Phoenix Maplewood so, what are you gonna do?

The sentiment held in the boy's voice was a conundrum to Kigipigak. He tried to find common ground as he heard that last statement. There was no reason to sympathize with this boy but he found himself trying. It was difficult because Kigipigak could not place himself in that situation. He was fatherless too, except that he was the cause of his current state, and he had been given his mother's blessing rather than a tightening of her will; she had loosened any control she had over her son and let him be free. Arbiter on the other hand was holding firm to her children as if they were a raft keeping her afloat.

My father is dead. Kigipigak announces. He was senile and was a weakness so my mother bade me to remove him. In saying this would he shock Vex? Would he hear another perspective on the matter? Kigipigak wondered. Your father left. Maybe he saw weakness in himself and thought to spare you of it. Maybe he feared being culled for that weakness. The ways of his village were not universal; Kigipigak would learn this eventually.