’I have a quandary for you, librarian. When should what was lost be found? When should the departed return?'
'Help me find some clarity. It is so hard to think with all the noise in the world!'
'Thank you for the time in contemplation, librarian. I have found no certainty but I have found peace. The works of the Ember Hand will continue for a time, but Death will come no matter what. Memento mori, always.‘
Sor Cross was reassured by the axiom that all must die, even if they return for a time.
’I have been thinking about this ‘Ember Hand’ for a long time. He troubles me deeply.'
'I have resolved to make myself the Ember Hand’s enemy. There is no other way. I will need a tactic.'
'You are prudent to suggest such subtle methods, librarian. Thank you. Hopefully all of this will soon be forgotten, or at the very least never spoken of.‘
I suggested subtle methods for Manly to use to oppose the Ember Hand’s forbidden work.
’We have a real need for skilled ironmongers at Sovereign Metals. Incidentally, we also have a real need for the power of resurrection.'
'Find me something in your collection to help me make an informed offer to this miracle worker. Everyone has a price.'
'That will do. Money is not always the lever… sometimes a person needs safety. Sovereign Metals is equipped to defend this Ember Hand not only against the Reckoners, but also against the Calyptra.‘
Lady Audrey prepared to make an offer of protection from Reckoners and the Calyptra to the Ember Hand in return for his services.
’This Ember Hand, I think he could be a valuable ally, and a valuable weapon against that oldest law of mortality: death.'
'So many small flames light the fuse of revolution. Too many are extinguished before their time, and their followers too quickly forget their warmth. I would like to learn from this flame. I would like to keep him burning.'
'There are always more Dead than the living. In the House of the Sun, they have little choice but to be subservient the Hours; but were they let back into our world, their voices returmed… how quickly would the chains of servitude break?‘
Subcomandante Zuazo sought to assist the Ember Hand, waxing on about revolution, mortalkind, and the Dead.
’Death is the coward’s way out. Resurrection is even more cowardly still.'
'Those committed to the fight earn Longhood and respect their duty. Those unable or unwilling succumb to Death’s comforting oblivion. Then, the milksops who live on seek to rob that silence to calm their own troubled minds. It is a pathetic show of pusillanimity.‘
’This all likely stems from a trans-oceanic cabal of thieves and Adepts that were a perpetual nuisance in my days as an officer. Not Reckoners, exactly, but certainly connected to them.'
'Before I went to Italy, I spent time chasing thieves across the Mediterranean. There was a story among the officers of a smuggler who had carried a covenant-stone from place to place, moving a library that never stayed anywhere too long so Calyptra could never catch it. This seems to echo with that old story.