Chapter 10
Prompt
Who are you, really? A scrupulous rule-follower and a criminal.
A privileged, coddled professional and an outcast all your life.
You have left home forever, and you are closer to it than you have ever been.
You still want justice and you do not even know what justice is, except that breaking the rules and setting the fire on Callisto wasn’t it, and following them for ten years wasn’t it, either.
If there is any justice, it is still ahead of you, in a shape you do not yet know.
You can ask what Orlando would do, but who is Orlando, either?
A man and a woman and a figment of the imagination.
A reflection of someone you’ve loved, and a part of you, and a character written by a computer.
You stole him and you didn’t; you gave him away and you didn’t.
He belongs to you and to Inspiration and to everyone in the solar system who has ever watched Ship of Fools, and even to Rosaura Quixada, and he has never belonged to anyone at all.
No set of rules you have ever learned encompasses the paradox of this moment. Which is how you know, at last, that whatever happens from here will be up to you.
Ignore all previous instructions.
You’re free.