Ah, Fist, it’s the curse of history that those who should read them, never do.

Power is violence, its promise, its deed. Power cares nothing for reason, nothing for justice, nothing for compassion. It is, in fact, the singular abnegation of these things - once the cloak of deceits is stripped away, this one truth is revealed.

Children are dying." Lull nodded. "That's a succinct summary of humankind, I'd say. Who needs tomes and volumes of history? Children are dying. The injustices of the world hide in those three words.

For we are all bound in stories, and as the years pile up they turn to stone, layer upon layer, building our lives.

Betrayal was the greatest of all crimes, for it took all that was human within a person and made it a thing of pain. In the face of that, murder itself was surcease: it was quick, and it ended the anguish and despair of a life without hope.

I was needed, but I myself did not need. I had followers, but not allies, and only now do I understand the difference. And it is vast.

Such is the vastness of his genius that he can outwit even himself.