It's always better to attack than to defend," Coram had told her when they talked about fencing late at night. "Always. Ye don't win with defense--ye only hold the other feller off, or wear him down. Attack and have done with it!

I believe that we haven't begun to understand the many forces that bind the physical world, any more than we understand our own minds and what they're capable of.

I wish you would thrash him. He deserves it." She looked back at him. "I will one day, sir. I'm getting tired of falling down.

Briar: "They never tell you some things. They tell you mages have wonderful power and they learn all kinds of secrets. Nobody ever mentions that some secrets you don't ever want to learn." Rosethorn: "All you can do is learn good to balance the bad. Learn and do all the good within your reach. Then, if you wake in a sweat, you have something to set against the dream.

Sometimes there's nothing you can do. [...] Sometimes they don't have enough to fight with.

Face it," Gary told her kindly. "You'll never catch up. You just do as much as you can and take the punishments without saying anything. Sometimes I wonder if that isn't what they're really trying to teach us--to take plenty and keep our mouths shut.

Don't let him upset you," Niko told the four softly. "He's old and he's frightened." "You're as old as him, and you aren't scared of us," Briar pointed out. Niko glared at him. "Thank you so much," he retorted waspishly.