From The Warrior Prophet, US paperback p323, Kellhus is recollecting his training with Pragma Uan:
"What do you see?" the old man finally asked, looking to the canopy above them.
There were many eager answers. Leaves. Branches. Sun.
But Kellhus saw more. He noticed the dead limbs, the scrum of competing branch and twig. He saw slender trees, mere striplings, ailing in the shadow of giants.
"Conflict," he said.
"and how is that, young Kellhus?"
Terror and exultation--the passions of a child. "The tr-trees, Pragma," he stammered. "they war for ... for space."
"Indeed," Pragma Uan replied, his manner devoid of anything save confirmation. "And this, children is what I shall teach you. How to be a tree. How to war for space ..."
"But trees don't move," another said.
"They move," the Pragma replied, "but they are slow. A tree's hear beats but once every spring, so it must war in all directions at once. It must branch and branch until it obscures the sky. But you, your hearts beat many, many times, you need only war in one direction at a time. This is how men seize space."
From the White Luck Warrior, US hardback p 67, Akka is thinking about the Mop:
"In the wild lore of witches--those scraps that Achamian had encountered, anyway--great trees were as much living souls as they were conduits of power. One hundred years to awake, the maxim went. One hundred years for the spark of sentience to catch and burn as a slow and often resentful flame. Trees begrudged the quick, the old witches believed. They hated as only the perpetually confused could hate. And when they rooted across blooded ground, their slow-creaking souls took on the shape of the souls lost..."
I wonder what the trees around Ishual are thinkin???
We need an Earwar tree thread! This is the place for all the cool trees in the Second Apocalypse!
P.S. Surround Kellhus with dumber students to make him feel special!!!
