"Godling? Demigod?" Lysis nearly howled. "You'd be beaten black and blue in Thebes, and staked out overnight for claims like that. In Sparta, the secret police would ambush you, violate you, skin you alive and use your skull for a drinking cup."

Haste breeds error; error breeds woe.

Gather the shards of your courage. Patch together what resolve you can. We'll find this thing - and kill it.

"Learn what can, and cannot, be asked from destiny."

Everything that anyone respects is what men naturally excel at: fighting, accruing wealth, playing at power.

Something is going on everywhere, most of which no one understands.

This fight coming is not a battle of weapons, but a battle of wills.