Sword & Citadel

by Gene Wolfe

I had become like a stone, wordless, because nothing seemed to matter,

had become like a stone, wordless, because nothing seemed to matter,

However much I love a woman—or however little—I find I want her most when I can no longer have her.

But more than I thought on any of those things, I thought about Dorcas, and what she had been to me, and I to her.

but we all know that having a wolf for a mother does not make a cub a wolf.”

for as I descended I strode through the year.

But I wanted to be a particular person again, and so I sought the mirror of other persons, which would show me that I was not as they were.

When Pia introduced me to him, he embraced me as fathers do their sons, something no one had ever done to me previously.

“Is all the world a war of good and bad? Have you not thought it might be something more?”

I saw two pug marks

“I lost it somewhere along the way. That’s what the jaguar said, who had promised to guide the goat.”

Pataemon—ah,

stave—into

tike

yetting—it

abte—for

Master Palaemon used to say that the supernatural exists in order that we may not be humiliated at being frightened by the night wind;

resolution and a plan are better than a sword,

Religion and science have always been matters of faith in something.

Still I liked him at once for his verve, and because he took so little trouble to hide his dishonesty.

(for death is of the color that is darker than fuligin)

“It must be done by good men. You are badly advised, Autarch! What is intolerable is that it should be done by bad men.”

It was that this guild was my family, and all the home I should ever have. I would never find a friend in the world if I could not find friends here.

We choose—or choose not—to be alone when we decide whom we will accept as our fellows, and whom we will reject.