Goro: Do the Right Thing

The smug look on Eli's face told Amari the bad news before he'd even opened his mouth.

He approached her in the sanctuary, where she was passing out bread to the worshipers. At this time of night, it was all indigents: beggars, elderly with no family to help them, homeless children, prostitutes. Amari was one of the few who didn't shy away from the latter, and every night, she was grateful for the opportunity to help.

She couldn't be angry with Eli for interrupting. There was someone else who needed her help even more.

"It's Goro," Eli said, and he watched her intently to see her response. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction. She wasn't disappointed, anyway; just worried. But none of the other clerics could understand that. They taunted her, eagerly awaiting the day Goro would push her too far, do something so terrible she could not forgive him. *Let them talk*, Amari told herself every night when it started to bother her. The only important thing was that she and Helm knew what was really in her heart.

Amari followed Eli downstairs, down to the cells. It wasn't the first time. Amari had teased Goro about it once—"You must like it down here." He hadn't laughed.

"Shut up, you old bat." That was what he'd said.

*Old bat* was his name for her. "Morning, old bat." "What's the old bat going on about now?" "Leave me alone, you dumb old bat."

"Goro," she'd tell him, "my name is Amari. I call you by your name, and I would like you to call me by mine, as well."

Normally, with the children and youths Amari looked after, any rude nicknames could be eradicated by simply failing to grow angry about them. If they couldn't get a rise out of her, they'd stop trying. But Goro seemed to take her calm responses as a sign he was welcome to keep doing it. She continued to respond calmly. So *old bat* it was, had been for the year she'd known him.

Once, it came out as *dumb bitch.* "Shut up, you dumb bitch." He'd been crying when he said it. It was the only time Amari had seen tears from him, and she was fairly sure it was the only time *anyone* had seen tears from him for most of his life.

It was a victory, really. Amari could tell she was having an effect on him. She'd been working on him, oh so slowly, but steadily. From the day she first saw him, lined up with the other street rats who'd been sentenced to service in the church. She wasn't supposed to show favoritism, but she couldn't help it. It was his ears. As soon as she laid eyes on them, a lump rose in her throat. Another wretched half-elf.

Don't bother with him, the other clerics told her. He's a bad seed. Bad blood. Amari always wondered if the last part was a remark on his being a half-elf, since nothing else was known about his parentage.

Amari kept her calm expression in place for her whole walk with Eli, refusing to give anything away each time he looked over his shoulder at her.

They reached the cell, and Odin was there to fill her in on the details. "He had some kind of fight with Saf." Saf was another acolyte, no older than Goro. "Took a knife to his throat. We managed to stabilize him, but he can't speak. Still not sure he'll make it. And Goro won't say a damn word to us."

"Zone of Truth?" Amari asked. They'd done it to Goro once, two months ago, when he stole a relic from the inner chapel and refused to tell anyone what he'd done with it. When the spell went into effect, he said nothing at all. So they stopped feeding him. He made it six days before Amari sneaked down to see him and brought him food. He'd told her then where the relic was, no Zone of Truth needed.

Odin nodded. "And he's gone silent, as expected. We know keeping food from him doesn't work, not fast enough anyway. But we thought you could try talking to him before we resort to more extreme measures."

"Yes, please," Amari said. She walked to the bars of his cell, then gave pointed looks to Odin and Eli and the guards standing around, watching. Reluctantly, they filed out of the corridor.

Amari turned her attention to Goro. He sat on his pallet, arms crossed, legs splayed. Casual, like there was nowhere he'd rather be. His hair fell in his eyes, but couldn't disguise that one of them was black and blue.

"What happened, Goro?" Amari asked.

She hadn't cast a spell to make him honest, but even so, he didn't say anything.

Amari wasn't disappointed. Really, she wasn't. If Goro slit someone's throat, he must have thought there was a good reason for it. And no doubt it was a deeply misguided reason, but he wouldn't have done it out of sheer malice. He wasn't like that.

"I can't help you if you won't tell me what happened," she said.

He smiled. Amari sighed.

*Like I need your help, you dumb old bat*. That's what he would say, if he were talking. She wouldn't show him how much it hurt her. Not ever. He needed to know she loved him, no matter what he did. Even if he never loved her back. She didn't do it because she wanted something in return; she did it because he, like all living creatures, was precious and worthy of love. It so happened that she was the only one who saw him that way, and so she would love him, even if he despised her.

"Goro," she began, and he cut her off.

"He called you a half-breed whore."

She blinked. "Who did?"

"Saf."

Amari stood there for what felt like an age, trying to grasp what she'd just heard. "And that's why you attacked him?"

"Yes."

"That's *all*?"

"No, that's not all. He said some other things about you, but I'm not going to repeat them because they're disgusting." His grin widened. "But now, he's not going to be saying much of anything, ever again."

"Goro." Amari gripped the cell bars. "Goro, you can't cut someone's throat out just because they've insulted me."

"I can, obviously. I did."

"You're lucky he's not dead, or they'd hang you."

"Yeah, that's me. I'm a lucky guy. Luckier than Saf, that's for sure. He's just lucky I didn't go after his fruits, first."

Amari felt dazed. She had nothing more to say, so she walked out of the dungeon.

Odin and the others had questions for her, but she walked past them mutely. Eventually she would tell them what she'd learned, but first she needed some time to herself to process. To understand.

She was shaking as she walked to the dormitories. It was senseless and brutal. Poor Saf might not ever recover. What shocked Amari the most was that Goro had never given any indication of having a temper. He was unscrupulous, sneaky, distrusting. But rarely violent, unless he was defending himself.

Or her.

He'd been defending *her*.

*Oh, Goro.* Amari stopped walking to steady herself against the wall, overcome by emotion. *How many times have I told you to do the right thing?*

But she wasn't going to give up. She was having an effect on him. He didn't despise her after all.

Hopefully, this would be the last casualty of that.