Page 686 - Enders_Game_Full_Book

a hundred lightyears away, he would do it without murmur-- and he would be furious if anyone on Path made the slightest resistance. To rebel like Lusitania? Unthinkable. It made Qing-jao feel dirty just to think of it.
Dirty. Impure. To hold such a rebellious thought made her start searching for a woodgrain line to trace.
"Qing-jao!" cried Wang-mu, as soon as Qing-jao knelt and bowed over the floor. "Please tell me that the gods aren't punishing you for hearing the words I said!"
"They aren't punishing me," said Qing-jao. "They're purifying me."
"But they weren't even my words, Qing-jao. They were the words of people who aren't even here."
"They were impure words, whoever said them."
"But that's not fair, to make you cleanse yourself for ideas that you never even thought of or believed in!"
Worse and worse! Would Wang-mu never stop? "Now must I hear you tell me that the gods themselves are unfair?"
"They are, if they punish you for other people's words!"
The girl was outrageous. "Now you are wiser than the gods?"
"They might as well punish you for being pulled on by gravity, or being fallen on by rain!"
"If they tell me to purify myself for such things, then I'll do it, and call it justice," said Qing-jao.
"Then justice has no meaning!" cried Wang-mu. "When you say the word, you mean whatever- the-gods-happen-to-decide. But when I say the word, I mean fairness, I mean people being punished only for what they did on purpose, I mean--"
"It's what the gods mean by justice that I must listen to."
"Justice is justice, whatever the gods might say!"
Almost Qing-jao rose up from the floor and slapped her secret maid. It would have been her right, for Wang-mu was causing her as much pain as if she had struck her. But it was not Qing-jao's way to strike a person who was not free to strike back. Besides, there was a far more interesting puzzle here. After all, the gods had sent Wang-mu to her-Qing-jao was already sure of that. So instead of arguing with Wang-mu directly, Qing-jao should try to understand what the gods meant by sending her a servant who would say such shameful, disrespectful things.