Abaddon Quotes

Violence is what people do when they run out of good ideas. It's attractive because it's simple, it's direct, it's almost always available as an option. When you can't think of a good rebuttal for your opponent's argument, you can always punch them in the face.

I keep warning you. Doors and corners, kid. That's where they get you. Humans are too fucking stupid to listen.

Violence is what people do when they run out of good ideas.

Heroism is a label most people get for doing shit they’d never do if they were really thinking about it.

Nothing ever killed more people than being afraid to look like a sissy.

No rest for the wicked, no peace for the good.

Show a human a closed door, and no matter how many open doors she finds, she'll be haunted by what might be behind it.

History is made up of people recovering from the last disaster,

In his entire life, Father Abaddon Sohar had never seen anything like what was in that cell, and he knew instantly that at least one of those fantastic tales of the monstrous birth of some grotesque abomination was, in fact, very, very true.

His words were full of hope and threat. Like the stars.

You're the predator right up until you're prey.

It killed humans, therefore it was a weapon. But radiation killed humans, and a medical X-ray machine wasn’t intended as a weapon. Holden was starting to feel like they were all monkeys playing with a microwave. Push a button, a light comes on inside, so it’s a light. Push a different button and stick your hand inside, it burns you, so it’s a weapon. Learn to open and close the door, it’s a place to hide things. Never grasping what it actually did, and maybe not even having the framework necessary to figure it out. No monkey ever reheated a frozen burrito.

No one can blather on like a holy man with a trapped audience. Well, maybe a politician.

She was not a political creature. She felt that politics was the second most evil thing humanity had ever invented, just after lutefisk.

Same here, Cap'n," Amos said. "I got a lot of past in my past.

The very quality of your life, whether you love it or hate it, is based upon how thankful you are toward God. It is one's attitude that determines whether life unfolds into a place of blessedness or wretchedness. Indeed, looking at the same rose bush, some people complain that the roses have thorns while others rejoice that some thorns come with roses. It all depends on your perspective. This is the only life you will have before you enter eternity. If you want to find joy, you must first find thankfulness. Indeed, the one who is thankful for even a little enjoys much. But the unappreciative soul is always miserable, always complaining. He lives outside the shelter of the Most High God. Perhaps the worst enemy we have is not the devil but our own tongue. James tells us, "The tongue is set among our members as that which . . . sets on fire the course of our life" (James 3:6). He goes on to say this fire is ignited by hell. Consider: with our own words we can enter the spirit of heaven or the agonies of hell! It is hell with its punishments, torments and misery that controls the life of the grumbler and complainer! Paul expands this thought in 1 Corinthians 10:10, where he reminds us of the Jews who "grumble[d] . . . and were destroyed by the destroyer." The fact is, every time we open up to grumbling and complaining, the quality of our life is reduced proportionally -- a destroyer is bringing our life to ruin! People often ask me, "What is the ruling demon over our church or city?" They expect me to answer with the ancient Aramaic or Phoenician name of a fallen angel. What I usually tell them is a lot more practical: one of the most pervasive evil influences over our nation is ingratitude! Do not minimize the strength and cunning of this enemy! Paul said that the Jews who grumbled and complained during their difficult circumstances were "destroyed by the destroyer." Who was this destroyer? If you insist on discerning an ancient world ruler, one of the most powerful spirits mentioned in the Bible is Abaddon, whose Greek name is Apollyon. It means "destroyer" (Rev. 9:11). Paul said the Jews were destroyed by this spirit. In other words, when we are complaining or unthankful, we open the door to the destroyer, Abaddon, the demon king over the abyss of hell! In the Presence of God Multitudes in our nation have become specialists in the "science of misery." They are experts -- moral accountants who can, in a moment, tally all the wrongs society has ever done to them or their group. I have never talked with one of these people who was happy, blessed or content about anything. They expect an imperfect world to treat them perfectly. Truly, there are people in this wounded country of ours who need special attention. However, most of us simply need to repent of ingratitude, for it is ingratitude itself that is keeping wounds alive! We simply need to forgive the wrongs of the past and become thankful for what we have in the present. The moment we become grateful, we actually begin to ascend spiritually into the presence of God. The psalmist wrote, "Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful singing. . . . Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations" (Psalm 100:2, 4-5). It does not matter what your circumstances are; the instant you begin to thank God, even though your situation has not changed, you begin to change. The key that unlocks the gates of heaven is a thankful heart. Entrance into the courts of God comes as you simply begin to praise the Lord.

They’d made a plan, and so far everything was more or less going the way they’d hoped. The thought left Holden increasingly terrified.

Optimism expressed as conservation of delta V.

Theological anthropology is a lot simpler when humans are the only ones with souls.

If humanity were capable of being satisfied, then they'll still be living in trees and eating bugs out of one another's fur. Anna had walked on a moon of Jupiter. She'd look up through a dome-covered sky at the great red spot, close enough to see the swirls and eddies of a storm larger than her home world. She'd tasted water thawed from ice as old as the solar system itself. And it was that human dissatisfaction, that human audacity that had put her there.

We’re like children,” Anna said, pushing herself to her feet and lecturing down at him. “Who burn their hands on a hot stove and then think the solution is to blow up all the stoves.

What have we got?" Ashford said. "Short form." "It's fucking weird, sir," Chan said.

The problem with living with miracles was that they made everything seem plausible.

No monkey ever reheated a frozen burrito.

Annie," Tilly said. "If I wanted to suck vile fluids out of a flaccid and indifferent tube, I'd have stayed on Earth with my husband.

There are no souls, Melba thought with a touch of pity. We are bags of meat with a little electricity running through them. No ghosts, no spirits, no souls. The only thing that survives is the story people tell about you.

No matter how intense the situation, or how powerful the feelings, it was impossible to maintain a heightened emotional state forever. Eventually you’d just get tired and want it to end.

Through millions of klicks of vacuum to hit a bull's-eye smaller than a mosquito's asshole.

God, save me from temperance," Tilly said. "You haven't seen a party till you get a group of Anglicans and Catholics trying to beat each other to the bottom of a bottle." "Now, that's not nice, Mrs Fagan," Father Michel said. "I've never met an Anglican that could keep up with me.

Could we please not assault the patient with the crushed spinal cord,” she said as she did, “because this makes me very uncomfortable.

...the only thing she and Tilly had in common was their carbon base.

The name ‘Azkaban’ derives from a mixture of the prison ‘Alcatraz’, which is its closest Muggle equivalent, being set on an island, and ‘Abaddon’, which is a Hebrew word meaning ‘place of destruction’ or ‘depths of hell’.

Science had given mankind many gifts, and she valued it. But the one important thing it had taken away was the value of subjective, personal experience. That had been replaced with the idea that only measurable and testable concepts had value. But humans didn't work that way...

I keep warning you. Doors and corners, kid. That’s where they get you. Humans are too fucking stupid to listen. Well, you’ll learn your lessons soon enough, and it’s not my job to nursemaid the species through the next steps.

She preferred the times when she could pretend that she was in a gravity well to the little reminders that she was the puppet of acceleration and inertia.

Trashy people puke,” Tilly said. “Ladies are unwell.

Holden was starting to feel like they were all monkeys playing with a microwave. Push a button, a light comes on inside, so it’s a light. Push a different button and stick your hand inside, it burns you, so it’s a weapon. Learn to open and close the door, it’s a place to hide things. Never grasping what it actually did, and maybe not even having the framework necessary to figure it out. No monkey ever reheated a frozen burrito. So here the monkeys were, poking the shiny box and making guesses about what it did.

Theria snarled at him. "Careful my dear, your teeth are showing, and I imagine that is frowned upon here too… Why don't you do yourself a favor and go pluck something. It will really do you the world of good," said Abaddon.

Yeah," Chris said. "I lose a couple limbs getting drunk and falling into harvesting combine, I'm an idiot. I lose the same limbs because I happened to be standing next to the right door when the ship was damaged, I'm a hero.

She’d always found a deep comfort in praying. A profound sense of connection to something infinitely larger than herself. Her atheist friends called it awe in the face of an infinite cosmos. She called it God. That they might be talking about the same thing didn’t bother her at all. It was possible she was hurling her prayers at a cold and unfeeling universe that didn’t hear them, but that wasn’t how it felt. Science had given mankind many gifts, and she valued it. But the one important thing it had taken away was the value of subjective, personal experience. That had been replaced with the idea that only measurable and testable concepts had value. But humans didn’t work that way, and Anna suspected the universe didn’t either. In God’s image, after all, being a tenet of her faith. At first,

Too many people with too many agendas, and everyone was worried that the other guy would shoot them in the back. Of all the ways to go and meet the God-like alien whatever-they-were that built the protomolecule, this was the stupidest, the most dangerous, and—for Bull’s money—the most human.

That’s the kind of stealing only governments can get away with,” Amos said.

He'd turned away from a life on basic to live in the stars, or if not the stars, at least the rocks that floated free in the night sky.

Nothing wrong with a little optimism, long as it doesn’t set policy....

She felt that politics was the second most evil thing humanity had ever invented, just after lutefisk. There

We keep acting without thinking and you think the solution is to do it one more time. You have allied yourself with stupid, violent men, and you are trying to convince yourself that being stupid and violent will work. That makes you stupid too.

«Io ho conosciuto un solo Dio e non è vendicativo. È buono e misericordioso.» Abaddon aveva sempre pensato a Dio come il manager assenteista di un’enorme azienda, più interessato al golf e a un’abbronzatura perfetta che agli uomini, ma non replicò

When Holden pointed out that the Roci was already capable of accelerating fast enough to kill her crew and asked why they’d need to upgrade her, Amos had replied, “Because this shit is awesome.” Holden had just nodded and smiled and paid the bill. Even

«Sapevi che non avrei smesso di cercarti.» «Lo speravo.» Il sorriso di Seth era dolce e incerto. «Una volta mi hai detto che per te la mia anima era come una luce. Come un faro.» Abaddon si costrinse a parlare nonostante il groppo in gola. «Sei la mia stella guida.»

Holden was starting to feel like they were all monkeys playing with a microwave. Push a button, a light comes on inside, so it’s a light. Push a different button and stick your hand inside, it burns you, so it’s a weapon. Learn to open and close the door, it’s a place to hide things. Never grasping what it actually did, and maybe not even having the framework necessary to figure it out. No monkey ever reheated a frozen burrito.

Science had given mankind many gifts, and she valued it. But the one important thing it had taken away was the value of subjective, personal experience. That had been replaced with the idea that only measurable and testable concepts had value.

Violence is what people do when they run out of good ideas. It’s attractive because it’s simple, it’s direct, it’s almost always available as an option. When you can’t think of a good rebuttal for your opponent’s argument, you can always punch them in the face.

If humanity were capable of being satisfied, then they’d all still be living in trees and eating bugs out of one another’s fur.

I hear Montana is nice.” “Population density is good. Still more cows than people.

I've got a bunch of plumbers with rifles I could put on a shuttle." The bridge went quiet.

Partners,” she said, and fired two rounds into his head.

Tell me everything it explains,” he said when he could remember how to speak. Being forced to move moist flaps of meat in order to form the words felt sensual and obscene.

Well", Holden said, his voice grim, "we have a major problem. We're out of coffee." "We still got beer," Amos said. "Yes," Holden said. "But beer is not coffee.

Now you’re asking me to explain microwaves to a monkey.

When what came next didn’t matter, anybody could do anything. Nothing had consequences.

...when the lights went out. It wasn’t just the lights. So many things about his physical situation changed all at once that his hindbrain couldn’t keep up. It told him to be nauseated just in case he’d been poisoned. It was working with fifty-million-year-old response algorithms.

«Cosa c’è?» Gli occhi di Seth erano spalancati e per la prima volta trovarono subito lo sguardo di Abaddon. «Posso vedere!» Abaddon sorrise, pensando che avrebbe dovuto immaginarlo. «Cambierò davanti a loro le tenebre in luce e i luoghi tortuosi in pianura.» «E tu?» chiese Seth posandogli una mano sulla guancia. «I tuoi occhi sono normali. E sono bellissimi. Sei tenebra diventata luce?» Abaddon gli prese la mano e se la mise sul petto. «Sono un uomo dannato che è stato salvato.» «Ti sembrerà una domanda stupida, ma... La mia anima appartiene ancora a Dio?» Abaddon scoppiò a ridere. «Senza dubbio.» Prese Seth fra le braccia e lo baciò. «E la mia appartiene a te»

Ao ler esta saga sentimo-nos a ver um filme. Um filme fantástico, proporcionado por uma narrativa sólida e extremamente criativa, que nos prende da primeira à última página. "Abaddon" é uma metáfora sobre o mundo em que vivemos.

He felt the decision like a seed crystal giving form to the chaos around it, solid, hard, resolute. Desperation, mourning, and a million farewells, one to the other. The word quarantine came to him, and with the logic of dreams, it carried an unsupportable weight of horror. But within it, like the last voice in Pandora’s box, the promise of reunion. One day, when the solution was found, everything that had been lost would be regained. The gates reopened. The vast mind restored.

«Non vado da nessuna parte.» «Dimmi che mi ami.» Si conoscevano solo da due settimane. Forse era sciocco, ma Abaddon non esitò. «Lo sai già.» Seth emise un gemito che sembrò di pianto, e lui lo strinse per un minuto, accarezzandogli i capelli, emettendo suoni confortanti finché Seth si calmò. Poi lo lasciò andare, ma solo perché il caos fra di loro stava diventando difficile da ignorare. «Non volevo piangermi addosso,» disse Seth mentre si districavano l’uno dall’altro. «Ne hai tutto il diritto.»

Loken tried to imagine the future, but the image would not form. Death would wipe them all from history. Not even the great First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon would survive forever. There would be a time when Abaddon no longer waged bloody war across the territories of humanity. Loken sighed. That would be a sad day indeed. Men would cry out for Abaddon’s return, but he would never come. He tried to picture the manner of his own death. Fabled, imaginary combats flashed through his mind. He imagined himself at the Emperor’s side, fighting some great, last stand against an unknown foe. Primarch Horus would be there, of course. He had to be. It wouldn’t be the same without him. Loken would battle, and die, and perhaps even Horus would die, to save the Emperor at the last. Glory. Glory, like he’d never known. Such an hour would become so ingrained in the minds of men that it would be the cornerstone of all that came after. A great battle, upon which human culture would be based. Then, briefly, he imagined another death. Alone, far away from his comrades and his Legion, dying from cruel wounds on some nameless rock, his passing as memorable as smoke. Loken swallowed hard. Either way, his service was to the Emperor, and his service would be true to the end.

«Ma sei un diavolo, giusto? Non posso fidarmi di te.» «Sì che puoi.» Abaddon sentì la verità di quelle parole dal profondo del cuore. «Non potrei dirlo di nessun altro al mondo, ma a te non posso mentire. Hai un potere su di me che non so spiegare. Brilli più della Stella polare, e il pensiero di spegnere quella luce...» Scosse la testa. «Desidero prendere la tua anima, ma non credo di poterlo fare. Non credo sarei più capace di convivere con me stesso.» Eppure avrebbe dovuto farlo, per tutta l’eternità. Non c’era tregua dall’Inferno

It was a lesson he’d never forgotten. That humans only have so much emotional energy. No matter how intense the situation, or how powerful the feelings, it was impossible to maintain a heightened emotional state forever. Eventually you’d just get tired and want it to end.

Chief security officer on an OPA ship was a half-assed kind of position, one part cop, one part efficiency expert, and pretty much all den mother to a crew of a thousand people with their own agendas and petty power struggles and opinions on how he should be doing his job better.

Tilly screamed. Anna’s shocked brain only registered annoyance at the sound. Really, when had someone screaming ever solved a problem? She recognized her fixation on this irritation as her own way of avoiding the horror in front of her, but only in a distant and dreamy sort of way.

The Ring didn’t put us on alert,” he said. “It’s the Martians. Even with that thing out there, we’re still thinking about shooting each other. That’s pretty fucked up. Sorry. Messed up.” “It seems like we should be able to see past our human differences when we’re confronted with something like this, doesn’t it?” Chris

Given their current circumstances, things would have to be very bad indeed for Tilly to think the situation had gotten worse. Sure, they were all trapped in orbit around an alien space station that periodically changed the rules of physics and had killed a bunch of them, but now they’d decided to start shooting each other too. Yes, very bad.

His enthusiasm was exhausting and charming at the same time. He wanted to impress her, so she resolved to be impressed. It was a small enough thing to give someone.

Epithets like that are an attempt to dehumanize a group so that you won't feel as bad about killing them.

Tilly screamed. Anna’s shocked brain only registered annoyance at the sound. Really, when had someone screaming ever solved a problem?

Creamos lo que no tenemos, lo que ansiosamente necesitamos.

We don’t want to get in a gunfight,” Holden warned Amos as they began moving again. “Yeah,” Amos said. “But if we’re in one anyway, it’ll be nice to have guns.

You ever wondered why I leave as soon as anyone else shows up?” “I’m special?” “Yeah, I wouldn’t go that far.

Oh,” Anna said. She was not a political creature. She felt that politics was the second most evil thing humanity had ever invented, just after lutefisk.

Her disagreement was primarily with the level of glee over the destruction of the wicked that sometimes crept into the teachings.

That wasn't political," she said. "He's a performance artist.

For a moment, his pupils flickered blue, like there were tiny bathypelagic fish swimming in the deep trenches of his eyeballs.

You never ask for permission, you just apologize later.

Behold the Great God Pan! Yes, and behold the Serpent, the Tempter, the Fallen Angel! Behold Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Azriel, Asmodeus, Sammael, Zamiel, Prince of Darkness and Father of Lies! Gaze on the Black Goat of the Sabbath, gaze on fabled Ahriman, on Set, Typhon, Malik Tawis, Abaddon, Yama, Primal Nodens, the archetype of evil, known to all men by all names!

Abaddon posò la fronte contro la pancia di Seth, lasciando che le sue lacrime cadessero sulle numerose cicatrici lasciate dai serpenti. Fuori la gente rideva mentre preparava il revival. Teli schioccavano nel vento. «Non ho mai odiato Dio tanto quanto adesso.» Seth si alzò di scatto, obbligando Abaddon a fare lo stesso. Tese le mani verso di lui e gli accarezzò una guancia. «Non farlo. Ti prego. Non per me, Abaddon. Non lo sopporterei.» «Sei tu quello che dovrebbe essere arrabbiato. Mi stupisce tu sia così tranquillo.» «Non lo sono, infatti. Sono terrorizzato. So che non dovrei esserlo. La fede mi dice che andrò in un posto meraviglioso e che non c’è niente di cui aver paura, ma non sono mai stato così spaventato in tutta la mia vita.

This isn’t about good guys and bad guys,” Anna said. “Yes, we’ve picked sides now, because some of the actions they are about to take will have serious consequences for us, and we’re going to try to stop them. But what you’re doing is demonizing them, making them the enemy. The problem with that is that once we’ve stopped them and they can’t hurt us anymore, they’re still demons. Still the enemy.

«Sta morendo.» Si coprì il viso con una mano. Fu sollevato scoprendo di avere gli occhi asciutti. Si rimise seduto, cercando di recuperare la concentrazione. «È uno dei motivi per cui splende così forte. È uno dei motivi per cui è una preda così preziosa.» «Ah. Quindi, se sta comunque morendo...» «Ho pensato che se almeno lo avessi avuto vicino...» Non era ancora pronto a mollare. «Dev’esserci un modo, e tu conosci le scorciatoie meglio di chiunque altro «Volevo fare di più prima di morire. Vedere di più, capisci? Volevo un’occasione per incontrare qualcuno. Io volevo...» Si zittì, le guance che arrossivano. Abaddon gli prese la mano. «Volevi un’occasione per innamorarti.» Le lacrime spuntarono negli occhi di Seth. «Sì.» Piegò la testa, ma non riuscì a fermare l’ondata di emozione che lo investì

We are bags of meat with a little electricity running through them. No ghosts, no spirits, no souls. The only thing that survives is the story people tell about you. The only thing that matters is your name.

Why?" The question left Luce's lips as a growl. "Why is it different now?" "Because of you," Abaddon said. "Losing someone special in your life has a way of changing you. If God's favorite son could fall so far, so hard, then no one was immune. I guess He realized we weren't as infallible as He made us out to be, and if He didn't extend the same courtesy, the same forgiveness, to us, He would lose a lot more than He could bear." The

It was possible she was hurling her prayers at a cold and unfeeling universe that didn’t hear them, but that wasn’t how it felt. Science had given mankind many gifts, and she valued it. But the one important thing it had taken away was the value of subjective, personal experience. That had been replaced with the idea that only measurable and testable concepts had value. But humans didn’t work that way, and Anna suspected the universe didn’t either.

That humans only have so much emotional energy. No matter how intense the situation, or how powerful the feelings, it was impossible to maintain a heightened emotional state forever. Eventually you’d just get tired and want it to end. For

In his experience, everyone dealt with pushing too hard differently. Some got angry and irritable, some got sad. At a guess, it was all loss of inhibition. Wear down the façade with too much work or fear or both, and whoever was waiting underneath came out. “All

THE INFERNAL NAMES Abaddon - (Hebrew) the destroyer ... Asmodeus - Hebrew devil of sensuality and luxury, originally "creature of judgement" ... Azazel - (Hebrew) taught men to make weapons of war, introduced cosmetics ... Bast - Egyptian goddess of pleasure represented by the cat Beelzebub - (Hebrew) Lord of the Flies, taken from symbolism of the scarab Behemoth - Hebrew personification of Satan in the form of an elephant ... Coyote - American Indian Devil Dagon - Philistine avenging devil of the sea ... Dracula - Romanian name for devil ... Fenriz - Son of Loki, depicted as a wolf ... Hecate - Greek goddess of underworld and witchcraft ... Kali - (Hindu) daughter of Shiva, high priestess of Thuggees ... Lilith - Hebrew female devil, Adam's first wife who taught him the ropes Loki - Teutonic devil ... Mania - Etruscan goddess of Hell ... Midgard - son of Loki, depicted as a serpent ... Pluto - Greek god of the underworld Proserpine - Greek queen of the underworld ... Sammael - (Hebrew) "venom of God" ... Shiva - (Hindu) the destroyer ...

«C’è un solo letto!» E all’improvviso, come se qualcuno avesse acceso la luce, Abaddon vide il problema. E la soluzione. Era così semplice che lo fece scoppiare a ridere a crepapelle. «Cosa?» chiese Seth, cercando di liberarsi. «Stai di nuovo ridendo di me.» «No,» lo rassicurò lui, tenendolo stretto, rifiutandosi di lasciarlo andare. Obbligò Seth a guardarlo negli occhi. «Hai ragione, c’è solo un letto, e non voglio che sia il tuo. Voglio che sia il nostro. Ti ci porterei adesso, se pensassi che me lo lasceresti fare. Ma al contrario di quello che pensi, ti rispetto. Posso non condividere la tua fede, ma ti amo anche per quella.» Ma non era sicuro di spiegarsi bene. Seth sembrava ancora confuso. «Posso dirti che in tutti i miei anni all’Inferno, non ho mai incontrato una singola anima che ci fosse finita solo per aver fatto sesso. Ma non voglio che qualcosa fra noi ti faccia dubitare di te stesso, e c’è un solo modo per assicurarsi che quello che succede in quell’unico letto non ti sembri un peccato.» Per un momento Seth rimase completamente immobile, assimilando la cosa. L’imbarazzo sul suo viso iniziò a mutare in speranza. «Dici davvero?» «Certo che sì!» «Non voglio che ti senta obbligato a fare niente.» «Stai scherzando? Ti amo così tanto che riesco appena a sopportarlo. Ma se non hanno autocontrollo, si sposino, perché è meglio sposarsi che ardere di passione,» così dicendo scoppiò a ridere. «Anche se, francamente, non vedo perché non potremmo fare entrambe le cose.» Il sorriso di Seth non era mai stato più luminoso. «Sposarsi e ardere di passione?» «Esattamente. Cosa ne dici?» «Penso che l’idea mi piace»

O Homem tornou-se arrogante, prepotente e insensível! Apesar de todos os avisos, o Homem não hesitou em mergulhar numa existência de imoralidade sem limites! Uma existência em que os abastados arrancam o pão da boca dos mais pobres! Uma existência em que os fortes enxovalham os mais fracos! Uma existência onde o amor pelo próximo é considerado uma fraqueza! E agora, é chegado o dia de fazê-los regressar a uma condição de proba humildade. Não percebes, Michael? O espírito do Homem foi infectado pelo vírus da corrupção e da crueldade. E o Apocalipse, por mais brutal e tenebroso que seja... é a única forma de combater essa infecção.

I'm getting a medal for falling into a pressure hatch, sacrificing an arm and a leg to keep seven sailors from being trapped in a compromised part of the ship. I was unconscious at the time, but that doesn't seem to matter. Heroism is a label most people get for doing shit they'd never do if they were really thinking about it.

Everything about the former colonial administrative offices made Holden sad. The drab, institutional green walls, the cluster of cubicles in the central workspace, the lack of windows or architectural flourishes. The Mormons had been planning to run the human race’s first extrasolar colony from a place that would have been equally at home as an accounting office. It felt anticlimactic. Hello, welcome to your centuries-long voyage to build a human settlement around another star! Here’s your cubicle. The space had been

They loved scenes of righteous Godly vengeance on sinful mankind. They loved to show God’s chosen people safe from harm, watching with happy faces as they were proved right to the world. But they never showed the aftermath. They never showed weeping humans, crushed and dying in pools of their own fluids. Young men smashed into piles of red flesh. A young woman cut in half because she was passing through a hatchway when catastrophe hit. This was Armageddon. This is what it looked like. Blood and torn flesh and cries for help. Anna

The entire idea of it was arrogant and defiant and grandiose. Anna loved it. As she walked across a wide empty plain of steel that should have been covered in topsoil and crops, she thought that this audaciousness was exactly what humanity had lost somewhere in the last couple of centuries. When ancient maritime explorers had climbed into their creaking wooden ships and tried to find ways to cross the great oceans of Earth, had their voyage been any less dangerous than the one the Mormons had been planning to attempt? The end point any less mysterious? But in both cases, they’d been driven to find out what was on the other side of the long trip. Driven by a need to see shores no one else had ever seen before. Show a human a closed door, and no matter how many open doors she finds, she’ll be haunted by what might be behind it. A few people liked to paint this drive as a weakness. A failing of the species. Humanity as the virus. The creature that never stops filling up its available living space. Hector seemed to be moving over to that view, based on their last conversation. But Anna rejected that idea. If humanity were capable of being satisfied, then they’d all still be living in trees and eating bugs out of one another’s fur. Anna had walked on a moon of Jupiter. She’d looked up through a dome-covered sky at the great red spot, close enough to see the swirls and eddies of a storm larger than her home world. She’d tasted water thawed from ice as old as the solar system itself. And it was that human dissatisfaction, that human audacity, that had put her there. Looking at the tiny world spinning around her, she knew one day it would give them the stars as well.

8 THE JOURNEY TO Skoda took three days, for the company traveled warily. Acuas told Decado that following the slaying of the soldiers, the Delnoch fortress commander had sent patrols throughout Skultik and the surrounding countryside, while to the south legion riders scouted the lands for rebels. Tenaka took time to speak with the leaders of the Thirty, for despite the many legends, he knew little of their order. According to the stories, the Thirty were semigods with awesome powers who chose to die in wars against evil. The last time they had appeared had been at Dros Delnoch, when the albino Serbitar had stood beside the Earl of Bronze and defied the hordes of Ulric, the greatest Nadir warlord of all time. But though Tenaka questioned the leaders, he learned little. They were courteous and polite—even distantly friendly—but their answers floated above his head like clouds beyond the grasp of common men. Decado was no different; he would merely smile and change the subject. Tenaka was not a religious man, yet he felt ill at ease among these warrior-priests and his mind constantly returned to the words of the blind seeker. “Of gold and ice and shadow …” The man had predicted that the trio would come together. And they had. He had also foreseen the danger of the Templars. On the first night of their journey Tenaka approached the elderly Abaddon, and the two walked away from the fire together. “I saw you in Skultik,” said Tenaka. “You were being attacked by a Joining.” “Yes. I apologize for the deceit.” “What was the reason for it?” “It was a test, my son. But not merely of you—of ourselves.” “I do not understand,” said Tenaka. “It is not necessary that you should. Do not fear us, Tenaka. We are here to help you in whatever way we can.” “Why?” “Because it serves the Source.” “Can you not answer me without religious riddles? You are men. What do you gain from this war?” “Nothing in this world.” “You know why I came here?” “Yes, my son. To purge your mind of guilt and grief, to drown it in Ceska’s blood.” “And now?” “Now you are caught up in forces beyond your control. Your grief is assuaged by your love for Renya, but the guilt remains. You did not obey the call—you left your friends to be butchered by the Joinings of Ceska. You ask yourself if it would have been different had you come. Could you have defeated the Joinings? You torment yourself thus.” “Could I have defeated the Joinings?” “No,