Sequel: Grey Sister
The incredible opening line
IT IS IMPORTANT, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent Lano Tacsis brought two hundred men.
Only the fearless can understand their peril
Thorn stood without motion, for only when you are truly still can you be the centre. She stood without sound, for only silent can you listen. She stood without fear, for only the fearless can understand their peril.
Words are steps along a path, the important thing is to get where you're going
“To call something a lie, child, is an unhelpful characterization.” The abbess drew a deep breath, labouring up the slope. “Words are steps along a path: the important thing is to get where you’re going. You can play by all manner of rules, step-on-a-crack-break-your-back, but you’ll get there quicker if you pick the most certain route.” “But—” “Lies are complex things. Best not to bother thinking in terms of truth or lie—let necessity be your mother… and invent!”
Hunger lies beneath all of our ugliest transactions
A man driving a wagonload of children in a cage doesn’t have to state his business. A farmer whose flesh lies sunken around his bones, and whose eyes are the colour of hunger, doesn’t have to explain himself if he walks up to such a man. Hunger lies beneath all of our ugliest transactions.
On gladiator matches
THAT FIRST NIGHT the hall opened its doors and the world flowed in to see men bleed.
The real risk of bringing a person back
The real risk is when they bring a person back to their body—there are… beings… that will try to follow in their wake and find a home in their minds. The longer the person is kept on the boundary, the harder it is to keep out such passengers.
The history of the land has lessons more important than those of kings and dynasties
“Our history is wide and we are narrow, so perhaps its lessons no longer fit. Cut your cloth to your measure, some say. But the history of the land has lessons more important than those of kings and dynasties. The history of the ice is written there. The tale of our dying sun, etched into rock and glacier. These are the lessons we all live by. And when the moon fails we will die by them too.”
Training a sister
“We are not built for war. We are not fast—most every animal can outrun or evade us, be it hound, cat, rat, or sparrow. We are not strong—a mule, a hoola, a bear, all of them are pound for pound three, maybe five times as strong as man. And you are not men. “What we are is clever and precise. These are our tools. Wit and precision. I am teaching you to fight without weapons for two reasons. First, because there are times when you will be without a weapon. Second, because in training for such conflict you will learn about pain without getting broken, and you will learn about rage without killing.”
Children deserve honesty in the dark
“I thought you liked to lie.” Nona wriggled her hands in the yoke’s grip. It hurt. “I said lies can be very useful. Even children deserve honesty in the dark, though.”
Reflection on rushing decisions
The trip from could to should is short and allows little time for reflection.
Rain gods are fickle
The villagers had it that there were gods in the rain, just as there were gods in each river and wood. You could pray to them but generally by the time they got close enough to hear you it was too late to stay dry.
Skepticism towards prophecy
“There’s no such thing as prophecy, Nona. Or rather there is but it’s madmen that tell them, or people who were once listened to for their wisdom and have found themselves growing old and unwise yet still wanting to be heard. There’s no magic in it. Magic doesn’t work that way.”
Powerful prose on manipulation
Nona lay silent then, the pain of her wound pulsing, her hands and wrists burning with a deep fire. Abbess Glass was neither fast, nor strong, she had no obvious wealth, her office held no great sway, and yet with her truth and with her lies she had turned one wheel against another against another and in due course mountains had moved, the mighty had fallen, and the world sang the song she chose for it.
Bright yet short-lived lives
“Those that burn short burn bright. The shortest lives can cast the longest shadows.”
Facing death head-on
Your death has not been waiting for your arrival at the appointed hour; it has, for all the years of your life, been racing towards you with the fierce velocity of time’s arrow. It cannot be evaded; it cannot be bargained with, deflected or placated. All that is given to you is the choice: Meet it with open eyes and peace in your heart, go gentle to your reward. Or burn bright, take up arms, and fight the bitch.
Violence as a language
Violence is the language of destruction, flesh so often the subject, fragile, easy to break beyond repair, precious; what else would we burn to make the world take note?
A blade's calling
Any weapon begs use. The blade itself incites to violence. And those who mistake the red children of Sweet Mercy for anything other than a weapon are fools of their own breed.
Embracing the Path and power
Thorn stands savagely still but she walks the Path and with each step she gathers to herself the raw and fundamental power that both divides and joins creation. She is still, but the energies that build within tremble across her, making the air shake and the light dance.
Facing opponents head-on
They expect her to run. They know she will run. And she does. But at them.
Failure behind the bloodshed
“Blood is always a failure.” Sister Tallow’s glance flickered to Nona. “Often the failure of the sister who holds the sword. Sometimes of those who send her into conflict. Or sometimes the failure lies years back, in the hands of someone who missed an opportunity for peace, who saw a chance to avert a distant violence and did not take it… or who failed to see that chance.”
A better way to enforce authority
“You may be called upon to enforce the authority and the will of the church. It would be better if you did so in a manner that allows the transgressor to see the error of their ways rather than the contents of their body. The sword is a final solution.”
Unpredictable savagery
tear you apart—never the same way twice.
People-made disasters worse than nature’s
Some natural disasters were preferable to the sorts that people could wreak upon each other.
The danger in remembering our wildness
We’re wild things us men, and when we remember it we’re at our most dangerous.”
Books as transformative journeys
a book is as dangerous as any journey you might take. The person who closes the back cover may not be the same one that opened the front one. Treat books with respect.”
Love requires speed
There are some things that must be done quickly or not at all. If someone asks you if you love them you cannot hesitate. There are some paths that must be taken at speed.
Bloodstains of the past
She’d been covered in blood when she’d left the village, and though the blood had long since been washed away, the stains would never be gone.
The peril of unfiltered knowledge
“People always want to know things… until they hear them, and then it’s too late. Knowledge is a rug of a certain size, and the world is larger. It’s not what remains uncovered at the edges that should worry you, rather what is swept beneath.”
A god-made killer
The rage she had needed now filled her from toe to head, her body vibrating with it. “I was born for killing—the gods made me to ruin.”
Some emotions are too big to be seen from within
Nona stood there, casting no shadow, and found she could feel nothing for her friend. Some emotions are like that, too big to be seen from within, like the ice patterns, written across empty miles, which make sense only from a great height.
Courage is often found to be in short supply
IT IS IMPORTANT, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient bravery. For when Sister Cage of the Sweet Mercy Convent steps onto the battlefield courage is often found to be in short supply.