Knife of Dreams (The Wheel of Time, #11)

by Robert Jordan

He had thought he would feel satisfaction that his mother had been avenged, but all he felt was emptiness.

“Stone cracks from a hard enough blow,” she said, her face an Aes Sedai mask of calm. “Steel shatters. The oak fights the wind and breaks. The willow bends where it must and survives.”

She was willing to help them learn, which was usually just a matter of strengthening a girl’s confidence

“A beautiful battle is one you don’t have to fight,”