"Think about how steel is made. You start with something that is taken from a secret place deep in the body of our mother. The knife is made from the same clay that forms our flesh... When a piece of metal is poured into a mold, folded over and hammered, or simply honed, it is awakened. It sings, and if you hold a knife up to your ear, you will hear the music in it, a constant high note of warning. I think it is the note at the heart of the world."

"In the realm of magic, blood is the most powerful product of the human body. It is a potent symbol of both life and death, healing and pain. When people bleed, they let things go, but blood is also a binding substance, a pledge as well as purge. Lady Macbeth was right: Once you get somebody's blood on your hands, you can't wash it off again. The person who holds the blade and cuts someone else is also being marked, perhaps even more deeply and permanently..."