Vathna

“I can’t accept it,” I answered.
“Accept what?”
I wasn’t certain I could put my tangled, poisonous thoughts into words. It felt blasphemous to even try. “That—that there can be such a thing as…not necessary evil, because evil is never necessary—it can’t be—but…acceptable evil. Hurt and cruelty that the Lady would allow in service to Her will. Like the goat in Naimes,” I said, dimly aware I’d never told the revenant about the goat and it would probably think I had lost my mind. “She wouldn’t make someone kick the goat.”
The revenant was quiet—a careful, pained pause. “Nun,” it said. isn’t that what She’s done to you?”
― Margaret Rogerson, Vespertine

“I was a really lonely kid. The advantage to being unpopular is you get a lot more reading done.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Hell Bent

“I wished I were better at speaking. All those thoughts were in my head, but I didn’t know how to get them out.”
― Margaret Rogerson, Vespertine

“The mere idea of having that conversation made me want to crawl into a hole and die.”
― Margaret Rogerson, Vespertine