Academ's Fury

There are old swordsmen and bold swordsmen. But few old, bold swordsmen.

Doroga thumped a finger against his skull. Head got nothing to do with the heart. Your heart wants what it wants. Head got to learn that it can only kill the heart or else get out of the way

Many women have earned titles, Your Grace. It doesn't seem to have been a factor in whether or not they actually received them.

Isana laughed. "And you, lady? Are you a woman of conscience or of ambition?" The lady smiled. "That's a question rarely asked here at court." "And why is that?" "Because a woman of conscience would tell you that she is a person of conscience. A woman of ambition would tell you that she is a person of conscience—only much more convincingly.

If the beginning of wisdom is in realizing that one knows nothing, then the beginning of understanding is in realizing that all things exist in accord with a single truth: Large things are made of smaller things. Drops of ink are shaped into letters, letters form words, words form sentences, and sentences combine to express thought. So it is with the growth of plants that spring from seeds, as well as with walls built from many stones. So it is with mankind, as the customs and traditions of our progenitors blend together to form the foundation for our own cities, history, and way of life. Be they dead stone, living flesh, or rolling sea; be they idle times or events of world-shattering proportion, market days or desperate battles, to this law, all things hold: Large things are made from small things. Significance is cumulative--but not always obvious. --Gaius Secondus

...This is a place of learning where very few learn anything of value. That you, who have courage and intelligence, are held in contempt by most of your kind here because you have no sorcery... I have seen you protect others, though they consider you to be weaker than they. I have seen a very few decent people, like the boy we took from the tower. I have seen women trade pleasure for coin to feed their children, and others do the same so that they could ignore their children while making themselves foolish with wines and powders. I have seen men who labor as long as the sun is up go home to wives who hold them in contempt for never being there. I have seen men beat and use those whom they should protect, even their own children. I have seen your kind place others of their own in slavery. I have seen them fighting to be free of the same. I have seen men of the law betray it, men who hate the law be kind. I have seen gentle defenders, sadistic healers, creators of beauty scorned while craftsmen of destruction are worshiped. Your Kind, Aleran, are the most vicious and gentle, most savage and noble, most treacherous and loyal, most terrifying and fascinating creatures I have ever seen.

Isana felt her throat tighten. "We failed." Serai lifted her chin and patted Isana's arm firmly. "We have not yet succeeded. There is a difference.

The One created us all to be free. To learn. To find common cause with others and to grow stronger and wiser. But the ancient enemy perverts that union of strengths. With the enemy, there is no choice, no freedom. They take. They force a joining of all things, until nothing else remains. --Doroga

He seemed to be at that most dangerous of ages, where strength, skill, and confidence met naïveté and idealism; when young men skilled at the crafts of violence could be manipulated into employing those skills with brutal efficiency--and without questions.

Could a man's heart, his soul, perish and yet leave him walking and talking as if alive?

I've been learning this kind of thing," Tavi replied. "I can show you later. How did you steal all of that without learning how to open a lock?" "I stole the keys," Katai said. "Obviously.

Lady Placida smiled. “History seldom takes note of serendipity when it records events. And from what I have heard, I suspect an argument could be made that you very much did earn the title.” “Many women have earned titles, Your Grace. It doesn't seem to have been a factor in whether or not they actually received them.” Lady Placida laughed. “True enough. But perhaps that is beginning to change.” She offered her hands. “It is a distinct pleasure to meet you, Steadholder.

You will probably find, in life, that successes and victories tend to overshadow the risks you took, while failure will amplify how idiotic they were.

all things exist in accord with a single truth: Large things are made of smaller things. Drops of ink are shaped into letters, letters form words, words form sentences, and sentences combine to express thought. So it is with the growth of plants that spring from seeds, as well as with walls built of many stones. So it is with mankind, as the customs and traditions of our progenitors blend together to form the foundation for our own cities, history, and way of life.

It gets too hot in there after a long test,” he told Ehren. “The air gets all squishy.” “It’s called humidity, Tavi,” Ehren said. “I haven’t slept in almost two days. It’s squishy.

Ambitions are incompatible with consciences, you know. The two strangle one another straightaway and leave an awful mess behind them.

Oh, dear.” “Oh dear?” Bernard asked. She reached up and touched her throat, where Bernard’s ring still hung by its chain. “Oh, dear. We’ve survived. We’re alive. And . . . and we’re wed.” Bernard blinked a few times, then mused, “Why, yes. I suppose that’s true. We’ve lived. And we’ve married. I suppose now we’ll have to stay together. Perhaps even be in love.” “Exactly,” Amara repeated, closing her weary eyes with a sigh and leaning against the broad strength of his chest. “This ruins everything.

You are different. That does not make you less.

You have enemies enough without tearing open your own wounds over things you could not have prevented.

We’re stunning—and we need to be, if we’re to make a good impression and accomplish our goals. It’s vain, it’s stupid, and it’s shallow, but that makes it no less true.

I work in grand halls and bedchambers with wine and perfume. Not in dark alleyways with cloaks and knives. I don’t like knives. I don’t even own a knife. And my cloaks are far too expensive to risk bloodying.

the beginning of wisdom is in realizing that one knows nothing, then the beginning of understanding is in realizing that all things exist in accord with a single truth: Large things are made of smaller things. Drops

Kitai blinked slowly. "Why would you use the same word for these things? That is ridiculous." "We have a lot of words like that," Tavi said. "They can mean more than one thing." "That is stupid," Kitai said. "It is difficult enough to communicate without making it more complicated with words that mean more than one thing.

I like complaining. It’s every soldier’s sacred right,

Head got nothing to do with the heart. Your heart wants what it wants. Head got to learn that it can only kill the heart or else get out of the way.

For a man so strong, he was gentle. When his hands, his arms, his mouth were on her, he moved as if afraid she might shatter if held too tightly. Their nights together had been and remained a blaze of passion, for he was a wickedly patient lover who took delight in her responses to him. But more than that, in the quiet hours after he would hold her, both of them weary, content, sleepy. She would lie in his arms and feel no worry, or sadness, or anxiety. She only felt beautiful. And desired. And safe.

Your kind, Aleran, are the most vicious and gentle, most savage and noble, most treacherous and loyal, most terrifying and fascinating creatures I have ever seen.' Her fingers brushed over his cheek again. 'And you are unique among them.

He clenched his hands into fists and opened them again several times, as though strangling baby ducks.