Opposite the Half-Axe was the narrow-fronted entrance to a shop devoted to short lengths of rope and wooden poles a man and a half high. Tehol had no idea how such a specialized enterprise could survive, especially in this unravelled, truncated market, yet its door had remained open for almost six centuries, locked up each night by a short length of rope and a wooden pole.
Odd, isn’t it, how we now deliver upon another nation what we would not have done to ourselves.
Never bargain with a man who has nothing to lose.
People who make up their minds about something never listen to advice – especially when it’s to the contrary.
The dead are ever refashioned, for they have no defence against those who would use or abuse them – who they were, what their deeds meant.
Men. It’s all about saving face. Every argument, every duel, every battle, every war. You would level a world to keep from being made to look a fool. And so you shall.
Guilt is the first weed we pluck, to keep the garden pretty and smelling sweet.
A civilization at war chooses only the most obvious enemy, and often also the one perceived, at first, to be the most easily defeatable. But that enemy is not the true enemy, nor is it the gravest threat to that civilization. Thus, a civilization at war often chooses the wrong enemy.
What I, Karsa Orlong, shall shape, you cannot imagine. No one can.
Lying with lovers also belonged to night, and that made sense, for it was in the midst of true darkness that the first fire of life was born, flickering awake to drive back the unchanging absence of light. To lie with a lover was to celebrate the creation of fire. From this in the flesh to the world beyond.
The demands of the self have primacy, mistress. Always, else there would be no champions. There would be no hierarchy at all. The Seguleh would be ruled by mewling martyrs blindly trampling the helpless in their lust for the common good. Or we would be ruled by despots who would hide behind an army to every challenge, creating of brute force a righteous claim to honour. We know of other lands, mistress. We know much more than you think.
We are not born innocent, simply unmeasured... Until the outside is inflicted on the inside, then the brutal war begins. We are not born to compassion either – large wide eyes and sweet demeanor notwithstanding.
The councilman staggered to one side, his sword clanging on the stones as he clutched at the gushing wound in his neck.
And so we weep for the fallen. We weep for those yet to fall, and in war the screams are loud and harsh and in peace the wail is so drawn-out we tell ourselves we hear nothing.
We have witnessed life’s myriad struggles. From the lone creature suffering its last moments to thousands dying in a bleak season. And what have we learned? Only that life is its own purpose. And that, where there is life, there shall be suffering. Has it any meaning? Is existence reason enough?
Young? He’d hear his own harsh, pained laugh. Oh, no, not this lass. She’s old. She walked under a blood-red moon in the dawn of time, did this one. Her face is the face of all that cannot be fathomed, and she’s looking you in the eye, Whiskeyjack, and you’ll never know what she’s thinking.
We faced a choice then,’ Haut went on. ‘To resume our onward journey, or to turn round, to discover the blessing that is walking back the way we came. In our standing in one place, we argued for centuries, until finally, in our mutual and well-deserved disgust, we each chose our own paths.’ ‘And so ended your civilization.’ ‘It was never much of one to begin with. But then, few are.
The air swirled into darkness around Paran. He blinked, saw the trees of the estate garden rising before him.
Whiskeyjack’s eyes widened as a crowd of excited guests poured out from the main chamber and gathered on the terrace.
Unwitnessed... is what happens when nobody survives.