Alonzo finished writing for a moment, brushing off the sand to help dry the ink of his letter to Emeric.

“Such an unexpected thing,” he mused to himself. “I’ve been blind.”

To discover the good where he expected only oppression and paternalistic pandering, to look behind the mask for a moment. If anyone knew masks, it would be himself. But for this one moment, what if it is True?

The conversations with Ansel and Emeric, the feeling that perhaps the Goal is the same after all. The assumption of authority. The burdens that will bring. Still, Alonzo smiles. It is right and good that the world is moving towards Perfection, even in its most shattered pieces.

“I’m going to act as though it IS True. I can at least do that. I can watch them with new eyes and reveal the next part of my work.”

He thinks of Renatus, returned to the World nearly destroyed by it and of the others who fell and would never return. So much to do. So many minds to soothe and then to trouble and then to soothe again.

He writes a new phrase on the inside of his Mask, under where the old motto lies.

“Rivela la verità che brilla” – Reveal the Truth that Shines

The Shield now has a Sword