Flanz - Senes Jay’s humanity

all. "Everyone keeps calling me a hero. But I've done jack dick so far. I hate empty flattery."

"It doesn't matter what you've done. It's what you will do. I can feel it inside you, hero. Something no human in this world has—at least not to any substantial degree. But you, yes, oh very much so, I feel it. An essence. A power. Humanity."

All of Jay's grousing thoughts dispersed in an instance. "Humanity," he said. An image of Perfidia flashed in his mind. Her longwinded spiel. But it had to be a coincidence, the word had other definitions. "Are you saying Makepeace over there isn't human."

"He's a husk," Flanz-le-Flore whispered, drawing closer to him, the curves of her body pressing against his back. "They all are, the humans of this world—he's better off than most, if only barely. But they're all husks. Drained dry of that essence. Empty of their God's love. All of them—save you. In you there's true power, power that can shape a world like this."

***

[6] Trickery, Stage Machinery