Aurora Rising

Who am I to deny gravity, Aurora? When you shine brighter than any constellation in the sky?

Do moons choose the planets they orbit? Do planets choose their stars? Who am I to deny gravity, Aurora? When you shine brighter than an constellation in the sky?

Who wants to be normal when you can be interesting instead?

But they have not seen their sun die. Their people burn. Their world end. And they do not know, yet, that there are some breaks that cannot be fixed.

There is no love in violence

You don't like stars?' I ask. 'No,' he says quietly, lacking his smirk for once, and staring at the floor. 'A lot of those stars actually died millions of years ago. It's just they're so far away, the light they created before they died hasn't finished reaching us yet.' He waves at the galaxy beyond the glass. 'You're looking at a sky full of ghosts.

Tomorrow is worth a million yesterdays.

The mere sight of her is water in an endless desert.

Just because you're not saying it doesn't mean you're not thinking it.

What does the name you call me mean?" I ask. "Be'shmai?" he replies. "There . . . there is no adequate human word for it." "What about inadequate words, then?" His answer is very soft. "Beloved.

Um, sir?” Finian de Seel says. “We might have a problem.” “You mean aside from you interrupting my speech? Because I’d been practicing it in my head for an hour and it was gonna be great.

I think I'd like to be unconscious again, please.

I didn’t know Syldrathi blushed with their ears,” Tyler muses. “I am not blushing.” “I mean, it kinda looks like you’re blushing.” “I am not blushing.” “Ooookay,” Tyler nods. “I sometimes have that effect on people, is all.” “Is your request not to punch you still in effect, sir?

The sound of her name is like music.

The thing I was raised to be is acutely aware of how easy it would be to reach out and break this human boy. But the man I try to be keeps his arms folded instead.

Almost every particle in the universe was once part of a star,” she says softly. “Every atom in your body. The metal in your chair, the oxygen in your lungs, the carbon in your bones. All those atoms were forged in a cosmic furnace over a million kilometers wide, billions of light-years from here. The confluence of events that led to this moment is so remote as to be almost impossible.” She puts her hand on my shoulder. Her touch is awkward, as if she doesn’t quite know how to do it. But she squeezes gently. “Our very existence is a miracle.

The Great Ultrasaur of Abraaxis IV couldn’t keep me away,

hear Kal swearing in Syldrathi, and though his tone is ice-cold, I realize he’s far more creative at cursing than I thought. “Tiir’na si maat tellanai!” (Father of many ugly and stupid children!) “Kii’ne dō all’iavesh ishi!” (Stain on the undergarments of the universe!) “Aam’na delnii!” (Friend of livestock!)

A warrior might be all you were raised to be, Kal," I say. "But it's not all you are.

There is no love in violence. There is. No love. In violence.

I cannot help but feel a grudging respect also. He thinks swiftly, this Tyler Jones. He does not rattle, and he does not hesitate. With everything on the line, he still sees clearly, and he does what it takes to win. He is a born leader.

It's the very great fortune of everything else in the Galaxy that Ultrasaurs are now almost extinct, but in the unlikely event of an encounter, traditional wisdom dictates dying quickly as the best course of action.

His loss is like my loss. It's a story about losing people who aren't yet gone.

Pixieboy adjusts the ridiculous little hat on his head. “I look like a fool. It is too tight. How am I supposed to fight in this?” “I dunno. Sexily?

Belive me, handsome, one of me is way more than you can handle." "I think… I'm gonna be sick," Lachlan declares. "I know the feeling," Cat sighs. "No, seriously," he burps. "Where's the... bathroom?" Inside said bathroom, the five of us exchange a brief, horrified glance.

Hmm." I make a show of patting down my uniform, peering down my tunic. "I seem to have left the part of me that cares in my other pants.

Love is a single sun in a heaven full of stars.

You work your whole life for a Thing, it's only natural the Thing be important to you

No-hopers?” I say. “You know, you’re lucky I’m such a soulless shrew. Otherwise you might be at risk of quite possibly maybe hurting my feelings.

Is it weird that this girl's don't-mess-with-me tone makes me want to tell her she can mess with me any day she wants?