Elara processed this. "So your anger isn't moral—it's practical. Inefficient souls cost you more to maintain."
"'I—that's not—'" The voice stopped. Started again. "'It's BOTH. Yes, I'm angry about the waste. But I'm also angry because they're HURTING themselves. They're taking something precious and beautiful and breaking it, and they don't even CARE that they're breaking it. And then you—YOU—sit here and tell me life is just 'expendable equipment' like you're a MACHINE, and I want to shake you until you UNDERSTAND—'"
"Understand what?" Elara cut in. "That you have emotional attachment to your creations? I already understand that. You made humans. You value them. You've structured an entire afterlife system to maintain and correct them. The attachment is obvious."
"'Then why don't you VALUE yourself?'"
