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“Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is. And you must bend to its power or live a lie.” —Miyamoto Musashi
She needed him to cast her as the hapless victim instead of the willing villain. Though I plan to be a villain in all ways.
My fear—even when it is feigned—has more weight when it is matched alongside anger.
Loving someone is to lose control,
“Men cannot change their stars, just as cats cannot change their stripes,” her father had often said with a shrewd smile.
“Happiness is not a thing to be found here in the imperial court. We take moments of pleasure. Collect them and keep them tight in our chests. And we hope they are enough to fill whatever holes our truths leave behind.”
Even in war, flowers will bloom.”
Feeling pain and sorrow was not at all a sign of weakness. It was a sign of love.
don’t stop yourself from feeling. That is what it means to truly live.’”
“You look like you need to be held.” “Because I’m a girl?” “No.” He smiled as he struggled to keep his body straight, every motion visibly taxing. “Sometimes we just need to be held.”
The kind of power that people laid down their lives to protect. The power of hope.
“Never worship any man, Hattori Mariko.” Ōkami steadied her. “But always be worshipped.”
“Because if no one cares about what is right or wrong in the seat of our empire—the very seat of our justice—then all we hold dear is lost.”
“Do you know why that silly piece of pottery managed to survive?” Mariko asked. “Because you did not throw it hard enough.” “No.” She sighed. “In order for it to be hard enough to survive, it had to become strong. It had to be stepped on as clay. Shaped beneath the dutiful hand of a potter. And after all that, it had to live through a fire.”
“Forgiveness is not a thing granted. It is a thing earned.”
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