01-09-2018, 07:04 PM
So many of Jacques meetings had ended without any gain for less. People expecting boons in return for their donations or investments was only logical, but they never understood that the resources and rights they sought to buy with their money were not his to give.
He did not think of himself as the ruler of Sierra Leone, or Guinea, or any of the other nations whose governments had fallen to his cause. But those men and women had offered money in exchange for defined privileges. They expected to purchase mining rights, freedom on environmentally damaging practices, or cheap labour.
He was being offered the weapons his soldiers needed to get their job done. Weapons that would save the lives of his most valuable resource, as well as the lives of those too far out of his reach to protect from their own governments.
He was being offered the medicine and food people under his protection needed to survive. The supplies they needed to have some normalcy returned to their lives, a chance for their children to have a future.
He was being offered a chance for Channelers to learn how to use their abilities, rather than fear or abuse them. A chance for them to find the confidence in self and in society to be the boon to humanity he knew they could be.
And in return, all he needed give was his soul. Perhaps a bit melodramatic, but he had long prided himself for holding allegiance to no one flag, no one government. Legion Premiere had been favored no one country or company in their contracts. And the Legion had in turn done the same.
But how could he say no? How selfish need he be to think that being able to look himself in the mirror was more important than the benefits the people would reap from such an arrangement?
The people of the CCD lived well; financial stability, social security. There was no fear of disease or famine, no fear of war or discrimination. The man had unified two continents, dozens of countries, under one flag and to one cause. It was a strangely painless decision to make.
"You have it."
He did not think of himself as the ruler of Sierra Leone, or Guinea, or any of the other nations whose governments had fallen to his cause. But those men and women had offered money in exchange for defined privileges. They expected to purchase mining rights, freedom on environmentally damaging practices, or cheap labour.
He was being offered the weapons his soldiers needed to get their job done. Weapons that would save the lives of his most valuable resource, as well as the lives of those too far out of his reach to protect from their own governments.
He was being offered the medicine and food people under his protection needed to survive. The supplies they needed to have some normalcy returned to their lives, a chance for their children to have a future.
He was being offered a chance for Channelers to learn how to use their abilities, rather than fear or abuse them. A chance for them to find the confidence in self and in society to be the boon to humanity he knew they could be.
And in return, all he needed give was his soul. Perhaps a bit melodramatic, but he had long prided himself for holding allegiance to no one flag, no one government. Legion Premiere had been favored no one country or company in their contracts. And the Legion had in turn done the same.
But how could he say no? How selfish need he be to think that being able to look himself in the mirror was more important than the benefits the people would reap from such an arrangement?
The people of the CCD lived well; financial stability, social security. There was no fear of disease or famine, no fear of war or discrimination. The man had unified two continents, dozens of countries, under one flag and to one cause. It was a strangely painless decision to make.
"You have it."