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Someday your weirdo will come.”
“Death is not the last great adventure. Death is the natural consequence of getting the last great adventure wrong.” –Mary Dunlavy
There are even cryptids, like the yuki-onna, who can create cold when they need to,
Just in case, I leaned forward, well into James’ personal space, and squinted at his eyes. They were blue, but lacked the delicate snowflake scaffolding inside the iris that I would have expected from a yuki-onna.
This is an odd idea to apply to James, since Yuki-Onna is female. ("Onna" is Japanese for "woman" -- "Yuki Onna" is literally "Snow Woman".)
There was a bone-deep stubbornness and no small amount of pride in the look he gave me. I recognized that expression. It was the face of a man who was accustomed to being the smartest person in the room. Most of the time, that look was on my own face. I’d never realized how obnoxious it was.
“There’s no honor in running away from a debt. There’s no shame in running away from a bullet. Learn to tell the difference as early as you can.” –Evelyn Baker
Every species I’ve met with human-level—or potentially beyond human-level—intelligence has been capable of going “sure, the world is ending, but what about my soup?”
“You and James are both sorcerers. Isn’t that hereditary and like, super-recessive? You’re endangered, too.”
“People who say that right and wrong are all about absolutes are usually getting ready to stab someone for looking at things differently. Try to stab them first.” –Enid Healy
“As a wise woman once said to me, it only sounds ridiculous because you’re not used to hearing it,” said Mary, with a hint of a smile. “You’re a girl who throws fire, lives with talking mice, and loves a shapeshifting monkey. I think ‘ridiculous’ is a concept for other people.”
Sorcery is sort of the ultimate recessive gene, at least as far as human magic-users go. Even sorcerers marrying sorcerers won’t guarantee it gets passed along.
Once again, McGuire demonstrates that she doesn't understand genetic dominance.
“Nothing is too much to pay to bring the ones you love safely home. Remember that when the time comes to pay the last thing you wanted to lose.” –Alice Healy
“In the days when the faith in the Feathered Lords was waning, came Elizabeth Evans, called Beth, the Kindly Priestess, who did find Us gathered in her yard, and say, Why, Look At You, You Must be Starving. And she did gather Us in her apron and carry Us into her Home, which would be our Home thereafter, and say, You Are Safe Here, If You Will Follow the Rules I Set—”
“Her child, Caroline, the Well-Groomed Priestess, did come to us with open hands, and say, My Mother Is Old, and The Covenant Does Not Understand; Come With Me, For Any Husband I Will Have Will Have You Also. She did marry Peter Carew, the God of Hard Work and Sunshine, and they did raise four children in hope and in glory, hidden from the Eye of the Covenant by the strength of their affections—”
“Her eldest daughter, Agnes, refused us, but did not break her mother’s Confidence, saying, You Ask Too Much of Me. But her second daughter, Enid, the Patient Priestess, did say, Mother, I Love You, and I Love the Mice, and I Will Keep Them Safe. She did marry Alexander Healy, the God of Uncommon Sense, and on their wedding night—”
Our best guess was that they had been so busy watching for wardrobe malfunctions on the part of the female dancers that they hadn’t paid any attention to the giant snake eating people. American ideas of censorship do not always make much sense.
“Fermat’s Last Theorem. It’s about a really famous mathematical puzzle and how it was eventually resolved.”
Her recovery has been marked by increasingly complicated equations, and the day she started doing theoretical calculus again was the day my grandparents threw us a spontaneous pizza party.
There is no such thing as "theoretical calculus".
“What’s good today, Sarah?” “An abstract philosophical concept meant to guide the actions of people who would really rather be doing whatever they want without concern for repercussions,” said Sarah solemnly.
my Uncle Drew, was one of those kids. He’d been stolen from the bogeyman community where he was born when he was too young to remember anything about it. My grandparents had saved him from his “owner,” and his adoption had been an act of essential mercy. He had been afraid of his own species, as well as almost everything else, for years after his rescue.
I invoke the Holy Ritual of Mouse, Alice Loves You, But I Will Gladly Ward You From My Sleeping Quarters If You Try Me. Am I heard?”
