drowned-cities

Mahlia_ understood Doctor Mahfouz and his blind rush into the village. He wasn__ trying to change them. He wasn__ trying to save anyone. He was just trying to not be part of the sickness. Mahlia had thought he was stupid for walking straight into death, but now, as she lay against the pillar, she saw it differently. She thought she__ been surviving. She thought that she__ been fighting for herself. But all she__ done was create more killing, and in the end it had all led to this moment, where they bargained with a demon _ not for their lives, but for their souls_ (p. 403)