09 - Pitiful and Dying, Mortal and Ignorant

They call us their gods
Old immortal harbingers
Of both weal and woe
We believe, abandon faith
How cruel to learn what we are

I placed trust in my blood, in spite of all my reservations, all my lessons, and was freed, both physically, mentally, and metaphorically. Fuck you, Cain.

--- Letters to Iain, pt. 4
Virgil... Gerard and then Talwyn... Bridgette and James... Myself, Garrick, and a sorcerer who stalked Renee. Others whom I have no knowledge of...
Each has played a part in the grand design, in the plan, in the ruination of everything which we can conceive. Some were taken, others twisted or manipulated, some may even have been raised into the madness. Who can be forgiven?
Virgil captured others, took them into the awful fold and enslaved them to the madness.
Bridgette took a dagger to her beloved sister. Hopeless and in servitude.
James plays who knows what kind of gambit with Razgriz at the behest of our enemies. Fortunately, he loses.
I consort with Chaos, ensuring the battle tips for the Stormfury. I take up obliteration made manifest against my grandfather, unknowingly tipping the balance into the worst sort of draw. All the while their plans advance.
When is someone responsible for their part in the plan? Is it when you do so knowingly? Is it service, willful understanding, or is it subversion? What of the Aquilans? How much do they know? Surely they love, and hate, and understand existence much in the same way we, or the Chaosians, do. Why then would they serve the cessation of all things willingly. They are subverted, yes, but, as with all such indoctrination, a mind slave loses cunning, loses will, and becomes progressively useless. Aquilans do not show these signs of complete slavery. Annalee says they are lied to, faithfully serving the Eagle all without a true understanding of the Eagle's plan and purpose. If true, can they be forgiven?
I wrestle with such questions in my idle time, all the while wanting to ask you what insights you could provide me. I am in desperate need of insight right about now.