The Lands beyond the World Quotes

“If you trusted Elfos in your ignorance of what would happen and fail to trust him now that you more fully know, that is not really trust at all. So which is it, Gabrel? Do you trust him, or do you not?”
― Mereda Hart Farynyk, The Lands beyond the World

“You suggest that he ought to have made us to be autonomous,” Gabrel observed. He thought for a few seconds. “If you had the ability to make your own bow and arrows,” he said, leaning towards her with a sort of controlled eagerness, “would you design them to spring to life and shoot themselves? Nay,” he smiled. “That would defeat the purpose, surely. You are an archer. You would wish to use them. You would not be pleased to have them running around on their own, and neither would you be happy to see them refusing to be used, sitting motionless and ineffective (assuming for a moment that bows and arrows can do such a thing as refuse). You would wish for them to shine in the excellence of their design—hitting their target speedily and truly as directed by your hands.”
― Mereda Hart Farynyk, The Lands beyond the World

“I have learned that there is little use or value in a life that is ruled by fear.”
― Mereda Hart Farynyk, The Lands beyond the World

“There could be no doubt, when in Gabrel’s presence, that he held incontestable authority. He could subdue the earth and cause men to bow at his feet, and yet he was kind. He did not cause those around him to shrink in fear as Lord Caldraeg had always done. He did not use his authority as a weapon to crush those who were weaker than he. Instead, he made those around him stronger—like Garridon, who had spent his life thinking he would never really learn what it was to be brave.”
― Mereda Hart Farynyk, The Lands beyond the World

“I know you,” Kalla whispered.
“Do you?” was all the woman said.
She did. Kalla knew this face. She knew the mingling of softness and steel in the woman’s stance. She knew the impression of agelessness—the feeling that here before her was someone ancient, someone who had seen countless worlds rise and fall but who was, at the same time, as a child, as one brand new, beholding the wonders of the universe for the first time.”
― Mereda Hart Farynyk, The Lands beyond the World

“Only the weak imitation of power had to steal life in order to give it. True power, true life, could give life as it pleased.”
― Mereda Hart Farynyk, The Lands beyond the World

“I can see that you have always had a sensitive soul—a soul that is sensitive to the true shape of things. It is in your design. While others fear the darkness and then laugh, telling themselves that it is all a child’s fancy—that there is nothing to fear, that they must be sensible—you have always known that there is more in the darkness than the mere blocking of physical light. Well before you fully understood it, you knew the truth of the unseen things of the world.”
― Mereda Hart Farynyk, The Lands beyond the World

“He could not deny what she had said. He was resigned to this—to walk in the Old Way no matter where it led him. He had long been resigned to it.”
― Mereda Hart Farynyk, The Lands beyond the World

“He was listening now, and what he heard told him that there was something amiss in King Haylan’s spirit. Where an honorable humility had once been, there was now vanity—vanity cloaked as kingly aplomb.”
― Mereda Hart Farynyk, The Lands beyond the World

“Garridon’s eyes, when they had met with Haylan’s, had assessed him, weighed him. Garridon’s had been the eyes of a man who followed a guidance that he deemed higher than the guidance of his king—and certainly than that of his princess—and that was why Farh did not like him.

And it was why Haylan did not like him either.”
― Mereda Hart Farynyk, The Lands beyond the World