How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Nothing?" said Asarta. "You are asking a great work to be done for nothing?"
"I have half of a stale barley loaf I begged in the city," said Dirna.
"There is a little water left in my flask," said Reyel.
"Give them to me," said Asarta. (2.45-48)
Dirna and Reyel come to Asarta without anything to offer the magician. In legend, one has to give a person of power substantive payment in order to receive a service, but these people have nothing to give her except leftovers. But Asarta accepts them and turns them into the instruments of their Valley's safety. And here the legend matches up with the reality—such unprepossessing items actually do save the Valley.
Quote #8
[…] Then a burly man on the slope opposite Tilja said, "This is all very well, and something strange may be happening, if you want to believe in that sort of thing. For my self I don't, but supposing I did, what then? What are we supposed to do about it? [...]" (3.112)
At the Gathering, most residents of the Valley don't believe in the story of Faheel and Asarta. To them, this magic is all a relic of the past, a legend that doesn't govern their safety. Little do they know that what they dismiss as fiction is actually fact—and the only thing that can save their lives. Our heroes, thankfully, believe in the legend and decide to pursue Faheel anyway.
Quote #9
[...] But the Emperors never wanted it to get about that's how it is, because the only way they can run things is if everybody more or less believes the Emperor's all-powerful, whereas fact is he's only just about in control of it all. (10.84)
In Goloroth, Tilja and Tahl learn that the Emperor's absolute control—which borders on near-mythic proportions—is actually false. They discover that the Emperor spends a lot of time trying to keep his hold on all the magic in the Empire, but previously they thought he had it all on lock. This truth unmasks the frequent face beneath the mask of tyranny—half the tyrants' time is spent trying to propagate the image of absolute control, when that isn't the reality.