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July 15 - July 27, 2025
The man had true-red hair, red as flame. His eyes were dark and distant, and he moved with the subtle certainty that comes from knowing many things.
“Today, master, I learned why great lovers have better eyesight than great scholars.”
“May I ask a question, Reshi?” Kote smiled gently. “Always, Bast.” “A troublesome question?” “Those tend to be the only worthwhile kind.”
“Shut your clepper, you old shit-fire,”
“I’ll turn you into butter on a summer day. I’ll turn you into a poet with the soul of a priest. I’ll fill you with lemon custard and push you out a window.” He spat. “Bastards.”
“The law of sympathy is one of the most basic parts of magic. It states that the more similar two objects are, the greater the sympathetic link. The greater the link, the more easily they influence each other.”
The same curiosity that made me such an eager student also led me into trouble with fair regularity.
The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.
“But we are all creatures of habit. It is far too easy to stay in the familiar ruts we dig for ourselves. Perhaps I even viewed it as fair. My punishment for not being there to help when the Chandrian came. My punishment for not dying when I should have, with the rest of my family.”
Fear tends to come from ignorance. Once I knew what the problem was, it was just a problem, nothing to fear.
Looking puzzled, Rian crossed her legs. “Now that the gates of hell are closed,” Hemme said in his normal, rougher tones. “We can begin.”
No matter how you spend your life, your wit will defend you more often than a sword. Keep it sharp!
Perhaps it is human nature to seek out hidden things. Perhaps it is simply my nature.
That’s why stories appeal to us. They give us the clarity and simplicity our real lives lack.”
AS WITH ALL TRULY wild things, care is necessary when making your approach. Stealth is useless. Wild things recognize stealth for what it is, a lie and a trap. While wild things might play games of stealth, and in doing so may even occasionally fall prey to stealth, they are never truly caught by it.
But having what I wanted dangled in front of me was more than I could bear.
Give her the time and attention she deserves, and she is yours. Slight her and there will come a day when you call and she will not answer.
“I’m about to die of terminal curiosity, you know.”
Then I heard a voice, a voice like burning silver, like a kiss against my ears. Looking up, my heart lifted and I knew it was my Aloine. Looking up, I saw her and all I could think was, beautiful. Beautiful.
“My trouble, Bast, is that she is very important. Important to the story. I cannot think of how to describe her without falling short of the mark.”
Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts. There are seven words that will make a person love you. There are ten words that will break a strong man’s will. But a word is nothing but a painting of a fire. A name is the fire itself.”
“And the moral of the story is that people get passionate around books?”
I have known her longer, my smile said. True, you have been inside the circle of her arms, tasted her mouth, felt the warmth of her, and that is something I have never had. But there is a part of her that is only for me. You cannot touch it, no matter how hard you might try. And after she has left you I will still be here, making her laugh. My light shining in her. I will still be here long after she has forgotten your name.
“It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”
