The Last Act of Free Will

Simon pauses with the key not out of doubt — he is marking a boundary, the way one marks the start of a ritual. And he phrases it with terrible precision: Jacob will walk in himself, “of his own free will — the last he will be allowed”. Every script of power needs the victim’s voluntary step: it transfers a share of responsibility — “he walked in himself”, “he agreed himself”.

We have already seen this mechanism from the other side: Jacob’s “he wanted it himself” in chapter six, the public hook test in chapter ten. Simon reproduces the grammar of his tormentors exactly — down to the legalistic need for the other’s “yes”. Violence always tries to look like a contract. Especially to itself.