The Light of All That Falls (The Licanius Trilogy, #3)

by James Islington

This group consisted of eleven men and women: Tal’kamar, Gassandrid, Alaris, Andrael, Wereth, Tysis, Asar, Meldier, Isiliar, Diara, and Cyr.

I’m trying to be the man I aspire to be, rather than the man you knew.”

Such was Shammaeloth’s nature, though. Those who were most steeped in his corruption somehow had the hardest time seeing it—something for which Caeden could barely blame them. He knew that myopic haze all too well.

You may have the memory of our friendship, Tal’kamar, but I am no longer convinced that you are my friend.”

I cannot expect people to trust me if I will not trust them in return.”

That memory, above all, Davian had done everything he could to forget. It was no easy thing, to watch your own death.

This violence was awful, barbaric, but he had seen far worse over the past few years. Such things didn’t shock him as they once would have. That worried him, sometimes.

“What you know comes from our history books, and our history books come from us. The Venerate. They are… incomplete, at best. Filled only with what we want others to know.”

“Anything that makes you actually question this path of yours is a blessing, Tal’kamar,”

“We are not here to start up old arguments,

“You presume to make moral judgments on a society not your own, on people whose situation is vastly different from yours.”

I was reminded that as unknowable as El’s plan might be, there always is one. Even when we don’t like where it takes us.”

“It is the smart decision, Sire.” “I know.” Wirr looked out over the sunlit plains. “I just hope it’s the right one.”

“We learn from mistakes, not perfection.”

“In a fight, the only counter to someone who can move faster than you is to be smarter than them. Anticipate. And to some extent, be lucky.”

Alliances made from convenience only ever weaken a cause.

These quiet moments were too rare, and went unappreciated too often.

Truth can be a burden, but secrets are poison.”

The smart thing to do was to accept this—infuriatingly unjust though it was—and be on his way.

Fates, but he hated duty.

Faithful people suffer and evil people prosper all the time, Davian—you must know that is true. Besides, if our actions are driven only by reward or punishment—eternal or otherwise—then they are motivated by greed and selfishness, not faith or love. That is where so many people go wrong, even those who say they believe in El. They obey because they think it will make their lives better, rather than themselves. And that is very much the wrong reason.”

You should never judge the sides of an argument simply by who is doing the arguing.”

“Because we’re meant to realize that this is important, and figure it out for ourselves. ‘No decision without doubt,’”

“El could convince the world in a heartbeat—but if He did, it would no longer be our choice to follow Him. Instead, He enables us to choose Him.”

You want to know why he moved me? He gave me the gift of doubt. He made me examine myself. He made me question.”

“Some people need to be told what they want to hear to make them perform better, but others need the truth.

They couldn’t let trying to survive here strip them of everything that made that survival mean something.

Evil men rarely convince others to their side by asking them to perform dark deeds for no good reason. They will always start with the lightest shade of gray. They so often use what seems like a good cause.”

what’s right isn’t always what’s legal. And that the opposite can be true, too.”

“Law is about order, not right and wrong,” Taeris agreed. “And the latter should always trump the former.”

It was hard not to let his failures, and the feeling that he wasn’t going to be able to overcome them, weigh on him.

I just couldn’t forgive myself if I had the chance to make a difference for the world he’ll grow up in, and I chose not to try.”

“Killing in war is sometimes necessary. That doesn’t mean that war necessitates killing,”

“It’s not enough to fight for the right side. You have to figure out how to fight the right way, too. If winning is truly all that matters, then we’ve lost sight of what’s actually right and wrong in the first place.”

He was the only way their forces could effectively communicate. If he fell asleep, people lost their lives. The thought steeled him, forced him past his exhaustion and brought the world back into focus.

Even the bravest among them could let the instinct for self-preservation force them to take a step back, and then another, and then another.

“Then fates with us all,” he said, giving the Andarran salute to the people below.

“Because the things we crave are wonderful blindfolds,”

I ask you: If you are so certain that you are right, why would you fear knowledge?

“The past is the past, and you cannot break me with it. It has no hold over me anymore.”

“You were tempted, but you made the right decision in the end. That’s what matters.” “Only because of you.” “Your choices, Tal. Always your choices. Influences don’t get blame or credit.”

“Sometimes it’s hard to see the extent of your vanity until it’s too late.”

“Sometimes the choice is doing something that we believe is important, despite.”