"Everyone's character is questionable. Look at you, running away when you're supposed to be saving the world. Not to mention that you're upper-class, which makes you morally suspect by definition. Power corrupts and all that." Mina thrums a laugh. "I don't especially want to harm you, but you're so willfully ignorant that it hurts. I can see you mentally rewriting everything that's happened to make yourself the noble hero, not a small-minded twit who cares more about staying such than about the world ending.
"Why did you come here if you weren't willing to do what's required? I'm even willing to work with you if need be."
Elizabeth bursts out laughing. It doesn't last long before she has to gasp for air, but the sound seems to remain ringing in the carriage, strange and scornful.
"Fear corrupts. Love corrupts. All forms of wilful blindness corrupt. Power doesn't corrupt, it just gives you free rein to display your flaws.
"You're not a worse person now that you have the power you seek: I didn't meet you before the change, but I doubt that woman had a great respect for other people's choices and boundaries.
"No, you were always a person who'd hunt me down and force me to do your will if you could, while dressing it up with pretty slogans. You just didn't have the power before.
"And while we're on the topic, you don't believe that the world will end if we don't work together.
"Well, that, or you don't care.
"It's not as though you've kept your disinterest in working together a secret. You never made any effort to interact positively with anyone that didn't meet your social standards. You played or napped through group discussions. You waved off accusations of treason.
"You can dress up tolerating my existence as a grand sacrifice, but you were never truly committed to working with me, just interested in lazily prolonging the inevitable long enough that it wouldn't seem like your fault when the co-ordination inevitably failed. If you actually care about destroying the monsters at all, you don't think you need me to do it.
"And, indeed, if you cared about destroying the monsters, why would you not have let me go on my way rather than hunting me down? I could hardly fail to kill monsters that were attacking near me, which would obviously result in more monsters dead than almost any possible outcome of attacking me will.
"I don't know your motivations. I don't know if you are actively sabotaging the monster-destruction effort in order to weaken Feisten and any harm to me is just a nice bonus or if you simply enjoy cruelty and need to impugn my character before you can feel justified in doing so - no, scratch that - I'm sure both are true on some level...
"Anyway, you should save these weak lies for a more credulous audience. If you're lucky, the rest of the group will serve."
