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Change can bring out the worst and best in us, or something of both qualities at the same time. Some look to the horizon and fear the future, while others look and see it shining in welcome.
‘I think there’s something in human nature that makes us concentrate too much on our disappointments at times. We should remember how lucky we are.’
To know fear, real fear, and to gain a great victory in spite of it seemed a more noble achievement than any triumph where fear was absent.
he made a silent oath that he would never lose sight of what it meant to be a knight, the humility that must accompany all great deeds and the unspoken satisfaction in knowing that doing the right thing was reason enough to do it.
‘A man can be trained in the skills of killing, he can learn to use a knife or other weapons, but these things are nothing if his mind is not strong.
‘Did you bring your notebook with you, Attias?’ asked Eliath. ‘Yes,’ said Attias. ‘It’s in my pack, why?’ ‘Well if we do find a beast, you’ll want to take notes on how I gut it.
he would learn that repetition had a way of softening the edges of human experience.
No one wanted to hear that truth. No one wanted to know their heroes could have feet of clay.
To his mind, his victory had been more special precisely because he had been afraid.
His fellow supplicants, however, seemed to think it was improper to speak of the emotion at all. It was as if fear was a secret shame in every human heart, and his listeners wanted to be reassured that their heroes did not feel it, as though it meant they might one day be
The only way to overcome fear was to confront it. To pretend it did not exist, or might somehow disappear one day, only made it worse.
Why is often the most interesting question, but often the one not asked. Where, when, how and what are mere window dressing. Why is always the most important question, would you not agree?’
‘You kept your answers short and that is good. You’d be surprised how many candidates witter on incessantly during this walk of the spiral.’ ‘Nervousness, I suppose,’ said Zahariel. ‘Indeed,’ agreed Lord Cypher, ‘it makes men talk too much, when it would be more impressive if they knew the value of silence and demonstrated how to use it. Your terseness gave you an aura of confidence, even when I know you did not feel it.’
We cannot know what mysteries the universe holds, or what challenges we may face in the future. All we can do is live our lives to the fullest extent we can, and cultivate the virtue of trying to achieve excellence in all things. When we go to war, it should be as master warriors. When we make peace, we should be equally adept. It is not good for human beings to accept second best. Our lives are short. We should make merit of them while we can.’
‘Tradition is a fine ideal, but not when it serves as a shackle on our future endeavours.
Look at a man without a past, and you will see a free man. It is always easier to build when you build from scratch. Then again, I look at the stars and I think I am too hasty. I look to the stars and I wonder what is out there. How many undiscovered lands? How many new challenges? How bright and hopeful might our future be if we could make it to the stars?’
It is the young who will build this future,
Zahariel could not see precisely what the future might hold, he could not see his destiny written in the stars, but he had no fear of what it might be. The universe, it seemed to him, was a place of wonder. He looked to the future and was unafraid.
‘How sad,’ said Nemiel, ‘to be on the brink of oblivion, not through glorious, heroic death or epic battle, but by obsolescence.’ ‘Don’t write them off yet,’ said Brother Amadis, appearing at their shoulders. ‘There’s never more life in a beast than when it thinks it’s cornered.’
‘History is written by the victors, Zahariel, and among the many bitter pills the losing side must swallow in any war is the fact that their sacrifices were all for nothing.
he briefly wondered at the dual nature of their world. From a distance, the forests were beautiful in a grim and forbidding way. Yet, inside those same picturesque woodlands, lived creatures that were the stuff of human nightmares,
You must remember that he is as much a genius as he is a great warrior. His mind is a subtle and complex instrument, and his humour is shaped by the same brilliance he exhibits in everything else he does.
When my brother makes jokes, no one understands them. He tends to pitch them too high for us roughhouse types. They go over our heads.’
it is when a man has been made a knight that the hard work begins. Until this point, you were only a boy who wanted to be a knight and a man. Now, you will learn just how heavy both those burdens can be.’
Most of all, he had enjoyed the moment, for he knew that such triumphs were rare in a man’s life. They must be handled with care, and then put away as memories for the future.
‘War is a terrible beauty,’
Sometimes, it occurred to Zahariel, it is the height of bravery in a man’s life, simply to be able to put one foot in front of the other and continue in one direction even when every fibre of his being is saying he should turn and run the other way.
Zahariel rolled away from the killing blow, swinging his blade out in a low arc. The edge of his blade sliced clean through the knight’s legs at mid-shin level, and the man toppled like a felled tree. Zahariel rose to his feet as the knight screamed in agony, the stumps of his legs pumping blood into the dust. Zahariel put a pair of bullets through the man’s helmet to spare him further agonies
The banner wasn’t just a flag or identifying marker, it was a symbol of everything the Order stood for: courage, honour, nobility and justice. To bear such a symbol was a great honour, but to fight beneath it was something special,
the road into darkness is paved with men’s good intentions.’
Zahariel felt peace spread through him,
unaware of how empty his soul had become until it was filled.
After all of the size glazing the author did for the lion, I was curious about the size of his horse. Pause.
The book is a slow read, and very descriptive of everything at this point. I found it annoying, but this. This is what I’m here for. These guys riding around proud, regal. Only for these metal flying mfkrs to fall from hot floating beast in the sky. I love stuff like this
despair was an illusion of the mind.
“The warrior should choose the ground on which he will fight with an eye to strengthening his own efforts and unbalancing the best efforts of his enemy”.’
The Lion was a truly imposing physical specimen. A giant, standing at a little under three metres tall,
‘It seems I owe you a debt, young Zahariel,’ said the golden figure, ‘and for that I thank you. In time you will forget this, but while your memories are still your own, I wished to thank you for what you did.’
‘We are the First Legion,’ said the Lion, ‘the honoured, the Sons of the Lion, and we will not be marching to war without a name that strikes terror into the hearts of our enemies. As our legends spoke of the great heroes who held back the monsters of our distant past, so too shall we hold back the enemies of the Imperium as we set off into the great void to fight in the name of the Emperor. ‘We shall be the Dark Angels!’
Set against the black backdrop of space and surrounded by distant shimmering stars, it could almost have been a round polished gemstone lying on a velvet backcloth amid a scattering of tiny jewels.
soon all that is important to him is his status. He becomes deaf to any voice that doesn’t try to soothe and cosset him. Before long, he only listens to those who tell him what he wants to hear.’
‘I mean, look at him,’ said Nemiel, unheard by anyone but Zahariel. ‘He’s nearly as big as an Astartes, and that’s just his gut! If you ask me, these people should start calling him the lord wide exalter.’ It was true, the lord high exalter – to give him his proper title – was fat, almost stupendously so.
It was the sound of men holding fast to their duties even when they suspected that war was about to render their duty, even their lives, irrelevant. It was the sound of warriors on the verge of panic.
‘We are Astartes. We are Dark Angels. We were not made to die of old age. Death or glory! Loyalty and honour!’
‘Better my good looks than your swordsmanship,’ responded Eliath, ‘unless you hope the enemy will be driven to distraction by the whistling sound your blade makes as it misses them over and over again.’
war is a matter of adaptation, and whoever adapts most quickly to changing circumstances and takes advantage of the vagaries of warfare, will be victorious.
