Reave the Just

[Frostheart Grueburn]

I just found a good-condition second-hand copy of the short story collection online. Thanks Forestal Hurn for reminding me of this.

[Cord Hurn]

I'm SO glad you got the other Donaldson short story collection, Frostheart!

Happy reading!

[Avatar]

The Killing Stroke!

--A

[Cord Hurn]

Penance!

[Cord Hurn]

Reave is a character that reminds me that some things are absolutes, either wrong or right.

The Divestulata's intentions against Reave, which he had announced to Jillet, grew clearer with every passing moment. For some years now, upon occasions during the darkest hours of the night and in the deepest privacy of his heart, he had considered himself to be the natural antagonist of men like Reave--self-righteous meddlers whose notions of virtue cost themselves nothing and their foes everything. In part, this perception of himself arose from his own native and organic malice; in part, it sprang from his awareness that most of his victories over lesser men--men such as Jillet--were too easy, that for his own well-being he required greater challenges.

Nevertheless, this conversation with his natural antagonist was not what he would have wished it to be. His plans did not include any defense of himself: he meant to attack. Seeking to capture the initiative, he countered, "However, my ownership of this house--like my ownership of Rudolph relict--is not your concern. If you have any legitimate concern here, it involves Jillet, not me. By what honest right do you sneak into my house and my study at this hour of the night in order to insult me with questions and innuendos?"

Reave permitted himself a rather ominous smile. As though he wee ignoring what Kelven had just asked, he replied, "My epithet, 'the Just', derives from coinage. It concerns both the measure and the refinement of gold. When a con contains the exact weight and purity of gold which it should contain, it is said to be 'just.' You may not be aware, Kelven Divestulata, that the honesty of any man is revealed by the coin with which he pays his debts.

"Debt?" Involuntarily, Kelven sprang to feet. He could not contain his anger sitting. "Are you here to annoy me with debts?"

"Did you not kill Jillet?" Reave countered.

"I did not! I have done many things to many men, but I did not kill that insufferable clod! You," he shouted so that Reave would not stop him, "have insulted me enough. Now you will tell me why you are here--how you justify your actions--or I will hurl you t ground outside my window and let my dogs feed on you, and no one will dare criticize me for doing so to an intruder in my study in the dead of night!"

"You do not need to attack me with threats." Reave's self-assurance was maddening. "Honest men have nothing to fear from me, and you are threat enough just as you stand. I will tell you why I am here.

"I am Reave the Just. I have come as I have always come, for blood--the blood of kinship and retributions. Blood is the coin in which I pay my debts, and it is the coin in which I exact restitution.

"I have come for yur blood, Kelven Divestulata."

The certainty of Reave's manner inspired in Kelven an emotion he did not recognize--and because he did not recognize it, it made him wild. "For what?" he raged at his visitor. "What have I done? Why do you want my blood? I tell you, I did not kill your damnable Jillet!"

"Can you prove that?"

"Yes!"

"How?"

Shaken by the fear he did not recognize, Kelven shouted, "He is still alive!"

Reave's eyes no longer reflected the lamplight. They were dark now, as deep as wells. Quietly, he asked, "What have you done to him?"

Kelven was confused. One part of him felt that he had gained a victory Another knew that he was being defeated. "He amuses me," the Divestulata answered harshly. "I have made him a toy. As long as he continues to amuse me, I will continue to play with him."

When he heard those words, Reave stepped back from the desk. In a voice as implacable as a sentence of death, he said, "You have confessed to the imprisonment and torture of an innocent man. I will go now and summon a magistrate. You will repeat your confession to him. Perhaps that act of honesty will inspire you to confess as well the crimes you have committed upon the person of the widow Huchette.

"Do not attempt to escape, Kelven Divestulata. I will hunt you from the vault of Heaven to the pit of Hell, if I must. You have spent blood, and you will pay for it with blood."

For a moment, Reave the Just searched Kelven with his bottomless gaze. Then he turned and strode toward the door.

...I wonder if we are intended to think of Reave as some sort of angel?

[SkurjMaster]

I hope that SRD will revisit Reave in further stories. With some backstory as well. He is very much an avenging angel, but there is no clue as to how he is called or who send him. Does he have his own private absolute moral code?

[Horrim Carabal]

Reave the Just is my favorite short story of all time.

[Cord Hurn]

I've often thought the stories "Reave the Just" and "By Any Other Name" put together would make a pretty good movie...