(Isla)
I looked at him for a moment before I spoke.
"Why did you do it?" I asked. "Not what you said in the hall. I heard that. I mean why. Not the orders. Not Rodan. Why did you do it when you didn't have to."
He was quiet for a moment.
"Because it was easy," he said.
That landed differently than I expected.
Not a complicated answer. Not an excuse dressed up as an explanation. Just the truth sitting there with nothing around it.
"Easy," I said.
"You were there," he said. "You couldn't fight back. Rodan wanted someone to take it out on and you were the option. I could have chosen not to. I didn't." He held my gaze. "That's the whole of it."
I looked at him.
"You knew it was wrong," I said.
"Yes," he said.
"While you were doing it."
"Yes," he said again.
I sat with that. The
