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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  3844 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 2nd Bi-Weekly Give Me a Quote from Something You've Been Reading Lately

    My captor now lifted the wire noose until I stood. I was conscious, as I have been on several similar occasions, that we were in some sense playing a game. We were pretending that I was totally in his power, when in fact I might have refused to rise until he had either strangled me or called over some of his comrades to carry me. I could have done several other things as well—seized the wire and tried to wrest it from him, struck him in the face. I might have escaped, been killed, been rendered unconscious, or plunged into agony; but I could not actually be forced to do as I did.

    At least I knew it was a game, and I smiled as he sheathed Terminus Est and led me to where Jonas stood.

Volume one of The Book of the New Sun