“Were you going to tell me you usually kiss your one-night trollops in private?"He laughed. The free-ringing sound held a spark of pure pleasure, unforced and rich with surprise.”

“Well your full of cow pies up to your ears! I don't give way on the orders of rabble, or bow to Devall's uppity marshal. He can stuff his gold braid! Yes, up his tight arse where it will hurt the most, for all that I care for his posturing! These wagons will pass. Afterwards, you can shoot all the crossbolts you like, and ram yourselves straight to oblivion!”

“My grandfather was sparing in his praise of apprentices. My grandfather insisted we think for ourselves and achieve for our own satisfaction. Deep study of the mysteries were their own tough path, he always said. To live for the approval of others was a pitfall that begged a false turning.”

“When hope dies, you breathe it back to life again! No matter how long it takes, or what time's required to heal the wound. Disappointment will not last a lifetime unless you lie down and give in.”

“All things were formed of energy, arrangements of bundled light that were subject to natural law. The awareness of this truth, defined to absolute perfection, granted the mage-trained their influence. To know a thing, to encompass its full measure in respect was to hold its secrets in mastery. Life-force was the basis of all power.”

“Let her own shortfalls, and not your vindictive perfectionism, be the quality that throws her to destruction.”

“An illusion threatens no one with harm. Neither can it be dispelled by armed force.”