"Because that is the function of sorcery in my world." To corrupt the souls of the innocent and pure. And no, xenocide didn't count.

"And did you choose this, or was it chosen for you?" He had chosen, at least once, but knowing that the choosing also chose everything that came after it: the aspirancy, the surgeries, the neophyte years. All of it, he had chosen, because he could endure. And because he was fleeing the blight on his family's name.

"They say it does. They say we return at the moment we are taken. But none can control when."