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This is the last laugh of the Ash Lord, and the debut of his heir.
“Because hope is an opiate, not a plan.”
“These are not injurious queries, Diomedes. If I don’t know how strong you are, why would I choose you for a dancing partner, young man?” “Because all others are taken, and the song creeps upon crescendo.”
If Gold loses, the Republic will fracture into kingdoms. The kingdoms to fiefdoms. The fiefdoms to tribes. It will become a dark age of fractured planets and war for three hundred years.”
Is a man a coward if he realizes that bravery is just a myth the old tell the young so they line up for the meatgrinder?
I no longer trust stillness. Stillness is the enemy taking careful aim.
Amongst the icy peaks, Ajax took us headlong at any threat like some possessed Homeric hero.
Well...it's in the name really!!
That not a single man questions her appointment is proof enough of her reputation. They call her Six, meaning she’s always got your back.
But I reject the concept of doubt. Darrow and Pax do not die. It is a paradigm of my life that will be true until proven beyond reasonable doubt.
Ephraim the Reptile. Ephraim the Climber. Ephraim the … oh shit.
“Life is meant to be felt. Else why live? Valleys make the mountains.”
He does not wish us to change or practice shameful arts. But he is just a man. Men are impulsive and blinded by the snake between their legs.”
He comes back around and crouches in front of the overwhelmed Pink, cackling with laughter. “Boyo, sorry to be the one to tell you this. But I think you just got skullfucked.”
As if they held some great secret of life that I was too young, too foolish, to possess. I craved them so much—maybe as much as my father craved for whatever his desire actually was. But now, in possessing them, I see them for what they are; and they all feel lesser for that possession, as does indeed the world itself.
“Sevro, could you fetch my cane? My legs ache.” “Slag off, old man. I’m not a servant. I’m a terrorist war—” “Now!” Kavax booms. “It’s just outside the Crescent Vault. Fetch it or Sophocles will bite you!”
Maybe it is Daxo who is the weed and not Publius? I sense some fishiness here...
A demon from the past, now undead. Lilath. My brother’s dog of war. She is alive. She is the Queen of the Syndicate. How? Lilath begins to laugh at
I return to my room and take Pax’s key from my luggage. I wrap its chain around my neck and hold it as I stare at the ceiling.
“My people have a word,” Sefi murmurs to me, “rahgschni. There is no translation in the Common tongue. As close as can be said is: the sorrow one feels in seeing fresh morning snow, knowing its beauty cannot last.”
“I don’t hate him. I mean I do, but I don’t. If that makes sense. I hate him for leaving for Venus, but not for Mercury. At his best, he’s how men should be. So maybe that means it’s the world that’s flawed.”
“Whatever you do, don’t bleed into the rib cage.” “Huh?” “If the campaign fails and you’ve given a blood wager, you’re killed in ritual homicide.” “Yeah. I’m going to need a few more details. Walk and talk, kid. Walk and talk.”
Love these two
Is this what war is? It’s so bloody … jarring. I always thought by watching the holos and the parades that it was more sophisticated, organized. But it’s just so … blunt, clumsy even. Is this what my brothers see every day? Even if they come back, is this what’s behind their eyes?
“Problem? You ask if we have a problem?” The folds of his neck twist red as he cranes his head to glare at me like a frazzled yet contemptuous owl. “Young man, you bamboozled me into helping you activate the Storm Gods under the pretense that you would use them only in a limited capacity, and instead turned a city I love into a coral reef. Any compassion I had for your cause has been drowned by the encroaching sea. Yet if I do not help you again, as you so eloquently and brutally elucidated when you browbeat me into helping you on this fool’s errand to rid you from my planet, the city of my
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This is teaaaa omg what a read
It’s a nuance so particular the notion that he would think to imitate it beggars belief.”
Oop-
I turn to Harmony and see her looking down, childish with fear. She thought they were her salvation. “Those are adults,” I tell her. “They won’t kill you. They’ll give you enough poison to paralyze you, and then they’ll burrow their eggs inside. Few days’ time, you’ll be gobbled up from inside out.” “Poetry in motion. Bye, bitch,” Victra says and then grabs Harmony’s belt and collar and hurls her into the pit.
There’s a lurch. A sudden pressure in my chest. He pulls away, his hand holding something red as he mouths a word dead to my ears. “Worthy.” Then he takes a bite of my heart.
Wut......
He knows the dangers of the path I have chosen to walk, and he doubts me because the old do not remember the necessities of youth. They see only the years on our horizon to which they think we are entitled. But we are entitled only to the moment, and owe nothing to the future except that we follow our convictions.
I shape my razor from its long form to the slingBlade. The dread monster rises in the belly of me. Laughter spews from between my teeth. I would die for the truth that all men are created equal. But in the kingdom of death, amidst ramparts of bodies and wind all of screams, there is a king, and his name is not Lune. It is Reaper.
But they taught in the ludus the surest path between two points ain’t always the shortest.”
“What does Mars mean to you, Nakamura?” I ask. The Terran hesitates. “Hope. And you, my liege?” “War.” I turn on a heel for the hangar.
