“Though you thrust a knife at my eyes, I will not flinch.”
― quote from Luck in the Shadows
“You hardly know me. Why do you want me to come with you?"
"Who knows? Perhaps you remind me just a bit of—"
"Someone you used to know?" Alec interjected skeptically.
"Someone I used to be.”
― quote from Luck in the Shadows
“Still clutching each other by the arm, they turned to watch the last stones plummet over the edge.
“I don't know how many times a day I can stand to watch you almost die,” Seregil gasped.
“Twice is my limit,” croaked Alec, sinking to his knees.”
― quote from Luck in the Shadows
“Cursed be the weapon that tastes the blood of a friend.”
― quote from Luck in the Shadows
“They have a saying among them: 'When whores are few, a boy will do.”
― quote from Luck in the Shadows
“A Skalan trader tried to tell me the streets of his cities were paved with gold," Alec went on. "I didn't believe him, though. He was the one who tried to buy me from father. I was only eight or nine. I could never figure out what he wanted me for."
"Really?" Seregil lifted a noncommittal eyebrow.”
― quote from Luck in the Shadows
“But is it an honest living?" Alec persisted, clinging to his last shred of resolve.
"Most of those who employ me are great lords or nobles."
"It sounds like a pretty dangerous line of work," Alec remarked, aware that once again Seregil had side-stepped the question.
"That's the spice of it, though," cried Seregil. "And you can end up rich!"
"Or on the end of a rope?"
Seregil chuckled. "Have it your way.”
― quote from Luck in the Shadows
“At first it was simply that the spells would not come off. Or they would, but with the most unexpected results. He would try to move a small object, a salt cellar; it would overturn. He would try again and the salt would burst into flames. On the third try it might fly at his head, or mine. One day he attempted a simple messenger spell, and in the space of five minutes every spider, centipede, and earwig in the place came swarming in under the door. We began conducting his training outside after that.
“Attempting to levitate, he blew up an entire grove of trees in the park. A simple summoning, butterflies I think, and all the horses went crazy for an hour. Things soon reached such a state that whenever anything unusual happened within the Orëska grounds, we got the blame for it.
“Oh, but it was frustrating! In spite of all the blunders, all the destruction, I knew the power was there. I could feel it, even when he could not. For he did succeed now and then, but so erratically! Poor Seregil was devastated. I saw him brought to tears just trying to light a candle. Then there was the time he turned himself into a brick.”
― quote from Luck in the Shadows
“These are Plenimaran marines, and there's not much most of them aren't capable of, if you take my meaning."
"I don't think I do," said Alec, puzzled by Seregil's tone.
"Then try this. They have a saying among them: 'When whores are few, a boy will do.' Got that?"
"Oh." Alec felt his face go hot.”
― quote from Luck in the Shadows
“Come on, Seregil, let's show him how it's done."
"I'm busy," replied Seregil, working on a tricky bit of fingering.
Moving to stand over him, Micum groweled, "Put away that twopenny toy, you tit-sucking coistril, and show me the length of your blade!"
Seregil laid his harp aside with a sigh. "Dear me, that sounds rather like a challenge-"
Lunging swiftly past Micum, he sprang to his feet and drew his sword, then swung a flat-bladed attack at Micum's forearm.”
― quote from Luck in the Shadows
“I want to come with you, but first you’ve got to give me a few straight answers.” “It’s against my nature, but I’ll try.”
― quote from Luck in the Shadows
“Who is that?” Alec asked, puzzled by the man’s silence. “That’s Rhiri. He’s deaf, mute, and absolutely loyal. Best servant I ever found.”
― quote from Luck in the Shadows
“Dear little Swallow,’ said the Prince, ‘you tell me of marvelous things, but more marvelous than anything is the suffering of men and of women. There is no Mystery so great as Misery.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Happy Prince and Other Tales
“Enough of this Miyagi crap. Point is, fight for what you want, and while you’re doing that I’d like an egg mayo sandwich without that fucking cress shit on it this time.”
― Samantha Young, quote from Echoes of Scotland Street
“Any assemblage comprising human beings, any family, any party, any tribe, any nation, will bind itself together not by what it shares but ultimately by what it fears, which is often so much greater. Perhaps it abhors the outsider as camouflage for its own alarms; dreading what it would do to itself were the binding to fall asunder.”
― Joseph O'Connor, quote from Star of the Sea
“Webster growled a Webster kind of prayer: “God Almighty, here is two more meek that has inherited Your earth.” Webster spoke in his own peculiar way; we never did learn how to hear him.”
― Peter Matthiessen, quote from Shadow Country
“Non lavorava come chi lavora per vivere, ma come qualcuno che non abbia altro scopo che lavorare, giudicandosi zero come uomo vivente e desiderando essere considerato solo in quanto artefice, che per il resto se ne va in giro modesto e insignificante, come un attore senza trucco, che non è nulla finchè non ha nulla da interpretare. Lavorava silenzioso, appartato, invisibile e pieno di disprezzo per quei mediocri che consideravano il genio un ornamento mondano e, poveri o ricchi che fossero, andavano in giro arruffati e cenciosi, o ricercavano il lusso con eccentriche cravatte, e insomma erano convinti di menare una vita insuperabilmente felice, affascinante e artistica; senza sapere che le opere di valore nascono solo sotto il premere di una vita cattiva, che colui che vive non lavora e che, per essere perfetti creatori, bisogna essere morti.”
― Thomas Mann, quote from Tonio Kröger
In Lucia's Eyes
Alec
Necessary Lies
If Not, Winter: Frag...
Raced
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