Velda Taney

“Do you know what it means to have a whole day ahead of you, a day you can call your own?”
― Flora Rheta Schrieber

“He desperately tried to think of a story to explain his involvement in her sudden appearance, without mentioning the book of magic in his possession.
 ”
― Max Nowaz, The Three Witches and the Master

“The history of knowledge of good and evil originates in the idea that the gods have a special knowledge that enables them to rule the world: every choice the gods made is good for one creature but bad for another, and can’t be otherwise. If the quail goes out to hunt and the gods sent it a grasshopper, then this is good for the quail but evil for the grasshopper. If the fox goes out to hunt, and the gods withhold the quail, this is good for the quail but evil for the fox. According to totalitarian agriculture, cows may live but wolves must die. Our posture is not just, if a coyote attacks my herd, I will kill it but rather, let’s wipe coyotes off the face of the earth. The observers (Zeugen) of the originators of our totalitarian agriculture culture saw we were deciding who lives and dies, and decided we had eaten at the god’s own tree of wisdom, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
― Daniel Quinn, The Story of B

“I walked past Malison, up Lower Main to Main and across the road. I didn’t need to look to know he was behind me. I entered Royal Wood, went a short way along a path and waited. It was cool and dim beneath the trees. When Malison entered the Wood, I continued eastward. 
I wanted to place his body in hallowed ground. He was born a Mearan. The least I could do was send him to Loric. The distance between us closed until he was on my heels. He chose to come, I told myself, as if that lessened the crime I planned. He chose what I have to offer.
We were almost to the cemetery before he asked where we were going. I answered with another question. “Do you like living in the High Lord’s kitchens?”
He, of course, replied, “No.”
“Well, we’re going to a better place.”
When we reached the edge of the Wood, I pushed aside a branch to see the Temple of Loric and Calec’s cottage. No smoke was coming from the chimney, and I assumed the old man was yet abed. His pony was grazing in the field of graves. The sun hid behind a bank of clouds.
Malison moved beside me. “It’s a graveyard.”
“Are you afraid of ghosts?” I asked.
“My father’s a ghost,” he whispered.
I asked if he wanted to learn how to throw a knife. He said, “Yes,” as I knew he would.  He untucked his shirt, withdrew the knife he had stolen and gave it to me. It was a thick-bladed, single-edged knife, better suited for dicing celery than slitting a young throat. But it would serve my purpose. That I also knew. I’d spent all night projecting how the morning would unfold and, except for indulging in the tea, it had happened as I had imagined. 
Damut kissed her son farewell. Malison followed me of his own free will. Without fear, he placed the instrument of his death into my hand. We were at the appointed place, at the appointed time. The stolen knife was warm from the heat of his body. I had only to use it. Yet I hesitated, and again prayed for Sythene to show me a different path.
“Aren’t you going to show me?” Malison prompted, as if to echo my prayer.”
― K. Ritz, Sheever's Journal, Diary of a Poison Master