Selthia was looking at Ren with a face expression that had moved past the point of fun into exasperated.
"That's a mistake," she said.
The tone was different now, not the dry amusement she had been deploying since the start of this, not the careful observation. Something more direct, stripped of performance and with the particular calm of someone saying what they actually believe but still not especially caring whether the other person accepts it.
"What you're doing right now… Letting that thing 'help' you is bad."
Ren didn't respond.
"The gold wants to play the 'good' one." Selthia tilted her head slightly. "But it's deceiving you, so you think we're the ones doing the deceiving. Because it wants exactly the same thing as what you call corruption." A pause. "What they unfairly call corruption."
Ren closed his fists.
"The difference is that we're more honest about it," she continued.
