How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"We of the Circle are planted only loosely within Time. The doors are a way through it, in any direction we may choose. For all times co-exist, and the future can sometimes affect the past, even though the past is a road that leads to the future." (3.176)
Merriman explains the system to Will and, um, it's complicated. You know that fancy watch you like to wear? It's useless to the Old Ones because they don't have to stick within the confines of time like ordinary people do. Yep, that just blew Will's mind.
Quote #2
"The Walker? He has been waiting for you to be born, and to stand alone with him and command the Sign from him, for time past your imagining." (4.95)
Did anyone else just get the chills? The book is so big on knowing the future, we even have a whole theme dedicated to it (check out "Fate vs. Free Will" to read more). Since time is all intertwined in this book, one character's future is another character's past. Whoa.
Quote #3
"He feels nothing," said Merriman. "Not a muscle will even grow stiff. Some small powers the Old Ones and the people of the Dark have in common, and one of them is this catching a man out of Time, for as long as is necessary. Or in the case of the Dark, for as long as they find it amusing." (4.109)
Basically the Old Ones hit pause any time they want to have a conversation without the humans hearing them. Wouldn't it be cool if we, too, could stop people in time without any negative side effects? It's a pretty awesome trick to keep up your sleeve.
Quote #4
"Every hundred years we have remade it, in the way that we were first taught. And now this will be the last time, because when your own century comes you will take it out for all time, for the joining, and there need be no more renewing then." (6.6)
The Lady tells Will that the Sign of Wood has to be renewed every hundred years because wood doesn't last forever. The Old Ones can live forever, but even the elements (wood, iron, metal) deteriorate over time.
Quote #5
And into Will's mind, whirling him up on a wind blowing through and around the whole of Time, came the story of the Old Ones. He saw them from the beginning when magic was at large in the world; magic that was the power of rocks and fire and water and living things, so that the first men lived in it and with it, as a fish lives in the water. (7.11)
Notice how time is capitalized here ("Time"). That's because we're not just talking about what time it is right now, but the concept of time in general. Will thinks a lot about Time as a big whirlpool of events mashed up together—once he learns that it isn't linear, endless possibilities open up.
Quote #6
"Oh no, Will Stanton," he said easily. "That won't do. You cannot use weapons of that kind here, not unless you wish to blast your whole family out beyond Time." He glanced pointedly at Mary, who stood unmoving next to him, her mouth half-open, caught out of life in the middle of saying something to her father. "That would be a pity," the Rider said. (8.62)
As the Rider sneakily visits the Stantons' house on Christmas, he threatens Will not-so-secretively. The guy has the nerve to tell Will that his whole family could be lost in time, never able to find their way again. Uh, Happy Christmas to you, too?
Quote #7
From somewhere outside Time, Merriman said into his mind: "Take care. It is true. The Rider will come for him. That is why I had you bring him here, to a place strengthened by Time. The Rider would have come to your own house otherwise, and all that comes with the Rider too…" (9.137)
We love the idea of being "outsideTime." Of course, for an Old One, that's just a Tuesday afternoon since they can travel through time and even talk to each other around time. No need to text your friend while in class if you're an Old One; just communicate telepathically through time.
Quote #8
The sense of being within two levels of Time at once still hovered in his mind, though all that he could feel now of the ancient manor was the awareness, ominous and persistent, of the nine great ice-candles glimmering round three sides of the room. They had been ghost-like, scarcely visible, when first he found himself brought back by the new cold to his own time, but as the cold grew more intense, so they were growing clearer. (10.49)
Will explains to us what it's like to experience two times at once. And to be honest? Our heads hurt just thinking about it. Just because he can do it doesn't mean it seems like an easy thing to do. Talk about sensory overload.
Quote #9
And then suddenly it stopped, and he was left standing dazed with his nose almost touching a very ordinary beech twig. He knew then that the Dark had its own way of putting even an Old One outside Time for a space, if they needed a space for their own magic. (11.96)
The music stops and time is twisted. We talk more about how music and time-twisting magic are related to the Old Ones in the "Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory" section, but it's important to note what's happening here. It's not just the Old Ones who can control time; the Dark do it, too. Dun dun dun…