But no great taking is without a price, and no great price is counted the same by all who witness it.
For a change came upon Fencer; subtle at first, then spoken of openly. Some called it a cost, because it overturned the small certainties by which small minds sleep. Others called it no cost at all, but rather an unveiling, as if he had stepped out of a narrow door into a wider hall.
Thus it was said: he became Gae.
Now what Gae means is argued still. The jesters say it with a grin. The fearful say it with a flinch. The wise, however, say it with care, for they hold that Gae is not shame, nor spell, nor stain, but a name for a truth that refuses to bow to another’s comfort. And in that refusal there is a strange strength, bright as a blade and just as honest.
So Fencer bore his change without apology, and that too became part of his power: that he could not be ruled by the cheap coins of ridicule.