In Which Rona States Who Is That Selfless

January 4, 1203

"And why shouldn't I go?" It wasn't a question. It was a demand, a dare, a challenge. And damned if Rona wouldn't take it. Curse that Gualtiero de Cervantes and his big mouth! It was only for his late mother's sake that Rona hadn't torn him to shreds right there--that, and his not knowing why such news shouldn't have been brought up around Aspen. "I'm almost done at the university. I don't have any plans for afterwards. I don't even enjoy anything enough to make plans. Why shouldn't I make myself useful?"

"With something of this scale? Isn't your life answer enough to that question?" More than anything--having dwelt at times in dark places herself--Rona feared that to her daughter, it wasn't. And for that, she had half a mind to send Aspen to live with her grandmother after she graduated. Rona's mother may have been the most innately comforting person alive.

Rona could comfort... but, as those early spats with Ashe had reminded her, not until her own fury had run its course.

"You'd be dead in days, Aspen! You'd take the illness out of every person on that island until your own body gave out, and they'd burn your corpse for fear of disease--even if you hadn't yet cured everyone. And if there was one person you hadn't reached, then you may have died for nothing. I am not letting any child of mine run off to die a pointless early death in a foreign land without even the dignity of a proper burial."

"I could work with the navy! I could have them transport everyone I manage to cure, have them send aid for those I don't. What would you have me do here? Work at your school and marry some man? I could get struck by lightning on my commute, you know. I could die birthing my first baby, who might end up dying too. We're all going to die sooner or later, so why shouldn't I take a death that means something if I have a chance?"

"Because a meaningful death doesn't have to be a sacrifice! And there are people who love you here! Your father and I, your grandmother, your brothers and sisters and friends! Your nephew--who adores you! Do all of us mean nothing to you?"

"Don't guilt me into changing my mind! This has nothing to do with any of you! It's my life, and my decision. I want to go!"

"It is your life." Rona gritted her teeth. Aspen was right about that. Too right. "It is your life, and it will be forfeit if you do this. What exactly makes your existence so unbearable that you'd throw it away in a reckless gamble? No one is that selfless, Aspen! Humanity never would have survived this long if we were!"

"I'm not selfless. If you paid a shred of attention, you'd know that." A shred. Almost hissed. Rona had been paying attention, as much as she could with her daughter living at the campus, but she'd pay a hell of a lot more now. "I'll finish up at the university, just because Father already paid for it. But the second I graduate, I'm gone."

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