The Warrior Prophet (The Prince of Nothing, #2)

by R. Scott Bakker

“And just fucking what,” the Galeoth Prince said, shocked by the savagery of his own voice, “is that supposed to fucking mean?”

He’d exceeded his daily ration of idiots.

“And this, children, is what I shall teach you. How to be a tree. How to war for space …” “But trees don’t move,” another said. “They move,” the Pragma replied, “but they are slow. A tree’s heart beats but once every spring, so it must war in all directions at once. It must branch and branch until it obscures the sky. But you, your hearts beat many, many times, you need only war in one direction at a time. This is how men seize space.”

By calling them such, you simply do what all men do when assailed by the Unknown: you drag it into the circle of what you know.

Emptiness always laughed.