There were only two reasons to let Lia see all of this.
Acquisition and hope.
If you're going to embrace a cause, do it right. Being too selective doesn't make anyone more humanitarian. It just dresses cowardice up a little better. I knew I couldn't embrace the whole world right now. Not the entire Red Squid Slums. Not every Drowned trapped between mud, rotting ducts, and nobles who confused misery with property.
But Lia was here.
In front of me.
And for now, that was something I could touch.
I press two fingers to the makeshift rune on the duct's metal and channel OXI.
The runic activation answers with a dry yank at my nerves. Heavier than at Richard's tavern, but still ridiculous given what it could hand back to me.
[OXI: 2,241 / 2,500]
The rune's light spreads through the anchor points like water running along invisible cracks. Lia takes half a step back, covering her mouth with her sleeve, eyes locked on the design she probably still calls a "cleaning rune."
