The Sunlit Man

by Brandon Sanderson

Where had he Skipped to this time? And would it be far enough away to hide from the Night Brigade?

That smoke in the distance…was that the ground catching fire? From the light of the sun?

This wasn’t some soaring metropolis of technological splendor. It was a desperate exercise in survival.

Wind against his face, the landscape shrinking below. It reminded him of better times. Pure, crisp air acting like a moral decongestant.

He’d learned long ago during his travels: skimp on shirts if you must, but never on footwear.

“Your planet shouldn’t have different countries. You should have conquered and unified it all.” “Conquest doesn’t remove countries,” Nomad said. “It removes lines on a map. Unity requires something else.”

“Once, before I rose to my destiny, I was the man who marched prisoners to their fates. There, I realized that true power is not in the ability to kill, but in the ability to control the killers.”