"I was just talking," said Olhado. "When I said that about Miro. It was just something I thought, putting him together with that old story. It probably isn't even a true story."
"It's true," said Ender.
"How do you know?"
"I knew Mazer Rackham."
Olhado whistled. "You're old. You're older than any of the trees."
"I'm older than any of the human colonies. It doesn't make me wise, unfortunately."
"Are you really Ender? The Ender?"
"That's why it's my password."
"It's funny. Before you got here, the Bishop tried to tell us all that you were Satan. Quim's the only one in the family that took him seriously. But if the Bishop had told us you were Ender, we would have stoned you to death in the praca the day you arrived."
"Why don't you now?"
"We know you now. That makes all the difference, doesn't it? Even Quim doesn't hate you now. When you really know somebody, you can't hate them."
"Or maybe it's just that you can't really know them until you stop hating them."
"Is that a circular paradox? Dom Cristao says that most truth can only be expressed in circular paradoxes."
"I don't think it has anything to do with truth, Olhado. It's just cause and effect. We never can sort them out. Science refuses to admit any cause except first cause--knock down one domino, the one next to it also falls. But when it comes to human beings, the only type of cause that matters is final cause, the purpose. What a person had in mind. Once you understand what people really want, you can't hate them anymore. You can fear them, but you can't hate them, because you can always find the same desires in your own heart."
"Mother doesn't like it that you're Ender."
"I know."
"But she loves you anyway."
"I know."
"And Quim--it's really funny, but now that he knows you're Ender, he likes you better for it."
"That's because he's a crusader, and I got my bad reputation by winning a crusade."
"And me," said Olhado.
"Yes, you," said Ender.
"You killed more people than anybody in history."
"Be the best at whatever you do, that's what my mother always told me."
"But when you spoke for Father, you made me feel sorry for him. You make people love each other and forgive each other. How could you kill all those millions of people in the Xenocide?"
"I thought I was playing games. I didn't know it was the real thing. But that's no excuse, Olhado. If I had known the battle was real, I would have done the same thing. We thought they wanted to kill us. We were wrong, but we had no way to know that." Ender shook his head. "Except that I knew better. I knew my enemy. That's how I beat her, the hive queen, I knew her so well that I loved her, or maybe I loved her so well that I knew her. I didn't want to fight her anymore. I wanted to quit. I wanted to go home. So I blew up her planet."
"And today we found the place to bring her back to life." Olhado was very serious. "Are you sure she won't try to get even? Are you sure she won't try to wipe out humankind, starting with you?"
"I'm as sure," said Ender, "as I am of anything."
"Not absolutely sure," said Olhado.
"Sure enough to bring her back to life," said Ender. "And that's as sure as we ever are of anything. We believe it enough to act as though it's true. When we're that sure, we call it knowledge. Facts. We bet our lives on it."