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“Were lives lost? Yes. Such is the nature of war. Those lives were freely given. We learned much at the Battle of the Nali Strait. We learned that the Nali are unnatural, inhuman. More like insects than men. Like insects, they would invade, and they would devour, even swarming over Highfall itself if they thought they could.”
“I think raising a rat in the stables doesn’t make it a horse,”
Judge a lie by the fruit it bears, but don’t judge a man in a box for not noticing the stars. Rain falls where it will; keeping out of it is up to you. Have patience with drunks and little children, for we’ve all been one and we could easily end up the other.
“Do you know the judah vine, foundling? It grows in the north. It’s a parasite. Pretty flowers, but it ruins everything it touches.
He has not yet learned that there’s no such thing. There is convenience, pleasure, utility and gain, and that’s all. One day, he will realize that he doesn’t love anyone at all.
She was not human. She was pain in the shape of a human. She glittered like fire. She burned.
“Offer them freedom on the condition that they take responsibility for using it wisely, and they’ll take the chains.” “Maybe men would,” Elly said. “Ask the women.”
“I know you feel like everything’s been taken from you, and I’m sorry. Truly, I am. But I’m not the last coin in your treasury and I’m not the last piece of your great lost empire. I’m a human being.”
He’d had no choice but to love her, since so much of his life hinged on her approval. The contradiction didn’t trouble him. Humans were complicated and pain was complicated and love was the most complicated thing of all,
