Gritting his teeth at Morgan's response, Loren raised his eyebrows at her. "There wasn't time. I found out the day before you came to speak to me that, according to the Voice the metal was a cure. This was communicated to me through Nate, who was sick, and Sunjata, who is an incredibly unreliable interpreter of the gods' will, so I was skeptical of their message." Spreading his hands a bit, he sighed, shaking his head.
He took a deep breath, forcing his shoulders to relax as he did. "Before that, I had repeated assurances directly from multiple gods that the metal would not lead to a cure." Hands clenching and unclenching, he added, "I had also discovered another potential cure. So, what I told Sunjata was that I wanted to try the cure that didn't involve gods before trying the one that did. If it didn't work, I was always intending to bring the metal to the Voice." Biting his lip, he felt his foot tapping until he stilled it.
Pausing, he studied her features. "And yes, I did not approach you about the metal as soon as I recovered, but I was very much under the impression that while it had been part of spreading the illness, it was nothing more than a chunk of metal at that point." He crossed his arms and jutted out his chin.
He took a deep breath, forcing his shoulders to relax as he did. "Before that, I had repeated assurances directly from multiple gods that the metal would not lead to a cure." Hands clenching and unclenching, he added, "I had also discovered another potential cure. So, what I told Sunjata was that I wanted to try the cure that didn't involve gods before trying the one that did. If it didn't work, I was always intending to bring the metal to the Voice." Biting his lip, he felt his foot tapping until he stilled it.
Pausing, he studied her features. "And yes, I did not approach you about the metal as soon as I recovered, but I was very much under the impression that while it had been part of spreading the illness, it was nothing more than a chunk of metal at that point." He crossed his arms and jutted out his chin.
THE FIREBRAND
Loren
