The Raven Tower

by Ann Leckie

This priest knew to be patient. She knew from experience, hers and her predecessors’, that it could take a very long time to teach language to a god.

It was not essential, I thought, to use one particular set of words or way to say them, but rather to use the words that were right in that particular moment, in those particular circumstances.

I thought about that. I thought about the way it seemed nothing could happen without power of some sort, including plants growing.

“People are dying, and they’re sitting here listening to rumors. And spreading them.”