bearing, but you have to make sure it’s your own decision, consistent with what you know to be right. If you value the truth, if you allow nothing to stand in your way seeking it, reality can only lead you to higher purpose. The law highlights those things which we do wrong, and is only effective to punish; therefore, adherence to the law must be an effect of greater purpose, or else punishment becomes its own. When you see beyond the law, Brandon, you can’t obey it for its own sake anymore, but you must obey it, rather, as a testimony to those around you; because, if you love God and represent him, how can you offer to him and others a life of lawlessness?”

“But wait, you could have flagged me for a dozen tickets back on the beach. I broke the law, and it’s your job to enforce the law, so why did you do what you did?”

“Because another ticket wasn’t what you needed. Because, just as it isn’t proper for one to simply reject laws and customs, it also isn’t proper for the enforcers to go around simply clubbing people over the head with the rulebooks politicians wrote in their name.” He pulled the badge out of his pocket and placed it back in the light of day. “We’re imperfect human beings, too; and it’s my duty, not just as an officer, but as a human being, to build-up those around me; and every opportunity to do so is a privilege.”

“That’s fine if you’re perfect,” I said, letting some anger come out, “but don’t you remember? I killed Aether.”

“We don’t know that.”

“But I meant to kill her. I deserve to be arrested. I deserve to pay for this. I’m—”

I’m a murderer.

“You can’t pay for it,” JF said. “We can lock you up, put you to hard labor, and whatever else for a hundred years, and it wouldn’t bring someone back from the dead.”

“But I’ll feel better,” I thought aloud, realizing immediately that the statement was foolish.

“What law applies here? What jury would convict you? How do you find the corpse of someone who didn’t have a body? The energy of a malvirai, of any AI, just… dissipates.”