History comforts the dull-witted,”” the young Malazan said. Beneth barked a laugh as he reached the gate. “And whose words are those, Pella? Not you… - Steven Erikson

How does a mortal make answer to what his or her kind are capable of? Does each of us, soldier or no, reach a point when all that we’ve seen, survived, changes us inside? Irrevocably changes us. What do we become, then? Less human, or more human? Human enough, or too human?

Curious,” Bauchelain said. “What is it you wish us to do for you?”

“Usurp the king,” Imid Factalo said.

“Usurp, as in depose.”

“Right.”

“Depose, as in remove.”

“Yes.”

“Remove, as in kill.

Children understood at a very young age that doing nothing was an expression of power. Doing nothing was a choice swollen with omnipotence. It was, in fact, godly.

And this, she now realized, was the reason why the gods did nothing. Proof of their omniscience. After all, to act was to announce awful limitations, for it revealed that chance acted first, the accidents were just that — events beyond the will of the gods — and all they could do in answer was to attempt to remedy the consequences, to alter natural ends. To act, then, was an admission of fallibility.