The Kingdom Of Gods

Unconditional love: childhood’s greatest magic.

Magic is merely communication, after all.

Communication, and conduits.

I’d come down sick. (I had. It was called adolescence, an evil, evil disease.)

Those with power would always find some way to exert it over those who didn’t.

Unreasoning optimism is a fundamental element of childishness.

Fear was like poison to mortals; it killed their rationality.

“When things are bad, change is good, right? Change means things will get better.”

Peace is meaningless without freedom.

Mother always said that if one must do something unpleasant, one should do it wholeheartedly and not waste effort on regret.

That was the way of things, after all. Children had to grow up. They did not always become what others wanted.

Sky’s forecourt had been designed by my late sister, Kurue, who had understood two key elements of the mortal psyche: they hate being reminded of their own insignificance, yet they simultaneously and instinctively expect their leaders to be overwhelmingly dominant.

It is a massive palace, each spire of which could house a village; its chambers contain dozens of entertainments. All of these become tedious to the point of torment after two thousand years. Hells, after twenty.

It takes great strength to compromise, Shahar. More than it does to threaten and destroy, since you must fight your own pride as well as the enemy.

There was no point in making myself suffer unnecessarily. As a mortal, there would be pain enough in my life, whether I sought it out or not.

This was what I’d asked her to give me. I had no right to complain just because it wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

If they will not love me, fear is an acceptable substitute.

The child in her wanted to do as she pleased, cling to impossible hopes. The woman in her wanted to make sound decisions, succeed even if it meant sacrifice. The woman would win; that was inevitable. But the child would not go quietly.

Well. Adolescence is all about making mistakes.

It was the oldest of tricks, to sow dissension between groups that had common interests. Good for deflecting attention from greater mischief, too.

Funny thing, employment. If you keep doing it, you keep getting paid.

“Well, isn’t that what fathers do?” He had no idea what fathers did. “Love you, even if you don’t love them? Miss you when you go away?”