Kushiel's Scion

Even a stunted tree reaches for sunlight.

Love child!" What else? You will find it and lose it, again and again. And with each finding and each loss, you will become more than before. What you make of it is yours to choose.

I preferred a hard truth to a well-meant lie.

True friendship must be akin to romance, I think; only without all the anguish and anxiety.

There would be love, and while it was mine, I could cling to it. I could rejoice -- in life, in the existence of love. In the existence of people like Phedre and Joscelin. Although the standards they set were impossibly high, still, I could rejoice that such courage and compassion existed in the world. I could hope and aspire.

What does it mean to be good?

I lie awake in my bed, clinging to the brightness I have known, fighting back the tide of darkness, the memories of blood and branding and horror, and the legacy of cruelty that runs in my own veins, shaping my own secret vow and wielding it like a brand against the darkness, whispering it to myself, over and over. I will try to be good.

It is passing strange, what a fluid thing is one's own identity.

I had grown to love the very city in all its decrepit grandeur. I had walked every inch of it by now. I knew it in the soles of my feet, in the sturdy muscles of my calves. Surely the finding mattered more than the losing.

Take your happiness where you find it, children, and don't ask too many questions. Life is too short and uncertain to do otherwise.

My thanks, Master.” He waved his hand. “It is what I do. If you wish to thank me, do a kindness for someone in need.