And over it all, the butterflies swarmed, like a million yellow-pettalled flowers dancing on swirling winds.

Children are dying." Lull nodded. "That's a succinct summary of humankind, I'd say. Who needs tomes and volumes of history? Children are dying. The injustices of the world hide in those three words.

The art of illusion is grace itself.

It is one thing to lead by example with half a dozen soldiers at your back. It is wholly another with ten thousand.

Civilization after civilization, it is the same. The world falls to tyranny with a whisper. The frightened are ever keen to bow to a perceived necessity, in the belief that necessity forces conformity, and conformity a certain stability. In a world shaped into conformity, dissidents stand out, are easily branded and dealt with. There is no multitude of perspectives, no dialogue. The victim assumes the face of the tyrant, self-righteous and intransigent, and wars breed like vermin. And people die.

I warn you all, hatred is finding fertile soil within me. And in your compassion, in your every good intention, you nurture it.

The soul knows no greater anguish than to take a breath that begins with love and ends with grief.