"It happens, when one has lived too long. It matters not if it was one, or if it was hundreds -- or thousands. There comes a time, when no matter how much one holds true..."

Or even if they didn't.

Akua hadn't. She hadn't cared about the little people, the small people. She'd murdered an entire city to prove a point, and it was only after she'd done it, once Cat had shown her what it was she'd done, painstaking, patient, and making sure the long price came due, that she was finally aware of it.

She shook her head. "I think the Regent knows that there are good people. The pattern, of course, repeats. Over, and over, and when one has seen it that many times... it all becomes senseless, doesn't it? I don't agree, mind, but... I know where it comes from."