*Months Earlier*
High Charity
Garden Of Reverent Contemplation
"When do you leave?"
"In a few hours," Ludo replied.
I mulled over his offer for a moment, thinking about what he'd said. There had been a few red flags but I had waited for him to finish before going over them. It didn't take long for gut instinct to urge me away from it, and I always went with my gut. Always. I relied on it as much as my sense of sight or smell. And at that moment, my gut was telling me that something was off. All the pieces weren't there.
"No," I finally decided. "Some of the other Brutes might, but I need to watch the footage myself before going along with this."
Ludo appeared taken aback.
"Footage?"
"Didn't you say 'Vadamee watched holographic footage of this 'heretic leader'?
Ludo studied me, nodded slowly, but said nothing. I could tell I'd gotten him thinking. He wasn't like most other Elites I knew, had no particular interest in the 'Great Journey' or attending ascetic sermons. He was an artisan all the way, and that was what I respected most about him. His biggest flaw though, was his disregard for the circumstances; as long as he got to fight, nothing else mattered.
"Yes," he answered almost half a minute later.
"Has the Shipmaster seen it? Have you or any of the crew?"
Ludo grimly shook his head after another short pause.
I said no more. It was obvious what was happening here and this wasn't the first time. I doubted it would be the last. Although the combined species in the Covenant vastly outnumbered the few manipulators sitting comfortably at the top, they were all too indoctrinated and divided amongst themselves to put a stop to it. And so the Great Journey marched on.
At that moment I thought of my grandfather, and so I turned to Ludo and told him what I'd heard so many times before.
"A wise old Brute used to tell me that condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance."
"The height of bliss then?" Ludo offered.
"Ignorance isn't bliss, it's a fool's paradise. You wait and see."