We might have brought it upon ourselves. In our glibness, we believed a loophole would pardon us.

[He eyes the blooms sprouting from the sparkler. Unlike that day, the fiery flowers that dot his vision now are colorful. He brings a hand up under the sparkler, palm upturned as if to catch the sparks that peter out before they can reach him.]

The playthings we made to be tools for laughter . . . In order to prevent them from becoming aught else, Dongbaek immolated the League and herself with it.