Une braise sous la cendre, tome 4 : A Sky beyond the Storm

“You are broken. But it is the broken things that are the sharpest. The deadliest. It is the broken things that are the most unexcepted, and the most underestimated.”

“Life is too short not to hope.”

“There are some things that do not die. No matter how many blades we put into them.”

“It's Kehanni magic, child. A Kehanni can sense a story. Feel out its contours, its breath. I do not just speak a story, I sing it, I become it. That is what it means to be a Kehanni. All of us trained to tell stories have a bit of magic in our bones.”

“Keris Veturia's suffering runs deep, Soul Catcher. My brethren mistakenly believe that she is but a human stooge, a servant to carry out the Meherya's plan. But her suffering is why he sees himself in her. Why she sees herself in him. Suffering is the cup from which they both drink. It is the language they both speak. And it is the weapon they both wield.”

I cannot remember the child's name, though. And I won't ever know this child's name either. It is a Scholar child? A Martial? A Mariner or a Tribal child, caught in the chaos?
It doesn't matter. The knowledge rolls over me like an ocean wave after an earth tremor, ruthless and unending. It doesn't matter because it was a life cut down too early. Even if he was a Karkaun child, he would still be worth mourning, because at this age, he would have been tender and soft, not yet molded by the violence of his elders.

I want to fight, I realize. I want a battle that isn't in my head. A battle that can be won based on physical strength and training and strategy.

“For me, Elias, desire is not simple. It is not shelter. It is not warmth. It is a fire that offers light, only heat, ruinous and consuming. The longer you deny it, the hotter it burns. You forget shelter. You forget warmth. There is only that which you want and cannot have, and the desolation that follows.”