Eleventh Cycle (Mistland, #1)

by Kian N. Ardalan

“But there was one thing Igura suffered from—his emotions. Bound by fears that played tricks on his mind and turned his quiet nights into fitful nightmares. His passion for things was uncontrollable. Always he would bound upon things and be distracted, and whenever he was faced with the same lesson, the alluring promise of deceptive hope made him repeat it all again. “Fear, passion, hope, benevolence and will: these were the five aspects that made Igura who he was. Yet four of those things warred with each other, fed into one another, and made all of Igura’s talents useless. “So instead, he absolved himself of those emotions, expelled them into mortal coils to wander off and suffer alone. But as Igura travelled the world facing monsters, he realised the more difficult the challenges, the more foolish he was. Pure will: that was all he had. He had no fear to teach him wisdom when entering the lair of a beast, no passion to compel him forward when will was not enough, no hope to have him search in darkness what he could not find in light, and no compassion to mend the scars when the dirt settled and just a land of death surrounded him.