. Resistance breeds rebellion. Examples abound in history. The oppressed always get pushed a bridge too far. The oppressed always get enough of being oppressed. Eventually.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

John F. Kennedy

Eventually, Rhynns abandon their hopes of peaceful change. When they do, there’s only one path left.

A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets [or its barreldags].

Napoleon