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I have commanded armies. I have waged war, true war in all its myriad incarnations. I have come to understand it like none other before me, and none other will after I am gone. People think war is a concept inflicted upon the weak by the powerful. A contest of battles, a push and pull of opposing forces struggling for dominance, searching for that one move that would cut off the head and let the war die. That is a lie. War is a living thing, unique to humanity amongst the physical and spiritual kingdoms, and it mimics its conceptualists with alarming accuracy. A war starts small. An idea, a
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-Xiaodan Wei
"Chaoxiang wrote that no war is lost while the will to fight persists."
The choice between change or death was no choice at all.
What good did the gods serve if not to toy with mortals?
"Weapons are not dangerous," said the goddess as she slid her Monk into place. "Nor is a man with a weapon. A person's
skill and intent are the real danger."
"Wars are waged by some, yet fought by others," she said, quoting Chaoxiang. "But death makes no distinction."
"Wars are not won by heroics," Yuu said, reaching for one of her Monks. "They are won by sacrifice. Every war has a cost, and it is paid in blood."
"Knowledge without wisdom often leads to a misuse of power,"
"Truth is a bubble of air trapped underwater," she said as she analysed the new state of the board. "It is always looking for a way to the surface, and given even the slightest path, it will escape."
"Do not ask for victory," the goddess said, as if reading Yuu's mind. "Take it." "But know that someday someone will not ask you for victory."
No bars are ever as sturdy as those we forge for ourselves.
sometimes victory can only be seen hanging in the jaws of defeat.
"We are never more vulnerable than in the moment of victory,"
Rules are for losers to believe they have a chance at victory."
"Do you gods enjoy meddling in the affairs of mortals?" Natsuko cackled. "It is the entire reason we exist."
That certainly sounded like something the gods would dream up. Humans do all the work and then praise the divine for their blessings. The gods, on the other hand, receive a reward for merely existing. It was the very definition of religion.
"Mistakes are like wrinkles," Natsuko said as she snapped together the last few pieces of the game and put them away in her pouch. "The older we get, the more we have, and we forget them until we look in a mirror."
Well, you will never again be who you are right now. Change is as inevitable as time. So, you might as well get comfortable with who you're going to be and stop mourning who you were."
