The magistrate’s actions seem to be driven by different purposes at different points. He acts out of love, for instance, when he escorts the blind nomad girl through the desert and into the arms of her kin. His crying out in protest to the flogging of the prisoners was out of outrage at the savagery of his own people. Mostly though, I get the feeling that he wants to disassociate himself with the Empire. He’s seen what it has to offer with the oppression, torture and death (“You are depraving these people!” he exclaims), and he wants no part of it. He hates the position his superior put him in. He hates that he is unable to fight back at first because of the laws restricting him. “We live in a world of laws” he tries convincing himself earlier in his career as a magistrate though he knows that, when the empire’s concerned, the law is not as orderly as first apparent. As the years go by, he cannot lie to himself any longer, and, upon meeting Joll, a product of the Empire, he realizes that things cannot continue as is. Joll is the embodiment of what the Empire stands for and he knows that, if the Empire had its way, he would have turned out as twisted as that man. He does not want to become Joll. That is something he wants to avoid above all else. Joll is his opposite, his reflection in a twisted mirror. He sees in Joll’s actions the evils the Empire would eventually force him to perform upon the peaceful people and he knows he must cut all ties to it.