"To the best of my recollection, it said, 'The great sin of the goddess was that she did not hate, and took that seriously. Even Erissa the merciful has her Natyrsa side, who if not an eager slayer of the vomitus of unreality, at the least would not lift a finger to aid any creature of the outer void or their corrupted servants. When she was confronted with the squalling hideous thing, the overt abomination, the oozing, gushing impurity of her flayed wings, she did not stamp on it and crush it and finish the unfinished task of Arkat, she did not take the damned thing and annihilate it, she looked the chiropteran vileness in two of her eyes and said, "You're hurt and bleeding, like me. What do you say we stick together?"'
'Nor was this even the prelude to an absorption of the shredded, ragged wings of her youth! Nay, she was honest and kept her word and the Bat remained herself, a thing apart from her origin point, given an appalling further leash on life and existence. What's more, the bloated mutant winged rat was lofted to the paradise of the Red Moon, where she would be free from the agony of materiality and the weight of the world. It is to rectify this mistake that we call upon the Bat from the Red Moon, torment her into becoming a weapon, and thus restore the balance of propriety to the universe and correct the foolish error.'"
-Colonel (brevet Black Moon General) Marcus Irrippus Lexus, testifying about the contents of the "Mahaquata Memorandum" before the Special Select Committee on the Conduct of State Cults in the Provisional Provincial Allies, aka the "Deneskerva Committee"
"I never saw any such memorandum. It may have crossed my desk once or twice."
-Rubinius Anas, Priest of the Bat, before the same committee.
"Can you tell me about the disappearance of Lieutenant Gaius Simplicius, your adjutant for intelligence between the years 7/42 and 7/43?"
"I am unable to recall anything about this person."
"Can you tell me about the disappearance of Lieutenant Miles Gloriosus, your adjutant for intelligence between the years 7/43 and 7/44?"
"Unable to recall."
"Sublieutenant Barbara Artoria, your adjutant for intelligence for two weeks and three days in Fire Season of 7/44?"
"Unable to recall."
- excerpt from Crescent-Come General (former) Roan-Ur's questioning before the Deneskerva Committee
"At what point did you become aware that the threat of terrorism in Aggar was being deliberately exaggerated in reports to Provincial Command to force the rotation of regiments out of Sartar and Balazar and the increased use of the Bat as a consequence?"
- chair of the Deneskerva Committee Great Sister, question repeated too many times to cite.
"It was said that Jannisor Moonchaser once said, when he had the Red Emperor at his mercy, 'Here's the lynchpin, what happens if I pull it out?' It became apparent once it happened that the lynchpin was only of the Imperial Household, but even its collapse brought an avalanche of failing plans and schemes in its wake."
- Paulis Longvale, The Spice Has Lost Its Spiciness: The Fall of the Tharkalists and the Civil War, scroll four.
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