How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
It was strange, he thought later, how something he was so sure about could turn around and become another thing altogether. (4.61)
When Ban thinks this about the community's response to Cam, we're reminded that not everyone sees his return the same. For Cam, it's a trip home, and Ban's happy to have a friend around—but the community is skeptical of the wounded soldier. So which is it?
Quote #2
It wasn't that his face had changed, it was that Ban was seeing it differently. He stepped back, and fell. Cam leaped to help him. (4.128)
Finally Ban sees a side of Cam that everyone else sees right away—but the book is careful not to stop there and make Cam out to be the bad guy. He might be injured and emotionally damaged, but he's still capable of helping people.
Quote #3
It was like his memories had two distinct parts. Before the war was all light and gold-glamored, like the Smiling Women in their passing. The war was dark and walled about, and the sword spitting blood and shards of light, and the horrified face behind it. (5.49)
Cam's memories have layers. He doesn't just view life as all dark and twisty now that he's been to war, but at the same time, not everything is coming up roses either. It's as if he's got both positive and negative views of everything in his mind.
Quote #4
"See," said Master Fenister. "There's good even in bad things." It was not the sort of thing she'd expected Master Fenister to say. (6.100)
Maybe no one expects this because there's not much to be happy about since the war took so much from people. Master Fenister reminds us that there are two sides to every story—so it's all about finding the positive side and sticking with it.
Quote #5
Cam made a story in his head, the same story again and again, of how it would be when he got to Dorn-Lannet. Free, the Lord would say. Make yourself free. He closed his eyes. (7.4)
See how Cam refers to his past as a story that he is making up in his head? Perhaps that's because he's not really sure what's real anymore, so he compensates by rewriting the story how he thinks it happened. The only problem is, he's not sure what did happen in the first place.
Quote #6
One night, hunting for the pot, I shot a rabbit. When I got up to it, there was no rabbit, but a young woman, an arrow through her throat. (10.36)
Ugh—we can't imagine the toll this takes on your brain. While on the battlefield, nothing is what it seems and everything is open to interpretation because no one is in their normal situation. It's hard to read, but this horrific story explains why Cam is so messed up when he gets home.
Quote #7
Gyaar reckoned up three things, not to say them, but just to know them: that he had never been to a tavern; that he had never been drunk; and that he must know why this Downlander, so like to his brother, had sought him out. (12.108)
There's one reality inside Gyaar's head and another that he presents to the world. The thing about this, of course, is that it's something we all do from time to time.
Quote #8
Cam finally learns the truth, but does it change anything? He's been searching for answers in the novel, but we're not sure if learning Gyaar's side of the story changes anything for him since he still doesn't go home.
Quote #9
"This gift always. Custom. Look." He mimed looking into the mirror. "In here, look your future." He smiled his always-smile. For the first time, Graceful saw that it was real. (13.117)
It's funny that when we first meet Graceful, we're told she knows everything about how her life will end up… and then her life turns out completely differently.
Quote #10
That night, as she rubbed cream on her hands, Pin dreamed— of herself in the carp-patterned robe, of Acton's face when she told him of Cam's letter, of Cam riding into the yard on his big gray, just as he had before. (16.174)
Pin dreams this as a way of finally experiencing her brother's return, which she so badly wants. Since her brother is not actually home, Pin imagines that he is, and that she's happy.