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“If you sought optimism from a hermit whose head is stitched together with golden wire then you are a bigger fool even than you look. Which would be quite an achievement.”
“Fear is like cold water. A little is a fine thing, it fixes you on what counts. But too much will freeze you. You must make a box inside your mind, and put your fear inside, and lock it.”
“I suppose… It could have been… worse?” “How, exactly?” The Arch Lector raised one brow. “Well, nothing’s on fire.”
He hadn’t learned yet that hate’s the one thing never runs out.
Like Rikke’s father used to say, you want things right, you have to put ’em right yourself.
the thinkers, philosophers, engineers—had hoped for a new age of reason. Instead had come an age of madness.
The chair squeaked from the room and the doors were shut upon Sand dan Glokta. The era of Old Sticks was at an end.
But then the worst betrayals often happen in good weather.
I suspect she does not want us to become sad ghosts haunting the halls where we were once powerful.
“Everyone should forgive themselves, Vick.” He gave her wrist another squeeze then let her go, looking out towards the lake again. “After all… no one else will.”
“Well, you’re a big man, so you wouldn’t understand. When you’re small, you have to take chances.
“I find reputations rarely fit people all that well. What are they, after all, but costumes we put on to disguise ourselves?”
“I understand cowards,” said Pike softly. “I used to be one. Who among us never had a weak moment, after all? It cannot all be darkness. We must have a little mercy.” He leaned sideways to whisper it. “As long as no one sees.”
Trouble was like hunger to him. Stuffing your face till you’re sick one day doesn’t mean you won’t want lunch the next. All you do is sharpen your appetite. And here he was, in spite of all his empty promises, back at the table again with his cutlery ready, clamouring to be served.
“Bravery’s not about feeling no fear,” he said, turning the man firmly around. “Bravery’s about standing anyway. The king’s counting on us, you understand? You going to let these Northern bastards bully us? On our ground? Now get back there.”
“Maybe’s a game with no winners.” Shivers turned that ring on his little finger thoughtfully around. “I let go o’ my regrets. You’ll swim better without their weight.”
“Sounds somewhat underhanded put that way. But once you’ve stabbed a man in the back, you’re best off stabbing him a few more times, don’t you reckon? Make sure of the job.”
“What my father would’ve said, once he got over the shock of seeing me here.” And Rikke looked up. “Sitting in it’s nothing special. It’s staying in it that’s the trick.”
It was a surprise, in a way, to hear that birds still sang. To see the sun still rose and the wind still blew. But things go on.
