Marr nodded with a wink as she put her hands on the back of Luna’s chair and started to speak.

   “Emeelie, what if I have a room with a single door and I put you in it. The door isn’t locked, and you can leave at any time. The room represents a life experience. Now what if I dropped a lion into the room. What would happen?”

   “All things being equal, eventually the lion would get hungry and want to eat me.”

   “What are your options?”

   “Obviously I would leave via the door, immediately,” Emeelie answered.

   The others laughed.

   “Sure, and every other time a lion is dropped into the room you are in, you’d leave too?”

   “Yes,” Emeelie said with a hint of hesitation.

    “What if there was a possibility that a lion might be dropped into every room, from that moment on. How would your experience of life pan out?”

   “Dreadful. Limited. I wouldn’t be able to stay or even enter any room.”

   “Right. You’d spend your time running out of every room and miss every potential experience.”

   “Ok.”

   “What if I put a chain on the lion and anchor it to the wall?”

   “That would work. I would be able to enter the room again.”

   “Right. So, the lion would need to be chained down for every room you may enter.”

   “Great.”

   “This is the trojan horse.”

   “How?”

   “If I am controlling the lion with chains, I am controlling you.”

   “What! How?”

   “I can choose to use chains or not. I can determine which room you can enter and which you cannot. Your potential for life experiences is controlled by me. You allow yourself to be the victim.”

   “Of the lion’s hunger?”

   “No, my will. You are allowing me to depower you.”

   “Oh.”

   “Yes, oh. Your safety becomes dependent on me or somebody else putting chains on every lion.”

   “Not good.”

   “No. What else could you do that leaves you empowered, but not eaten.”

   “I could learn to defend myself against the lion.”

   “Yes, or even tame it. Put chains on it yourself, so to speak. That way you could go into any room you like, regardless of whether there is a lion in there or not. You’d be safe without anyone else’s intervention. You’d stay empowered. You would experience life to its fullest.”

   “So psychological safety is a trojan horse. It puts my safety in the hands of a third party. It depowers. It turns people into victims.”

    Marr nodded and smiled.

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Excerpt from Rule of Twelve, Book 3 - Regeneration, Chapter 17

1

Dukk opened his eyes. It was dark.

   “A dream. It must have been a dream,” he muttered as he tried to fathom where he was. He tried to digest the pre-dawn excursion with Craig.

   He swung himself out of bed. Marr was gone.

   He checked the time. Mid-afternoon.

1

“What in the world is going on?” Craig demanded as the doors to the south banqueting hall, closed behind them.

   Dukk, Marr and Emeelie stood before him. Beyond was the atrium bathed in orange light from the setting sun.

   On the opposite side of the atrium the doors to the north banqueting hall were open. Music and chatter could be heard from within.

   The noise from the others disguised the deathly silence that engulfed the four.