Matlin felt disappointed. "You enjoyed the beating Felg got? You enjoyed his shaming?"
"No, I don't mean that. It's your name and how ... how you live up to its suggestion of heresy. Religion is a good thing on other worlds, Matlin. I have spoken with people. On the planets of Antares, where the folk accept with choice a pantheism of total godhood, that is good; on Earth, where several religions freely proclaim the worship of a single great deity under different names, that is good. But don't you see, here on Kedak—but of course, you see. The point I make is, you say what you believe. If another...."
"But I don't believe. I'm an iconoclast."
"If another feels as you do, but says nothing...."
"You, Haazahri?"
"I. And so you give me pleasure. You're a strange man, Matlin, but a brave one. If you lost your memory, is Matlin a new name you have given yourself?"
"Yes."
"I wonder," Haazahri mused, looking at him and smiling. She was a tall woman, her face almost on a level with his own. She stared frankly into his eyes, boldly, still smiling. "I wonder if you have any family, if you are married...."
"I'm a long way from home," Matlin said abruptly.
"Now, what does that mean? What is your mind trying to tell you?"