Season of Storms (The Witcher, #6)

by Andrzej Sapkowski

Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster; for if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you.

I know how things can grow into fairy tales. Particularly among the common folk, with them there’s always either a miracle or a marvel, or some witcher with superhuman powers.

However, she refrained from bluntly bringing to his attention that things had been out of kilter and stinking in his kingdom for ages, that there was next to no order in it, and that the only ‘Harmony’ known to his subjects was a harlot of the same name at the portside brothel. And mixing up in it women and motherhood – or aversion to motherhood – was evidence not only of misogyny, but also imbecility.

There was no problem for the boys rejected by Ban Ard – they joined the diplomatic service, the army, navy or police while politics was left for the stupidest.

With him it’s nothing but books, legal codes, articles, rules. Well, that and evidence, evidence and once again that evidence of his. Like that story about the goat and the cabbage. Know it? They once locked a goat in a barn with a head of cabbage. In the morning, there wasn’t a trace of it and the goat was shitting green. But there was no evidence or witnesses, so they dismissed the case, causa finita.

The artilleryman using the invention, when asked about the weapon’s usefulness, apparently said that the missile-hurler was like his mother-in-law. Heavy, ugly, totally useless and only fit to be taken and thrown in a river.

Which was why he knew that declarations about their safety could be classified along with such statements as: ‘my little dog doesn’t bite’, ‘my son’s a good boy’, ‘this stew’s fresh’, ‘I’ll give you the money back the day after tomorrow at the latest’, ‘he was only getting something out of my eye’, ‘the good of the fatherland comes before everything’, and ‘just answer a few questions and you’re free to go’.

Anxiety is never irrational, Geralt thought to himself. Aside from psychological disturbances. It was one of the first things novice witchers were taught. It’s good to feel fear. If you feel fear it means there’s something to be feared, so be vigilant. Fear doesn’t have to be overcome. Just don’t yield to it. And you can learn from it.

Shall I tell you, good witcher, what good people are? They’re people whom fate hasn’t blessed with the chance of profiting from the benefits of being evil. Or alternatively people who were given a chance but were too stupid to take advantage of it.

‘Lot number three: an ivory device, of a . . . hmm . . . curved and elongated shape . . . hmm . . . probably used for massage. Foreign provenance, age unknown. Starting price: a hundred crowns. To my left, a hundred and fifty. Two hundred, the lady in the mask with number forty-three. Two hundred and fifty, the lady in the veil with number eight. Do I hear three hundred? Three hundred, to the wife of apothecary Vorsterkranz. Three hundred and fifty! Going for the last time. Sold

If people pay for something they believe in it: whatever is paid for becomes real and legal. The more expensive, the better.’

what you used to be means more to people than what you are.

Until now, all progress has done is to persuade us that darkness is only a glimmering superstition, that there’s nothing to be afraid of. But it’s not true. There are things to be afraid of. Because darkness will always, always exist. And Evil will always rampage in the darkness, there will always be fangs and claws, killing and blood in the darkness. And witchers will always be necessary.

‘A novice of a school where they teach that nothing is impossible. Because everything that’s impossible today may become possible tomorrow.