Dawn of Wonder (The Wakening, #1)

by Jonathan Renshaw

Facts would not be determined by truth but by power.

that it would never be possible to squeeze them into words.

Nessa implored Aedan to stay on good terms with Harriet. Her frequent appeals for him to be accommodating revealed that she saw the discord well enough, but tried to mend it on Aedan’s side rather than where it originated. Without realising it, she was repeating the fault she had so recently lamented. Too fearful to intervene and hold back the tormenter, she was pleading instead with the victim to be more submissive. It was a solution that would resolve the conflict while entrenching the problem. Aedan didn’t have the words to understand, but he could feel the wrongness of it.

“My father told me I could not be a true friend without sharing some of my friend’s enemies.”

he had found real friends – and understood how much they meant. They had not swept his troubles away nor he theirs, but somehow it was easier on those heavy days to stand under the load when standing shoulder to shoulder. He found their company often helped him to see bright rifts in leaden skies. On other days the clouds would melt under a cheerful sun, and the cheer was multiplied a hundredfold when shared.

“But there’s no other way in.” “Ah, there we have a topic for our first lesson. Can you detect the problem with what you just said?” Aedan ran through the words a few times and then smiled. “I should have added ‘that I know of.’” “Just so. You tried to establish a fact from a lack of evidence. Unless the inquiry has been so exhaustive as to explore every possibility, the lack of evidence should never be used to ground a statement of fact. Unlikelihood certainly, but no more. A prematurely assumed fact blocks further inquiry.”

Prejudice creates blindness; it is too busy hating to think. No matter how justified it might feel, prejudice will shackle you.”

“It’s a rillom, but I’m not going to get the flow or the rhyming parts right. As well as I can remember, the tale goes like this. There were once two lands where great battles were fought. After they had ended, both lands had corpses scattered all over. When the clouds approached, the first land said, ‘Leave me. If you pour water onto me, you will spread the poison of these corpses all over and disturb the little peace I have left,’ and it drove the clouds off. The other land took a deep breath and let the waters wash over it, gradually draining the filth away. After twenty years, the first land had become a desert and the skeletons were the only things to be seen. The second land was renewed. Not even the bones could be found.” “So the rain is love?”

The confession of ignorance is crucial to the pursuit of knowledge. Another way of putting it is that those who pretend to know never will – they lack the humility to learn.

Their reasons for remaining apart made no sense. Tyne had said Aedan was too young to understand, but young or old, what right did yesterday’s hurt have to steal today’s happiness? Only the right that was surrendered, surely.