85
" I am as much a scholar as a warrior. T'isten'ur — a name with curious echoes. Tiste Andii, the Dwellers in Darkness. And, more rarely mentioned, and then in naught but fearful whispers, their shadow-kin, the Tiste Edur. Grey-skinned, believed extinct — and thankfully so, for it is a name sheathed in dread. T'isten'ur, the first glottal stop implies past tense, yes? Tlan, now T'lan — your language is kin to that of the Imass. Close kin. "
― Steven Erikson , Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #3)
99
" A soldier cannot be sent away without guidance, cannot be abandoned and left lost in something unrecognizable and indifferent to their lives. Remembrance and honouring the ineffable. Yet, when it’s done, what is the once-soldier? What does he or she become? An entire future spent walking backward, eyes on the past – its horrors, its losses, its grief, its sheer heart-bursting living? The ritual is a turning round, a facing forward, a gentle and respectful hand like a guide on the shoulder. "
― Steven Erikson , Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #3)
100
" Dear Mother Dark, do you look down upon me, now? Do you see me, your child? Do you smile, to see me so broken? I have, after all, repeated your fatal errors of old. Yielding my heart, succumbing to the foolish dream - Light’s dance, you longed for that embrace, didn’t you?
And were betrayed.
You left us, Mother to eternal silence.
Yet...
Mother Dark, with this unveiling, I feel you close. Was it grief that sent you away, sent you so far from your children? Men, in our deadly, young way - our appalling insensitivity - we cursed you. Added another layer to your pain.
These steps you walked them once.
How can you help but smile? "
― Steven Erikson , Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #3)