Forest of a Thousand Lanterns

She would bloom where she was planted and let her roots close around the throats of her enemies.

She was a monster, a bride of the darkness, and she rose to face her destiny as though it were the blood-red sunrise of a new day.

But in weakness, you find your strength. It takes no small amount of courage to open yourself up,” the Empress said gently. “You leave pieces of yourself in the ones you love. Is that not the greatest power, to endure in that way?

The beauty of this world is fading all too fast through the cruelty and thoughtlessness of men.

She knew her own worth. She would seize her destiny with all the strength and spirit within her, and bend them all to her will: every man kneeling and every woman overshadowed.

For that is the way of the world, Guma’s voice echoed. Some are given a rope to the moon, and others claw up the sky.

Only kings are arrogant enough to believe the world is too small to hold other men.

There was something unfinished about not saying farewell, like a door left open in the chill night.

Xifeng tilted her face, a pale moon in the evening of the water. She felt like a goddess in the shimmering light. She was a poem come to life, each vein was a lyric.

I want to mean something to a great deal of people. I am tired of being no one. As Empress, I would have the right to choose for myself. Guma could not command me, and Wei would not own me.

If my beauty is my greatest weapon, vanity is the shield that protects me.

Isn’t’ it better to give up a fraction of your freedom to gain tenfold in happiness, even for a short time?

Beauty is all very well. But it is merely the gleam of the sword, the chief eunuch said. It is the mind that provides the sharp blade, and without that, well. We have a pretty piece of metal and not a weapon at all.

Isn’t it better to wake up each day, living for the present rather than waiting for the future?

Love is weakness. You open yourself up to choices you’d never make if you heart were your own.

People in my town would laugh at the idea of calling books and music work. . . . How is it some men break their backs farming a dead land, whereas others sit in comfort and ruminate on stars and poetry?

Sometimes it is necessary to do questionable deeds to achieve what the heavens ordain, Xifeng said, thinking of all she herself has done. But in our losses, we may gain ourselves. We take what is ours and find solace in the quiet places between death destruction.

She, too, was part of this game in which women could only hope to survive by keeping each other down.

You understand, as I do, that wealth and family mean nothing if a person is not willing to prove his full worth.

You leave pieces of yourself in the ones you love. It’s that not the greatest power, to endure in that way?

Love does not always come with marriage, Your Majesty. Marriage may strengthen a woman, but love weakens her. She has more to lose.

I'm sick to death of lords and kings and emperors. What do they do but play games and let their people pay the price in blood?

Love killed your mother, Guma had always warned her. Give your heart and you lose your soul.

She would wrap her coils around him in tender confinement and be not his captive, but his captor.

Being underestimated can be a blessing in disguise,” Xifeng said. “That is to say, it gives us a chance to astonish those who doubt our true worth.

A ruler has little time for kindness. He does not give without expecting something in return. He can’t afford to.

Only kings are arrogant enough to believe the world too small to hold other men.

Save me, she thought. Save me from this love dark road.

Cry not, for your tears are no more than rain upon your enemy’s face.