The Strength of the Few (Hierarchy, #2)

by James Islington

FEAR, MY FATHER ONCE TOLD me, is simply our realisation of a lack of control. And that is why when we are afraid, sometimes the only way we can cope—the only way to dull the edge of that lack—is to put our faith in those who appear not to suffer it.

DEATH IS A DOORWAY.

Inaction picks a side.

“One of my teachers back home once told me that sometimes, the only thing we can control is our attitude. And sometimes that can be enough. It’s always seemed especially needed, here.”

it is faith that makes us cheer, and a triumph forgotten is no different to defeat.”

DEATH, EIDHIN ONCE INSISTED WHILE explaining the ddram cyfraith, is our most important horizon. It matters because we need an end to what we can see. Without it we would drift, overwhelmed, nothing to orient ourselves against. Without it, we would never be able to focus on what is truly important: that which is in front of us.

Rule a man, and he will do whatever you can imagine. Befriend him, and he will do more.”

Grief, my mother once told me, is love’s most honest expression. The last and hardest aspect of truly, truly caring for someone.

without grief, love would be meaningless. Because it is impossible to truly love something that cannot be lost.

a man is known by his failings until he is known by his actions. Just because you are not right for a place does not mean you were never meant to be there. But war is coming. And I need whoever is at my side to be someone who could be nowhere else.”

His evil wasn’t taking three years of my life, Vis. It was being part of a system which could demand it.”

“Small men so desperate for power that they will take it from wherever they can. How did we get here?” “By telling them it’s the only way to get it, and that it’s all that matters.”

People are always the weakest part of any system.”

“A society cannot make a man a monster, Diago. But it can give him the excuse to become one.”

sometimes, talent and empathy fight for the same air. You always found things so easy that your expectations of others got skewed. You never really understood what they can and cannot do.”

FEAR IS A LACK OF control, realised.

“The happy are never great, Catenicus.

The Hierarchy is a monster that has to feed to survive. And inevitably, once it has eaten everything else, all that is left to consume is itself.

The needs of the many will always be loud.” He leans forward. Hooked nose inches from mine. “But in the end, it is only the strength of the few that matters.”

Grief, he explained to me gently, is a process that has only a beginning. We work through it, not get over it. And so attempting to just ignore its ache is inevitably a pointless exercise.

Poor luck is being aware of these currents, but able only to drown in them.

Instead of the easy gift of our lives, we must suffer the hundred little deaths of self in order to protect this world. Not because what we do is good, but because good will no longer exist if we do not.”

My father once told me that men become their choices, not their intentions.