And at the end of every life, as he lay dying, as he drew his final breath, a voice whispered in his ear. I have won again, Lews Therin. Flicker.
It is all right to hate them, Egwene. It is. They deserve it. But it isn’t all right to let them make you like they are.
Strong endures; hard shatters.” Cadsuane.
There was a limit to how many insults a man could swallow in silence.
Rand noticed trees split open as if struck by lightning. “The cold,” Lan answered when he asked. “Sometimes the winter is so cold here the sap freezes, and trees burst. There are nights when you can hear them cracking like fireworks, and the air is so sharp you think that might shatter, too. There are more than usual, this winter past.” Rand shook his head. Trees bursting? And that was during an ordinary winter. What must this winter have been like? Surely like nothing he could imagine.
You did not rise in the ships just through your ability to Weave the Winds or predict the weather or fix a position. You needed to read the intent that lay between the words of your orders, to interpret small gestures and facial expressions; you had to notice who deferred to whom, even subtly, for courage and ability alone took you only so high.
What are you two blathering about?” she said sharply. “Just things that men talk about,” Lan replied. “You wouldn’t understand,” Rand said.
There was a difference between being proud of a grand fireplace in your hall and walking into the flames.
Strangers and a gleeman, fireworks and a peddler. It was going to be the best Bel Tine ever.
Sometimes she thought the Creator had only made men to cause trouble for women.
Sometimes you had to laugh if only to keep from crying.
Why, to see, Loial said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I read the books, all the travelers’ accounts, and it began to burn in me that I had to see, not just read.
The whole day of Bel Tine would be taken up with singing and dancing and feasting, with time out for footraces, and contests in almost everything. Prizes would be given not only in archery, but for the best with the sling, and the quarterstaff. There would be contests at solving riddles and puzzles, at the rope tug, and lifting and tossing weights, prizes for the best singer, the best dancer and the best fiddle player, for the quickest to shear a sheep, even the best at bowls, and at darts.
Logic is always applicable to the real world,” Miyasi said dismissively, “but only a novice would think the real world can be applied to logic. Ideals must be first principles. Not the mundane world.
Men listened closer to calm tones than to the loudest shouts, so long as firmness and certainty accompanied the calm.
At the south end of the inn, away from the stream, stretched the remains of a much larger stone foundation, once part of the inn – or so it was said. A huge oak grew in the middle of it now, with a bole thirty paces around and spreading branches as thick as a man. In the summer, Bran al’Vere set tables and benches under those branches, shady with leaves then, where people could enjoy a cup and a cooling breeze while they talked or perhaps set out a board for a game of stones.
A wise man tried to avoid battles he would not only lose, but look foolish losing.
How do you know when a woman wants to kill you?” Rand mused. “When she knows your name?” Dobraine.
Which cliff did you choose? Pevara sent him. What? You said that when you were among the Sea Folk, they jumped off cliffs to prove their bravery. The higher the cliff, the braver the jumper. Which cliff did you choose? The highest, he admitted. Why? I figured that once you’ve decided to jump off a cliff, you might as well pick the highest one. Why accept the risk, if not for the greatest prize?
You have made a place in my heart where I thought there was no room for anything else.