The Poppy War Quotes
"But I’m stubborn, I study hard, and I really don’t want to be married."
"If getting married to a gross old man was her preordained role on this earth, then Rin was determined to rewrite it."
"The only permanent thing about the Nikara Empire was war."
"She could leave town, probably with enough stolen opium to buy herself a caravan ticket to any other province... but where to?"
"Nikan did not win the Second Poppy War... The victory wasn’t really ours at all."
"If the past centuries have taught us anything, it is that Nikan’s enemies never rest. But this time when they come, we intend to be ready."
"Sinegard does not have the time nor resources to train every child who dreams of glory in the military."
"You’re a war orphan. You’re a southerner. You weren’t supposed to pass the Keju."
"She was alone in a city without a friend, where she barely spoke the language, at a school that she now wasn’t sure she wanted to attend."
"Pain is good for you," he said as he forced them to crouch in low, torturous endurance stances.
"The martial artists of old must have had amazing thighs," Kitay gasped.
"Leave me alone," said Master Jiang. "I think you’re flattering yourself."
"You’re right," Kitay whispered to Rin. "He has been getting high."
"Attention!" Jun shouted at the gawking class. He still had a mimosa leaf stuck in his hair.
"Unless you’ve got a weapon, don’t aim for the face," Jeeha guided Venka’s hand.
"Biting is an excellent technique if you’re in a tight spot," Kureel knelt down next to Kitay and Han.
"We aren’t here to be sophisticated. We’re here to fuck people up," Jeeha shrugged.
"You are here purely to annoy me," Jun said. "I think you’re flattering yourself," Jiang responded.
"I only know one kick," Rin dipped her head into a mocking bow.
"I’m sure you’ll be the terror of the school," said Rin.
"And you keep calling me a peasant. It’s like you only know one insult."
"Every year we get someone like you," Jun continued relentlessly.
"You do not ask older students to teach you. Now get out of my sight."
"But they’re not going to get rid of me like this. Not this easily."
"That’s the difference between you and me," muttered Nezha.
"What on earth did you do to him?" Jiang demanded.
"But if you attempted Tobi’s Tiger Claws now, you couldn’t kill a rabbit," he sneered.
"You’re a plucky one, you know that? Got banned from Jun’s class, so you thought you’d teach yourself Seejin."
"I confused tactics with grand strategy," she said finally.
"You’re a walking disaster," Jiang said bluntly.
"You’re nowhere near ready for Seejin," he said.
"You might benefit from some animal-based fundamentals," Jiang continued.
"He must really like you," Raban set down his chopsticks.
"I have taught her class the crushing sensation of disappointment and the even more important lesson that they do not matter as much as they think they do."
"You have taught her class and every class before it that Lore is a joke and the Lore Master is a bumbling idiot."
"You’re just making things up for this training exercise."
"I can’t wait until the day they carve you up and eat you."
"Sometimes you must loose the string to let the arrow fly."
"You’re a dark little peasant brat who can’t pronounce your r’s."
"They tell me I killed half the men under his command during the Second War. He’s still bitter about it."
"The gods did not send these heroes from the skies."
"Never again will you fight to defend your borders from another Warlord."
"Today we celebrate the unity of the Twelve Provinces."
"I don’t believe in gods, but I believe in power."
"To commune with the gods is to walk the dream world."
"Reality is a facade; a dream conjured by the undulating forces beneath a thin surface."
"The gods now walk in men as they have not for a long time."
"It is the nature of all things to have a dual purpose."
"We don’t die so much as we return to the void."
"What does anyone mean by gods? Why do we have gods?"
"Religion is merely a social construct in both the east and west."
"You’ve got to let the Phoenix in. When you’ve called the god, when the god is walking in you, that’s a state of ecstasy. It’s a ki amplifier. You don’t get tired. You’re capable of extraordinary exertion. You don’t feel pain. You have to sink into that state."
"All prayer is simply repetition—a imposition of your demands upon the gods. The difference between shamans and everyone else is that our prayers actually work."
"I didn’t teach you so that you could weaponize it."
"The point of every lesson does not have to be to destroy."
"War doesn’t determine who’s right. War determines who remains."
"This is not the time for heroism. This is war. If they stay, they’re dead."
"They’re being stupid. Their city’s about to be invaded and their first thought is to defend it."
"You are Cike. By default, you don’t get a good reputation."
"We are at war! We might die anyway. So maybe calling the gods gives us a fighting chance. What’s the worst that could happen?"
"It’s really a matter of preference. These drugs will all get you nice and tripped up, but the key is to find a mixture that lets you summon the gods without getting so stoned that you can’t wield your weapon."
"You come to me for doses, which I will document. The amount you receive is calibrated to your body weight."
"In this line of work? It’s almost inevitable."
"The weaker drugs require a bit more focus to get in the right mind state, but they leave you with more of your bodily faculties."
"This is our Speerly. Welcome to the freak squad."
"I summon the fighting spirit of a very angry boar."
"My god lets me shift shapes. And yours lets you spit fire. Not a big deal."
"We’re just scouting each other out, testing the limits, playing chicken."
"They’re treating you all right, though? Made any friends?"
"Great danger is always associated with great power. The difference between the great and the mediocre is that the great are willing to take that risk."
"Nobody does," she wanted to say, but she was interrupted by the loud ringing of a signal gong.
"I don’t know," he said after a long moment. "I don’t know what I’m doing."
"They’re here," she said simply before Altan could ask.
"Three months," she marveled. "And Kitay said you were never going to walk again."
"Perfectly normal?" Nezha laughed out loud. "Really?"
"Sounds like battle prowess is the side effect of the madness."
"I don’t care," he said. "I don’t care what I’m doing."
"We are not in the same army. We are the Cike."
"Are you a toddler?" Altan said, as if curious.
"I’m sorry," Rin whispered, then immediately regretted it.
"You call yourself a Sinegard-trained soldier?"
"I was scared of you," Nezha continued. "And I lashed out."
"I do not," she said. "I was scared at the marsh. I am not now."
"Look, everyone’s on edge," Baji interrupted hastily. "We shouldn’t complain."
"You will answer to me as a soldier to her commander."
"I’m not sorry about this," Altan said, and jammed a fist into her solar plexus.
"It’s easy to be brave. Harder to know when not to fight."
"You don’t know what the Federation is capable of."
"They are accustomed to propagating such grotesque evil that they cannot properly be called human."
"The idea that the Empress had fled from a city while her people were burned, killed, murdered, raped went against everything Rin had been taught about warfare."
"You can’t kill a shaman who’s been fully possessed."
"The boy wants to set everyone in this mountain free. The boy wants to unleash the contents of the Chuluu Korikh on the world."
"Chaos does not discriminate, Trengsin, and that’s why this prison was designed to never be unlocked."
"Your patriotism is a farce. You dress up your crusade with moral arguments, when in truth you would let millions die if it means you get your so-called justice."
"The only unique role of the Cike is to do what no other military force can do. We can subdue ourselves, which is the only reason why we’re allowed to exist."
"We are a spirit of the wind. We may take the body of a dragon or the body of a man."
"What did that get us? A slap on the back, and a trip to this mountain."
"You promised us you wouldn’t hurt us. I thought you cared about us."
"We are the wind. We blow in each and every direction. We obey no master."
"Rest? Do you think this is rest? Do you have any idea what this mountain is like?"