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It is surprising how refreshing this feels. Being judged by what you do, and not what you are.

Nassun gasps. “That’s horrible!

I don’t bother to explain that just because something is horrible does not make it any less true.

Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall; Death is the Fifth, and master of all.

Honor in safety, survival under threat. Better a living coward than a dead hero.

When people questioned this, the priests simply said, The world has changed. We must change with it.

You can imagine how well that went over.

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.

Very quickly I fell in with others like me—newcomers, dreamers, young people drawn to the city in spite of its dangers because sometimes, for some of us, tedium and familiarity feel worse than risking your life.