I am satisfied...for now
"There is both truth and half-truth to what you say. I will not dispute that I am a thief and a betrayer, for I am both. I will state that I am not capricious, but reluctant in my thievery and my betrayals. To stay with the caravan, meant letting Jareek die. A fox that saved me as a kit from a short, but very ugly life as a slave. A fox that gave me a home and love when the rest of the world couldn't give a crap whether I lived or died. To let him die meant one type of betrayal. To save him meant betraying the rest of you. No matter what I chose, I had to betray someone. I made my choice and I will pay the price."
Looking sadly at the sleeping (or pretending to be sleeping Hamilton caravaners) "For the record, I do not expect anyone in this group to ever trust me again. It saddens me, but I do not blame them or you. Since you have taken back the insult of calling me a coward, I am satisfied with letting that matter drop."
Faliol's eyes get very cold, "But, I want to be crystal clear on this next point, Cas is my friend and under my protection. It is not her fault that she is different and she is trying her best to overcome her infirmity. That deserves respect. Not cruelty. Here is where your half-truths are plain to all. You, by design or subconsciously, seek to inflict pain on others by disguising personal attacks as the "truth". It is abundantly clear that you have suffered a great loss and while I am no Adept, even I can tell that you strike out in your pain. Many people here have overlooked this in sympathy. But they forget that you are inflicting pain on others for no constructive reason. It might be different if you appeared to be working this grief out of your system, but I see no evidence of this. You call it "truth" but everybody knows you don't have to say those hurtful things in that particular fashion. You CHOOSE to call me 'betrayer, thief, and coward', to call Cas 'crazy'. I can only imagine the pain you inflicted on the others these past several days. I stand against that willful harm you inflict on others. You look down on me for my many faults...fair enough. I despise you for being a cruel, vicious little bastard. If you stop hurting Cas and the others, I will not challenge you again. But if you continue to persecute them or call me a 'coward' in the guise of 'truth', then I will attack you without hesitation. Bergen may have forgiven me, but my fate will be decided by Mako. I may end up in the mines for the rest of my life for stealing that horse, so I have nothing to lose. I will defend them from you, if you force my hand."
Sighing, "I am sorry that your brother died and that you are in pain. But that is no excuse for being cruel to the rest of us."
[EDITED on Fri June 4, 2004 @10:44 PM (CDT)]