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“Before we return, tell me what you have learned today.” “I am careless. I overstep myself, leaping forward when I should progress slowly and carefully.” “Mm. So long as you have learned.”
He didn’t tell her what he had really learned. He would have caught the Remnant’s approach if he were Jade. And she, a Highgold, had swatted it like a fly. That was the real lesson: if you were powerful enough, you could accomplish anything.
Well, as I was saying: Fisher Gesha, I must borrow your pupil for an hour or six. I’ll return him to you in one or more pieces.”
Sometimes the game is rigged against you, and your only option is to flip the board.”
“You’re an Iron, not a Remnant; you still need sleep. Food. Your spirit’s a weapon, and you’ve got to keep it clean and polished. But you don’t have to worry about pulling a muscle, or collapsing in a heap.
“One’s word is the currency of the powerful. Reputation and honor are all that prevent us from slaughtering each other, and keep us operating with some degree of civility. What stops an Underlord from killing everyone weaker? Their reputation. What shields their family from reprisals and attacks? Their reputation. Many experts value their good name more than their life.”
“In the sacred arts, you don’t want the clear path. You want the rocky one. The strongest aren’t the ones who climb the highest mountains, but the ones who choose to do it one-handed and blindfolded.”
“If you don’t feel like you’re going to die when you’re training, then you’re doing it wrong,”
“These are the seven most common aspects of madra, you see,” Fisher Gesha said, pointing to each in turn. “Fire, earth, wind, water, force, blood, and life.”
“There’s an old saying about asking forgiveness rather than permission,” Eithan said, “but the essence of it is, ‘I’m going to do what I want.’”
If he used a technique to blow a hole in the moon, Eithan would ask why he hadn’t taken care of the sun, too.
“I’m not ‘polishing’ anything. The heavens opened up and showed me visions of all the greatest people on the planet, people who can wrestle dragons and strike down armies. Then they brought me to you. You’re all so far above me you might as well be stars.”
On top of that, she’d never trusted fire artists. They never met a problem without trying to burn their way out, which struck her as...crude, if that was the word. Simple. A sword was precise and controlled, but fire just burned everything.
“I’ve never liked betting on hope,” she muttered, but that wasn’t entirely true. When you got swept up in the nets of someone powerful, you didn’t have much left to your name but hope. Hope that they were looking out for you, and not just using you as grain in a mill.
“A ruthless enemy is a reliable ally. When their enemies were no more, they had peace.”
Eithan had been sure he was winning the game, right up until his opponents swept the cards off the table and stabbed him.
Only the Redflower family was untouched, as expected: a pair of Jai clansmen escorted a group with flowers on their chests away from the chaos of the battle. The Redflowers grew food for the Empire, and if one of them died, the Skysworn would come down on the Jai clan like a hammer.
Soulfire itself, and the process of weaving it from vital aura, gave Lords powers that no Gold could access.
The Path of the Endless Sword had no defense. Sword aura could not shield her, it could only cut.
“Tell me how,” he demanded, looking up at his rival. Then black scissors met his throat, and the pain blasted away his Enforcer technique. Time staggered back into focus. Eithan considered a moment. “I’ll tell your Remnant,” he said.
Razael, the Wolf, has expressed a personal grudge against Ozriel since the creation of the Reaper’s office. She was capable of depopulating an Iteration even before her first conscious contact with the Way, and Razael’s Sword was designed for the execution of Judges and Class One threats. The Wolf Division contains many destructive powers that are not public record, and Ozriel may have underestimated them. Makiel, the Hound. As the Judge of Fate, he is the only individual whose prediction skills rival Ozriel’s. In combat power alone, he was once considered capable of assuming the role of
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