A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2)

by Arkady Martine

don’t trust anyone who makes you feel good without knowing why they want you to feel that way.

He was very healthy and clever for someone who had been born from a uterus, on purpose.

???

“Yes,” she said. “But not because I thought she was too dangerous to keep alive, little spy. Because I thought she might just be dangerous enough to stay alive.”

This has just completely changed the way I view Nine Hibiscus

Loyalty wasn’t transitive. It didn’t move up and down the chain of command smoothly. It could get cut off, or rerouted.

<That’s the way we fall—being wanted.>

Wait for the real problem, Your Excellency. Don’t borrow trouble that doesn’t come to you on its own.”