How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"I will tell you only this: that you are one of the Old Ones, the first to have been born for five hundred years, and the last. And like all such, you are bound by nature to devote yourself to the long conflict between the Light and the Dark." (3.59)
Cue the dramatic music. Merriman tells Will that there is an epic battle being waged all around him, regardless of what he can see. Before long, Will finds this to indeed be true, and even goes head-to-head with the ringleader of the Dark, the Rider.
Quote #2
For the Dark, the Dark is rising. The Walker is abroad, the Rider is riding; they have woken, the Dark is rising. And the last of the Circle is come to claim his own, and the circles must now all be joined. The white horse must go to the Hunter, and the river take the valley; there must be fire on the mountain, fire under the stone, fire over the sea. Fire to burn away the Dark, for the Dark, the Dark is rising! (3.60)
We could have guessed that the Dark was rising just from the title, but here we get more details about why. It turns out that the Old Ones have to unite the Signs and band together to fight against the Dark. Otherwise, the whole earth will face eventual doom. It doesn't get more epic than that.
Quote #3
And the Book taught Will here the patterns of survival against malevolence, and the spells of sea and river and stream, lake and beck and fjord, and showed him how water was the one element that could in some measure defy all magic; for moving water would tolerate no magic whether for evil or good, but would wash it away as if it had never been made. (7.8)
This is an important lesson for Will because it helps him later on when he is facing the Rider. Without this knowledge, Will couldn't survive fighting the Rider for his sister Mary. It's also interesting to think about the fact that water somehow cancels out good and evil forces. Yay swimming.