Author of quotes: Chris Wright

I moved up the long bridge, flanked on both sides by shattered life-sized statues. The farther I went, the more clearly I saw how majestic this place must once have been. An octagonal temple city of extraordinary size and complexity. In Colchis, we had cathedrals and larger ones, but none of them created with such an understanding of the relationship between the real and the unreal. I immediately realized that these long-dead architects knew what they were doing. They knew the sacred degrees and proportions. They knew where to place watchtowers and belfries to catch the red light of the passing ancient sun of Davin and cast shadows that looked like teeth and horns and crooked claws at the edge of their vision.

All those truths that I came across in an abstract form on Colchis became concrete in the emptiness of the Abyss. When I first stepped aboard a starship, I smelled empyrean fumes on its decks. At the first exit into the Warp, I almost burst out laughing at the absurdity that was happening - for a short, insignificant time we rushed into the realm of the Higher Forces, but no one even blinked an eye. The level of self-deception was colossal, and I didn't understand how it could possibly last for any length of time.

... Well. As you can see, such words have terrible power. I took her [mother's] words to heart. I thought about them and thought to myself: why can't I be like Erebus? I thought the same thing when I strangled him with a noose. Perhaps I said the same words aloud as I lashed the string and watched his eyes bulge. Then I killed a man for the first time - and, oh gods, it was wonderful! My heart was pounding and my face was radiant. The further his life force drained away, the more I felt my own flourish. By the time I let his body fall down the alley, my insides were literally singing.

Today, among those who still pretend to keep records and tell stories, it is fashionable to believe that the Testament was supposedly a kind of piety forerunner of the later fundamental religion. Perhaps somewhere it was. Perhaps in Varadesh they did everything as it should be. However, the priests had already begun to acquire a characteristic reputation in proncia. They drank and gambled. They were cruel - and used it to accumulate wealth. Even the believers knew that the tithes they paid were not entirely used to decorate temples. The system was like a rotten pool, its cold and oily heart closed off from the inquisitive light of the sun.

... I caught them [insects] with my bare fingers. Picked it up and watched them squirm. Then he tore off their legs, one by one. Sometimes I was stung, sometimes not - it was a kind of game, albeit not a very good one. Once I was struck with a fever for a month from a bite, from which I lay on the mat, seething from the inside and shaking in delirium. I could die, although I didn't particularly care. Having recovered, I again sat in the same place at the entrance and waited for the next one to run within reach. Since then, I've played the other game of approaching the threat and seeing how long I can hold out before I get bitten again.

So what do you need from me? Perhaps some explanation? Any great soul-saving story that would explain how events unfolded? Perhaps there was a reason - a driving force that would make everything logical; and, having understood it, you might hate me a little less than now. However, one does not exist. I never had time to repent. I am elemental. So to speak, axiomatic - such as the one who is inside a whole tangle of false moves should be. As you can see, I got my way. I am who I am. This is my blessing and - for the sake of symmetry - my curse.

I thought that they had nothing to give me, but I was wrong. We believe that there is no one braver, faster, stronger than us. We laugh at others. But it is wrong. We do tupim their swords. There are other ways besides our. Some - better.
Gunnlaugur listened to him, not believing his ears.
- Better? Is that so? Better than being a savage from the icy world on which you were born?

No luck. There is a destiny and will. If the will is stronger, we can manage your life. If, however, stronger than fate, then you go with the flow, circling as a Board in the water flow.