Voyage of the Damned

My father always says: 'You can't run from your responsibilities,' but he lacks imagination. Besides, I'm not running. I'm sidestepping. Crossing the road so me and my responsibilities don't make eye contact and aren't forced into awkward small talk both of us know isn't going anywhere.

You don't need a Blessing to be a miracle.

As if the restrictive shell of a body is more important than the infinite possibilities of a mind.

Back home we speak what’s in our hearts,’ she says—which is lovely. And then: ‘Because any day a tree can fall and crush your skull.’ Which is less so.

Why is it that I want women to beat me up and men to gently embrace me?

I’ll stay here, inside my sugar igloo, until death claims me.

A twitch of a smile. ‘And that’s why you’re wrong. The hero isn’t the dragon. The hero is the fish.’ My arms drop. ‘The fish?’ ‘The fish did not have to share the burden. The fish could have survived without it. But it sacrificed itself because it saw the suffering of others. The world would have been doomed without the fish.’ She holds my gaze, her expression utterly serious. And in that moment, I am, for once, speechless.

How rare and beautiful a thing, I thought, that this child of two worlds exists at the same time, in the same place as me.

He noticed things about myself that I'd never considered wonderful.

Words are born in my head, then escape from my mouth!’ Grasshopper turns to me, beaming with pride,

I know those eyes. I see them in the gloom of a storm. I see them in the blackness of the deepest parts of the ocean. I see them in the dark places of my mind, where only silence and surrender live. I know Ravi's eyes better than my own.

Your personality is large enough. I think a big cock would be overkill.

There are two things which are undeniably cool: walking away from explosions without looking back, and turning up late to parties.

How can I defeat death when she got there before me? When she's had years to feast on him?

Sometimes, all it takes is one person to make you believe you're worthy of something. Even all the power in the universe.

Ravi says I should get rid of the man. But he's as essential to me as Ravi. No ruler should fill their senate with people who only say 'yes'.

I was wrong. I don’t vomit. I vomit and shit. Always nice to exceed your expectations.

The chains around my heart shatter. And then I'm his.

Ravi deserves to be happy, and if he has to cut me away like some rotting limb to do that, so be it. I'm allowed to cry about it though.

You're so pale that colours beam through your cheeks. I can watch my words light up your face.

Now they are known as the Shamed One.’ ‘Because they tried to kill the emperor.’ ‘No,’ Nergüi says swiftly. ‘Because they failed.

Don’t worry!’ she says upon seeing my horrified expression. ‘The lower classes are comprised only of those with deep moral failings.’ Well, that’s a relief.

The ‘music’ sounds like how a firework would taste, fired directly into your mouth.