After Bern said a few sentences, he was left panting, as if those few words had cost him a great deal of effort.
"You are, in the end, nothing but ants!" Bern, lying in the chair, spat out the words with contempt, as though none of the people standing before him were worth a glance.
Igor and Kadi were naturally very familiar with this line. They had heard it again and again—back on Guru Mountain, that Wizard Reed had said the same thing; later, when they crossed paths with members of the Circus, they'd heard it several more times. And now, in front of Bern, they were hearing it yet again.
Ants—this was a form of disdain for human beings. But why did these people all harbor such contempt for their own kind? Igor couldn't figure it out. They were all human—so why insist on dividing high from low, noble from base?
Igor didn't want to dwell on these things; for now, he simply hadn't reached the height needed to ponder such questions.
