The Darkness That Comes Before (The Prince of Nothing, #1)

by R. Scott Bakker

“No soul moves alone through the world, Leweth. Our every thought stems from the thoughts of others. Our every word is but a repetition of words spoken before. Every time we listen, we allow the movements of another soul to carry our own.”

“No one’s soul moves alone, Leweth. When one love dies, one must learn to love another.”

A calligraphy of cries. The thud of astonished flesh. He speared the ecstasy from their inhuman faces, stepped among them and snuffed out their beating hearts.

“That’s the horrible fact of sinners. We’re indistinguishable from the righteous.”

Answers are like opium: the more you imbibe, the more you need. Which is why the sober man finds solace in mystery.”

“Often,” he continued, touching her cheek and brushing her tears into her hair, “when the world denies us over and over, when it punishes us as it’s punished you, Serwë, it becomes difficult to understand the meaning. All our pleas go unanswered. Our every trust is betrayed. Our hopes are all crushed. It seems we mean nothing to the world. And when we think we mean nothing, we begin to think we are nothing.”

“The absence of understanding,” Kellhus replied, “is not the same as absence. You mean something,