An Echo of Things to Come (The Licanius Trilogy, #2)

by James Islington

“The lesser of two evils, and the greater good. The most dangerous phrases in the world.”

“You and me. Gassandrid. Alaris. Cyr. Isiliar. Andrael. Diara. Meldier. Wereth. Tysis. Three and a half thousand years ago, Shammaeloth brought us all together. We were immortal before we ever met him, but Shammaeloth is the one who first showed us how to use kan.”

Caeden bowed low. Servants were venerated here, in their position because of their willingness to put others above themselves. It was not easy to become a servant in Kharshan; there were only a few dozen of the official positions, and those were vied for constantly.

Caeden looked at him curiously. “You eat with your servants?” “Am I any more a man than they?” Gassandrid frowned at him. “Are they not my people, my friends? Why should I not dine with them?”

Gassandrid sighed. “If a builder and an architect sit at the same table, does one role become more like the other? Or do they work better together because of it?” He waved Caeden into the seat next to him. “We are all servants, Tal’kamar—just with different roles. They serve me so that I may serve the people. We have different jobs, but we are equals nonetheless.”

“There is only one reason to be passionate about a lack of faith—and that is fear,” said Caeden quietly. “Fear that you are wrong. An innate need for others to share your opinion, so that you can be less afraid.” He shook his head. “I do not feel the need to argue, to cajole, to threaten or accuse. If others wish to believe differently, that is no business of mine. I simply do not think that there are gods.”

“What is a god but a being with more power than those below them can comprehend? With understanding more vast than others can imagine? If you do not believe such a being exists above you, then surely you are a god, Tal’kamar. You are immortal. You are more powerful than any normal man could ever dare dream of becoming. Your knowledge and experience is more vast than other men can even imagine.”

“I have seen mankind making up stories to make themselves feel safe at night. Or for power. Or for glory. Or for respect. Or for control. But I have never known a god, Gassandrid. The wise among us understand that they are fantasies. That they do not exist except in our own minds.”

Religion is the following of rules and rituals in the hope that they will somehow garner the favor of a higher power.

“You saw the man in chains on your way in?” he asked quietly. When Caeden nodded he continued. “He lost his temper over a small matter of coin, and ran his neighbor through with his sword. These facts are undisputed. He awaits only my judgment.” He looked Caeden in the eye. “The law demands death for death. So which should I throw to the cleansing fires of the inferno—him, or his blade? Which do you think would be justice?”

Builders understood beauty more deeply than most—they understood when simplicity should trump detail, functionality should trump form. Ilin Illan came from their talent for understanding what others see as beauty. Distraction and seduction for those who think a thing is beautiful merely because it draws the eye, because it has a pleasing aesthetic.”

The day on which you decide not to question what you believe, is the day that you start making excuses for why you believe it.”

Wirr smiled back, trying to look as though the conversation was a friendly one. “What happened to Father was horrible, and I fully intend on bringing whomever did it to justice,” he said, keeping his voice calm and low. “But it has nothing to do with my leadership. Perhaps if you had told me and I had done nothing, you’d be more justified. But you didn’t.” He shook his head. “You say I turn a blind eye to the dangers of the Augurs, and yet you keep it from me when they do something dangerous. That’s the act of someone in this for their own ends, Mother—not someone who wants what’s best for Administration.”

She was just like the rest of them—willfully ignorant, passionately believing in something because she surrounded herself with people who also passionately believed in the same thing. He knew the type, now—those who found it easier to listen to people who reinforced what they already thought, rather than actually considering the opinions of those who didn’t.

“We have both been alive long enough to know that evil only wins when it spreads. It can cause destruction, it can cause death—but those are consequences of its nature, not its victory. Not its goal. The danger of evil, the purpose of evil, is that it causes those who would oppose it to become evil also.”

‘The people with whom we are friends should never affect our morality; rather, our morality should affect with whom we are friends.’”

They’d both lived long enough to see how people—societies, even—could succumb to mob morality. The desire for acceptance, the desire to feel like they were fighting for something … too many were willing to base their beliefs around such shallow things. It was rarely about what was actually right or wrong. Such influences were understandable, but they were unquestionably to be avoided.

“Certainty is hubris, Tal. It is arrogance and bluster and those who claim it deserve nothing but to be mocked.”