“Do you not believe that to have been instructed in such unlawful knowledge is damning? Do you not believe that ability to employ unknown forces is forbidden of God, and that to disobey His law means death to the soul?”
“No!”
“That it is the price one pays to Satan for occult power over people’s minds?” she insisted.
“Hypnotic suggestion is not one of the cardinal sins,” explained Recklow, still smiling—“unless wickedly employed. The Yezidee priesthood is a band of so-called sorcerers only because of their wicked employment of whatever hypnotic and psychic knowledge they may have obtained.
“There was nothing intrinsically wicked in the huns’ discovery of phosgene. But the use they made of it made devils out of them. My ability to manufacture phosgene gas is no crime. But if I manufacture it and use it to poison innocent human beings, then, in that sense, I am, perhaps, a sort of modern sorcerer.”
Tressa Norne turned paler:
“I had better tell you that I have used—forbidden knowledge—which the Yezidees taught me in the temple of Erlik.”
“Used it how?” demanded Cleves.
“To—to earn a living.... And once or twice to defend myself.”
There was the slightest scepticism in Recklow’s bland smile. “You did quite right, Miss Norne.”