Black Sun

I am the only storm that matters now, and there is no shelter from what I bring.

Usually," Xiala said carefully, "when someone describes a man as harmless, he ends up being a villain.

And Grandfather Crow said to First Woman, tell me your stories so that I might know who you are and what you value. If your stories are of the glory of war, I will know you value power. If your stories are of kinship, I know you value relationship. If your stories are of many children, I know you value legacy. But if your stories are of adaptation and survival, of long memory and revenge, then I will know you are a Crow like me.

Why try to educate those who cared not to learn?

The sea herself," she said. "I am her daughter, and when I'm with my mother"--she exhaled gustily--"nobody fucks with her children.

There are only two kinds of men: ones who betray you sooner and ones who betray you later.

A man with a destiny is a man who fears nothing,” he whispered to himself.

There was magic in the world, pure and simple, things she didn't understand. Best get used to it.

Impress a man today, and he’ll expect you to impress him tomorrow, too.

It is said that crows can remember the faces of men who hurt them and do not forgive. They will carry a grudge against their tormentor until their deaths and pass on their resentment to their children. It is how they survive.

We have become a place of long weeping A house of scattered feathers There is no home for us between earth and sky. —From Collected Lamentations from the Night of Knives

Feyou,” he said, placing her immediately. “But now you are a woman.” “I was always a woman,” Feyou said. “I just needed some time to become who I am.

Ancient prejudices died hard, even in a city united.

A third gender, one I don’t believe you acknowledge here in this little backwater country.

That all is the same,” he said, understanding immediately. “There is no difference between yourselves and the land.

And it made sense to her all at once. Serapio, for the first time, was coming home. To a people who didn't know him, to a house he could never truly live in, even if all he could do was die for them. He would suffer what he must suffer because for one brief moment he would be more than himself. He would be all of Carrion Crow, the fist of his people, the sharp beak and talon of his god, and he would not be alone. And, Xiala knew well, being alone was no life at all.

The costliest mistake one can make is to underestimate one's opponent through low expectations.

When someone describes a man as harmless, he ends up being a villain.

Yesterday had started out with so much promise, but between then and now, she had taken a beating.

She felt their time together shrinking at an alarming rate. A few days in this room on this barge, and then they would go their separate ways, and she would have to face her mess of a life, and figure out what to do next. But mostly, she would miss him. A chill rolled over her not, not from the wet weather outside, but from a panic that made her stomach hurt. She pasted on a smile, which she realize was wasted on him.

as quiet and unnoticed as a shadow after dark.

once you were poor, people hated you for it even when you weren’t poor anymore.

A man is like a clam," her mother had once told her. "Let him open on his own, and he will give you a pearl." Her aunt has scoffed, arguing that it was best to crack them open right away to find out if inside there was only sand and no pearl at all, and that's why the Teek had no use for them.

The most common punishments among the tight-knit Sky Made clans were banishment and, for lesser crimes, a system of restitution to make the injured party whole.

I never much cared for prophecies and destinies myself. I prefer a clean slate in life, a woman's fate up to herself, not the sayings of old men and dusty scrolls. Besides, prophecies always have a way of going wrong, don't they? They promise you a savior, but that savior ends up eating babies or kicking puppies or something, and the poor gull who's the prophesied one always ends up dead. Besides... Prophecies are a breeding ground for opportunists. An excuse for bad behavior. Can't trust them.

People like us are always hated until they need us--isn't that always the way?

Above all things, the Sun Priest must unite what is above to what is below. He must mirror the perfect order of the heavens to contain the disorder of the earth. Only when these are aligned can there be balance, and without balance, surely the world will tip into chaos. —The Manual of the Sun Priest

What use is a power to read the heavens if it cannot be turned to your own benefit?

It was an awkward thing to say, wholly inadequate, but he had never lost a mother before and was unsure what one said at these times.