- in the name of Allah -

From Liveship Traders, Book 2:

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      "So. I should just give up now?" she asked mildly. "Just let him spiral
down into madness until the New Traders come to haul him away and chop him up?
What will we say to one another afterwards, Brashen? That there was nothing we
could do, that we never believed it would really happen. Will that make us
innocent?"
     "Innocent?" He was incensed at her suggestion he was somehow responsible
for this mess. "I've done nothing wrong, I intend nothing wrong. I am
innocent!"
     "Half the evil in this world occurs while decent people stand by and do
nothing wrong. It's not enough to refrain from evil, Trell. People have to
attempt to do right, even if they believe they cannot succeed."
     "Even when it's stupid to try?" he asked with savage sarcasm.
     "Especially then," she replied sweetly. "That's how it's done, Trell. You
break your heart against this stony world. You fling yourself at it, on the
side of good, and you do not ask the cost. That's how you do it."
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