Season of Storms (The Witcher, #8)

by Andrzej Sapkowski

Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster; for if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

I consider gazing into the abyss utter foolishness. There are many things in the world much more worth gazing into. Dandelion, Half a Century of Poetry

The ones for whom thinking turned out to be a disagreeable and hazardous experience.

“The white one. He dresses in black, we’ll treat him to yin and yang.

You aren’t especially liked… Nor do you seek to be liked or popular.

And I’m alone, completely alone, endlessly alone among the strange and hostile elements. Solitude amid a sea of strangeness. Don’t you dream of that?” No, I don’t, he thought. I have it every day.

A night as short as the blink of an eye. A wild night, bright from lightning.

the mysterious power of a witcher’s sword is bound to the hand and skill of the witcher wielding it.

The elements and para-elements are imbued, as is known, with powerful energy, the source of all magic and supernatural force,

Steel smelted from a meteorite—and also blades forged from such steel—contains a great deal of such elements. It’s magical. The entire sword is magical.

What’s the point of knowing something if you can’t show off the knowledge?”

I’d prefer to be thought of as a supernatural creature armed with a supernatural weapon.

Cold was the only thing felt inside the black nothingness, amid silence, amorphousness and timelessness, because the teleport dulled and extinguished all the other senses.

Anxiety is never irrational, Geralt thought to himself. Aside from psychological disturbances. It was one of the first things novice witchers were taught. It’s good to feel fear. If you feel fear it means there’s something to be feared, so be vigilant. Fear doesn’t have to be overcome. Just don’t yield to it. And you can learn from it.

Shall I tell you, good witcher, what good people are? They’re people whom fate hasn’t blessed with the chance of profiting from the benefits of being evil.

And what can one do when faith is so strong?

Firstly, he was still alive, and where there’s life there’s hope,

“Because I often keep company with a certain poet. And he, when he has to choose between the real version of an event and a more attractive one, always chooses the latter, which he moreover embroiders.

“That idea could only occur to a complete idiot,”

what you used to be means more to people than what you are.

Lucky Dandelion’s not here, he thought, he’d have turned it into a ballad.

“Fuck that. I’m not staying here for a moment. I prefer sticking close to Geralt.”

“I find it astonishing,” Lytta repeated. “I’d never have expected it of him.” “Because you didn’t know him, Coral,” Yennefer replied calmly. “You didn’t know him at all.”

Owing to those few moments of reflection he fell behind.

“I won’t fight you,” Geralt repeated calmly. “But if you harm that woman you will die.”

My gleam penetrates the darkness, my brightness disperses the gloom.

“I’ve been waiting,” she murmured, pulling him inside. “I knew you’d come. And if you hadn’t I would have gone looking for you.”

On his back, he felt the familiar weight of his two swords, a weight he had been missing for a month. Which usually gave him peace and certainty.

“It’s not true that you did everything wrong.

“Illusions are what you think about. What you fear. And what you dream of.”

“Illusion.” He heard the aguara’s voice. “Everything is illusion.”

Something joins us, but not perfectly

Geralt stood up. “Time to ride, Dandelion.” “Oh, yes? Where to?” “Isn’t it all the same?” “Yes, by and large. Let’s go.”

He pulled back his hood and his snow-white hair positively shone in the sylvan twilight. Nimue almost cried out, bringing her fists to her mouth in an involuntary movement. It’s impossible, she thought, it’s absolutely impossible. I must be dreaming.

As long as darkness exists, witchers will be necessary. And darkness still exists!”

But it’s not true. There are things to be afraid of. Because darkness will always, always exist. And Evil will always rampage in the darkness, there will always be fangs and claws, killing and blood in the darkness. And witchers will always be necessary.

A sword whose gleam will penetrate the darkness, a sword whose brightness disperses the gloom.

Because everything that’s impossible today may become possible tomorrow.

“The road to your destiny is before you. A quite different road is before me.

The story goes on, the tale never ends.

“Everything is an illusion.”

Behind her was the black forest. Before her was the road, running between an avenue of willows. A road towards destiny.