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February 28 - June 24, 2024
adults in their own minds and no one else’s.
They only cared about the sons of rich Ossians, who could be trained as loyal and useful servants of the Empire.
‘“All things can wait but supper and lovers”,’
Bravery loved company, but Aren had long ago learned that shame was best borne alone.
‘There is no victory without sacrifice,
We learn the world in our youth and believe that is how things are. To unlearn it … Well, I wonder if we ever really do. And, sometimes, if we should.’
‘I don’t tell you enough. You’re all that is good in me,
Whenever I think of the choices I’ve made, the things I’ve done, I think of you, and I know I took the right path.
speak from the heart required more bravery than any physical risk. To heal a wound was so much harder than to cause one.
Her moods had always surged and faded suddenly. Emotions crashed upon her like stormy waves on the rocks,
the gap between intention and action was always wider than he thought,
‘Yes! Wait, no! Grub punch ghosts in the face!’
The scraps of information he’d gathered about Rapha were like swiped brushstrokes on a canvas. By themselves, they signified nothing; but step back, see how they joined, and a picture emerged that was truer than the sum of its parts.
Trading
away pieces of his future so they might have a future at all.
There is no victory without...
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No country that called itself civilised should incarcerate a boy for courting the wrong girl, nor should sons be punished for the crimes of their fathers.
Aren opened his mouth to argue, then didn’t. In his heart, he knew the Skarl was right. Slipping over the stockade behind the guard was the stuff of stories.
Let each dawn find you different. Agalie used to say that, back when Vika was just an acolyte. Every day, a person should learn something, experience something, do something that left them changed, even in a small way.
always believed that any attention was better than none at all.
Gods don’t make the greatest role models.’
‘Grub want to help excessively angry man.’
‘Empires fall,’ said Garric. ‘The urds had their turn, and so did we. The Krodans style themselves as the Third Empire, but their time will come, just as it did for all the others.’
The Krodans fashioned a new god to suit them,
Nor do they need ranks of priests and clerics to tally donations and preach to the people.’
The reality of his father’s absence crushed him like an avalanche
Don’t get close to them, Cade, he thought. It’ll only hurt the worse when we leave them behind.
it was easier to fear the unknown than to love it.
how close he’d come to being duped, and he loathed Garric for being right.
Think of all that’s ahead of you. Think of all the things you’ll do. On the other side of this, there’s a lifetime waiting. You just have to beat this moment. A little bit more, that’s all. It’ll be over before you know it.
A new dawn, a new start, and new hope. The daily miracle.
nothing so slow as justice.
He was the authority here, and authority didn’t ache, or tire,
or become irritated or impatient. Authority was inhuman and perfect.
Those who do not stand united will fall apart.
People lied in a straight line; they thought they had to construct a narrative to be believable. But the truth usually came jumbled, and from all directions at once.
Today’s empires are tomorrow’s ashes.
Her head was bowed, her eyes closed and her mouth moving in prayer.
She was offering thanks to the doe for the gift of its life, and to Ogg, Aspect of Beasts, for a successful hunt.
To bad we don’t appreciate what we are given these days.
The young are always in a rush to know everything, but knowledge only brings more questions. Forget the destination, Aren; enjoy the journey. You are free now in a way you have never been, and the choices you make now will determine who you are to become.’
Sometimes he wondered if the Ossians had it right after all. They didn’t spend their days fretting about how they might seem more loyal and efficient, or sizing up their rivals’ backs for the best place to stick a knife.
Because my promotion depends on him. Because I swore to Chancellor Draxis that I would bring him in. Because I’ll be ruined and humiliated if I don’t.
To overcome your enemy, you must first understand him.
How can we ever move on, when we won’t let ourselves forget the past?
The truth was always worth the consequences.
She’s tough, but she’s young, and not as grown up as she thinks.
This wasn’t what he’d imagined when he chose to stay with Garric at the Reaver’s Rest. He was nothing but a support player, a footnote, condemned to watch while another man wrote himself into legend. He didn’t crave adulation or excitement, but when bards sang of the day Ossia reclaimed the Ember Blade, he wanted to at least get a mention.
It’s funny how in our younger days we are so eager to put our stamp on the world. Without a thought to how it will effect us later in life.
but then he didn’t understand a lot about women. They operated by some mysterious logic that was incomprehensible to him, their moods swept here and there by secret currents of meaning and implication he wasn’t capable of detecting. It was annoying in those he didn’t like, alluring in those he did.
😂
Aren shrugged. ‘What’s history but a series of lessons we didn’t learn?’
He was obsessed with Garric, and Cade was starting to find his anger tiresome. Garric was a hero who’d saved their lives over and over. It was the Krodans that killed Randill, not him. The worst Garric had done was hit Aren a few times, and it was hard for Cade to see what the fuss was about there, since he was no stranger to a clouting from his da. He knew Aren’s feelings on the issue were complex and all, but couldn’t he just let it go?
