Dark Age Quotes

"My people have a word, rahgschni. There is no translation in the Common tongue. As close as can be said is: the sorrow one feels in seeing fresh morning snow, knowing its beauty cannot last."

"What think you the dead are? Why, dust and clay, What should they be? ’Tis the last hour of day. Look on the west, how beautiful it is Vaulted with radiant vapours! The deep bliss of that unutterable light Perhaps the only comfort which remains Is the unheeded clanking of my chains, The which I make, and call it melody."

"Dwell not on me, mortal. Nocturnal devils are afoot. Awake, arise, or be forever fallen."

"Cry not, mortal child,” a voice says in the darkness. “They come on wings of sable, to rend your precious flesh, and send you to the doom which lies beyond this realm of pain."

"Time hath no tide but must abide The servant of Thy will; Tide hath no time, for to Thy rhyme The ranging stars stand still— Regent of spheres that lock our fears Our hopes invisible, Oh ’twas certes at Thy decrees We fashioned Heaven and Hell!"

"Got caught stealing said frizeé and was gonna get cuffed real bad by the local urbanes, when a man piped up for me. Said I was with him. The urbanes gave him one look, a long salute, and went on their way. He was a Gray. Looked such a legend, leaning on the fountain like he owned it. Had a Titan Rain badge on his chest, a shattered Rhea beneath, a shower of golden teardrops on his face, inky in Legio XIII blacks. You weren’t around then, but even Golds gave that sort a nod.” I roll my burner in my hands. “Smoked that burner like the unimpressed footman of a god. I remember that clear as day. Jove, he looked slick. He gave me my first. Like I’m giving you yours. I asked him if he was a hero, and he looked me dead in the eyes”—Pax looks over—“and he said, ‘Fuck heroes, kid. It’s all about being slick enough to squeak through. That’s the last man standing.’ Took that to heart. And here I bloody am."

"I don’t hate him. I mean I do, but I don’t. If that makes sense. I hate him for leaving for Venus, but not for Mercury. At his best, he’s how men should be. So maybe that means it’s the world that’s flawed."

"They do not see your worth. But I do, Horn. I see fear in you. Most run from that fear. But you, you spit in its face.” She lowers her face to mine. “As do I. As do I."

"I find your face disturbing. It is soft. Like goat cheese. But I do not complain."

"Gift from the gods.” I roll my eyes. “We’re flying in a spaceship. Your ancestors were made in test tubes. The nightgaze by a drunk Violet. And you believe in gods? Hell, I get the racket. For a man you’ve done right fine by yourself with the matriarchs. But stop trying to con a conman."

"Here lie Martians all Thralls of the Slave King Who thought with wicked delight to take your planet’s treasure and break their Master’s might All ye who enter here: witness their work, and despair"

"Sometimes it’s better to let a wheel squeak than break the cart trying to fix it."

"The more blessed the creature, the less they question life."

"Cruelty is the heart of myth."

"What I have seen was no trick. Fire and ash will come. And end of worlds. Serpent will strangle wolf. Lion will battle lion. Darkness will battle light. Sister murder brother. Son murder father. Father murder daughter. This is what the fire told me. All I have seen has come true. As others are consumed, Sefi will rise from the ashes to bind the Obsidians, to become one with Red, to found a kingdom watched over by a gray fox. Watched over by you."

"The Allfather speaks one truth, and that is might."

"Only blinded do liars finally see."

"Soft head, hard bullet. Bad combination, bitch."

"O my mountain hyacinth, what shepherds trod upon you with clumsy, rustic foot? Now you are a broken seal: a scarlet stain upon the earth. Figmentum es Figmentum es Figmentum es FIGMENTUM ES FIGMENTUM ES FIGMENTUM ES Accolades, sister. You have killed Figment. You are Figment. Do not report for duty, a soft female voice says within my head. My wrath be thine."

"Self-pity is the plebeian’s luxury. All that occurs is either endurable or unendurable. If it is endurable, endure it. If it is unendurable, follow your mother."

"We all want to be special. It must ache to discover you are not."

"Apparently Howlers do kneel."

"Tell me: why are cows different from people? Cows have dreams. Cows have affection for their friends and family. If you are going to say it is because cows are less intelligent than people, it is acceptable to slaughter them, why is not acceptable for me to slaughter people who are proportionately less intelligent to me than cows are to them? And if you say it is because people feel more, then I invite you to stab a cow and a human in the throat and see how very similar they are."

"the moment you become Sovereign, you become loneliest person in all the worlds, because there is no new endeavor, no new height to which you can ascend. Whatever loneliness is already inside you is magnified, because if you were lucky enough to have anyone understand you before, they won’t understand you after you sit in the Morning Chair. Only one person alive at a time knows what it means to be Sovereign."

"On the day she took me to see the cows die, I had a thought. I asked Lilath to build me an iron cow. She built me the iron wolf instead, as I knew she would. One day soon, I will melt her inside it."