The price of power is pain.

“I believe in gods as a cultural reference. As metaphors. As things we refer to keep us safe because we can’t do anything else, as manifestations of our neuroses.

“Sunzi also said that when you cross a river, you should burn the bridges so that your army can’t entertain thoughts of retreating,”

“I confused tactics with grand strategy,”

Youth, Rin thought, was an amplification of beauty. It was a filter; it could mask what one was lacking, enhance even the most average features. But beauty without youth was dangerous.

“You humans always think you’re destined for things, for tragedy or for greatness. Destiny is a myth. Destiny is the only myth. The gods choose nothing. You chose.

But the misery she felt now was a good misery. This misery she reveled in, because she had chosen it for herself.

“All warfare is based on deception.”

The gods had no power at all, except what she gave them. The gods could affect the universe only through humans like her. Her destiny had not been written in the stars, or in the registers of the Pantheon. She had made her choices fully and autonomously.